2. England is rubbish.

3. London at night has different vibe to it. It’s rubbish again in daylight.

4. UK has 4 currencies: English Pound, Scottish Pound, Wales Pound, and Irish Pound. Most places in England would rather not accept the other Pounds, while the others accept English Pound fine :-/

5. English people do like to drink their tea with milk. If not most of the time.

6. Scotland has ‘haggis’. Never tried this myself, but people told me it was a dish made of sheep’s bowels. Ermm… I’ll skip that, yeah.

7. Buildings in Scotland were old, or made to look old. Creepy in a way, beautiful in a lot of ways.

8. Buildings in England were a lot more modern. Though not modern-modern. No skyscrapers and such.

9. Travelling with train intercities in Scotland were wayy much cheaper than in England.

10. Scottish people spell ‘girl’ as ‘gurell’

11. Scotland history is full of blood.

12. Isle of Skye was the 4th best island in the world nominated by 650 Nat Geo experts per March 2010.

13. Scottish weather is crazy! It would rain at one minute, dry up for the next 2 minutes, then rain again for the next 2 minutes, and so on, and so on.

14. In Scotland, ‘ewe’ means ‘you’.

15. Dunoon is a beautiful little town just north west of Glasgow. Peaceful, scenic, romantic.

16. Scottish people drink a lot. Maybe because it’s cold up there..?

This was my first visit to a church in a few months. Since I came here to Chicago I never went to any church. I think that going to church takes commitment and too much responsibilities, too much obligations. So I rarely go.

The church was…. to my surprise, quite crowded (not like the one I been to in Glasgow). The building was nicely decorated. Simple, but classy, with semi-sophisticated candelliers, and oh you should have seen the sharing room, very cosy, very neat, comfy classy furnitures and carpetting. Our service was held in the sanctuary room. There was no Easter or Good Friday-related decorations. The sanctuary chamber had high ceilings (again with the simple-classy decor), and a conservative piped organ.

I did not have a good feeling when I first entered the building. And when the service started, the liturgy was maybe quite similar like what my church in Jakarta had, only far more conservative! There were three pastors (I don’t know why they are called pastors instead of priests), who hardly smiled at all. And I believed in one of their faces I could see “bureaucracy” written all over.

Man, I didn’t like that church that much!

BUT,

When I first arrived at the church, I noticed an old lady in front of the entrance door. Alone. So this nosy nosy me asked her if she was alone. She said no, she was waiting for a company. So I waited with her there. She introduced herself as Elaine Dreier.

And from then on: I sat next to her and Leigh, the company she was waiting for, the one who drove her to the church; she gave me her phone number because I don’t remember mine when she asked for it, and told her I’d give her a call and give her my number then; and so I did call her this afternoon, we had quite a long chat consisting of she’s telling me about herself and she asked a lot of questions about me so she could know me better; she’s looking forward for me to come by to her retirement apartment to have lunch or dinner with her; she at some point of the conversation also made me say I’d come to the services probably every Sunday starting tomorrow (man!)

Oh my I hate obligations and must-do stuff, like having to go to church where I don’t quite have a chemistry with.

BUT again,

I feel like it could be great if I could be her company… y’know.. do what I can to be a good friend for her..

And when I finally get to put my feet on that ice, I thought “Oh geezh, this is IMPOSSIBLE!!!“. My other friends learned pretty quickly, but I still crawled around the edges of the rink, while thinking “why do I get scared a lot when doing activities?” Fear is why I have never been a sporty person. I cant swim, I put my vocal cords at risk because I screamed too much when I did ‘Arung Jeram’, I screamed the loudest (whereas nobody else screamed at all) when I rode a small roaller coaster in Hongkong Disneyland, I also screamed like crazy when I tried parasailing in Bali last year. And now I can’t skate either?

I encouraged myself to be a bit braver and with a lot of support from the audiences on the edges of the rink, and from fellow caucasians who were also in the same boat with me (that’s funny right? they lived ‘there’ but they can’t skate ).

I finally managed to learn to skate slowly a bit not holding on to the edges. Wooho! But I learned really slowly. I did get to almost-the-middle track of the arena with the help of my friends. I held on to them. And fall quite hard on my back pulling Titin with me Oh you’re going down with me, girl hahah

Anyway, by the time I was eager to reach the next level, it was already an hour and the rink had to be cleaned, and it was already quite late, so we went home.

What a good, fun experience, though will definitely do that again.

While I? I hardly could say anything since I sucked at physics (I hated it!), I was okay in Math I guess, but not because I liked it (I also hated it!), but because I had to learn it at school, it was mandatory stuff! (and it still made more sense to me than Physics did).

Then it made me think again (of something I already knew but kindof forgotten along the way), that I was never really that good in anything, and I wasn’t the worst either. I never really loved any study or field, and I never really hated any. I guess I was just average, and I think I still am. Geesh that doesn’t sound too good. Someone has to have a dream or something she pursues in her life, right?

Can never thank you enough for forgiving me..

Love you too :->

Tell me
Why do we fight when we know it’s all wrong
Why do we play that same old song
Is it just because
We’re lonely

(Oh), love me, love me
But don’t be sorry
Help me, chase the shadows away (the shadows away)
Love me, love me
When you’ve got nothing to say (you’ve got nothing to say)
Say something anyway
Help me chase the shadows away
Love me, love me
When you’ve got nothing to say
Say something anyway…..

Waktu itu udh ketik entry panjang2 (pas smbl nunggu jboss n again, svn. mang hidup pekerjaanku ini banyak nunggunya), eh laptopnya mati tiba2. Blm disave lagi.

Jadi mls mau ketik ulang yg wkt itu hehe.

Summarynya sih intinya menceritakan bhw skrg udah di Chicago, USA, utk 3 bulan. Dikirim GT utk Sears lagi, projekku yg pertama dl pas di UK.
Trs cerita jg bhw pas pertama sampe di USA, ditahan di imigrasi krn keteledoran sendiri, dan betapa seremnya dan dagdigdugnya keadaan wkt itu, takut disuruh pulang indo, tkt gak blh masuk, tkt ketinggalan connecting flight dll.

Cerita apa lagi yah, lupa dah.

byk yg berubah skrg. sebagian besar (kecuali mba yulie) udah pindah di jamsostek. dan sejak di jamsostek ktnya udh gak pernah plg malem2 lg. jam 9 itu udh tergolong malem banget. dan emang sih bbrp hari di jamsos gw plg jam 9 emg udh gak ada orang lagi yg msh kerja

Dan bknnya berusaha kembali workaholic ato apa, tapi emg kerjaan belum sls jd terusin dl dikit ampe jam 9 gitu.. gak tenang rasanya klo msh banyak bgt kerjaan yg blm kelar (biar bs pake alasan ‘at least sudah berusaha’ gitu)

Bbrp orang udh resign jg.. dan some things have changed. Pas gw balik, Rosa, salah satu teman dkt gw di GT, kalo gak bisa dibilang yg plg deket di GT, jd pendiem ktnya, dan selalu menjauh dari kerumunan orang. alias dia akan berada di gedung yg berbeda dgn mereka, antara wismul ato jamsos.

Gw jg br ketemu dia seminggu setelah pulang indo. aneh hehe… but i never expected i’d be so glad having her smiling and fooling around again. Yep she did. Entah krn event ketemu gw (ceilee Ge-er bgt, but I did try to melumerkan suasana dingin yg menyelimuti u know) apa bkn.

Intinya dia udah bosen dgn kerjaan yg itu2 aja. Ga ada tantangannya lagi ktnya. Jd dia males2an juga. dan mempengaruhi moodnya di kantor.

Bener juga sih gw jg gak berencana selamanya kerja disitu, in fact lg berusaha apply2 kerjaan baru di sgp. Dgn baru I mean gw berusaha meninggalkan lapangan kerja programmer ini haha.. It’s kind of frustrating.. I mean it’s alright to get frustrated now I guess krn I msh muda belia. Tapi do I still want to be frustrated for like 5 years to come? I’d probably (PROBABLY) have had other stuff I should be thinking about rather than just being stuck at work.

Tapi td jd bernostalgila.. apa ya yg dulu bikin kita smua smangat kerja 45 lembur gila2an sampe nginep2 sgala?

I found the first answer instantly. Friends. I’ve found a lot of friends at work. Lebih tepatnya lagi, companion. Seneng rasanya pny banyak orang2 yg menemani… guyon bareng, tempat cerita2, mkn bareng, we had fun. susah dijelaskan.

Yg kedua, krn I can feel important. Byk kerjaan2 yg diserahin ke gw, orang2 mengandalkan gw. Orang2 yakin gw bs ngerjain. Orang2 mempercayakan cerita2nya ke gw. Orang2 seneng kalo gw ada, merasa terhibur, pas pergi ke UK dikangenin banyak orang. I matter to them tanpa harus pura2 ato berubah jadi orang lain. Mereka menerima, oh tunggu, lebih dari itu, mereka menyukai gw apa adanya. Di tempat2 yg kyk gitu lah gw bs merasa nyaman banget.

Kyknya ada kabut kebahagiaan, seolah gw bener2 merasa exist gitu. The world acknowledged that I was there, and cherised me for who I was.

Skrg orang2 tercerai berai dan pada plg cepet..gw si tetep merasakan kabut kebahagiaan lagi wkt jam kerja, wlpn cmn tipis2.

Hehehe…beda banget ama di UK, they didn’t trust us. Entah krn nyelip2 ke projek dlm waktu ampir udahan, ato apa, tapi sedih rasanya klo mereka gak memberi kita kepercayaan utk bertindak lebih. To show ini loh kita bisa begini. Daripada cmn sekedar bug fix gak penting. Info2 penting itu kita gak tau… They just wouldn’t give it to us.

Oh well… Got some job-browsings to do

Harusnya ada smcm earning points yah. What have we done so far to make us earn that stuff we want? Misalnya klo mahasiswa, dpt nilai A ato target IPK sekian, baru boleh beli smth she really wants. Klo sbg TKI (staff), klo udh lulus sertifikasi sesuatu misalnya, baru boleh menghadiahi diri sendiri dgn barang yg plg diinginkan. Dengan begitu kan jadi ngirit juga, gak shop all the time dan gak sefrequent itu spend money. BUT, the problem is, itu cmn teorinya, prakteknya, klo lg ada sale knapa gak dibeli saat itu juga? Klo nunggu hasil laporan semester keluar keburu lenyap itu barang, atau uda jd mahal lagi. Smtr kita klo lgsg beli bs dapet murah. Oportunis yah

(Duhh penasaran,..pgn dpt jaket n sepatu yg bener2 keliatan bagus dan nyaman dipakenya :-/ Can’t get them out of my mind!!)

There had been a major earthquake in Padang. Over a thousand reported died. Thankfully kita msh dapat bantuan dari negara2 lain, Australia, China, Singapore, Russia, smua turun tangan ngebantu. Thanks to all these countries, klo kita sendirian pasti keteteran. Klo ada orang fanatik indo baca ini pasti protes deh, pst blgnya ah kita bs aja tuh sendiri. heeh? bisa korupsi, iya. bisa bikin tambah kacau, iya.

Salut utk Australia nih…udh warganya byk yg tewas kena bom bali, tp msh cepet tanggap bantuin kita. We are lucky to have such caring neighbour. Entah bisa ada orang idiot dari mana yg kepikiran kalo foreigners itu pantas dibom.

Anyway back to topic, klo negara2 lain ini aja cepet banget tanggapnya ama Padang, kta sendiri gimana sbg sesama warga Indonesia, saudara satu bangsa? Apa yang kita udah, dan bisa, lakukan utk mereka?

I just browsed around, here is one way I found to help:

Click here to donate via Surf Aid International. Bagus deh biar gak kekorupsi badan Indo hahaa..

Yuk nyumbang… sekecil apapun berarti kok, every repes counts.