Last Week in Jakarta

I couldn't believe 3 weeks would fly by so easily. Mom, Pat and Anne would complain every time we get on the phone about the sweltering heat back in Manila. At least there are occasional rains here.

Last Thursday, I was surprised to see dad back in the apartment around 2PM. He told me he had a meeting in Sudirman which ended 20 minutes ago. Because of the traffic, going back to his office in Tanjung Priok would take him 2 hours... which means in a few minutes he'd have to head back home.

We decided to watch a movie in Senayan~ M:i:III. We were surprised because movies here are shown 1-2 weeks after they have been shown in neighboring countries ~ they had to put subtitles. I'm not a fan of subtitles because it makes me look at the words and not at the movie directly~ quite distracting.

When we arrived at the theatres, we only had to wait 30 minutes before the next screening. The movie was great! Dad said it was too impossible. I liked the part where a female agent was injected adrenaline. What she did after that reflects what I really wanted to be~ empowered, independent and focused.

After the movie, dad treated me to a semi- 'no holds barred' shopping at Esprit. Grabbing my purchases, I quipped to him that I will study really hard! We ate at Sushi Sei for dinner then bought groceries and Bread Talk before heading home.

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By Saturday, dad accompanied me to my tennis practice with my trainer, Yaya. We were only 20 minutes into the rally when light rain covered the courts. We still continued. It had been the first time I played tennis under the rain. It was liberating! The air was cool and I didn't feel as tired as the last time.

After tennis, I had a massage. It felt really nice and aromatherapy worked wonders.

By the end of the day, I sported 2 blisters. One was on my ring finger [blister on a blister~ yuck!] and another on the palm just below my ring finger. Anyway, they will go away after a few days. They're just telling me that I need to practice my grip more and make new callouses!

Eww