1. There was an earthquake this morning, enough to feel but not enough to cause any damage. Just a little shake that woke me up.
2. I have bedbugs. I wasn't sure at first; I thought maybe it was just an odd concentration of mosquito bites. But I have a line of at least ten bites in a row, and all the bites center on my left elbow and knee. So apparently I sleep on my left side. My elbow looks kind of diseased, actually, with that many bites. And of course the mosquitoes are still in full force these days, so there's always something attacking me.
3. This weekend I'm taking my Advanced Open Water Diver certification, and I'll make use of the awesome underwater flashlight that I got for Christmas (thanks Mom and Jeff. I don't know if there will be an occasion to use the dive knife, but it's awesome, too). I should say, it's a great flashlight, and diving last weekend my friend Ashley praised my light highly.
4. The woman who lives downstairs told me yesterday that she's moving to the small room by the stairs, so she can rent out the two main rooms. There's a family moving in this weekend, and the mother is--get this--Canadian. This is so, so weird. There will be an English speaker in my house! Just downstairs!
The thing about living in Indonesia is that you think that you have the lay of the land, things more or less figured out, but then the weirdest stuff happens. Like a Canadian moving in. Or, in another example, your downstairs neighbor suddenly has huge sacks full of cloves, and she lays them out on tarps to dry in the sun. Why? I have absolutely no idea. What will she do with sacks and sacks of cloves? I have no idea.
Another example: there's a festival ever year around Minahasa, and a friend tipped Erica and I off about where we should go to see it. Actually, we were invited to a party and told the festival would be happening in the same village that day, but we never did find the party and so we just ended up at this event in Kawankoan.
What we were told about the event is that young men dress up as women, and young women dress up as men, and they parade around town, and if they come to your house you're supposed to give them money or something.
Well, this was sort of accurate. There were a lot of young people dressed up like the opposite sex.
But there were, in fact, people of all ages dressed like that.
The theme of the event was SHS, which stands for three things, apparently.
Semua Harus Sekolah (Everyone should go to school)
Semus Harus Sehat (Everyone should have health)
Semua Harus Sejahtera (Everyone should have safety)
To this end, there were people dressed as nurses, soldiers, and lots of people dressed up like students.
Sure enough, they paraded around. And I found a good place to watch them all go by. But, as I said, even when you think you understand what's going on, you really don't.
See that guy? Third back? Who is wearing a costume made of hair? His sign reads something like "Choose according to your shining heart." ??? I asked the people around me and they said, "Like King Kong! You know King Kong?" Yes. King Kong is a giant gorilla. That is a being made entirely out of hair. It has no face.
No idea.
