Playing it Safe

It is safe to say that... I learned a lot today...

Today was the first day of orientation.  The whole morning was spent on learning the Do's and Don'ts of Indonesia. If there is one thing I've learned from the session, it would be that we are under no circumstance allowed to be on a motorcycle, even though it is the most convenient way to travel around Yogya.
After an intense and compact three hours of orientation, we walked to a restaurant for lunch. I admit that the highlight of my couple days so far has been trying new foods. Everything I eat is delicious. The meals are flavourful and unlike anything I've eaten in North America. Once again, I had trouble deciding what to eat. It's not only that there are too many options to choose from, but that I have to decide on my meals by looking at pictures since none of the menus are in English. Even though it's annoying, it makes me feel adventurous because every meal is a gamble. I'm happy to say that I won this round ;). I ate fried rice with pineapples, chicken, vegetables and raisins. I promise it tastes way better than it sounds.

Once we finished eating lunch, we were given a tour of the campus and where to get our groceries from. We returned back to the house since the head of the International Relations Department was going to give us a short lecture on Indonesia. The lecture was extremely insightful. Professor Eric explained how Indonesia is broken up into 5 main areas, where Java (where I am staying), consists of 60% of the population. He also explained the different ethnicities (impossible to count) and religions (Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Confucianism) that are present in Indonesia. It is amazing that even within Islam, there is a division between the Modernists, whom adhere to the rigid principles of Islam, and the Traditionalists, whom have infused Javanese culture with Islam. On another note, I also learned that Indonesia has many active volcanoes and there are over 10 in Java.

The rest of the evening was spent on great conversations over dinner.

It is safe to say that... the past couple of days have been focused on playing it safe. I've been enjoying the company of great people and great food!

Cheers to the rest of the summer!