いっぺん飛んでみる?

I see plenty of flighsuits during lunch but, unfortunately, none of them contain a Mamimami. Oh well. Is that suit on auction at eBay? Most prob not, what with the security issues and all.

Coming back to dusty old earth, my long-awaited Indonesian course finally started yesterday. The first lesson was full of fun stuff since we have yet to get to the grammar bits. The instructor, a jolly Indonesian lady, kind of took us on a verbal tour of Indonesia, with a bemusing emphasis on tourist spots. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to know where the prettiest girls can be found. (Java and Bali, according to our teacher. Obviously, she’s from one of these islands.)

Btw, I learnt that “kupu-kupu malam” (night butterfly) means commercial sex worker. Is that some piece of essential knowledge for, like, anyone on an overseas posting? I don’t really want to find out.

Bahasa Indonesia and Melayu are almost the same, yet different enough to give me a mini migraine. Like “kerata” is train and “lori” is a small train that carries sugarcane. Wow. And let’s not forget that “awak” might mean “I” in certain Indonesian provinces. Maybe it’s a good thing after all that I’ve forgotten 97.23% of my Malay.

The confusion doesn’t stop there though. The word “nakal” (naughty) came up and the first thing that came to my mind was “cry”. I realized it wasn’t 泣くonly a few seconds later, as in ひぐらしのなく頃に. Just hope I won’t be blurting out “Ini berapa desuka?” in class anytime soon.