Remember how I was talking about random things happening before, well another one has happened: it turns out I’m going to Indonesia! I have a friend who lives there, and he’s turning 30 and throwing a huge party, so he invited a ton of people. Normally I’m not the kind of person to up and go halfway around the world for someone’s birthday party, but I’m trying to be more outgoing and social, and this is the kind of thing that doesn’t happen all the time. In fact, this is the first time I’ve been invited to something like this.
I’ll admit, I’m feeling a bit of anxiety at the thought. I haven’t ever been out of the country before (except to Canada this one time), and other than my friend and the people who are going, I won’t really know anyone there, and it’s an unfamiliar location, and not everyone will speak English, and all those things make me kind of nervous. My friend assures me that everyone there is super nice, though. In fact, that’s part of the reason he moved there. He got sent there for a while for work, and when the assignment was up, he asked his job if he could stay there permanently. They said yes, and so he’s been there for the last year and a half.
He’s going to show us around the countries and some of the islands. I didn’t know this before but Indonesia is actually made up of a bunch of islands, and he said you just fly from one to the other. He just searches for tiket Lion Air and orders online. Oh, speaking of that, he also said Indonesian is like Spanish in that the adjectives come after the nouns, so that actually means “Lion Air tickets.” He said Indonesian isn’t too hard and he’s more or less fluent after a year, although I suppose living there and being immersed in the language is helpful.
So the trip isn’t until next month but I’ve already started reading up on some of the places he said he’s going to take us. Like I said, I’m kind of anxious, but I’m also excited. Plus, I’m going to be using vacation time at work so it will be like a vacation where I get to hang out with my friends. And not to mention, it’s winter here, and it’s going to be warm there, so it will be a nice change of weather, too. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the food yet! I hear the food is very spicy, which I love, and there are a lot of grilled meat dishes. So I’m excited to try the food!