Letters to Ken - Week #4

Dear Ken, How are you? Thank you very much for the amazing lunch the other day. We had a lot of fun! :) Last week was the first Labor day I've ever experienced. I never celebrate the labor day before, so it was totally new for me. Everything and everyone was about labor day. I heard preach at the church about labor. I see labor day SALE sign everywhere. And I got a bunch of labor day spams in my email! On Monday, which was THE Labor day, we had no class! Yay!! NO labor on labor day! (I love this sentence!) I went to the Dolores Park and hang out with some new friends. It was a perfect day to hang out in the Park. The park was flooded by people. I love to hang out at the Park because it gives me a positive energy. people who are hang out at the Park are almost all happy; and for me,happiness is contagious. I was pretty tired after my first labor day. Fortunately, I have no class on Tuesday! So, I spent all day resting in my home stay. I had my weekly bubble bath and I did my laundry which I haven't done in two weeks! On Wednesday, I had a very long day. I had a morning and evening class. Both of them were not so good. I don't know, maybe because everybody was still lazy to start the week after the long weekend. In the Women Leaders at Work class, we had this argument with a student who was dominating the class room for three hours. Jennifer was not there and the substitute instructor was still adjusting with the class. Anyway, we've dealt with the problem and hope that next week would be different. The next day, on the Organizational Behavior class, we were divided into groups. I got assign with three students from USA and another student from China. I am quite happy with my group and we have been making a good progress on the project we are working on. On Friday, I was invited to come and celebrate Eid Mubarak at the Consulate General of Republic Indonesia. I am really sorry that I could not make it to Castro to celebrate the Eid with you and the gang. I'd really love to be there, but I have promised that I'd come to the consulate. So, I met with a lot of Indonesians and made some new friends too. Afterwards,an Indonesian family invited me to come over their house to celebrate the Eid together. On Saturday, we went to the Golden Gate bridge. We did not cross the bridge this time, but we did take a lot of pictures. I was almost fainted because I was too tired and hungry and I had to climb back to the bus station. We were at the beach and it was COLD as ice. Chandan and Ali had already left me. I was hoping that somebody would offer me a ride. Luckily there was this bus with a "around the park" sign. I jumped in the bus and so happy when I found that it's free! Then the nice bus driver drove me around the park; TWICE! before he realize that I was lost and kindly offer his help to drop me at the nearest bus stop. Thank you very much Mr. Driver! I survived!! On Sunday, I went to church as usual. the service was awesome! The choir, ROCKED! And I met some new friends as well. One of then recommend me the volunteer opportunity at the SF Education Fund, which I applied right after I got home. All in all, last week was awesome. I love San Francisco! Sincerely, Dave

Letters to Ken - Week #3

Hi Ken, How's your long weekend? Mine's okay.. :) It was quite a busy week for me. I had some homeworks and reading assignments which I've never done before (well, in American style). Back in my country, we usually don't discuss what we were asking to read; instead the lecturer will give us a test (without even explain it first from his/her point of view). But here, I found that all teachers really realize what their job is, which is simply to teach us really understand the materials and able to apply it. For instance, my teacher from the women leaders at work asked us to make a short paper and send it to her email. I thought that assignment was something that she would evaluate and kept it to herself. But then, she brought all of our assignments back to the class (just 4 hours after we collected it) and all of the them has some constructive feedbacks on it and we get to discussed it so that the other student get to hear our opinion. Furthermore, she asked us to re-do the homework after we've had some kind of evaluation and send it to her as the final draft. Wow! One thing I realize that night is that the teacher really wants us to success and get good grades too! As for my other classes. I found them really challenging. The different teaching methods used by the teacher have forced me out of my comfort zone cause I had to push some boundaries which I'm more accustomed to before I came here. I love challenges and definitely believe that it will broaden my horizon in facing my future; whatever it might be... :) Last week, I have made some local (native American) friends. I know some of them because one of our house mates who's from San Diego invited us to his birthday party. It was our first night out! Hahahaha.. It was great. We had a lot of fun and I'll never forget it. He introduced me to some of his friends which are also students. Most of them are studying at the SF State. I really wish that I can make more friends, cause sometimes I feel bored when I don't have anything to do at the house. I have also make some new friends through a movie group I joined. Last week, I went with them to the theater to watch movie. Afterwards, we had dinner together and review the movie we just watched. It was so fun, because I really love movies! I even got my thesis on movie theater industry...Hahaha. So far, everything's great. I've gotten more friends. I've met some Indonesians also who turned out to be my best friends here. We hang out a lot. I get to know their families. They even invited me to dinner sometimes. It really helped me coping with the homesick.. :) So, that's it. I wish you had a great weekend and Happy working for tomorrow! Sincerely, Dave

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Letters to Ken - Week #2

Hi Ken, How are you? Hope you're fine.. :) San Francisco is seriously HOT these days. I'm melting like a burning candle. Last week I had a lot of fun. I went to some new places such as San Jose, Santa Clara and I also hang out in a park and tried to blend with the locals. On my way to a mall near San Jose I saw some big companies such as Yahoo, Google and some other giant companies in internet business. I also saw the Great America theme park. But I didn't get in there cause it's too expensive. Hahahaha.. So, I just saw it from the distance. It's still fun though. I met with an Indonesian lady who turned out to be my friend/ guide here in San Francisco. She showed me some exciting places like some Indonesian restaurants, cheesecake factory, and the Califoria Academy of Science! We went there last Wednesday which is the third Wednesday of the month, which also means the ticket is FREE!!!!! I was very excited and also surprised to see what's inside the building, because I thought all I'll see is gonna be some boring nerdy stuffs. Turns out it was one of the coolest and most visited sites in San Francisco! So, I got the see some amazing animals there like, giant fishes, rain forest, dinosaurs replica (or bones??) and many more! I did some shopping to buy gym attires, because I really want to lose my weight while I'm here. (like that possible.. :D) Anyway, last week has been pretty smooth in general. Now, let's get to the more serious stuff; study. Last week, we had our first class in the fall semester. Though I've studied in an international university before, it was a completely different experiences. My first subject was Supervision Management class. the class is in the morning and divided into thee one hour classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I found the class started too early since it's still super cold at nine o'clock here in San Francisco especially at the Ocean Campus. However, once the class started, there's no room for sleepy head. The teacher's teaching method involves a lot of group activities that require us to move a lot. It actually helped me a bit to gain my concentration. However, I personally think that the class size is too large. there were like 40 students in there. And since one meeting is only last for an hour, most of the discussion went pretty short and some of us didn't get a chance to say our opinion on a certain subjects. The other two classes are conducted at night. I did not have any problems in those classes. Both are very new to me and I've gained many new knowledge from those classes. By the way, the teachers are also amazing! All in all, I am really glad that the semester has finally started and I was able to cope with my nervousness. I have made one American friend and I want to make more friends here. I hope I didn't bore you to death reading this story.. :) Thanks for everything Ken Have a great day!!!

Letters to Ken - Week #1

Horas! :)

Temans...

Sejak aku sampe di SF aku belum sempat ngapdet blog ini. Banyak PR gw! :(

Salah satu PR ku adalah bikin catatan harian alias diary yang kudu dilaporin sama Koordinatorku di sini. Nah, gw pikir, kenapa ga sekalian gw post ajah di sini jadi weekly update gw? Iya kan, iya dong, iya kan???? Hehehe... OK deh! Enjoy!

Week #1

Hi Ken,

This is my first week daily dairy assignment.. :)

I am really sorry to send it now, because I don't have a laptop yet, so I only got this chance when my friend is not using his laptop. :)

So, here it is...

I had a very long and tiring 2 days flight from my country to San Francisco... I was exhausted and HUNGRY!!!! hahahahaha... I stepped my feet on San Francisco soil on August 1st. I couldn't see the view of San Francisco from the plan because I got the worst seat!!! After get off the plane, I ran quickly to avoid the long immigration queue. I thought that the immigration process would run smoothly. There was this nice Chinese officer. He looks really patient and seemed really easy on all passenger he interviewed. Thus, I chose him to interview me. The first question he asked was, "Is this your first time visiting America?" and I answered proudly, "Yes Sir!". Then he continues, "I'm afraid you'll have to go through a serial of procedures for NSEERS process. You may go to our office over there." WHAT????? NO!!!! But, I went there anyway. I got to. Haahahaha.. It took me approximately 1 hor to complete the process. The officers are very kind and nice. However, the process was a bit slow cause one of the officers was still new. I went straight to the baggage claim and found my two giant suitcase laid there. yay! I didn't have to go to the Lost and Found Department to pick them up. As I passing through the exit door, I look around to see anybody who holds a paper with my name on it. I was worried because there was no one there. But when I look to my left, I saw Ken and Chandan and I was so relieved. When I first see the city of San Francisco on my way to our homestay, I found the city surprisingly GREEN!!! The City is very very beautiful. The weather was colder than I imagined, but I like it. The roads are super clean, unlike the streets in my country. Hahahaha... And the houses are very artistic and unique. I arrived home safely and went straight to sleep. I woke up the next day at 9.45 am and we are suppose to have this meeting at school at 10:00!!! I'm Super late!!! hahahaha...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523532578&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=426302587578

Turned out, my fellow homestay from the same program, Chandan was also overslept! Hahaha.. So we both took a quick bath (of course in different bathroom hahahaha) and went to the school riding a muni. That was my first time riding a hybrid electric bus. We don't have that kind of vehicle back home. :)...

We ran to the room where we suppose to meet. I saw you've been waiting for us. I thought that we were the last students that arrive. Turned out, we were the firsts. The girls were late.

I think the school is pretty large. I saw some new buildings and also some old ones. The people are nice and the classes size was not too big. I like it.

I feel so happy when I finally got to meet the other participants from different countries. They are all great!

We went to the italian part of the town to have some pizza after the meeting. We were celebrating the birthday of two of our friends. The pizza was goooooooooooood. We also had some ice cream and we ate it in our beloved coordinator's apartment Ken... :)

I feel great that day because I was introduced to so many things about the city and I got three free brand new jacket from you!! Yay!!!!

I spent the rest of the week exploring the city with Chandan and Wasim. We went to the GOolden gate park, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman Wharf, and some parks. We also explore the downtown area. I shopped at Marshall and Ross. We had buffet lunch in Indian restaurants, and I went to church on Sunday in China Town. People there were very welcoming.

All in all, my first week in San Francisco was GREAT! So far, I haven't find any significant difficulties in adapting to the lifestyle here. Ups, other than the foods we have for dinner at our house. Hahahaha... But, I am still tying to love it.

My story

Najis ga sih judulnya? Hahahaha… (Bangettt!!) Eh, tapi judul itu gw pilih karena kemarin pas gw nonton di bioskop, gw sempat baca satu tag line di sebuah film yang bilang gini,”The greatest story ever told is your own story.” Bener banget ga sih? No matter se-dramatis atau se-heroik atau se-sedih apapun cerita hidup orang lain, we don’t live in their stories but ours. Jadi, satu satunya cerita paling real adalah cerita hidup kita sendiri. Iya ga? Karena itu, gw mau nyeritain hidup gw melalui blog ini.
Ok. Gw lahir dengan nama Darmadi Veterando Sipayung pada tanggal 21 September 1986. I guess that makes me 23 years OLD! Yeah! I am OLD! Orang rumah manggil gw Ando. Waktu SD gw dipanggil Darmadi; SMP gw dipanggil Darmandi; di SMA gw dipanggil Darmadi lagi, tapi pas kuliah gw udah malas dipanggil dengan Darmadi, makanya gw mutusin buat nyingkat nama gw dari DArmadi VEterando Jadi Dave. Hahahaha…. And you know what? I think it suits me best! Hahahahaha! Now, even my mother calls me Dave.

Anyway, kalo misalnya gw ditanya, “siapa sih seorang Dave itu”, gw pasti bingung. Soalnya, kadang2 gw juga ga ngerti sama diri gw sendiri. You know what I mean? Kadang kita ga tau kenapa kita berbuat sesuatu atau mustusin sesuatu atau memilih sesuatu. Jadi kalo orang nanya siapa gw, paling gw cuma bisa balik nanya, “Menurut lw?” Hahaha…
Nah, abis nanya gitu (Who am I) ke teman2 gw, jenis kepribadian yang sering mereka lontarkan adalah
Orang gila
Fun
Moody
Manja
Keras kepala
Periang
Baik (huweekk)
Asik diajak ngobrol
Ambisius (seriously?)
Dst dst… (banyak bow!)

Dan semua yang di atas itu benar. Yes, I am a lot of things. I’m actually a very complicated person with complicated problems. However, the smile that I always have on my face, bisa jadi topeng yang nutupin betapa rumitnya jalan hidup yang harus aku jalani (cieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….bokis banget!).

Hidup kita masing masing emang beda. Gw paling demen deh menganalogikan semua hal dengan makanan. Jadi, seandainya hidup ini adalah sebuah restaurant, kita ini adalah menunya. Tiap tiap menu (baca: nasib hidup seseorang) diramu dengan bumbu yang berbeda sama si chef (baca: Tuhan). Nah, karena semua pake bumbu dan bahan yang beda, otomatis rasanya juga beda beda. Sering kali kita suka minder sama hidup orang lain yang menurut kita lebih wah. Misalnya nih kita tercipta sebagai mie rebus jawa yang harganya murah, bumbunya ga ribet, trus dijual di warung warung kaki lima.

Sedangkan kita punya temen pasta Italia yang dilumuri keju dan saos yang mewah, djual dengan harga mahal di restaurant restaurant yang mahal pula. Sebenarnya mending yang mana sih?


Kalau pake contoh makanan gini jadi mudah kan? Ga seribet kalo kita bandingin hidup orang per orang. Kesimpulannya, semua baik. Tergantung siapa yang makan (baca: ngejalanin). Sometimes, kita prefer untuk makan mie rebus jawa yang walaupun murah dan tempat makannya ga nyaman, tapi tetep lezat dan ngenyangin banget karena porsinya gede. Lain halnya kalo kita makan pasta di restaurant yang mewah dan bersih tapi buat beli (baca: ngerasain) itu semua kita harus merogoh kantong cukup dalam.

Karena semua menu (nasib/kehidupan) dasarnya baik, semuanya tergantung dengan selera (pilihan hidup) kita saja.Jadi dengan memahami hal ini, kita akan lebih tau siapa diri kita, hidup seperti apa yang kita mau, dan pastinya kita akan lebih bisa mensyukuri hidup kita saat ini. Betul ga?

Hmm…bentar bentar… Kok gw jadi ngomongin makanan yak?? LOL. Back to the topic. Sekarang tentang keluarga gw. Masa kecil gw sebenarnya bahagia banget. Gw punya nyokap yang smart, baik, tegas dan berjiwa pemimpin. Sedangkan bokap gw adalah seorang guru yang penyabar, pengasih, suka mendongeng, chef yang handal dan sangat bijaksana. For me, mereka tuh the best of the best deh.

We lost our father to heart disease on October 2008, nearly two years ago. Pagi itu gw lagi nyetrika toga gw pas gw ditepon sodara jauh gw di Jakarta dan bilang kalo gw dah ga punya bokap lagi. I was torn. Gw shock banget. They are supposed to be arrived at the same day in Jakarta to attend my graduation ceremony on the next day. The death was so sudden. Nobody expected it. Jadinya, gw ga jadi deh wisudaan. Instead gw kudu balik ke kampung dan ngadepin kenyataan bahwa sekarang gw udah yatim. Hari itu, gw dipaksa buat makan menu yang rasanya pahit banget kaya empedu.


Udah dua tahun sejak bokap gw meninggal. Nyokap gw yang di tahun pertama jadi fragile banget udah mulai back on her feet. Gw yang dulu have to be strong for her malah suka sedih banget kalo tiba tiba ingat si bokap. Aneh aja gitu kalo tiba tiba nyadar…ih…bokap gw ga ada lagi loh. Damn! I hate those times (termasuk sekarang karena gw jadi sedih lagi!!). Cukup ah! Anyway, katanya sih apa yang ga bisa bikin lw mati, bikin lw jadi makin kuat. Bener banget loh! Gw sekarang udah ga semanja dan setakut jaman dulu. I start to believe in myself and it feels soooooooooo good.

Oh iya, gw punya dua kakak perempuan dan satu adik cowok. Kita semua beda beda deh. Kakak gw yang pertama seorang dokter. Dia tuh cenderung lebih serius dan kurang bisa basa basi. Tapi kadang anaknya suka jahil dan jayus juga.

Kakak gw yang kedua tuh paling gokil di keluarga kami. Seandainya keluarga kita itu makanan, dia tuh udah jadi garamnya deh. Paling penting dan bikin keluarga kita jadi berasa. Oh iya, dia adalah seorang guru matematika. Jelas aja dia jadi guru favorit anak anaknya. Fun banget sih.

Gw anak ke-tiga. Sebenarnya aku tuh yang paling bentar tinggal di rumah dan stay bareng sodara sodara gw. Jadi aku tuh cuma tinggal di rumah sampai umur 12 tahun. Itupun selama 2 tahun yang terakhir gw seringan tinggal bareng opung gw. Dari SMP sampai sekarang gw udah merantau. Jarang banget ada orang sebaya di kampung gw yang kenal sama gw. Paling mereka kenalnya ama sodara2 gw yang lain.

Adik gw masih SMA. Anaknya ga serame gw. Dia agak pendiam dan tertutup. Gw paling salut sekaligus kasihan deh ama dia. Diumurnya yang masih muda banget dia udah harus belajar madiri karena sering ditinggal sendiri ama ortu gw waktu mereka kerja. Ga ada yang jagain dia loh. Kalo kita yang lain mah dulu masih rame di rumah. Tapi pas adik gw, sepi bo! Dia tuh pas kecil udah sering tinggal sendiri di rumah. Sekarang dia udah kelas 2 SMA. Katanya sih dia pengen lanjut kalo bukan jadi secret agent mau jadi pendeta. LOL! Bagus yang mana yah? Apapun cita cita lw bro, gw pasti dukung deh!

Sekarang gw mau cerita tentang masa masa sekolah gw. Gw sekolah si SD tempat bokap dan kakak2 gw dulunya sekolah. Even sampai guru gurunya juga masih sama. Gila kan? Wkwkwkwkwk! Kita sekeluarga termasuk adik gw (kecuali nyokap) sekolah di sana. Trus pas SMP, gw dimasukin ke sekolah katolik berasrama sama nyokap gw. Gw sih berontak. Secara kita tuh kudu tinggal di asrama yang jauh dari kota dan dikarantina. Tapi lama lama gw betah juga sih. Gw juga bisa jadi lebih mandiri karena tinggal di sana.

SMA gw dimasukin lagi ama nyokap gw ke sekolah semi militer dan tinggal di asrama lagi. Buat yang ini, gw lebih berontak lagi. But you know what? At the end, masa masa SMA gw tuh jadi masa masa yang paling berkesan buat gw. Gw juga ga jadi manja lagi karena disekolahin di sana.

Lulus SMA, gw lanjut ke UGM jurusan Hukum. Sebenarnya gw cukup bangga sih masuk situ. Tapi pas waktu gw baru masuk, ortu gw tuh udah mulai sakit2an. So, jadi deh gw punya cerita klasik orang yang terancam putus kuliah karena emang kiriman dari kampung juga udah putus. Gw udah jual Hp gw. Trus duit gw juga udah mau abis. Di kampus, gw sering berantem ama dosen. Wahhh..pokoknya jadi males banget deh. Tapi disaat gw lagi ga jelas gitu, God made a way out for me. Gw dapet Full Scholarship dari President University. Manteb khan? (jumawa mode: ON). Jadi gw dapet S1 setelah tiga tahun kuliah.

Abis itu gw mulai deh kerja. Kerjaan gw tuh beragam banget. Mulai dari salesman di executive club, kitchen helper/commi (itu loh sejenis pembokatnya chef yang ada di Ratatouile). Trus gw juga pernah kerja jadi student recruitment officer di kampus gw. Gw pernah kerja di Room service, Japanese restaurant, Italian Restaurant, Chinese, Indonesian sampai di coffee shop. Gw juga pernah kerja jadi F&B admin, telephone operator dan business center secretary.

Selama gw kerja di hotel sih hidup gw asik asik ajah. Gw punya teman teman yang super duper fun. Lingkungan kerja yang kekeluargaan; very supportive dan conducive. Saking nyamannya gw jadi ngerasa bosan pas waktu itu. So, seperti kebanyakan ababil (ABG labil) laninnya, gw pun keluar dan mencari tantangan baru. (ceileeeeeeeeeeee)

Keluar dari hotel, gw ketrima di sebah NGO yang pelayanannya fokus sama anak. Gw pertama ditempatin di Sumba Timur. Tempatnya bagus dan beda banget. Mirip sama tempat syuting the Lost World gituh. Enak deh di sana. Dua bulan gw tinggal di desa paling terpencil di sana, gw serasa di-detox dari runyamnya permasalahan warga ibu kota. LOL.


Abis itu, gw ditempatin di Papua, tepatnya di Wamena. Gosh I love Wamena. Buat gw, kota itu the best deh! Gw kerja setahun di sana. Gw terpaksa keluar karena bentar lagi gw udah mau sekolah lagi di Amrik.
Nah, cukup segitu dulu deh ceritanya. Ntar abis ini gw mau cerita tentang perjalanan gw menuju amrik. Okray doray moray syomay??? Bye…. :D

I write (again). Finally!

Hi guys! This is my first writing ever since I graduated from college. This actually is also my first writing that was not taken out from one of my homework at college. I decided to start writing (again) because a friend of mine encouraged me to do so. She said that writing is not something difficult or boring or whatever we (who don’t like to write) want to call it. It’s fun. Really? Well, we’ll get to that.

For me, personally, writing is just like telling how you feel to someone in a less spontaneous but rather structured way. The problem is, I don’t feel like myself when I write something because I have time to think it over and it’ll turn to be something unnatural or staged; and I am not loving that idea. I, as you guys know, am a very spontaneous person and obviously not well organized either. Thus, the idea of writing contradicts with my personality.

However, someone famous (I don’t know his name) said that sometimes human are better in disguise. What’s that suppose to mean? I don’t really know either. Hahaha. But I guess it means humans are afraid and hate to be judged. That’s why, we sometimes feel more comfortable in expressing ourselves by acting like someone who are not us; or more precisely, someone who are not us according to people around us. Writing is an alternative disguise that we can use to express ourselves; to avoid the judgments.

Some (if not all) of you guys might think that I’m crazy to think that writers don’t get judged, cause they certainly do. However, the fact that people are not judging you directly (at least not in front of your face) makes it easier and (I can’t believe I’m actually saying this) fun-ER. How so? Feel free to judge, because I don’t really care. Hahaha!