eleven -- bonding! (with my ibu!)

There's a lot I can talk about but I really don't have a lot of time. I've been watching Jhalak Dikhlaja (Dancing With the Stars) really slowly over the last two hours on the connection in the internet cafe. (Which, by the way, is really amazing and I can't wait to watch the finale when I get home. Because of Baichung Bhutia, I just may have to start watching football....) Computers here don't seem to like photos or videos, yikes. And it doesn't help that I'm only used to doing fifty things at once on the computer.

This evening was amazing.

Amazing in that I really talked (in broken English and Indonesian) to my Ibu. (Ibu is like "Mrs."). I told her about what we are doing tomorrow, what I purchased at the Batik store today. I asked her how she was, where Sonny and Aida went (to the mosque?), if Abi was sleeping. We ate dinner together and it was a delicious spread. First, there was some vegetable thing that looked strangely like potol which I had with rice -- Ma, this doesn't mean I'll eat potol at home! There was this delicious mie goreng (fried rice) with some chicken in it, but I'm not sure what part of the chicken I was eating... Regardless, it was delicious with the hot sauce. As usual, there was tempeh (a soybean patty that I don't have a taste for yet). Most surprisingly I ate fish-fish. Meaning something that wasn't salmon. Ibu couldn't remember the English name, but in bahasa Indonesia it is call pitang (or pintang?). It was... surprisingly delicious and not too many bones.

The Ibu taught me how to eat dinner Indonesian style; this was much harder than I thought. You hold the fork in the left hand and spoon in the right. Once in place, you use your fork to scoop whatever food into your spoon and then eat it. I tried it, and of course took too many noodles... thus looking absolutely ridiculous. Ibu was very amused at my attempts. After dinner, she offered starfruit, but I didn't know how to peel it. Even more amused now, she peeled it for me and taught me how to eat because I had never tried it before -- only Mishti ate starfruit at home. It was sour-sweet, which was very interesting. Anyway, it was just really good to be communicating.

few notes:

• tried serabi Solo, a sweet dish of this rice powder-milk-chocolate combination on a thin, sweet dosa-thin pastry. Delicious. (Wow, I only seem to talk about food here. SO GOOD.)
• We might hit the Indonesian night scene tomorrow night! A few more host parents have agree to let the students go out "so late." (Things end early here.)
• Ma + Mishti --> I bought three pretty Batik fabrics here. Once I get back, we can each pick one out and have kurtis or salwar tops made when we could to India. (I didn't want to buy you guys something that wouldn't fit or you wouldn't like.)
• Dad --> You're still very difficult to shop for, but I have an idea or two!

Gotta run home! Love.