Food was...
So...
Good...
And cheap. First picture cost I think... $1-$2. It's fish balls with stuff inside in a broth, and ramen with fried ground pork. The last photo is like fatty pork, pork blood, intestines, other stuff... in a broth. You put those donut like things inside the broth. The dish next to it is fried meat. I forgot what. The middle picture. Oh man, let's talk about the middle picture.
So, I traveled with locals, thank Jesus. They knew the places to eat and what to do. They would tell me stuff like "don't eat there, you're gonna get food poisoning", or "this is the most famous food place for ____," and "don't walk around this street at night here or you'll be kidnapped and sold into sex slavery." 0_0 Definitely things I appreciate knowing.
So my friend's friends took us to a fishing village to eat. Going to this place was one of the biggest culture shocks of the whole trip.
So this was a little fishing village. People live in these houses that I'm pretty sure they built themselves with the material they stored up as shown in the first picture. On the outskirts of the village is a restaurant.
The building to the left is the restaurant and the ramp leads to a place where you pick the fish you want them to cook. The third picture shows the place up close. Each box holds a different animal in it: lobsters, crabs, shrimp etc. The last picture is the view from the restaurant. The fisheries place had this weird animal that i have never seen before. From the top, it looks like a cut off lobster tail. From the bottom, it looks like a cockroach. It's called Hippo.
First picture is it raw and flapping, then cooked in this black sauce (this is when it looks the most like a cockroach 0_0), and what it looks like on the inside. It tastes like a combination of shrimp and lobster. Everything was so fresh and so good.
It was obvious people thought food is one of the most important things to show a traveler in both Singapore and Indonesia. They stuffed me so full with all kinds of stuff, and it was all really good and really unique. I don't remember most of it. It was a blur. What sticks with me about Indonesian food is that there's a lot of seafood, spicy food, deep fried food, and organ types foods. I definitely had a belly throughout the whole trip and had to wear loose clothing... haha.
Let's talk about culture.
Oh man, there is so much to say. I'll start with the positive first. It seems Indonesian people form very close relationships to one another. There's close family ties and also close ties with friends. When my friend and I visited, people went out of there way to drive us like 3 hours out somewhere and spend the whole day with us. My friend's cousin lugged us around Singapore for 5 days with 2 small children flailing behind her. (That. Is dedication, my friends.) My friend's aunt paid for 3 nights of apartment stay for me and my friend. It was crazy. In Indonesia, there was some party going on every night at people's houses. They just come together, eat, watch movies, play cards, tell stories. Indonesia's party like the people at my christian fellowship. haha. But it's a frequent thing. What I'm saying is, Indonesia is much better at maintaining social relationship and interdependence than the US. People seem to take care of one another and check up on each other. Even very awkward people have their loyal group of friends. This contrasted so starkly to the situation in the US. I read so many news stories of terrible things one person did to another because he/she was lonely. Even in my church, a word was given about loneliness and I could hear people sniffling all over the place. America is too independent and it causes people to be isolated. I think it has a lot to learn from cultures like Indonesia. What was most impressive is that I saw some very poor places in Indonesia (you can imagine rats in the garbage cans, dirt and mold on the buildings...), but no beggars. That definitely makes a statement.
The bad thing about Indonesian culture is, I guess, the same thing that is bad about Chinese culture, so at least I wasn't too surprised. They really care about appearances and are really blunt. My poor friend... She would meet her mom's friends for the first time, and the first thing the friend would say is, "Why are you so dark and fat?" No joke, at least 5 separate people greeted her this way. It seems like the more rural the city is, the more blunt people get. The first thing they comment about is your looks. Good thing I'm pale. I didn't feel the wrath of their negative judgments. They did compare me and my friend though. It was uncomfortable. What surprised me even more was that they did this to siblings. My friend's aunt asked me which of her grandchildren were prettier. Each child is special in their own way, lady.
So imagine sliding this cultural trait into daily life. What do you get? Offensive nicknames. haha. Seriously, Indonesian people are so funny. They seem to possess very thick skin and tease each other all the time, sometimes in ways that are probably offensive to Americans. One guy's nickname is "Narcotics" because "his face looks like he's been taking drugs." Another guy's name is "Donald Duck" because of his short chin. Another guy is "corn" because of his cornrows. Apparently teasing is not exclusive to kids, teachers gave some of these names to people. Compared to Indonesians, Americans are really serious and very sensitive. Not long after I arrived home, I saw this video about an anchorwoman talking about how people on the news website posted comments that she should lose weight because she's not setting a good example to viewers. Her face was very stern and she was very emotional. There was such a stark contrast. I'm not condoning teasing about appearances, especially for girls who tend to be more sensitive about these topics... but it seems like in America people are constantly in denial about everything. I think somewhere between the two extremes is the best. If we can admit what we are (fat, skinny, dark, pale etc) but not pass any positive or negative judgment about those descriptions. It's just what we are and people hold different things in esteem. I told people we met that my friend would probably marry an American because Americans love tan skin. Tan people were like, "I'm going to move over there." haha.
Other topics to be covered
Relationships
Communication
Weddings
Government
Conclusion
