Initial Reaction

Rujak

I'm finally here (and starting a blog about it 5 days later--sorry!)!! Here are some initial sights, sounds, smells, and tastes I've experienced:

Sights

• Green trees & plants
• Indian Ocean
• Smiling faces underneath head coverings
• Begging children
• Lots of motorcycles in lots of "lanes" of traffic
• Cats with no tails (they kinda look like half rabbits, half cats)
• School children walking on the side of the road
• Men bicycling mobile warungs (food stalls)

Sounds

• Cats meowing
• Motorcycles buzzing
• Calls to prayer from the mosque behind our house
• Man on a mega phone with blaring ice cream truck-type music selling bread in the early morning
• Kids yelling "buleh" (white person) when we walk by
• Lots of Bahasa Indonesia
• Laughter

Smells

• Burning trash
• Car/motorcycle exhaust
• Meat cooking
• Steaming corn
• Waste in the market
• Durian and other tropical fruits (some are called perfume fruits--not durian though!)

Tastes

• Fresh squeezed juice--mango, strawberry (they even have avocado with chocolate syrup squirted on the sides of the glass like they do at Starbucks for an iced caramel drink!)
• Rujek--fruit salad with spicy peanut dressing (soooo yummy!)
• Duku- a not so yummy fruit that looks like a nut, very bitter
• Jambu- a red, strawberry-shaped, apple-textured fruit that is tart like a granny smith apple
• Nasi goreng-- fried rice that is so much better than Chinese fried rice
• Pantsit- fried noodle dipped in onion broth and eaten as a wonton
• Padang food- this needs a blog post all to itself :)

As you can see, lots to experience, lots of adventure to be had, lots of learning to do!