Bule Pakai Seragam?

There's a foreigner wearing the Indonesian School Uniform? What?

I'm in the Malioboro Mall right now typing this post, at a cafe where i'd say 1/3 of the customers are bule (white people). The cafe is called Kafe Excelso and its a popular high-end resto/coffee shop. My seat overlooks the whole of the mall, or all that you can see from the second floor. Bule litter the mall, they're usually one of two types,or the random exception. The first being a grown, old, white male, usually european, who can usually be seen smoking, sitting next to an Indonesian woman, or peacefully pondering life over a cup of coffee. The second being that couple, you know what kind of couple i'm talking about... the one where the guy sports either long hair or dreadlocks, and the girl has grown out highlights, super skinny, and at least one article of her clothing is tye died, or of that new age/hippie style.  Both parties carry backpacks that they've probably been living out of for the past coupe weeks. The couples always have this air about them that says something like, wow look at us we're traveling the world trying to find ourselves and were in love and we don't care what we look like,  we're hardcore travelers who haven't done the typical touristy stuff here so of course, we know what the true culture is like here. Amazing how I can get all of that from just one glance right? well trust me, 5 months of looking at these types, and I feel like I have a pretty good Idea.
(Yes i know that some of them might actually be nice people that are benefiting Jogja, either by appealing to the tourism tricks or actually doing some sort of community service project.. which is very popular and there are many opportunities for foreigners to come and help out here. Which I think is great.)

 In any case, i'm getting off topic. Here's my point in giving you that run-down of what i'm doing currently. I feel very odd sitting here, for a couple reasons. Maybe not odd but its just interesting. Before I came to this cafe, I was sitting at an Angkringan which I went to after school to get lunch.

Really quick if you don't know what an Angkringan is, which you probably don't.. thank you google

Angkringan very well known in various society of Jogja. Angkringan derived from the Javanese language Angkring, which means sit down to relax. And it is in fact angkringan ussualy used by people of Jogja as a place to relax and spend their nights in angkringan and take a chit chat with their friends or family.

Angkringan usually shaped with push cart, that sells a variety of foods, beverages and can be found in almost every city streets of Jogja. In this place they only used senthir as lighting. Senthir is traditional lighting from Java that can be ignited with kerosene.devices. They use  before they know the electricity. In a angkringan can carry about eight people. If not get a seat, usually the seller will provide the mats and we can sit on the sidewalk around  the angkringan.

The most famous food and highly identical with angkringan is a nasi kucing. Cat is a pack of rice with toppings nasi teri, oseng-oseng or sambal tempe. We can choose one of them. Usually, the seller had wrapped rice with the side dish, so that we can directly choose and take the rice that we want. If you do not want to either take the rice and choice the dish we can ask to the seller because it's look the same pack of rice for all. For the first time eat  this nasi kucing, do not be surprised because a serving of rice is indeed just a little. This portion is relatively the same with the  price of a pack of nasi kucing is ranging from Rp 1,000 - Rp 1,500.

For a sense of not being asked. if you who do not like spicy food you better to choose a nasi kucing with dishes tempeh  While the nasi kucing with anchovy side dish or sauce is more spicy taste.

Besides nasi kucing, usually angkringan also provides a variety of fried foods such as mendoan tempeh, tofu, and fried bananas. Fried food that is wrapped with flour and then it is fries. In addition there are also deep fried intestines satay, skewers of quail eggs, chips and others. For these foods, you can ask the seller to burn. Before burning the seller will  be given a soy sauce first so it will become sweeter. At angkringan they offer variety of beverages too such as tea, citrus, coffee, tape,  ginger and milk. All were sold at a very affordable, ranging between Rp 500 -  Rp 1500.

Angkringan will open from afternoon until night. No need to fear running out of food if you want to come at night, because usually angkringan will be more crowded at night.



 So I found an angkringan that I passed on my way from school, parked my bike and sat down. I ate  one of the nasi kucing, and drank something called es jeruk which is a variation of orange juice, but different..hard to explain. I ended up taking another nasi kucing and eating that too because I was hungry, and the portions are small. (Hense the name, nasi kucing, which translates to cat rice (or rice cat, but cat rice makes more sense), fit for the portion you'd give to a cat..). Angkringans are the place people go to relax. And they're very, very, very, very cheap. My whole meal, two portions of rice and a drink was exactly 50 cents. Angkringans are extremely popular for the majority of Indonesians. The price isn't expensive and its a good way to socialize. I love going to them, because the people there are always open to conversation, and everyone is just so relaxed. Sipping a cup of iced tea as the sun goes down is also extremely peaceful.
The main reason I came to this cafe was for the good internet connection, and I also love an excuse to come to Malioboro. However, just as a reference, I ordered a mocha frappucino type drink for about four dollars, and some holland cheese-curd type things, which came with a small salad, for about 4 dollars as well. I'll probably spend around 10 dollars here total. Coming to a cafe like this shows a status of wealth, in my opinion, from what i've seen from coming here a few times now, and to other cafes like this in the mall. Either that or they're especially catered for bule and their tour guides.. (i only say that because i'm looking at a table of three elderly bule, probably from america or europe,..along with one obvious indonesian man who i'm assuming is their tour guide. thats the second occurrence of a table like that i've seen in the past hour and a half i've been here.) Anyway eating for 10 dollars or for 50 cents? I can tell you I rarely come to these cafes.

There's a major divide between the have, and have nots here in Indonesia. The wealthy are extremely wealthy, and the poor are extremely poor. I'm not going to make a generalization and say that the two never intermix, but the difference between the people that go to angkringans, and the people that go to cafes is crazy. I could go on and on about the angkringan vs. the cafe, and still not be able to reach a conclusion..but I think it clearly represents the gap that can be seen socio-economically here. Maybe i'll do a post about it later.


Now, if we return to the title of this post. Bule pakai seragam? There's a foreigner wearing the indonesian school uniform? Not only am I a tall, white, blonde haired blue eyed female, bascially a blaring lighthouse of a person.. but i'm wearing the 'putih abu-abu' (white and grey, white for the button up shirt, and grey for the original color of the skirt, but now its actually blue. they still just call it grey), all through the city on my bike. I get twice the attention that I normally would get wearing normal clothes. At the angkringan I attracted a crowd wondering who I was,  where I went to school, and ultimately what I was doing here. I told them i'm only 16 and they hardly believed it.( Sometimes I don't believe it either. I honestly feel like i'm 20 or something. whatever.)  At the cafe, as I took my seat I felt all eyes on me... not to be narcissistic.. but really. The waiter asked me in indonesian, which was a first,( usually they assume I don't know the language, and go right into english), where I went to school.     The other 5 bule at the cafe were probably really confused with me, but I can already tell they've lost interest...for they're obviously much cooler.

Well I hope that you understood at least a little bit of what I'm trying to say. I'm going to stop myself before I dig myself deeper into this hole of confusion.

I also want to just say really quick that my post before about my 'left hand' probably was kinda weird.I pretty much said I use my hand as toilet paper, and also use it to hold all these sentimental bracelets... so I can see if some would find that rather odd and a little bit gross. Anyway I just wanted to say yeah I know that sounds weird, but trust me its really ok. Thats all.

In other news, my bargaining continues to be successful, and my Bahasa Indonesia skills are right where I want them to be. Things are going great but I'm also excited/anxious/nervous to come home. Right now, I have a little less than three months still in Indonesia. Seeing how fast these past 5 months went, I know that the next two will go by in the blink of an eye. I have so much to to when I get back! Senior year and college awaits!

Much Love,
Julianne.