CNY Visit

As custom obliges, on CNY we have to pay a visit to older family member. In this case was my Lao Cek (I even don't know how to spell it in Chinese). He is my grandfather's cousin from my mother side, and now residing both in Singapore and Hongkong. For my surprise, my Lao Cek is so cool! He can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Tio Ciu, and flawless Indonesian (the first person that I know able to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese is Jacky Cheung =P)!My mom's family had Singapore as their first foothold outside mainland China. It happened around 1930s when my grandpa's uncle decided to go across the ocean towards SE Asia. At the same time my grandpa's dad stayed and maintain their foothold in mainland China. It was if the trip should be a failed one, the family which went overseas could still come back to China.

Their first entrance to Singapore was by Singapore River, the area what should be Clarke Quay right now. Furthermore their first home was also in the same area. After they arrived, they tried to get permanent living which resulted in a successful one. So afterwards, the whole family moved from China to Singapore.

Found that living cost in Singapore was high at that time, my grandad decided to again try to move to Indonesia. This second trip brought this newly founded family (my grandad was just newly married at that time) to set their foothold in Jambi, with the entrance by Batanghari river.

So being raised in Jambi, my mom met my dad, and I also raised in Jambi for early days of my life, which later on we moved again to Bengkulu. And again to Tangerang until now.

One of the question asked to me was "Do you want to stay in Singapore, have family here?" And my answer was "No".

明天是新年！恭喜，恭喜！

新年快乐！恭喜发财！身体健康！红包拿来=p！

Well this is the most important day for Chinese people! The celebration of the upcoming ox year tomorrow morning. Although the economy is considerably gloom in last year, a lot of people hold new hope on the upcoming year to bring good fortune to everybody.

On his CNY message, Singapore Prime Minister said that the year of the ox will be a challenging one as the economic growth is expected to be negative for the whole year. As one of the economic stimulus, just at the end of last week, Singapore government announced income and property tax rebate (to help Singaporean to pay for their first home). I coincidentally watched this news inside bus ongoing way home.

What I see as good thing from government here is the quickness of response and bluntness of explanation. Of course it is not a good sign to begin a new year, but the sun will still rise tomorrow nevertheless.

So it is time to celebrate! Last night all the CNY-attributes-selling shops were doing their latest night to sell their merchandise, so what can you think? Great discount!


The people were concentrated at market area of Chinatown, and also like dangdut show in Indonesia: one stage were built in the middle of Eu Tong Sen St.
And not to mention yesterday night was the first time I encountered people did "busking".


Today 11.oo am, we did our new year's eve .. well.. lunch (I know, it suppose to be dinner, but since it was hard to find place for dining...). Since my family is not here, I did my reunion lunch with my uncle's family (whose place I currently live at). The restaurant was at Spring Court. 52 Upper Cross St.


And afterward we left for Vivo City and watched "Love Matters", a Singaporean movie which takes KL as its settings. For me it was quite an experience to see movie with such riches in languange and cultures (Chinese, some Hokkian, English, and Malay).
One quite memorable scene was when this guy yelled in Chinese at an Indians since the Indians did the repair on portal system, and he wanted to pass through. The Indians then yelled back and explained the problem in Chinese. And as the guy looked stunned, the Indians said "What, do u think Indians can't speak Chinese?" All the conversation was in Chinese and it was quite amazing to see an Indian actually spoke Chinese.

Well but no matter how fun it is, I still miss my family. I wonder how they are going to do their reunion dinner tonight, I miss my mom and dad, my brother and sister in law. I miss my home, the flower arrangement, the home-made cookies, the hong-bao tree.

I remember that just these few later years my father suddenly become stricter on holding CNY's eve dinner. As the second generation (mine) are getting older and married, my father and mother's generation are focusing their CNY celebration with their own family and grandchildren.

Hope that this lunar new year will bring us all good health and blessings for times to come!

Gw Sleepy Hollow Banget Nih....

You have to understand the oncology and Indonesian culture to truly grasp the meaning of that sentence.

Just yesterday I realized the major drawback in attending this class: you can't sleep in class anymore! It is due to the small number of student.

"darsiong: wah
darsiong: so how's it?
kar_dee: enakan dulu euy... kalo ngantuk bisa tidur di belakang"

When I was in ITB, I slept alot during lectures. And by sleeping during lecture, I could manage my energy which was needed because I had some other urgent and life affecting activites such as: playing Ragnarok, swimming, etc.

OR I could avoid sleeping by

• talking with each other, with hot topic: character build, or team play in DoTA.
• munching Chic-Choc as a very potent energy booster (and also fat booster).

Which both of them I can't do longer anymore! And I still get "Sleepy Hollow" attack especially on morning and after lunch hour.

I wonder how to handle this issue...

How to exchange money

Chinatown Complex, money changer, 20.30 pm.

Me: "I would like to change some Indonesian Rupiah into Sing Dollar, what is the exchange rate?"
Money Changer (MC): "Berapa banyak?"
Me: "Ten million"
MC: "Tujuh ribu lima ratus"
Me: "您给我好一点可以吗 (can you give me a little bit better)?"
MC: "这是很好了 (this is very good already)."
Me: "OK"

The trilingual system makes my head spinning already laaaaahh (in sing-lish).

First Day @ School, Tjap-Ed (baca: cape deee)

I had to get up in the morning, went to the MRT Station, walked the interchange, rode another MRT, traveled 7 stations, changed into the shuttle bus, and at last walked through the front door. What an tiresome *soon to be* routine. No to mention the MRT station consists of numerous flight of stairs.

As for the orientation program, I must admit that I experienced what looks like bipolar syndrome. At one moment I was in a high spirit, but can turn gloomy all of the sudden. Could not explain why.

I don't want to make friends, I don't want to know as many people as I can, I just want to know people who I can benefited from. And I think it do both way. Let's just let nature take it course, and prove our capability in the face of hideous assignment than to exchange meaningless gesture and words. Can't understand why those people were so enthusiastic to know each other.

The interesting thing is that there is one person from the first class of IF-ITB in the same program. Of course he already became a Singaporean and have children. What a small world eh...

And there is this noisy Binusian, Not for my surprise if he tried to lick the Program Director attention.

And the AGONIZING trip you have to make to get yourself lunch. Oh cum on! The distance and the stairs are specially made to cater Singaporean excessive need of sports. But not me! Aaaaaaarrrghhh....... in terms of the availability of food, ITB far surpass this horrendous university (I suddenly miss Kantin Borju and GKU Lama). Not to mention the queue and auntie who suddenly spoke Mandarin when she saw my face. What! I can speak English too. I'm seriously thinking to bring food from home, or at least buy wrapped food before go to school.

I blame Pinky, Bocid, and Darmawan for talking me into accepted this program.
Just imagine should I take master program in Indonesia instead, I just jumped into any private vehicle and brrrrmmm... off we go! F*ck the public transportation! I can talk Indonesian, buy satay everyday.....

I think I miss Indonesia already.

Singapore, tourist mode: on!

These are calm days before the storm on Monday since it will be my first day of school. Worsened by the facts that I have no idea what to learn, except it will be as weird as nuclear literature (I think).

So why bother, just grabbed the camera and be a tourist! The tourist team consisted of Ci Asiang as tour leader, Ko Budi, and Ko Cungcun (pardon if there should be any typo).

First target should be the icon of Singapore, the Merlion. Truthfully it was my first time taking picture with it. Well I live in Indonesia but I don't have any picture with Monas either =(. Crossed it everytimes I headed to Gambir (alighted at Monas TransJakarta bus-stop, and then walked along Silang Monas to Gambir), but it never crossed my mind to picture with it. What an ignorance person I am.



I was quite surprised to find out that Merlion Park is not too far from where I live now at Chinatown. Guess I'm still fresh out from the village anyway =).

The second stop was Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at Smith Street. With the same spirit as Singapore, the temple is glamor with numerous luxurious facilities : elevator, basement parking lot, air conditioned room, but in the other hand also heavily commercialized.



Picture above is my favorite statue, I ran and breathed "wow" when I first saw it. It is very simple yet very beautiful, as if the Buddha really floats in the thin air.
Pictures uploaded to my flickr.

Ke Badui!

30/11/2008

Diajakin anak2 NSN ke Badui (walaupun gw bukan karyawan lagi). Secara Sauma (jadi pengganti gw! cahyo!) rumahnya di Rangkasbitung.

Secara pergi ke Rangkas tinggal naek bus dari depan rumah, so hayuk ajalah. Naeknya bareng2 tukang gali FO di depan rumah juga, dan sepanjang perjalanan gw merasa agak "out of place" karena Cina sendiri (it shows!). Walaupun sempet dagdigdug di perjalanan "ooh dimanakah aku sekarang", secara perjalanan diluar dugaan cukup jauh (pernah juga ke Rangkas.. nganter pembantu.. tapi itu sudah lama sekalii...).

Singkat cerita gw baru tau kalo Badui itu ada Badui luar dan Badui dalam. Yang mengagetkan, ada papan pengumuman yang salah satu butirnya kira-kira berbunyi "orang yang berkulit putih (selain berkebangsaan Indonesia) dilarang masuk ke area Badui dalam". RASIS! Belum lagi menggunakan kata "berkebangsaan" daripada penggunaan kata "berkewarganegaraan" yang lebih menekankan ke aspek fisik. Grrr.....

Ya sudahlah karena memang dasarnya mau jadi turis... maka kita foto2 aja di Badui luar sekali en beli beberapa cenderamata.

Laptop (sebelum dan sesudah)

Ketemu foto2 jadul pas jaman kerja dolo.

Ini laptop pas kerja. Byasa ciri khas gw, desktop penuh abis. Ketika berenti gyaaa, casingnya udah patah. Jadi nda bisa ditutup lagi =P. Untung Siemens bae... nda ditagih ganti rugi.

Tenkyu untuk kerjasamanya dan mau menemani hingga akhir. Udah naek turun gunung, keluar masuk ruang meeting, blegar beledur maen game sama2 terus.

Temen apa temen???

Oh my ***!!! It's sooooooo last-last-last year for someone using that kind of words and tone. The moment of saying, it's quite classic already:

A: I have a friend who ....
B: Temen apa temeeeen niih?

Some say language evolves faster that the speed of Charles Darwin feeding banana to his great-great uncle. Come on dude! Move on!