Sunday, February 05, 2012

Things I Love When I Was In Indonesia

Hello guys, I'm back. Been back since Monday evening and my emotional state has plummeted so greatly that I shouldn't talk about it. Let's just talk about things which has a more positive vibe and things that I miss really dearly since I came back.

1. Mom. I love mommy. While my mom has certain views and opinions which differ greatly from what I have (and can annoy me so), there are those certain things which make me feel touched a lot, comforted, and down right think that she's the best mommy for me. One of the things that she told me to do really comforts me and I love it simply because it's not really something that Singaporeans here may think. One may argue because mom is not living in Singapore, she's perhaps out of tune with life here. However, I get where she's coming from and it's all really comforting to know at the bottomline what really matters. I also love mom for the fact that she got things or food that I may like. I miss home so and mom is one reason for it.

2. My bed. I love my bed and I miss it so :(

3. My family. I love how my extended family do hang out with each others. I love hanging out with my aunts. I love how a certain aunt is really funny about wanting me to have someone soon. For the past 3 years, I've only seen her once a year, and everytime she's egging me to get someone. She's funny. She didn't have much time to hassle me this time around because there were many people at her open house. I also love how my other aunt is teaching my 2-year old nephew (cousin's son = nephew?) to sing Bengawan Solo. It's by no mean an easy song and yet that's what they chose as the song to teach him. It's impressive that my aunt remembers the lyric. More so than me. It's downright really amazing that's what they want to instill in him. Then I love the fact that I can pinpoint that my brother has been spending time in Starbucks. I mean, seriously, like I told mom, of all the places in Tomang, I could sense correctly that he's in Starbucks. Pretty cool. I also love the fact that my bro gave me money when I didn't have smaller change and he got me the food I wanted on his way back from Starbucks.

4. I love my best girl friends, Dewi, Marlisa, and Emilia. Love talking to them and getting insight on their lives. It was really mind opening and also love having them listening to my woes. In general, I think all of us are not having the smoothest of lives right now though I feel that perhaps Emilia and Marlisa are the ones with the least agony right now.

5. I love Indonesian TV that make me laugh. I really have to be detailed on this because in general Indonesian tv still sucks. However, I am pleasantly surprised that some of them do get me laughing my ass off. One of them is Opera Van Java which I love and still trying to watch since I came back. I was curious about this show because a facebook friend, AA, often put it in his FB status. The show has been around for sometime but I only really watched it on this trip. It really made me laugh a lot and overall I think I have laughed so much more in my short time at home than I had been in the past year because of the so many amusing things. Anyways, I have to say that Opera Van Java style of comedy is pretty distinctly Indonesian. I may say it's low class at some point but darn it's funny. Most of it are slapstick but since it's pretty much an improvised live shows for 2 hours plus, moments like when they broke into speaking in pantun (rhyme) show how witty and smart these people are. Try coming out with rhymes on the spot every few minutes, it's not easy. I particularly love the part when they broke into songs suddenly. It does impede the whole story but it's funny funny funny!

6. Still related to number 4, I love how there are so much talent in Indonesia. Indonesia is like a huge range of ugly despicable moronic things to the highest high of really talented creative bunch of things. As comparison with my life here, I don't see the poor quality on things the way I see it in Indonesia, but I also don't get amused and taken away by the creativity in it. Like in Indonesian music scenes for example, while there are those that made me switch the channel the moment I saw them, there are those also which made me totally in awe that such things are in Indonesia.

7. I love the Indonesian-ness of Indonesia. I got my first batik shirt on this trip (courtesy of mom). I chose a red one to fit the chinese new year theme. I love how Indonesians embraces Indonesian culture and I think it's awesome.

8. While traffic and the pollution in Jakarta is something that I really don't enjoy, I am impressed with the busway. For the first time, I finally tried it with mom. It's definitely far from perfect, however the fact that they manage to create so many routes (the routes are definitely more complicated that Singapore mrt system) with so many busway bus stop points is pretty commendable. If it could run smoothly, it's a pretty good alternative to things. I am actually looking forward to try it more and perhaps on my own the next time I am home.

9. I had the chance to watch The Iron Lady. It's always nice to watch something ahead of Singapore and it's very rare. Went to Taman Anggrek and felt pretty impressed with their cinema. It seemed new as compared to when I was there years years ago. It's a high quality cinema and it's so good to be watching in an almost empty cinema. As usual I chose the aisle seat but as it started, I moved to right smack at the center of the cinema and my row was a divider row between 2 sections, I don't really know how to explain this, but basically I had more legs space. Wonderful! The Iron Lady was insightful and Meryl Streep was of course always awesome. I thought it was amazing how she managed to look so different and how small size they managed to make her be, especially in comparison to when she played Julia Child. Overall I think it's a nice a movie.

Being in Indonesia was really really relaxing to me. I have people who was glad to see me. I ate well. There are always many fruits in the house. I had good conversations. I had lotsa love. I basically felt I was loved. I really really miss home and all that really made being here sucks so badly. I felt that I am a different person when I was home than when I am here :( and it's frustrating sometime that these people whom I love dearly at home cannot see how I am here :(

Life here has been really bad. Right now, I am having difficulty sleeping all the time. I don't have a good appetite. The only moment when I had a good laugh this week when I was watching Opera Van Java streaming live off the net. Overall Singapore hasn't made feel good about being here. Well, finding out that prices went down in McDonalds was good but it's not KFC Indonesia for example, which really is much much better than Singapore's. Oh my God, when I was eating it, I was thinking this is how KFC should taste like and what the hell have I been eating all this time? Another reason to miss home.

So I have practically lost all will to live. I thought when I come back, I'll start doing something which I had planned and would perhaps gave me hope for the days ahead, but I found myself not interested in it. I did do other things which I really need to do but no luck so far and I prayed and pray and since there's still nothing so far, I'm pretty much bummed out. Hence I think I made my mom so worried. My dear cousin was so nice to be encouraging me and all and I feel guilty for having them to have to do this and be worried. I'm just really mentally down now. I'm sorry. I wish I could even spark a little positivity and light to bring me up but right now I can't really. I am in the point of tears most of time :( Alright, I shouldn't talk about this anymore.

In an attempt to do something which I normally like, I went to watch The Descendants today. I have to say it felt like a chore to get me to go and watch it. You see how down I am. Even the prospect of watching something nice didn't manage to interest me much. I was late and I missed some of it - that sucks. However, the movie was really good. I have watched some really heavy, borderline boring, George Clooney's movies but this one was not boring. It's pretty sad and in a way perhaps it matches how my mood is. I think the cast were great and if you don't mind getting quite depressed, you could go watch it.

Alright, I'm not gonna say much more. I hope your days are much better than mine. Take care!

:) eKa @ 6:31:00 PM •