The Mandrake [Published Private Life]

My wife was submitted to the hospital yesterday. She had a domestic accident, causing broken ribs. It was horrible. Anyway, that’s not the main topic here. As she had to be hospitalised, I had to accompany her at the room. It was grade 2 hospital room, so we share the room with other patience as well. There was a TV set in the room.

The TV was connected to cable TV programmes. So, actually there were many options to choose. Unfortunately, the neighboring patience’s family seemed to be dominating the magic box. At first, it was okay. We watched the Hallmark channel. After a while, I’m guessing because the programme was in English, and there was no subtitle in our language, they decided to watch local station, instead. Which was, I thought, more convenient for them, because they understand what was being said.

Then, this thought came to me. No wonder Indonesia cannot be a developed countries. It people don’t like to listen to foreign channel. It’s stuck to local TV who offer shows not more than gossips, soap opera whose quality is in the rate of junk, superstitious show, freak show they called ‘sinetron‘, etv.

How would they develop? There are thousands of quality shows, like, Animal Planets, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, Playhouse Disney Channel, are availlable on that TV cable. But, no, these folks prefer to watch just so-so programme. Brain, oh, brain. Had they have mouth, I bet they would’ve said, “Lemme outta here. I need to stretch my leg!”.

You see, it takes willingness for one to step forward. If one feels comfortable with what and where they are now, then they will stay that way. Static. Lifeless.

I’ve spent the last two weeks in the United States of America. That explains why I haven’t posted anything since two weeks ago. Welp, there was once while I was in Boulder City, Colorado. However, I continued my blog note during my mission there. But, it was in hand-written format. So, I copied the journal to here, in my electronic blog. It was, of course, not a formal mission report. Just to show you how I made my travel a fun one. Okay, here we go.

–o– This is the beginning of the journal in America –o–

October 11, 2005
Arrived in Singapore at 2000hrs local time. This was my first time in Singapore. Last time I was here was for short time transit only. Nice city. I didn’t even dare comparing it to my home country. One thing that made my home country even poorer is taxis. What’s with taxis? They’re all Mercedes. The latest brand. I thought only in France can you see Mercedes taxis.

Changi Village hotel, Singapore. Check out the glass window to the bathroom

The transit hotel where I stayed was also cozy. There were 2 single beds. And, check it out, there’s a clear glass window through which you can see the bathroom from the bedroom! Of course, there’s a rollabel curtain. But, I think it’s romantic for couples who’re on vacation. With wood nuances, the transit hotel seemed to provide more than I expected. Time now is 2030hrs in Singapore. Better get some sleep. Wake up call is at 0400hrs. Will be leaving at 5 to 5 in the morning.

October 12, 2005
Woke up early at 0330hrs. Had a good warm shower in the transit hotel. Left at 0500hrs and arrived at about 0520hrs. Procedures were overwhelming. Arrived at the check-in counter, we were told to claim our baggages in the Lost and Found counter. It turned out that it’s not so connecting flight because we had to claim our baggages and took it to the UA counter. Fortunately, there was no problem after that. The plane took off at about 0710am.

We arrived at about 2pm in Narita, Japan airport. I was wondering where I can do my prayer. Thankfully, there was a dressing room. So, I only needed to take the wudhu in the toilet room.

After that, I was off to the gate. The plane departed at about 3.30pm. It felt funny at that time. From Narita to San Fransisco, we had to cross the International Date line. So, we left at 12 October pm and arrived at San Fransisco International Airport am. 9am, actually. So the interval between dinner and breakfast was about 3-5 hours when we were on the plane.

In the United States of America, same day

Thank God, clearance process was smooth. Though, I guessed it was because I’m an Indonesian. I had to go to Secondary immigration office. My colleague and I had to register our arrival date.

From there, we took off at about 11am to Denver. Arrived in Denver at about 2pm. The State was partially covered with snow. This was my first time seeing snow. The temperature was friendly. It’s not that cold. Probably about 10^oC. So, here I am now in Boulder City, Colorado.

October 13, 2005
Today the training started. We were introduced to Cherry Marcellus, the Manager of IIE and to Dr. Rocky, a professor at the California State University. We then walked to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The session started with the welcoming speech by Cherry, then continued with the presentation of Dr. Rocky. ASEAN presented its DVD video on “Saving ASEAN Dream”.

Then, we traveled to Golden where we visited CAEE. Then moved on to NREL. We were exposed to how those institutions carried out their EE vision and mission.

Later in the evening we had dinner at some Mexican grill.

October 14, 2005
Today we went to the GLOBE office and had a meeting with some group of people from the GLOBE. Had a VC with Michael Kinsley from RMI. It was another tiring day.

In the evening, we went out to dinner at MCD. No, not McDonald, but, Mediterranian Restaurant. Since it was Friday night, the place seemed to be packed with lots of poeple! So, there I was. I found myself in a restaurant in USA.

The chill wind blew me. Very cold. I was guessing it was about 10-15^oC. But, I could bear with it.

The girl who greeted us in the receptionist counter was very pretty. A real American girl stood before me. Gosh. I guess I just still couldn’t believe the fact that I was in the United States and could interact with these people who could be foreigners should they be in my home country.

The waitress who waited at our table was also kind of cute. As I noticed, all the waiter and waitress in the restaurant were young teenagers.

Most of the group didn’t have food restriction. As I was not allowed to eat pork and drink alcohol, I was left with not much of options. You know, they had a menu with two pages on alcohol drinks, ranging from wine to beer. So, I decided to have a bottle of root beer. At least, it did contain the word “beer”. Haha..

Anyway, I ordered something with chicken and smashed potatoes. Nada, the coordinator of our group, was kind enough to remind the waitress to remove the pork from my order dish. I didn’t realise that my dish had it.

When the order came, it was like, whoa! A large chunk of chicken and a bulk of what I thought some cream were on the dish. I had a very good dinner. I was very full at the end of the meal. When we headed back to the Inn, it was past nine already. Better get ready for tomorrow. It will be trekking in the Rocky Mountain.

October 15, 2005

Rocky in Rocky Mountain

We left in the morning to the Rocky Mountain. It was a fun trip. We were guided by our friendly Rocky. After that, we headed back to the Inn then off to the airport. We took off to Washington, Baltimore at 4pm and arrived at 8.30pm.

October 16, 2005 - in Washington
We left at 9am from the hotel. Took a shuttle bus to Dunn Loring train station. It cost me USD4.70 for the round trip ticket to DC. It was cold there. I spent a few bucks on T-shirts for my family and some stuff for friends at the office.

October 17, 2005
First, ..oops, second day at Washington and we’re aleady at the United States Department of State. Had some meetings with USEPA, GreenCom and WWF.

In the evening, went to MacDonald and ordered a Big Mac.

October 18, 2005

This is me, in front of Capitol Hill, DC.

Having meeting after meeting, we finally had a chance to visit the biggest Mall in Washington, DC. I noticed that it is a custom for girls who wear skirt to wear boots. I guessed it was because it’s cold.

We went out for dinner at the Mall. Went for window shopping for a while.

October 19, 2005
Having finished the training, I went over to Yazid’s sister’s office at the VOA. I was invited to be on air in their show. But, I thought the burden would be too much to bear. I saw a couple of people who I saw a lot on Indonesian television, like Helmi Yahya, and so on.

October 20, 2005
Today the training ended early. We walked around Georgetown. Didn’t buy anything. Dinner was at an Islamic Persian restaurant.

My observation until today was I found that Americans were apreciative towards Muslims nowadays. Considering that I am a Muslim and observing Ramadhan month. They, well, at least, all Americans that I met, were very considerate on my religious routine. They asked when Ramadhan would last, what time I would break my fasting, whether I would want to do my prayer during the day, and lots of everything. These Americans were good people, actually.

October 21, 2005
Today we went on a field trip to Chesapeake Bay. Interesting places there were. Anyway, today is the last day we’re in Washington. Tomorrow, early in the morning, we’ll head off to the airport.

I’m going to miss a lot of things here. Starbucks Coffee everywhere. Drivers stop for the Stop sign. Pedestrians are given priorities on the road. The chill winds. Nice Americans. Everything.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just conclude my journal here as I’m about to pack my things.

Good bye, America. Thanks for being nice while I’m here.

–o– This is the end of the journal in America –o–

It’s a great country where I am now. Boulder City, Colorado is a nice small city in the United States of America. Much to my surprise, I found that people here are very friendly. They like to greet and smile even to strangers. This kind of thing you won’t find in my home country.

You know, in my home country, people tend to look at the other way when you pass by someone. It’s either because he/ she is shy, or too proud to greet. I’m guessing it’s because they’re too proud. I’m observing that most of people who have this kind of behaviour are those who received education from abroad. Where do they learn this kind of behaviour? I just don’t understand. I used to be a nice guy: greeting and smiling to everyone at the office. But now, I just realised that some, not all, folks you just can’t bear with their arogancy. So, I develop a (bad) habit of marking which people is good to be given smiles and which ones are not.

This is sad, I know. But, if you living in that kind of environment, I believe you will develop this habit, too. I mean, how hard it is to spare a smile? It won’t hurt you. So, despite my feeling for this country, I find that people are nice, actually. And by observing bumper stickers on their cars, I see that they don’t approve of what their president has done to other countries.

Well, anyway, the point being now is I learned something here (besides, of course, things that I have to learn because I’m here on a mission set by my office) that smile doesn’t have a price tag. It’s like the air you breathe. It’s free and it won’t kill you if you give it away to someone else (especially to someone you like very much, you should smile even wider ;).

Finally, the fuel price hike has come. We are now paying more than 80% of fuel price than we had to before. I received an SMS yesterday from the state’s information department. It’s said that the fuel price must be increased so that poor people can receive subsidition.

I almost puke having read that kind of message. What a funny logic. They increase the fuel price so that poor people can receive money? Where do these poor people live? Outside Indonesia? Won’t they be affected by the fuel price? What does USD10 a month do good for them? What can they buy?

Okay, they have reason that fuel price hike is due to the international fuel price hike. But, it seemed they forget that in the international community, people don’t spend half of their income to fuel only! Should we be mad? Nope. What to do? I guess we just sit back and enjoy people with funny logic running the government. Nope. Not funny people, but clowns. Yeah, some clowns are now running the government.

If they can think, they’d see that you don’t give fish, but they should give fishing rod. It means, don’t give money to poor people, but create job opportunities. How to create job opportunities? Create comfortable investment environmet in this country. How to create comfortable environment? Eliminate corruption down to its root. That’s how it works. Until corruption does not exist in this country, don’t ever one dares to tell that subsidition is not educative.

Sorry for my anger tone in this posting. I’m in desparate situation here. Here, I give you a wink