Change of plan. Some things happened yesterday when my boss was here and I had to make an instant decision of my contract.

These were my reasons that I gave her to quit the job:

A. I want to spend my birthday for a week in Bali in August and I do not want to take it from my paid leave + on 9 Sept I have to go to Surabaya for my friend's wedding (I'll be the photographer, so it's a job) + Mark is coming for two or three weeks in September and we'll be spending some time in Bali, so I told her it was impossible to sign another contract to break it in the middle like that for another month and a half vacation (and I JUST took my vacation);
B. I don't want to spend another boring year in this small town;
C. I was not satisfied with my salary.

Well, she made me say yes, cause:

A. She gives me the permission to take the vacation days again in Aug till Oct (that's crazy, but cool! Which company would really give its employee so many vacation days like that?),
B. She'll get me to work in her other branch in Jakarta starting from January,
C. She gives me a big salary raise.

I thought at that time I'd be completely dumb if I turned that down. So, I took it. I wasn't sure if I was taking the right decision, but things happen for a reason, right? And after talking to Rina, Felix and Mark (and mom)they all told me it was the best decision I could make at that time (flexible vacation time and the salary raise that is).
So now I'm taking it easy... More vacations to come and I'll still have a job to hold on to. I think that's quite amazing.

Though... I've also got this wicked idea to still keep looking when I'm in Bali later on. Who knows? :D

What do you think?

4:20 pm

watching: bridget jones's diary

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I've got a big attack of white hair on my head!!!!!

The other evening Ern came to my room and saw a lot of it spreaded among my other long black hair! I freaked out and asked her to weed it away. But since she: A. is impatient; B. has long fingernails; and C. is impatient; and D. is impatient, she gave up after pulling out around 5 to 7 strings of hair. She also kindly informed me that there's still so much of it.

I'm devastated.

I hate to admit the facts that:
A. I'm getting older.
B. I may be stressed out right now unconsciously (though I feel quite happy, or have I just been lying to myself?) that it grows the white hair to contrast my black one.
C. My biological clock is ticking.

Gotta do something, gotta do something. Suggest me some ideas. Maybe dying it to purple? I could be the funkiest teacher at EF! ;-)

4:00 pm

mood: busybody

Capek deeeh!!!!!

Sometimes I just get too annoyed with the way it works here. I have a private student, Gaby, and she has a class everyday from Monday to Saturday at 11 in the morning. She's going to Singapore to study in July so she wants to improve her speaking skill by having a private conversation class as often as possible. The class is due to finish this week on Saturday, but she happens to be not available on the last day cause she's going to Bali for vacation. I thought it would be postponed sometime later, but she chose to have the replacement on Thursday, which makes me have to teach her for the whole 2 hours and 40 minutes. Well, having 3 hours classes in Tegal is not an odd thing, but 3 hours teaching conversation to one single student? What topic(s) should I give her???

Anyways... it seems like Miss Aya is interested to buy my Canon camera. I do love the camera, but I desperately need some more cash right now to prevent Citibank calling me all the time (read my post about the stolen credit card). So.. I guess I'm going to have a hard time letting it go, but I'll be relieved for a while. Ah shit.

6:13 pm

reading: blink - malcolm gladwell

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So it's been a week since I was back from my travel. It felt good to be home and see family once again before going to Tegal to fulfill my promise to my boss that I would work here for another month or two after my travel. The last update about it, however, was that Ibu seemed to misunderstand my coming back here. She thought I would sign another year of contract, while I will NOT.
I love Tegal for a lot of reasons, but I just can't live here another year. No way. It's like wasting my precious youth here. I could have gone off partying somewhere in another part of Indonesia after working hard in the day time.. while in Tegal, I don't pretty much have that luxurious option. It's OKAY, of course, if I could compensate it with some short-distance traveling in the weekend. But that's not possible, either, cause Saturday is a working day!

SO the boss is coming next week, and I'll most probably have to negotiate the whole thing again. But for now, I just know that there's 85% chance of me moving to another place, Bali most likely, to get another job and a new life. So Pam and Mariza, prepare yourselves. I'm gonna bug you both for a short while until I get a job there. Hahaha!

I realise that I haven't written too much since I was back. It was just so easy to write when you're on vacation. But now back in real life, though I'm still very reachable via internet, my actions are mostly limited to opening emails and answering them, that's if I have more time before the next classes. :P I haven't been active, either, on DeviantArt or Usefilm or FN. There are just so many things to catch up, so many people to contact and so many things to do.

I'm starting to get my normal life back. I wake up every morning (at 6 normally). Early, I know. But the window in my room faces the east and the sun just shines too brightly it hurts my closed eyes. I need to get some curtains on, but I just don't wanna bother. I am not staying here too long. If it wasn't the sun -- when it gets cloudy and rainy it's just so nice to curl up in bed inside my blanket and enjoy longer sleep -- it would be Excel, Mba' Minda's 2 year-old son, who would cry so loudly in the morning. I haven't got another new cellphone since I soaked my brand new one in the pool last month, so I practically don't have an alarm clock. I have an alarm in my electronic organizer but the loudest sound it can produce is just a squeak -- which is not a very big help to wake me up. But Excel could be my alarm. Though he chooses the time when he should scream and cry to wake me up. Can't say it's too nice.

Anyway, I really like being back in Tegal and meet Ernie and the other friends. We seem to have not enough time to share our stories (Ernie just had her travel, too, for a month; and she's got "deeper" but happy stuff on her vacation). Everything is going so well for her and I'm happy for her. Sometimes I feel a little (just a little) envious, too, cause her boyfriend lives (though not too near) pretty close to her. She's definitely feeling head over toes and it's just good to see her like that.
We were talking last night and we agreed that things really happened for a reason. I was meant to move to Tegal last year (though I felt reluctant to) and she and Pam were meant it, too. The three of us WERE MEANT to meet one another, cause though not even one of us shares hardly any similarity, we fill one another perfectly well. Religious, nice, but tough Ernie; Wicked, Japanese-crazed, unique Pam; and Cool, sweet lovely me!

It's good to be friends with them, and I hope (and know) that we will always be good friends, no matter how far we live from one another in the future.

UPDATE! (after being forced to mention his name here. haha):

My dearest unmet brother, Johann Grimm, sent me a really nice book of "The Best Places to Kiss in Paris."
It was such a lovely surprise, especially when I was so worn out after traveling thinking that I might not want to travel to Thailand again. But the book encouraged me in the way that Europe was still my main travel aim. I'm working on it, darling brother. If all goes well, it should be next year. Get ready to show me those places!

7:15 pm