So I just had the freakiest nightmare ever.

It starred me and my friend Alver. In the dream, Alver was nine-months pregnant (and played by someone much more attractive - something I will conveniently forget to mention when I tell this story to her).

In the dream, we were dating; yet, the baby wasn’t mine because, hey, I was still around and not on the first flight back to Canada.

So me and her were upstairs in the bedroom of somebody’s house - presumably, friends of hers - listening to music on the computer. We are holding hands and sharing a very warm moment together.

All of a sudden she lets out a blood-curdling scream. And then another. And another.

My immediate conclusion is that the baby is due. I start running around the house in a blind panic, yelling “Tolong!” which is the Indonesian word for help, trying to find the owners of the house who were apparently unalarmed by the fact that there was a pregnant woman screaming bloody murder in their house.

It was at this point Alver switched her apparent strategy from pure guttural screaming to opening the nearby window and screaming “Help me!” like a horror movie heroine who just learned that the killer was in the house.

Eventually, I find a woman downstairs. She walked up the stairs with the speed of a person who could not have given lesser of a fuck, rummaged through some coats, and produced Alver’s traveling backpack.

Alver immediately snaps back to normal, exclaiming “There it is! I thought someone stole it!” The dream ends with me slowly backing away while Alver is giving me one of those “If you leave me, I’ll kill you”, psycho-girlfriend smiles.

The End. Cue insomnia.

barverineceaser:

Treat my mother well. You giant dick.

I can’t tell if that last part is an insult or compliment.

I couldn’t sleep so I thought I might as well write.

Next week I will be officially six months into my year-long contract. That’s three months longer than I ever imagined staying.

The way my contract works is that I have a “debt” I owe to the school that gets reduced every three months till I finish my contract. If I decide to break contract early, I have to pay off the remaining balance before I can leave. Six months is an important milestone because my debt-load goes from “Rape-like” to merely “Sexual Assault”. After nine months, it gets reduced to “10 Minutes on ChatRoulette”.

So I’m over halfway done with the finish line in sight. Also, with Christmas vacation, the Muslim holiday Eid, and my eleven unspent vacation days, I will have a total of 25 days off in the next few months. I’d be crazy not to ride this thing out till at least January. After that, it’s just three more months till I am done.

And there’s the rub: am I really done?

I don’t feel like I am “finished” with Indonesia and I doubt I will six months from now. I have put so much work into learning Indonesian that I would hate to have to abandon it so early. Also, there are so many wonderful people I have met here that I want to keep in my life for just awhile longer.

Also, the girls here are really, really beautiful. I mean like “Damn, girl!” kind of beautiful, you know?

On the other hand, I feel like my “real” life is back home is glaring at me, impatiently checking its watch, wondering if I’m “done yet.” Indeed, I have many people waiting on my return and a comedy career that needs rebuilding. I know I have to come home at some point, but a part of me wants to stay out in La-La Land for just awhile longer.

Then again, to quote a favourite song of mine, “You can never go home - you left that world behind.” I’m not sure if that is true, but waiting for the answer fills me with both fear and excitement.

Alas, all anyone can do is wait and see what the future might bring.

goodbyeblighty:

I’m trying to prepare myself for it in every way possible. I know that the world I’m leaving behind is totally different from what is in store for me in Saudi Arabia. I’ve read some online guides and gotten some info from other places and they all say the same things. It’s unlike most places in the world.

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Congratulations, good sir. After Indonesia, I plan to travel to Saudis Arabia. I look forward to reading about your travels.

Selemat jalan!