-You forget America has four seasons, that is until you open Pinterest…
-Your weekend uniform consists of cut-off shorts and flip flops on Saturday, bathing suit on Sunday… And it’s November.
-You’ve finally mastered a complete dinner in a rice cooker. Last week consisted of red rice with steamed fish and asparagus (a delicacy found in Jakarta last weekend).
-Amusement parks are no longer thought of as expensive and with long lines. They are cheap, quick, but hellishly hot.
-You’re finally starting to get a hang of Bahasa, yet only have a month left living in the country.
-Your English is starting to sound like your Bahasa. Short. To the point. And with a bit more surprise. Whaa?! Weeeh!
-Walking around a mall with a grocery cart is totally normal.
-Sweating from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm is totally normal.
-Bug Bites. Every day. Normal.
-You reach some sort of milestone when you can call the grocery down the road and in Bahasa, ask them to deliver Bintang to your house as you host a party.
-You realize you hate Bintang at this point and decide to nurse the bottle of rum you bought at Duty-Free 6 months ago.
-A quick 20 km drive to a restaurant or park takes over 2 hours because of traffic and you come prepared with bottles of water and snacks… Because duh… It’s Indonesia.
-You no longer stress over wearing suntan lotion.
-You realize you haven’t had 100% hearing in your left ear for over 3 weeks and you still refuse to see a local doctor about it.
-You begin to realize what makes you truly homesick: certain rights, comforts, and expectations that mean nothing here.
-You begin to mark an X on each completed day on the calendar. One month left.
-You look at Air Asia prices daily. $100 for a weekend trip to Bali. Worth it?
-You try to remember what you packed away before you moved to Indonesia and can’t remember a single item.
-You go to bed at 8:00 pm because staying up any later than that on a week day is too painfully lonely.