Quarantine in Jakarta - Day 3

​My smart watch tells me that I did 1’461 steps on day 3. Wow, that must be the least I’ve walked on any healthy day in my whole life! I didn’t feel like working out, so this is the result of my laziness. I’m not proud!

Other than that, we’re still working on the meal timings… Instead of 8 am, as I asked for, I was awoken at 7 by room service. And I had a hard time understanding the waiter outside my door. «Inudaii» was all I could figure out. It didn’t help that he kept on shouting it a little louder with every knock on the door. Until I realized that he meant «in-room dining»! If it weren’t for the ham they put in my omelette (I requested vegetarian), my breakfast was lovely, and the cappuccino tasted very nice. And guess what? I watched a movie while having breakfast. It almost made me feel as if I were on holiday…

Time goes by rather quickly. Quicker than I thought, actually. But it still doesn’t take off the urge to step outside into the «real world». The windows are not very well insulated here, so I hear lots of noises from the street: ambulances (the hotel is close to 3 hospitals), the prayers from surrounding mosques via loudspeaker, the traffic – just the sounds of a big city. And then, between 12 and 1 pm, the floor outside my room gets busy. I guess they put all the quarantine guests on the same floor, which makes sense as they have to bring 3 meals a day to our rooms. I hear the knocking on various doors, accompanied by the «inudaii» shouting that we have all have come to understand by now. When the respective doors are opened by my fellow quarantine hotel guests, it sounds a bit like inmates in a prison – the click-clack of doors opening and closing again after a few seconds, as we are supposed to avoid any contact with the outside world if possible. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel like a prisoner, but I’m starting to get a notion of what it might feel like to be one.
Talking about meals, again. I first didn’t get any lunch at all. And when it finally came, after calling room service, it was rice, vegetables and… meat! But by 1.30 pm, I had the fish I wanted, and it tasted very nice. Same procedure with dinner again. Oh well…

At about 4 pm, I started to wonder when I was going to get the result of my PCR test. So, I called reception and was told that they would only have contacted me if the result was positive. So, is this good news for me? Yes, Mam! Oh, thanks for telling me! I was rather relieved.

As you may remember, the Indonesian language is still somewhat of a mystery to me. And I did not open my vocabulary app once while I was in Switzerland. Shame on me! But, back in Indonesia, and with a lot of time at my hand, I tackled the job and started practising my vocabulary again. As expected, a lot is gone, but some of it is still there. Great! Now, I should simply start speaking Indonesian to the hotel employees. Something I just can’t get myself around to doing! I don’t know why. I’m sure it would help a lot to get the food I want at the time I like, and yet… I always settle for English. Actually, I do know why: I want my Indonesian to sound perfect when I open my mouth, so I’d rather not say anything before I say something wrong. It’s not how I’m going to improve, I know. Practice makes perfect. But that’s just the way it is now. One day I’ll be ready, just give me some more time.

For tomorrow morning, I asked for an omelette without ham and breakfast to be served at 8 am. In English. Let’s see how this works out…
I’ll let you know tomorrow!