A word of advice to all Asian shop assistants...

Standing behind me, following me every time I take more than three steps, and directly staring at me while not saying a word will not exactly entice me to keep browsing at your store. Neither will shouting 'silahKANNNN' or 'cari apaaaa?' at me as I walk by.

The shopping in Asia is seriously amazing - but shopping environments sometimes aren't. The cheapest malls are often the busiest, and usually clothing stores are these extremely tiny little boutiques which are always buzzing with twice the safe amount of shoppers. By extremely tiny, I do mean extremely tiny. Think, the size of an average bedroom. Sometimes stores are bigger but typical boutiques are about that size.

Also, the place to try clothes on, if there is one, is usually a mirror with a curtain you pull around. Most of the time there's a sizeable gap between the wall and the edge of the curtain, making things kind of exciting as you hurry to yank on some clothes so as not to risk accidentally flashing anybody.

Pasar are a whole different matter however. They're like malls but instead of having just assorted clothing, food, and trinket stores there are also places that sell household items, work uniforms, and groceries - basically anything you'll need for everyday life. Pasar (the word means 'market') are always very cheap so long as you bargain hard.

There's a pasar in Surabaya called DTC (Darmo Trade Center) which is my favorite, because below the mall part there's a winding subterranean world stuffed absolutely full of vendors. I like to buy shoes there, because I can score deals like $8 for Toms and $9 for Converse - but there's also clothes, Islamic items, and lots and lots of fresh food. If you can deal with the stench and unsanitary-ness of the grocery section, that is.

Ampel

Ampel, also known as Surabaya's Arab quarter (kampung Arab), is one of my favorite places in the entire city. The whole area is centered around two things: Masjid Ampel, and the grave of Sunan Ampel.

Masjid Ampel is a gorgeous mosque, where all of the tempat wudhu (places to wash before prayer) are located outside, turning it into a kind of open-air complex. People are constantly washing, praying, strolling around, or just sitting in the shade of the mosque so that it always seems to buzz with activity.

There's also some big fountains with water good for drinking straight from the tap, something which I don't even understand because all Indonesian tap water is dangerous. However, I've drunk that water and indeed did not get sick. So s'all good I guess!

Located very close to Masjid Ampel is a graveyard, the focal point of which is the tomb of Sunan Ampel. There's usually a big group of religious pilgrims sitting at the tomb and praying. To explain this you'll need a bit of back story.

In Indonesian history there is a group of nine sainted men, called the Wali Songo, who were responsible for helping spread Islam in Indonesia. (They didn't establish it here, however: Islam was already on the rise when the Chinese admiral Zheng He arrived in 1405 CE). One of the Walis was, you guessed it - Sunan Ampel! Being a revered figure, naturally his gravesite is a big draw for Muslims who wish to pay their respects.

Also: Wali Songo roughly means nine saints. Wali is derived from the Arabic word meaning saint/honored one/friend of God, and songo is the Javanese word for nine. Sunan, meaning 'honored', is a name given to each of the Walis.

Sunan Ampel is the second in the first row

But my favorite part of Ampel isn't the masjid or the tomb, it's the area that surrounds them. With a giant, crowded marketplace, Ampel seems to be the best place to buy Islamic goods in Surabaya. You can get everything from ready-wear jilbabs, Islamic clothing, jewellery, souvenirs from Mecca and Medina, sarongs, perfume, incense, and any variety of dates you can imagine there.

There are also the quiet streets with houses all stacked upon each other, the only traffic to avoid being that of becaks, playing children, and the occasional motorbike. It's the perfect place to spend a day wandering around, just exploring... But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Update on my life

So I have 76 days left in Indonesia.

I can barely wrap my mind around that fact. I still remember working on the post about 'only' having seven months left. I can even remember writing about having 90-something days to go. This is such a cliche, but time really does fly when you're having fun... and when you're on exchange.

The past six months have been more formative for me than entire years in America. I look back at the girl who boarded the plane in Boise and she is lightyears away from who I am now. For one, my appearance has changed: my hair is longer, back to brown, and I've lost weight, probably due to the fact that I can't secretly buy myself McDonald's every other day.

I also feel different as a person. It's still really early to tell (I have major reflection to do, I know), but I'm more secure as a person, more confident, better at communicating, and bilingual to boot. Exchange is the hardest thing I have ever done, and it's tested everything I have and reshaped me to become someone different, someone better than who I was before.

As you all know, right after I published my YOLO post, my friend and fellow exchange student Morgan passed away in Bali. That was kind of the catalyst for the low point of my exchange, which lasted from December through February. I know it's normal for students to hit that point but I feel like so many factors combined to drive me to slam way past rock bottom to the other side of the planet.

During that time, as a rule days were bad. I passed through them as if I were walking through mud wearing lead boots. Of course some really awesome things happened (Thailand!), and I wasn't not happy, but at times even getting up the motivation to reply to an email or shower on a Saturday morning was difficult.

I don't regret the low point; it was just as important as the good times, which thankfully have come again. A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor, and all that, right? Now I'm just looking forward to spending my last two months in this beautiful country making the most of my language skills, my knowledge of the culture, and the freedom that I've been given to explore the city and hang out with my friends.

And now, to briefly summarize what I've been up to these past few months, I have...

Gone to Bali, Bandung, Malang, and the hospital; begun to study Javanese; stayed overnight in an Islamic boarding school; swum in the Java Sea; begun to learn the local public transportation system; hung out with my friends, both Indonesian and American; bought shoes on the black market; hung out with my extended host family; bonded with small Indonesian children who used to be afraid of me; gone to multiple weddings; modelled; ate applesauce from a tupperware container while on a public bus; explored the Arab quarter of Surabaya; gone to a fashion show; tweeted (a lot); watched new movies; and generally tried to blend myself in with the society around me as much as possible. Considering I'm a bule, that might be difficult. But I'll be damned if I don't try anyway!

In Bali

One of my favorite pics from a photoshoot
we did for fun with an Indonesian friend

Eating applesauce on public transportation...
not me but you get the idea

Waiting - the Indonesian way - for our bemo to come

Kamar Mandi

So I've been reading other travel blogs, watching videos, and thinking a lot about all the various things I could say on my own dear little slice of internet real estate... but so far none have come to complete fruition. Instead, today I am going to inform you all about Indonesian bathrooms, 'cause I like to keep it classy AND informative.

If you know anything at all about stereotypes of Asia, one of the first is usually "scary bathrooms". Before I came here I was terrified just thinking about the rumored holes-in-the-ground with no toilet paper, lights, or hope of any kind to be seen. And while those kinds of bathrooms DO exist here, they are extremely easy to avoid and definitely aren't the norm! Indonesians/Asians appreciate comfort just as much as anyone else. The idea of comfort here is just slightly different.

In Indonesia there are two kinds of toilets: the squatter (as I like to call it) and your regular old Western model. In my house here there's the western kind, and you'll find a lot of them in public places like restoraunts and movie theatres, and in private houses.

But the squatter is the more traditional toilet, and if you're in the airport or other high-traffic public areas those will be the only option. They're more sanitary and low maintenance... I definitely prefer them while in public, because who even knows what butts have touched those Western toilets. If you want to know more detailed instructions on using squat toilets, Google it. Theres plenty of info out there.

What does this squat toilet look like, my Western readers might be thinking...

Beautiful ain't it. To flush you just scoop water from the bucket into the toilet until it's all clean again. Usually there is absolutely no toilet paper, you just use water from that bucket/a little handheld hose next to the toilet.

You can't really tell, but all the surfaces, except the wall, are soaking wet! That ties into the Indonesian idea of cleanliness. At first I was absolutely disgusted walking into a wet bathroom, but since there are always drains and the surfaces are mold-repellent, I realized that that was just a collision of cultural differences and adjusted my attitude about it. Now I don't even notice or mind the wetness of bathrooms.

Now onto the second most important part of a bathroom, the shower. Indonesians have this unique way of bathing which involves scooping out icy water from a big basin with a little plastic bucket and then washing up, using buckets of water as needed. It's pretty convenient, in a country where taking multiple showers in a day is considered more polite. You don't have to wet your hair if you don't need to and it's super easy to take three minutes and be done with it.

It's also really common for a Western kind of shower to be included too, and sometimes there's even hot water.

So there you have it folks, a small slice of the everyday cultural differences between Indonesia and the West. It's not so bad, if you can adjust your expectations. And if you have the luck to manage to avoid horror-story worthy bathrooms.

*Kamar mandi = room of bathing. IE bathroom.