I have to blog this. Not because I wouldn't want to forget, though, there is no chance I would forget something like this. But just to highlight its importance. Two days ago, my dad gave me his approval of my good driving, like: "hmm, you drive really well now." Finally. Awesome news. Yeah, this is a huge deal for me because I always try so hard when he's in the navigator seat. I also know he told my sister and brother the same sentence a long time ago.
So I have been spending a lot of time alone with my father lately, since mum is gone to take care of sick Po Oca in Kupang. We go driving to Malang, have meals out, go swimming, play with Isaac and Louise, take Gran for walks, and even go to shop for things. (Seriously, I'm talking about my dad, the man who has never been into a supermarket for the last ten years. He has no clue what a department store should look like) I buy him delfi chacha or silverqueen chocolates in exchange for cigarettes. Dad hasn't smoked for about two months; this time he's finally really quitting it.
While the endless power lines hypnotise us, we talk and talk and talk. Many interesting things were discussed while driving on the road. About driving, about people, mostly about life and risks.
If life was a dark haunted house, risks are the spider webs that are always creeping and hanging about all over the place. We can't step into any direction without facing them. Should it be the left turn, or the right turn? Take the risk, or stay still and leave things the way they are.
In life I find that on some good days, I go with the flow - everything stays safe and pleasant, like being tucked in and protected by a hundred soft layers of silk. On some other good days, I take a risk to do differently - and get results that catapult me high above fluffy rainbow coloured clouds. But life never quits being an ass to us all; sometimes I take the risk and regret whatever I lost in the process, and sometimes I don't take the risk and regret losing the opportunity anyway.
Here is an inspiring article I found the other day through twitter; I find it hard not to share it. Written by a lady who works with dying people - she talks to them and compiles their biggest regrets.
http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html
24 years young, I hopefully still have a long way down the road. But already, I can relate to at least four of the five regrets written in the article. Not exactly the comforting idea to be starting another week of work tomorrow.
However, the next couple of months will be the last of what life I lead now. There will be a lot of changes taking place, for it is time to steer to another direction. And this time I am better prepared for whatever life catapults my way. (Yeah, my wording in this post does reflect how much I've been playing chrome.angrybirds.com on the 100% Indonesian product Zyrex Wakatobi Mini touchsreen netbook - it's what I'm using to type right now. Trying to predict whether Windows still has hope against Apple and the upcoming attack of the Androids.. Hmm
Today is my Apo's birthday. Congratulations for being 93 this year. Yay.
I had a busy morning and went to office after lunchtime for the rest of the day. When we were packing up and I was getting ready to my already late badminton session, my manager called for a useless meeting. Everybody grumbled, including me. Today is the first day of my period and obviously my usual cheerful mood is absent because of the cramps, so I only half-heartedly acted as interpreter. Now, we were not the single bit enthused about being kept in for much longer. I don't know how anyone can fail to see that, but our manager thinks we're all enjoying this and having fun, and was seemingly keen on making the meeting go as long as forever..
We're getting there, just hold on. I was really starting to feel he was wasting our time on purpose. He kept asking for everyone's opinion about every single little thing and when we uniformly said no or yes, he'd keep asking whether everybody was completely sure. I kind of snapped. At one point, I looked him in the eye told him "they said no" in a completely cool tone of voice, but what scares me is I felt something I've never felt before. There was a rush in my head for only a second, mostly felt in my eyes. I have no clue what it was, but I definitely felt something rush. I have lived as a comparatively amicable person through a quarter of a century, and I wonder if other people often experience this 'flash' moment.
The 'flash' I refer to is that 'flash of anger' in someone's eyes that people always write about; if I had been able to see myself tonight, there is no doubt that my eyes flashed something. Coolness.
While the year 2009 had been a tough mentor for me; 2010, you are a great friend. It felt like only yesterday I had gotten to know you. There will definitely be a little teary moment on my part when we celebrate your departure in two days time :') Anyway, enough tears for now.. I wish everybody a merry, merry Christmas, goodbye 2010, and hope 2011 will be another great year!
Once again, January - whose name comes from the two-faced Janus, Roman god of doors and gates - is just around the corner, and we have to go through another year-end. ("Yayy!" celebration-wise, but "Nooo.." work-wise) Earlier this month I had gotten so depressed when I found out there won't get any days off for Christmas and New Year's since Chinese people don't celebrate those; Shyne will be coming to Surabaya to make up me not going to Korea though, so that's something to look forward to. My work is so crazed.. I feel like I've been tricked into romusha - but with great company; my funny high-on-caffeine colleagues keep me entertained for at least 8 hours a day.
For the past month, whenever I have time at home my eyes have been glued to the screen, finishing all 13 episodes from the first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
At first I thought I wouldn't find it tasteful; I only became attracted to try watching it for the sake of the perfect abdomen muscles on the DVD cover. But soon I found the drama and overall plot immensely addictive. It felt like I was being thrown back to high school days; in history class when we were learning about slavery, watching Kirk Douglas play Spartacus and how my teacher would pause the movie every now and then, adding details and starting discussions. Oh, how I loved history class. Anyway, it might not be your type of thing, but I highly recommend Spartacus: Blood and Sand to anyone willing to try. It's much bloodier than my how I imagined it back in high school, and fortunately much sexier!
Yes, I'm now back to being jolly since I've finally gotten over the loss of my Curve Javelin krisBerry, and am now so smitten with my new Bold Onyx 9700 :D Still wishing I could get my hands on the leaked OS6 from boygeniusreport though..
Onto another topic. Considering the much needed sport to flex our air-conditioned muscles and long forsaken athletic skills, a little group of friends and I have recently gotten together and started playing badminton once every week after work. Although I do treadmill runs and basic exercises, because I haven't actually played anything in so long, the day-after pain from the first times I played rendered me unable to type with both hands! Anyway, it feels good to get back to some routine sports, and I vow I'm going to get so good at badminton quickly.
This weekend didn't turn out as good as it should have. Started off nice with a Friday night birthday dinner at XO Suki; all my colleagues attended and I lost count of how many cakes I had. I'm glad that everybody could make it. Thanks guys!
Saturday, I went on a shopping date with Siska, Kling and Ely. My beloved krisberry (Blackberry Curve 8900 Javelin a.k.a. Jave-kun) is in my usually only half-zipped sling bag, and we were looking at clothes in Sogo department store. Just as our hands were getting full of clothes to take to the fitting room, the corner we were at suddenly got very crowded, like butt-to-butt, face-to-face crowded. --I even made a comment that we might have brought some luck into the store-- By the time I got to the fitting rooms, Jave was gone, so I went straight back to the place I got those clothes from, and NOBODY was there anymore, not even the salesgirls. We actually waited there for a while, calling my phone with my other phone, but it was soon turned off. That's when we finally realised it had been stolen. Sigh..
I feel very stupid and careless but oh, well.. *sigh* Hmm, I think I'm about done changing the passwords for all my online profiles now. Tomorrow I shall recover my old number and SIM card (going to be carrying around a useless little SIM card for a few days, since I don't have a spare GSM)
Everybody who had ever gotten their picture taken with my old Jave or sent a picture to me, I'm sooo so so sorry... m(_ _)m
Anyway, please feel free to put a curse for the thieves who ever get to see your pictures.
Now for some positive thought, I need to decide whether I should get the onyx or torch for my next krisberry. What do you think?
PS: Apparently my Blackberry desktop manager back-up files had some bugs in it so I will have to build my phonebook from scratch again TT_TT
I've never been one to believe in prophecies and the like. But just for the sake of coincidence, around the middle of this year, I had a fortune cookie tell me this: (now, it was weird because others who ate from the same batch had like, "Have a nice day")
拝啓 この手紙読んでいるあなたは どこで何をしているのだろう
十五の僕には誰にも話せない 悩みの種があるのです
未来の自分に宛てて書く手紙なら
きっと素直に打ち明けられるだろう
今 負けそうで 泣きそうで 消えてしまいそうな僕は
誰の言葉を信じ歩けばいいの?
ひとつしかないこの胸が何度もばらばらに割れて
苦しい中で今を生きている
今を生きている
拝啓 ありがとう 十五のあなたに伝えたい事があるのです
自分とは何でどこへ向かうべきか 問い続ければ見えてくる
荒れた青春の海は厳しいけれど
明日の岸辺へと 夢の舟よ進め
今 負けないで 泣かないで 消えてしまいそうな時は
自分の声を信じ歩けばいいの
大人の僕も傷ついて眠れない夜はあるけど
苦くて甘い今を生きている
人生の全てに意味があるから 恐れずにあなたの夢を育てて
Keep on believing
負けそうで 泣きそうで 消えてしまいそうな僕は
誰の言葉を信じ歩けばいいの?
ああ 負けないで 泣かないで 消えてしまいそうな時は
自分の声を信じ歩けばいいの
いつの時代も悲しみを避けては通れないけれど
笑顔を見せて 今を生きていこう
拝啓 この手紙読んでいるあなたが
幸せな事を願います
↑↑
That is how my manager pronounces my name, sadly. And, it's suddenly the end of the month.. again!! *phew* By next month, we'd be able to start normal (crazy) work at our brand new badass office :D I got to pick out the equipments and stationery and decorations from my favourite places! GRAMEX and ACE HW and INDEX :D :D I just LOVE it! ALL OF IT!!! ヽ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)乂(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ
Time has gone by so quick these last few weeks. So many problems just almost choking my neck--I haven't had a chance to even breathe in a little air. Since last Sunday I've been down with the flu. I cough, sniff, and blow my nose through every working hour; sometimes I get feverish and want to go home so badly, but in the end managed to get everything done before I get home and die on my bed as soon as I can. I come back to life just in time for dinner, of course, and then after a little TV I go straight back in bed like a five-year-old. Tonight, I decided to skip TV, to chat and browse around http://xkcd.com/ a little XD
Besides work, I've been busy being committe for the primary school reunion this July, spending time with my lovely mum and the Grannies, movies and dinners with friends, getting hospitalised (yea, again..) and fighting for my life against some kind of food-borne virus infection x__x
Oh, which reminds me, this coming Saturday, I'm finally going to have to face the dreaded wisdom teeth operation *sigh* I've seen three other dentists, but I'm going with the gay one after all. Hm hm.. Still haven't decided whether I should do left side first, or right?
Anyway, since unsurprisingly Indonesia didn't get in the W Cup games again, I'm pretty happy to see Japan doing well so far. Won't be watching the JP vs DK match..but here's a shout out: GO NIPPON, kick it tonight!
The science textbooks I memorised during all those years of primary school proved to be wrong. Turns out Indonesia's rainy season doesn't end in April! It's late May, and we still get crazy thunderstorms almost every day here. That's not a good thing. The major roads flood for one thing, so I can never get out of the house if somebody else has gone out with the big car. And today, I got drenched coming home from work. I do drive, but there is a distance between the building and where I park my car. As my co-worker got picked up from the lobby, I got a ride in her car to get to mine and managed to minimise that distance, but still got drenched. I shall bring an umbrella in my bag as if I was Tokyo from now on.
All is well now. I just had a long, hot bubble bath as soon as I got home, with the new soap and my favourite Herbal Essences, then finished off the last of the ice cream in the freezer. Nice..
It's been a long time since my last blog entry. For an update, Xtong is finally back HOME, in Surabaya, and has been able to meet up with many friends from high school who are also back from their studies. Also been busy trying to furnish the apartment; watching movies, serial House,M.D; spending time with the family; finally re-connecting with old, ooold friends from my Surabaya primary school on Blackberry; babysit the manager (I do EVERYTHING that needs to be done around the office), teaching all the co-workers Japanese (hey, I got one girl to memorise all the hiragana and katakana! so proud of her ^^) and influencing them to play games on my laptop during office hours at the same time.
Anyway, my eyes are getting so heavy already. Tomorrow morning I need to go see another dentist for a second opinion about taking out my wisdom teeth. I don't trust that gay dentist anymore. He filled in my cavity twice during the past two weeks, and my tooth's still aching. After that it's Shrek in 3D with the girls!! Then, dinner at the Surabaya Town Square, apparently the hippest new hangout!
They say 2010, the Year of the Tiger will not be a good year for me. It's my year of birth, and I will turn 24 years old later this year. Looking back, I apparently have had many good years. Everything had been so easy in my life; I never had to worry, struggle, even wish for anything. Did life give me the chance to have one gloomy moment? No. It seemed like the awards and scholarships came without me even trying hard; and I got through high school without studying like others did.
But just like day and night, dark would always follow light. Around two years back, I realised that sooner or later I will probably be shown just how fair nature really is. It has been almost a quarter of a century. Which means I will probably face a ton of shit pretty soon. So, to make a point, the past year hadn't been a good one for me, but I'm sure it won't continue for too long. I expect nothing less then butterflies and rainbows this year (so listen up, tiger year! Prove the chinese horoscope book wrong, and start working on my happiness!!)
If I had any say in this whole thing, it's better for the bad to come before the good. It might make the enlightenment that comes afterwards just that much more enlightening. I don't really know, but I hope you get what I'm saying. An Indonesian phrase that sums it up would be:
"Berakit-rakit ke hulu, berenang-renang ke tepian;
bersakit-sakit dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian"
Essentially translated to "no pain, no gain". But just to make it funny literally it says:
"Raft-raft upstream, swim-swim to the side;
sick-sick in beginning, happy-happy afterwards"
Don't mind this blogpost; the writer is feeling like a Rubik's cube, just having a minor quarter-life crisis, that's all.
There is no excuse. Bug or human - my privacy had been violated, and this morning I have most certainly witnessed an unlawful act of espionage. Right here in the holy island of gods, in my own shower.
After a long break from blogging about the gockiburrys, they still persistently pester my peace.. Today I gathered first-hand information about them. When threatened by an enemy, instead of fleeing, some small insects sometimes pretend to be dead, then coming back to life once the danger has passed. A truly adaptive evolutionary trait for them - just another point to add to my why-i-hate-bugs list. According to the wise words of Wikipedia:
In animal behaviour, thanatosis (from the Greek noun θανάτωσις meaning "putting to death") is the process by which an animal feigns death in order to evade unwelcome attention, such as that of a predator, or a male trying to mate with a female. This hinges on the pursuer becoming unresponsive to its victim, as most predators only catch live prey. Pasteur classifies it as a form of self-mimesis, a form of camouflage or mimicry in which the "mimic" imitates itself in a dead state, such that its pursuer no longer takes notice of it. It is a phenomenon known in invertebrates such as the wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, and cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, but also in vertebrates such as the common opossum..
7:55 a.m. Just like every other morning, I started to shower. An appointed small-size secret agent Mr. Gregor Samsa started to crawl out of the drain in the corner of the bathroom, scaring the bajeezes out of me! I pointed the shower head to its directions and quickly managed to create a line of water around the drain, so the enemy could not possibly infiltrate across.
7:56 a.m. After receiving light sprinkle attacks from my only weapon, it started to only wobble around, then gradually weaken and was suddenly lying on its back, legs up.
8:05 a.m. Still no movement from those spiny little legs; and I was still in the shower, unsuspectingly.
8:15 a.m. Don't ask; I was still taking my shower.
8:25 a.m. Hey, I enjoy taking long showers! Dead enemy was still in that same old position somewhere near that corner drain.
8:35 a.m. Situation in bathroom seemed safely under control, and I proceeded normally to get out of the shower, put on clothes, and went out. Forgetting my used towel and clothes, I stepped back into the bathroom to get them.. and I saw with my own two eyes the cunning cockroach resurrecting from the dead; RUNNING at full speed; back down the drain!
11:55 p.m. I finished work, but am still amazingly wide awake drugged by black coffee. Blogging and researching online about the cockroach's hardiness compared to us humans and other earthly species - along with the one above - I find out a few other facts. Discovery's Myth Busters team submerged six roaches in containers filled with water for half an hour, and it didn't pose any danger to their lives. They also have high resistance to radio activity. Which means if a nuclear warfare were to wipe out all living humans on this planet, this particular species would survive and most probably rule. Due to its high reproductive rates and current large number of population.
mimpi adalah kunci
untuk kita menakhlukkan dunia
berlarilah tanpa lelah
sampai engkau meraihnya
laskar pelangi
tak kan terikat waktu
bebaskan mimpimu di angkasa
warnai bintang di jiwa
menarilah dan terus tertawa
walau dunia tak seindah surga
bersyukurlah pada Yang Kuasa
cinta kita di dunia
selamanya
cinta kepada hidup
memberikan senyuman abadi
walau hidup kadang tak adil
tapi cinta lengkapi kita
laskar pelangi
tak kan terikat waktu
jangan berhenti mewarnai
jutaan mimpi di bumi
menarilah dan terus tertawa
walau dunia tak seindah surga
bersyukurlah pada Yang Kuasa
cinta kita di dunia
oh...
menarilah dan terus tertawa
walau dunia tak seindah surga
bersyukurlah pada Yang Kuasa
cinta kita di dunia
selamanya
selamanya
(あらいぐま) ラスカル pelangi~
tak kan terikat waktu
...till I go home to Surabaya on the 28th! Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on finishing all the work before then. My auntie has gone off for the past week, and I'm left here by myself. Even with all the work to supervise, it gets quite lonely sometimes.
Yesterday was my only day off, and I spent it at the beach playing with my cousin's family, some of the staff and Bonbon.
Here is the picture of the sunset at Lasiana beach.
It's a little piece of heaven right here on earth.
人間という仕事をクビになってどれくらいだ
とりあえず汗流して努力をしたつもりでいただけ
Thanks Shungyeon for the previous posts' comments, I loved reading them and I miss you too~♥ So it's finally Sunday, my only day off, and it went by just like that as I fixed problems in the new system, groomed Bonbon, visited my grannie, and now just came back from a wedding reception at the hippest new party hall here. The president/candidate SB Yudhoyono is in town, maybe till tomorrow; Kupang's streets saw a major traffic jam for the first time.
For the past month and a half, I practically learnt more than I did from any campus grounds. About how to cut dog hair and nails, manage an administration and accounting system, cure sick infants, and drive manual in crazy conditions. I learnt that eucalyptus oil should never go in your ears. I also learnt about entrepreneurship, the power of facebook, and about the price of living.
I recall my father's conversation with his friend one day. He had just read a volume of Chicken soup for the soul, and was dramatically retelling one story of an Anglican priest's will which was found at the side of his dying bed. The priest wrote of how he wanted to conquer and change the world when he was young, make it a better place. Upon reaching adulthood, he realised the plan was too idealistic, so he aimed to just fixing up problems within his country. Turning middle aged, he finally saw the many problems inside his own family, and sought to solve those first. Now, bedridden and suffering from diseases - only then he knew that he should have first taken better care of himself instead before it was too late. Then my dad's friend commented on the story modestly: "Why tell such a long, complicated story; when there is the four-character Chinese idiom xiu-qi-zhi-ping (which I later looked up in my faithful Canon Wordtank G90) 修齐治平?"
It stands for 修身、齐家、治国、平天下. This Confucian idea instructs people to (forgive my poor translation skill) first cultivate oneself, manage their family well, go on to govern a country, then bring peace to all things under heaven.
The above story and phrase is so tightly related to many things that happened around me lately. I came to realise that death comes to visit more often than I imagined, the film Okuribito seems to continuously play itself right between my daily routine. What would you do if you discovered that you would die before your time? What if you got cancer? Or heart disease? Or diabetes? Or AIDS? Or hypertension? Or, okay, let's just go back to cancer - the modern lifestyle and foodstyle disease. We suddenly received a package via post, inside it was a file folder of copies of handscribbled notes and articles, from newspapers, magazines, books, and elsewhere. It was sent from a middle-aged distant uncle. Dying from cancer, considered 'untreatable' by most doctors in Australia, he waits for his time to come at the end of each passing day, his letter says. But before that time comes, he warns as many people as he can by sending out the results of his years of research while he fights this disease.
I won't post up this guy's multilingual collection of cancer knowledge, but I want to pass on his message here. Google up "cancer" and read the wiki. Its major factor basically comes down to how we manage our daily consumption. So whether you are a herbivore, carnivore, fungivore, omnivore, or insectivore, be a better person - and start by eating healthier!
My thoughts go out to those who are fighting cancer, those who faced and defeated it, and those who have gone to rest forever..
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I'm in our Surabaya office, with nothing much to do. And loving the newly upgraded wi-fi service here! ^^
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The city I spent childhood holidays in, Kupang, is developing fast. It may be more foreign to me than Tokyo or Beijing, but I'm slowly finding my place and settling in there. I've even had my first bemo ride the night before the elections and found out that people here are very into extreme public transport. Amongst my first impressions is the obscenely abundant amounts of fresh sea produce, and I just couldn't get enough of the fat fishies, juicy prawns and the sweet, sweet crab meat!
At the beginning, I thought my best friend here would be Bonbon the poodle, and my daily companion a novel about a dog named after Bob Marley. But the staff at the office have been nothing but friendly. For the company's anniversary, we had a fun day of games at Lasiana beach, near Manikin. I, as one of the competition organisers, saw how much like a family people here are. Never in life had I seen such enthusiastic teamwork before, and any worries I had about working with them are no longer around. Besides, KoPiter, who is sick of the Hongkong salaryman life, will return to Kupang and work with us!
The vast cloudless skies and endless beaches of Kupang are only half as big compared to the hearts of its people. After all, it's Kupang, Kota Kasih.
Less often than I had expected, I went to the one and only mall (Flobamora Mall - don't you just love the exotic names here?!) only two, three times during my two weeks. It was too troublesome to go online in Kupang with the bad connection, and I have gotten to the point of living comfortably without having to check Facebook updates and make random chat with all my old friends. It's my third night back in Surabaya now, and only now I finally found the time to upload pictures from my graduation and to browse around.
Anyway, I will be staying busy for quite a while from now. But now, it's playtime with my shiny two week old Blackberry Curve 8900 Javelin, install some more necessities on it! Phew.. It does feel damn good to be typing up my blog post on a computer keyboard again though - instead of the puny qwerty phone keypad I used to type with for my last post.
Bilo our golden retriever playing with his ball at night.
He can never stay still in front of any camera lens and usually ends up being nothing more than a yellow blur in pictures, as witnessed on the left here.
Daniel Defoe never wrote a novel about that, I bet. But for the last two weeks or so I have stayed in as much as six different places; traveled more miles than any Robinson Crusoe could within the same time; and am stuck in a place you could say almost as deserted as Crusoe's island.
And here's how it all began:
Out of all days, the heartlessly cold, bone-numbing spring rain showered my graduation day. Early morning it was the hair-setting session and the start to a full-day modern East Asian torture of wearing the hakama. I may have complained about wearing a couture dress before. Well, this was twice as bad. Though the geta - also not at all comfortable - was still no match against stilettos.
Despite that, and my mobile running out of power by lunchtime (meaning I couldn't get in touch and contact some people I wanted to see for just that one last time!) more than anything, I look back on the day with genuine appreciation and gratitude. Met up with Pak Eko, who came to Tokyo. Having "sotsugyo omedeto" from my high school teacher as I graduate from University was more than I could imagine. My parents came with cute matching outfits; Unta helped company them in his recruit suit; and I had my best girls Siska and Shyne! Cindy came looking so pretty with her camera and saved the day (my camera died); Ayu, no less pretty, joined straight from Narita airport; Jenna and her mum also was there, Azu always a bright spot on any rainy day; Steve and Alvin looking ever so neat; then there were Asakura-san, Soetanto-san; Mas Eko and Bu MeiLing also not forgetting to come. Also Yoichiro, who made it at last (I was so dumb for not contacting him with someone else's phone)
Thank you all! I exist as the person I am today because of your existence, and my graduating out of Waseda is dedicated to every single one of you.
Farewells later, I was boarding the new 777-300 to Hongkong. After about ten minutes into the movie 'Twilight', I couldn't help but fall hopelessly in love with vampire hunk Edward Cullen! I was imagining the endless merits of having a vampire boyfriend by the time the credits rolled onto my little screen. What initially was a little stopover in Hongkong turned to be the best weekend ever, when Caro and Yoseph flew from Beijing to join the big family (with cute Isaac, little Grace Louise and baby Hasan!) for the weekend. After a tiring weekend of mostly eating and gathering, we headed back to cloudy Surabaya on the 30th. By that next morning, my ticket for Kupang was confirmed, and I was to fly on April Fool's, to start my on-job training.
It breaks my heart that my Edward Cullen has not tried to call or even text me to this very day. So I decide to end our relationship tonight and declare my new undying passion for a packet of spicy dried meat my dad brought from Thai. A must-try for everyone; it's the crispy, delectable PORNTIP!
This blog title doesn't make me happy at all. I will leave this place for good in exactly a week's time, with somewhere around 90% probability I will not come back here live anywhere abroad for a while starting then. I'd say I am somewhat satisfied, however, with the certainty of what will become of my near future; I will go back to Indonesia to work. Not what I had in mind at all, but this is what people call ongaeshi, I guess.
Confused? I'll fill you up with a more detailed update. All the frustrations of job-hunting finally got to me and revealed my weak mentality (comparing myself to Japanese Univ students); I gave up on finding work in Japan. When classes at the University finished, I started to look up job openings in Singapore, and got myself a couple of phone interviews. Out of the blue, early that February (Happy Birthday, Kutu!), my father wanted me home ASAP. I quickly made changes to my ticket, cancelled any meetings/interviews, and arranged quick farewells with people who will also leave Japan; because my father doesn't negotiate. On February 6th I left Tokyo, the very day after a final paper was due! I felt very bad for Siska because I cancelled all our holiday plans >_<
It was good to be back home, and see everybody again. There was even a Ciputra reunion held by Yulli in Goota, and heaps of people came! Caroline and Yoseph were on holidays too, so we got to spend a week together. Bilo had grown so huge, sometimes I worry I might get crushed and die when he jumps up to greet me. Jacob the beo bird caught the flu during my last week, and died when I reached Japan. Rest in peace, little guy. After much forceful pleading from my side, my petition for only spending three weeks in Surabaya (instead of the initial two months sentence) was accepted. During which I found out my father wanted me back just for a little talk. About how he thinks I should not find a job overseas after all, and about how I should think about jumping right in to running his business back home. Okay, I know that seems like a waste of airfare, but he's really not a phone person, and neither am I.
Then I was back in Tokyo. I was very upset that I had missed out on meeting with my Darwin primary school friend during her stay Tokyo due to my sudden trip to Surabaya, but when I got back here she facebooked me news that she was still around Kansai. So, on my second day back here, Siska and I went to Shinjuku, got tickets and by the next day, off to Osaka we went! It was my third time there. We had great fun travelling around the city for two days, and finally meeting up with Jasmine and Heath was no less awesome.
After passing his level three Indonesian proficiency test, Yoichiro got himself addicted to the UFO catcher crane game, so we go play about every weekend, and I now sleep with three silly stuffed animals - his recent hauls. Other than that, these days I'm usually stuck home packing and watching DVD's while Siska goes out with Naoki, or helping Pong find and move into to a super-cheap apartment. Some days I go for walks nearby, around Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, and catch some fun with my besties Shyne, Siska, and Unta; or with old, old friends Akai and Ken. Sometimes all the way to Asakusa, Odawara; with my cute kohai-tachi Steve, Alvin, Azu and Cindy ^^
My very last spring, my very last week; I am determined to make the most out of it. Tomorrow, the Imperial Palace Gardens! This coming Monday night, my parents flight gets here. Wednesday will be my graduation ceremony day, and Saturday is when we fly out together for Hongkong. By next Monday or Tuesday, I will be in Surabaya. Settled.
