Best public holiday ever

So I have been wayyy too busy, and thus too exhausted, to even write entries at home to transfer to the net. But the public holiday today (Timorese Independence Day) meant no language classes, and therefore THE DAY WAS MINE! Muahaha!

The day started well with a sleepin. Since I have been getting up so early, for me, a sleepin meant 7.30am. However this meant I could take a walk and househunt... which led Matt and I to a four bedroom hovel/concrete bunker filled with garbage (literally). Only $1000 US per month! Bargain! (Our budget is about $500 tops.) So, this was not so awesome. Neither was the super slow $4-an-hour internet cafe (great airconditioning though). We tried it because the other place we’ve been going is $6 an hour, and that is prohibitively expensive for us poorbie volunteers.

So Matt and I decided it was time for something that couldn’t fail to work out – lunch – and took a punt on the rumah makan (Indo for restaurant / literally ‘house eat’) where we had been shown the dodgy house. OMG. $4 for 2 plates loaded with rice, curried tofu, fried chicken and yummy greens, plus drinks. Thank you, rumah makan. I did say to Matt as we left ‘This is a bargain – if we don’t get sick’. So far, not sick. I’ll report again later. [LATER EDIT: We did not get sick! Bargain!]

Giddy with the success of lunch, we decided to check out the One Dollar Fast Broadband Connection internet place across the road. I noticed this place walking home a different way the other day, so I have to thank Susanne for inviting me to lunch down the road – I wouldn’t have found it otherwise, I think.
Now I had kind of – ok totally – suspected that the sign out front which says ‘One Dollar Fast Broadband Connection’ was a good indicator that any internettage contained within was exactly the opposite. If the $6 place is kinda slow, and the $4 place is unusable, surely the $1 people can’t afford a decent connection????

Was I happy to be wrong. Cheap, fast internet, oh how you made my day. We were on such a high. Man I love the internet. I can handwash my clothes, I can wash my hair in a bucket, I can live without airconditioning at home (admittedly I am facing the prospect of these things at the moment rather than having to do them – life is posh in the guesthouse), but if I have a place to visit that has fast, cheap internet, then life is peachy.

The rest of the day has been quiet, involving playing spider solitaire on our laptops (also Maniac Mansion for Matt - don’t ask) and basking in the airconditioning in our little guest house room. Best public holiday evah.