Tuesday, 25 March 2014
eclipse
I'm perfectly fine standing here in the dark/but I can't wait to go back to the light/to the sunshine
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Spring Break!
This has been a really interesting week for me. It is both short and long at the same time, both tiring and rejuvenating, both relaxing and nerve wracking, and both simple and complicated.
If you count Montague, Princeton, and Evanston as cities, I covered at least 9 different cities, visited at least 8 different universities, met around 15 old friends and made at least 15 new ones, and had one on one meetings with at least 7 ladies, all within the span of nine days. I spent a night at a neighborhood one block away from Harlem, missed a flight, hung out at a bar until 3am, and attended a conference at MIT for this Spring break.
Let me gloss over some of the details but I went to (chronologically) Montague, Portland, Boston, New York, Philly, Princeton, New York, Chicago, Evanston, Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, Boston, and then back to Amherst. I spent most of the time traveling solo, but I met and made friends along the way. One of the highlights is definitely the day and two nights I spent at UIUC where I met my ex-schoolmates, TJ and Hansel, and enjoyed the typical Indonesian lifestyle, with Hansel driving his fancy mini cooper and blasting the Two Door Cinema Club soundtracks and us Indonesians hanging out together and played Indonesian punny games also known as "sapi".
I also met plenty of girls during the trip, (and also guys too!) and something weird occurred as I slowly try to read into these people. I get the feeling that I start to understand them better, and I understand myself better through my way of understanding them. I had amazing food for most of the trip, spending between $1 to $25 per meal (from granola bars to fancy dinners), slept anywhere between 4 hours to 9 hours, and traveled anywhere between 30 minutes to 10 hours on each given day. However, it was such an amazing journey. Of course, there were risky moments such as when I explored the streets of Harlem past midnight or when I realize that I am the only Asian in the train full of people of a certain background in Chicago, but I believe that I became more assertive, calmer, and confident from this trip too!
Alright, since I didn't bring my laptop for the trip, I did not do any work at all, and I have to start catching up with work, so I will stop here. But I am really really grateful for this amazing spring break. :)
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
If you count Montague, Princeton, and Evanston as cities, I covered at least 9 different cities, visited at least 8 different universities, met around 15 old friends and made at least 15 new ones, and had one on one meetings with at least 7 ladies, all within the span of nine days. I spent a night at a neighborhood one block away from Harlem, missed a flight, hung out at a bar until 3am, and attended a conference at MIT for this Spring break.
Let me gloss over some of the details but I went to (chronologically) Montague, Portland, Boston, New York, Philly, Princeton, New York, Chicago, Evanston, Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, Boston, and then back to Amherst. I spent most of the time traveling solo, but I met and made friends along the way. One of the highlights is definitely the day and two nights I spent at UIUC where I met my ex-schoolmates, TJ and Hansel, and enjoyed the typical Indonesian lifestyle, with Hansel driving his fancy mini cooper and blasting the Two Door Cinema Club soundtracks and us Indonesians hanging out together and played Indonesian punny games also known as "sapi".
I also met plenty of girls during the trip, (and also guys too!) and something weird occurred as I slowly try to read into these people. I get the feeling that I start to understand them better, and I understand myself better through my way of understanding them. I had amazing food for most of the trip, spending between $1 to $25 per meal (from granola bars to fancy dinners), slept anywhere between 4 hours to 9 hours, and traveled anywhere between 30 minutes to 10 hours on each given day. However, it was such an amazing journey. Of course, there were risky moments such as when I explored the streets of Harlem past midnight or when I realize that I am the only Asian in the train full of people of a certain background in Chicago, but I believe that I became more assertive, calmer, and confident from this trip too!
Alright, since I didn't bring my laptop for the trip, I did not do any work at all, and I have to start catching up with work, so I will stop here. But I am really really grateful for this amazing spring break. :)
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
Monday, 10 March 2014
Lessons
I learned three lessons today:
1. A person who seems distracted when he or she talks to you is not necessarily a jerk. Maybe he is simply an extrovert who knows too many people, and is equipped with some kind of attention deficit.
2. You only know whether an apple is rotten or not when you bite it. Apples may have beautiful skins but also rotten cores at the same time.
3. Stay Gowther.
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
PS. I just realized what the lesson meant. If you eat one rotten apple, will you stop eating apple forever? I don't think so. I will definitely eat more apples in the future, it's just that I will remember to throw it away after the first bite if it is rotten to the core. Unless if I ever wish for a stomachache.
1. A person who seems distracted when he or she talks to you is not necessarily a jerk. Maybe he is simply an extrovert who knows too many people, and is equipped with some kind of attention deficit.
2. You only know whether an apple is rotten or not when you bite it. Apples may have beautiful skins but also rotten cores at the same time.
3. Stay Gowther.
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
PS. I just realized what the lesson meant. If you eat one rotten apple, will you stop eating apple forever? I don't think so. I will definitely eat more apples in the future, it's just that I will remember to throw it away after the first bite if it is rotten to the core. Unless if I ever wish for a stomachache.
Saturday, 8 March 2014
Improvisasi dan Sintesis Elemen
Sorry, I have to keep this in Bahasa. Cheers:)
Kalau kita pakai sistem unsur Jawa, di muka bumi ini ada empat unsur dasar: Air, Api, Udara, dan Tanah. Emang, orang Tionghoa punya unsur ada lima: Api, Air, Tanah, Kayu (Pohon), dan Logam, tapi untuk artikel ini dan seterusnya saya pakai yang unsur Jawa aja dulu deh (4 lebih dikit, jadi ga seberapa ribet). Nah, di setiap orang, unsur-unsur itu ada, tetapi ada beberapa unsur yang lebih menonjol di orang-orang tertentu.
Misalnya nih, gue orangnya lebih ke arah air sama udara: Air itu berjalan pakai emosi, mengandalkan perasaan, dan lebih mengalir jadinya suka bergaul. Kalau orang yang udaranya banyak itu biasanya orang yang suka berfikir, berangan-angan, yang analisa dan imajinasinya berjalan. Api gue ngga begitu kurang, soalnya masih ada juga di sisi gue yang membara, atau passionate untuk memperoleh suatu tujuan, walaupun kadang-kadang gue mesti agak blak-blakan dan mengutamakan tugas duluan. Feeling gue sih bilang kalo elemen tanah gue yang agak kurang. Orang yang elemen tanah itu memprioritaskan hasil. Mereka sangat praktis dan super termotivasi oleh hal-hal dan hasil-hasil yang konkrit.
Nah, kenapa tiba-tiba gue nulis soal kayak begini? Well, gue lagi kepikiran aja sih, kalo ntar nyari partner mesti yang kayak apa. Ya, gue perlu orang yang unsur tanahnya jalan biar kerjaan gue bisa beres. Tentu aja, gue bakal berusaha ningkatin terus unsur tanah (atau kayu) gue, supaya gue bisa produktif juga. Tapi kan kalo ada yang bantu enak juga. Nah tapi gue suka bergaul sama orang orang yang banyak mikir juga. Yang agak "berat" dan "dalem", yang "intellektual". Mereka ini lebih ke udara, dan kalo kerja sama mereka oke oke aja, tapi ga saling melengkapi gitu. Temen-temen gue ada sih yang elemen tanahnya kuat, tapi yah gue juga mesti pinter-pinternya ngasih mereka insentif buat temenan ama gue. Which means gue harus produktif dan berkarya dulu sendiri.. hehehe.
Apakah unsur lo? Tanah itu bertentangan sama udara, api itu bertentangan dengan air. Sebaliknya, air menunjang tanah, dan api menunjang udara. Ada siklusnya juga lho. hehehe.
Truly Indonesia's Finest
Kalau kita pakai sistem unsur Jawa, di muka bumi ini ada empat unsur dasar: Air, Api, Udara, dan Tanah. Emang, orang Tionghoa punya unsur ada lima: Api, Air, Tanah, Kayu (Pohon), dan Logam, tapi untuk artikel ini dan seterusnya saya pakai yang unsur Jawa aja dulu deh (4 lebih dikit, jadi ga seberapa ribet). Nah, di setiap orang, unsur-unsur itu ada, tetapi ada beberapa unsur yang lebih menonjol di orang-orang tertentu.
Misalnya nih, gue orangnya lebih ke arah air sama udara: Air itu berjalan pakai emosi, mengandalkan perasaan, dan lebih mengalir jadinya suka bergaul. Kalau orang yang udaranya banyak itu biasanya orang yang suka berfikir, berangan-angan, yang analisa dan imajinasinya berjalan. Api gue ngga begitu kurang, soalnya masih ada juga di sisi gue yang membara, atau passionate untuk memperoleh suatu tujuan, walaupun kadang-kadang gue mesti agak blak-blakan dan mengutamakan tugas duluan. Feeling gue sih bilang kalo elemen tanah gue yang agak kurang. Orang yang elemen tanah itu memprioritaskan hasil. Mereka sangat praktis dan super termotivasi oleh hal-hal dan hasil-hasil yang konkrit.
Nah, kenapa tiba-tiba gue nulis soal kayak begini? Well, gue lagi kepikiran aja sih, kalo ntar nyari partner mesti yang kayak apa. Ya, gue perlu orang yang unsur tanahnya jalan biar kerjaan gue bisa beres. Tentu aja, gue bakal berusaha ningkatin terus unsur tanah (atau kayu) gue, supaya gue bisa produktif juga. Tapi kan kalo ada yang bantu enak juga. Nah tapi gue suka bergaul sama orang orang yang banyak mikir juga. Yang agak "berat" dan "dalem", yang "intellektual". Mereka ini lebih ke udara, dan kalo kerja sama mereka oke oke aja, tapi ga saling melengkapi gitu. Temen-temen gue ada sih yang elemen tanahnya kuat, tapi yah gue juga mesti pinter-pinternya ngasih mereka insentif buat temenan ama gue. Which means gue harus produktif dan berkarya dulu sendiri.. hehehe.
Apakah unsur lo? Tanah itu bertentangan sama udara, api itu bertentangan dengan air. Sebaliknya, air menunjang tanah, dan api menunjang udara. Ada siklusnya juga lho. hehehe.
Truly Indonesia's Finest
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Spectrum
I ought to be doing my Chinese homework and my other essays instead of blogging, but what the heck, I will just type it out.
The United States of America is diverse. Amherst College is diverse, too. Even the FOBs. For readers who are unfamiliar with FOBs, it stands for Fresh Off the Boat (or as my senior Jez pointed out, Fresh Off Boeing, since no one really travels around in boats anymore), a (somewhat) xenophobic term that refers to an international who just came to USA. FOBs are usually characterized by their inept English Language, their stubbornness to cling to their original culture, and their unwillingness (or lack of) adaptation to the American culture (or whatever the host culture is).
However, for the sake of this post, I am going to argue that a foreigner, who did not grow up in the country, is a FOB nonetheless. I am, therefore, an FOB. And I'm kinda cool with that, as long as I still make friends and try to reach out to the Americans here. Hahaha. And yes, I'm doing fine too, because in a lot of sense the American culture espouses values similar to those I hold: Friendliness, Openness, and Political Correctness (although yes, I sometimes complain that people at Amherst tend to be too politically correct, but I appreciate their efforts.)
Anyhow, I met my badminton senior, Shanghui, for dinner as we wanted to discuss about our cooking plans for the badminton team. Two other Singaporean seniors, Jacob and Jez joined us as we are halfway finishing our food, making the table an unofficial Singaporean table to talk cock and sing song. Unfortunately, Jez has just broken up with his girlfriend. My planned 30 minutes dinner turned into an hour and a half as we shared stories to try and cheer Jez up.
This is when I discovered that among us FOBs there's diversity too, there's a spectrum. Let's begin with Shanghui. Shanghui is your stereotypical conservative Singaporean Chinese, who doesn't go to parties (well he goes to study parties, but which Asian doesn't?), is very industrious, and goes to bed (for the most nights) before midnight. He's someone I respect for keeping his values firm and intact even after studying abroad for (almost) four full years. Jacob was rather conservative too, he shared that he did not want an angmoh girlfriend as the cultural gap would be too big.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have Jez (and Nich, but Nich wasn't there with us). These two Singaporean men are probably as American as they could: Both are dating (well, dated for Jez) ang moh girls, both go to real parties with real booze, they practice hook-ups, and are very liberal in their views. I respect them as they are willing to change at least some parts of their identity in order to fully immerse into the American culture and integrate with the Americans. We even have Shamira, a Singaporean junior currently in the Frisbee team, who does not even say hi to her fellow countrymen. I suspect it has something to do with her wanting to integrate with the American society, but I can't say much since I haven't seen her yet.
Where do I fall? I guess I am a little bit in between. I have my own personal standards and lines I do not intend to cross, but I like the freedom United States offers. It is really interesting. Too bad they're graduating real soon.
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
The United States of America is diverse. Amherst College is diverse, too. Even the FOBs. For readers who are unfamiliar with FOBs, it stands for Fresh Off the Boat (or as my senior Jez pointed out, Fresh Off Boeing, since no one really travels around in boats anymore), a (somewhat) xenophobic term that refers to an international who just came to USA. FOBs are usually characterized by their inept English Language, their stubbornness to cling to their original culture, and their unwillingness (or lack of) adaptation to the American culture (or whatever the host culture is).
However, for the sake of this post, I am going to argue that a foreigner, who did not grow up in the country, is a FOB nonetheless. I am, therefore, an FOB. And I'm kinda cool with that, as long as I still make friends and try to reach out to the Americans here. Hahaha. And yes, I'm doing fine too, because in a lot of sense the American culture espouses values similar to those I hold: Friendliness, Openness, and Political Correctness (although yes, I sometimes complain that people at Amherst tend to be too politically correct, but I appreciate their efforts.)
Anyhow, I met my badminton senior, Shanghui, for dinner as we wanted to discuss about our cooking plans for the badminton team. Two other Singaporean seniors, Jacob and Jez joined us as we are halfway finishing our food, making the table an unofficial Singaporean table to talk cock and sing song. Unfortunately, Jez has just broken up with his girlfriend. My planned 30 minutes dinner turned into an hour and a half as we shared stories to try and cheer Jez up.
This is when I discovered that among us FOBs there's diversity too, there's a spectrum. Let's begin with Shanghui. Shanghui is your stereotypical conservative Singaporean Chinese, who doesn't go to parties (well he goes to study parties, but which Asian doesn't?), is very industrious, and goes to bed (for the most nights) before midnight. He's someone I respect for keeping his values firm and intact even after studying abroad for (almost) four full years. Jacob was rather conservative too, he shared that he did not want an angmoh girlfriend as the cultural gap would be too big.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have Jez (and Nich, but Nich wasn't there with us). These two Singaporean men are probably as American as they could: Both are dating (well, dated for Jez) ang moh girls, both go to real parties with real booze, they practice hook-ups, and are very liberal in their views. I respect them as they are willing to change at least some parts of their identity in order to fully immerse into the American culture and integrate with the Americans. We even have Shamira, a Singaporean junior currently in the Frisbee team, who does not even say hi to her fellow countrymen. I suspect it has something to do with her wanting to integrate with the American society, but I can't say much since I haven't seen her yet.
Where do I fall? I guess I am a little bit in between. I have my own personal standards and lines I do not intend to cross, but I like the freedom United States offers. It is really interesting. Too bad they're graduating real soon.
Truly Indonesia's Finest,
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Shenanigans, Youth, and Birdies
This Sunday is probably the most slacksessful Sunday. I woke up at 11am as I slept at 4 on the previous day (no, I promise I wasn't up doing work), went to Valentine and ate early lunch. My badminton friends planned to celebrate Jack's birthday (another member of badminton, and a good friend of Sarah and Xiaoling, my badminton bosses) by "kidnapping" him to a Korean restaurant in Northampton.
The plan goes something like this: We prepare the AAS Van and ride up to the Webster Circle, where we hide behind some bush. Sarah will then pass by and pretend to have some business with Jack in the Buckley Hall, and after the two exited the building, we are supposed to strike, blindfold him, and throw him to the van. It was a fail in many levels: 1) He saw us when we tried to surprise him. 2) We were a group of nine people trying to ride a campus van that fits 8, there's no way we can throw him flat on the couch or something. 3) We only blindfolded him and tied his hands after we started proceeding to NoHo.
It was a fun journey, however, as we teased one another and exchanged banters on the way to NoHo. (Such as how I cannot pronounce 'three' properly. Sobs) We arrived to the Korean restaurant, Sola, without a hitch. Afterward, we ordered a bunch of food (however it's individualized eating though, I miss the center table eating style), and talked about random nonsense (apart from the possible Spring Break plans). It's very enjoyable to spend time with these bunch of people although they can be secretive and sensitive sometimes, as I feel that I can be really "myself" around them.
Food was not too shabby, but not spicy enough (heh, expected) and we ended it by giving Jack a birthday cake and made him drink Sake as he just turned 21. Well, it's kinda sad that the group I am hanging with is made up of a bunch of Seniors and Juniors, who will graduate real soon. However, I am grateful to be able to spend more time with them :D Thank you for the great day, the amazing meal, and the company! I appreciate being able to eat out as in Amherst, I only do so at most twice a week. Hahaha.
Thank you,
-Truly Indonesia's Finest
PS: Note to future self: Remember that whenever you order your BMT from Subway, don't ask for random sauces. Just request for salt, pepper, and olive oil. Tastes majestic.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
of Ties and Dinners
So Amherst College has this fancy dinner event, named as Pindar Dinner, which apparently serves to encourage "students of different academic and social backgrounds" to mingle around with one another. Apparently, the students of Amherst receive the chance to attend such dinners at random. It as another opportunity to eat good food (although it was the same guy in Val who cooked it, the food was really good!), to suit up (I'm kinda surprised that I have as little opportunity to dress fancily here in the States as I had back then in Singapore), and to meet up with new friends, so I replied yes without batting an eyelid.
Therefore, after a long week (3 tests, 3 quizzes, and a few more essays to write) I walked to Lord Jeff's Inn in the fanciest attire I could possibly don, which is a dark blue suit, a neon blue skinny tie, a light blue shirt, black pants, and a pair of black pantoufles. It was awkward in the beginning because the dinner is flooded by upperclassmen and I barely know any of them, and I was stuck with Matthew, another freshman who frequents my dorm. It's fortunate he was there though, because he helped me fix the tie.
We were assigned into seven tables, and I got the table number seven. Again, it was kinda awkward in the beginning as I tried to start a conversation with the two ladies sitting by my side, but they got very responsive after a while. On my left was Stephanie, a junior in the swimming team who speaks fluent Spanish. She is super friendly, and was one of the primary conversation keeper in the table. Jennifer was sitting on my right, she's a sophomore from Korea who apparently had plenty of friends from the Raffles Institution of Singapore, and whose primary hobby is partying.
Oh right, the dinner began with a speaker. A particular history professor with a very difficult surname (therefore I couldn't remember it, sorry prof!) shared her experience and the lessons she learned as she tried to earn money in Alaska by working in the fishing industry. It was outrageous. She had friends who came together with her, but she was alone in the end. She slept in a tent for the six months of her job, and she worked for 16 hours everyday in all conditions. As I hear her story, I remembered that I read somewhere: Bad decisions make good stories. Her decision was not bad, it was bold and brave, and it really made a good story.
Anyway, as the dinner progressed, the conversation expanded to throughout the whole table. We actually went around and introduced ourselves, in the midst of drinking several non alcoholic "wines" (yes, in the States, the legal age for alcohols is 21 years old) which are supposed to serve as aperitifs paired with the crab cake, salad, chicken, and the mousse we had. I am lucky to be placed in the table no. 7. Not only the people are talkative, funny, and friendly, the ladies are rather cute as well. So on Stephanie's left was Ike Zhang, a sophomore from Canada who sings for DQ. (Double Quartets, Amherst College's famous acapella group) Next to Ike was Arthri, a superb violinist, then there was Emily (I have met her, she volunteered for Splash before), and Gabriel, a super friendly sophomore originally from Bolivia who moved a lot as he grew up. Next to Gabriel was Seewai, who looks like a halfie and is an English major. Next to Seewai was George Tepe, who was the president of Amherst's Students Association, and a very charming overall. After that, we are back to Jeniffer.
It was truly fun. I learned first hand on how Americans can be super passionate about calzones, that calzones are not quite substitutes for pizza (wow). I also learned that Valentine used to be way worse than it is today (I am in fact a big fan of valentine, but not when I miss Asian food though), and also how grab and go only started to exist last year. To those unfamiliar to Amherst, Grab n Go is a lunch alternative provided in Amherst College, where you grab a sandwich/salad, three sides, and a drink, and you can nom your food while doing work. It is a godsend. I have a pact with Jordan to barter my three sides and one drink for another sandwich or salad, which I think is way more worth it, but more about it someday.
Anyway, thank you very much for the dinner. I really enjoyed it, and hopefully I will get to know the people I met better.
-Truly Indonesia's Finest
Therefore, after a long week (3 tests, 3 quizzes, and a few more essays to write) I walked to Lord Jeff's Inn in the fanciest attire I could possibly don, which is a dark blue suit, a neon blue skinny tie, a light blue shirt, black pants, and a pair of black pantoufles. It was awkward in the beginning because the dinner is flooded by upperclassmen and I barely know any of them, and I was stuck with Matthew, another freshman who frequents my dorm. It's fortunate he was there though, because he helped me fix the tie.
We were assigned into seven tables, and I got the table number seven. Again, it was kinda awkward in the beginning as I tried to start a conversation with the two ladies sitting by my side, but they got very responsive after a while. On my left was Stephanie, a junior in the swimming team who speaks fluent Spanish. She is super friendly, and was one of the primary conversation keeper in the table. Jennifer was sitting on my right, she's a sophomore from Korea who apparently had plenty of friends from the Raffles Institution of Singapore, and whose primary hobby is partying.
Oh right, the dinner began with a speaker. A particular history professor with a very difficult surname (therefore I couldn't remember it, sorry prof!) shared her experience and the lessons she learned as she tried to earn money in Alaska by working in the fishing industry. It was outrageous. She had friends who came together with her, but she was alone in the end. She slept in a tent for the six months of her job, and she worked for 16 hours everyday in all conditions. As I hear her story, I remembered that I read somewhere: Bad decisions make good stories. Her decision was not bad, it was bold and brave, and it really made a good story.
Anyway, as the dinner progressed, the conversation expanded to throughout the whole table. We actually went around and introduced ourselves, in the midst of drinking several non alcoholic "wines" (yes, in the States, the legal age for alcohols is 21 years old) which are supposed to serve as aperitifs paired with the crab cake, salad, chicken, and the mousse we had. I am lucky to be placed in the table no. 7. Not only the people are talkative, funny, and friendly, the ladies are rather cute as well. So on Stephanie's left was Ike Zhang, a sophomore from Canada who sings for DQ. (Double Quartets, Amherst College's famous acapella group) Next to Ike was Arthri, a superb violinist, then there was Emily (I have met her, she volunteered for Splash before), and Gabriel, a super friendly sophomore originally from Bolivia who moved a lot as he grew up. Next to Gabriel was Seewai, who looks like a halfie and is an English major. Next to Seewai was George Tepe, who was the president of Amherst's Students Association, and a very charming overall. After that, we are back to Jeniffer.
It was truly fun. I learned first hand on how Americans can be super passionate about calzones, that calzones are not quite substitutes for pizza (wow). I also learned that Valentine used to be way worse than it is today (I am in fact a big fan of valentine, but not when I miss Asian food though), and also how grab and go only started to exist last year. To those unfamiliar to Amherst, Grab n Go is a lunch alternative provided in Amherst College, where you grab a sandwich/salad, three sides, and a drink, and you can nom your food while doing work. It is a godsend. I have a pact with Jordan to barter my three sides and one drink for another sandwich or salad, which I think is way more worth it, but more about it someday.
Anyway, thank you very much for the dinner. I really enjoyed it, and hopefully I will get to know the people I met better.
-Truly Indonesia's Finest
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