so where does it come from?? May 18, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.add a comment
last saturday i went to yoyogi koen to see a thai festival because my classmate (a thai) worked part-time there…seeing a lot of durians there made me want to eat them, but unfortunately it’s too expensive, compared to the price in indonesia…i also saw a booth selling rambutan…and then some things came to my thought…
the word ‘durian’ and ‘rambutan’ come from indonesian vocabulary (or is it malay?)…’duri’ means ’spike’, and ‘rambut’ means ‘hair’, so they mean ’spiky’ and ‘hairy’, just as their physical appearance…
so where do they actually come from??in know that thai’s durian is famous, also in indonesia, i like the monthong durian, it’s expensive though (still not as expensive as it is here ^^), and i also heard that in other countries there are also durian and rambutan (my friend from srilanka told me so)…
there was also a sepak takraw exhibition and booth in the festival, and i also wondered…’takraw’ is thai language i think, but ’sepak’ means ‘kick’ in indonesian…so i just wondered, if takraw is from thailand, then why it’s more well-known as ’sepak takraw’, a mixture of words of indonesian and thai…
so what do you think??
10 things I hate about Japan April 27, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.4 comments
1. most Japanese people can’t speak English!! and everything here is in Japanese…so it’s hard to do things if you don’t understand Japanese…
2. although some people may be able to speak English, their pronunciation is very bad, so it’s still ununderstandable…
3. a lot of people do suicide by letting themselves hit by train, and that makes the train late (well, I’ve never been affected so much, but my friends have ^^)
4. Japanese people are too shy that makes them kinda introvert, and when they want to ask for something they don’t look us in the eyes (me and my friends experienced it today…that’s impolite for Indonesian, right?)
5. the food is fine, but not as tasteful as Indonesian food…
6. I can’t download torrent from my dorm or campus!! (and my cousin said that his friend had an intel come to his house because he downloaded lots of movies and games ^^)
7. the cinema is expensive, and new movies show late here, and most of them are in japanese >___<
8. well, actually everything is expensive here…foods are expensive…a bowl of ramen, costs about 400 yen (a cheap one)…you can get more than 5 bowls of noodles in Indonesia…books are also expensive…the Japanese language book that I was using, which only cost less than Rp.40000 (about 400 yen), is also published and sold here with a price of 2000 yen (5 times higher!!)
9. everyone here is so workaholic…they can work until late night…even my friend in my class said that the soonest her husband come home is at 11 pm…in the lab also the students usually go home after 7 or 8 pm…seems like they can’t enjoy their life…
10. being able to understand the language is not enough…you also have to learn kanji (which I don’t like most, because I’m not good at memorizing) to read lots of things around…
10 things I love about Japan April 27, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.4 comments
1. high-speed internet connection (can reach about 10 Mbps download speed – measured by speedtest.net)
2. almost everything is high-tech and automated…one new thing I just knew about here is the automatic lamp…whenever there’s no one in a room for some period of time, the lamp turns off by itself, and as someone is detected entering the room, it turns itself on…looks like Indonesia’s technologies have been left several years behind…
3. pedestrians are highly appreciated…whenever a pedestrian crossing the street, cars will stop, because the driver will get a very high penalty if his/her vehicle hits a pedestrian…so contrast with Indonesia…I’ve ever had an experience where I crossed the street in a zebra cross and an angkot almost hit me >___<
4. it’s fast and easy to go to lots of places by train…
5. I got a cell phone with just 0 yen (980 yen actually because I still had to buy the charger)…and actually I can get an iPhone if I want to, but I tried it and it’s not user-friendly for typing so I decided not to take it ^^
6. Softbank cell phone provider gives unlimited free call service from 1 AM to 9 PM to another Softbank carrier (what if an Indonesian provider gave this service? ^^)
7. the bureaucracy is simple here, oppositely with Indonesia which adopts the “if-it-can-be-done-difficultly-why-does-it-have-to-be-simple” system ^^
8. people can queue here in order…no matter how long the line is, but they can wait patiently, not like in Indonesia ^^
9. a lot of interesting place here, to play or just for sightseeing…
10. you can pay for lot of things (bills, etc) just at a convenience store…
His grace is more than enough for me April 27, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.1 comment so far
here I am now, in a big famous city named Tokyo, where everything is so high-tech, everything moves so fast, feels like there’s no time to be relaxing…
a long story until I can get here, and it’s all just by His grace…and I can still feel His grace is upon me right now ever since I stepped my feet on this whole new world…
it’s been almost a month, I have seen and learned a lot of new things here, met new people, faced new problems, and yet felt His new grace every day…
I’m still adapting until now, trying to find a place, a community, where I can ‘grow’ here…sometimes I feel lonely, missing my lovely family and friends in Bandung, wanna share a lot of things with them but unfortunately they seem to be busy these days or maybe for some other reasons they can’t…but somehow I don’t lose my joy at all, I can still enjoy it…
actually I don’t know what to write here…feels like I wanna share a lot of things but the words just don’t come out…but the point is I just wanna thank Him for His grace…
“…My grace is enough; it’s all you need…” (1 Cor 12:9 – MSG)
road to Ujung Genteng February 1, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.Tags: backpacking, beach, curug cikaso, pangumbahan, roasted fish, travelling, turtle, ujung genteng, waterfall
2 comments
last week, i had a trip to Ujung Genteng beach…i’ve been wanting to go there since a long time ago, and when my friends told me that they wanted to go there on friday last week, i wanted to come along, but unfortunately i had an event to attend the following saturday so i couldn’t…but on thursday, i got a news that the event was canceled, and that meant i was free to go…and there i went…felt like it’s a God’s gift for me…thanks God…
i just knew that we’re going backpacking…never done it before…felt kinda nervous but also excited…
8 of us departed from bandung (leuwipanjang terminal) taking a bus to sukabumi, moved to lembur situ terminal in sukabumi, and took an elf (not elf as in fantasy tales ^^) to a small town named surade…we arrived there at about 2.30 in the morning after 3 hours of crazy ride from lembur situ…we took a rest at a mosque there because we have to wait till the morning to continue our journey…
we took a move at about 6.30 to Curug Cikaso…we thought that it’s in the same direction as Ujung Genteng, but it isn’t…but it didn’t matter…
it took about half an hour to Cikaso village…there’s two ways to reach the waterfall, crossing the river by boat or walking through the ricefield…we chose the second way…and our efforts were paid off seeing the waterfall…so AWESOME!!
after we had so much fun there, we continued our trip to Ujung Genteng beach and after we got an inn, we had lunch and all of us took some rest…not much to do for the rest of the day, we just walked down the beach, took some pictures, finding a dead little turtle, etc…
the next day, we played on the beach in the morning and found many sea creatures (including snakes)…at noon we visited the fish market and bought some fish for lunch…roasted fish!!yummy!!
in the afternoon, we walked to Pangumbahan beach, where a turtle conservatory placed…it took about 1,5 hours…there we built a tent and waited until night when the turtles come to the beach to lay eggs…finally we can see the turtle at about 9pm…
at 4 in the morning we got back to Ujung Genteng, packed our belongings, and end our journey back to bandung…
it was fun, my first time backpacking and camping…although it was very tiring but it’s a great experience for me…and i’m still amazed with the waterfall (curug cikaso) ^^
btw, total money spent: about Rp.250k for 3 days and 2 nights (cheap eh??)
this year’s targets… February 1, 2009
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.add a comment
it’s a month already since new year, and i haven’t written down my targets for this year…so here i’ll try to write it…
(not in particular order)
1. buy my own laptop
2. save money to get no.1
3. save more for settlement in Japan and buy a lot of things
4. do well in Japan (daily life and my study)
5. fix relationship with her
6. learn to cook many kinds of food so that i can cook by myself in Japan
7. increase my driving skill
8. start to do something regarding my vision
9. keep my business going, maybe by finding some partners (any volunteer?)
10. pass my master course entrance exam and noryouku shiken 2-kyu
11. …
hmmm…no more i can think about right now…maybe i’ll update it later…
but well, at least i already have some targets right now and i have to do my best to achieve them…
がんばります！
how about you??what are your targets this year??
flashback of 2008 December 31, 2008
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.1 comment so far
2 hours 29 minutes to year 2009 (on my computer’s clock)…
wow…lots of things happened this year…
feels like time passed so fast…feels like many things i did this year that i want to redo but well, you can’t change the past…all i can do is just learning from everything i’ve been through and facing the future ahead of me…
at the beginning of the year i started to enjoy my times with my CG team (the-A-team), although many hard things came into us, we faced them together and it made us more solid…but it didn’t last long because the team was rearranged then…my new team is doing well until now, but sometimes i missed the old one, wishing it could last longer…
still at the beginning, i faced my process of the year…i lost my digicam, with all my mom’s photos in israel in it…i was afraid she’s going to be angry at me knowing that…finally she knew, and as usual when things go wrong, she blamed things for that…in the end i used my savings to buy a new one…
around march, still in my efforts seeking scholarship to japan, i applied for tohoku institute of technology…i got a phone interview for that, but unfortunately i failed (again)…oh yeah, i was also waiting for ayf (asian youth fellowship) scholarship but i didn’t pass either…then i tried again for monbukagakusho scholarship…i decided that i have to make it…i revised my research proposal, got some advices from my friends, and sent the application…and i got called for the exam and interview…i did my best and thank God i made it! during the process, i tried to look for professor who will be my supervisor during my study in japan if i got accepted…i send e-mail to some (7?) professors with my research proposal, only two of them replied…one said that he couldn’t be my supervisor because he was on exchange to US…and the other one from tokyo institute of technology (TIT) brought me a good news, i got accepted…after i passed the exam and interview, i requested letter of acceptance to him and everything went well…thank God again…and the boring times began…i had to wait for the final announcement which is about january, about 4-5 months! it felt so loooongggg…but finally, about two weeks ago, i got called, i will go on april 1st…finally it’s clear, all my waiting are paid off…can’t thank God enough…but well, still a lot of things to do, waiting for the acceptance in the university, applying for visa, etc…
during my journey seeking for scholarship, i tried to upgrade my skills…i continued my japanese course (which took me long enough for getting a class) and took french course…don’t know why, but i enjoyed the french class better…hahaha…i also tried to earn some money by tutoring my cousin, making t-shirts, and since november i teach in binuscenter…
a huge thing for me that happened this year, is my relationship with her…first mid of the year i got closer to her, i could spend a lot of time with her, having fun, etc and finally i realized that i was in love with her…i thought everything would go well, since we were so close, i thought that even though she realized about that, we could discuss it and we could still be close…but it was a totally wrong assumption…suddenly i felt that she kept a distance from me, started avoiding me…it was so so uncomfortable, you know the feelings being avoided by your own close friend…i tried to have some talk with her, but she kept avoiding me…even on my birthday, i really really felt uncomfortable…finally i got a chance to talk, but she only want to talk through ym, and she was sooo angry at me…*sigh* it really bothered my mind for a couple of days until i got to manage it…after that, i tried to keep my distance from her, i was so afraid that she would get mad at me again, although i didn’t want to be like that…some moments later, she got better…she wasn’t as angry as before, but still i could feel the distance between us, we couldn’t chat or have fun like before, sometimes she was still being sentimental at me…several months passed, i could go through without thinking a lot about her anymore…but then i started missing her a lot, i was getting more and more sure about my feeling toward her and i want to fight for it…it’s really really hard for me, even until now…sometimes i felt that it’s been somewhat better, but sometimes i realized that it hasn’t…i don’t know…my time in bandung is just 3 months left, and i won’t be able to see her in about 1,5 months…gonna be missing her a lot…i can only leave everything to God…i will do my best, i will fight for my love, and i believe He will make a way…
1 hour and 2 minutes to year 2009…
gonna miss you… November 9, 2008
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.Tags: friend, friendship
2 comments
kemaren seorang temen deket ngasi kabar kalo dia dapet kerjaan di sebuah pulau yang cukup jauh di sana, dan akhir bulan ini dia udah pergi…well, gw ikut seneng karena dia emang udah pengen kerja di sono…tp di sisi laen gw jadi ngerasa sedih juga, bakal jadi kepisah jauh…
padahal gw udah ga terlalu deket ama dia, udah jarang ketemu juga, tapi koq begitu dia mau pergi jadi kangen banget ama dia, jadi ngerasa kehilangan gini ya…apa mungkin karena dulu qta pernah deket banget juga kali ya…rasanya jadi cepet banget aja udah harus pisah gini…
gw sendiri bakal pergi dalam taun depan, bakal kepisah ama org2 yg gw sayangin di sini…dan sekarang ternyata seorang malah yg duluan pergi dan gw udah ngerasa kehilangan gn…rasanya bakal bener2 berat nih ntar…but well, i have to overcome it…itu udah rencana Tuhan buat setiap qta, meskipun berat, meskipun sakit, tp ya beginilah yang namanya proses, tp gw percaya itulah yang terbaik…
for a lovely friend
thank you for everything
dunno what to say
but one thing
i’m gonna miss you
wish this friendship
lasts forever
why is it so hard? November 5, 2008
Posted by lumierre9 in chit-chat.Tags: friend
add a comment
it’s easy to have a friend
even a lot of friends
but a true friend is so hard to get
friends come
friends go
being apart always seems to be a reason
for us to not be close anymore
friends come
friends go
we should’ve been able to discuss our problems
but why do you keep running away?
friends come
friends go
i’ve tried my best to be beside you whenever you need
but why can’t you do the same?
friends come
friends go
selfishness is a human nature
but why do you seem to never try to not be selfish?
friends come
friends go
so many things that can break friendship
but i believe there’s always a way out
so why don’t we try it out?
a true friend would mean a lot to me
i will really treasure it once i get it
but when can i?
