diah and her days

When you are all alone in this new city, the only choice you have is making friends.

Baru 2 bulan sejak kedatangan saya ke kota ini. Kata orang, Jakarta itu keras. Katanya, ibukota lebih kejam dibanding ibu tiri. Bahkan VP saya pernah bertanya pada saya saat final interview, "are you sure you want to work and live here? It's a tough city." Itu kata mereka. Kata orang-orang. Lalu apa kata saya? Entahlah. Kota ini tidak se-lovable Jogja, memang. Tidak secantik Bali, memang. Tidak sebersih Fukuoka, apalagi. Tapi, "I've been living in Indonesia's most friendly city once. It's the time to experience another lesson." I hope I made a right decision.

Now I feel so relief that I decided to post those pictures on facebook or these writings on blog. I am not a best friend of technological devices. First , I dropped my camera pocket during conference trip in Boston. I was not able to take more pictures though the trip hadn’t finished yet. Second, I had my notebook broken in Japan despite I was sure I didn’t do anything weird. It was running well in the afternoon before I shut it down. Suddenly after evening class, it was all black. The repairman said something had infected the motherboard. I almost cried in the shop if I didn't remember doing that thing would not change anything. I lost dozen of pictures I collected during my stay in Japan. Fortunately, few months earlier, I decided to buy an external hard disk and copied half of my memories. Third, few weeks ago, my external hard disk stopped running. Brought it to the repairman and they gave the bad news I didn’t want to hear. Something had terribly broken the head and they...

お元気ですか。久しぶりですね。私は　明けましておめでとうございますと　言いたいです、去年色々助けてくれてありがとう。すごく楽しかった。食べ物もすごくおいしかった。でも、遅くおきて　はすかしかったです。 今年も福岡にいるんですか。 とにかく、去年、大宰府にお祈りしに行って、覚えてますか。お守り買ってくれてありがとう。そのお守りは卒業のお守りです。インドネシアに着いたから今までずっとお守り持っていますよ。１１月、卒業漆器です、お守りはいいんじゃないね。 私は今年のお正月は家族とほかの町にあぞびに行くんです。インドネシアでお正月はとてもにぎやかです。日本とすごくちがう。 お母さんとお父さん、お世話になってありがとうございます。 日本に行くチャンスがあったら、ぜったいいく。 その日が来るまでにお父さんとお母さんは元気でね。 デイアより

Promised myself to write series of summer vacation trips while in Japan. Still, making promises is way easier than fulfilling it. After talking about how to explore Kumamoto (well at least its famous spot), now please allow me to talk about Osaka and Kyoto , two extraordinary prefectures in Kansai Area. If I am not mistaken, there are four famous tourist spots in Kansai; they are Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe. To be honest, I didn’t have that much interest on Osaka or Kyoto before. I did hear both areas are must visit prefectures in Japan. Osaka is extremely famous for its Takoyaki. People said it’s the best in Japan and you can easily find takoyaki stall around the town. Beside, Osaka is also Japan’s second largest city after Tokyo. If Tokyo is well known for its business district and harajuku, Osaka is then worth visited if you are interested in Japanese famous brand which most of whose factories located in Osaka. While Kyoto, which can be reached by 30 minutes train for Osa...

11 September 2012.. “Akhirnyaaa..” itulah kata yang pertama kali ingin saya ucapkan. Akhirnya, setelah sempat mangkrak selama setahun gara-gara saya melarikan diri ke negerinya Nobita, skripsi ini masuk ruang sidang juga. Akhirnya, setelah judul yang sama didaftarkan hampir dua tahun lalu, saya berhasil menyusul jejak teman-teman dan menyematkan tiga huruf baru di belakang nama saya itu, SIP. Akhirnya, setelah gagal berkejaran dengan Agustus, saya bisa menyuruh Ibu untuk segera booking tiket pesawat ke Jogja. Akhirnya, setelah berkencan dengan laptop selama beberapa waktu, saya memakai setelan putih hitam juga ke kampus. Akhirnya, akhirnya, akhirnya, bagian yang paling menyenangkan, saya bisa melambaikan tangan pada tugas akhir ini dan menulis halaman persembahan. Sejak awal proses penulisan skripsi, saya sudah mereka-reka apa yang akan saya tulis di lembar persembahan ini. Pokoknya saya ingin sesuatu yang nostalgic, yang sampai kapan pun, kalau dibaca ulang, akan memba...

Wise men have a saying “once you run, there will be a moment to stop for a while to take a deep breath and look what you’ve left behind.” For me, that stop was on November 15th 2012 when I knew that my grandfather passed away. I was having dinner when my mother gave me a call. As she burst into tears, I knew something unusual happened. It was already quite late and impossible to find a flight back to Bali. Planning to go the airport the very next morning, I had those vivid imaginations about my childhood moment. Texted my sister and brother, they asked for prayer. There was nothing I can do. I was growing up in the middle of a complete – huge – family. Surrounded by grandfathers and grandmothers, I always know that they are getting older. But I was too afraid to imagine that they would leave this world before me. Leaving me crying behind. Flying back to Bali, I saw his body. Lying on his daily bed, he looked different that day. I remembered it was more than 4 months ago t...