a beginning

Hey y’all.. Alhamdulillah sekarang I already started a new different things in my life. Dimulai dari a very long voyage from Jakarta-KL-Frankfurt and Washington DC, yang dilanjut dengan orientasi di Washington DC n another flight to St.Louis, MO until im finally set up at my house di Manchester

Nginget-nginget penerbangan dari Jakarta sampe akhirnya nyampe di Washington DC rasanya bikin mual, bayangin aja hampir 1 hari harus duduk di pesawat. Untung di pesawat ada segala macem hiburan to make it not that worse, tapi sialnya pas dari Frankfurt segala perangkat multimedia di pesawat atau lebih tepatnya di bangku gue ga berfungsi gara2 headsetnya rusak gitu,, zzzzzzz orang lain asik banget nonton film, denger music and so on sementara gw cengo ngeliatin berapa lama lagi ni pesawat bakalan nyampe di DC

Tapi ada pengalaman lucu woy waktu di pesawat, tepatnya di penerbangan dari KL ke Frankfurt. Setau gue sih yang namanya pramugari dan pramugara harusnya ganteng tinggi dan normal, tapi entah mengapa di penerbangan ini (mari kita sembunyikan nama airline-nya) pramugara-nya agak-agak gimanaaaa gituu, sampai-sampai salah satu siswa tidak berdosa menjadi target salah seorang pramugara, sebutlah seorang anak bernama grandika(haha), anak ini sangat beruntung karena ditaksir oleh pramugara,, sampe-sampe kita bisa bawa oleh-oleh dari pesawat.. bayangin aja,,kita dikasih jus berbotol-botol, kacang berkarung –karung dari sang pramugara, n especially buat grandika, sang pramugara memberikan engagement ring gitu deh, trus mereka foto-foto gitu di dapur pesawat, hiiii agak serem siih

Trus pas di Malaysia kan ada tempat buat internet gitu ya, pas gw ngecek email ehh Alhamdulillah ternyata udah dapet host family n host school,, waa seneng banget deh, dari situlah masa depan gue kayanya udah mulai cerah gitu haha

Singkat cerita kita sampe lah di Washington dc,, wuidih,, masih berasa kaya mimpi sodara-sodara, ga percaya aja gitu kita bisa lolos dari cengkaraman pramugara hombreng haha

Trus di DC kita ada orientasi gitu n ketemu sama anak-anak YES lainnya dari mana-mana ada yang berkulit putih, sawo matang sampai hitam gosong,, hebat dehh

Trus di hotel tempat kita nginep kebetulan ada akses internet gitu jadi bisa buka fesbuk gitu buat ngabarin keadaan cuaca dan tekanan udara di DC. Nah, suatu ketika pas gw lagi di ruangan internet, tersebutlah seorang anak afrika, lupa dari Negara mana lagi ngebales email dari host family nya, tiba-tiba datenglah seorang anak Saudi arabaia, trus dari pendengaran gw kalo ga ngawur, si anak arab tsb bilang gini ke orang yang ngejaga warnet tsb

Ngapain sih tu anak?
Mm, ya dia lagi ngeliat emailnya,
Trus si anak arab bilang gini
“how can it be? He doesn’t even know how to use computer”

Jah, gw piker sotoy baanget ni anak,,
Sori-sori aja nih bukan bermaksud menjelekkan suatu Negara atau bangsa, Cuma sayangnya dia yang saat itu menjadi ambassador of his country mendapat nilai jelek di mata gw,
Well, I guess itu jadi pelajaran juga gitu buat gw yang ngeliat, that everyone di US bakalan ngeliat lo as ur country, makanya harus hati-hati bersikap

Ketika kita berada di Negara orang, kita akan menemukan berbagai macam karakter yang berbeda yang membuat kita ga mengeneralisasi mereka, tapi they would probably cuma ketemu seorang Indonesia seumur hidup mereka , then they will think that we’re typical Indonesian, n smua orang Indonesia sama kaya kita.. so, pinter2 ngebawa diri is really important I guess

Okey, trus pas orientasi di DC kita jalan-jalan gitu, pertama visit ke department of state, trus kunjungan ke kedubes Indonesia, n disana gw ketemu sang teman yang telah lama hilang ,, haha si tyas keriting! Seneng banget woy ketemu tyas!

Trus kita ke union station, widdih I hope someday Indonesia bisa punya stasiun sebagus union station, semoga temankkku adlian dapat mewujudkan mimpiku suatu hari haha!
Trus kita jalan-jalan ke Lincoln memorial, wooe that’s the building that I saw in night at the museum 2! Yang ada patung Abraham Lincoln gede baget lagi duduk! Keren banget! Trus disana museumnya bersih dan tertata dengan rapih, patut dicontoh tuh!

Back at the hotel ada pertunjukkan dari anak-anak filipin and Egypt! Okke banget dehh tapi Indonesia ga kalah, haha pasukan sigulempong siap beraksi deh nanti pas orientasi mau pulang!
Right after the orientation we all fly and separated into our each state and city, that’s I think one of the most difficult part, karena pas di DC kita masih bisa ngomong pake basa Indonesia, masih bisa ketawa-ketawa sama anak Indonesia, kerasa banget pas kita udah dipisah – pisah, I feel like im gonna miss them all, and miss all the Indonesian thing, aih sedih deh pokonya
I ended up fly to Missouri sama seorang anakk bernama fady dari Egypt, kebetulan kita segrup waktu di orientation jadi gw udah kenal gitu lah sama beliau

Trus sampe di st.louis, kita dijemput orang AFS and heading right to the orientation camp. Tempat orientasinya dalah sebiah church bernama Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, and I feel the feeling that I never feel before, ya gimana ya I’m gonna stay at church for like 2 days, things that I’ve never done before

I meet more afs students here, ada yang dari jerman, rusia, chile, japan, and even kirgystan, a place that I’ve never heard before
It was very fun though to meet those people and also meet afs staff yang sangat energetic and cheerful, that makes me feel like u have to workhard to establish a wonderful year in here. Hari kedua I have to leave the ori camp, other students meet their hostfamily, but my hostfam is out of the town so I have to go with my liaison , which are phil and bonnie duyff

They are such a very fun people though, phil was a returnee of afs that he told me some of his experience during his afs year, n that was very enduring n I hope going to help me during this year. I personally believe that this is not gonna be an easy year to do, there are so many challenges awaiting ahead, I have to watch my step more carefully to do it all right, I don’t want get myself ihn trouble, I don’t want to ruin my life because of this year.

While im staying with bonnie and phil we went to Illinois state fair, so setiap tahunnya sekitar bulan agustus gitu, each state di amerika bakalan ngadain state fair, ya semacam prj gitu, tapi disini lebih kentel bau2 agriculture and farmingnya

Ada cow judging, horse judging, pig judging, ada juga pie judging, there were a lot of stuff there
But my favorite part ada 2 yaitu Kelly Clarkson concert. It’s the first time gw nonton konser arteess sekaliber kellyy gitu, American idol winner! And that was wonderful, setting panggungnya mantep banget, eventhough gw gatau some of the song she sang, but it was still enjoyable

The second part is the talk with Abraham Lincoln duplicate, wqalaupun duplikat but he’s almost as smart as Abraham Lincoln himself. HE was phenomenal! Cool!
After 3 days stay at the duyff’s house it’s the time for me to meet my family. Deg-degan lah pasti since I have never known how they look like. N they did a very nice impression they re such a nice people with warm welcome.

Target gw, I have to be able to ketawa terbahak – bahak as I usually do di rumah and di smansa. Entah kapan target tersebut tercapai. but i have to be on that