My very short holiday..
I went to Singapore for a couple of days sometime last week to attend a seminar on autism. The seminar was just a couple of hours and I decided to take an extra day off to just squeeze in a little bit of holiday for myself in the midst of my very-hectic-working life.
I still had to work in the morning, if it was any normal school day, I would have skipped work. But the very day I departed, was our school's Kartini celebration. I had to be there for my kids and mostly coz my students don't operate well without me. I didn't even wait until the celebration ended, I left right after all my student's had performed and left to the airport.
Other than attending the seminar basically wherever I go, I am always hunting for teaching materials or educational toys that are not available in Jakarta. I am also always in a hunt for good books, which is why whenever I am in Singapore I always had to spend at least an hour or two in Borders. While I was there, I met my cousin and some of my friends. But the one thing that I'm really happy about was, I got a time for myself. Yes, you read that right.. myself!! I went shopping and walking along Orchard Road to Far East to Somerset with no one but myself. I am also very happy with the fact that I can walk on the streets.. not much of a chance to walk here in Jakarta.
Some weird things did happen though. On my first night there as I was walking outside Takashimaya, a guy stopped me and explained that he is in the entertainment industry and they are looking for fresh new faces. He showed me pictures of him from lots of magazines and he told me that he thinks I have a potential to go really far in this industry and he starts complimenting me on my eyes and other parts of my body. He then asks me if I'm interested and there was a long silence before I finally spoke. I pretended to not know any English and I walk off.
Another pretty weird thing that happened was when I landed in Jakarta, I passed through the immigration and the officer was flirting with me. He was a young with an okay body and not-so-bad looking officer. Not the fat-old kind. He was looking at me and trying to match with the passport picture and he said 'hmn, still looks the same' and he smiled. I return the smile and ignored him. He then asked me 'Pacarnya kok ga ikut?'. Still, I ignored him and just smiled. He kept on asking and I said 'ga ada'. As he handed me the passport he got a pen and said 'oh yah... ah ga mungkin. Kalo gitu nomernya brapa? 081...??'. I replied him 'Byeee...' and left.
One thing I notice is that, I love Singapore. But being there for longer than a 3-4 days can be unbearable. Hahaha..
