Fake it till we make it

As our last post hinted, we have decided to spend some more time in Indonesia. Just as we were about to ship the last couple boxes back to America, we were both offered editor positions with a new magazine that should be coming out in the next month or so. Haviva will be the managing editor of High End Teen and Howie the Sr. editor of High End Special Editions. It is pretty exciting on the whole - the impossible task of starting these magazines from basicly scratch has the whole place buzzing. We are working with a great staff and every minute has been very go go go.

To really build a buzz, we had a pre-launch party this past week mostly to schmooze with potential advertisers and the stars came out: There were two Indonesian Idol stars (one actual winner and one runner up), a few Miss Indonesias, the Ryan Seacrest of Indonesia (host of a big show here called Mama Mia and one of the top emcees in the country) and several people described as "socialites". To help us fit in, I was given quite the make-over and a special black jacket to wear and Howie was given a black dress shirt and gold tie. Very High End, but we still stuck out like sore thumbs which we think might have been part of the point.

The event was held at an upscale Indonesian restaurant with not enough alcohol to make me forget my aching feet in my high heels. We were paraded in front of the crowd, handed many a business card (we could hand none over ourselves as ours are not ready yet) and really enjoyed the buffet (even though our Indonesian colleagues all had Hoka Hoka Bento - a fast food Japanese place that is very popular amongst locals and equally despised by expats - before the event and then ate nothing.) It was a bit surreal, but at the same time, kind of fun.

So, now that we have been paraded, it looks like we are staying - we move into a new place this week, we have gotten one pay check, and signing a contract seems imminent. Who would have thought? Certainly not us...