Which is better?

:eek: :eek: :eek: I guess this means that at some point we'll get to have another shot at the bachelor party, eh? :p :p :D

I expect people to ask without reading. That's not what was so :rolleyes: pre-9am.

Water ice... yum^ There's lots of flavors. I actually preferred the mom and pop water ice stores in PHL compared to Rita's. Water ice is a Philly area saying. Before I moved there, I always had known it as Italian ice as well. From what I can gather, it's one and the same, with some minor variations. I would love to open up a Rita's franchise here. I could keep it open year round in this climate.^

that and vegemite, can stay in the jar :D

This latest round of bombings in Indonesia has my friends and family buzzing about whether we should go to Bali. It does give me pause....

I would do NW as that is the program going away. Still a good chance you won't burn your once in a lifetime match in the DL world.

They have really good ice cream and dessert joints out this way. I still haven't totally wrapped my head around just how many different terms there are out here for foodstuffs, nor the stereotypical "Philly accent". I think the wackiest Philly word I've heard is "crowns". What is a crown, you say? I thought it was a monarch wears on their head at official ceremonies. Nope. It's what comes in the Crayola box. :eek:

Pause is good but the reality is anything can happen anywhere. I'll take a step back and reassess, but I would likely still go. Perhaps a middle ground would not to be staying at a western hotel chain as those often seem to be the target.

:rolleyes: crowns you say? They must be high on something.

Until now my typical reply has been "well, you would still go to London or Madrid wouldn't you?" but given our intended stay at the Conrad I have mixed emotions. I will see how this all plays out....

I wouldn't hesitate to go for a second. Security will be so ridiculously tight at all the major hotels and tourist sectors that you won't have any issues. My brother said the airport and all public areas in major cities are totally militarized right now.

It is very freaky to think that at one point, I had planned to be staying at the JW Jakarta at some point this month, though (and that I did stay three nights at the JW Medan just last week).

The Conrad, as well as the other western-brand resorts in the very southern part of South Bali, are huge, isolated compounds with long roads leading into them. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

All major Western hotels in Indonesia have full airport-style security at the entrances. Basically, if you are a Westerner, they xray your bags and let you through without much of a secondary screening if you set off the metal detector. The same is basically true for well-dressed locals. What the recent bombing means is that such security will be much more thorough, and that additional physical reinforcements will be constructed around major urban hotels, with extra security guards. There will also be police and military officers stationed at major hotels for the foreseeable future.

The first time I heard my fiancee and her sisters drop that word, I just went "Um, what?" :confused:

The other thing that drives me nuts about how they murder words here is "realtor". They say it "real-it-ter" here. :rolleyes: I really had no idea that cultural differences in the language could be so profound in the small area that is the width of New Jersey. "Custard", as mentioned before, was confusing and slightly annoying. The other thing that really confused me was "hot cereal". Huh?? Hot cereal, to me, is taking a bowl of cereal and putting it in the microwave. Hot cereal out here is what the rest of the planet knows as instant oatmeal.

around here we have frozen custard, but it it is totally different than soft serve. Most soft serve does NOT have eggs, while custard technically MUST have eggs(in strict sense of the word)

hot cereal, my grandpa likes grapenuts warm :D