footprints of life

this was my frist footprints on the faraway land….never thought i would come so far…never thought i  would stay for a while…never dreamed of any of these…and yet, this is beautiful in itself….

Last weekend I had a string of interesting experience.  Nice and amusing weekend with my boyfriend, his taste for shopping, his driver and his bestfriend.

I guess I’ve always enjoyed observing people, and i suppose I already have a set of things in my mind regarding people, which is often true…but also at times give me nice surprises.

take for example last Sunday. 

This was the first time ever I came to Medan, but from what I heard and i observed myself, the city is a somewhat metropolitan in its own way.  Nice, big and clean streets, big malls, nice buildings…not so nice street information and one way system, and a multiculture society.  So I found myself thinking, "wow, this is a nice place for foreigners to take a stroll, where people have stopped regarding them as strangers, have stopped looking at them as spectacles..and in a way have grown used to seeing them around."

So there we were, the three of us, two Europeans and one Indonesian girl.  We were strolling around one of the many malls of Medan, trying to find a pharmacist.  We got a direction from the information center, and was struggling to find the proper shop, until viola! there we were. 

Well, it was the right shop (if the neon box was showing the right name), it was 10.20 (the shops open at 10, suppose to…at least), the lights were on, the girls were in the shop, we could see them through the glass door, the sign on the glass door says "open"…so, we were only one step away from geeting the lozenges we wanted to buy…except for some little details.  The glass door was open, but the metal railing behind it was still hanging around 40cm from the ground, and the girls we saw were lying on the floor, having a great time chatting.  So we thought, either we should crawl under the railing and join them, or just give them a wave.  The option was quite clear, so there they were, the two white "bules" smilling and waving their hands to the scattering girls inside the shop.  I was not sure if they waved back, though, but the railing was soon lifted, some of the girls disappeared behind the counter, some tidied things up at the cashier and one…ran to Erik, threw her left arm around him and held her right hand upright…with a camera handphone!!! "Photo…photo!!!"

What a welcome!!  So we had a good laugh, strolled around the tiny shop and went out with the lozenges and some vitamin. 

So Erik, I guess you have an idea on how happy we were to receive you as a guest. I can’t speak for your bestfriend, but I bet he’s very very happy…I can only speak for (most of) the (average) Indonesians (girls). I hope other girls will find other ways to show how happy they were to see you, but I guess it was a great image booster  to have a girl jumping at you on the first 2 minutes of lying eyes on you.

Selamat jalan-jalan.

kemarin aku jalan-jalan, ke sebuah kota yang namanya Medan.

dan tahukah apa yang terjadi pada diriku…aku nongkrong di sebuah mall dari jam 4 sore sampai toko-toko di dalamnya pada tutup…well, mungkin kata "nongkrong" ga cocok dipake dalam konteks ini, karena nongkrong kan biasanya mewakili aktivitas duduk-duduk di coffee shop, sipping hot coffee or chocolate, chatting, observing people…tapi kami (cos i was with my cute sweetheart…    ) benar-benar berdiri dan jalan-jalan selama kira-kira 5 jam. 

eh, jangan salah ya…jangan bilang mentang-mentang perempuan. aku memang perempuan, tapi ternyata kalau soal shopping, kalah berat dari seseorang yang saat ini kupanggil "sayang"…..

dan sekali lagi aku disadarkan pada satu penemuan,  bahwa aku tetap saja sering terjebak pada stereotype orang-orang yang kutemui.  bahwa meskipun aku percaya bahwa men deserve to cry, women deserve to fight…bahwa yang namanya "setara" itu berlaku dua arah…ternyata aku tetap saja terkejut menemukan fakta-fakta kecil seperti ini.

jadi ya guys out there, aku sekarang jadi tambah ga mengerti, kenapa laki-laki sering sekali benci jalan-jalan di mall nemenin partner mereka belanja, dan kenapa lebih banyak laki-laki yang mengeluh tentang itu daripada perempuan…because you know, when men DO shop, they really shop till drop.

Baby, when you read this text in Bahasa Indonesia, maybe you haven’t understood it fully, but don’t worry, i’m not writing anything bad about you .  and i hope that someday (soon), you’ll be able to read this and understand each and every word…and beyond that, understand that this is an affectionate recount of the time we spent together.

Banda Aceh, July 31, 2006

pretty cathcy hm? i never expected my boyfriend to come up with such a phrase, but he did…

and what would you expect from someone who has two favourite catch lines to woo his girlfriend…(or rather…partner…since he thinks he has outgrown the use of the term "girlfriend"…)

"you are cute…"  or

" you are sweet…" or sometimes…"you are soooo sweet…" (better?)

well baby…this section is for you…

today i said goodbye to a very best friend.

the one who has seen me in the best and worst moments…and endured it all along…

and it is rather funny to find myself saying goodbye to him, without being able to be there and say it out loud, just hoping for him to be able to hear what he knows i must be saying from a distance.

dear Kadek, may you are blessed with everlasting happiness…the will to move forward with life, and the urge to live…and live life to the fullest.  may you are blessed with the everlasting will to live, and the fire within may be eternal.

the friendship we share has been a wonderful experience for me, and i hope that somehow across the miles, we can still share all the wonders of life. 

the best of luck for you…

as i was flying away from yogyakarta, i knew that i wouldn’t be seeing you when i return, and i was really sad.  but it’s a happy moment to be able to see, finally, that we are each and every day getting closer to what our dreams are all about, and to the life we want to achieve.  that we move on, and move forward.

for each passing day until we are able to say it face to face, i hope that we, and every one that we touch, will be able to say…"i am happy…for the life that i have…for the fire within…i am simply happy".

may the Land of the Gods, the beautiful island of Bali, be once again, the home of your dreams and happiness..

loty of love from Banda Aceh

Jumat, 28 Juli 2006

here i am…walking through the valley of the unknown…

i often looked back, and found myself pretty amazed on where i end up for the last three weeks. and yet, i must say, i’m pretty proud of myself, and pretty proud of the fact that i AM here.

Banda Aceh, July 28, 2006