Unprepared. (part 3)

Even Jakarta has poor souls who fail to find rest at night, and there were people all around.  My food arrived with little fanfare.  I ate it because I needed to, and that was all.  One of the things living in Thailand does is spoil you when it comes to food in most other Asian countries.  The "restaurant" provided sustenance and rest, but it also put me in the proximity of locals.  Locals have phones.  Locals have local calling plans.  Perfect!  I needed to meet a local! There was a group of women sitting at the next table.  They looked to be in their mid-30's and were wearing hijabs. A little semi-stalking revealed two of them had Blackberries.  I know that Blackberries handle data plans differently than other phones, but I desperately needed my internet to work in order to find a place to sleep.  It's always weird interrupting a conversation, especially when you're doing it in another language.  I mustered up some courage and tried to catch their attention with a smile and nod.  Instead, I caught the attention of their husbands and/or boyfriends who had, until that very moment,  been at the nearby convenience store.  Their cold glare ended the conversation before it began.

I began peering over at other tables until I noticed someone on what I thought was an iPhone.  I built up my courage once more and prepared for this conversation to end with a horrible combination of laughter, confusion, hand motions and an iPhone that still didn't work.  Much to my relief, my interruption was met with kind smiles and a near perfect, "hey, can we help you with something?"  Turns out, what I thought was an iPhone was just an iPod touch, but the guy redirected me to his friend who was sitting across the table quite comfortably with his iPhone 4 connected into his MacBook Pro.  Jackpot.

He sent me to the supermarket across the street to buy a refill card.  The store was old and had a pungent smell.  I loved it.  When I returned with the top-up phone card, he sent me back to the store again... and then once again.  On the third trip, the cashier asked if I had a facebook account and said that he wanted to add me as a friend.  cooool.  People here were starting to make an impression and it was a good one.

Eventually the guy, who introduced himself as Arvi, had my phone working.  I was golden!  His friends asked me questions about Thailand, and I questioned them about Indonesia (I had no plan.... remember?)  I told them I was planning to leave the next day in order to start my volcano tour and got their advice.  Eventually the other guys introduced themselves as well... AS EACH OTHER'S BOYFRIENDS!  I was shocked, but it wasn't really a big deal; I have gay friends in BKK. Having said that, I've never actually hung around a group of gay people before.  It was quite entertaining.  We left the restaurant around 4 am and moved to a 7 eleven around the corner.  An odd choice, logically explained by the fact that they had free wifi.  I used this good opportunity to use a bad connection to check my email.  Bombshell time.  "William Wade, you have 1 new assignment due this Saturday."  crap.  To make matters worse, this was no ordinary assignment.  It was a 15-page paper on diversity.  Fortunately, I had been living in Thailand, in the process of visiting Indonesia, and just met a group of gays... I was in a pretty good place to write a paper on diversity.  Cancel the volcano tour and start up that word processor.