The beginning...or introduction, if you like.

Welcome, friends and family back in the States, to my official blog of my next nine months of adventure in Indonesia!  I've been officially placed in a vocational school in Bontang, a coastal town in the region of East Kalimantan on Borneo.  For those new to Southeast Asian geography, I've included a link to a map of Indonesia:  http://www.indonesian-food.88eight.com/images/indonesia-map.gif

I'm deeply grateful to my family and friends for being willing to let me run away to the tropics for the next year to learn about Indonesian language, culture, and life, even though I'll miss holidays and be gone for quite a substantial amount of time.  I'm also very much indebted to all of my professors and mentors at the University of Michigan whose passion for international relations/politics and cultural appreciation helped me develop my own passion for intercultural understanding.  Without the constant patience, guidance, and help from these professors and mentors, I wouldn't have developed an interest in diplomacy or applied for Fulbright in the first place.  I can't express enough how grateful I am.

A bit about Indonesia...

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, which surprises many people, considering the country is not in the Middle East but in Southeast Asia.  According to the Indonesian constitution, there are 5 official government recognized religions -  Islam, Protestant Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  Bahasa Indonesia is the official state-sponsored language, but there are hundreds of locally spoken languages, like Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and so forth.  (My knowledge of a local language consists of counting from 1 to 5 in Balinese...I consider this an achievement ^_^ ).  Traveling through Indonesia, one can visually see how unique and diverse the country is.  For example, Borobudur is one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world.  See http://gregor.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/borobodur-indonesia.jpg .  It's on the island of Java, which has the largest Muslim population of all the islands and also a significant number of Christians.  Yet it's one of the most popular tourist attractions for all faiths.  Bali is incredibly interesting because its population is predominately Hindu.  Indonesia, in my opinion, presents an absolutely fascinating case study for religious diversity.

I don't really know how to begin describing Indonesia.  It has an incredibly rich, fascinating history and the political system is an interesting experiment in mass scale democracy.  I find it interesting that a country so large has attempted to decentralize its government so much.  When I was in Indonesia last summer, people told me that decentralization has its merits, but it also has challenges.  How, for example, do you manage a system in which one district decides to implement Islamic law while the next district over doesn't?  That's decentralized democracy for you. 

I'm absolutely thrilled to spend the next nine months abroad.  I eventually want to pursue a graduate degree in international relations, focusing on policy toward Muslim countries, and believe that living in another country will provide me with an excellent opportunity to explore intercultural communication and understanding.  Most of all, though, I hope to provide my students with the same passion for learning that my professors bestowed upon me.