I Miss You, Daddy..

When i'm writing this little piece of my mind, I'm dropping tears away. This morning I browsed up some latest Indonesian news on an online site, and I happened to find a picture, a picture of a figure I miss so much. He seems somebody I fail to think of, forget about, during I reside here in Vienna. It's bapak, that's the way I call my beloved father. He looks very pale in that picture, but still the face has its strength to bring up his appearance, the never changed one I  believe. Bapak, if you happened to read this writing, I'd like you to know how much I miss you dearly, bapak. Time to time, a journey after another you passed by , you remain unchanged as you used to be. Despite the phony many time challenged you, you keep your name, amien rais, attached yourself as the name meant to be. Ich bin stolz auf dich, Vater. I'm proud of you, Bapak. Knowing that there are still a lot of people out there doubt your integrity and truthfulness to this nation, sometimes makes me greatly down. But as you once told me this saying; " every battle against the badness for the sake of the good, takes a never ending journey , even more so takes up the whole lifetime ". And this is what you are working on now, forward and always forward, go catching every drop of hope. A hope for the national sovereignty.

Dear all of you, at times little do we, his sons and daughters, think what he has done worthwhile for the country since numbers of negative response bounce back. Long long way has he gone through, but all in vain. Even so, I once grumbled about this awry decision he made, countless time, and asked him to give no more damn to this country. Yet he declined, he said what he's working on is not merely being on top, nor chasing a victory of all, nor even a leader of others, but a journey of endeavors. To me, this mindset seems still, a worthless one, as I'm but a young girl with lack knowledge beyond. However, I wish I could reach out the way he thinks, in fact, he's really a traveller, of a never ending story. Love you, Bapak. 

Death Sentence

The news of the imminent death penalty for the two Sumiarsih and Sugeng, mother and son have put me in a feeling like heading to the same thing. I sort of project my self to become like the two convicts who seemingly to meet their last terminal that draws nearer and nearer. Well, it sort of drives me these recent days. I'm so eager for their updated news time to time on an online web. How could human beings deal with their own death which they know it beforehand completely with the exact time, date and minute? My teacher teaching the religion subject in SMA once told me that naturally we experience the small death everyday during sleep. Only the hurt we don't suffer from the small death since the real death itself takes the most painful thing in one's life than any, even the most honorable and noble prophet Muhammad suffered from the death when the angle sorrowfully had to take the prophet's being. Death is not a matter of going away and disappear from the blatant world. Death naturally arrives at any time and any where, can't not be expected and predicted. That only God the Almighty owns the privilege. All we should do is none but solely doing good deeds and piety to others in our whole lifetime so that we are prepared as the eternity comes upon. More or less, this issue of death sentence has sparked me a new bearing. I have to be better and better ahead, in terms of everything but good. Truly saying, if I might bargain, I would like God not to take my life at this moment since I have got still fewer savings, and therefore in the rest of my life, I'd deposit more and more good endeavor to my life account. May God watch over me and keep shielding me from being a sinner. Amiiieeeen...

Learning German, der die das, Help Me Out!

Living abroad requires a consequence. Other than English, that I, well I could say master it, Austria obliges me to learn German. Don't ask, this language is totally heavy. As Indonesian who gets used to speak mother language without structure, grammar, and tenses, it's obviously difficult to learn others that use considerable language regulation. As for English, that might be already an up hilling language for Indonesians in fact that the language has been subjected to the education curriculum and world widely spread by media, what about German? I must say, this language (lang.) could take your head away, if we don't bear it down on learning it. My pursuit of this lang. was quite long way run. Three months prior to Vienna, I and mas Rangga drilled the essentials of the lang. By a native speaker, Rosy,  together we learned basic German. Rosy was a dedicated teacher, I think though she didn't have any teaching background. Yet, she knew exactly what beginners must focus early on learning German. She introduced us to the rule of three sexes in the German practice. The der , die, das articles. In German, every noun has sex. The articles describe the sex. Der is for male, die for female, and das for the neutral. And it takes maybe the whole lifetime to memorize each word together with the articles as they don't click the sense at all. Although the word sounds female, it doesn't mean we use the die article, but we use the das , instead. For example, we say das Madchen which means the girl instead of saying die Madchen which more applies the common sense. Or other nouns like chair (der Stuhl), bag (die Tasche), book (das Buch) etc, we never find out the root reason why such things are titled with various sexes:) That's only the beginning, the preface of the lang. what's more is just burning out the brain. Well, anyway, here in Vienna, in my first months living, I took a short German course at one of the most outstanding and reputable institution. Thanks God that I managed to skip 3 levels in a row. Well, if Rosy happened to read this blog, I would like to utter my gratitude to her, you were so helpful in the learning process. Now I get the certificate that announces me as a good German learner. The class was over three days before the European Cup. Now it's Summer time and they have a short break during this long long holiday. As for me, hmm... I get little bored that I lose friends and mates, however I sense there is an emerging feeling coming from my heart. I think it's a love to this language, German.  

Veggies VS Fatties VS Exercise

Yeap, that's the title. Frankly saying we, I and my husband, are consuming less vegetables lately. At any rate, ever since we lived here. And what's more, we rarely exercise even for only jogging or walking unless in a forced condition; in order to catch up trams or buses, we run very hard and when we manage to hop in, we run out of breath.  Oh it's disastrous, isn't it? This started when I found out that vegetable's price here is slightly as costly as meat's, chicken or beef. Ups, but not pork, of course, it is bloody cheap. For instance, one chicken is priced at 2,7 Euro, equal to a bundle of broccoli or a pack of carrots contains 10 sticks only, which more and less are priced at 2 up to 2,5 Euro. Thus, we prefer spending out our budget to purchase meat, particularly chicken rather than vegetables as any meat, everyone must agree upon this, vegetarians excluded; it is somewhat oily, tasty, and you know that fats always bring the flavor of dining. That the reason all about. There is something you need to know, here, in Vienna, meat (chicken, beef, pork, turkey), cheese, milk, eggs or those other fatty- creamy delicious articles, hmm yummy, are heavenly less expensive compared to fruit or vegetables. As an Indonesian who used to consume plenty of tropical fruits like bananas, rambutans, mangos, papayas, or pineapple almost routinely back home, it was at first a shock when I was aware of those fruit's price skyrocketing, here in Vienna. 5 pieces of mangos cost nearly 8 Euro, a partly sliced pineapple heats up to 3 Euro. And else. You give it converted to Rupiah with the valid rate, OK? Das ist Wahnsihn. It is insane price. It chills me to the bone. Needless to say, everything makes sense as those matters are all imported product. Austria definitely doesn't grow such tropical fruits, even are said they are not growing any certain fruit at all. They order them from Italy, Thailand or America. Hmm this should make me feel grateful that there in Indonesia, you could plant, grow, and harvest any vegetation, be it fruit, herbs, veggies, or others. But, still this makes me no idea why we, Indonesians still live in drawbacks, lack of anything, even lack of confidence.

Back to essence:) I become very picky person at this time that I always calculate and evaluate price list and outcomes:). As consequence, we consume the non-tropical fruit like oranges, grapes, pear which cost more reasonable and affordable and say good bye to mangos and friends. But anyway, here in this tiny city, I keep myself and my hubby enjoying Indonesian culinary like gulai or we call it goulash in German, sambel goreng ati, opor ayam, satai, and so forth, originally homemade by Hanum Salsabiela. We are sometimes fed up with western cuisine which is tasteless to our tongues. So, we're living abroad where the taste of our motherland remains exist. 

                                        

Talking about sport, in a way to balance our "happy" life, oh it's hard to say about. Well, we are so lazy couple nowadays. Looking back home, I used to jog almost every morning in that place, a parking lot close by the kindergarten my mommy runs. Or I did some moves at the fitness centre by evening. So did Mas Rangga, he ran once a week  in GSP, the UGM boulevard, and swam the other day. Gosh, at the moment we thoroughly do nothing for sport, unless for, as I mentioned above, chasing for streetcar which within seconds shut its door. As of yesterday, on weekend, on the day we don't know what to do to kill the time, we put much much effort to exercise. We dragged ourselves out our flat to the sport park in Prater, just 2 blocks nearby the Ernst Happel Stadium, where the European cup grand Final 2008 took place. Voillaaa! we made it. We managed to break the ice, this icy body, we suppose, after all these 6 months. We jogged along 2 till 4 kilo meters non stop or else. Upppsss.....but we forgot something, we never expected the side effect of an abruptly-intensively forced body movements. A negative impact, I must say. By the next morning -today-, right after we got up the bed, this pain on our backs sparked. It felt like the pain slashed joints and bones slice to slice. Oh no no, that's too scary, but it's true:). Anyways, this nuisance doesn't crack our willingness to start over another exercise next week. Hope it's not only a wish but a real commitment to be done. Let see...:)

 

The Euro 2008, Sweet Memory, and Irony

The championship of the European Cup took place in Austria last month had brought me away to the most crowded place throughout the world. Being a journalist that covered an international event was one of my dreams ever since I worked at TRANS TV. It is paid off. An Media ID issued by the host country was officially released for me. It was really nice, I became a reporter again. This turn was not for TV, but for a news web portal, detik.com. I had to say that it was so much easier doing the report for an internet news- based rather than TV based. I could spontaneously write things happened right in front of me on a cellphone or took notes down on a pad. And that's it. I simply searched for a cafe or sites around providing the wireless inter networking, I opened up my laptop, typewrote it, and sent it, and clear.  So much different to TV news delivery in comparison. It is still a crystal clear about the days I had to be well planned, well behaved, well organized, and perfectly kitted out prior to the on air time. A complicated delicacy where a careful handling needed that now I miss so much. Uhh... I long those memorable days..

Okey, back to the story. Among millions of people everyday at the fan zone was a real show. From the day beginning on June 7-29, I always had to stand by the fan zone area which stretched 5 kilometers along Ringstrasse, the main street in Vienna. A full time match

90 minutes 

or a bit more, that I had to care about.  Moreover, I got to be aware in case fights or riots occurred at the scene was also in my concern. There was once the most hectic day when Austria, the co-host team played against Poland. Both teams had a job to play life death match in order to get the quarter final ticket. Thus, flocks of supporters flooded the fan zone. In such condition, both supporters were apparently more unusually temperamental and what's more, most of them were under alcoholic drinks control. They easily lost their temper to any intrusion. Hence, groups of police officers who patrolled surround were alert at this sort of tension. And it happened, shortly after Poland scored a goal within first twenty minutes, there was an incident between supporters. I could see it clearly from up the media tower where I was standing on.  Numbers of fans were fighting and hitting each other in the middle of a crush. I had no idea what led them to a fight. Minor things triggered to battle in such state. Instead, the others who initially were not involved then afterwards became allied with. A fan zone with thousands humans turned to be a fighting show at the same time. I myself kept aiming my photocamera dan camcorder to the scene and didn't miss a single frame. Or when it escalated, I grabbed my stuff quickly, and rushed down onto the mass.  As for me, that view, I could say, was the first chaos scene I had ever seen throughout my career as journalist. And, after that "preliminary incident" I faced more and more incidents time after time, one after the other, bloodier than I expected. In the past, when I was in TRANS TV, I was often assigned to report numbers of events which potentially burst into riots such as people rallies, demonstrations, raids, or slums relocation yet such dramatic conflict never happened to be. Well, in my analysis, there is a difference between typical fight here and in Indonesia. 

People here, or perhaps in other developed countries, are fighting for worthless things, I suppose, like ball team solidarity, freedom of sexual behavior, or a protest against new policy over pets possession, While Indonesians are fighting and vying for stomach needs, if I couldn't say it as the worthwhile one. It's so much ironic right? Here, people spent over 100 -300 Euro per month to spoil dogs or cats, some Indonesians living in poverty starve for rice grains in contrast. Das ist das.  Life in this regard, is an irony. 

An Overview

Never a thing crossed on my mind I would deal with Austria at this age.It was all started off by my husband's scholarship acceptance. By October 2007, he had to move away to Vienna, Austria for his good, 3 years ahead from the first day campus on October 1, 2007. As for me, it was such a complicated sense to say, be happy or otherwise. In one hand, it was a golden challenge to be fulfilled, a rare opportunity one could ever make for. Yet a decision to say 'yes' over that offer meant more than a lot. It required him to release the comfort he managed to do over the years in Jakarta, to set down the brilliant job he was currently working with, abandon friends and colleagues he shared problems with. A setback? Nope, he said briefly. He had punched the decision to leave those things at all costs. In short, no pain no gain, that's how you may say.

On the other hand, I was always addressing this question to my self despite of the decision making back then. 'What about me, I had also a career, a brightening future wanted' , I suppose. I could say that the decision came up right away , shortly after my joy, my excitement, my imagination initially lived up, and spiced. I worked as a reporter and newscaster at TV station, I loved my job, I liked the workplace, didn't mind with people who always issue this opinion to me,' Hey Hanum, you are a dentist, what makes you out of your mind doing such those tiring works? A journalist? You won't earn a thing". That really pissed me off though it's plausible:). Well, I always smiled a bit and then immediately back to my nature. My husband always says, ' When you have a dream, you must protect it". Yes, in the true sense of the word, I will always somehow protect my dream as the way I protect my self.  And it was, though a tough one to be done. It sometimes takes you a grand bill to gain the most grand new one. And it goes the same with me. 

Thus, Ich mochte hier mein Wunschtraum aufschreiben, I 'd like to share my dream all about in this writing, part by part of my mini life. Hoping that later my saga would entirely give me a powerful charge to live on.

Benang Kusut Transportasi Jakarta (Quoted from ranggaalmahendra.blogspot.com)
Ada seorang teman bikers mencak2 dengan adanya kebijakan pemerintah yg melarang motor lewat jalan2 protokol jakarta...sementara teman yang lain justru menyalahkan pengendara motor yang selama ini dianggapnya ugal2an dan bikin makin semrawut Jakarta. Lalu terlibatlah mereka dalam debat kusir yang mestinya tidak perlu.Motor yang ugal2an atau jumlah mobil yang makin tidak terkendali sebenernya cuma excess dari tidak matangnya kebijakan perencanaan transportasi public..karena ga ada mass rapid transportation.. jadinya masyarakat ya berinisiatif sendiri2 cari solusi buat berpergian..ada yang milih pake motor..beli mobil..atau naik bajaj. Rasa2nya kebijakan mutakhir pemerintah ttg sepedamotor, rencana penghapusan 3in1 dan pemberlakuan ERP cuma kebijakan responsif, tambal sulam, gali tutup lubang...ibarat rumah, kehujanan, gentengnya pada bocor malah sibuk ngepel sana-sini.Jadi malu ma inggris yang sudah mulai mbangun underground tunnel tahun 1860..padahal waktu itu cuma ada kereta kuda..potensi problematika city traffic sudah mulai dipikirkan jauuuh sebelum ditemukan mobil...Baru sekarang aja tuh sutiyoso teriak2 monorail..cuma dah telat bang...jerman udah punya monorail sejak tahun 1901..coba deh bayangkan efektifnya MRT di singapore..katanya hampir 50rb passenger setiap hari...n emang kuenceng dan efisien banget..bisa jadi dari senayan city ke plaza semanggi bisa dicapai dalam satu tarikan nafas aja...Hemmm Ga kayak sekarang, umur dan produktivitas rasanya ikut menguap bersama deru knalpot dijalanKritik juga nih buat sebagian oknum pemilik mobil dijakarta,ga bisa dipungkiri masih banyak orang yang pake mobil lebih ke alasan emosional (baca:gengsi)...susah juga, di Indonesia itu kan berlaku:witing tresno jalaran seko cacahing rodo..katanya sekarang punya motor aja ga cukup buat ngeggaet cewek..rasanya keren kalo udah pake mobil..apalagi pake truk gandeng yang rodanya 16..makanya heran juga ma perilaku orang2 kaya Jakarta itu.. sukanya beli mobil/motor yang ukuran segedhe goblok...makin sebel kalau udah liat jaguar or alphard petantang-petenteng makan jalan,padahal didalamnya cuma 1 orang (entah pemilik atau peminjam)...kenapa sih smart car ga segera masuk indonesia..orang eropa malah bangga lho bisa naik mobil yang ukurannya kecil..disamping lebih irit..juga praktis (ini lebih rasional).atau gimana kalo jaguar bikin mobil 3 wheeler versi bajaj..kira2 laku ga ya?..hmm.Kemarin baca dikompas..katanya presiden Swiss setiap hari kalo kekantor naik transportasi publik..egaliter banget...beda banget ya ma pejabat kita.yang maunya dikawal iring2an voreijder sampai nutup jalan dan bikin kemacetan berkilo2...hmmm sudahlah mungkin ada baiknya pejabat yg kayak gitu kita lemparin aja pakai bajaj...