Kegandrungan

Sheila on 7. After not listening to them for years, I stumble upon their songs again and have been listening for a week now ;)

Summer in Ithaca

“Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.”

-Jawaharlal Nehru

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

- Anais Nin

“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”

-William Blake

“Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

-Langston Hughes

I Saw Herons...

...today during birdwatching, which was awesome! There were three adults, four juveniles, and two chicks still in the nest. We were in the right spot at the right time to see the mom feeding the two chicks and the juveniles flapping their wings to build strength. Priceless, that's what it was.

Walking in the woods at 7:30 am and witnessing nature at its rush hour reminds me of this song. Birdwatching makes me want to be a Pocahontas.

You think you own whatever land you land on

The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim

But I know every rock and tree and creature

Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people

Are the people who look and think like you

But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger

You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?

Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest

Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth

Come roll in all the riches all around you

And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers

The heron and the otter are my friends

And we are all connected to each other

In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?

If you cut it down, then you'll never know

And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned

We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains

We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still

All you'll own is Earth until

You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Who said it first?

Jesus:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Paulo Coelho:

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.

Yohannes Surya:

Mestakung!

Apparently I Was Impressive

His name is Bill Best, the owner of Best Auto Repair which is located less than a block away from where I live. I would guess that he is at least 60, but still actively working under the hood and below a raised car. He seems like the kind of elderly who move and talk slower just like what you expect from one, but would somehow finish a marathon. When I came in this morning, he was fiddling with a car engine. "Good morning, would you be able to do an oil change today?" I asked. He kept his eyes on what he was fixing, it was a good 10 seconds of silence before he answered, "Sure, he will be with you in a sec." He pointed to a younger man, all the while never leaving his work.

After giving my car key to the young man, I sat on a chair beside Bill's work desk. He came by and asked what my first and last name was. He typed "v-I-D-I-A" using only his right index finger. He looked up to the monitor, realized the mistake and gave a short chuckle to himself. A very good attribute he has there: laughing at own mistakes.

After correcting that, he looked out the window to see what car I have, "It's a Mitsubishi... hmm... ." "It's a Lancer," I helped him out. "Aaah you know what you are driving, that's very impressive! Let me tell you, most girls don't know what their car is. I see it all the time," he was genuinely surprised. "What year is it?" he asked again. I said that it's a 2003. "Wow!!! Very good!!" he said, a little overreacting for the second time. He then went outside to check how his apprentice was doing and after a while came back in again. This time he did not need the information and asked me anyway to see if I knew, "How much mileage does you car have?" I wasn't really sure, "54?" He excitedly nodded, "Very good, very good." I felt like a car expert by that time, but admitted, "That's about all I know about my car."

Apparently that was impressive enough. Thanks Bill for the service and for assuring I'm not as clueless as I thought I am.

Yes, Pandora...

I'm still listening...

It will be quite a while...

Thank you for asking.

Berputar Arah: 10 Tahun Yang Lalu

Dari facebook wallnya Aditya Lesmana saya diingatkan kepada kejadian waktu dulu banget, waktu hobi saya masih baca serial Full House sambil tidur-tiduran dan ngemil kacang atom pedas. Umur saya waktu itu 14 tahun, baru saja lulus SMP. Rambut saya setengah lurus setengah keriting, selalu seperti singa setiap bangun pagi; meluruskan rambut belum populer. Saya sudah diterima untuk masuk di SMA Kolese Loyola di Semarang dan sangat menunggu-nunggu saatnya mulai SMA. Sudah tidak tahan rasanya menjadi dewasa, seperti kakak saya yang naik motor sendiri ke sekolah dan pergi ke macam-macam pesta sweet seventeen-an.

Tapi kira-kira dua minggu sebelum orientasi mulai, saya masih di Riau. Saya tidak tau bagaimana, tapi saya ingat apa yang saya lakukan waktu itu. Saya duduk bersila di lantai di ruang tamu. Beberapa formulir tersusun rapi di atas meja di depan saya. Dokumen ijazah SMP tertera di sebelahnya. Formulirnya ada dua kopi, meskipun yang dibutuhkan sebenarnya hanya satu saja. Pertanyaan di formulir itu berbahasa Inggris, sehingga hadirlah juga kamus lengkap Inggris-Indonesia di meja itu. Pertama saya mengisi satu formulir pakai pensil, hapus sana hapus sini sampai akhirnya selesai diisi. Setelah itu, baru saya transfer isiannya ke formulir yang akan beneran dikirim, kali ini pakai pen dan sangat hati-hati. Saya masih kebayang, papa ada di sebelah, sebentar-sebentar menyuruh saya untuk menulis lebih besar dan kami sempat heboh mencari tip-ex gara-gara saya salah tulis (tipikal).

Tidak pernah terbayang kalau apa yang kami kirim hari itu memutar arah hidup saya. Sungguh. Saya tidak berharap sama sekali kalau orang-orang penting di departemen pendidikan Singapur akan memilih saya. Tapi, 2 bulan kemudian datanglah surat panggilan itu ke rumah Opa Oma di Semarang. Saya tidak ingat persis apa yang terjadi waktu itu, yang jelas saya masih dalam masa adjustment di sana. Masih aneh rasanya tinggal dengan Opa Oma Om Tante, 2 sepupu, dan kakak saya, tanpa ada orang tua. Meskipun makanan di Semarang jauh lebih enak, saya masih kangen sama kerupuk cabe Dumai yang dibeli di warung mesjid dekat rumah. Surat panggilan itu mengatakan, saya harus datang ke Jakarta untuk ikut ronde ke-dua pemilihan: tes tertulis. Senang sekali rasanya! Singkat cerita, datanglah saya ditemani mami ke sebuah hotel besar di Jakarta, tempat di mana tesnya diadakan. Wah... yang datang ternyata banyak... Sebagian besar anak-anak Jakarta, datang masih memakai seragam sekolah dan ngobrol sesama mereka yang satu sekolah. Tes tertulis ini juga diadakan di Medan, sehingga saya tidak terbayang bagai

mana caranya saya akan menembus kerumunan ini. Ajaib di mata saya, pemerintah Singapur berhasil mengumpulkan pucuk-pucuk generasi masa depan Indonesia untuk kemudian dipilihi yang paling hijau dan ditanam di negara mereka. Jenius!

Ada satu anak laki-laki. Cenderung cerewet, sangat pintar, termasuk muda untuk angkatan saya. Kami berbaris berdekatan ketika menunggu masuk ke ruangan tes. Dia bilang dia datang dari Jawa Tengah, amat bangga kelihatannya ketika dia menantang orang-orang di sekitarnya untuk menebak dari kota mana kah dia? Si anak pintar Pekalongan ini lah satu-satunya orang yang saya ingat dari waktu tes itu yang akhirnya sama-sama pergi ke Singapur. Tes tertulisnya terdiri dari tiga bagian: tes IQ, matematika, dan bahasa Inggris. Saya tidak terlalu ingat tentang tes IQ dan matematika, tapi saya ingat ada bagian mengarang untuk tes bahasa Inggris dan saya menggombal dua halaman tentang menonton film yang sesungguhnya belum pernah saya tonton, saya cuma pernah baca sinopsisnya.

Entah bagaimana, gombalan saya berhasil, dan mereka tertarik untuk mewawancara saya di ronde yang terakhir. Saya dapat surat undangannya 1 bulan kemudian dan sempat kecewa melihat surat yang datang sangat tipis. Pertamanya saya kira, sudah lah, sudah bagus terpanggil tes tertulis, Loyola juga sangat menyenangkan waktu itu, saya bener-bener suka pulang sekolah naik becak yang digenjot sama Pak Sawabi. Tapi ternyata setelah dibuka, bukan sulap bukan sihir, saya terpanggil. Maka datanglah saya kali ini dengan papi ke hotel bintang 5 lagi di Jakarta. Ada kira-kira 8 orang yang diwawancara hari itu dan saya orang kedua dari akhir. Walaupun begitu, kami sampai di ruang tunggu sebelum orang pertama dipanggil masuk. Tersiksa rasanya menunggu sambil pura-pura asik membaca novel, padahal jantung saya mau copot dan pikiran sudah kemana-mana. Tapi akhirnya saya dipanggil juga. Ada tiga orang pewawancara, tapi hanya satu yang dominan bertanya; dialah wanita rapi jali kepala sekolah Methodist Girls' School. Setelah kira-kira setengah jam diwawancara, saya bisa bernafas lega, dan dengan

tersenyum lepas berjabat tangan dengan mereka semua.

Di ronde-ronde sebelumnya, saya punya attitude "nothing to lose", kalau ga dapat saya ga akan kenapa-kenapa. Malahan saya berasa ah ga mungkin dapat lah, lihat saja anak Santa Ursula yang datang bejibun gitu (sori Lice.. hehe). Tapi, setelah keluar dari wawancara terakhir itu, saya ada feeling, rasanya ada chance yang lumayan buat saya beneran berangkat. Saya sudah sampai di terminal, tapi tiket saya masih waiting list! Tanggung sekali rasanya... Syukurlah sebulan kemudian, sepuluh tahun yang lalu, diujung tahun 2000, berita baik itu datang seperti mimpi. Tertera di dalam suratnya, "You have been shortlisted to recieve..... bla bla..." Perlu membuka kamus lengkap Bahasa Inggris- Indonesia sekali lagi untuk memastikan apa itu artinya "shortlisted." Saya dan keluarga tidak pernah memikirkan opsi lainnya, pokoknya kalau

saya sampai dapat, sudah pasti saya akan terima tawarannya. Saya meninggalkan teman-teman Loyola, orang tua, kakak, opa oma, keluarga lain, Pak Sawabi, serta Paiman, tukang leker di sekolah yang pernah masuk TV gara2 kemantapan lekernya (eh atau Paijo ya?). Entah apa yang dijanjikan pemerintah Singapura, saya juga tidak jelas sebenarnya. Yang saya tau, di Singapur saya akan masuk sekolah jam 8 pagi (lebih siang dari di Indo), dan tidak ada sekolah hari Sabtu! Beneran, saya lebih gembira mikirin itu daripada zero tuition fee.

In all seriousness, saya belajar banyak di Singapur. Bukan cuma pelajaran dan bahasa Inggrisnya saja. Saya belajar tentang pertemanan, bagaimana bisa akur dengan roommate, urus ini itu sendiri, cuci baju, mengatur waktu, dsb dst. Dan sering saya pikirkan, seandainya saya tidak berkesempatan pergi ke Singapur waktu itu, rasanya saya ga mungkin mendarat di Austin, apalagi sekarang terdampar di Ithaca. Meskipun selama di Singapur saya dan teman-teman sering mengeluh tentang pelajaran yang berat, sistem edukasi yang memberi nilai pada semua hal termasuk ekstrakulikuler dan volunteering, sopir bus yang mencemeeh kami anak bertampang Cina yang tidak bisa berbahasa Mandarin, setelah dilewati, semuanya worth it buat saya. Kok bisa ya saya lewati 10 taun belakangan ini? Saya dijawab oleh sebuah status facebook seorang kenalan yang baru saja lulus dari Cornell:

"When we look back and wonder how we ever made it through, we realizeit is not because we have been clever but because God has been wise;not because we have been strong, but because God has been mighty;not because we have been consistent, but because God has been faithful."

Dan sekarang, saat saya tidak bisa melihat bagaimana caranya bisa lulus dari sekolah ini, saya diingatkan bahwa 10 tahun lagi, saya harus tulis blog entry lagi dengan kutipan yang sama.

Dengan segala kerendahan hati, sebuah kehormatan untuk bisa menjadi bagian dari Golden11: angkatan ke-sebelas dari ASEAN scholarship untuk Indonesia. Dan sekarang, dibuka pendaftaran untuk angkatan ke-21, entah apa nama angkatan kalian nantinya. Kalau memang sudah dalam rencana-Nya, bersiaplah untuk berputar arah.

ASEAN Scholarship for Indonesia, terima kasih dan lima bintang dari saya.

Wax On, Wax Off

Watched this with a friend last weekend at Ithaca Mall. I'm pleasantly surprised at how believable Jaden's karate skills are. Also, I'm glad to see that Jackie Chan takes on the supporting role, making more subtle jokes and showing more drama. It's pretty entertaining although the ending is quite predictable. And I find that the jacket on jacket off a little annoying. It just doesn't live up to the original wax on wax off. But, I don't think that the fault lies in the storyline, nor the characters. It's just that it's hard to beat the originality and childhood memories; the way you remember lying on your stomach with your eyes glued to Mr. Miyage tending bonsais and Daniel-san balancing on his one foot on the beach. Nothing erases that.

All that is forgivable also because, uh, Jaden is flaming hot ;) Come on, 6 packs at the age of 12? But then again, having Will and Jada Pinkett Smith as parents helps a lot. Overall, it's a great family movie with just the right stars, right amount of action, drama, comedy, and monkey love.

Blogger

Finally blogger catches up with a much needed additions of templates! I've been looking for a simple and clean template that is cute, yet has a mature and serene sense to it. I also wanted a wider writing space so the blog content actually fills up the monitor space instead of having empty spaces on the sides. What I found was perfect!

My "Friends' Blog List" disappears though when I was fiddling with other backgrounds before. I couldn't really figure out why until now, so I'll just have to start remembering what they were before. I found that people have been blogging less and less (just like I do) and some links were broken for sure, or their blogs don't exist anymore. So, I guess starting compiling friends' blogs again would be good as a filtration process.

Going face-less

I have decided to block facebook and youtube from my life because I've spent too much time in those two cyber worlds that I feel they are in control now. Not too extreme though because I'm just using a google chrome extension called "blockit" which I think is developed by an Indonesian, judging from his name. Hmmm interesting... In the case of an "emergency" I'd be able to unblock it easily, but I hope it helps me stay off of it.

Maybe this way I could be more productive, like doing more of my research and getting focused on it, or reading other interesting sites, or reading more news instead of looking at pictures of people I barely knew. I know that self control would have done that, but truth be told, my self control is very low now. Tsk tsk.. shame on me... Of course I'm not denying that facebook keeps you in touch especially with old friends and keeps you updated with recent news (like who's getting together with whom and who's breaking up ;)...Oh, such real life drama) and then there's the message function for mail threads that are less formal that I sometimes use with the VJ girls. But at this point, I really feel that I'm wasting countless hours that I'd like to give this a go. Hopefully I'll get better in contacting friends directly thru phone and personal emails... that would be really nice.

OK, so day 1, here we go! Wish me luck!