Settling In

Malang is a small city by Indonesian standards-- over 1 million. To the girl who has lived her whole life in a city of 150,000, it seems incredibly large. It is nicer than Jakarta in my opinion, but driving and narrow streets are the same. I have gotten to see a lot of the city already.

I am staying in the home of Mr. Naim. His wife (Indah), two sisters (Ocha and Iva), and three children (Faris, boy aged 2; Ais, girl aged 4; and Kiky, boy aged 6) also live here. There are one or two other girls around here that may live here too, I am not really sure. They are all very nice, and I am sure I will really enjoy my stay here. Mr. Naim and Ocha are the only ones who speak some English. I have also met some people who work with Mr. Naim and some of Ocha's friends. They have taken me out to lunch and around the city.

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings we went to two different traditional markets. Everything is a lot cheaper here, so this is where we buy a lot of our food. The first market was enclosed in loosely constructed shack/buildings. Trash, fish slop, vegetable clippings—all were just dumped on the dirt/cement floor. It took some getting used to the smell. The second market is only on Sundays, and this one was open air and more like our idea of a fair or festival.

Meals are often eaten in roadside cafes, and this has been my breakfast, lunch, and dinner so far. Nasi Goreng - fried rice, Nasi pecel - steamed rice, Katepuk sayur - some other type of rice. It is a good thing I really like rice! And the food is absolutely delicious. At the first market we also picked up some "cakes." These were delicious too, but I couldn't tell you what all was in them. The first one was a cube of noodles, egg, and tofu. Another was a sort of jelly-cream wrapped in rice flour bread stuff. I really never know what I am eating, but my host family knows I eat no meat, and they always assure me I am fine. It will not be hard being vegetarian.

Ocha works as a model, and she keeps telling me how I am going to be "like a celebrity here." I think she makes it this way hah. She'll tell her friends about me, and they will come out to meet us. Or she will take me to their house to meet them. But then she says, "he's a playboy, you don't want to be with him." And all the girls are very fascinated that I don't have a boyfriend. "But you are beautiful!" they have said. I am flattered haha. They also describe things in a romantic way. Ocha will point to a restaurant and say it is romantic. Or at this park, "there are many boys and girls who come here at night to say love to each other." It is sometimes hard for me to follow what Mr. Naim and Ocha mean in English. Mr. Naim, for example, only uses the present tense. When he says, "can you sleep?" I can't tell if he wants me to go back to bed, or if he wonders how well I slept last night! These are trivial things however, and I am very appreciative of their English-speaking abilities.