wow. a week has passed and lots of things happened. some are happy. others are killing me. can be said it's been a week of extremes for me.
ok first, my family and i went to jkt last saturday. dad fetched us to aunt's place. we changed into our clothes and were driven to another aunt's place, where the rest of the family was. nothing changed i guess. except that this time, there were fewer cousins around and hence the atmosphere was not as crazy and loud as it used to be. only my family was complete. many were absent for the other family. after paying respect to our grandparents and aunties uncles, my family left the house to pay a visit to my mum's side of the family. actually just my grandma and uncle. i was really shocked to find them staying in a very old and dirty looking place. it's really dirty, that i dare not remove my shoes off even if i have to. how can they live in such a place? it's really crowded and not suitable for them to live comfortably. it's not like they can't afford it. i'm sure my married cousin gave my uncle some money for his day-to-day expense. it kinda smell like dog poo too. i felt really sad that they have to live in such conditions. after that, we paid respect to our late grandfather. we didn't pray with the joysticks because we're now christians. it's really different compared to 10 years ago. i used to help mum burn the offerings, pray with the joysticks in my hands etc. things really never were the same. i have my own beliefs now. no longer controlled by my parents. whether that's good or bad, i still have to achieve independence sooner or later right? anyway, then later we shopped at Grand Indonesia and Plaza Indonesia. it was nice and we spent quite a bit of money in Zara. but somehow, it's not quite the same as Singapore. the indonesians were much more friendlier i guess. that night, we had steamboat together at aunt's place together with dad side of the family. i don't know why but my brother became the storyteller of the night. he told the story about how he get to know this russian girl that he likes later and highlight a few tips for the men about courting girls. i was really taken aback by how much my brother knows about what girls like, but on the other hand, it is easy to say but not that easy to act on. anyhows, i am just proud that my brother have the courage to reveal his thoughts and intentions to us all. he really got us cracking mad when joined by my uncle interviewing him.
the next day was Chinese New Year cum Valentine's Day. we woke up early for church. the place was not that well-established yet. it's like the one in padang. with not much congregations too. after service, we went to aunt's place for cny ceremony. it's tradition. we did it every cny. first we gather. second we collected our red packets from relatives. third we took family portraits. it was quite fast and then my family had to leave to visit mum side of the family. we met them coincidentally on the road and decided to have lunch together. well, when we first met, honestly i felt a bit awkward towards one cousin because of something that happened some time ago. but the awkwardness disappeared after i pretended nothing happened and talked casually to that cousin of mine. actually, the whole gathering was refreshing because we got to meet up with cousins that we rarely see. also, my cousin's baby girl was all grown-up. about 10 months. when i last saw her she's just a newborn. the baby was really cute. she looked really unique, mixture of her dad and mum? anyways, i love babies. they smell like powder all the time and they don't sweat. after the lunch, we went back to aunt's place and rested for a while, played Texas Hold'em Poker with couz, before going back to our (staying place) house to bathe. then it was dinnertime and we had makasar cuisine. it was spicy. even me (orang padang, known to be able to tolerate spicy food) couldn't even take it. it was definitely an exciting one. we had seafood and that was the first time i tried orange coconut drink. it tasted like plain orange! also, uncle began interviewing both my brother and i about what kind of partner we want to have in life. i rated personality above looks. but the moment i said it, the more important i think looks is. LOL how fast my mind changes its mind! that night, we continued poker in my room. i won Rp40000++. i returned back Rp10000 each to my brothers and sister. i felt bad winning too much! =P
the next day, both my sister and i missed breakfast. we were so deep in our sleep that we didn't know that they went out. when we woke up, it was time for lunch and we had menado cuisine then. it was spicy too! and i had my first bat meat there! it was gross and smelly! i won't eat it ever again, unless someone paid me to do it. LOL which i doubt anyone will ever do. it's worth the try, but not as a regular meal meat. chicken still tastes much more sweeter and tender. i would rate bat meat the last of the list. after lunch, we shopped at Plaza Senayan i think together with aunt. i bought an alarm clock that's pretty loud for melb because its hard for me to wake up to the music from my hp. so i trust that with the loud ringing noise, i will wake up on time for school. we shopped again at Zara. man! how i love Zara!!! more than anything else now! that night, i met the guy that i first chat with on Facebook with. he said he was asked to find me by his mum's friend (who is my cousin's aunt). since he's studying in jkt and i was in town, my aunt arranged for us to meet up. so there we were, (me hardly knowing anything about the guy except that he's in his last year in medicine, his sister is in melb, he's got twin brother and that our mutual friend is Arian) both overwhelmed of the fact that we were randomly picked on to meet. i was not comfortable with the idea. but after thinking about it, i began to see that it's not harmful. just another acquaintance right? who knows what will happen next? if i ever want to get a bf in life, maybe that's one small step i have to make to make it happen. in the end, my brother commented that i asked the guy lots of doctor-related questions and that my other siblings were bored while we had conversations going on. i admit i was a teeny bit nervous about meeting him. probably because i was being judged by someone i don't know. next, i am thinking of not to meet him anymore? so i kinda took advantage of the opportunity to ask him about his degree. i am sorry if i am being selfish that evening. but i also did get to answer lots of my cousin's cousin questions regarding my degree. she too is interested in doing medicine. i'm sure michelle also wanted to know more about what the guy's degree all about. that's fine right. anyway, that night we had bali cuisine and a fried duck was served with rice for each person. we had to use hand to eat it. something that i often do back at padang. haha. before going home, we took a picture together but it's still with my aunt so i can't upload it yet.
the fourth day is free time. my aunt and dad left to padang in the morning. so we met up with mum's sister and our cousin for lunch at Grandville. the food was awesome! i had 3 servings! haha. after that, we shopped at Taman Anggrek gramedia for cd case and stuffs. cd case for all the 50 dvds we got. LOL i am bringing them to melb in case i got bored which i hope i won't.
altogether it was a special cny celebration for me. the environment was all new and very refreshing. it's like an adventure to lots of unknown places and doing unfamiliar stuffs. also, the amount collected was surprisingly more than what we got in singapore! haha. that's the most important thing actually. =P
since then, i got diarrhoea. my family members got it too. probably it's due to all the chilli from jkt. but slowly we're recovering.
yesterday eric went back to melb. it was also my brother's birthday. the younger one. we did not do anything for him really. except that i baked him cupcakes and decorated it with love-shaped banana strips at the top, "HAPPY BDAY" on 8 others plus 3 candle-lit cupcakes. also both sister erica and i drew him a giant Homer Simpson (his fav cartoon show)card. there's another card too with everybody's wishes on it, even eric's but not mum's. we sang him a birthday song and mum prayed for him. he's got a stomachache still that day so we didn't go out to celebrate.
however today, he seemed to be well. he organised a bbq event downstairs and also invited his classmates over. i just stayed for a while, helped to start up the fire and then i had to go for the concert that my dad couldn't go to. there's 2 tickets so it's mum and i. i never heard of the singer before and didn't know any of his songs. everywhere around me were aunties and uncles. none was my age. LOL we got lucky though. once in the show, the singer walked around the aisle throwing angbaos to the audience. mum got one. it's got a lottery number on it i'm sure. but we didn't wait for the show to be over and left the stadium. what a waste huh. we could have won if we waited. but we were sleepy (the show's in cantonese and we don't understand what's so funny when everybody else's laughing) and hungry (only ate 2 sausages at the bbq). so we decided to have bak kut teh @balestier at 11.30pm. we tried to eat little because soon, we'll be sleeping and take-away some food for tomorrow. and on the way back home, both mum and i sang to the tune of Pujaan Hati by Kangen Band. indonesian songs are really hard to memorise, unlike english. the phasing of the words is still strange to me. even so, it's beautiful. i like it so much that i put it as my blog song! (=
here's the lyrics to the song:
hei pujaan hati apa kabarmu
ku harap kau baik-baik saja
pujaan hati andai kau tahu
ku sangat mencintai dirimu
hei pujaan hati setiap malam
aku berdoa kepada sang Tuhan
berharap cintaku jadi kenyataan
agar ku tenang meniti kehidupan
* hei pujaan hati, pujaan hati
pujaan hati, pujaan hati
reff:
mengapa kau tak membalas cintaku
mengapa engkau abaikan rasaku
ataukah mungkin hatimu membeku
hingga kau tak pernah pedulikan aku
cobalah mengerti keadaanku
dan cobalah pahami keinginanku
ku ingin engkau menjadi milikku
lengkapi jalan cerita hidupku
hei pujaan hati, pujaan hati
hei pujaan hati setiap malam
aku berdoa kepada sang Tuhan
berharap cintaku jadi kenyataan
agar ku tenang meniti kehidupan
repeat *, reff
hope you enjoy the song like i do!
xoxo,
thegirlwhohas6daysleftinsingapore
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