That awkward yoga moment, went better than I expected :D

The “perks” of not having the so called “yoga body”

I would like to start these lines by saying that yoga is my refuge. It’s part of my drive even when I’m not practicing or procastinating on the idea of going in to the mat to face those fears and insecurities that goes through my head. Sometimes, those feelings feel like a monsoon, sometimes they’re just a light breeze, but there are days when you face the other and you might see your own fears in them reflecting straight back at you. 

It comes down to this. The other day while I was not doing something very yogi or ayurvedic, just having some beers with friends and I found myself talking about one of my favorite topics, hearing that somebody is starting to do yoga. Maybe is because I’ve been in the yoga environment for a while, and every time I know about somebody saying they’re beginning to try I get all hype and go like “Yeah! I’ve been practicing for 6 years and it’s been incredible” and I mean it, it has. But here comes the punch line, my counterpart in this conversation expressed that while she is enjoying it, her main motivation is to lose weight (for the sake of timeline, this was said before I went all “I love yoga mode”). Before I realized this happened she gave me the phrase for which these lines are carrying the title above “Sorry, but you don’t look like someone who has been practicing yoga for six years, my friend has been doing yoga and she looks so fit...”  

My immediate reaction in that moment was to have a full case of brain freeze, a friend sited next to me, heard the comment, she snapped and tried to be supportive by saying  “Oh no, you didn’t ”I didn’t know whether to laugh or go full rage. I have to admit that I’m a very short temper kind of person, which is one of the main reasons while I keep on jumping in to that mat and try to let go of my stubbornness, my pride and enrich myself with patience, content, and mindfulness. 

Yoga is my happy place and it brings me joy every single time. But at that moment I had no idea how to react; I have to admit that I was angry, confused and outraged. I wanted to go full extreme feminist and shove down through her face that she has been predisposed and manipulated by media regarding all this BS about body image and what a yoga body should look like or not. Then, between overcoming the brain freeze and bringing light in to my anger, I decided to go with an open mind and a thoughtful heart by saying “Yoga is not about your body, is the communion you do in order to overcome —without violence and in control— the obstacles located in your mind, to transcend the sphere of your physical limitations, and bring your body and spirit in to one. When it comes to your body type, it doesn’t matter if you’re skinny, curvy, fat, tall or short, in the end is completely irrelevant. Don’t let anybody undermine you about practicing yoga just because for their standards you don’t look the part. ” 

I have to admit, that it did affected me despite this beautiful campaigns (E.g. #sizedoesntmatter on instagram) headed by this gorgeous, courageous, fearless women whose bodies and abilities defies the paradigms about fitness and healthy lifestyle as it has been presented everywhere through mass media all around the world, including the yoga community.  Those examples show the important task we all must take as yoga practitioners which is to bring awareness about the amplitude of yoga, as a practice for everybody, and the challenges we are all able to overcome in our own terms. 

It also made me to think about how many people starts yoga classes primarily for weight loss and I get it, but once you really embrace it is just about the journey and then you realize that losing weight it just an accessory result. I’m not going to deny it, despite being 5.6 tall and packing 154 pounds (I just did that people, I’ve revealed my weight to the internet world) I feel stronger, full of life and completely awake, I can go in to asanas that I never thought I would be able to accomplish when I began yoga practice. Of course I’ve lost a lot of weight and that’s awesome, but even if I hadn’t I would not change the sense of awareness and peacefulness that yoga has brought in to my life. For that, I’m thankful every day. 

There are many challenges to overcome in the future. Being overweight it’s just a particle of the things that I’ve to deal within my head on daily basis, but with time I’ve learned to embrace my limitations, understand them and patiently work on them. Because that’s life, it will always bring you something new to face, a new adventure, obstacles, closed and open doors. 


For what is worth I believe that there is no such a thing as a “yoga body type.” There is your body, your practice and what you learn from it in the end. I admit my weaknesses and soft spots, also the ups and downs regarding the consistency of my practice but I’m working on them. I’m on my way and I dance at the beat of my own drum and all of you out there should dance through your yoga practice with your own rhythm too. 

Survival Indonesia 101 -Clothing and body care-

Keeping up with the survival section, here comes clothing and body care, put these two together in order to make this short and sweet. Also it might be slightly on the girls side, but I will put some things in boys perspective as well. 

So as you may know most of the clothing in the western hemisphere is made in this side of the hemisphere, but mysteriously... actually finding it it's the tricky part (probably because they ship everything to Europe and the Americas). The trickiest part is underwear, I have to say that I'm not on the tiny side, so going to Matahari, Centerpoint or Ramayana (big department stores)  to buy some underwear I face the horror to see that good price underwear shows a L size panty that is not L size, not where I come from, maybe it's asian L which will be western S or M (and beside, they're not really pretty). In the other hand, there is the -not so cheap- underwear section which has some decent size underwear, but still doesn't really comply to what I would say cool underwear (because yes, underwear can be cool). Also because, most underwear here has this grandma kind if cut... which doesn't make any favors, to anybody and if you're looking for thongs... well you're gonna have a tough time, because they do exist, but they're not the most classy ones, just saying... so be prepared.

When it comes to, clothing in general, there are some cool stuff, prices are not bad an usually in the stores above mentioned, they have some kind of sale or promotion. First of all, yes clothes are smaller than usual, second quality, not so good and you must have a keen eye to spot good materials and third be patient, good things come to those who hunt through piles of clothes. I've heard of male friends complaining because the major issue for tall guys is pants, they might fit on the waist but they look like skinny jeans when it comes to the shins, so not a decent look, and shirts usually it's the same case, but it's about try and mistake, then again and maybe again until you find it.

Now the hot spot section, body care. This section at least 80% of it will be dedicated to girls, not just because I'm one, but also because girls use more beauty supplies than man (no one can argue against that). 

Part one: hair

Precious, lustrous, shine, smooth hair... kiss it goodbye, humidity, sun, rain, helmets, shampoo (don't know what is it about it, but their effect is different from my back home shampoo) will make you depressed for a while about what's going on with hair here and also (putting this on a side) water, running common household water here is terrible, due to the fact the we live on an island and fresh water is a very high valuable commodity, water is highly chemically treated, which hunts down your hair, causing a lot of times a very scary case of hair loss, it breaks so easily, you have no idea, it is the primary reason of why I'm kissing my pretty locks goodbye, at least for a while. So my suggestions for it, drink a lot of water, buy some vitamin E or ginseng suplement, use nice natural hair tonics, also put on hair oily vitamins, and some natural masks that you can find online. 

So for all this reasons I decided to go from this:      

 

To this :D

Part two: skin

As with hair, skin also takes it toll here in this marvelous region, acne is one of the top things that will come up, mostly because here you sweat a lot, and when sweat dries it tends to clog the pores, which eventually will generate acne. to keep your skin smooth I recommend weekly exfoliation, always a body shower before bedtime and since spa treatments here are quite accesible (for not to say super cheap) a full body treatment maybe once or twice a month, depending on budget. When it comes to skin shave and depilation, mostly for the ladies (if you boys want to take a tip be my guest), there are some waxing center, but unfortunately they're not cheap, waxing is not a thing around here, so you have three choices either go back to shaving (never again), pay the price or if you know how to DIY, there is some available online nice ladies who actually sale homemade natural sugar wax, which works like a charm. More than happy to pass the info.  Also be aware, because here there is a little obsession with white skin... Anyway a LOT of products have withening chemicals for "brightening" skin, and sometimes you buy them without noticing it, so read labels twice, just in case. 

Part three: it's that time of the month

You might heard the rumours... and they're true, tampons are hard to find in Indonesia, for instance here in Malang I've never seen them in almost a year, only in Bali and Jakarta and a box can cost up to 100k (which is about 8$), so pack some of them. In my case, I'm actually on the avant-garde edge when it comes to period time because I don't like tampons, but I hate pads, so I've found an alternative solution, the diva cup, moon cup, something cup, there are several brands, but I'm loyal to the first one, first of all, because is environmental friendly, super confortable, you can wear it up to 12 hours (also depends on the heaviness of the flow), discreet, I'm not gonna keep with the promo, but you can check it yourself online, at first it might be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, would be like a walk in the park.

                                                        

Part four: le sexy time...

In this part I'm letting you know, yes there is condoms in Indonesia, despite what you might have heard, there are different brands (evidently including durex and its variations) they're quite available in every indomaret, alfamaret, pharmacies and supermarkets, so there's no excuse for going comando here without a very good reason. I've heard (a friend of a friend) from male counterparts that they have had some problems with the diameter of the condoms, apparently length is ok but width is not, and they had the experience of breakage, which is not cool, so paint attention on it when wearing it. On the girls side, birth control is also available (and if you are at the doctors consultation there is no problem in asking about it, and you have to fake or prove that you're married in order to get it) also emergency contraceptive is available, I haven't seen the female condom (although I think nobody uses that), but the traditional ones are available and no problem about it. 

Indonesian Survival 101 -FOOD-

So being Westerosi it's not an easy thing on this side of the globe, mainly in these aspects: food, beverage and clothing. Here, in which I think it will be a long post, I will expose my impressions regarding Indonesian culinary, how to handle it and also if it's possible to make your own food.

There are aspects about Asian diet/nutrition that are quite different from  Western preparations; ingredients, flavors and techniques. It's fun to watch but can also be a struggle if you're not willing to let go what your taste learned, because first of all in this side Western style food is expensive as hell and it's not quite worth it... just a few places, so why to spend a whole lot of money when you can learn from new frontiers.

When it comes to street food mode, well I'm not going to lie, but here is the same food all day long, what you had for breakfast, you can have it for lunch and for dinner, there's no breakfast for dinner  expression around here, either is nasi goreng, nasi campur, mie goreng, nasi pecel, masakan padang, gado-gado, sate or whatever, it doesn't matter you can have any of these meals anytime of the day. It's very rare to find a place (except in Bali and around) where you can get an actual breakfast as the notion of breakfast we all know and love. When it comes to breakfast food, it breaks down like this: sandwiches are a rarity, some cafes might have chicken or tuna sandwich, but forget about grilled cheese or just a casual PB&J, omelettes well those are not easy to come by either. So if you find yourself having fried chicken with rice and some veggies it's normal, if you're on the road you will probably have the same for lunch and dinner.

Living for a year or so around here, at the beginning it was interesting, but after a while it became a bit boring and also the fact the you might get homesick after the overwhelming mixture of flavors (most of them spicy). Although coming from Venezuela, where we rely on a very colorful and mixed culinary tradition, (not going to dig to deep on this one but mostly our  food is very rich in flavors by combining local ingredients and traditional cooking with European techniques and flavors, it's an extraordinary thing). But coming back to the earlier point, yes there's a moment when you just can't stand another spoon of nasi.

Another thing to consider it's the spiciness of the food, mostly it will be spicy by default and probably already heard this before but if you ask the lady if something you're taking it's spicy and she says no or just a little, well then I'll leave it at your own risk. There's only a handful of preparations that are not hot as hell, so if you're not a big fan of spiciness, then be ready to become one because it's something you're gonna have to face in the streets, and even if you're already street savvy on the local culinary and already identify which ones are the spicy things and those that aren't there will always be something a little bit spicy on your plate... it's just an Indo thing. So just train your palate and probably it will be good to go. Although, in time it kind of grows on you. Another thing I would like to add, and I also think that it's sad, the fact that salads are not a popular thing around here, considering how cheap veggies are, you would think that salad would be a thing around here, but it's not, so if you're in desperation for fresh non-cooked veggies, most likely you'll have to end up in a fancy restaurant, make them youself or -worst case scenario- pizza hut's salad bar, because most vegetable are already cooked in most cheapo warungs.

But... not all hope is lost, there are some solutions and if you are living in Indonesia or just spending some months around the archipelago (and have access to a kitchen) you might have some chance of making some east meet west culinary melting pot -the universe knows I've had- I've managed to incorporate foreign flavors with local ingredients, for instance the "Indopesto", or even making our own bread (because bread here is awful and I'm immerse in a full campaign of not buying cardboard bread anymore!). So, every city counts with its own pasar lokal aka traditional market, here you can find fresh, cheap and an most incredible diversity of fruits and vegetables. Also beef, fish, eggs and the main lead character chicken. Some veggies are hard to come by, such as zucchini, paprika or bell pepper, but most big super markets have it.

As you can see previously I did not mentioned my good old friend pork, in the above list of animal protein. Well, Indonesia being a muslim country is not very warm on pork, but Chinese people is! So don't worry and just go to a Chinese warung or restaurant and ask them if they know where to buy pork (they know of course they do) usually it's in Pasar Besar (Big Market). Here in Malang there are two shops that sell it and you can stop by for ribs, pork chops, tenderloin and any part of the pork you might need.

About the usual suspects, ham (only some Chinese places have it and it's rare, very rare) cheese (an other rarity you might find plastic cheese, fake cheddar, awful thing and if you want the good stuff you have to pay at least 3-4$ for 100-200 grams, depending on the brand and the kind of cheese). Other dairy products are widely available but they don't come cheap either.

So now you know, if you're living in Indonesia just do some experimentasi and find some recipes you can modify some of the ingredients you can find locally. In case you're not a cooking expert just look for some easy recipes that are not hard to follow and you can have your own good old-fashioned meals at the comfort of your own house. Finally, if you're just passing by, well be patient and grateful and if it's in your possibilities indulge yourself, no one's judging except yourself. Finally, when you come back to your usual ways, most likely your're going to miss nasi goreng after all.

Almost a year ago

Over a year ago I found out that I had been selected to be part of Darmasiswa Program, an initiative of the Indonesian government in order to foster culture and the existence of Indonesia among countries which they have diplomatic bounds with. Having said this, as part of the etiquete protocol of having an opening for this post, it's also a reminder of how long and how fast time has passed by since I actually arrived to Indonesia, almost a year ago. The reason why I'm taking some thoughts in to this format is because a good friend of mine told me, "why don't you start a blog" (before coming here) and just today another good friend told me "you're keeping a journal, right?" well, no... I've been having doubts about my own capacities, abilities and skill to make it interesting, but in the end, who cares... It's my memories and for those who wish to see through them, be my guest.

In the past eleven months I've the opportunity of living in some sort of parallelism, since coming from Venezuela -which is also a tropical land-  lots of sunshine and lots of rain... crowded but not so crowded, loud, colorful, disorganized, chaotic and more, it feels like the same sometimes, but it's not. Mostly because different conceptions about life, social interactions, the fact of being a foreigner and how Indonesians interact with you or not. It's been interesting I'm not going to deny it. But also it's been hard, because you see all this characteristics that kind of bring you close to home, but they are bizarrely different and it's frustrating sometimes thinking how a place that looks so much like my homeland can feel so out of place, I guess it's the way the world comes and goes, "you can't always get what you want, but  if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need" and that can be comforting.

Behind this small intro, there are tons of experiences, adventures and misadventures, gorgeous memories and splendid scenarios, lots of nice people, strange people all the people, heaven knows that here there is a LOT of people. So for the moment welcome and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.