I know, I know.

I’ve been so busy, I’ve abandoned my blog since God-knows-when and despite it all, you’re still here, reading my rants oh-so-faithfully.

Work’s been hectic enough – there have been plenty of things happening lately, and I don’t even know where to begin.

First of all – work is great. The students, as always, are the highlights of my job, but after about five months reality starts to set in. Already I’ve been in an argument with another teacher because of differences in principles, but we’re okay now. I’ve also started to learn which colleagues I feel safe being around and which ones to avoid. Come on, as if you’re friends with everyone at work?

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It is a common knowledge that Indonesian police officers often use their authority to bully and frighten us into thinking that we’ve broken some rules, when in fact they’re just on their usual duty prowling the streets looking for extra money (bribe money, that is).

This afternoon, I became one of their victims when I was just exiting the freeway gate at Bekasi Barat on my way home.

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If you’ve seen the latest coffee ad from Torabika, you’d know the tagline being said by Luna Maya at the end.

The ad starts off with Luna Maya sipping a cup of Torabika coffee, and then all of a sudden a Caucasian man comes up in the background, sips the coffee as well and shows genuine delight that he likes the coffee. The ad ends with Luna Maya saying the tagline which is the very title of this post, which means something like, “See, even foreigners like it!”

The term bule itself refers to Caucasian foreigners or westerners, and it can be derrogative or right down offensive to some of them. For most of Indonesian people, the term bule simply refers to the look of these people. But sometimes, it can mean so much more than just the looks.

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