How does it feel to be in the US? Part 2

Dear reader,

I received a nice comment from my friend about the part 1, and that makes me wanna make part 2 soon.. Haha..

Well, I have talked about what is good (in my personal perspective) in the US culture in part 1. I'll talk about what is not nice for an Asian especially Indonesian (like me!) to be here.

1. Personal personal personal and personal..

    In this country, every people has their own right to express themselves. Free to express their mind and  idea to public with no limitation (CMIIW - based on my own views) so you'll see that people here sometimes express something which hurts other or maybe offensive. That may leads to debate because people have their own beliefs and opinion. Compared to beloved country, every right is limited with others' right so we should think before talk to keep the harmony in the society. I miss that a lot. Phew..

2. Liberty vs Harmony

I have talked a lil bit about harmony earlier. In the US personal is more important than harmonious society. Here, each people most likely will pursue their own satisfaction than a betterment in a group. Well, it might sounds nice, yet it is not working all the time. I miss every thing about "musyawarah mufakat" for a betterment in society.

3. Friendship?

Well, this one is tough one. I have been here about two months, but my friends can be counted with numbers of fingers in my hand!
Surprised?
Maybe I am the one still figuring out how friendship works here, or maybe this is how friendship is working here. I miss a lot of nice people in Indonesia. For me, it is so much easier to make real friends in my beloved country than here.

All right, 3 vs 3. Fair enough right?


See y'all (Texas style, Ha!) in my next writing.


Timmy


Disclaimer : These two writings (part 1 and part 2) does not mean I am not proud of Indonesia, or I am whining about living here. I just share my thought. That's it.


Picture source:
privateinvestigator.cc
cartoonstock.com
orkutscrapguru.com

How does it feel to be in the US? Part 1

Dear readers,

It has been almost a month since my last writing, sorry about that. I’ll try to update this blog more frequently next time. Well, after being in the US for two months, I’d like to describe how it feels to be here.

Alright, let’s talk the good stuffs first,

1

  

       1.On time and respect:

To be honest, one of the best cultures here is the punctuality. If the class started at 9am, students will start coming to the class (or at least waiting in front of the class or lecture hall) at least 10 minutes before the class is started. The instructor often comes five minutes before class. Well, compared to my beloved country where what we called “important people” or maybe I better call those “who-fell-important people” will come at least 15 minutes after the event stated. Well we should learn to be punctual if we wanna be a better nation. When the class is not started yet, students will talk to each other, but when the instructor start the lecture, all students will suddenly silent and pay attention, nice eh?

2.     2.P.R.I.V.A.C.Y

 I love this one, that’s why I wrote it capitalized. Well, here people will always respect your privacy and personal space. No need to be “sungkan” if we wanna express something and people will not talk about your private business. Compared to my beloved country, people sometimes just care too much so they interrupt our privacy without they realize. Caring is nice but too much is not.

3.     3. Giving credit to deserved people

What I mean here is people in the US do care and take seriously about plagiarism, copy right, and original idea. This culture should be improved in Indonesian community, especially students and government. You will be kicked-out of school if you found guilty in terms of plagiarism. You will be fined bunch of money if you found guilty in terms of piracy in software. Yeah, we should start caring about giving credits to those people who work hard to find it.

Well, let’s talk about the “not-good” stuff later on.

Always happy and healthy, guys.

Cheers!

Timmy

Picture source

http://inkpaperpen.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/copyright-or-just-wrong/

http://theperfectdesign.com/blog/be-a-respecter-of-time-graphic-design-tip-64/

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/privacy.html

Giving Our Best = Achievement

Dear readers,

I am so sorry for a late update,  I was busy with school and its homework.
Here, I would like to share how was my academic life is goin' on and share some of my academic success (I think).. :D

The academic here was quite tough, even though I am only taking 15 credits which are consisted of five subjects, the workload is so much. Every day I will go to bed at about 2am in the morning, and spend at least 3 hours to do the homework and prepare for the next day lesson.

Yet, I think I did really well on my first month. So far, I have done my Geography exam, and Economics exam.. Math and History exam will be held next week.

Here is my Geography exam result :

As you can see, I got a 95! I know it was not a perfect score, but I think it is a good start..

FYI, every week there is an English assignment, and I need to work very very hard on every assignment, and my work hard is well-paid. Check this out:

I got another 95! :D

Well readers, I learned that sometimes we might find some difficult job to do, yet when we give our best we will achieve. :)

I hope you enjoy your life, and to be honest it is quite hard to find friends here.


Best wishes!

1,2,3 and 4! Let's Eat!

 Dear readers,

After all boring all words posts, I decided to create a post which maybe a little bit interesting. I will talk about the foods that I "could" enjoy here.

1. Breakfast at fresh plate!

 As we could see together the menu is simple: omelette, scrambled eggs, some sausages, hash brown and bacon. What is nice about these dishes is it tastes normal. Ha! Since I found most of the times the food just have no taste at all.

2. Create ur own SUB!

The next food is easier to be called SUB (since I don't know what is it real name). This is a bread cut half and filled with all I want! Usually, I will pick chicken as the meat, then american cheese, and then some veggies like onion, tomatoes, cucumber, and lettuce. With mayo as the dressings, it tastes really good. :D

3. Strawberry-Banana Smoothies

This one is one of my favorites!
The recipe is easy, put some strawberry and banana on a blender. Then add some milk, strawberry syrup, and ice. Then blend it! The taste of strawberry with the sweet from banana made me want to grab it anywhere I go. But surely I could not do it since it cost quite expensive for me. But it tastes so d*mn good, fellas!

4. Banana Parfait

Yihuui, finally we came to the best! The first time I tried, I want it more and more. I have no idea what is it actually but it taste like blended banana. Or maybe it is banana blended. Yet I found out in the internet that is Banana blended with greek yoghurt and some nuts on a whipped cream on it. Sounds good right? Try to taste it someday.

Well, maybe the food in the US is not as delicious as food in Indonesia. But still, I could enjoy some of them!

Cheers!

Updates 1st week at school

Dear readers,

It might be a while after my last post, but I would like to share some of interesting event during these last week.

On Friday night we had an interesting event called The Hunger Games, so the idea was just like the movie and we supposed to do some hunting. Angga and I did not join it, but we spend some times to play basketball. Well, it was very nice games for me. Even though I was almost running out my breath, I could make 2/3 3-pointers and 3/5 field goals. Nice eh?

After playing some B-Ball, we continued to watch The Hunger Games movie, it was in the middle of the movie and the rain was coming! We ran all the way to our Coleman dorm, we were terribly wet and cold. When I entered my room I realized that my wallet fell on the way back. I was totally afraid and went back to find out my wallet.

After some times, I decided to ask the front desk about my wallet, and phew! my wallet was there. Someone took it and gave it to him. It was such a coincidence since there was no address inside my wallet, and my wallet was not really wet even though the rain was hard. Thank God!

Let's jump the Saturday to Sunday!

Sunday was really nice, I had the service at the First Baptist Church near my campus and it was nice. :)
After having service, Angga and I decided to spend some times to walk around campus to know where our classes are.
Done with the classes, we played volleyball with students from our dormitory. Before playing the volleyball, Angga and I got a chance to play football (American Football not soccer), it was hard to throw and catch it, but I think I did okay as a new comer. Ha!

Well, it was nice to had experience in the other part of the world, but I do miss my home.

Cheers!

Timmy

1$ Steak Dinner!

Dear readers,

It is quite sometimes since my last update.

Well last night, Angga (finally we are room mate) and I was invited to join .99$ steik.
It might sound awful but when we came down to the Urbanovsky Park, there were so many people hangin' around. We follow the line and grab some steak.

Even though  many people around we could not ask them since we did not know what to say, bu then finally we had some people came to us an talk. It was really nice!

The Most Expensive and Tiring Check-In Ever!

Dear readers,

Here are details on how we get into our flight to US from my views,

05.40

After saying goodbye to my parents and Ms Novi we proceed into the group check in part. When we had our turn, the time was only 30 minutes from our boarding time (06.10 pm). And the desk took quite long to check us in since our final destination is the US.

06.00

After finishing the check in, we had to check our baggage in, and when my bag was weighed, I surprised since it weighed 29 kg! 6 kilos more than allowed, the desk person asked me to move some of my items into my backpack, but I realized there was no time left. I decided to pay, and shocked for the second time knowing how much I had to pay, 100 bucks!

06.05

I proceed to paying desk while my friends started to line up for the immigration.

06.07

I had done my paying and check in, then rushing to the immigration line. Since I was rushing, I did not pay attention to people in front of me. I passed in front of an old lady above her (I think expensive) purse. She was angry on me and I had to say sorry to her.

06.10

“Call for passengers flying KL 180 to Amsterdam, please board the aircraft through gate E5.” When that announcement came to my ears, there were 10 people lined up in front of me. We were worried and afraid that we might miss our flight!

06.11

I decided to come to the immigration officer asking if we could pass the line since we had to board already. He asked me to ask permission to the front line. Praise God, I met this generous man who let us to go first. We passed the immigration process and rush into our gate.

06.15

Finally I was inside the aircraft, Phew! 

What an expensive and tiring check in. Yet it is interesting experience to be told now or someday. 

My Last 24 hours in Indonesia.. :(

Dear readers,

In this writing I would like to share how I spent my last 24 hours in Indonesia…

It was 6.30 pm inside a car on the way to villa in Batu when I realized that is the starting point of my last 24 hours in Indonesia. Inside the car there were six people, my uncle who was driving, my father beside him, myself, and my sister.  Who is the other one? She is my beloved one, Dara, who was asked by my mother to spend one night in a beautiful villa in Batu.

Actually we were quite lucky to spend the night at the villa. The villa is owned by my mother’s good friend, and she let us to stay there for free. Very nice, isn’t it?

When we arrived at the villa, the clock showed 7.05 pm and the dinner had already been served. I spent about 15 minutes to take a shower while the other prepared to have dinner together. Dara was quite nervous at the first time, but after several minutes she could enjoy the time with my family as my family really welcome her that night.

After enjoying dinner , my sister was studying, while Dara and I helped her to memorize the material. My sister is still in the six grades but the material was about the reproduction in the human. We were surprised at first, but then realized that time has changed and material for elementary school has changed a lot.

After finished helping my sister to study, we continued to Bakar Jagung! (Grilling Corns). It were my father and I in the grilling pan, while Dara, my mom, and my sister prepared the corn. I was really nice and we enjoyed it so much. Even though the first corn was overcooked and could not be eaten, but the rest of the corns were delicious.

---------------------------------------Private Time------------------------------------------------------

After taking some rest, it was 3 a.m. the following day when my mother waked me up to help Dara had her sahur. I cooked her noodle with egg. I loved it since it might be several years until I can cook for her again.

Then the next part is preparing to check out from the villa, we took some nice photos before depart to the Malang Airport.

In the airport, my mother and I ask my father to check us in. While waiting for our flight, we spend the time by talking about nice memories, we laughed, and very happy. I had a nice surprise when my good friend, Dea, came to airport with her boyfriend, Daniel, to say goodbye. It is only 45 minutes until our time to board the flight.

This is the hardest time, I had to say goodbye to my brother and sister, my grandmother, my uncle, and my girlfriend. I tried so hard to hold my tears, but I couldn’t since my brother started to cry. Everyone was crying… I hugged each of them to let them know that they are so special and I will come back to see them again someday. It was just so hard for me, but I realized that their tears are prayers for me to excel in the US. I promised to myself that I will not waste any moment in the US and I will do my best to reach my dream…

After saying goodbye, we proceed to the aircraft and fly to Jakarta. This was not usual flight I take to Jakarta, but the special one since I had my parents with me. It was their first flight, and I proud to be their child.

-------------------------------------------Flight to Jakarta----------------------------------------------

In Jakarta we directly went to Sampoerna Strategic Square to sign the contract. We then rush to the airport to make sure we would not miss our flight…

Before going to check in process, I had lunch with my parents in the fast food restaurant near the gate. The food might be simple, but not with the moment. I realized that would be my last lunch with my parents for quite a while. During the lunch my father and mother give their words for me, for me to study hard and never forget to pray. I could not hold my tears every time I remember that moment. After having lunch I had to say goodbye to the great father and mother who raised me so well during these 18,75years. It was hard to have my mother crying inside my hug… :’(

And that was how I spent my last 24 hours in Indonesia.

A Prayer #1

Dear God,

I praise You for all great things I received during 18 years of my life, I praise You for healthy body and healthy environment I am living with, I praised You for amazing family who are loving me in all circumstances, 

I praised You for gorgeous friends I spend my time with, and last but not least I praise You for the chance to continue my education to Texas Tech University, USA.

My Lord, I am just eighteen years old young man who does not understand about everything and still learning about life. I am just a sinful servant and sometimes forget about You. Yet, this time let me come to You and let You help to face the future which is uncertain.

My Father, I am afraid. Every time I am thinking about this long journey I am going to take I just want to give up. I do not know how much I could handle in this young age. By that reason, I surrender to you all of my worries, and please lead me in everything I do in the next four years in an unknown country for me. Let me keep being the salt and light of the world for the sake of Your name, for all hopes which come with me, for the pride of people praying for me, and for the happiness of people I love.

Jesus, hereby please take over my life. Please forgive all my mistakes so then I can hear Your voice clearly inside my heard.

I surrender this words in the name of Father, Son, and Spirits...

Amen…

Last Day at Home

Dear reader,

Today, Sunday August 12th 2012 could be the last whole day that I could spend in my home for a while. I am really sad, but I do not want to show it...

I have spent 14 - 3 (I spent three years in dormitory) years in this beautiful house. We were lucky enough having this house as our own house since my dad bought it just before the Economics Crisis swept Indonesia. Before staying in this house, we rent a very small house to share with all of my family, my grandmother, and four of my mothers brothers and sisters. Can you imagine it?

Well, I tried to spend several of my last days wisely by doing nothing in my home. Ha! Gaining some kilos before heading to the States will be good, right?

I might not sure when I will be here again, but for sure my heart is always be here...

Last Service at Chuch...

Dear all reader,

Today I had last service in the church (at least before I come back to Kediri) where I am grown up. I played drum in this service. I had a notion to share, say thank you to all people in my church for their great support and pray for me.

What made this last service special was there is special occasion called "Penyerahan Anak". So in this event, some parents made a promise to God and let God take part in their child's life from now on.
The promises from parents are they will nurture their child with full of their love and along with Bible way until their child are able to stand up and become independent. When the rev put his hand on one of the kids, I saw my parents and they met my gaze. We both smile, knowing that they are great and successful parents for nurturing me from zero until today...

I realized that due to my next experience in US for at least five years, my mom quite worry about me since I am the closest children to her. Even my dad did not show his concern, I could read from his attitude towards me that he is also worrying me. Yet, as the eldest son, I will not fail them and do my best in the US.

Thanks Mom, Dad.. You are the best parents ever!

Introduction

Dear all reader,

Well, its my first time to write a blog since I realized this could be a good way to share my thoughts and experience in a considerable way.

My full name is Christian Timothy Wijaya. Born in a small town which well known with its tofu, Kediri, East Java Province, Indonesia.
My birthday is November 23rd, 1993, so this year I am turning 19. Quite old in terms of small contribution which I have given to the world and people around me.

My family is a simple one, my father is a manager in a small home-factory and my mother is a course teacher for elementary school students. I have one brother who is two years younger, and one sister who is seven years younger than me.

I love playing basketball, even not a good one, playing in the 2 guard. I can also play guitar quite nice.

I spend my elementary education and junior high school in my hometown. Then I received full scholarship from Putera Sampoerna Foundation in Malang for high school. By the blessing from God, for the university education I will go to United States! I was selected by Putera Sampoerna Foundation to receive student assistance fund continuing my study to Texas Tech University taking Economics as my major.

And here is the story of this blog begin...