Carpe Diem

Sepuluh bulan udah aku tinggal di Amerika. Dan hal yang sering ditanyakan adalah “dapet apa kamu ke Amerika?”. AKu tahu apa yang ku dapatkan, although it’s something invisible for now. Benern deh, jujur kalo untuk mengungkapkan, menjelaskan, susah-susah gampang buat pertanyaan ini. Tapi aku tahu bahwa ‘hal itu’ udah aku dapatkan. Dan, justru di sinilah tantangannya, gimana caranya aku bias njelasin semua itu (dan itu ga sekarang). Banyak sekali kejadian-kejadian yang “feeding mind and soul” yang aku alami selama di sini. Meskipun aku ga tiap kali update Facebook , photos, note, bahkan status. Aku ga serajin itu untuk Facebook. Aku cukup kaget ketika aku coba bikin list apa yang harus dan udah aku lakukan untuk bulan ini. Wow! I am able to do this much! Aku ingat betapa tergantungnya aku sama ‘perintah orang tua’, ‘situasi dan kondisi’ serta ‘tuntutan lingkungan’. Sekarang, selama di sini, siapa yang bakal ngawasin aku coba? Ibaratnya aku bisa aja melakukan apapun tanpa cerita-cerita...

Kenapa? Bakalan banyak bgt deh. Masa $1 = Rp 9.950? Iya, iya, tapi bukan itu masalahnya. Masalahnya adalah bakal kemahalan nantinya. Buat gampangnya, kita asumsikan $1 = Rp 10.000 (waha..gaya ekonom) Kok bisa? Bisa aja. Bayangkan (sekarang bayangkan), simak harga dibawah ini (di USA) air mineral $2 = Rp 20.000 Roti tawar $2,49 = Rp 24.900 Buku tulis $3 = Rp 30.000 Junkfood $1 = Rp 10.000 (disini ga ada batagor, siomay, apalagi cimol) Shampo $5 = Rp 50.000 Sekarang bandingkan Cellphone murah-lumayan bagus S39,99 = Rp 399.000 Laptop $799,99 = Rp 7.999.900 Flashdisk 4 GB $9 = Rp 90.000 Digicam $159,99 = Rp 1.599.900 Jeans $20 = Rp 200.000 Elektronik cenderung malah lebih murah di sini (saya pake kualitas rata-rata atau lebih). Pantesan bule ga pernah nawar di malioboro! Mau aja dikasih harga Rp 50.000, padahal bisa Rp 15.000, orang masih murah juga. Dan kena...

Why? Because, okay. Let me explain to you. This is what happened to me like….last week or something. I don’t usually put my cell phone in my pocket (especially for jacket and jeans). But, due to my business-at that time I had just texted someone, and I needed to go to the restroom. So, who cares about cell phone if you need to use the restroom, imediately? Now, restroom thing had done. And it was flushed automatically by itself (good technology). It had been flushed, and, I remember my cellphone (now I care). “Where is it? Where is it?”- I was scared. But, it’s not in my pocket! As I remember, it was in my pocket. I just stared at the toilet which was flushing. Could it possibly fall? Argggggh..! Okay, now do you get it? Good, if you do. If not, don’t be too worry-like I was. Just relax. Suddenly I check all over my bag pack. Guess what happened? My cellphone was in there! Good for me I found it. I don’t know what would happen if I put it in my 'small and risky' pocket. I...

International Education Week was done in last November. I did 4 presentations for Human Geography Class and 1 for a a church community. They were pretty good, because I had no big audience. Just like a couple of small classes which was really nice to have a discussion or even live conversation. So, I thought my duty was done, because to do a presentation in English took a lot of courage for me at first. However, it ended up being really fun. But, one day one of my teacher from JROTC class, First Sergeant Mike Braccio, told me that he heard about my presentation last November. Then he said that if I want to, I could do the same presentation in JROTC class. I was surprised and wondering how did he know about this. Anyhow, at that time I was excited, too. Because, if I take this opportunity, I will share the Indonesian cultural things to more people. It means good for me, my country, and definitely American. I didn’t have to do that, but I had a desire and it just told me that I should...

Hari-hari terakhir (sebelum berangkat) sempat cemas juga. Satu minggu sebelum keberangkatan aku belum dapat placement. Yang artinya aku belum tahu bakal tinggal dimana, dengan siapa, berbuat apa (???). Dan saat itu nggak kepikiran pengen dapet placement dimana. Mungkin sekitar 80% dari teman2 YES saat itu udah tahu bakal tinggal dimana, dan udah ada kepastian. Tapi yakin deh, AFS dah njamin ini semua. Baru deh, 3 hari sebelum meninggalkan Indonesia aku dapet surat Kak Sari kalo aku di host orang Florida. Hmm..Florida ya, boleh juga sih. Enam hari kemudian...(12 Agustus 2009) AKu ketemu dengan mereka pertama kali di Tampa Airport. Mereka baik banget, bahkan aku disambut dengan rangkaian bunga. Hostmomku bernama Alexandra Barret(44). Beliau ini seorang bussineswoman yang bergerak di bidang, emm..apa ya..medis mungkin. Beliau ini seorang instruktur Yoga yang berencana melebarkan sayap dengan membuka kelas-kelas baru. Be independent woman, beliau menginspirasi hal ini. Dan beruntungn...