Purbalingga

Purbalingga is a town approximately 5 hours away from Salatiga. We had the privilege to visit Dina’s family in this town last weekend. We had a blast and we were glad we made the trip before saying goodbye to her. We left Salatiga at 4:30PM and we got there at around 9:30PM. Though it was tiring, the long ride in the bus didn’t stop from having fun on our way there.

Tired, feeling dirty and hungry, Dina’s mom became our savior when she served us the delicious Soto Purbalingga for dinner and tempe mendoan on the side. It was yummy! The first night at the house was great but in the morning we woke up pretty grumpy, especially Abbie, because there were some noisy children screaming around. We found out that there is a Kindergarten school right exactly across from the house.

Pita made the morning a bit different. She woke up earlier than most of us and took a bike ride around the market and rice field. She took some pictures of it. The misty morning of Purbalingga is beautiful.

The adventure began when Dina took us to the water park 30 minutes away from the house. We took an angkot and then a bus to get there. It was interesting because there is a pretty big water park in such a town like this. We’re happy that not many people went there. We really enjoyed the park, swimming in the pools, sliding, did some crazy stuff and got hurt, and flying fox. That was fun.
Pita found a guy who do sketching for living. It wasn't bad at all.The lunch was reserved for the infamous Soto Sokaraja and Durian Ice. Soto Sokaraja was excellent but for some of us, the Durian Ice was a struggle. I love the Durian Ice and for once I must agree to Dina and Maria that perhaps it was the best Durian Ice in Indonesia.

Saturday night is a fiesta time for the people in Purbalingga. The center of it all is the town square. We walked for 30 minutes to the square and it was packed with people, motorbikes and food vendors all over the place. We hang out in there for a couple of hours, talked to people, took some pictures and ate dinner.
On our way back, we stopped by at Maria’s parents’ house. It was exciting to meet with them and listened to their stories about life and their children.
The next morning we woke pretty early for church. We all felt sore from the swimming but it didn’t stop us from wanting to praise the Lord. Anyhow, we struggled to stay awake throughout the church service. Many of us had to fall asleep during prayer time. Forgive us, God. Back in the house, Dina’s mom served us a hearty breakfast that we enjoyed so much. We then hang out and talked about random things.
It was a long and short trip but we all enjoyed it. It was good to getting to know Dina from the other side and listened to her mom’s story about being a single parent raising three children. I thank the Lord to have this opportunity to getaway during the weekend and experiencing Purbalingga. It was cool to see His work in providing us with protection and blessings.
Thanks Dina for being such a wonderful HOSTESS! ;)

Skate & Bowl

Two weekends ago we went to Jogja for Ice Skating and Bowling. The trip was part of Dina’s “dream” to do those things before she leaves to Batam for good. At first, we weren’t sure if we could do it because it looked so difficult but with little courage from our white friends who have more experienced in it, we then proceeded. Peco and Tiffany didn’t have any problem sliding the ice, for me and Andre we had to re-learn it from when we did roller-skate a while ago.

But for Dina and Pita, it was a tough world!

It didn’t take too long for them though to learn the art of ice-skating thanks to Peco and Tiff. They could finally slide the ice with their skates. For Andre though, he could skate with speed but the problem was he didn’t know how to stop!

After 2.5 hours of experiencing the ice world that mostly occupied by children, we finally rested and moved on to a different play world.
I’ve played once so did the rest of us, except for Pita. After a short briefing from our coach Peco, we came into the battle of bowling.
I found that bowling is more than just throwing a ball into the pins. It took some skills.
There was a machine that counted how many it was interesting to see how we strived to win this game.
Finally the game was over and our coach won the game, the second position was Pita who we thought was her beginner's luck winning. Hehe.

Paris van Java

I finally made to Bandung visiting my good friends Eric and Katie. It was a great trip and I had a great time with them as well as sightseeing around Bandung.

Paris van Java, that's what the Dutch called Bandung back when they ruled this country, has changed so much from the last time I visited this city. Lots and lots of malls, factory outlets, restaurants and hotels. But one thing that hasn't changed much is the trees. I like the way the government maintains the trees in most part of the city.

I spent most of my time hanging out with them. They took me to an Italian restaurant called Fashion Pasta on the upper part of Bandung. I recommend this restaurant for anybody visiting this city because the food and the atmosphere is excellent. Eric and Katie also took me a tour around Bandung with car and motorbike. It was fun! I managed to do some shopping too. :)

I was blessed on this trip, not only because I was with great friends but I also learnt more about God and myself.

Zzzzzz......

Sometime ago I watched a news about an exhibition from a photographer who exhibited collections of pictures of people while they were sleeping. It was interesting because I took quite a lot pictures with the same objects too, but my goal was to make fun of the people that I took pictures of. :) So, I was thinking of putting them on my blog but I wasn't trying to immitate what that photographer (whose name I forgot) did on his exhibition. I thought his idea was brilliant. It's interesting to look at the people when they sleep. We never know what's going on in their mind.

My chubby little nephew, Deo. He fell asleep just before his birthday party last year.

My best friend's son, Zidane. He was in the back of the car on our way back to Salatiga from Jogja.

Pretty much exhausted from our Bali trip, Peco was sleeping deep on our way back home.

It was 5:30AM in the morning, they've been partying hard on New Year's eve but Daniel and Zubs strived to watch the first sunrise of the 2009. They were sleeping in the rented car on their way to Sanur beach.

Sid took the picture of a random man sleeping on the river bank.

Picture of February 2009

On our recent trip to Borobudur, I realized that many pictures that I took were mostly the temple as a whole. But I was fascinated to see the pictures that some friends took showing off the details of this monument.

Some details on the carving that tells the story of Mahabharata and Ramayana.

An experimental photography.

Thank you Melissa Mattingly, Dana Crawford and Abbie for the beautiful pictures!

Perubahan?

Sudah lebih dari tiga minggu ini hujan terus bertamu di Salatiga, tetapi cuaca sepertinya sedikit berubah beberapa hari ini. Sinar matahari sepertinya tidak malu lagi menampakkan dirinya. Walaupun aku menikmati hujan yang hadir setiap hari tetapi kunjungan sinar matahari itu membawa sedikit kehangatan ditengah dinginnya hawa yang menyelimuti kota ini.

Saat aku berpikir tentang perubahan seringkali aku merasa takut dan khawatir. Aku menyadari bahwa perubahan akan selalu terjadi baik dalam kehidupanku maupun kehidupan orang-orang di sekitarku. Hal yang tidak bisa dihindari itu sering mendorong seseorang seperti berada di suatu tempat asing yang tertutup oleh kabut. Secara alamiah, manusia akan sekuat tenaganya membangun benteng sehingga ia terlindungi dari kekuatan perubahan. Walaupun begitu, sekuat apapun benteng yang dibangun tidak akan bisa menahan laju perubahan itu.

Dalam perenunganku, tidak ada hal lain yang aku bisa lakukan selain bersiap-siap terhadap datangnya perubahan. Memulai kerelaan untuk membuka pintu hati dan jendela pikiran adalah hal yang bijaksana sehingga aku bisa memandang lebih luas lagi dunia ini. Tetapi saat terlintas dalam pikiranku tentang akibat dari perubahan itu, hatiku mulai ciut. Aku tidak akan pernah tahu apa yang akan terjadi selanjutnya.

Mungkin Tuhan memakai ketidaktahuan itu sebagai cara supaya manusia-manusia yang kurang beriman dan kurang bernyali seperti aku ini bisa bersandar sepenuhnya kepada Dia. Seperti saat kita berjalan di tempat asing yang diselimuti kabut, satu-satunya hal yang diperlukan adalah nyala lampu yang cukup untuk menembus kabut itu. Aku percaya, walaupun aku tidak sering memakainya, bahwa Tuhan memberikan Buku Kehidupan dan Belahan Jiwa-Nya sebagai terang untuk menerangi jalanku. Sehingga dengan percaya diri aku bisa melangkah menuju ke tempat tujuanku.

Dalam hatiku aku bertanya-tanya lagi, siapkah aku terhadap perubahan itu? Saat aku memandang keluar jendela, kulihat mendung berarak-arak datang menutupi sinar matahari yang sedang menari-nari menebarkan pesona kehangatannya. Bersamaan dengan awan kelabu itu, kudengar deru angin yang datang membawa rasa dingin saat menyentuh kulitku. Mungkin aku tidak akan pernah bisa menjawab pertanyaan itu. Tetapi satu hal yang pasti aku bisa selalu memakai Buku Kehidupan dan Belahan Jiwa Tuhan sebagai terangku.

January 2009 Picture of the Month

I've always thought from the very beginning that the picture of this month would be the ones from our trip to Bali. Well, I found pictures that represent the hightlights of this adventure.

I stole this picture from Abbie's file as I looked through all the pictures she took in Bali. The picture was taken on Sanur beach at 5ish in the morning on the first sunrise of 2009.

I took quite a lot of pictures when we were on the Hidden Beach but it turned out not so good. Thankfully, Peco took almost the same amount of pictures of scenery but with way better quality and angle. He climbed up to the rock and sat there while taking pictures of the surrounding.