Random thoughts: Initial reactions to culture shock

August 30th
Jesse

So we are settled in Jogja and just spent last night in our new place fending off lizards, frogs, ants, and firebrats. Then the power went out... and the noises got louder...  But that's another post for another day. For now here is a collection of random thoughts I've put together since being here. Enjoy.

-I've seen like five people wearing Agnostic Front shirts. As in the obscure punk band. I only ever saw like two in Canada. But they always wear English shirts they have no idea about. Or shirts that say 'Rocking Gear Funky Town Cool Gang' or something like that.

- There are stray cats and chickens everywhere. There were dogs all over Bali but I haven't seen any in Jogja.

-I've heard the song "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith about 40 times since I've been here.

-The devotion to religion is outstanding. The sung prayers come out of every nook and cranny of the city throughout the day. It's actually not surprising that they are really good singers since they practice 5 times per day. Many buildings have loud speakers set up 50 feet in the air that project the prayers far and wide.  One of the songs kinda sounds like that "Got my head in a cage, Feel like I'm twice my age..." song.

-Best signs we've seen so far: "F-R-I-E-N-D-S RESTAURANT, eat your food not your friends." "WHATEVER PERFUME" and "JACKASS PENGUINS" at the zoo.

- I was prepared for poverty and though there is certainly poverty, I'm not sure that's exactly how I would describe my overall impression now that I'm here. There is so much stuff (some of it quite nice) everywhere it's hard to imagine people being poor.  Everyone seems to own a small business and three scooters at least. The cars for the most part are on par with Canadian cars or maybe even a bit nicer on average. So I don't think poverty is the main problem. The infrastructure and overpopulation are the glaring in-your-face factors here. The infrastructure is abysmal, it's actually really impressive the way the Indonesian people take matters into their own hands but there's only so much they can do. If you are out on a walk and smell sewage you know that there is a huge hole in the sidewalk somewhere close. And when I say sidewalk I mean the 2 feet of road pedestrians can feel confident that scooters and cars will swerve out of their way if someone happens to be walking. And no I did not say they would slow down.

-Speaking of small businesses, I have no idea how the economy works here. I've seen more small shops (Warungs) than residential houses by about a two to one ratio. There are about 50 shops per city block. I don't know what kind of role credit plays here but I can't imagine it's huge, so how did everyone manage to put together these shops with all this merchandise that they are literally selling for pennies?

-The breadth and depth of these shops is insane. I've seen a half dozen chandelier shops since I've been here, roadside stands that sell nothing but fans, birdcage stores, there are custom stamp shops everywhere (my teacher said it's because everyone wants to seem more legit than they actually are) and then there are fruit stands with all the types of fruit, fruit stands that specialize in juice, fruit stands that make fruit shish kabobs and fruit stands for every individual type of fruit. In our cab one day I decided to count the number of sunglass stands outside the university. There were 21 identical sunglass stands side by side. How do they make money?

-One thing is for sure, their labour costs are not too high. I have not seen one shop yet that is understaffed. Most of the time shops and restaurants will have about 3 people working and about 9 or 10 standing around. It's cheaper to rent a car with a driver than it is to rent a car by itself. Every parking lot has an attendant or three. We will have a security guard at our house everyday from 7pm till 7am. I'm very curious how much they make for a days labour but I don't know how rude it would be to ask. I'm guessing it's well under 10$ a day.

-The kind of prices we're paying here range from about on par to 10% of Canadian prices. It really depends where you are. An entree at a fancy restaurant costs about $7 but you can buy your dinner from a little Warung for $0.90. It's just a matter of bravery. Jenn and I checked out the mall which was the most westernized place I've seen since we've been here. It cost pretty much the same as Canada.

-There was a guy on a bicycle moving two full sized couches on his back. Our host family was telling us those guys bike couches in from 10km out of town and people usually buy them because they feel bad. If the bikers don't sell them they have to bike them back.

-Traffic is absolutely insane. The only time anyone stops is at traffic lights, other than that it's just slow down and speed up. You see guys on scooters with 10 foot long 2x4s on their shoulders weaving in and out of traffic like it's nothing, going like 50. If you can make something work to your benefit you do it. Case and point we had a cabbie who was waiting for a traffic light and got a little impatient so he just went into the oncoming traffic lane and waited there. He then drove in front of an entire line of cars as soon as the light turned. The funny thing is as soon as he did that every car behind him followed so it basically became a one way street for about 90 seconds except oncoming traffic didn't slow down at all.

-I'm finding I'm actually doing well on the scooter because the basic idea is that everyone drives like an asshole but they also respect and accept that they are surrounded by assholes. So basically you are allowed to do whatever you want whenever you want. The thing with Canadians is they try so hard not to be assholes but then when someone else drives like an asshole they overreact and start driving like assholes. So we're all traffic assholes, Canadians are just angry about it.

-Other than the traffic, I have not felt any sense of danger or the slightest bit unwelcome whatsoever at any point this whole trip. Even the most hardcore looking tattooed badasses greet us with giant smiles making silly faces at Benny.