A Few Things

I went to the store last night, and there was a HUGE mob around the apples and pears. I walked over to see what was up. Women frantically picking through everything. Men waiting on the sidelines. Huge groups around the weighing station. (Here, they weigh your bags of fruit and put price stickers on them in the produce section). Apples and pears are usually as much as at home, if not more, leading to me never having seen Indonesians buying them...what was the deal?

Whatever it was, I wanted in. So I mosied my way over and pushed on into the crowd. The end result? I paid less than half the normal prices for these two fruits. I ran into a vendor I see at the beach a lot, and she said everyone is getting their offerings for the upcoming holiday. Kuningan is a sister holiday to Galungan, and is on Saturday. So I guess the store was running a "Kuningan special"! Good news for me!

Did I mention that I drove myself to the store? First time driving here. I have been sorely intimidated because not only are the rules of the road completely different, but they drive on the opposite side of the road. We also are renting a stick shift, and that is set up opposite the cars at home. Conclusion, a lot of re-learning. Did you want to know how many times I turned the windshield wipers on instead of the blinker? Every time. Curious about how I shifted to the right gear when it's backwards? I didn't always. But I drove to the store and back home with no incidents. Not bad.

On another note: You might imagine that Fourth of July isn't quite the big deal over here as it is at home. In fact, since we only know one other American family here, I would say that nobody else even knows we celebrate something on the 4th. We went through the day much like any other, and at lunchtime decided we wanted to do something "fourth-ish". So we went on a mission after nap time and found: Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Pringles, Heinz pork and beans, pickles, and ice cream. We spent more than usual on our evening meal, but it was very American. And to top it all off, after the boys' bath I looked out the window and some workers were welding - creating a lovely, if short, fireworks display. Yay Fourth of July.