"Cobalah sebelum Anda menguasainya" - Murder it before you master it

Fact 1: This city has three KFCs, three Starbucks, two McDonalds, and two Pizza Huts. There is no lack of Western food here. However, just cause we have plethora of options, we don't eat it a lot. After a bad language or culture day, though, some chicken nuggets and fries sound amazing.

Fact 2: McDonalds delivers. Straight to your house. Pretty awesome.

Fact 3: The first time we called for delivery, my sweet housemate ordered for us, only to discover that the worker spoke perfect English. Oh, how lovely! The dear people at McDs make sure their employees speak English for the poor foreigners who just want a taste of home! Wonderful.

So, earlier this week, after a particularly long language day, some McDs sounded amazing. My housemate was gone, but no worries - the people at McDs speak English!

Fact 4: Not all McDonalds employees speak English.

The girl I talked to spoke exactly zero English. Zip. Nil. Nada. The 15-minute long conversation consisted primarily of her speaking really fast gibberish and me saying, "I'm sorry, I'm learning the language, but I don't speak well yet" and "Please, slower?" It was an adventure.

What I meant to order:

• One order of chicken nuggets
• One cheeseburger,
• Two orders of french fries, and
• One coke.

What we ended up with:

• One order of chicken nuggets,
• One cheeseburger,
• Three orders of french fries,
• Two cokes,
• One two-piece fried chicken meal, and
• Two "free" teas, thrown in probably because they felt so bad for me.

Oops. My bad. Next time, Morgan's ordering.  

Lesson learned: Always have what you want to say written out and translated beforehand in case they don't speak English (because, chances are, they don't).