I ate at Pizza Hut today

Yes, I admit it. I am not proud of this fact, but I was craving pizza, mostly for cheese. And what I got was pizza, sort of. But it had no sauce. I went for the veggie, and with my limited knowledge of Indonesian mistook fresh tomatoes on the menu for sauce. Other pizzas did have sauces, but they were sweet and sour, thousand island, mayo, or other such weirdness (the sweet and sour did look good, though).

Since we've been here, people back home have asked us about food. And aside from today's foray into American global consumeristic imperialism, we've eaten mostly Indonesian food. So here's a little bit about our eating habits.

We do have apples, pears, bananas, oranges, and mangoes, but I also like to try new things. A lot of the fruit here is weird-looking, sort of like weapons or torture devices.This is a sirsak, or soursop. It is like a lemony pineapple, and quite tasty.

I did eat something the other day that tasted exactly like dirt. More truthfully, I spit out something the other day that tasted like dirt.

One of my favorite fruits is dragonfruit, strangely beautiful but delicious.

As far as actual meals go, we've consumed a lot of peanut sauce, mostly in the form of pecel (this webpage might refer to the wonderful restaurant very near our house) and gado-gado. Each meal can be had for about 70 cents to a dollar. (My personal pan pizza only came in at $2, though, as a point of reference, and a small burger, fries, and soda at Wendy's comes in at $1.50. Some items of a western nature do cost more, such as a frozen blended coffee at $3-4.)

We've consumed large amounts of tempeh, as well, since we are good pseudo-hippies. Actually, we just sort of fear the meat, though I've had bakso a few times, and it's pretty good. (I was looking at the meatballs at the store the other day, and I couldn't find any that didn't list MSG disturbingly high on the menu. So I think I'll mostly avoid it from here on out, since I am a wimp and highly susceptible to MSG.)

We do cook at home a decent amount, but it's mostly noodles and vegetables and eggs, so it's pretty similar to what we can find in some of the smaller restaurants.

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Our house is rapidly falling apart, it seems. They finally got our water fixed, but then the toilet was broken for a few days, and the fridge quit working, and I think our front-door handle may fall off the door any minute now.

Such is the way of life here, I guess. At least we've been able to keep the cockroaches and rats out of the house.

We now have a new maid, and she seems like she will be great. I must learn Indonesian so I can actually talk to her. She keeps saying stuff and all I can do is say, "Saya tidak mengerti," "I don't understand."

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Sorry about the lack of pictures in the last couple of posts. We've been settling in to life and haven't been too shutter-happy. However, we will be more diligent about photographing things from here on out.