In Aceh, Indonesia Wearing hijab, a veil, makes me feel like a princess. No one can see my awkward hair, for one. People here do know that I am an American. When you stand five ten off the ground, and the average hieght of men is five six or shorter...one tends to stick out. Regardless of my height or my accent, it is easy to move here. While many have described the veil as constraining, I am finding it to be liberating. Traveling with other women helps as well. Rice, chili peppers, and noodles have found their way onto each of my plates:breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Palm trees shake their fronds. The air is sticky with water and hot with the sun. I smell licorice nearly everywhere I go. We are staying in at a hotel in town. Small motor bikes wizz by the street. All of the roads were recently built after the tsuanmi, which wiped out most of the built environment and killed so many people. Many houses were also rebuilt. Many of which did not follow the traditional long house design and are falling apart today. Looks like Haiti and Sri Lanka in many ways. Today, Libba, Breanna, Siti, and I intend to go jilbab shopping with our research counterparts Intan, Husna, and Tata.