"Watch out... Indonesians are good thieves... this is not San Francisco anymore"

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My mom's piece of advice before I left (hmm). In truth, I'm here for a bit because of family, male circumcisions, and the fact that I don't have a job... yet(?). I've been pretty tired lately and had been blaming it on jetlag until I realized that I've been waking up at 5 for the past five days. Indonesians naturally get up that early for exercise/prayer/groceries... which is quite different from my ol waking-up-ten-minutes-before-class routine at Cal x) Nonetheless, I am coming to terms with the fact that

1) You need to haggle to survive... and I am a perpetual tourist who sucks at it (dammit!). We are traveling with a "bulai," or white person, which happens to be my sis's husband from Louisiana. He's super cool but my sis leaves him behind whenever we go to the vendors/markets because they'll automatically jack up the prices if they see him x)

2) I am a heathen hoe on the Muslim streets of Pramawati. Its sooooo humid here (I shower three times a day) and as much as I avoid the usual summer LA skankwear, my Forever shorts and tshirt invite the lure of "men who want to tease a girl," as my sister says. I am trying to make a good impression on my fam, who are DEVOUT Muslims, but god knows what they think :/

3) contrary to what everyone has been warning me, I went straight to eating gritty street vendor food... and haven't gotten sick! In fact, my body is reacting all normal to it... thanks LA vendors for getting me used to the third world

4) damn... I appreciate The Lakers and Justin Bieber more now that I am in another country. yay bieber fever

Nonetheless, everyone tells me to keep my purse close to me and never take my slr cam out on the streets (unless I wanna get jacked). It is the truth... err... stereotype that Indonesians have "mata duit," or money for eyes, and will rip you off at any chance they get. So if it were up to me, I would overgeneralize and proclaim Indonesia: Land of brown teenage motorcades, vendors galore, and little women in heavy batik 😊

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