A Little about Indonesia

My goal was to post a couple times a week, but no internet at home plus insanely packed days of orientation and planning have dictated my life otherwise these past few weeks.

If you want to know a little about my perceptions of Indonesia… Read below in your spare timeJ

I have discovered a bit about the Indonesian culture. They speak bahasa Indonesia… NOT Indonesian. Bahasa is their world for “language” so you would say “Saya bahasa Indonesia”… literally “I language Indonesia”… to express that you speak their language. They have four different greeting for different times of the day. You don’t really say “Hi” or “Hello” to someone, but rather you greet a person based on the time of day. “Selamat Pagi” is equivalent to “Good Morning”; “Selamat Siang” is equivalent to “Good afternoon”; “Selamat Sore” is equivalent to “Good evening”; and “Selamat Malam” is equivalent to “Good night”. This website has pronunciations if you want to start practicing for your visit here! http://www.seasite.niu.edu/indonesian/percakapan/indonesia7days/indo7days_fs.htm

The food is… differentJ. The cuisine varies greatly by region, but generally, rice is available at every meal. A typical Indonesian meal has rice, some type of meat and a sauce (usually sembal or something spicy). They eat a lot of fried meat, fried rice, and fried tofu. Eating here has been bit of a challenge here because eating raw fruits and vegetables takes A LOT of work… you have to clean it with soap and running tap water… after that you soak it in this chemical that kills all the bad stuff… then you wash the chemical off with bottled water… and then you let it dry. Only then can you eat it. Needless to say, eating something like salad can be QUITE a process. I have found a meat that I enjoy a lot here and that is ayam sate: chicken grilled on a stick and then covered in a light peanut sauce (think Thai kinda peanut curry).

As for transportation, most of the people who have been working at my school more than a year own a motorcycle. When I was younger my dad had a couple motorcycles, so riding on the back of one is nothing new. My roommate Laura is great about letting me hop on the back when we are headed out the door at the same time. If I have to get into town (like to buy groceries or stuff for my room), I can hop a ride with the administrators (who share a car that has a driver) or take the bus for $0.45. Traffic… hmmm… not sure if I have words for it. The ONLY comparison I have seen to it is when I was in the streets of Dehli in India a few years ago.

Anything you are curious about regarding life in Indonesia??