Geckos and Mopeds

After an interesting first week, the weekend came and I planned to relax. After we finished work on Friday, Steve and I went to "My Place" to meet Tanti, and stayed for a few beers with the owner, Alfred. After my time in Poland I am able to drink copious amounts of vodka and still feel fine, but beer seems to go straight to my head. Therefore I was feeling a little tipsy on my way home. When we got back I had a skype conversation with my girlfriend, which I barely remember, somehow managed to lose my cigarettes when sitting on the sofa, and went to bed rather early.

When I woke up on Saturday I wanted to go and try out the swimming pool in our housing complex, but I reconsidered that when I heard thunder and saw the heavy downpour outside, so I just stayed in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2kJXlhQBvM

When I remembered about my lost cigarettes I decided to pull out the sofa to search for them - in vain, and as it was out I started to sweep behind it. Suddenly, I felt something strange touch my ankle. Surprised, I hit it with the broom. It turned out to be a gecko - a pretty harmless creature. It stopped moving and I thought I had killed it, but when I went close to check it ran away, without it's tail! The tail continued moving without the gecko attached, and I started to feel pretty bad, until I was told that it is a normal defense mechanism for geckos and it would grow back. Here's a pic of the gecko later on.

On Sunday I needed to do some shopping, so I borrowed Tommy's moped and, after a few minutes getting used to the controls, set off for the nearest mall. The journey went without incident - I think I'm a natural biker. At the mall I headed to Carefour, and was stopped on my way by a guy who wanted to give me a free vegetable peeler - the advantages of being a bule, ha.

When I was shopping I managed to find some food I wanted to eat, all the time with everyone smiling at me, but struggled to find toilet paper (which started to get me worried). After asking about 10 shop assistants if they spoke English, I finally found one who did. At first he took me to the aisle with nappies (diapers), and I had to explain I needed paper for adults, but in the end I got everything I needed.

So then it was back on the moped, and home to rest before work.

On Monday I had a full schedule including 2 kid's classes - and Indonesian children are crazy! After my first class one boy started following me everywhere, even into the teachers' room and the first half of my next lesson he spent pulling faces at the window. The second lesson was fun because we were planning an imaginary camping trip, and told a ghost story. The kids seemed extremely scared by it, until after the class when I found out all Indonesians, even adults, believe in ghosts.

So today is Tuesday, and it looks like it will be another interesting week.