. . . two things that Indonesia struggles with. Random, I know. But sometimes, I just need to express frustrations with the way things work/don't work here. Here's a list of common phrases to describe these all too common occurrences:
TIJ (this is jakarta)
"How Jakarted!"
"I just got Jakarted on"
#1
One night, we shut the door between our bedroom and bathroom. Next thing we knew, it wouldn't open. The door is capable of locking, but the button was not pushed. We can still get into our bathroom using the main room entrance, but it really steals away the convenience. Convenience is a commodity around here. Dear Jakarta, please don't steal away any more of it, pretty pretty please?
P.S. The same thing happened to Amanda and Erik's bathroom door about 2 months ago. Who's out to get the bules?!
And now, to the cream cheese
#2
What are your first thoughts?
German chocolate frosting with nuts?
Coconut flakes?
Well, I'm sorry to say that it's just ugly, chunky, frosting.
Nothing like what frosting is supposed to look like :(
It was supposed to be just a regular butter cream frosting. I'm blaming it on Indonesia's brand of cream cheese -- its basically the consistency of sour cream at it's most solid state. Not right. Where is Philadelphia brand when you need it?!? I also don't have a hand mixer wich would have helped a bit, but oh well -- it still tasted good despite it's curdled appearance.
Oh, and it's just a regular yellow box mix cake, but Chris was feeling chocolate frosting and I wanted vanilla, so we shared it 70 - 30.
Chris just reminded me of one more "Jakarted" thing. This clothes rack.
#3
#3
Preeeetty pathetic.
When we first tried to put it together back in July, it made us want to go home. I think I cried over it. It literally did not fit together! The rods where not the right lengths and the screws didn't fit in the pre-drilled holes. Chris, who never gets blisters, blistered his fingers trying to create his own holes using a tiny screw driver, determined not to fail at his first "husbandly duties" (his words not mine). Not his fault -- the dumb thing was just not manufactured right. He got it up, but it was obviously lacking stability. It finally died about a month ago, so Chris duck-taped it (blue indo version = not as good). That quick-fix lasted until three days ago when we came home to find it looking like it did in the first picture :(
TIJ
Stay tuned for the next edition of "How Jakarted!" :)
Katie, thanks for sharing! I know we're are not even close to being as far from home as you...but living at a cemetery in Dallas seems to have many of the same problems! Haha. Our saying isn't quite as clever, "nothing ever works." I don't know what it is about this place but everything from the oven, to the doors, door handles, locks, office computer, fax machine, printer, garage door, lawn mower, weedeater...oh man, they just don't seem to work most of the time. Thankfully we've been able to fix some things but something else always seems to go down in it's place! Well thanks for letting me vent a little ;) we've also made a cheesy phrase to go after our other one. The whole quote, "nothing ever works, but God is!" And its true..have to rely on that when it seems nothing works like it should! :) love reading about your time over there! Wish we were closer, it would be so neat to hang out with you and Chris!
ReplyDeleteI bet a cemetery WOULD have some quirks! haha. It would be lots of fun to hang out with you guys! Chris says to tell Vince he misses him! I like your saying too -- hope you don't have to add any more things to your "nothing ever works" list!
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