I’ve resigned to the fact that 27 months is an insufficient amount of time to know any place well. I know I’m still in the dark about a lot of things that make Indonesia special and beautiful. In an effort to quickly learn about things I may be missing –and to get an insider’s perspective— … Continue reading
Warning: This post contains graphic images of a cow being slaughtered. After reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and nearly becoming vegan in the process, it was quite ironic that I found myself in the middle of an animal sacrifice ritual. Let me clarify: Idul Adha is an important Muslim holiday that highlights the … Continue reading
Warning: This post has a lot of numbers. I love my counterpart. Sometimes, we get into the most random discussions on a strange topic of my fixation. No matter what, he will sit patiently and explain every little detail to my heart’s content. I’m not sure how we went from discussing tomorrow’s English lesson to … Continue reading
A characteristic of my village neighborhood is that it is lined with mango trees. Every house has at least one. Mine has two. I was completely unaware of this until about a month ago, when small budding fruit started to appear on every tree. Now, growing green mangoes hang gloriously on all the trees and … Continue reading
Ramadan ended with the Idul Fitri holiday, which required me to accompany my host family to Jember and visit more than ten different houses of close family and friends. (Ten doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me, it is.) In each of these houses I met more than 25 people, sometimes we went to … Continue reading
Nasi is the staple of the Indonesian diet. Plain white rice is eaten at every meal—breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you didn’t eat rice, Indonesians believe that you didn’t really eat. Beras, or uncooked rice, is the basis of many other dishes too. Lontong, is rice cooked in a special way, so that it makes … Continue reading
in the land of dragons 