Yes, I did actually throw a rock at a bus...

It's true - I really did that. But trust me, I was in rare form that day!

So it seems I have been on a roll recently. I go from seriously lucky to having the worst luck in the world, then back again to insanely lucky (in one day!). Here's what I mean: This morning, I got up late, which would have made me late to teach except that all of my students were late! Then, I was supposed to get paid before I started teaching, but the accountant lady was late, so she ended up giving me an extra Rp100,000 (only $10, but that's a lot in Indonesia!). So I was on cloud nine, until later that morning when Robe and I got into a motorcycle accident. That sucked and made us late to the Immigration office here, but when I was there I found out that I didn't have to buy an Exit Permit to leave the country. And this is how my past few days have been!

So more on that motorcycle accident. Robe and I were putting along on his motorbike as we had left a little bit early and were not in a hurry to get to Immigration. *Remember, they drive on the left-hand side here.* Suddenly, this big dump-truck-like thing (carrying huge logs I think) pulled out of a driveway from the right-hand side and started moving really quickly into our lane. Robe moved left to let the truck in, but we quickly ran out of space when we realized the truck driver wasn't paying attention and he totally just pushed us off the road. This would have been okay if there hadn't been a huge hole on the left side, and we drove into it. This also would have been okay if the hole hadn't been filled with tons of mud, which made it impossible for Robe's motorbike to drive through. So the bike just fell over, taking us down with it. Luckily we weren't actually on the road, so the motorbikes behind us didn't have any trouble dodging our bodies... Yea...

I did notice one thing, though. Whenever someone has an accident in the US, people always stop to make sure everyone is alright and doesn't need medical assistance. However, in Indonesia, people just drive around you like they don't even care (and they probably don't actually care...). I was a bit angry at this, actually. It just goes to show that Indonesians don't really care all that much about other people...

So anyway. We are both okay. I've got scrapes & bruises on my left & right arm and on my left leg. We were both obviously wearing helmets, so our heads are fine (just a little headache). Although once my head hit the ground, my helmet flew off. Robe is buying me a better helmet as we speak. Robe only has scrapes on his legs, but he burned the bottom of his foot on the exhaust pipe thing, so that sucks a lot because it hurts to walk. My left knee is pretty nasty, so it's a little sore to walk on, but nothing compared to Robe! Poor thing!

I know what you're all going to say - don't ever ride a motorbike again! Well, we went back to Robe's shop after stopping by Immigration and Robe's family just made fun of Robe. They didn't really seem all that concerned that we had been hurt, but I'm starting to realize that this is just the typical Indonesian attitude towards certain things. Actually just this morning in class, I asked if anyone had any news from the weekend, and one of them said that Mega (a man in my class - I'm teaching adults who are preparing to do a Ph.D program abroad) might have some news. She even laughed when she said it, so I thought it was funny news. I followed suit, asking in a joking manner what had happened. He responded, with a smile on his face, that his sister died suddenly on Friday evening at the age of 35! I was shocked and immediately offered my condolences, but the others in the class seemed rather insensitive. After Mega told his story, one of the other men replied enthusiastically, "Oh yea, I heard about that! What a story!"

So after the accident, I told Robe that I was hesitant to get back on the motorbike again. He understood (and btw he feels really bad about the whole thing, the poor thing is a wreck - pun intended), but after talking to his family to see if I could use the car to get home from school in the evenings, they seemed hesitant. They didn't understand why I was being such a baby about getting back on the motorbike, so I guess I'm stuck with it for the time being. I have 2 options at this point - take the motorbike home or go by taxi. Considering taking a taxi every night would defeat the purpose of me working, I guess I'll stick with the motorbike. Oh, well...

Alrighty. In other exciting news, yesterday (April 13th) was Robe's Dad's (Yohanes) 52nd birthday. We didn't do much the day of, considering Yohanes was sick all morning. People stopped by all afternoon, wishing him a Happy 52nd and all that jazz, and we ate the traditional nasty food they eat for birthdays around here. Too bad for me, I can't eat any of the things that Chinese-Indonesians usually prepare for birthdays - fried noodles (eww), duck eggs (it's like eating the entire salt shaker at once) and pork (I could eat the meat if it wasn't drenched in this awful sweet & salty, teriaki-wannabe sauce).

So that was all we did, but then today all of Yohanes's kids planned this awesome surprise. They all pretended to be running late, and then they didn't open the shop on time. Yohanes got so mad that he actually came down to the shop himself early (he usually doesn't go in until 10am) to see what was going on. When he got there, he found no one outside and the gate to the shop half-opened. He pushed the gate open, and suddenly everyone (his kids & employees) jumped out and yelled "Surprise!" It was hilarious - he apparently went instantly from fuming red to laughing hysterically. It was great because it's nearly impossible to surprise this man. The only thing that sucked was that I couldn't be there. I had to teach. Oh, well...

Okay I guess that's all that's going on around here. I love you all lots and lots and can't wait to see you in about 5 weeks or so!!! Muah!!

~ Tori =)

P.S. To answer your comments, Robe still doesn't have his Visa and at this point we're looking at August/September as the time for him to come to the US. This process typically takes about 3-8 months from the time you start everything to the time you set foot in the country, and it looks like we're going to be on the long end of that timeline because Robe comes from the largest Muslim country in the world (and plus this country might have the record for the worst record keeping in the world, which makes it more difficult to do background checks). We're both pretty upset about the whole thing, considering we started the process with such high hopes. It's just like every day is another reminder of our future separation as we move closer and closer to my departure date. But I'm not worried. I know we can get through it. The US Embassy in Jakarta expects me to be there with Robe when he has his interview (eventually - maybe in July or August), so it's looking like I'll be coming back to Indonesia for a while at least...