Wednesday 21 October 2009

TRANSITION

Setelah berminggu-minggu mendekam diri di kamar dan menjadi ansos (baca: anti sosial), gw mencoba untuk nongkrong lebih lama di dapur saat makan malam. Hasilnya.... tidak seseram dan seliar yg gw perkirakan, mengingat gw pernah melihat insiden pelemparan bermacam barang jam 12 malem dari dapur gw yang di lantai 2. Walaupun gw lebih menjadi seorang penonton dan hanya berkomentar sedikit, at least they know me and we shared a nice laugh together : )


Oh satu lagi, gw baru aja ikutan kelas bahasa portugal, dan pronunciationnya ga semudah yg gw kira. Walaupun begitu, at least gw ga harus belajar alfabet baru seperti klo belajar bahasa jepang ato arab. Rasanya aneh emang belajar bahasa yang bener-bener baru di lidah maupun telinga, tapi on the bright side, seru juga belajar sesuatu yang baru, apalagi it's totally FREE : D


Gw bakal kasih tau progress gw menjadi a real university student tapi itu harus nunggu karena tugas-tugas udah mulai menumpuk,so as for now, adeus. Boa noite : )

Tuesday 20 October 2009

"Home"cooked Meal

Salah satu hal yang udah pasti dikangenin kalau jauh dari rumah yaitu; makanan rumah. Dan seperti keluarga Indonesia lainnya, di rumah gue hampir selalu masak makanan Indonesia dong :)

Selama kira-kira 4 minggu tinggal sendiri,
jauh dari rumah, gue selalu takut bakal indulge tiap waktu makan dengan microwave food - yang sebenernya pilihannya emang banyak dan enak-enak :p, tapi... GEN-DUT. Akhirnya, gue mencoba beberapa makanan yang sama praktisnya - karena kemampuan memasak gue masih pemula :p - tapi yang lebih sehatttt!

...dan inilah beberapa dokumentasi hasil jerih payah memilih dan mengolah bahan makanan yang sehat, praktis, dan enak:

#1 Tortellini filled with spinach and ricotta (atau cottage cheese, lupa) with Greek Salad on the side :) Tortellininya tinggal rebus 3 menit; Saladnya... ya... salad hehehe





#2
Pan-fried chicken-breast strips (bumbu seadanya, kemaren cuma ada salt and pepper hahahaha) and spaghetti with pesto sauce sama cherry tomatoes on the side, yum!




#3 Yang terakhir ini adalah achievement tertinggi gue sampai detik ini, ini adalah... deng deng dengggg... SEMUR AYAMMMMMMM!!!! Gila, walaupun idenya dadakan, alhasil g tersedia bahan-bahan yg sebenernya (not even onions) tapi... rasanyaaa beeeehhh!*

Jadi tadinya ayam-ayam cantik ini mau gue panggang, pake Rosemary utk bumbunya, terus makannya pake kentang (bosen kan?); terus tiba-tiba, menuju jam 4 sore, lidah gue mulai bergoyang saat otak gue nyebut "Semur... semur..."; jadi, dengan nekatnya, gue coba bikin, walaupun gue sadar gue g punya minyak sayur (punyanya olive oil! hahahahaha), terus berbagai jenis bawang dan pala atau apapun itu lah namanya juga g ada, akhirnya gue pake senjata andalan gue: GARLIC PASTE! sama untungnya gue blom lama beli sambel juga (bukan sambel botol, cabe yg dipotong2 itu trs ditaro di minyak)

Srang...sreng...srong...

Jadi dehh!!!


*karena bantuan Kecap Manis ABC yang dibeli di ChinaTown beserta 'makanan pokok' lainnya seperti Indomie :)


Jadi, dengan keadaan jauh dari rumah, jangan makannya malah ngaco ya... coba aja trik-trik kayak gini biar tetep nutrisinya seimbang
(emak-emak banget ya sarannya)

yak, baik anak-anakku semua,

selamat mencoba di manapun anda berada!

Danya

Monday 5 October 2009

The underground station is really a fantastic source of entertainment

Hullo, I'm bored and I've got nothing else to do so I'm gonna tell another tube story.
This didn't actually happen
in the tube, but on the stairs as we were getting out from the underground station.

There was a black man (and I'm not being racist), who was walkin
g behind me and my mum as we climbed up the stairs from the underground station. So there was some sort of rail that divides the stairs into two, and people going up or down should always keep right. However, a lady who was rather big (I'm trying to be subtle here... She was big) who was going down took the left side, where people are supposed to go up. She realized this quite late so she kept going down anyway. The man behind me was quite agitated I suppose so he tried to block the lady who was going down, and so she was kind of pinned between the man and me. I tried moving as near as possible to the wall to give her space but the man just sort pushed her and she said "Hey! I was just trying to..." she didn't even finish the sentence, as the man walked past her she hit his bag (I think she was aiming for the arm but missed), and the man swiftly continued to walk up the stairs and said "Keep left, it says you need to keep left. And keep your hands off me or I'm going to make you lose some weight!" (He must've meant right, it says to keep right)

Toodle-oo,
Monica

Sunday 4 October 2009

Export

Hello all!

Hidup sendirian telah mewajibkan diri gue untuk pergi belanja supply makanan sendiri setiap bulannya (atau 2 minggu); karena itu, di hari Minggu yang cerah ini, gue pergi sendiri ke Waitrose untuk belanja bahan makanan - dan telah gue tetapkan, hari Minggu pertama di awal bulan akan menjadi hari belanja gue. Dengan membawa list apa aja yang mau dibeli dan juga perkiraan harga satuan dan totalnya (ini sangat penting, kalo gak ada, lo semua bakal kebablasan beli yang lain-lain juga), gue memulai perjuangan belanja gue! Setelah hampir dapet semuanya, tinggal daging-dagingan aja yg belum (ini mksdnya daging/ikan/ayam). Akhirnya gue ke aisle yang nyediain itu semua, laluuuu gue menemukan sesuatu yang sedikit mengagetkan:
dijuallah di sana udang kecil-kecil yang udah dikupas, dengan label "Indonesian prawn"

deng denggggg

ternyata oh ternyata, baru tau gue Indonesia eksport udang juga kesini, jauh amat tp ya
dan pas gue baca penjelasannya ternyata dari perairan di Sumatra. Sayang sekali tidak sempat gue foto - malu juga banyak orang - dan tidak juga gue beli. Gak sudi gila! Beli udang dari negara sendiri harganya 3.50 pounds! dikit lagi! haha, jadi lain kali ya gue foto kalo bisa :p

sekian dulu pengalaman saya hari ini!



oiya, selamat untuk Arsenal, kalahin Blackburn 6-2 :)

Saturday 3 October 2009

The tube is a fantastic source of entertainment

Since Danya and Emira made a blog post I feel compelled to write one too.

I was in the tube the other day, and as I was sitting I saw these two dudes - let's call them dude A and dude B - getting in each other's faces. Something must have happened before I got in the compartment, but dude A, who was relatively younger, told dude B to "just sit down!" (yes, he was a rude little punk who had his scared "female companion" there with him) while bobbing his head like some thug. And then they went and mind their own businesses... For about 5 minutes, until the rude little punk (dude A) caught dude B staring at him, and so he said "You're pissing me off man, stop staring at me, I'm gonna break your face", and dude B, who looked Indian by the way, mumbled something I couldn't hear very well. And the punk just stormed at him, so now both dudes stood up, again, getting in each other's faces. Some people were laughing silently at them, some had a concerned look, and a girl who was sitting right beside dude B kept on yelling "Stop it, stop it! Tell them to stop it!" I'm pretty sure people silently thought, "but this is a source of entertainment in our mundane lives..."
Okay, so what happened then was, dude A got his belt out (I don't know how that happened, but if you think about it, he kind of made a fool of himself just trying to get that belt out awkwardly while trying to confront another guy) He picked up his hand presumably trying to whip the other guy (dominatrix much) but a biiigg Caucasian man held dude B back, and a man who was sitting down was sort of holding dude A back as well - not like there is much to be held back, he was like paper thin... For a thug.
These people who were supposedly "fighting" were just standing there, gazing at each other's eyes, pretty sure they were both scared to make the first move (wimps...) but then, dude A's female companion who was utterly embarrassed by the whole situation walked towards dude A slowly and held his arm and they both retracted.
After the whole scene, dude A remain standing and dude B sat, the whole time I'm pretty sure dude A felt quite awkward and exposed to the whole world. Oh, and the whole time, there was an Oprah-like woman mumbling to herself and a girl beside her about how stupid the situation was.


That's the story for the day, until next time.
Toodle-oo,
Monica

Friday 2 October 2009

Hari Batik, Hari Baik

Selamat Malam!

Tau kan hari ini, 2 Oktober, Hari Batik Nasional?

Walaupun jarak dari rumah sekitar 11000 km, gue gak lupa untuk pake batik dong hari ini :)
Kebetulan, hari ini adalah akhir dari minggu ke-2 gue sebagai mahasiswa di jurusan fashion; dan kebetulan juga, hari ini gue harus melakukan presentasi kecil-kecilan di depan kelas; basically just to show how familiar are we to the correct research methods. Seperti orang-orang lain yang berada di lingkungan baru, - atau ini cuma gue? - I saw this as an opportunity to make the best first impression to the people I would spend the next 4 years with.

Sedikit susah sebenernya, dari kemarin siang bolak-balik di otak gue "have I prepared this right?" "am I following the instructions?" "'have I covered everything?" dsb dsb, selain mengenai materi yang akan gue sampaikan, I was also very nervous because of the fact that I will be talking in front of English-speaking natives who may or may not be judgemental (I hope they weren't).

Giliran presentasi semua berdasarakan kemauan masing-masing, dari jam 10.30 pagi, sampai jam 1 siang semua orang bergantian was wes wos maju ke depan untuk memamerkan hasil research dan PowerPoint mereka (dan yang gue kaget, ternyata ada beberapa orang yang gak ngerti PowerPoint, malah ada yang belum pernah pake sama sekali, hm) Lalu, tanpa sadar, menuju waktu lunch break, hampir semua anak udah presentasi. Ternyata sisanya tinggal 2 orang temen gue, dan gue (oh, for those who don't know me well, I'm not very good at volunteering). Akhirnya setelah lunch break, gue serahkan tanggung jawab ke satu temen gue untuk maju duluan, baru abis itu gue beraksi.

Akhirnya, saat itu tiba. Gue jalan ke depan kelas sambil bawa cue-cards dan external HD berisi file PowerPoint gue; berpakaian batik - suatu reminder tambahan bahwa gue beda sama semua orang yang ada di ruangan itu. Setelah itu, kalimat pertama yang keluar dari mulut gue adalah "Hello, I'm Danya..."

loh

eh, bukan, maksud gue kalimat ke-dua;
"Just so you know that English isn't actually my first language, so if anybody has absolutely no idea about what I'm saying, just...feel free to ask"
...dan, ternyata oh ternyata, kalimat itu bikin mereka ketawa - emang jokes bule kurang seru, ginian diketawain?.
Tapi at the same time, dalem hati gue bilang "uu, I captured their attention..."
As I was very proud with the PowerPoint, gue cukup percaya diri untuk carry on with my presentation; tapi yang gak bisa dihindari... shaky voice. But, it went well, I guess.
HOWEVER, I wasn't there to say anything about my own performance; the tutor must have got something to say..something!!

She started with; "very good..." - hmm :)
"very confidently delivered..." - hahaha, I didn't think so
"very creative PowerPoint layout" - proud face
dan diakhiri dengan Gong; "you were perfect" - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :D

sebagai satu-satunya yang tidak berbicara bahasa Inggris di kelas itu, dapet pujian kayak gitu bikin terbang; apalagi kalo lo gak yakin sama diri lo sendiri at first; and btw, gue satu-satunya yang menerima pujian itu di kelas :p

So, what do you know... ada gunanya juga pake batik hari ini, bukan cuma untuk perayaan aja :)
Jadi... berbanggalah kalian semua! It might happen to you too :)

Thank God It's Friday (but not for me)

Aku sedih

Duduk sendiri

Mama pergi

Papa pergi

Kuambil tali...

Bagian lirik/puisi di atas mungkin udah pernah didengar sama sebagian anak-anak Indonesia, dan ini tepat sekali mendeskripsikan keadaan gw sekarang (ganti kata 'mama' dan 'papa' menjadi 'flatmates').


Kenapa? Karena tepatnya detik ini, persis di depan pintu kamar gw, terdengar suara flatmates gw yg smuanya adalah the real British kids with the infamous British accent (yg selalu gw assume instead of talking, they're actually murmuring) lagi siap-siap untuk clubbing. Yeap, you hear me, clubbing. Oh fyi, everything is legal when you're 18 in UK, jadi mau clubbing, mau smoking, mau drinking, mau apapun itu sah alias legal lo lakuin di sini.


Kalimat-kalimat seperti, 'what are you wearing?', atau 'I don't know what to wear for tonight', lengkap dengan aksen inggris yang kental beberapa kali gw tangkap dari percakapan mereka di balik pintu kamar gw. Bisa gw bayangin perempuannya dengan heels, revealing clothes,ga peduli dengan cuaca yang dingin, plus full make up, sedangkan laki-lakinya dengan shirts, jeans with pockets full of condoms (it's legal, and safe!). Ga peduli dengan curfew atau rules karena ga ada orang tua yang ngawasin, it's all great..for them. Tapi, gimana gw? Masih memakai celana jeans yang ga tau kapan terakhir dicuci, t-shirt biasa dan tidak lupa kaos kaki bintang-bintang. I bet they're ready to drink, dancing around and flirt with strangers, but what about me? In front of the computer for hours, having a long chat with cousins and friends to kill the boredom. Pathetic isn't it?


The funny thing is, or ironic part for some of you, pas gw lagi chatting sama salah satu partner in crime gw di Inggris, Danya, tentang hal yang gw alami, dia juga bilang dia mengalami hal yang sama malam ini. Sendirian di kamar, depan komputer, sedangkan anak-anak yang lain lagi sibuk bersosialisasi. So much for studying abroad when we still end up being trapped in our own rooms -__-"


Apakah kita jealous dengan keadaan kita yang berbeda sama anak-anak lainnya yang sibuk dengan nightlife? Ga tau untuk Danya, tapi untuk gw sendiri, gw sama sekali ga tertarik untuk clubbing, well except the drinking part (I'm fond of any kind of liquor ; p) Lagipula, going to places with people you only know for several days is not really a good choice. Bukan berarti gw bilang apa yang mereka lakuin sekarang salah, cuma buat gw yang baru mencium udara Inggris kurang dari sebulan, yang masih perlu adaptasi dengan sekitar, I think I'll just take it down slowly. I'm taking the the stairs rather than the elevator for now.


But for the bright side, besok pagi gw bakal sarapan sama nyokap gw, lalu siangnya ke London bareng Danya untuk ke KBRI ketemu pelajar Indonesia lainnya, dilanjutin sama nonton film : ) I hope tomorrow's gonna be a great day, unlike today!


Wish me luck : )


Emira