What you want to know

So yesterday (and by that I now mean a week ago) I met with Ella. She's an Indonesian girl here in LA on the YES scholarship. That makes us opposite twins of course. She's going to be in Indonesia when I am and we'll also see each other on the plane to DC on the 28th and at the actual conference too.So in honor of having met her (and also because I haven't said much about Indonesia yet) I will give you guys some information (just the official stuff not the random hearings. that'll come later) about the country I have to spend 10 months of my life in.

The Republic of Indonesia

Geography

Located in Southeast Asia. Borders Malaysia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea

It's an Archipelago. Made of 17,508 islands

Jakarta is the capital.

I'll be in either Jakarta or Surabaya.

People

Language: Indonesian (with some local dialects)Has a population of ~245.6 million people. The Island Java is the most populous in the world and Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world. O_O

Religion: 6 religions are offically recognized. Indonesia is 86.1% Islamic (has the world's largest population of Muslims) 5.7% Protestant, 3% Roman Catholic, 1.8% Hindu, and 3.4% other (Buddhist, Confucianism, animist ect.)

History. Really quickly (and horribly) because I don't feel like just repeating stuff

Obviously it is very long.

There was a period of Dutch rule. Then a period of Japanese rule. Then there was complicated times where the Dutch wanted to rule but Indonesia wanted it's independence and there was some wars/battles/rebellion. Anyway the end result was Indonesia was independent with Sukarno as it's president.

The current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

And because I've learned the importance of citing I will tell you I've learned this from the CIA factbook and wikipedia pages on Indonesia. Also I'm reading lonely planet's book on Indonesia. So yes.