My New Life in the USA..

I couldn't even remember when did the last time i wrote on my blog.. Now i'm here starting my life in the US. This is my 8th months and doing pretty well..


First months..
was suck.. i didn't have friends. Yeah, i met few Indonesian here, but new people not always turned to be your friend. But i had to admit they all very kind, compared to people in my beautiful Jekardah? In fact, one of the students helping my husband to picked me up at the airport on my arrival. Oh yes, i should tell you that i was traveling with my almost 3 years old son. Yes, without husband. Yes, my husband arrived 6 months earlier in the US, and it's gonna take another chapter on how i was struggling on that whole 6 months before my departure.. So with my son, i traveled 36 hours from Jakarta to Raleigh. I had two stop-over in Doha, and London. Four GIGANTIC luggages, one small cabin luggage, one backpack, one stroller that i couldn't find at each transit city while i desperately needed it. So when i arrived in the US, i got to push all the stuffs with my feet, pushing the stroller, and pulling a small luggage. And, alhamdulillah, the officer at the immigration let me go through without even opening any of my luggages. THANK YOU Sir!! God Bless You!

Officer: Seriously?
Me: Yea, I know..
Officer: You travel alone?
Me: Technically with this little Man (sitting on the stroller)
Officer: From London all alone? Me: From Jakarta to Doha to London to Raleigh..
Officer: Just gimme your custom card, anything to declare?
Me: Nope
Officer: Just Go
Me: Really? Thank You! God Bless

And there at the arrival lobby, oooh hi my dear husband with his friend!!! Another help from the God. If there was only my husband came to picked me up, the luggages will never fit in our car's trunk!

The next weeks was series of a jet leg, a driver license study, a driver license test, a failed, another test, finally pass the test(a friend said to me, if you drive in Jakarta, you can drive anywhere in the world hahaha! kinda true), i was also getting a work permit, apply to anything that US gov offers for resident, and facing the truth that my body is not being designed for four weathers, especially the frozen one.. My face cracking, my skin was dry, some bleed here and there.. the only survival kit i had was, Johnson and Johnson baby cream that i brought all the way flying from Jakarta, and didn't work as i expected because it was not -definitely not- a cream for me nor for the freezing weather.. Don't blame the cream nor the brand, blame my idiocy.. The cream felt burning my skin when i applied it on my freezing skin. Lesson: next time don't use your son's cream for your face, because they don't manufactured for that purpose, ok? noted.

But there was also good parts. I found that the city is unlike Jakarta at all. Not so many shopping malls (in fact there's only one nearby, in which takes fifteen minutes of American driving to get there), no traffics, i can only find tall buildings around downtown, point of interest was mostly parks, lakes, and museums. So yeah, this was (and is ) definitely not Jakarta. I found a good Public Library where my son can join the story time everyday, and borrow as much books as he wants everyday. I found my favorite lake, a Big Masjid for me to keep in touch the Lord, a Farmers Market where i can find good vegetables, green ways, halal meat shop and some dollar stores. I thought "I'll live" and yes i survive.

Apartment: You cannot choose your neighbor..
Lucky to find apartment after long sleepless search in Jakarta. I had to make phone calls to some properties in the US to confirm if they actually has the available one. But, neighbor was not in the agreement.

What's with the neighbor? So in a building there always be 8 units, 4 in down floor and 4 in the upper floor. I was lucky to get a very kind Indonesian family in my building, and another two families in separate buildings, they're the best neighbor ever!! They cook super delicious food and i always get the tester hahaha!! Thank you!

But i always have this strange habit from my upper neighbor.. Only the upper neighbor, yes, the one that exactly above mine. First time i moved in, my neighbor was two students that kept watching drama serial in Dolby Stereo System, my apartment shakes whenever they turned on their TV. Luckily (or not so lucky) the double trouble moved out. But another fellas coming in. She's a chinese mother with her son and naynay (grandma). She is an incredibly smart person, she's a Phd in her country and doing some history research stuffs in NC state. Her son, he doesn't speak English, not even a word. And naynay, she keeps thinking that i can actually understand what she says-until now. Well, i am a half chinese in my blood, my Dad's chinese, but the only words i know was xiexie, and ni hao..

So the next thing happened was, i was excited that she and her family moved in. I thought that my son will make new friend, and he did. So the kid next-door started to play in my place, once a week, twice a week, and everyday. I didn't mind, my son always want a brother or sister while i couldn't even think about having another children, not for now, so this was perfect. Until. He's not only coming everyday, but every time. Anytime i arrived from anywhere, like for example i just got back from Walmart, Naynay will noticed and marched down the stairs and put the kid - through my big window- in my apartment. Funniest part, she left the kid with me and back upstair.

I was exhausted, i didn't even have a time cleaning up my apartment, or to get the stuffs from grocery arranged in the kitchen properly anymore. Nobody asking me if i'm ok he's playing in my place. Everyday, 8-9 am, they slide my window and put him in, just great. My friends said, i should talk to them and tell my objection. So i did. One day, this kid pee on my carpet. and i have to carry the carpet out the apartment to the top of my car and asked my husband to wash it. I get the mother and tell her about my situation. The conversation more or less just like this..

Me: Your son pee on my carpet
Her: Really? (and she looked at her son's pants), ah i'm sorry
Me: That's alright. Is he potty trained? i mean he's not wearing any diapers.
Her: No. Oh look at that, daddy is washing the carpet so funny.
Me: (Took a deep breathe and tried to understand 'funny' as cute)You should train him, he might not be able go to school if he's not potty trained.
Her: I don't know, he's afraid of the toilet...
Me: Ok, here's the thing, please let me know first before he's going to play here. He's very welcome here, but sometime i just got something else to do and not be able to keep an eye on both kiddos..
Her: Ok
Me: and please teach him to say 'pee' or 'bathroom' whenever he feels like going to.. id be happy to help him
Her: I don't know..
Me: (awkward face and speechless and feeling bad for saying those things..)

So the next few days nobody came to my place. One day after all the awkward moments, Naynay came with a huge plate of homemade noodle. She spoke something in her language, i nod and nod and nod, and took the noodle, she looked happy after that. So the lesson from the incident and all the craziness was cultural lags could make a very bad communication. I remembered say 'It's ok he can play here' and that was me was sending a wrong message to my neighbor, and they received it very well.

Later days i understood that they did not mean to sneak and put the kid like everyday in my place in a very early morning. Maybe, they thought, because i like kids and i'm a typical of a 'yes-go-ahead-person' (because that's just Indonesian sounds like) so they thought it was all completely fine to open somebody's window in the morning and put your kid in. It was all my fault at the first place. Now, me and the upper neighbor get along very well, the kids play together, we share food, we talk and share some information, this is just great, a happy ending ;)

I gotta get my dinner. This is a good start after a long break, i will write again. maybe once a week. let's see..

Quit

Do you ever hear somebody said 'once quitter will always be quitter' anyone? I did, not exactly the right sentence but it could be something sounded like that. So what if someone decided to be a quitter? To me, even to quit is a decision indeed. What if you just got no better choice and have to quit? What if staying is so and too miserable so you encourage yourself to quit? What if you stand in the wrong place and need to quit?

Exhausted

I just hit a car. Nobody gets injured, but yes i have to pay for the repair. I thank God the owner of the car that i hit didn't sue me (fiuuuhh..long deep breath). So, i took a one day leave to fix the name change on Electricity Account. Me and my husband just bought a new house, and the electricity bill still named the previous owner. So, the process took a little while, but you know what? I have to give a standing applause for PLN (the national electricity company) for their services that was free of any charges, how awesome that was! I have to admit i had a bad thinking about PLN. I was thinking about briebery 'money politics' and a long bureaucracy. But in fact i was wrong! I came to the office and a security led me to a machine that gave me a queing number, i wait for a while until my number shown on the display. The process was quite okay, take a reasonable time, the best part is that they didn't charge me for anything! I hope this is a good sign for my country and the government, the public service is getting better and the public officers are dedicated. One issue i have to raise after my visit to PLN, they only allow me to raise one subject. On that day i can only submit an electicity account name change, when i request another service (i was about to change my electricity meter machine, it was old and rusty, and almost broken)the officer told me that one name/account could only raise one service request every month. This means that i have to go back next month to ask for the new meter machine. So i was just hoping that someone with position in PLN would read my blog and reconsider this policy. Returning from the PLN office, i went to my apartment, i was about to check the furniture installation and found that my kitchen set was have all right doors (no left door). Another deep breath, i drove to the furniture store and ask for the appropriate part. I hadn't even got my lunch! i got really exhausted, drove my car and hit the car in front of me. What a bad day..!

tinny bites

so this hobby brought me some extra income!! that's just great, you know, doing things that you like and get some cash from it, magic uh?

cookie probably one of my expertises. so i tried to make some sample of my cookies and let my friends try it. Yep, they like it so much and starting to order. one jar, two jars, four, twelve, thirty something jars!!!!! and the nightmare began. The fun part was no longer fun when you got exhausted.. But still, after all the hard work, cramping hands, non-stop baking, and crazy cleaning up the kitchen, i can smile ;)

i even have a label now,i designed the name and logo myself and i think it's not bad for a non-designer product :p
my jars named Tinny Bites and here they are

cooking class

my last post on this blog was on January, wheeew!! not so fancy. I actually had millions of stories on my head, but i just couldn't find the appropriate time to write it down here. But here i come..

so, today i attend a short cooking class at NCC. This NCC probably the biggest cooking community in Indonesia and they periodically hold some cooking class in certain places in Jakarta. This morning i attend a halal dimsum (Chinese dumpling) class. I actually not so interested in dumpling, but my husband loves them soooo much and he's actually the one who encourage me to attend this class. The result, not bad at all.

I got siomay, hakao, angsio chicken feet, and shrimp roll mayo. The steps are easy, i'll show you my next experiment at home, but first of all i got to add more stuffs on my next grocery shopping.

Bebe Mikail!!

Alhamdulillah 7th January i gave a birth to a baby boy!
My husband named him Mikail Esa Widinugraha.



Welcome sleepless nights, diapers change and bunch of fun!!

counting the days

so, this is my 38th weeks. From the latest USG my doctor told me that my baby 's weight is about 2.7 kg, and he will still gainning more weight until the delivery day. I couldn't dare to see myself in the mirror, i'm a big fat mom-to-be right now! hahaha! I even walk strangely like a north pole's pinguin. The baby's position was also OK, although my doctor said there's a placenta around the baby's neck, he said i can still working on my plan to have a normal delivery, the conservative way.

my activity? doing some yoga for pregnancy, stop baking for a while, preparing some stuffs to be brought to the hospital on 'the day' and praying. Due date ( i saw it in my doctor's computer) for me is 11 january, so i hope everything is going to be fine as it planned. I'm so nervous and exciting!

Blessings

Alhamdulillah, there is a lot of blessing on this November.

This is my 7th month of pregnancy and i'm planning to start my pregnancy exercise class. My doctor said it will help me on the delivery process. The exercise will help you to learn how to breath, how to push, and how to gain more strenght on the delivery process. But, do u know what is the the most helpful method? Praying! Especially the shalat. In Shalat, there is a position called sujud which help the baby to rotate and move to the right position. It also help your thigh to get stronger. Well, i'm saying this not only because of me as a moslem, my doctor also admit and suggest me to do more Shalat. Isn't that great?

My husband accepted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is one of his dreams and he was struggling to the limit to get it. This is a miracle to us. My husband was facing so many distraction and trouble on his way to get this job. I looked at him every night, he prayed and prayed to Allah to give him the best. We handed all the decision to Allah, we believe if the job is good for us and for our life, Allah will show us the way. When we found that he passed all the tests, we're gone speechless, the only thing that remain in mind was to thank Allah for all the blessing that we cannot get without His Merciful hand.

I also start to buy and gather some baby's stuff for my baby. I got this new beautiful crib and bed, baby bath, some tiny clothes, diapers, and breast-pump. This is such a fun thing to do, to buy some cute colorful stuffs for your baby makes you can't wait to see his coming! I believe he will be cute and smart like his father.

Weekend Cooking!!

Since i'm pregnant, food has been an issue. I no longer can eat any sashimi or raw sushi, i have to avoid grilled steak and completely skip the half-rare one, and i'm dying for good food.

So, this is the result of my suffer. I made my own hand-rolled sushi with non-raw filling. It's fried salmon sushi with sauce and wasabi mayo and cheese (don't ask cheese inside sushi?)
I have to be proud, look at the picture, it looked promising ahahaha!



So, another favor, today, i made this 'Burger steak with veggie and fries' for my husband (which actually just a sweet reason to cover that i was dying for it too..)





My husband loved everything on the plate and ate everything in minutes. He kept saying that the steak and the sauce were excellent!

plans..plans..

I was actually browsing for some short trip. Just wondering to bring my baby (after the delivery, of course) later on his first trip (his? my doctor said it's a boy until my last USG). I remembered my boss from my last office, Irek, he and his family are cute travelers. So i checked on his site and find some wonderful destination to be my consideration. his website is www.zyzanski.com or you can find more trips at his another site which he also provided the address on this site.

Oh yep, i'm still on my 6th months, the nausea -thank God- has gone away, and i was thinking to start a trip, actually maybe a very short visit to Singapore. Not actually a short vacation, a friend of mine is getting married there, and she was (also) in the same boarding house with mine when we were at university. She did come to my wedding, so i thought that i have to give her a favor, a short fun visit to fulfill her invitation. Well, let's see what my doctor would says about my plan.