Legal Alien in Southern California (Part 4)

I was supposed to stay at my host family's place for three nights. Instead, I ended up staying there for two weeks. I wasn't ready to face Mia at the apartment. I told my host family that I don't know if I can handle her attitude. Rick told me to stay with them, but the apartment is way closer to the school. So I went back to the apartment.

I started to hang out with Mia more. I was thinking of getting a couple of stuff for the room. She told me that whatever I want to put in the room has to match her taste. She has this fancy-looking modern metal locker. She wants me to get something similar. So she took me to the store she bought it from, the container store in Costa Mesa. I was thinking to myself, this is a fancy store. The same metal container she had was in the hundreds. I ended up buying the cheapest thing in the store — a plastic container for $40. At that time, I kept converting dollars to rupiah (Indonesian currency), and in my head, I was like, Damn! California is freaking expensive.

One day, she took me to what she claimed, the biggest mall in Orange County, South Coast Plaza. I was telling myself, this is the biggest mall? She needs to see the mall in Indonesia; the biggest one has a theme park in it. So we went in, she took me to Bloomingdales. We don't have Bloomingdales in Indonesia, so I don't know what to expect. I did glance at the prices, and everything is so expensive.

Mia went to the cardigan area. She showed me a couple of cardigans.

"This is cashmere. Touch it! it's so soft." Mia said.

I start touching the cashmere cardigan. It looks like a regular cardigan.

I checked the price and it was around $150!

She went to the changing room and tried on the grey cardigan.

"Oh my God, this is so cute!" Mia said, beaming with a smile.

"Yeah, sure," I said.

A sales associate asked us if we need anything. Mia asked her if they have a dark blue one in her size.

She tried on the blue one and the grey one more time. Then, with a smile on her face, "I'll take them both!"

I still can't believe that she just spent $300 on plain-looking cardigans with the same style, just different colors.

After paying for the cardigans, she handed me the shopping bag.

"Can you carry this for me?"

I didn't think much of it. I was like, "Sure!"

She did a mini shopping spree and kept handing the shopping bags to me.

I'm starting to feel like her assistant or something. So, I finally asked her why she would hand me all the shopping bags. She told me that her sister-in-law frequents the mall. She doesn't want her to see that she's out shopping. It's still a weird explanation, but I didn't ask much. Mia is always on edge most of the time. I didn't want to offend her.

Weeks later, Mia told me that she is not able to pay her part of the rent. I was confused. Our rent is way cheaper compared to her shopping spree.

She said that her brother gave her a $3000 monthly allowance, and she spent it all within two weeks. I was shocked.

I told her that I couldn't help her. I'm on a tight budget compared to her. She told me not to worry and said she would ask her brother to give her more money.

It turns out Mia's brother and sister-in-law own a popular seafood restaurant in Garden Grove. Sometimes Mia would stop by the restaurant and grabbed some crawfish and raw oysters. I've had raw oysters before in Indonesia when my parents took me to a fancy restaurant in Jakarta. I thought it was the grossest thing ever. But Mia convinced me that these oysters would be better. She was right, and since then, oysters became one of my favorite food.