Indonesia: Bathrooms

Ahhh... Bathrooms. In summary, they were weird.

I had enough foresight to mentally prepare myself for something very strange when I got to Indonesia. Maybe it was a hole in the ground. Perhaps I had to wipe my ass with leaves... I was basically racist. One thing I neglected to think about was how much we actually do in bathrooms.

So both Singapore and Indonesia have normal toilets. Some places have a squatting type of toilet, which is a ceramic bowl that is placed at ground level. And some places, you pour water into the toilet bowl to flush it instead of pushing a handle. This wasn't a huge culture shock. The strange thing for me was that the toilet is put in the same area as the shower so that the toilet rim is always wet. Furthermore, most places don't have toilet paper. Instead, they usually have a hose with a water spray nozzle for you to use, and one place had a bidet (which I once accidentally pushed instead of the flusher, almost nailing me, and also causing those waiting in line to think I was peeing on the floor with impressive velocity and distance). The problem with this is that your butt is wet from the toilet being wet and also from the spray. And you know what, you just suck it up and put your pants back on and walk around like crazy to help it dry out. In all seriousness, these countries would be a nightmare for anyone that shudders from the thought of using a public bathroom. So that happened.

Another thing is that not all places have the traditional shower head. Instead, they have a spigot with a huge bucket underneath and a small scoop inside the bucket. Some of these same said places also do not provide a spray nozzle for the toilet. So... what they're wanting you to do is use the water in the bucket to shower with by using the scoop to pour water from the bucket over yourself. And for the toilet, you also use the same method to clean up after doing your business. I would recommend bringing your own soap for both tasks because I just can't see how just using a bucket to pour water over your privates is going to get you clean. This is fine with me as long as there is a spigot to provide running water. But some places didn't even have a spigot and I felt super uncomfortable pouring water on myself that has been sitting there for God knows how long. At this one Buddhist temple, there was no spigot and the water in the bucket was greenish. GREENISH. I just think this whole experience highlights how important toilet paper is, for real. What saved me from the yeast infection or parasites that may have inhabited the green water of doom was tissues. Bring tissues.

But praise God, He was merciful to me. Half way through the trip my friend attended her brothers wedding, which was held in a nice hotel. I got 4 days of the American toilet and shower setup. Oh my goodness... those 4 days. It was heaven for my hair, skin, and bowels. Heaven.

Other topics to be covered

Food and Culture

Relationships

Communication

Weddings

Government

Conclusion

Indonesia: What they think of Americans

This was one of the weirdest parts of the vacation, and therefore, what I will address first. When I went to Singapore, we met up with my friend's friends. One of them is this very aggressive, outgoing girl who pretty much led us everywhere. The first thing she did is bring me to all these designer clothing shops: Chanel, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo. She would literally walk me inside the shop and hand things to me that she thought were nice like I could just buy it, no big deal. Then she would WAIT for me to finish shopping. (I awkwardly bought nothing.) Then when we went to eat, she wanted to take me to these super high end restaurants, when I just wanted to go to china town to have those $1 dollar meals because... a $1 meal is my idea of a great time, k. I'm just a graduate student trying to be financial responsible by saving enough money to pay off my student tuition. At one point, the other friend leaned over and asked if the watch I was wearing was Valentino. Girl, this watch was $30.

One thing I've learned traveling to these countries is that being a US citizen gives you some unfair advantages. I threw away my customs receipt, which I needed to leave Singapore. My friend and her aunt were freaking out because when they didn't have it, customs officials took them into a little room and interrogated them. The customs official shrugged it off after seeing my passport. In another instance, my friend told me to go yell at the person behind the airport counter because our flight from one indonesian island to another had been delayed and the person behind the counter didn't give her an explanation or an updated boarding time. I started yelling at this little guy who had probably no idea what I was saying. I kid you not, he left and about 3 minutes after he returned, the boarding gate opened. It seems that in general, there is a lot of corruption there, but that topic will be discussed later.

Once I arrived in Indonesia, my friend told me that my aunt wanted me to go to her school to give a presentation as a special speaker. I assumed the teacher wanted her students to have a fun little chat with someone from another country. We arrive there around 2 hours late because of the late plane, and all the students have left. The principle and teachers are all there waiting for me. They shook my hand, took pictures of me, and took videos of me talking to the principle. They asked me about my life, the American school system, how teachers motivated students, what classes were like, what they taught us... I asked my friend why they were taking pictures and getting video of me. She said it was for evidence that I came. I was like "... why..."

I'm not exactly sure what they were thinking. In most circumstances, teachers would give a sigh of relief and go home early to eat dinner with their families. Be that as it may, it was confusing to me. My culture here taught me that people are just people and any assumptions you make based on race, ethnicity, place of origin etc is what you would call prejudice. I guess we all do some degree of labeling whether we intend to or not, but I felt the level of that was much stronger there partially because it doesn't seem as looked down upon. I should have ridden in on a unicorn, decked in designer clothing, throwing out cash while barfing rainbows. What I'm saying is that I feel like I kind of let them down. At least I had pale skin so they thought I was pretty (to be covered later...).

Additional topics to be covered:

Bathrooms

Food and Culture

Relationships

Communication

Weddings

Government

Conclusion