Planetary Orbits

I really like the neighborhood I’m living in. Each of the blocks has a planetary designation. I live on southern Mars. It’s kind of quiet, and the buses stop running by 8pm, but it’s also very friendly. I’m staying with my dance teacher and her family. I’ve appropriated Bila’s room; she’s the 11-year old girl who has already grown taller than me since my last visit. Everyone always tells me that I’ll fit in here because of my size. I bought a pair of house sandals at the market last week, and I still had to choose from the kids selection!

The Bapak (dad) has an office nearby, where he handles the marketing end for his soymilk business. It’s in Jupiter, but only a short walk. He has a wireless connection, but alas, I still can’t upload photos.

Two blocks down from my house, still in South Mars, is a mosque that’s partly under construction. It provides a lovely alarm at 3:50am when the first call to prayer (azan) starts. Trust me, it’s impossible to sleep through. By 4:15 though, I’m all cozy, snuggled up in my dreams again. It’s all over at 5:45. That’s when the first street salesman comes by. Each one has their own unique sound, so you know to leave your house and buy their wares…like hitting two sticks together, or playing a certain melody repeatedly. So the first guy coming around is this bread seller. He’s got this degung melody (5432345232345) and then shouts “roti-roti”. I have chosen him amongst all the others to be my personal alarm, because he also comes by around 6:20. So, it’s kind of like pushing snooze.

In my free time, I joined a gym and a yoga studio. Dude, yoga is hard. I had no idea, and I have newfound respect for all people who can stand on one leg while the other is rotating around their body for ten minutes. The gym though is fun! There are all these other talkative ladies there, and you get to work with a personal trainer, all for under a dollar per visit! They keep telling me that I have to drink a lot of jus alpokat (avocado juice) because apparently I need to gain a lot more weight in certain places to be a good jaipongon dancer. There’s also a badminton court a few blocks away from my house. I’ll be going there later tonight with Om Peter, who’s an Australian consultant for the Bapak’s business. He’s the one who’s sleeping in my room, which I will reclaim once he leaves next month. I haven’t started dance lessons yet, but I figured that could wait till all the bureaucratic nonsense ends.