Homeward bound
Well, in 12 hours we leave for the airport. This morning we were naughty and slept in until 8 because we hadn't slept well the night before and we had no meetings to go to for once.
We finished cleaning out our rooms and got our school stuff taken care of, then went to the bank and got things taken care of there-arranging transfers while we're home, ordering me a new ATM/debit card, all of that. At 11 this morning our final "staff togetherness" started. It was...special. Special in a short bus kind of way.
We bailed out early and ran in to Jakarta, where I spent a blissful two hours at the spa getting my highlights touched up ($25 here as opposed to $50 at home...why wait?) and a pedicure. I relaxed and enjoyed the plate of fresh fruit they brought me, while the tiny pedicurist painted my toes bright pink. She painted white and yellow flowers with little green leaves on my big toes. "Holiday toes," she told me.
We got home and packed most of our clothes, and then headed off to dinner at our local Swiss-German restaurant, Edelweiss, with a few people who were still around before leaving for the holidays. After dinner and goodbyes we came home and finished up our packing in time to relax for a while.
I'm glad we're leaving tomorrow, because otherwise I think I'd sit around the house, moping. I think I was so bummed about having to say goodbye to some of the kids that I wasn't able to be too upset about my bag getting stolen. Besides, everything did work out in the end, and if it had to happen it was at least at a rather convenient time...if there's ever a convenient time to have one's belongings stolen.
Not having the iPod sucks, especially because radio stations here completely bite, though one did play "Ice Ice Baby" this afternoon, prompting a rather amusing exchange of text-messages between my friend Steve and I, as we both are big enough losers to know all the words. I'm happy, however, because I checked out Apple's website and found out I could get a bigger, better video iPod-a U2 special edition one at that-for way less than we paid for our rather old-school iPod. Goody, an upgrade!
We did have a rather harrowing near-mishap today, though. Our passports had been taken by our school's HR department and given to Immigration for an update on our re-entry permits and residency cards. We were promised we'd have them by today (which is already cutting it nerve-wrackingly close) and then this morning were told they'd be delivered to us this afternoon by three. We tried to be OK with this, as we really had no other choice, but when the passports hadn't shown up by six this evening, we were starting to get antsy, and by antsy I mean pissed off. I believe we may have set some sort of world record for the highest swear word-to-non-swear word ratio in a single conversation. We may have even invented some new ones, a feat usually only reserved for cursing experts like Kale when he's playing video games or driving in heavy Jakarta traffic.
Luckily they showed up around 6:30, so now we're set. Pray for our safe travels, and we'll be home soon!
We finished cleaning out our rooms and got our school stuff taken care of, then went to the bank and got things taken care of there-arranging transfers while we're home, ordering me a new ATM/debit card, all of that. At 11 this morning our final "staff togetherness" started. It was...special. Special in a short bus kind of way.
We bailed out early and ran in to Jakarta, where I spent a blissful two hours at the spa getting my highlights touched up ($25 here as opposed to $50 at home...why wait?) and a pedicure. I relaxed and enjoyed the plate of fresh fruit they brought me, while the tiny pedicurist painted my toes bright pink. She painted white and yellow flowers with little green leaves on my big toes. "Holiday toes," she told me.
We got home and packed most of our clothes, and then headed off to dinner at our local Swiss-German restaurant, Edelweiss, with a few people who were still around before leaving for the holidays. After dinner and goodbyes we came home and finished up our packing in time to relax for a while.
I'm glad we're leaving tomorrow, because otherwise I think I'd sit around the house, moping. I think I was so bummed about having to say goodbye to some of the kids that I wasn't able to be too upset about my bag getting stolen. Besides, everything did work out in the end, and if it had to happen it was at least at a rather convenient time...if there's ever a convenient time to have one's belongings stolen.
Not having the iPod sucks, especially because radio stations here completely bite, though one did play "Ice Ice Baby" this afternoon, prompting a rather amusing exchange of text-messages between my friend Steve and I, as we both are big enough losers to know all the words. I'm happy, however, because I checked out Apple's website and found out I could get a bigger, better video iPod-a U2 special edition one at that-for way less than we paid for our rather old-school iPod. Goody, an upgrade!
We did have a rather harrowing near-mishap today, though. Our passports had been taken by our school's HR department and given to Immigration for an update on our re-entry permits and residency cards. We were promised we'd have them by today (which is already cutting it nerve-wrackingly close) and then this morning were told they'd be delivered to us this afternoon by three. We tried to be OK with this, as we really had no other choice, but when the passports hadn't shown up by six this evening, we were starting to get antsy, and by antsy I mean pissed off. I believe we may have set some sort of world record for the highest swear word-to-non-swear word ratio in a single conversation. We may have even invented some new ones, a feat usually only reserved for cursing experts like Kale when he's playing video games or driving in heavy Jakarta traffic.
Luckily they showed up around 6:30, so now we're set. Pray for our safe travels, and we'll be home soon!
posted by Erin @ 10:19 AM
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