Sorry for not writing for a long time, was quite busy with moving to Kuala Lumpur and now when I have some free time would like to continue my "This is Indonesia" writings. Back in 2005 I was in Morocco and I was teaching English to the children in Rabat. It was quite nice experience and I really loved it. I loved Morocco too and I would always go back there if someone would ask me to. Teaching children who are actually in love with you is really easy. Every day I found some small gift on my desk or just a drawing on the blackboard or just a compliment that I look beautiful that morning even in the morning I look like flood tossed me out. When I asked my students do they read books and what kind of books do they read I just got this awkward silence in my class. Those children were not reading books, they didn't even have obligatory school literature. When I was visiting people's houses only thing I saw was The Holy book of Quran and maybe some dictionary if the children are learning English or French. The similar thing I found in Indonesia. Actually, I found some books in people's houses but most of them were those American soap books like "What to do when he leaves you!", "The confession of shopaholics" and things like that. Never found more serious literature or anything that I could read. At our university people were sitting at the library and chatting or using the wireless but never used the books around them. Some parts of the library had heavy dust on the shelf.
I met this really nice math teacher in my university and she asked me really nicely if I would like to teach her class on Monday's. They were 3rd semester math students and I got ready to teach them really heavy stuff since my 3rd semester was full of Double and Triple Integrals, Linear Algebra, XML programming, Financial analysis and all other things that I had headache for a long time after. When I got a PowerPoint presentation of the things I need to teach I was stunned. I was teaching them regular trigonometrically transformation with integrals, the things that Serbian students are learning on the last year of high school. I asked around and Indonesians also have 12 years of primary and high school education and I still wonder, what tha hell are they doing for those 12 years if they are learning basic stuff at the university?!? I left that classroom completely disappointed since there were only 2 or 3 students talking to me and interacting and when I asked them about the books only one girl told me that she likes to read and that she read even Ana Karenina by Tolstoy. Then I asked her if she has a computer and she said that she doesn't. That made sense.
The students from other SE Asia countries are coming to Indonesia to study since the educational system is better than in other countries. I really don't believe that is true, especially not on my Uni...
will be continued... :)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
This is Indonesia part 3 a.k.a. Do you have blackberry messenger?
When we are talking about addictions before I came to Indonesia I knew about drug addicts, alcohol addicts, computer addicts and maybe few more but Indonesia and people told me, the whole SE Asia has this telephone addiction problem. Everybody I know has at least 2 and sometimes 3 phones and one of them is blackberry or blueberry or strawberry or... whatever is it called. Before they even say hello, how are you, what is your name they will ask your phone number and after having your phone number they will ask you if you have blackberry messenger. That messenger is the cheapest way of non-stop chatting and Indonesians are holding their blackberry devices all the time and they are typing all the time. When I say all the time, I really mean it. Not only blackberry, but all types of phones. They are just typing and typing.
Millions of messages are going around Indonesia every day and even when they go out together they will look at their phones, they will chat or send messages and they rarely talk to each other. Sometimes I ask myself what is the purpose of leaving the house when you can do that from your bed too. You don't need to go out.
Few nights ago Sonia and I spend some time in Pakuwon food Festival and we were looking at the couple, a guy and a girl sitting across each other, eating and not putting a single look at each other but constantly looking at their phones. After 30 minutes we got tired of looking at them but they still didn't got bored looking at their phones. Maybe they were chatting to each other. :)
When you don't reply to a message to Indonesian person you will get another message after 3 or 4 minutes asking "Why you didn't reply to my message?" or "Did you get my message?". Since they are constantly holding their phones, you should do that too and you should answer their message immediately. One of the guys I worked with in English school send me a message at 7AM. As a normal European person who doesn't have any reason to get up before 9AM I just ignored the message and continued sleeping. After 4 minutes I got one of those "Why you didn't reply to my message?". Of course that one got me completely awake so I decided to get up and have a shower and start working on my hostels.st projects. When I came back from the shower my phone was ringing off the hook and it was him. I answered with my sleepy voice and told him that I sleep. Well, basically he was going on my nerves and I haven't had much to talk to him so I just wanted to get him off. When I told him that I was sleeping he continued talking, wasn't really aware of the thing that he should quit the call and maybe call later when bule gets up. So I hanged up. So he called again. I switched off my phone. After that I gave him really hard time in the school and gave him quite a lesson about what he should do if someone tells him that he/she is sleeping.
Right now almost all the phones have cameras on them and that gives Indonesians a perfect way to bring up their other passion: taking photos, of them of course. They will take their photo anytime, anywhere and they will immediately put it on Facebook. And, of course, everybody wants to have a photo with bule. In the middle of the street, on the beach, in shopping mall, in the toilet of shopping mall, in restaurant, at university... anywhere. Sometimes I see people taking pictures of me from the distance and they think I didn't notice. I think at least 1000 people asked me to take photo with me. Sonia is more popular, she had around 10.000 requests. :D Once I asked money from a guy who took photo of me while I was sitting in warung and eating. I went to him and asked 50.000Rp for a photo of me and he got completely lost. He said that he doesn't have that much money so I told him to delete photos and the poor man did. :D
Surely there is no need to tell you about the gadgets, ipods, ipads, iphones, mp3 players, laptops and all other gadgets they are always carrying around with them. Absolutely technology addicted :)
Millions of messages are going around Indonesia every day and even when they go out together they will look at their phones, they will chat or send messages and they rarely talk to each other. Sometimes I ask myself what is the purpose of leaving the house when you can do that from your bed too. You don't need to go out.
Few nights ago Sonia and I spend some time in Pakuwon food Festival and we were looking at the couple, a guy and a girl sitting across each other, eating and not putting a single look at each other but constantly looking at their phones. After 30 minutes we got tired of looking at them but they still didn't got bored looking at their phones. Maybe they were chatting to each other. :)
When you don't reply to a message to Indonesian person you will get another message after 3 or 4 minutes asking "Why you didn't reply to my message?" or "Did you get my message?". Since they are constantly holding their phones, you should do that too and you should answer their message immediately. One of the guys I worked with in English school send me a message at 7AM. As a normal European person who doesn't have any reason to get up before 9AM I just ignored the message and continued sleeping. After 4 minutes I got one of those "Why you didn't reply to my message?". Of course that one got me completely awake so I decided to get up and have a shower and start working on my hostels.st projects. When I came back from the shower my phone was ringing off the hook and it was him. I answered with my sleepy voice and told him that I sleep. Well, basically he was going on my nerves and I haven't had much to talk to him so I just wanted to get him off. When I told him that I was sleeping he continued talking, wasn't really aware of the thing that he should quit the call and maybe call later when bule gets up. So I hanged up. So he called again. I switched off my phone. After that I gave him really hard time in the school and gave him quite a lesson about what he should do if someone tells him that he/she is sleeping.
Right now almost all the phones have cameras on them and that gives Indonesians a perfect way to bring up their other passion: taking photos, of them of course. They will take their photo anytime, anywhere and they will immediately put it on Facebook. And, of course, everybody wants to have a photo with bule. In the middle of the street, on the beach, in shopping mall, in the toilet of shopping mall, in restaurant, at university... anywhere. Sometimes I see people taking pictures of me from the distance and they think I didn't notice. I think at least 1000 people asked me to take photo with me. Sonia is more popular, she had around 10.000 requests. :D Once I asked money from a guy who took photo of me while I was sitting in warung and eating. I went to him and asked 50.000Rp for a photo of me and he got completely lost. He said that he doesn't have that much money so I told him to delete photos and the poor man did. :D
Surely there is no need to tell you about the gadgets, ipods, ipads, iphones, mp3 players, laptops and all other gadgets they are always carrying around with them. Absolutely technology addicted :)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Bizarre tours of Muhammediyah University
This morning Sonia and me were going around our kos and thinking to go or not to go to our university. It was quite a glorious morning for not doing anything. Suddenly Sonia got a sms from Aina, the girl who is studying with us and told us that they are waiting for us at university and Mr. Iddris is taking us somewhere out. So, usually when he is taking us somewhere we get free lunch so we packed really fast and went off. When we got to the university Mr. Iddris told us that we are going to have lesson today in his car and in the hospital since we probably never visited Indonesian hospital. Why would we want to go to a hospital? I hate hospitals since my mom was in them for 1.5 years and last time when I was in one I had really bad stomach pain and all I wanted to do is to puke my heart out when I left it. So I told him that I hate hospitals and I really don’t want to go but since he thinks that everything should be joke he was pushing it and asking from me to go. Anyhow, I don’t find anything interesting about hospitals and I would rather stay at home or university. At the end I accepted to go but I said that I would wait somewhere in the lobby. Luckily the lobby of this hospital was like 5 star hotel so I was feeling ok. When we came to Indonesia, University promised all kinds of tours and visits to all kind of places in Surabaya but the only thing what university provided for us was a rafting in Probolingo which was absolutely amazing and visit to the international hospital in which no one speaks English so I just gave up from looking for a gynecologist. The thing is that people are quite insensitive here and when you tell them that you don’t want something and by the look of your face anyone in clear mind would stop asking stupid questions but no, Indonesians continue asking stupid questions and they want to know everything. We had a lesson with Miss Linda (they like to put Miss, Mr, Mrs in front of their names) and somehow I told her that I don’t have parents and she started asking loads of really stupid questions and she made me cry at the end and that even didn’t stop her continuing. I had to take my things and leave the class in order for her to stop. Mr. Idriss also think that everything is a joke and that we can joke around every single thing we say. Yes, I love to joke around about almost everything but when someone touches what is the hardest for me and you can see it in my face, you should stop. The thing is that they don’t see it.
Not just people in university but most of people I met are completely insensitive and they can’t read people’s feelings from their faces. They don’t give much attention to face expressions so they can rarely tell when I’m joking around or when I’m serious. Sometimes when I start kidding around with them they answer me completely serious because they can’t see from my face that I’m making a joke. I have to tell them and the most stupid thing ever is that then they start laughing. When you need to explain someone that you are joking that is not funny anymore.
Well, we didn’t get free lunch since Mr. Idriss wanted donuts from Dunkin Donuts, we didn’t see anything new since Sonia spends a lot of time in hospitals and, of course, like always, we didn’t have any lessons.
Not just people in university but most of people I met are completely insensitive and they can’t read people’s feelings from their faces. They don’t give much attention to face expressions so they can rarely tell when I’m joking around or when I’m serious. Sometimes when I start kidding around with them they answer me completely serious because they can’t see from my face that I’m making a joke. I have to tell them and the most stupid thing ever is that then they start laughing. When you need to explain someone that you are joking that is not funny anymore.
Well, we didn’t get free lunch since Mr. Idriss wanted donuts from Dunkin Donuts, we didn’t see anything new since Sonia spends a lot of time in hospitals and, of course, like always, we didn’t have any lessons.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
No problem with the rain
Being in tropical area of the World, Indonesia has two seasons, hot one and little bit less hot but still hot one. Hot one is really hot with sun frying all day long and humidity is quite high so you get completely wet even the sun if burning your skin. When the little bit less hot season, but still hot season comes the rain starts. This season is well known as the rainy season and as people told us the rain should be falling for 3 or 4 days constantly. The thing is that climate changes affect Indonesia as well and rain is, luckily, falling just couple of hours a day and not every day. You would probably ask why I say luckily. Well, Indonesia has this perfect drain and sewer system NOT!!! Surabaya has small or big canals all around the city and when the rain starts those canals get full of water and sometimes go flooded. The thing is that those canals represent some kind of sewer system so basically when they go out you are walking or driving in the loads of crap and streets smell really bad. During the hot season streets smell bad because the sun is heating up the canals and during the rainy season because they go out. Anyhow, our University is in the street with a big canal so when it rains we have this special lung treatment, a breath of fresh air and when we get to uni all we want to do is puke and get our feet to the toxic waste cleaners! There are some streets in the city which are completely flooded and you can't get trough them when it rains. When it stops raining all that water disappears in 5 minutes and that I still didn't figure out that well. Probably the canals take that water to the sea or the soil is absorbing the water really fast but when it rains it rains so hard that soil can't pick it all up.
The thing is that when it rains in Europe everybody gets nervous or they just stay at home and don't go anywhere and usually they curse the rain. In Indonesia, rain is quite normal thing and life is going perfectly normal when the rain is falling, in other world, there is no problem with the rain. One of the most important things you have to have in your motorbike is rain coat. You just stop next to the road, put it on and continue driving. Indonesians who don't have rain coat will just stop next to the road and wait for the rain to stop or just to gets lighter. No problem, they have all the time in the world and they can wait for hours for rain to stop. Maybe for some of them buying a rain coat is too expensive or they just think they don't need it.
The thing that I like with the rain is that everybody drives extra carefully. Usually Indonesians are not good drivers and many of them told me that they just went to the police station and paid up a bit more and got their drivers license without taking any test or driving lessons. The motorbike drivers don't use their review mirrors, usually those mirrors are broken or too small and not really adjusted for usage. They just pay attention about who is in front of them and which way are they driving. They never pay attention about someone behind. When you get your rain coat on there is not much of a use of review mirrors so you really need to be extra careful.
Car drivers are absolutely amazing, they just drive like there is devil chasseing them and they like pressing their horns even if you are not in their way. Now I got used to that but when I started driving that was absolutely terrible. Here no one will let you get into the traffic and there are always people on the streets playing traffic police on every corner when there is a lot of traffic and that is the way they earn money. They stop the traffic for you, you get into the line and you give them some small money.
Anyhow, I had to get used to being completely wet, to drive during the rain, to get splashed once in a while, to enjoy my time in the beach during the rain, to pack my driver license, my wallet and my cell phone in small plastic bags, to drive without my glasses during the rain, to drive with rain coat, to waste my time waiting until the rain stops when I forget my rain coat or just buy another one sice they are selling on every step and of course… I had to realize that there is no problem in Indonesia when rain begins
The thing is that when it rains in Europe everybody gets nervous or they just stay at home and don't go anywhere and usually they curse the rain. In Indonesia, rain is quite normal thing and life is going perfectly normal when the rain is falling, in other world, there is no problem with the rain. One of the most important things you have to have in your motorbike is rain coat. You just stop next to the road, put it on and continue driving. Indonesians who don't have rain coat will just stop next to the road and wait for the rain to stop or just to gets lighter. No problem, they have all the time in the world and they can wait for hours for rain to stop. Maybe for some of them buying a rain coat is too expensive or they just think they don't need it.
The thing that I like with the rain is that everybody drives extra carefully. Usually Indonesians are not good drivers and many of them told me that they just went to the police station and paid up a bit more and got their drivers license without taking any test or driving lessons. The motorbike drivers don't use their review mirrors, usually those mirrors are broken or too small and not really adjusted for usage. They just pay attention about who is in front of them and which way are they driving. They never pay attention about someone behind. When you get your rain coat on there is not much of a use of review mirrors so you really need to be extra careful.
Car drivers are absolutely amazing, they just drive like there is devil chasseing them and they like pressing their horns even if you are not in their way. Now I got used to that but when I started driving that was absolutely terrible. Here no one will let you get into the traffic and there are always people on the streets playing traffic police on every corner when there is a lot of traffic and that is the way they earn money. They stop the traffic for you, you get into the line and you give them some small money.
Anyhow, I had to get used to being completely wet, to drive during the rain, to get splashed once in a while, to enjoy my time in the beach during the rain, to pack my driver license, my wallet and my cell phone in small plastic bags, to drive without my glasses during the rain, to drive with rain coat, to waste my time waiting until the rain stops when I forget my rain coat or just buy another one sice they are selling on every step and of course… I had to realize that there is no problem in Indonesia when rain begins
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
8. mart, dan zena
"Šta misliš, jel oni to slave?" upitala me je Sonja.
"Ko?" pitala sam još uvek pospana i sa ogromnom glavoboljom od sinoć.
"Pa Indonežani!"
"Nemam pojima... ne znam... ne verujem, doduše Indonežani slave sve živo, odgovorila sam "a šta to treba da slave?"
"Pa 8. mart, dan žena, stupida!" odgovorila je Sonja sa njenim smešnim italijanskim akcentom dok sam je ja i dalje bledo gledala.
"Oh yes, to je danas?"
"Danas i nikad više ove godine, jebem te glupavu!"
Nasmejala sam se njenom savršenom znanju psovki na srpskom jeziku i njenom talentu da ih uvek iskoristi u pravoj rečenici. Kad smo stigli u Indoneziju održala sam čas lepog ponašanja na Srpskom jeziku ali Sonja je dobila i pride časove s obzirom da živimo zajedno i provodimo 90% slobodnog vremena zajedno pa me svaki dan sluša kako nekom nešto opsujem. I dalje ih vrlo smešno izgovara ali talenat je talenat.
"Znači imamo odličan izgovor da odemo večeras u La Ruccola ili u onaj drugi italijanski restoran"
Italijanska kao i većina zapadnjačke hrane je ovde papreno skupa tako da ne možemo stalno sebi da priuštimo da jedemo zapadnjačku hranu ali s vremena na vreme desi se i to. Za novu godinu smo, posle magičnog putovanja po Floresu završile na Baliju, kao i sve bule. 1. januara smo otišle u italijanski restoran u Seminjaku gde je Sonja odlučila da otvori svoj novčanik i da naruči sve što poželi i da umre srećna od hrane pa kud puklo da puklo. Tako smo nas dve naručile sve po italijanskom protokolu pa su nam se onda pridružili Alex i Alex iz Čačka koji žive u Singapuru i Bankoku pa su oni naručili sve po Srpsko-italijanskom protokolu i sve u svemu, prekrstili smo se i mirno čekali račun. Kad je stigao račun Sonja me je pogledala i dala mi ga. Ja sam ga prosledila dalje i svi smo ćutali i gledali se. Alex je izvadio 50.000Rp (cc 5 eura), Alex je dala oko 20.000 i Sonja je izvadila 100.000Rp i mirno smo platili i izašli napolje rešeni da se ne vratimo u taj restoran bar još neko duže vreme.
Šta se ustvari desilo... posle naših proračuna račun je trebao da bude oko 500.000Rp(cc 50eura)a oni su nam doneli račun na oko 170.000Rp. Naravno čim ti neko donese velik račun ti udri u dreku pa se odmah buniš a kad ti donesu 3 puta manji račun, onda nema šta da se buniš jel da? :D
Tako da Sonja opet plaća večeru danas... možda nam se opet posreći :D
Poslednjih par godina slabo mislim na ovaj dan i verovatno bi ga u potpunosti zaboravila da se on i u Italiji ne slavi...
Ima mnogo žena koje danas želim da izgrlim i izljubim i da im poželim srećan 8. mart, mada, iako je danas taj dan sve te žene znaju da ih ja volim tokom cele godine, ne samo danas.
Tako drage moje, idite večeras na neku Italijansku hranu i popite za mene čašu nekog dobrog crnog vina...
Da ste mi žive i zdrave 100 godina!
Volim Vas sve!
"Ko?" pitala sam još uvek pospana i sa ogromnom glavoboljom od sinoć.
"Pa Indonežani!"
"Nemam pojima... ne znam... ne verujem, doduše Indonežani slave sve živo, odgovorila sam "a šta to treba da slave?"
"Pa 8. mart, dan žena, stupida!" odgovorila je Sonja sa njenim smešnim italijanskim akcentom dok sam je ja i dalje bledo gledala.
"Oh yes, to je danas?"
"Danas i nikad više ove godine, jebem te glupavu!"
Nasmejala sam se njenom savršenom znanju psovki na srpskom jeziku i njenom talentu da ih uvek iskoristi u pravoj rečenici. Kad smo stigli u Indoneziju održala sam čas lepog ponašanja na Srpskom jeziku ali Sonja je dobila i pride časove s obzirom da živimo zajedno i provodimo 90% slobodnog vremena zajedno pa me svaki dan sluša kako nekom nešto opsujem. I dalje ih vrlo smešno izgovara ali talenat je talenat.
"Znači imamo odličan izgovor da odemo večeras u La Ruccola ili u onaj drugi italijanski restoran"
Italijanska kao i većina zapadnjačke hrane je ovde papreno skupa tako da ne možemo stalno sebi da priuštimo da jedemo zapadnjačku hranu ali s vremena na vreme desi se i to. Za novu godinu smo, posle magičnog putovanja po Floresu završile na Baliju, kao i sve bule. 1. januara smo otišle u italijanski restoran u Seminjaku gde je Sonja odlučila da otvori svoj novčanik i da naruči sve što poželi i da umre srećna od hrane pa kud puklo da puklo. Tako smo nas dve naručile sve po italijanskom protokolu pa su nam se onda pridružili Alex i Alex iz Čačka koji žive u Singapuru i Bankoku pa su oni naručili sve po Srpsko-italijanskom protokolu i sve u svemu, prekrstili smo se i mirno čekali račun. Kad je stigao račun Sonja me je pogledala i dala mi ga. Ja sam ga prosledila dalje i svi smo ćutali i gledali se. Alex je izvadio 50.000Rp (cc 5 eura), Alex je dala oko 20.000 i Sonja je izvadila 100.000Rp i mirno smo platili i izašli napolje rešeni da se ne vratimo u taj restoran bar još neko duže vreme.
Šta se ustvari desilo... posle naših proračuna račun je trebao da bude oko 500.000Rp(cc 50eura)a oni su nam doneli račun na oko 170.000Rp. Naravno čim ti neko donese velik račun ti udri u dreku pa se odmah buniš a kad ti donesu 3 puta manji račun, onda nema šta da se buniš jel da? :D
Tako da Sonja opet plaća večeru danas... možda nam se opet posreći :D
Poslednjih par godina slabo mislim na ovaj dan i verovatno bi ga u potpunosti zaboravila da se on i u Italiji ne slavi...
Ima mnogo žena koje danas želim da izgrlim i izljubim i da im poželim srećan 8. mart, mada, iako je danas taj dan sve te žene znaju da ih ja volim tokom cele godine, ne samo danas.
Tako drage moje, idite večeras na neku Italijansku hranu i popite za mene čašu nekog dobrog crnog vina...
Da ste mi žive i zdrave 100 godina!
Volim Vas sve!
Monday, March 7, 2011
This is Indonesia part 2
Since I haven't finished the story about cultural differences of Indonesia, I probably never will, but let me just try to continue.
It is quite hard to explain all the things that make me shocked and still can't believe that they are doing some things. I didn't expect too much of a shock when I landed to Indonesia since I already lived in Ukraine, Morocco and Middle East so I understand the cultural differences and I'm used to accept them. The problem with Indonesians is that they want too much to be like white people, Australians, Americans or Europeans. They are looking at Australian tourists getting drunk in Bali so they do it too. They look how white we are so they want it to and all the time Sonia and I are getting million of compliments that we are so beautiful because we are white. All they talk about is beauty and all the things girl wants in this country to be beautiful and popular and, of course, white.
When we talk about beauty someone told Indonesian girls that they look good with lenses in color so almost all the girls are wearing lenses instead of glasses and they even wear color lenses when they don't need to wear them for their eye sight. There are few of shades of blue color and all of them look completely unnatural and I get really scared looking at those girls. Green ones are also scary. Brown is ok, grey are terrible but nothing can beat blue. Once I went to the customer service of a mobile phone provider to ask around for the mobile internet and there was a girl working in customer service with eyes like alien and I couldn't even look at her but she was the only one speaking English and able to talk to me.
Now there is competition to be a model of Lens Company and one of my friends asked me to vote for his friend and I couldn't even look at the photo, definitely not vote.
Of course there is number of girls in Europe wearing too much makeup and I would highlight that Indonesian girls are not wearing make up, at least not until the day of their wedding, then they put it too much but that is old way of putting make up and traditional clothing and make up. Can be quite interesting though.
Since they are trying to be as beautiful as they can be they are always taking photos of them. Anywhere, anyhow, anytime. The location is not really important; anyhow you will see only them on the photo, not the location where they were. if there is album in FB from an Indonesian person which is called "Bali" you will see just photos of people who were there goofing around, jumping on Kuta beach, having close up photos, putting their feet in the water, running away from the waves... Actually it will be quite difficult to see that it is Kuta beach if they don't tell you. One of our friends started taking photos of her while we were in the toilet of a club ???!!! And loads of my Indonesian friends have photos of them on their FB profiles, actually photo albums of them taking pictures of themselves, of course, with puffed lips and stupid faces.
When we are already talking about Bali let me tell you that during the day you will rarely see an Indonesian person on the beach. Usually that would be some guys staring at bule girls and sitting completely dressed. When you see guys in Bali sitting at the beach and staring at the girls you can automatically tell that they are not from Bali. Bali guys got used to the tourists but now there is more and more Javanese people coming to Bali to work or just to stare. :D
Indonesians go to the beach when the sun goes down and they swim when the sun goes down... the reason is very simple, they hate sun and they don't want to be tanned. Even then they put enormous amounts of sun block.
Moonlight protection maybe? :D
Most of them don't know how to swim so they just dip in even if they are living surrounded by sea. So I had a priviledge to teach my wonderful host from Mataram, Trisha, how to swim and I might say that she is a good student.
When I'm talking about cultural differences I'm not saying that all of Indonesians are like that, there are number of exceptions and they will be put on this blog when their time comes... :)
oh yes... will be continued
:D
Picture is owned by Arya Damar Sp, a friend of Miud Photograph who is my friend... so... does she looks all natural or what? :D
It is quite hard to explain all the things that make me shocked and still can't believe that they are doing some things. I didn't expect too much of a shock when I landed to Indonesia since I already lived in Ukraine, Morocco and Middle East so I understand the cultural differences and I'm used to accept them. The problem with Indonesians is that they want too much to be like white people, Australians, Americans or Europeans. They are looking at Australian tourists getting drunk in Bali so they do it too. They look how white we are so they want it to and all the time Sonia and I are getting million of compliments that we are so beautiful because we are white. All they talk about is beauty and all the things girl wants in this country to be beautiful and popular and, of course, white.
When we talk about beauty someone told Indonesian girls that they look good with lenses in color so almost all the girls are wearing lenses instead of glasses and they even wear color lenses when they don't need to wear them for their eye sight. There are few of shades of blue color and all of them look completely unnatural and I get really scared looking at those girls. Green ones are also scary. Brown is ok, grey are terrible but nothing can beat blue. Once I went to the customer service of a mobile phone provider to ask around for the mobile internet and there was a girl working in customer service with eyes like alien and I couldn't even look at her but she was the only one speaking English and able to talk to me.
Now there is competition to be a model of Lens Company and one of my friends asked me to vote for his friend and I couldn't even look at the photo, definitely not vote.
Of course there is number of girls in Europe wearing too much makeup and I would highlight that Indonesian girls are not wearing make up, at least not until the day of their wedding, then they put it too much but that is old way of putting make up and traditional clothing and make up. Can be quite interesting though.
Since they are trying to be as beautiful as they can be they are always taking photos of them. Anywhere, anyhow, anytime. The location is not really important; anyhow you will see only them on the photo, not the location where they were. if there is album in FB from an Indonesian person which is called "Bali" you will see just photos of people who were there goofing around, jumping on Kuta beach, having close up photos, putting their feet in the water, running away from the waves... Actually it will be quite difficult to see that it is Kuta beach if they don't tell you. One of our friends started taking photos of her while we were in the toilet of a club ???!!! And loads of my Indonesian friends have photos of them on their FB profiles, actually photo albums of them taking pictures of themselves, of course, with puffed lips and stupid faces.
When we are already talking about Bali let me tell you that during the day you will rarely see an Indonesian person on the beach. Usually that would be some guys staring at bule girls and sitting completely dressed. When you see guys in Bali sitting at the beach and staring at the girls you can automatically tell that they are not from Bali. Bali guys got used to the tourists but now there is more and more Javanese people coming to Bali to work or just to stare. :D
Indonesians go to the beach when the sun goes down and they swim when the sun goes down... the reason is very simple, they hate sun and they don't want to be tanned. Even then they put enormous amounts of sun block.
Moonlight protection maybe? :D
Most of them don't know how to swim so they just dip in even if they are living surrounded by sea. So I had a priviledge to teach my wonderful host from Mataram, Trisha, how to swim and I might say that she is a good student.
When I'm talking about cultural differences I'm not saying that all of Indonesians are like that, there are number of exceptions and they will be put on this blog when their time comes... :)
oh yes... will be continued
:D
Picture is owned by Arya Damar Sp, a friend of Miud Photograph who is my friend... so... does she looks all natural or what? :D
Sunday, March 6, 2011
This is Indonesia
When I first came to this country one of the first things I wanted to said to the lady who waited us at the airport was "you pig!" because her burping was out of my range of nice behavior. Soon I realized that everybody in every occasion are burping, farting, picking their teeth, burping some more and still, after 7 months, I can't get used to that and every time when I burp I apologize to the people around me and they look at me like I'm weird.
When we are talking about sense of fashion, oh God, Sonia is having a nightmares, I'm trying not to see it but most of the girls here are dying to be white so they are using whitening lotions, whitening crèmes, sun blocks, they wear gloves when they drive, they wear socks with slippers or sandals and they even have socks with thumb separated so they can easily wear sandals. All the time everybody is telling us that we are beautiful because we are white. The Chinese girls like to wear evening dresses even when they are going out to grab something to eat in food courts or when they are walking around in the shopping malls. Oh yes, shopping malls are the only places Indonesians are walking around. In the streets you will rarely, almost never, see walking paths and they are quite bad and no one is walking on them. Everybody is driving a car, a motorbike or just using bemo's.
Those dresses are usually too shiny, too sparkling and the color of their shoes goes to the shades of silver and gold and for long time I couldn't find shoes for me because all the shoes were glittering and sparkling and of course Indonesian girls have small feet but they like to wear big shoes. So, you will see Indonesian girl in sparkling evening dress with shoes that are 2 size bigger than her feet standing in night club, of course, not dancing because she can't and usually she and her friends are going to get so drunk that they can't stand. Clubbing in Indonesia is privilege of rich people so since bule are rich, which means that bule are going in for free to the clubs because bule are going to spend a lot of money in the club. That is why Sonia and me are going dancing and clubbing quite often since we don't pay entrance and then we don't have any drinks (small bottle of water in Ice Club is 3€) and we just dance.
I come from a country where, when a guy likes you and he invites you out for a drink, you usually don't pay anything and if you insist he might let you pay your bill, but you need to insist really hard on that. Indonesian guys love to be seen with bule, it is their dream and most of them would be eternally happy when they would have bule for girlfriend. So, few times I got invited for a date with Indonesian guy. First time when I said yes he took me to really nice pub and we had few drinks but here drinks are really expensive and I don't drink a lot when I'm going out so I just had one drink. When the bill came, he got out the exact amount of his drinks and gave me the bill to see how much my drink was. Luckily I had some money in my wallet so I could pay it. Next time I had no money and he said that he will pay my drink and I have to give him back the money. I never saw him again.
Tonight I got invited by that guy that I kissed last week in Ice Club to a shopping mall to a really expensive pub that I went once and never again since the cheapest drink over there is like 3€ and that is a juice so I just texted him that I don't have any money so I will not come. After that he called me again and told me to come and I texted him again with the same note and he never answered. In Serbia I would probably get a message like "don't eat shit, come over here, I invited you for a drink I have money". Actually I would never texted a guy who likes me and who invited me out that I don't have money.
The thing is, for everything they do, whatever they say, which is out of this world for European people we just say "This is Indonesia".
and this is not over...
When we are talking about sense of fashion, oh God, Sonia is having a nightmares, I'm trying not to see it but most of the girls here are dying to be white so they are using whitening lotions, whitening crèmes, sun blocks, they wear gloves when they drive, they wear socks with slippers or sandals and they even have socks with thumb separated so they can easily wear sandals. All the time everybody is telling us that we are beautiful because we are white. The Chinese girls like to wear evening dresses even when they are going out to grab something to eat in food courts or when they are walking around in the shopping malls. Oh yes, shopping malls are the only places Indonesians are walking around. In the streets you will rarely, almost never, see walking paths and they are quite bad and no one is walking on them. Everybody is driving a car, a motorbike or just using bemo's.
Those dresses are usually too shiny, too sparkling and the color of their shoes goes to the shades of silver and gold and for long time I couldn't find shoes for me because all the shoes were glittering and sparkling and of course Indonesian girls have small feet but they like to wear big shoes. So, you will see Indonesian girl in sparkling evening dress with shoes that are 2 size bigger than her feet standing in night club, of course, not dancing because she can't and usually she and her friends are going to get so drunk that they can't stand. Clubbing in Indonesia is privilege of rich people so since bule are rich, which means that bule are going in for free to the clubs because bule are going to spend a lot of money in the club. That is why Sonia and me are going dancing and clubbing quite often since we don't pay entrance and then we don't have any drinks (small bottle of water in Ice Club is 3€) and we just dance.
I come from a country where, when a guy likes you and he invites you out for a drink, you usually don't pay anything and if you insist he might let you pay your bill, but you need to insist really hard on that. Indonesian guys love to be seen with bule, it is their dream and most of them would be eternally happy when they would have bule for girlfriend. So, few times I got invited for a date with Indonesian guy. First time when I said yes he took me to really nice pub and we had few drinks but here drinks are really expensive and I don't drink a lot when I'm going out so I just had one drink. When the bill came, he got out the exact amount of his drinks and gave me the bill to see how much my drink was. Luckily I had some money in my wallet so I could pay it. Next time I had no money and he said that he will pay my drink and I have to give him back the money. I never saw him again.
Tonight I got invited by that guy that I kissed last week in Ice Club to a shopping mall to a really expensive pub that I went once and never again since the cheapest drink over there is like 3€ and that is a juice so I just texted him that I don't have any money so I will not come. After that he called me again and told me to come and I texted him again with the same note and he never answered. In Serbia I would probably get a message like "don't eat shit, come over here, I invited you for a drink I have money". Actually I would never texted a guy who likes me and who invited me out that I don't have money.
The thing is, for everything they do, whatever they say, which is out of this world for European people we just say "This is Indonesia".
and this is not over...
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Cubismo ima lekovito dejstvo
Jutro kao i svako drugo. Prvo sam se probudila u 7:30 sto mi se cesto desava u poslednje vreme, valjda mi se organizam sprema na buduce kancelarijsko radno vreme pa se budim kao za posao. Kad sam pogledala u sat videla sam da nema svrhe da ustajem pa sam se lagano okrenula i nastavila da spavam. Znam da me ceka gomila posla, ovi Italijani za koje sad radim su fenomenalni momci ali kad mi nakarikaju posla, ne znam di mi je dupe di mi je glava. Pre par meseci sam dobila posao preko Elance-a da pisem neke tekstove za neke travel sajtove i od onda ti isti momci mi daju gomile posla svakog dana, sto je sasvim ok kad nemas sta drugo da radis u gradu kao sto je Surabaya. Skoro su mi ponudili da radim za njih full time i to je bilo mozda dan dva pre nego sto sam dobila posao u Kuala Lumpuru. Tu bi meni uletalo oko 1000$ kad bi radila 40 sati nedeljno za njih ali s obzirom da su rekli da prvo pocnem part time, pa onda full time... verovatno bi prihvatila da nije uleteo KL.
Opet sam se probudila u 9:30. Ne znam zasto ali odmah sam osetila neku malu nervozu... da li zato sto je bilo pakleno toplo u sobi ili sto sam odmah cula decurliju kako vriste... Kad smo se Sonia i ja useljavale u ovaj kos (sto dodje kao mali dvorisni stanovi) nase prvo pitanje je bilo da li tu ima male dece i gazdarica je kategoricki rekla "Ne, nikako". Prvih mese dva je bila tisina... onda su se odjednom doselili svi unuci babe i dede koji su vlasnici kuce, njihova cerka je dobila posao u Mataramu a odlucila je da decu ostavi u Surabayi. Zatim je druga cerka pocela da ostavlja svoje dete koje konstantno vristi i place po par dana kod babe i dede. Onda su prvi unuci dobili obruc za basket, prave basket lopte i odlicno poplocano dvoriste da se igraju. Dvoriste odzvanja kao crkvena zvona u ravnom Banatskom selu. Cak su prosle nedelje igrali fudbal u hodniku koji vodi do naseg dvorista, mozete da zamislite kako to odzvanja... Kad sam zatvorila vrata od naseg dvorista da ih ne cujem, oni su ih otvorili posto, o Boze, pa to im je gol. To je bio prvi put da sam podviknula na njih i onda su se kao prava "vaspitana" bogataska deca rugali sat vremena "Close the door!". U globalu deca ovde nemaju gde da se igraju i retko izlaze iz kuce iako je ulica u kojoj mi zivimo pusta i nema saobracaja oni nikad nece izaci ispred kuce da se igraju ili otici na igraliste obliznje skole. Uglavnom provode vreme ispred televizora i na kaucu.
I onda sam sela da radim u dvoristu... neko je iz kuce pustio glasnu muziku, jedna od komsinica koja ne prica sa nama je pojacala svoj TV s obzirom da vikendom i posle posla nista drugo ne radi, druga komsinica je pojacala muziku... dan se odavno probudio i postalo je jos paklenije... Vratila sam se u svoju sobu, smestila se na pod, pustila Cubismo, krenula da radim... i sve se smirilo... :)
Opet sam se probudila u 9:30. Ne znam zasto ali odmah sam osetila neku malu nervozu... da li zato sto je bilo pakleno toplo u sobi ili sto sam odmah cula decurliju kako vriste... Kad smo se Sonia i ja useljavale u ovaj kos (sto dodje kao mali dvorisni stanovi) nase prvo pitanje je bilo da li tu ima male dece i gazdarica je kategoricki rekla "Ne, nikako". Prvih mese dva je bila tisina... onda su se odjednom doselili svi unuci babe i dede koji su vlasnici kuce, njihova cerka je dobila posao u Mataramu a odlucila je da decu ostavi u Surabayi. Zatim je druga cerka pocela da ostavlja svoje dete koje konstantno vristi i place po par dana kod babe i dede. Onda su prvi unuci dobili obruc za basket, prave basket lopte i odlicno poplocano dvoriste da se igraju. Dvoriste odzvanja kao crkvena zvona u ravnom Banatskom selu. Cak su prosle nedelje igrali fudbal u hodniku koji vodi do naseg dvorista, mozete da zamislite kako to odzvanja... Kad sam zatvorila vrata od naseg dvorista da ih ne cujem, oni su ih otvorili posto, o Boze, pa to im je gol. To je bio prvi put da sam podviknula na njih i onda su se kao prava "vaspitana" bogataska deca rugali sat vremena "Close the door!". U globalu deca ovde nemaju gde da se igraju i retko izlaze iz kuce iako je ulica u kojoj mi zivimo pusta i nema saobracaja oni nikad nece izaci ispred kuce da se igraju ili otici na igraliste obliznje skole. Uglavnom provode vreme ispred televizora i na kaucu.
I onda sam sela da radim u dvoristu... neko je iz kuce pustio glasnu muziku, jedna od komsinica koja ne prica sa nama je pojacala svoj TV s obzirom da vikendom i posle posla nista drugo ne radi, druga komsinica je pojacala muziku... dan se odavno probudio i postalo je jos paklenije... Vratila sam se u svoju sobu, smestila se na pod, pustila Cubismo, krenula da radim... i sve se smirilo... :)
Friday, March 4, 2011
All bule fuck around right?
When I came to Indonesia I heard this word which was really funny for me and it is a word that Indonesians use for white people. The word "bule" in my language represents a Muslim girl which is completely covered up and here it is quite opposite. Right now we like to use this word when we joke around something since it is well known that all bule in Indonesia have good jobs, they are well paid, live in rich parts of the city, have loads of money which they are spending around and, lately, I realized that bule have this thing that they are fucking around with everybody. Not only once I was deeply offended by Indonesian people that I met here and there with stupid questions and stupid sentences that actually showed that, since I'm bule, that automatically means that I go around and fuck with everybody.
Apparently, Indonesians don't have sex before marriage, that is strictly forbidden by religion (both Muslim and Christian) and their beliefs and they like to put it out front. When I asked a girl aged 31 which is not married is she a virgin her face went dark red, she got completely confused, her eyes went out of her head and she replied "How can you ask me something like that?!?" When a guy, also aged 31 was telling someone I know about his first sexual experience he was also blushing, speaking with the lowest voice possible and told that person to swear not to tell anyone.
My university is completely Muslim and all the girls are walking around with scarves, looking at as like we fallen from the sky and being really nice girls... during the day... If I start telling the stories of bule I know about what are those girls doing during the night... Muhammediah University Surabaya would be banished from this world.
When a girl I know came to me to introduce me to a guy who liked me she told me after 30 seconds of my conversation with him "If you want to fuck him just go with him tonight to his place, he has a nice car, he can fuck for 2 hours and he is rich". Oh yes, all bule want rich guys and they fuck with someone the moment they see him. I looked at that girl and I wasn't sure what is she talking about.
Last Saturday we went to this Ice Club, really fancy and expensive place but luckily we didn't pay anything since Emily knew the manager. All of our friends left at 1 but we stayed and danced until club was closing. Just before club started closing I met this Indonesian guy who was really cute so I kissed him few times, told him that I don't want to go with him to his place and continue dancing. Then some bule guy came and started dancing with Sonia and it appeared that he is from Macedonia. I hugged him like he was my brother and almost started crying. So, we arranged to meet the day after and spend some time together since I will have a chance to talk in Serbian. Two of them are living in Sheraton apartments so we decided to use that fact to go for a swimming in Sheraton swimming pool. We had fun with the guys, we swam, had nice afternoon with them, hanged out in their apartment and had dinner in the evening and went home. When we told some of our friends about that, the girl, mentioned above, asked "So you went to sleep in Sheraton with them and then you went to swim" ?!??!? Lately Sonia and I are speaking the same things at the same time so we said "NO" like a choir. When I started talking about Indonesian guy that I kissed I got from a certain person "how can you kiss him if you don't know him?" Well, I don't need a guys CV to kiss him. I felt like kissing him. And then I got one of those fabulous questions "But why you didn't go with him to his place. Maybe he is good fucker" Oh yes, again, all bule fuck around all the time. It was weirder that I didn't go to bed with him than the fact that I kissed him which was also weird.
We also have loads of stupid SMS coming to our addresses and when someone tells that she has a boyfriend and she is not going around and cheats on him that doesn't means a lot to Indonesian. That sounds just the same like you are completely available, since you are bule, and bule are fucking around all the time, right? After you say no for couple of times they just continue offering things like "relationship without love" or sending you messages in the middle of the night telling how desperate they are because you don't want to meet them. If you tell them you want to be a friend and you want to meet as a friend they don't know what that means or they just don't want to know. When you tell them that you are engaged that might give a slightly bigger significance to Indonesian guys, but, anyhow, he is not here, right so they can continue stocking and harassing you. So, lately, we started telling people that we are married since that is the first thing they ask when they meet us and when they ask that we know that they like us. So, basically the only thing that can save you from Indonesians, who want to have sex with bule, since bule are always fucking around right, is to tell them that you are married... but sometimes that doesn't work either.
Oh yes, we had a case of a "friend" who got angry and he is not talking to us for months now since Sonia told him that she has a boyfriend and he thought that he is irresistible.
So, we came to conclusion that it is not polite to kiss around but it is ok to fuck around and bule fuck around all the time, right?
:D
P.S I met a plastic surgeon who does 5-10 hymen closing operation per day and girls from all around Indonesia are coming to him before they get married. One operation is 500-1500€. In Serbia one plastic surgeon is doing that kind of operation 5-10 times per year.
In Europe you can fuck around but at least Europeans are not hypocrite.
Apparently, Indonesians don't have sex before marriage, that is strictly forbidden by religion (both Muslim and Christian) and their beliefs and they like to put it out front. When I asked a girl aged 31 which is not married is she a virgin her face went dark red, she got completely confused, her eyes went out of her head and she replied "How can you ask me something like that?!?" When a guy, also aged 31 was telling someone I know about his first sexual experience he was also blushing, speaking with the lowest voice possible and told that person to swear not to tell anyone.
My university is completely Muslim and all the girls are walking around with scarves, looking at as like we fallen from the sky and being really nice girls... during the day... If I start telling the stories of bule I know about what are those girls doing during the night... Muhammediah University Surabaya would be banished from this world.
When a girl I know came to me to introduce me to a guy who liked me she told me after 30 seconds of my conversation with him "If you want to fuck him just go with him tonight to his place, he has a nice car, he can fuck for 2 hours and he is rich". Oh yes, all bule want rich guys and they fuck with someone the moment they see him. I looked at that girl and I wasn't sure what is she talking about.
Last Saturday we went to this Ice Club, really fancy and expensive place but luckily we didn't pay anything since Emily knew the manager. All of our friends left at 1 but we stayed and danced until club was closing. Just before club started closing I met this Indonesian guy who was really cute so I kissed him few times, told him that I don't want to go with him to his place and continue dancing. Then some bule guy came and started dancing with Sonia and it appeared that he is from Macedonia. I hugged him like he was my brother and almost started crying. So, we arranged to meet the day after and spend some time together since I will have a chance to talk in Serbian. Two of them are living in Sheraton apartments so we decided to use that fact to go for a swimming in Sheraton swimming pool. We had fun with the guys, we swam, had nice afternoon with them, hanged out in their apartment and had dinner in the evening and went home. When we told some of our friends about that, the girl, mentioned above, asked "So you went to sleep in Sheraton with them and then you went to swim" ?!??!? Lately Sonia and I are speaking the same things at the same time so we said "NO" like a choir. When I started talking about Indonesian guy that I kissed I got from a certain person "how can you kiss him if you don't know him?" Well, I don't need a guys CV to kiss him. I felt like kissing him. And then I got one of those fabulous questions "But why you didn't go with him to his place. Maybe he is good fucker" Oh yes, again, all bule fuck around all the time. It was weirder that I didn't go to bed with him than the fact that I kissed him which was also weird.
We also have loads of stupid SMS coming to our addresses and when someone tells that she has a boyfriend and she is not going around and cheats on him that doesn't means a lot to Indonesian. That sounds just the same like you are completely available, since you are bule, and bule are fucking around all the time, right? After you say no for couple of times they just continue offering things like "relationship without love" or sending you messages in the middle of the night telling how desperate they are because you don't want to meet them. If you tell them you want to be a friend and you want to meet as a friend they don't know what that means or they just don't want to know. When you tell them that you are engaged that might give a slightly bigger significance to Indonesian guys, but, anyhow, he is not here, right so they can continue stocking and harassing you. So, lately, we started telling people that we are married since that is the first thing they ask when they meet us and when they ask that we know that they like us. So, basically the only thing that can save you from Indonesians, who want to have sex with bule, since bule are always fucking around right, is to tell them that you are married... but sometimes that doesn't work either.
Oh yes, we had a case of a "friend" who got angry and he is not talking to us for months now since Sonia told him that she has a boyfriend and he thought that he is irresistible.
So, we came to conclusion that it is not polite to kiss around but it is ok to fuck around and bule fuck around all the time, right?
:D
P.S I met a plastic surgeon who does 5-10 hymen closing operation per day and girls from all around Indonesia are coming to him before they get married. One operation is 500-1500€. In Serbia one plastic surgeon is doing that kind of operation 5-10 times per year.
In Europe you can fuck around but at least Europeans are not hypocrite.
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