Opening Ceremony!

Today we had the opening ceremony of the Indonesian Arts and Cultures Scholarship. It was a very grand occasion, and we had all been asked previously to wear our traditional national dress for the ceremony. Here are a few of the outfits which were worn by my friends:

 Indonesia, Greece, Serbia, Germany, Russia, Suriname, Kazakhstan.

 Thailand, Indonesia, Thailand

Austria, Suriname

I had been wondering for a while about what I should wear for this ceremony, and I came to the conclusion a while ago that the UK has no national dress! I’m not especially patrotic, but when it comes to an occasion like this where I am representing the UK among so many other countries, it’s kind of embarrassing that we aren’t more proud of our traditions and culture. I settled for a formal black dress in the end, with a red rose to symbolise England:

(I'm standing next to a portrait of the first president of Indonesia)

I felt very boring compared to the rest of the group!

Later on, talking about food in our different countries, it struck me again that we don’t really have a traditional dish… unless you count a roast dinner or fish and chips. Maybe it’s because I come from the UK, but I’ve been comparing our culture to many different countries and cultures over the last couple of days and I can’t help thinking that we’re actually fairly boring. Conversations with my new friends usually contain ‘In Denmark we do this…’ or ‘In Indonesia we eat this…’ but it seems as though Britain prefers to adopt food and traditions from other parts of the world rather than be proud of their own. 

The same goes for language. I am truly embarrassed that I am the only person on this scholarship (apart from maybe the two people from the USA) who only speaks one language. Luckily for me, the entire program is conducted in English. Everybody here speaks their own language, English, and in most cases one or two other languages as well. I don’t know why we find this acceptable in the UK. I have seen over the last few days how knowing more than one language can open up a whole new world of communication and opportunities, and I don’t think that people in the UK should just not bother to learn another language, just because ours is the one spoken widely throughout the world. I am learning Bahasa Indonesia – the language spoken throughout Indonesia, and I hope that by the end of the three months here I will be good enough to communicate with local people.

Anyway… a quick update on my bizzare food for the day – grass jelly! 

This is basically jelly flavoured with grass (this was the translation I understood from the guy who convinced me to try it), floating in lumpy milk flavoured with ginger. Another weird and wonderful desert I tried today was fried banana with grated cheese on top. Indonesians often eat sweet and savoury foods together. They’re giving us so much food here and I want to try everything!
In a few days’ time we will find out which city we have been allocated to for the next three months. Then we will be divided into groups of 12, and sent off to study different aspects of local Indonesian music and culture!