I was seriously thinking of moving to Indonesia to live. I had a book in front of me about the Indonesian language and I began thinking about how interesting it would be to learn it. I had recently told someone that I wouldn't want to learn the Afghan language, which I thought was similar to the Indonesian language, but now I thought it might be interesting to learn Indonesian. I thought Indonesia was an island, but I also thought that it was located in Central America and that the language spoken there was a native American language.

In my book I noticed a picture of the island. It was basically round, but on the left side there was a long sliver of something which cut into the island and I was unsure whether it was another country or a bay. I also saw the same outline of the country on a metal plate of some kind of motor sitting near me.

I wasn't completely certain what I would do in Indonesia, but I thought I might become a dentist. Working on people's teeth would be a complicated skill requiring intensive training, but I just might be interested.

However I did have some reservations about going there. Wouldn't I really rather go to Europe? Wouldn't the other languages I knew – French, Italian and German – suffer if I went off to Indonesia.

***

I was in Germany where I had been living for a while. I was in a restaurant talking with a man who was apparently the owner and I was telling him I was thinking about leaving Germany. Don Block (a Dallas acquaintance) was also there and he was a waiter in the restaurant.

I really liked being in Germany, and the main reason I was leaving was because I was running out of money. Somehow, though, the idea was raised that I also could become a waiter in the restaurant. I really didn't like the idea, but still, I thought it would allow me to remain in Germany, and so it just might be a good idea. I began thinking about what it would be like to wait on tables.

There were four people including my sitting at my table. The owner then called for Block to come over and wait on my table. Block walked up and the owner quickly gave him an order. He told Block to first bring him some desert and Block rushed off to get it.

I recalled having had waiters before who had been able to remember everything ordered without writing the orders down. I wondered if I would be able to do that.

I mentioned to one of the other fellows at the table that I was thinking of staying in Germany and working for a while as a waiter. He seemed concerned that I might be wasting some of my talent that way, but I thought it may be all right to do for a little while. It would at least allow me to remain here.