if you stay, I will stay, even though the town’s not what it used to be

Lately, she often found herself in the same situation. As a newcomer, locals--and maybe not even locals, but thought of themselves as ones--asked her the same questions, they made her compare.

It was apples and oranges. But she went on anyway.

"It's more laid back here," she said. "I could never feel comfortable wearing relatively skimpy outfits in the city. And sandals in restaurants."

Or,

"Yeah, back then it took me an hour to go to work, on a good day," she snorted. "Now it only takes ten minutes."

And as the people made remarks like,

"Nothing good is left there, you have to escape here, huh?"

Or,

"You'll love it here. Everybody knows everybody. You know how stuck up Jakartans can be?"

She laughed and nodded, but her heart was chipped a little each time. No one should talk bad about her home.

*I'll have better days, and you'll see me on my better days.

sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name

Greetings from Kuta, Bali! Yep, yep, yep, I'm here already. People keep asking for pictures and stories. Well so far I don't have much. Let's see.

Where I stay
I found a rented room that is decent enough for now. I have my eyes on others, but they're either too expensive or too far.

Workplace
It's a nice, little office with only ten people total. Including me, the driver, and the office boy. They're nice, but I need more time to decide my feelings.

Work
So far it's a bit of editing, a bit of writing, a bit of store launching party, and a rafting trip at Ayung river. The last one was great, and that was a first for me. The media circle here is pretty small, so everyone said that it won't be long before I know everyone that works for every media here. I've met some. I met Emen, a senior back in college days. He's pretty cool. The rest? They're nice, but they're so chummy in a way that irks me a bit. But I don't know, maybe it's just me. Again, I'm going to need more time to decide my feelings.

Social life
Thank God for Ingga! God knows that I've been nagging him the whole week with messages in the line of: "what are you doing?", "are you going to see me?", "grab something to eat later?", "can I crash at your place?", and many more. There are two other great companions--Choki and Aria. For the last week, all three of them have proven to be good for late dinners, munchin' on chickens by the beach and even a karaoke session.

Me
So far everything is going good for me. The only pea under my mattress is the frequent homesickness. I know, I know, I just started, and it's normal, and bla bla bla. It's just that I have just realized that I'm a dependent person, I have to have at least a foot on a familiar surface. But hey, a week here without any significant breakdown must mean something, right? I'm fine :)

But for the love of God, please do visit. Or move here, while you're at it! Bring me some of that capital's cynicism and we'll have a blast!



Come!
-R.