so... the day got a little crazier and more ironic. after school, i went to work with marie for a couple hours at the coffeeshop. she found out just that morning that it's my birthday. so i was taking orders and money and making change and helping indecisive people choose drinks. marie had just finished making a drink and i didn't recognize it as one of the ones on the list of orders, so i asked her whose it was... she kind of just brushed me off, and i thought she was going to deliver it herself. but INSTEAD, she yelled, "HEY! IT'S HER BIRTHDAY TODAY! LET'S SING!" fantastic. so a whole coffeeshop full of people sang to me and i turned SO red. rough... but i got my all time favorite drink for free! and she got me GOOD :)
after working there, i met the 10th graders to go to s2 in semarang for dinner. what i didn't know was that we were all being treated by larissa's family at one of the nicest restaurants in town. so her family rode in one car and the other 13 of us piled in an 8 seat van for the 1.5 hour drive. s2 is so great because it is like a restaurant complex. it is many restaurants in one and from any restaurant, you can order from any other one. there is a japanese/sushi restaurant, a bakery, a gelato place, an ice cream place, a chinese restaurant, a western/european restaurant, and a bar. they are all arranged in a horseshoe shape around a very tasteful courtyard. we ate in the japanese restaurant. we each ordered a couple dishes from different menus (the servings are pretty small) and then ended up passing most of it around. so i had about 5 different kinds of sushi, sweet chicken, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, roast chicken and potatoes in cranberry sauce, spaghetti, and gelato for dinner. oh, and i ordered apple juice to drink... and it was ACTUALLY an apple thrown in a blender and poured into a glass!
after we ate, i heard a clapping noise coming from elsewhere in the restaurant. and as the clapping got louder, a whole parade of employees came to our table bearing a cake. (i didn't know they did that in indonesia!) larissa and i got into a fight about who the cake was for... the poor girl carrying the cake was so confused because i was pointing at larissa, and larissa was pointing at me. i think the cake got set in front of each of us (sitting on different ends of the table) about twice each in the time it took the staff to sing happy birthday in 2 languages to us! it finally ended up in front of me, but i made larissa come over and blow candles out with me. then her grampa got up and spoke (the one who prayed for us this morning). then he asked us to do something a little unusual. he asked me to pray for larissa and for larissa to pray for me. it was an awesome experience... oh, and it was basically the best cheesecake i've ever had in my life!
after dinner, stuffed full to the brim, i got to talk to larissa's grampa a little more - keep in mind he's indonesian - and i discovered that he has been to auburn, indiana!! (basically my hometown) AND i found out that larissa's parents met at ORU... CRAZY! also, he's a nuclear physicist. i've never met one of those before!
it's strange to think back over this day unfolding... an indonesian man who i had never met before prayed over me this morning at breakfast. that same man spoke blessings on me at dinner. long ago, he and i were only 15 minutes away from each other in america. and his children went to the same university my brother goes to. and then we come to this point in time where we meet face to face... the world is not nearly as big as we think it is...
and i had a VERY happy birthday.
oh, and tomorrow i'm going to a muslim goat slaughtering event? ok, here is the exact cut and paste email invitation i got (via a mutual friend) earlier this week:
"Navita [hotjaga's wife] and Jamal [the hotjaga] told me to invite you to their sister's house at Tingkir [the opposite side of town] for celebrating the baby born (her sister's baby) [she is 40 days old. apparently this is important] and they butcher a KAMBING [goat] on Saturday, 17 April 2010 at 07:00 pm. If you don't know the house :) pls meet the HOT JAGA and he can explain you as I don't know either heheheeh
It would be awesome if you can join us!"
so that escalated to now i'm going at like 11 am to help the womenfolk with all the cooking and preparations. i was talking to navita about plans earlier, and i mistakenly called it a pesta (party). and very seriously, she informed me, "oh, it is not a party. it is just a... umm... i don't know... to slaughter a goat to thank the god." so hmm... should be interesting!
i'm quite convinced that my life can't possibly be anything BUT interesting...
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