Arriving Spain

13th Febuary 2013, 11:30 am

After approximately 20 hrs of flying, I had my entire body arriving at Barajas Airport Madrid, Spain. Bienvenida, Florence! Welcome! This is the land of my dream I will be staying in for the next 88 days. 

I am certain that this journey will be an important milestone for my career, and more importantly my life. Since several years ago, I have set a new goal to be  hispanic expert. Hopefully my arrival this time, the first arrival and hopefully many more to come, will assist me to build the dream.

And like a quote I found yesterday during my visit to Toledo (an hour south from Madrid): I have decided to do things I like, because it is good for health ;)

Saludos!

Farewell to Comfort Zone

I have been in my comfort zone since September 2012, when I rejoined a latin embassy in Indonesia. As comfort as a kid playing with his dear toy, I do things that I love. Those things are called work.

It was quite a journey to end up here at first. Since my dad had to deal with his health issue, I had been trying to get a job in Singapore, which left me months unemployed. I myself was half-heartedly looking because the lion city doesn't fancy me that much. I offered myself to many companies to do work which mostly I am not very keen on; which most people call work for money. Somewhat apparently it is not "the way" for me.

Out of the blue I contacted the embassy where I had done an internship before, asking whether they have something for me... and they did. What made me jumping around afterward was the fact that they need assistance in cultural section, bullseye! There I was keeping me busy with things I love, culture. Repeat cultura latina (latin culture), which has captivated me for the recent couple years in line with the Spanish language itself. Moreover, I receive enough income as well. Big enough to survive and save some for my future plans.

My zone becomes even more comfortable for the colleagues I have in this small office. We create a very nice working environment, going through day by day with lots of smiles, laughters, and cares for each other, aside from the interesting office talks and music. It didn't take long for us to befriended, also out of the office, although each of us has different character. Pretty interesting too as we tend to mix up languages when conversing, but in the end it is the best way to understand each other. Somehow they glow such positive evergy to each other.

I have been in my comfort zone until....

31st January 2013
is my last day coming to the office before pursuing one of my ultimate dream of going to Spain on the 12th of Febuary.

It is a two-sides coin condition for me. I'm happy that finally I get the opportunity to go to the country which I consider as my second country (after Indonesia). On the other side I am sad to leave the third (Venezuela). Well not pretty much leaving the embassy that concerns me most, but leaving my dear friends does. It makes me think a lot whether I would ever find colleagues like them.

The previous Charge d'affairs who now turns into a friend, spoke to me on her last day working. With teary eyes she expressed it. She said, "When I came to Jakarta, I wanted to leave as soon as I can, but after a while I'd like to stay longer. It is the people who keep me here by heart." I think the same condition is happening to me now. The farewell is even tougher than college graduation. These people in the embassy are my superstars. It is a sure thing that I am going to miss them all soooooo much.

Instead of saying good bye, I'd like to dedicate this Irish blessing quote at my farewell: May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

This is the end of my comfort zone. From here, now am welcoming again uncertainity and surprises. This is the time to farewell the sweet memories and seek for new adventure lining up in the book of destiny.

The superstars:

The Sunshine

The Partner in Crime

The Adorable

The Queen

Eradicating Corruption with Music

I met Mul and Rendi last year in a humble house which serves them as basecamp in Depok, just a little bit South out of Jakarta. It was an interview assignment for the mass media I worked at, to make a profile story of this community, or syndication.

They call themselves SIMPONI (Music Syndicate of Earth Dwellers). Gamulya, or Mul for short, acts as the leader or manager of the music group. Rendi Ahmad who also earned credit in a couple of Indonesian features film is one of the talents. The others are musicians with various music genres, including beatboxers. Together they promoted environmental awareness with music in 82 schools for 82 days. For this they received an appreciation from Indonesia's Record Museum (MURI).

Recently these musicians cum activists have been working on different project: anti-corruption, collaborating with Indonesian Corruption Watch. They grieve for the government of Indonesia, who are comfortable with corruption. "Saweran" or fundraising to construct a new building of Corruption Eradication Commission is one thing. They did what they know best, playing music while moved people come and go to donate.

In the meantime, they heard about international anti-corruption music video competition who had been calling musicians from all around the globe to submit their work. The best three videos will be invited to attend the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Brazil. 

Mul does not bother winning, but he sees the power of social media. By making video the message could be spread out everywhere more attractively. The clip was produced low-budgetly by documentarian Dandhy D Laksono from WatchdoC Indonesia.

The song and music video "Vonis (Verdict)" was launched today, 1st of August, at Newseum Cafe Veteran Street Jakarta. As well there was a short discussion with the video's director and historian Bonny Triyana, who revealed that corruption in Indonesia has actually started ever since the country got its independency.

CDs comprising the song and video were sold for 50 thousand rupiah (five thousand will go to saweran) to fund "Indonesia Without Corruption Tour", a commemoration of the 9th anniversary of anti-corruption day on 9th December 2012. The group aim at 90 campuses in 9 provinces, hopefully not only in Java. Care to support the movement? You can contact @simponii at twitter or send e-mail to simponi10@gmail.com

Dreamy European Life

A Hello from Zurich

Hello virtual world...! It's been a while since my last writing about going to Europe.

In summer time (around May), seems like equator line moves to this northern part of the earth. Did not expect it, but it's true I got as much sun as in Indonesia there. Nevertheless, the wind was much colder and somehow the air was clearer, letting me survive survive the sun without aircon.

I landed my feet in Europe for the first time on the 30th April 2012 in Rome, Italy. Spent two days there, singing in front of the Pope and then at a cultural night of the Indonesian Embassy for The Holy See. Oh by the way... I was with Mia Patria, an ethnic show choir group playing Indonesian music. We were in a cultural mission presenting Indonesia to Europeans (but in Vatican we sang to people from all around the globe).
Highlight of Rome and Vatican: Singing in front of the Pope in Saint Peter Square (of course!)

The Pope and I

Then we moved to South Tyrol part of Italy, Bolzano. I was quite happy seeing Florence (Firenze) from a far on our way there from Rome. We spent a week or so performing in towns nearby, such as Leifers, Oies, San Ulrich, Sarnthein, and Kurtatsch.
Highlight of Bolzano: Ladin Museum, which showed me stories and heritage of the valley's people in Italian Alp.

The Castle (was) Museum (now)

Me and Three Ladin Museum's Staffs (who are Ladins)

Next stop was Aulendorf, a little town close to its bigger and more popular neighbour Ravensburg, South Germany. Okay we actually stayed in Ebersbach with host families. I have posted how wunderbar they were in the previous story. In our day off, which thankfully were their day off too, we went to Bad Salgau and Uberlingen close to Lake Constance or Bodensee. Ebersbach itself is a country with plenty apple trees, colourful flowers, some horses, and a taaaaaaallllllllll love tree (which was decorated with heart shape thing and red and white ribbons). The country also has a minus zero degree freaking cold water lake, where I dipped inside and took one or two rounds walk). The water comes from uderground streams by the way. During our stay there, we also performed in nearby towns of Bad Waldsee, Isney, and Brunner.
Highlight of Aulendorf: singing in front of disabled people in Isney. Was fantastically inspiring and emotionally touching.

Martina, Me, and Sisi, we were in the ice cold water

Love Tree

Our longest stay in Europe was in Switzerland. We stayed mostly in Marienburg Gymnasium in Thal (or Rheineck), but for three days in between we relocated to Menzingen to take a rest in La Salle Haus. Of course we made time to experience Switzerland big cities, Zurich and Luzern. Switzerland is indeed expensive, I think I spent most of my pocket money here. However, I love the country of lakes as it gave us the mood for relaxation even though we hustled around.
Highlight of Switzerland: riding in the back of a wood carrier tractor!

Stein Am Rhein, beautiful little town by the river

The City of Light, Lucerne

The old wood tractor that brought us back. Was so failed to run it

Hey hey hey... We got a bonus! When we were in Switzerland, the leader Mr.Linus surprised us with an extra tour to Lourdes, France. Those were our longest drive from Weinheim, Germany to Lourdes, sixteen hours on street. We stayed for two nights, but only one day available for us to enjoy Lourdes. I felt such a strong spiritual connection there; I even promised myself to learn "Salve Regina" when I get back, a favourite song in town.
Highlight of Lourdes: Above the busy souvenir shops and restaurants downtown, a friend Mega and I enjoyed a tranquil and classy lunch in a restaurant above a river with a fantastic view of a castle.

Me and Mega, unexpected but wonderful lunch date

Indonesian Ladies Posing in Lourdes

We went to Lourdes within our programme in Sulzbach, Germany. The town is located next to old town Weinheim and Hemsbach, approximately an hour driving south from Frankfurt. We stayed again in host families who live in Sulzbach, Hemsbach, or Laudenbach, but we performed also to Frankfurt, Gros-Rohrheim, Cologne, and St.Agustin.
Highlight of Sulzbach: I and another three friends were seconds away for getting ourselves being left by Mannheim train to Sulzbach. Meanwhile we had a concert to catch in the evenig so we had to take that train!

A Stranger (also tourist) Spontaneusly Jumped into the Frame,
When I Was About to Take Pic in Frankfurt

Weinheim Old Town with Mama Katharina

at Frankfurt Airport with Two Bussiest Persons in Sulzbach, Mr. and Mrs. Bauer

Now I am back to Jakarta, awaken from the sweet 46 days dream in Europe. Back to the same old life, with an expectation of putting more quality into life here like what I've experienced in especially Germany and Switzerland: respect time, cherish life (which leave me almost no clue how to reach it, as here in Jakarta equals traffic, crime, pressure, polution) Yes am a bad citizen of Jakarta, aren't I? lol. But please comment if you don't agree and share the thought.

Maybe am just done being a realist city girl for 25 years, instead being a fairytale-country girl sounds perfect for me at the moment. I am longing for it: My Dreamy European Life.

German Families

1. Greul Family (left to right): me, Lars, Katharina, Sabine
2. Margareth, Cornelia Steiger, Me
3. Maier Family: Fiona, Opa, Viktor, Me, Isabella, Markus, Martina, Margareth

Before I thought (sorry) Germans are pretty strict and rigid. After staying with these persons for several days, I'd like to revise my opinion. Even though they speak no good English (bit language barrier, yes!), these Germans have golden hearts, warm hugs, never ending smile, and speak an understandable language of love.

Family Maier has a very good cooking mom, Martina. Hubby Markus is a hardworking carpenter, however he tried to spend time with us as much as he can. Fiona (14), their youngest daughter is always happy to meet us (Margareth and I) even though she hardly speaks English. Meanwhile Maiers' oldest daughter Isabella speaks perfect English as she works in a French restaurant in Stuttgart; and of course she cooks fine too. Maiers have six children, but we could only meet four. We managed to meet the boys: Viktor and Sammy. Viktor takes care of elderly people, which is very nice as we can rarely find youngsters doing it in Germany, not even adults are willing to do that sincerely. Meanwhile Sammy who was pretty busy with exams and football still made time to watch our performance too.

Maier is actually our friend's (John) family, but since Martina and Cornelia (our appointed mom) are close friends, and Cornelia Staiger still has to work Monday to Friday in a hospital (but not a nurse or doctor), we were welcomed to the Maiers during the day. However, Cornelia never abandoned us. Time we spent together at breakfast or later at night is quality. She speaks English very well, used to live in Ireland, so we understood each other easily. Her weekend which supposedly is used to study (she wants to take more qualification), was sacrificed to take us around. These two Ebersbach families are super!

Greul-Hennig family who lives in Hemsbach was pretty rigid at first. I found it later that language barrier is the cause. However our lovely Katharina, which is 70, never forgets to pick us up almost every midnight whenever we had a show. She had to wake up in the middle of her sleeping time which starts normally at ten. There is also her second daughter Sabine and her grandson (Sabine's son) Lars live in the house. Sabine is a horse lover. Once she took us to fourteen years-old Mary, her lovely brown horse. I got on it for minutes and it felt awesome! Meanwhile Lars installs aluminium drain pipe for housing, which is a rare job in the state. They both have to go to work very early, around six or earlier. Another lovely thing about the family is that some of the members (Katharina's daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter-in-law-to-be, etc.) run a center to take care of very old people.

It was our first meeting. They did not know me at all before, no communication had been made before, but they did not hesitate to receive me in their house. Something that is not likely to happen in Jakarta, as people always suspicious, careful, and (maybe) put this thought in front of everything: What's in it for me?

These Germans families are not paid to take care of us, receiving us as parts of their family.

So... Danke fur alles.

Liebe,

Florence

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Euro Trip Pictures 2012 (with my fave travel buddy!)

Before I post the story about my Europe trip (yes it's in the progress so please be patient), Euro Trip Pictures
here is the facebook link of the trip with my travel buddy.... for a sneak peek... Enjoy!

Where am I before Europe?

Where in Jakarta I spend my last day before going for Europe Trip? Hospital!

As some of you might have heard, I am going to Europe with a show choir group Mia Patria on Sunday, 29th April 2012, which is tomorrow.

For the last two weeks parents have been very busy reminding me to take more rest, vitamins, and so on. Anything to keep my stamina since I have been practising much, until midnight, before the departure day.

Yesterday the man who warned me much to stay healthy was hospitalised. I got the shocking news when I was at a relative's house, after crossing through Jakarta's traffic for three hours! Dad has tumour somewhere (If am not mistaken it is at the back of his stomach). Fortunately, it is not threatening (now). However, it needs to be removed otherwise it would press out other organs.

Today we're quite busy looking for the right hospital to do surgery. I therefore go nowhere else but to the hospital. 

Reunion at Hospital?!

It's quite funny though as my old man doesn't seem sick at all. He was busy surfing the net and having a cup of coffee when we, the pretty ladies (mom, sis, and I) came. At around three, he had the infusion removed. At five, we ordered pizza. At seven, friends of mom and dad started to pack up the room and made a reunion!

I don't know whether it is God's will or anything else, I have to spend my last day with family.

Although we live under the same roof, we hardly met lately due to our own activities.

I do hope that things will not go worse when I am in Europe. If a surgery needs to be taken in the next 46 days, I'd be sorry can't be there with him or with mum.

"Whether it's a heart attack or heartbreak, just like broadway, the show must go on." The show must go on indeed, as the prayer will keep going on. Te quiero, papa! Love ya daddy!