Monday, June 02, 2008

That Friends Forever, Forever Friends

So I went to Esther's wedding yesterday. Arrived later than what the invitation stated because one knows that Chinese wedding will always start late. Saw Esther as I arrived and the smart her recognized me straight away. I was kinda happy to see her. Saw Shervin at the reception, I suppose she was kinda stunned to see me, but she recognized me nonetheless, or perhaps she only realized it was me after I gave Esther a hug. Lukas, Esther's brother, was there as well and he was like, "This is Eka? Eka Buntoro?". I wonder if I really changed a lot. He brought me to the table that I was sharing with them and Elina and Wawa. Saw Elina and Wawa sitting at the table, and I waved and yet no response from them. Finally Wawa registered it was me, in her defense she didn't wear her glasses when she saw me, but it was Elina who took quite some time to realize it's me even after I was standing right in front of her. She was just staring at me. Seriously, I wonder if I am so different now. I wonder if it's because of the girlie outfit or if I really have changed. I kinda can still recognize them all, I wonder why it's so surprising for them to see me now.

Anyway, it was amazing to see them coming all the way for their friend's wedding. I thought it's just me and my girls who managed to keep such a bond, apparently they too. All those Friends Forever, Forever Friends do survive these 10 years. I miss my best friends at home and how I miss talking to them. How I am so thankful that I can still have them as friends even after all these years. When I talked to these girls last night, I didn't really connect much with them. At one point, I wondered if all these times away from home kinda made me a bit not as Indonesian as them. But I always can talk to Dewi, Marlisa, and Emilia well. Perhaps we are just more in the same frequency with each other, and I was never really in the same frequency with them, hence we were never close friends back in school. Of course we got updates on each other lives and I even heard a bit of gossip

Talking to them and seeing the footage from what happened earlier in the wedding's day, I feel that Shervin is such a nice person and friend. She said something that made me feel kinda happy, she said something like she was glad to see me still able to be expressive and not as emotionless as the Singaporeans. That really made me smile and grin from the inside I was never one who think much on the perception that Singaporeans are not expressive and that they provide bad service. Perhaps since I've been here long, I've grown accustomed to how things works and become acceptance to many things. But they had some not-so-nice encounters, like being scolded by a taxi driver and an auntie in a food court. Of course we do not know what the context of the situation was but they really didn't find that Singaporeans are a friendly bunch They are of course stating their opinions as tourists. Somehow hearing them make me wonder if the many surveys and newspaper articles about these issues are true, which also reminded me back in my Uni days when me and my Indonesian friends felt that some Singaporeans just don't like foreigners. Fortunately these days I think the Singaporeans that I encounter, most of them are nicer than not

Anyway, so that's about it. Called my mom just now to share stories. I miss her. Then I called my cousin, Marlisa, but she wasn't around. Her mom answered and my auntie was so cute and rather nutty. She asked me to talk to her granddaughter, Mikaela, who is perhaps around 6 months old. I guess my auntie just loves to see her reaction. I wonder how cute she is now. I miss home. But I cannot deny the fact that I am neither here nor there, sigh.

:) eKa @ 8:28:00 PM •