The Night I Met Beautiful Barbara

How I Met Barbara

That evening I went by myself on an evening bike ride to Piazza Santa Maria Novella, it was hip on the piazza, a DJ played loud music, young people hanged around with bottles of Moretti in their hands. It was an intro and a counting down to the upcoming big event, an MTv Italy Award in Florence! So I stayed longer than I intended to, until dawn and the sky turned dark. The music got harder and more crowds joined in whilst shaking their bodies along with the music. I stood there among the crowd, was taking photo of the DJ and he seemed friendly. Youngsters starred at me, and I wondered why. I thought maybe it was strange that a “young” girl like me being there alone and did not even move by the music.

There were more attractions, a man blown fire from his mouth. Five people in stilts costumes walked and played around with some kids and gave them some balloons. These all were nothing compared to one old man who was a little drunk from drinking too much beers.  He was like absent minded, danced like crazy in the middle of the crowd who cheered, teased or even mocked him and bought him more beers!

HardRock Cafe Shirt  Jakarta - ROCK!!!!!!

That was exactly where I saw Barbara for the first time. She was busy taking video of this dancing old man. When she smiled at me and suddenly she was next to me and said, “Hi, are you Indonesian?” Surprised to have a sudden greet from a pretty stranger I nodded and said back,”Yes, how do you know?” She showed her lovely smile, pointed at my shirt and said,”Mio madre lei e anche Indonesiana.”

“Ah, piacere!”, I said. The music continued banging and she walked back to where her boyfriend stood at. She went on watching and took video of this tipsy old guy. I laughed to myself, I realized now why some people and the DJ were smiling at me. That because I was wearing my Hard Rock Café JAKARTA shirt! No wonder! It was like a silent announcement! Hello there, I am Indonesian tourist from JAKARTA, you know!

A moment later, when the attractions were almost finish, I decided to approach Barbara again. I thought it would be great if she could join our Indonesian Community. So we changed numbers and added each other on Facebook. She is a student in Florence. Before we parted, she mentioned once again,”Mio madre e Indonesiana ma lei non abita qui.”  And that was how I met beautiful Indo-Italy Barbara.

Later on, Barbara and I were connected through Facebook, and I added her into Indonesian Women in Florence community. When Fifi was added into the group, it happened that actually she and Barbara's mother (Lasma) knew each other as well. What a small world! So, I asked Barbara to add her mother into the community, and that was how we had signora Lasma (Barbara’s mother) in the group. Welcome to you both mother and daughter! So glad to befriend with you two!