Embarrassing Moment

Shortly after moving into my house/dorm, I discovered that the caretaker/housekeeper had never been to a movie theatre. So I promised to take her. Many moons later (a couple days ago), I finally got my chance.

We worked out permission for her to get a few hours off work, hopped on the bus, headed to the mall, and arrived at the ticket counter a few minutes before the show. I ordered our tickets and reached for my wallet only to discover–to my mortification–that I had left it at home! Fortunately she had brought some money with her or we would have had to skip the movie altogether. Either way and all around, very embarrassing. It really ruins the effect of treating someone when you have to pay them back in order to do so!

I Love New...

People. Languages. Places. Food. Songs. Sights. Smells.... Basically, if it's new, it's a blast. : ) I got to go to a new part of the country this week. Originally I was going to make the trip by myself, but I am SO glad I didn't. Much more fun (and helpful!) with friends.

Waiting for the van to take us from the city to the mountains.

At 8 am my friends and I climbed into this taxi (above) that had a warning posted: "dilarang kentut" (breaking wind prohibited). Nice. :)

Man I love the mountains! And rice fields. What a sight together.

A local snack Bin Tei (corn soup), home-grown.

A new language. I encountered more than 4 this week. Not sure which this is. One of the languages kept reminding me of Swahili or something African. :)

As we wound around the country roads for 4 hours, so many simple things made me smile from the inside-out:

• streams
• mountains
• bright green rice fields
• flowers in yards
• bright blue skies behind thick white cotton clouds
• rain clouds
• a dog scratching its back in the dirt
• bougainvillea everywhere
• people gathered in a river
• children at play

Simple things. What I love here is how life happens right out in the open.