Love is Cinto

Today was the longest day ever during the USIPP program, unnecessary to be unpleasant one. We need to get to the bus station by 7.00 this morning, otherwise we wouldn't be able to meet an amazig woman, Maria Chrin. Google her and you might find a bunch of articles about her impressive achievements so far. We were lucky to get a chance to know her in person. I personally admire her since I read her brief biography on our program book, especially after I found out that she has economic background. After had lunch with her, also her husband and Mrs. Judy, I like her more. With such high achievements, she maintains to stay humble and warm toward others. We discussed more about George Washington’s letter to Hebrew Congregration in Newport, Rhode Island. I had read it from USIPP materials uploaded on facebook, yet I didn’t realize how important the letter was. Honestly, I didn’t really understand nor pay much attention to it before. However, Judy brought up the issue and emphasized th...

Philadelphia is a historical city, less than 2 hours drive from Bethlehem, PA. The first impression once I got there was it’s busier than our previous visited cities, more offices building, and more tourists cause I saw tourism bus often passed by. Before we leaving for Philadelphia, we went to the City Hall of Bethlehem and met a councilman called Mr. Will. He is originally come from Bethlehem and grew up in Bethlehem too. He was in his early 20s when elected to become a council man. Before elaborating further on our discussion, my fellows in Indonesia or country other than US might not sure what this council men do, who are they, etc. So let me explain based on my best knowledge. The City Hall is a public services office which has similar function as Regional Government Office in Indonesia. The offices consist of the Council Men which functioned as “house of representative in the city level” or in Indonesia we call it DPRD tingkat Kota Madya, Mayor who lead the city (Wali Kota), and...

Starting the day at 8 am, we went to Singlar Village and met this one family named Pak Sakimin. He was one of the Merapi victim when it was erupted in October 2010. Basically, we discussed a lot about the disaster and post-disaster activities that actually happened in Singlar. He also showed us around the village that was, we can say, totally destroyed. Pak Sakimin told us like the whole story how it was happened and how the government and the other social organizations (NGOs) gave assistances in recovering the post-disaster condition. Next, we had a lunch in Raminten, a Javanese restaurant in Jalan Kaliurang. Later on, we continued to Ullen Sentalu. It's a Javanese Museum well known as Batik Museum in Yogyakarta. They have the coolest collections in there. Generally, as its name, they have pictures of Sultanate and Paku Alam along with the royal families in both cities, Yogyakarta and Surakarta. They have this one family tree which Paundra Kandra's name written on it too....

Back to a week ago, May 6th, 2012 As you may know , dari tanggal 4-6 Mei 2012, umat Budha di Indonesia lagi punya gawe menyambut hari besar agama mereka. Puncak perayaan jatuh pada hari Minggu, 6 Mei kemarin. Serangkaian acara telah dilaksanakan dari pagi dan ditutup dengan pelepasan seribuan lebih lampion dari pelataran Candi Borobudur. Mungkin event yang terakhir ini yang paling banyak mengundang massa ke Borobudur. Dibela-belain dateng dari jam 5 sore, padahal acara baru dimulai jam 9 malem ( later on we'll see that Indonesian time does "ngaret") . Hahaha Bahkan ada yang dateng dari pagi, salah satunya ya rombongan saya. Umm..nggak pagi ding, tapi siang. Aku sih berangkatnya pagi, jam 8 teng udah duduk manis di depan kos nunggu temen :p To be honest, that was my very first experience to watch Vesak's procession loh. Ketertarikan untuk menggali budaya dan agama (baik agama sendiri maupun agama lain) memang mulai bercokol semenjak aku terpilih menjadi salah s...

Whoaaa tak terasa 4 bulan sudah tinggal di negeri Sakura. What a wonderful life! Being a ryuugakusei was one of the best thing I could ever wish for. Bagaimana tidak?? Kami berkesempatan jalan2 GRATIS ke Tottori Prefecture tanpa keluar biaya sepeser pun. Tinggal bawa badan & kamera! Hehehehee. Jadi gini ceritanya, biro pariwisata pemerintah Jepang khawatir dengan menurunnya jumlah wisatawan di Jepang gara2 kasus nuklir kemarin..dan mereka juga pengen improve objek wisata di masing2 prefecture. Jadi bisa dibilang tour ini sekaligus buat promosi objek2 wisata yang belum terlalu dikenal secara Internasional. Tottori is a nice countryside of Japan. That's my impression during this tour. Sepanjang perjalanan, bus kami melaju melewati pengunungan2..desa2..countryside gitu lah yang jumlah penduduknya aja jarang2. Baru kali ini liat sawah begitu luas di Jepang. Gara2 tour ini aku jadi bisa liat sisi lain dari negara super high tech ini. Ureshiiii!!!! Pada dasarnya a...

Ada satu hal yang paling aku suka dari orang Jawa.Semua hal, bahkan yang terkecil dan terlihat sepele pun memiliki filosofi yang luar biasa bijak . Hari Jumat kemarin, kami (aku & ketiga teman kos-ku) maen ke Ulen Sentalu. itu tuh, Museum Budaya Jawa yang ada di Kaliurang. Pasti tau dong?? Konsepnya keren, bangunan kuno dengan sulur2 gtu . T.O.P M.A.R.K.O.T.O.P deh! Anyway, pas di situ kita ngliat busana pengantin wanita Jawa, tepatnya Jogjakarta. Tau sendiri kan gimana ribetnya?? tapi di situ, aku terkesan banget dengan tutur kata si guide yang menjelaskan arti ke-riweuh-an itu. Kurang lebih kaya gini : busana tradisional pengantin jawa Mulai dari hiasan di kepala, ada "sunduk thul" (kalo orang Jawa bilang) yang jumlahnya lima, simbol bahwa rukun Islam ada lima. Masih berupa hiasan di kepala, ada segitiga berwarna emas yang merupakan simbol Gunung yang berarti Dewa (kalo jaman dulu kan masi Animisme tuh) ato Tuhan itu di atas segala- galanya. Kemudi...