I am in Bandung. One of my closest friends from training phase lives here and me and another friend got to come along for our free day and enjoy her home, her family and her hometown. I thought this would be an exotic mini vacation, but I pretty much traded Jakarta malls for hers. But it is really nice to be in a home and her family is beyond kind. They took us out to dim sum this morning, which was great!! Dim sum in southeast asia, what could be better. You have to take advantage of every chance right? So I tried chicken feet and jellyfish. This is remarkable considering I am the same person whose mother serenaded her as a child singing "give food a chance!" Then I got to try jackfruit and snackfruit. No kidding. Rhyming completely random. They were yummy, too. I oughta be more adventurous. I will be more adventurous from now on. I am far too cautious in life. :) It's a good thing my mom doesn't read this blog. Ha.
In other exciting news, our apartment had a fire drill yesterday. You know, like the kind they organize in elementary schools at the beginning of the year? Yeah, one of those. And they don't play around. They stopped the elevators and everything. We had to take the stairs down from the 27th floor, which is actually only like 20 flights because of the whole missing floors phenomenon. But still, our calves are still hurting. But it was definitely worth it. We didn't just have to leave the building and stand out in the sun, oh no! like I said, they take it seriously. They had a little "evacuation area" set up in the parking lot, a beautiful frilly red and white awning, and rows and rows of fold up chairs. We all took our places and waited for further instruction in a language we don't understand. There was very little space between rows and the lack of leg room reminded me immediately of an airplane ride. As soon as I thought this, as if on cue, they started handing out snack boxes! I kid you not! We had rice and a pastry and water. Mmmm. Then came the in-flight entertainment portion. They stood in front of us and explained, still in a language I don't understand, how to use a fire extinguisher. Awesome. Wait, it gets better. After explaining, they took out a large tin garbage can and started a fire in it (never thought you'd see a fire started rather than being put out during a fire drill!) and then allowed people in the audience to practice putting it out. This was a great idea I thought, except for the fact that the chairs were set up down wind and we were all soon inhaling and coughing up fire extinguisher powder. But the show must go on!! Soon they were building an even bigger fire and getting out the big hose. This was truly the climactic part of the presentation... until they were unable to get the hose working. About ten minutes later an anticlimactic spurt of water came out and put out the flames. We all cheered and then rebuckled our seatbelts as we prepared to land.
Things are strange here. I find it highly entertaining.
More news from the slums next week...
