Sleeping through time zones

I cannot believe I slept through a Balinese massage. As in, I was in my bed in my hotel room, papers strewn across it, clothes piled on top of it, and me...dead to the world, when I should have been stretched out on a different bed in the hotel spa, allowing someone to work through the airport stagnation in my body. Just goes to show how powerful this jet lag stuff can be. And massages here are SO cheap. Like, the average price for a 90 minute massage is $15. And I slept through that!!!

Now I sit, waiting for the sleeping pill I was forced to ingest to take effect. Thought I'd jot down some observations before the sand man welcomes me once again.

1) You pay for water here. At a place of dinning. Water is always bottled for safety reasons, thus, it arrives at your table, straw in place, at 10000 rp ($1.00) per serving. No more endless cup after cup. (except for in my swanky hotel...we're spoiled in house)

2) The sun comes up in Jakarta, but it is not "sunny". At least not lately. The air is thick here, with the fumes of so many people in such a small space, so when the sun rises before 6am and everyone has finished morning prayer, it's light out, but in that sort of hazy L.A. feeling one gets when one lives out West. Very David Lynch...with an Asian bent.

3) Apparently there is no real legal age at which one can operate or ride on a motor vehicle. And if there is one, no one cares. I literally saw a ten year old on a bike, waiting for a light to change this afternoon. My heart stopped. His feet didn't even reach the pedals. Then I saw the "driver" was merely chatting with someone off the bike before remounting. Moments later, I saw a family of four on another bike. Father, Mother, child, and toddler. Toddler did not have a helmet on, so Mother was holding the child's head in her hands....lordy.

4) One never knows what one is eating, even after one reads the label. The amazing meals at this hotel have been an adventure. What looks like scrambled eggs tastes like grits. What I thought was a sausage roll was actually a banana and chocolate concoction. What should have been a sweet dessert tasted like coagulated rice with loaded sweetener. I have a feeling I'm going to lose a bit of weight before this is done.

5) I know more than I think I do. I've only been teaching English to international students for 2 years. Why did they hire me again? Little did I realize that the teachers I will be working with at my University (Universitas Brawijaya) have an average score of 450 on their TOEFL exam. To those of you not in the ESL profession, that equates to about a fourth grade reading and speaking level. Maybe lower.

6) My knowledge will get me far. I've already been asked to speak at a conference on graduate schools in the United States at the end of the month. This event will be held on the island of Java, but in another town. Not sure of the details just yet, but I think I'll have to be flown there, and I hear the area is nice. Lordy.

And with that, I'm going to let sleep take me back to dream land. I wish I could post pictures, but I cannot locate the chord that connects my camera to my computer just yet. I'm hoping I packed it so well it's just hiding from me. If not, I'll have to look into buying another one. Sorry for the delay. And goodnight.