Asmi’s Freedom (Shortstory)

Asmi’s Freedom

Asmi looked outside the window of her sleeping room. It was almost eight o clock in the evening but the weather outside was still so bright and warm. She was tired and sleepy but she couldn’t sleep. She thinks it strange that the sun stays that long during the day, but then she has seen a lot of strange things here since she left her country three days ago.
In her country it’s always dark outside just before seven in the evening. At that time, she usually would be at home with her parents, her sister and her two brothers, eating dinner, watching TV and chatting in the living room until sleeping time. Early in the morning they all would wake up, doing the morning pray, having breakfast, going to school and then later going to work until evening, and so the routine repeated for almost twenty seven years of her life. She occasionally had free time sometimes, which she would spend it with her friends or sister, shopping or going to the movies, watching an American romantic comedy. She always thought she was happy. She had everything she needed, a family who loved her, a bunch of friends who were always willing to spend time with her, and maybe later she would actually have a man who would ask to marry him and having family of her own just like she had now.
But now she was here, in her room in Berlin, in the heart of Europe, alone. The German class that she took ended at one o’clock in the afternoon. All her classmate friendly waved her goodbye and soon disappeared. She went to the nearest restaurant for lunch but hesitated to go in. The thought of sitting alone in restaurant scared her. What would she do? Eating and staring the window? What should she do while she waited for the food? She always had her friend during lunch time, never, as long as she could remember had she gone alone to restaurant or any other place as the matter of fact. She always had appointments to meet at restaurants, book stores, the movies, the library or even a Moshe. Her younger sister was always more than willing to company her, because that meant she would have everything paid for. And so she’d get free entertainment. The brothers would finally say yes with the promise to be introduced to one of her beautiful friends. The thought of sitting alone! In a restaurant was so unbearable to her, that she finally decided to go to the Asian shop and simply buy groceries.
Now it was eight in the evening. The sun so bright and the weather so warm outside. She had done everything that she could do; cooked, ate, washed, studied, and taken a bath. She had even watered the flowers on balcony twice. She could not sleep even though she felt rather sleepy.
She grabbed her jacket and her bag, went outside and walked to the station. She walked rather slow but with certainty. Behind the sunglass, her eyes looked around comfortably. People passed her by with faster speed than her walk. She noticed that people almost always ran everywhere here. They even ran to the strand cafe just too lazily lie in the sun. From the Hauptbahnhof she walked in the direction of the Kapelleufer, crossing the Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse. Her eyes cached some faces of the people who went in the other the direction. Most of them just passed by and minded their own business, but one or two actually smiled friendly to her. She didn’t have a chance to smile back because she didn’t really expect it. She didn’t know why those people smiled at her, as she recalled, she had never met them before, but it is also possible that they just smile to everybody because they were really happy. Because as she later found out, the sun can make Europeans extremely happy! But somehow that smile made her heart warmer and she walked more rapidly and with certainty. When she was going to the Brandenburgtor with her classmate, she had seen some people reading books on the bank beside the Spree near the Palast der Republik, and that’s where she was going now.
She sat herself on the one empty bank on the river, reached for her book from Claudia Rusch about the girl who grew up in the DDR. Shortly later she was deep into her reading and hardly noticed her surrounding.
After a while she felt rather tired, so she stretched a little. It was beautiful weather and the Palast of Republik was one the of important tourist attractions in Berlin, so it was no wonder that people crowded the area. She looked around and but nobody seemed to notice her. So one or two did look in her direction, but she assumes that they were actually looking through her. Maybe they see the object behind her. She felt tired and the long bench that she was sitting on. Was so tempting, so she decided to lie on her belly with her back toward the sky, tried to make she as comfortable as she could while her sight fell to the dark water of the Spree. Once and a while, boat passed by with a bunch of tourists sometime waving. She could feel the warm sun on her back, and the feeling of open air surrounded her. She felt rather funny but also liberated that she was lying around on the public place all by herself, busy with her own thought. She would never be able to do something like this back home. People might not say anything to her but surely they would turn over their heads to her and consider her rather strange. And suddenly a thought struck her, a thought of how much freedom she had actually had to do what she really wants to do. All this time, she had felt like people were watching every move she made. A friendly warning from people around her to make sure that she had done everything properly would always echo in her head. When she thought about it now, it seems that all her life was occupied with the thought of what people expected from her. And she had taken it for granted because she had never had a chance to think for herself. Now she was here, alone, miles away from the people she knew, surrounded by people, whose opinion didn’t really matter to her. She feels like she was free to do everything she wanted now. She could have fun and do what she really wanted to do. Of course she had to figure it out first what it is that she really wanted to do, but then she had much time here because there was no phoning to be occupied with, no friends to be entertained, no family to be pleased. She rose from the bench, decided that she could try to find a nice deutsches restaurant because she felt hungry now.

August 2006

Do I know You….

DO I KNOW YOU

I had a weakness of easily forgetting people faces and name even since I was child. But as I grew then I realized the effect of this forgetfulness is bad for me as well as for other. I had lived the entire life in small city, yet crossing someone who great me warmly is rare occasion.  It must be annoying when we greet a former classmate with whom we spent years of school time together, had a full of laugh during conversation and completely being ignored for the following meeting just because she could recognize you.  Which happened to be my case for unfortunately not only once.  I have even difficulty to recognize my relative when  I met them out of context of family gathering.

One occasion that kind of made me feel bad was happened during my studying time. It was one of the study trips we made.  On one occasion I got acquaintance with a shy guy from other department, we had interesting conversation, and he told how happy he was to get to know a girls from my department since by his was dominate by guys, and that he hoped we could be a good friend in the future which I responded warmly.

Couple day after that a guy come approach me and a friend and greeted us nervously, since I was in hurry and hardly knew him, I believed he was one of my friend acquaintance and I left with only a faint smile.  Not only after my affair is done that I remembered that long haired guy I got in a study trip acquaintance. I felt rather sorry and would like to apologize, but most of student in his department are have long curly hair so I wasn’t sure which one. And again unfortunately this ‘do I know you?’ moment is not the only one, and  it worse when it come to my professional life. I really need to find the best method to help me to remember before angry people get in longer line

SWEET HOME

Home sweet home!

Up until recently I always consider that traveling and adventure is the coolest thing. Since I was in school, I would write traveling as my other hobby besides reading. I truly believe that it’s very cool if we could travel to places as far as possible, take time  as long as possible,   meet strange people as strange as possible (:P hihihi). Besides that, it makes me sound like cool and sophisticated person. All my life, I have never leaved my island, Java. The furthest t travel I have made was when I was six years old and I had  to leave my town, Bogor, in west Java, and lived for a year in east Java with my granny ( I never believed I said this but I really miss her, may God bless him with the best place she could ever imagine). I always see the stranger in my town as the luckiest people in the world and that they all must feel happy and careless.

That is why when I finally had a chance to travel I gladly welcome the chance. My first travel as an adult (I  flew up up and away…… to Berlin (almost 13 hours flight or so ungefahr, cape deh…), leaving my beloved small city (Bogor is actually not really that small compare with   other city in Indonesia, it just that after more than thirty years that I have passed on its street from west end, to east end, to north end, made a round to south end in it, then it felt small enough for me).

Now, after quite many occasions of trips I must made for work, I realize that next time I should really consider saying no, or at least be more selective. The only thing that stop me for doing that until now that I don’t want to sound like whiny and old fashion. I must stop pretending to be ‘berjiwa petualang’, because the truth is that I am miserable when I am away. I always had schlecte Laune when I am away.  It is already begin by packing, with the much faster heartbeat than usual, not mention the grumpy (sorry mom, dad, sis, bro to have to put up with my grumpiness every time I am preparing my trip). The sweat I felt in my hand on the way to airport. The frown I gave to many people I felt they staring at me (gosh I must look and behave really like a jerk I hate). I become much more sensitive and grumpy than I usually.

The longer I stay, more miserable and lonely I would feel. Streets might look much nicer than those at my home, but it felt empty because I don’t know anybody who lived there, or remembered ever walk upon in with anyone. Weather might much friendlier than the rainy weather in my town, but I would stare from the window and wondering what time it is now back at home.

That only different when I go with people who really close to me, people who I feel comfortable with.

When I think about it, I feel like at those time, I feel like turtle who carrying its home on its back.  I don’t feel lost or alienated.  Suddenly is the place look much more inviting, offering new interesting sight to see. I would walk tirelessly, checking on every corner and taking as much as mental picture as I could. I’ll still be happy with any delay flight, ensuring people around me that everything is God plan for our best.

So I finally got to conclusion that it is the best for me to admit that I don’t really like to travel all by my self, I love my very small house in a quite small town. I don’t care if my college  would consider me as old fashion, or even coward (but I must make it clear that I don’t afraid to travel, it just that I don’t really enjoy it). I prefer to work here at home than anywhere in the world.  Unless of course if it a travel I have to make is a travel with the company of people from my comfort zone. Who’s of course would delete most of my co- worker.

(Bali, July 09 )

me and God

Do you believe on the existence of God? Mungkin sama dengan temen-temen lain di negeri kita yang berketuhanan yang Maha Esa, pertanyaan yang satu ini gak pernah mengusik gua. Bahwa Allah itu itu ada adalah peryataan yang kita take for granted. Never had I questioned His exixtence.

Tapi how do I believe in God and how we is our relation with the owner of this Greatest Power buat gua selalu berevolusi dari waktu ke waktu.

Image awal tentang Tuhan seingat gua sih waktu umur lima tahun atau kurang. Waktu itu gua tanya Mom : ”Bu hujan itu airnya dari mana sih?”

“ dari Allah” jawab my Mom singkat. Sejak saat itu setiap hujan gua akan melihat ke jendela dan membayangkan tangan raksasa numpahin air di langit dengan mug kaleng putih super besar bermotif bunga-bunga kaya punya bapak.

Saat tumbuh gede ( apanya nya nih.. ¿%&*@$% ya elah!) en gua mulai terpesona oleh buku-buku science fiction kaya ‘sphere, matrix and bahkan film ‘the bird’ dimana tokohnya bapak-bapak berkulit hitam dengan suara super bass, bayangan gua tentang Tuhan adalah seperti entitas yang punya kantor yang dilengkapin mesin-mesin mirip komputer super canggih, big n flat sreen everywhere, en malaikat-malaikat yang mondar-mandir ato sibuk di depan mesin masukin data-data kebaikan en keburukan every single makhluknya. Setiap sholat gua ngebayangin ngedial untuk long distance call di private line n mulai deh curhat dalam hati.

Suatu haru gua mengamati semut yang sibuk mondari-mandir berusaha menggotong remah-remah kue yang kebetulan rontok dari tangan. Tiba-tiba gua gak tahan ketawa geli. Gimana engga? Here we are, mati-matian kerja en berusaha supaya bisa lulus ulangan, bisa punya rumah, bisa punya mobil, sampe keringat en airmata tumpah (makanya bawanya ati-ati biar ga tumpah). Kita berdoa sepenuh hati, menuntut, setengah memaksa agar Allah membantu mewujudkannya, seakan-akan Allah ga ada urusan yang lebih penting dari sekedar remeh-remeh yang berusaha kita gotong. Ih…ga penting banget deh. Begitu mungkin menurut Allah.

Tetapi kemudian hati gua mulai bertanya-tanya lagi, gua ga peduli seandainya ada perang di belahan bumi yang lain, ada kelaparan, bencana alam super besar yang sebenernya disebabin ma kita juga. Mungkin tepatnya bukan tidak peduli, Cuma kadang emang nothing we can do juga sih. Tetep aja, keinginan-keinginan gua itu penting banget , super urgent. Ga peduli seremeh temeh apa, gua pengen Allah dengerin doa gua, ngabulin permohonan gua, me, moi, ich, ana, watashi…..! Gua, makhluk yang paling lovable, unique, among other billions.

Alhamdulliah, berdasarkan pengalaman, ternyata toh Allah mendengar doa-doa gua selama ini, bahkan doa-doa yang sudah lama dilupain, ternyata Allah ngga lupa, Allah tahu, tapi Dia menunggu. Misalnya aja dulu, masa gua masih jadi upik abu, gua pernah berdoa, kurang lebih begini:” Ya Allah, aku ihklas mengerjakan pekerjaan rumah demi keluarga, tetapi Ya allah, jagalah tangan dan jari-jari hamba agar tetap indah, halus dan tidak seperti tangan kuli ( aih lebay banget doanya..) dan hingga saat ini, hampir dua puluh tahun kemudian, tangan gua selalu menjadi part of the body i like most. Ada juga dulu, disaat gua narzis-narzisnya, gua pernah menghayal jadi penyiar radio yang cool n asik. Ternyata belasan tahun kemudian gua dapet kesempatan walau cuma seumur jagung karena harus realistis suara gua di mike ternyata mirip gagak mo kawin. Karena gua masih punya hati nurani dan gak sama sadisnya kaya idi amin, akhirnya gua dengan kerelaan hati mengundurkan diri ( out of the fact ternyata ngobrol ama tongkat, not mention black one, hii… jorok ( weh situ aja yang ngeres) di ruangan sempit n tertutup sama sekali gak cool n fun). En masih banyak lagi nikmat-nikmat Allah yang kalo dibikin list pake kertas fax juga ga bakal cukup.

Above all:

I Love you Allah , thanks for everything

Catatan: Ada yang pernah bilang bahwa kita tidak boleh membayangkan Tuhan sesuai prasangka kita, mungkin apa yang selama ini pikirkan itu salah, masalahnya adalah kaya orang Jerman bilang: ”die Gedangken sind frei”, kadang kita gak bisa ngendaliin pikiran kita. Pikiran-pikiran itu pop up begitu aja, kaya iklan spam di internet.Tapi gua juga sadar diluar semua prasangka gua tentang Allah, gua yakin, pada kenyataannya allah jauh, jauh lebih besar, lebih hebat, lebih, lebih dari segala yang bisa gua pikirin tentang Dia.

“ Maha suci Tuhan-mu, Tuhan yang Maha Perkasa dari sifat yang mereka katakana.” (180: Ash-Shaffat : 37)

DIKLAT SAMEOLEC-Training/Workshop on Web-based Course Developmen

Euis Siskaningrum

Saturday 17 May 2008

Akhirnya selesai juga,Tapi sayang file producer yang saya buat ga bisa tampil, bentuk filenya ketika di upload adalah tanda tanya, mungkin ada langkah-langkah yang salah ???????? Ada yang bisa bantu ?

karena ketrbatasan waktu dan ketrmpilan ( terutama emang karena keterbatasan ketrampilan hihihi) memang latihan yang dibuat hanya sedikit

rencana materi 3 minggu ke depan:

MEmperbaiki unit 1 (Herzlich Willkommen) beserta latihannya

Melanjutkan ke :

Unit 2 (An er Rezeption)

Unit 3 (Rund um Firma)

Unit 4 (Am Telepphone)

Beserta latihannya,

Mohon bantuan Tim Seamolec dan teman teman lain

Terima kasih……

Thursday 15 May 2008

HOREE akhirnya berhasil juga, jadi satu juga satu latihan, walau mit Acht und Aracht.

Tapi sayang tampilan powerpointnya belum ada audio seperti yang saya rencanakan, karena file audionya dalam bentum AMR dan ga ada program pendukunngnya buat konversi. sebenarnya hanya audio sederhana saja, tapi mike buat ngerekamnya juga ga jalan, sayang …. sekali… hiks hiks )

Actually I’ve followed such course in Goethe Thailand, but still it is as difficult as the first time. to be honest penyampaian materinya bagusan di semeolec ini, mungkin juga karena penyampaiannya bahasa Indonesia, hehehe. Tapi memang harus didukung oleh server untuk bisa prakteknya. mudah-mudahan kali ini p4tk benar-benar bikin servernya.

Wednesday 14 May 2008

So little time so much to do, ngumpulin materi, berusaha memahami pembuatan media, mba Anti cepet banget lagi ngajarnnya, keteteran deh. yang penting program mapping hampir selesai, kumpulan soal dah ada, walau belum sempurna yang penting ada sample saja ….:)

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Day one, the vision of training a lot of number of teachers and in really flexible way as have been discessed today is really interesting. I really unpatient to wait for practising it. but overview of ICT and ODL Standards and other relevant things before start, as the trainer giving today is also important.

BAHASA ASING DI SMK, MENGAPA TIDAK?

“ Menguasai lebih dari satu bahasa asing” kalimat ini semakin sering kita jumpai dalam syarat lowongan kerja dewasa ini. Tentu saja hal ini adalah hal yang lumrah mengingat dengan era globalisasi dalam dunia kerja kita seringkali harus menjalin kerja sama dengan berbagai pihak dari berbagai negara. Tentu kerjasama tersebut akan lebih lancar seandainya kita menguasai bahasa klien kita.

Study tentang bahasa asing

Tentu untuk berhasil di dunia kerja bukan satu-satunya alasan mengapa kita sebaiknya belajar bahasa asing. Penelitian membuktikan bahwa belajar bahasa asing dapat melatih otak kita dan mengurangi resiko cepat pikun di hari tua. Anak-anak yang belajar bahasa asing cenderung memiliki perkembangan kognitif, kreativitas dan pemikiran yang luas yang lebih baik dibanding anak-anak yang monolingual. ( Bruck, Lambert dan Tucker, 1974; Hakuta, 1986; Weatherford, 1986)

Secara akademis studi juga menunjukkan bahwa belajar bahasa asing meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam memahami bacaan, menulis dan matematik. Study yang dilakukan pada tahun 1994 di sekolah umum kota Kansas menunjukkan bahwa siswa yang mempelajari bahasa asing meningkat kemampuan akademisnya secara signfikan (Eaton, 1994). Selain itu otak manusia ternyata mampu menguasai sampai tujuh bahasa secara aktif. Jadi sudah berapa persen kapasitas otak kita gunakan?

Bahasa Asing di SMK

Sejak diberlakukannya kurikulum baru di SMK , dimana jam bahasa asing ditambah menjadi 330 jam, banyak SMK yang mulai memberikan pelajaran bahasa asing. Hal ini tentu hal yang menggembirakan mengingat penguasaan bahasa asing bagi siswa SMK adalah hal yang cukup penting. Dengan mengenal bahasa asing, kepercayaan diri siswa untuk bersaing di dunia kerja meningkat. Selain itu kesempatan siswa untuk mencoba mencari kerja di luar negeri juga bertambah. Hal ini bukan hal yang mustahil dilakukan di era internet saat ini.

Bahasa Jerman? Mengapa tidak?

Dengan bahasa Jerman yang tersebar di negara- negara berbahasa Jerman seperti Jerman, Austria, dan daerah-daerah yang berbatasan dengan eropa timur, bahasa Jerman merupakan bahasa dengan penutur terbanyak di Eropa, diikuti oleh bahasa Prancis, Italy baru kemudian Bahasa Inggris.

Indonesia juga sudah sejak lama menjalin kerjasama dengan Jerman, banyak perusahaan- perusahaan Jerman yang memiliki perwakilannya di negeri ini. Hal ini dimungkinkan terutama dengan adanya kamar dagang Jerman (Ekonit) yang ada di Jakarta. Selain itu Goethe Institute yang tersebar di Jakarta, Bandung dan Yogyakarta juga menyajikan kemudahan dalam belajar bahasa Jerman melalui fasilitas-fasilitas seperti kursus bahasa, perpustakaan dan lab bahasa yang dapat diakses oleh pengunjung, ditambah lagi dengan program-program budaya yang secara rutin diselenggarakan. Informasi mengenai program-programnya dapat dengan mudah kita akses di www.goethe .de

Bagi pelajar yang ingin melanjutkan kuliahnya ke luar negeri, menguasai bahasa Jerman tentu memperluas kemungkinan tersebut. Calon Mahasiswa dapat memilih negara Jerman yang terkenal dengan tekhnologinya, atau Austria dengan program studi di bidang ilmu sosialnya yang cukup terkenal atau Swiss yang menjadi tempat belajar di bidang perhotelan.

Keuntungan lainnya, Jerman masih merupakan salah satu negara dimana mahasiswa dapat kuliah dengan gratis. Selain itu banyak beasiswa yang ditawarkan seperti dari Goethe Institute, DAAD, dan yayasan-yayasan Jerman, Swiss atau Austria.

Program Au-Pair

Belajar bahasa asing akan lebih mudah bila kita belajar di negara asalnya. Tetapi tentu hal itu sulit bagi kita mengingat kurs rupiah yang tidak terlalu menguntungkan dibanding nilai mata uang dari negara-negara lain di Eropa. Apalagi bagi siswa atau mahasiswa yang belum berpenghasilan. “Dimana ada kemauan, disitu pasti ada jalan” peribahasa ini seringkali terbukti kebenarannya. Bagi mahasiswa sastra Jerman baik dari UI, UNJ, UPI atau universitas-universitas lain, program au-pair ini bukan lah hal yang asing. Program ini menawarkan kemungkinan untuk tinggal di Jerman dalam sebuah keluarga selama 6 bulan hingga 1 tahun untuk peserta yang berusia 18 hingga 25 tahun. Selama peserta mengikuti program ini peserta diharuskan mengikuti kursus bahasa Jerman yang dibiayai oleh keluarga yang kita tinggali dan berhak atas uang saku, uang transport bis/kereta dan asuransi kesehatan. Sebagai gantinya peserta diminta untuk membantu menjaga anak atau pekerjaan rumah yang ringan lainnya. Akan tetapi hal itu tidak menjadikan peserta au-pair harus perempuan, banyak juga laki-laki yang telah mengikuti program ini.

Tiktik Wartika, Alumnus UPI yang sekarang menjadi pengajar bahasa Jerman di SMK mengatakan dengan mengikuti program au-pair banyak hal didapatnya, antara lain mengasah kemampuan bahasa Jerman, melatih kemandirian dan menambah wawasan. Banyak suka duka yang dialaminya selama dua tahun di Jerman. Tetapi pengalaman tersebut sangat berguna saat ia harus mengajar di kelas.

Di Jerman ada sekitar 30.000 Au-Pair setiap tahun dari berbagai negara, oleh karena itu ada banyak undang-undang dan peraturan yang harus diperhatikan. Program au-pair banyak diikuti oleh mahasiswa di sekitar eropa sendiri. Hanya sedikit negara yang menerima pendaftar dari luar Eropa, dan Jerman adalah salah satunya.

Sayangnya program au-pair ini tidak begitu dikenal di kalangan siswa SMK. Padahal mungkin lulusan SMK yang belum siap untuk melanjutkan kuliah atau terjun ke dunia kerja dapat memanfaatkan program ini untuk menambah wawasan dan memperdalam kemampuan bahasa Jermannya. Mengapa tidak?

Salah satu website yang dapat dikunjungi untuk informasi mengenai au-pair adalah www.aupairs.de

(Wijayakusuma Vol3 No6 2006)

Hallo,

Herzlich willkommen in mein Blog, ich wuensche Ihnen viel Spass!