moon over parma

the fun conversations never end. : p

bethanie: what do you want to be when you grow up?
me: i don't know. probably a cowboy.
bethanie: oh.
me: what do you want to be when you grow up?
bethanie: six.

in makro yesterday (the indo equivalent of sam's club)
charles: hey parji (my slightly offensive nickname given to me by chuck), you need some of these? *points to an enormous bag of adult diapers*
me: WHAT?! NO!
charles: you can plan for 30 years.
me: you're only giving me 30 years til i need some?! until i'm FIFTY?!
charles: *laughs*
me: because if so, mister, i've got news for you! you're a heck of a lot closer to fifty than i am!
charles: no. i'm 26.
bethanie: PAPI! no you're not! you're 78!
charles: YOU'RE 78!
bethanie: no. i'm 4.

at the checkout line, after replaying the above conversation for marie.
marie: bethanie. how old is mommy?
bethanie: uhmmmmm..... 25?
marie: i love you.

marie has always told me about how awkward she feels carrying sammy (her adopted son) around in public. she's a white lady with a very, very dark indonesian baby. often people will ask her rude questions such as why she would adopt/love such a dark baby. these typically come from chinese indonesian people, who take a lot of pride in their lighter skin color and can't understand why a white (high class) person would choose to have a dark (low class) baby. i've always sympathized with her, but yesterday i got a taste of it... i carried baby sammy around most of the day. in makro, in the mall, in the grocery store... and i got so stared at i wanted to hide and cry. i couldn't believe the audacity of people! people would walk right up to me and look down at sammy, up at me, down at sammy, up at me, down at sammy, shake their heads, walk up to someone else, and start pointing and whispering. i am not even exaggerating. this happened multiple times. it was AWFUL! i learned how to say "what are you looking at?" in javanese. too bad it's really really hard to say = "ndeleng apa?" it's good to know these things anyways.

haha. i just asked the cleaning man in my room how to spell ndeleng. and now he's teaching me javanese. i now have the words for eat, drink, write, buy, travel, and look written on a piece of paper on my desk with their indonesian translations. : )

i love how excited people get to teach me things here.
and i wish i could teach people not to stare at me and my sammy.