Well I may as well break up the seriousness of some of my writing by explaining how much of a jackass I can be. This is something that happened when I first arrived in Indonesia in August… but failed to tell many people.

I had only been in Indonesia for a few days, and decided to finally venture out into the city…

After an exhausting night in this crazy city, I took a shady looking taxi home. The driver didn’t speak English, and I sure as hell didn’t speak bahasa Indonesia yet (but I’m on my way now!) … so after a ride home conversing with hand gestures, we approached my house. I paid the man, got out, and walked to my gated home. I had forgotten my keys, and couldn’t open the gate, so in my incredible wisdom, I hopped the fence. No problem. I walked to the front door, turned the handle, but the door was locked. I shook the handle a bit harder just to check I guess… when all of a sudden a young woman threw open the door and scared the crap outta me! Maybe it was the force from which she opened it, or it could have been the fact that SHE WASN’T MY MAID! Well before I knew what was happening a large, angst-filled man stepped out from his bedroom balcony above me with a pipe in his hand… he was yelling at me, thrusting the pipe in anger… and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying! To make things look even worse without thinking, I tried to hop the fence again, but got caught on the steel prongs…

Not only could I not get out, I had to wait for them to get the keys to let me out… Ok, yes, many homes look alike here… but I swear it was identical to my house… To make things worse, I found out these people only lived 2 houses down from me! Yeah, pretty cool way to be welcomed to the neighborhood. Even worse, I found out that every maid on the street gossips and soon everyone knew what I had done. Oh well, it’s cause I’m a “bule”…