Sunday, May 22, 2011

Nathalie!

I am crazy about this Nathalie comics. She is so smart, wants to travel around the world and have all the crazy ideas of collecting money for the trips. Has a younger brother, who looks so much older than a baby look because he is so stressed of having Nathalie around.

When my friends came over, i told them they have to read the comics, and few seconds later, i could only hear them giggling and laughing. They love it too!
One of the Nathalie series.

Poor Junior...

Monday, May 16, 2011

South Korea Itenarary - Simple one

First of all, you have to purchase a transportation card after you get in the airport, cus you will need it to go around South korea. It's in a machine, the card costs 3000 won, and you can buy 5000won transportation money, and top it up when needed in K-mart, 7 eleven shops.
besides, take the maps (subway and tourist map, for tourist map, take both languages, korean and english, korean to ask around since not all people speak or read english - the senior citizen - just incase)

Stay in CS is the most beneficial, but if no one is available, hostel is ok, or Jimjilbang (a sauna place - look it up in the net for detail)

I went around seoul, to palaces (recommended). you can take a city tour bus (10.000 won/day). with the tour you can go to 26 tourist sites. But i didnt cus my friend took me around the city.

While in seoul, beside the palaces, Myeongdong, Namdemun, Insadong are markets you have to go for souvenirs and clothes)
Namsan Tower is nice both during the day or night time.

I went to jeju the 3rd day. By plane is the easiest and effective way. Stay in the southern (Seogwipo) or eastern part, most tourism places are there. I stayed in the north-east, wrong choice. almost nothing there.
jeju is famous of the nature and hiking (Mt Halasan) I didnt hike though, too little time.

Then i went to Busan, by plane. check jinair.com or jejuair.com

Busan, seafood!!! Jagalchi market, you can buy fresh fish or other sea creature and cook then eat there. cable car is also good.

from Busan i went back to Seoul, planned to go to Gyeongju or Gwangju, but too tired. you can go there by free shuttle bus. check http://english.visitkoreayear.com/english/benefit/benefit_07_01_01.asp

That's all i can think of for now. if you have questions, please ask  me. Glad if i can help.

Just dont forget to take the map from any city you visit, get confused go to the tourist information ( doesnt always help, but worth to try). If you get lost, look at the map and look confused, people will approach you and help. Or don't hesitate to ask, they will help, just be ready to use body language.

have a nice trip!

Anyway, They Are My Students (part 1)

Last week we had class photo sessions. I forgot. So, without touching up, i took my students to the "studio". My students are very chatty, anytime they have a chance, they will make noises. That day was very hot and shinny. It was a good day, though. But i had to put on my school jacket.

The photographer (he) was from our sister campus, Karawaci. I wonder why my school didn't ask Pak Andre or someone else who are very good at the photo taking business. He was kinda annoyed with my students who were very noisy, and maybe he was tired and busy so got distracted with such noise. Even i had to shout and raise my voice to compete with 15 other voices. He told my students to be quiet few times. I warned the kids and took out my "weapon", "Guys, if you are not quiet, or making unnecessary noise, you will flip your card back in the class." They were quiet. Yes!

It took them only few minutes, and they started talking again, but this time was more quiet. I had to call out their names one by one for their picture to be taken, and they started to be louder. I got angrier and i started to raise my voice again. Even called certain names. "You guys are going to flip your cards in the classroom later!" With my eyes wide opened. The situation made me kinda about to pull out my hair. It's hot, I was sweating, my kids were noisy, and the photographer kept asking them to be quiet, so then i had to raise my voice again.

 Me:                      "Anyone wants to flip their cards again? Then be quiet and listen, LISTEN, Ok, Nathan, listen when i  called your name." ~ in one single breathe.
Sharon, raising her hand.
Me:                        "Yes, Sharon?"
Sharon:                  "Ibu Putri, you look pretty today."
Me, a bit blushing:  "Thank you, Sharon. You also look pretty."  :">
Me:                       "Ok, who still make that noise better be quiet NOW!!!"

Well, even though Sharon said that beautiful line in the middle of that mess, she had made my day :">.
That's my students, made me pulling out my hair, but at the end of the day, always made me laugh.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Having Fun a la ME: S H O P P I N G

I went to the post office to send a packet for a friend after school. Then when got off the school bus, my friend Detty offered herself to accompany me. Who could say no for a company :-). So then we went together.

The post office lady was very kind and offered me to send in express or regular, well, i chose the cheaper one because i only have 150.000 rupiah. I remembered the last time i sent packet abroad, it cost me 400 something thousands rupiah. So, the regular was the one that i could afford.
.... And off you go, packet, to South Korea. Farewell, hope you can arrived safe and sound...

The plan after post office was having dinner. but then Detty mentioned about buying shampoo. So, i accompanied her to SurKen (Surya Kencana street, china town in Bogor), and i confidently said that i knew the shop. Off we went to Grand, quite old swalayan. We took angkot 02 from in front of post office in Jl. Juanda and got off right in front of the shop.

So, the plan is to buy shampoo and conditioner. We went inside, and were in awe of the products it sells. Grand is smaller compared to Giant, but you can find almost everything there (one thing i couldn't find was a 5'8", tan and functioned). So, back to us, we were in food aisle, and i touched almost everything and stared at every package displayed. I was going to buy marsmellow because if its cute shape, watermelon! Then we went along the aisle, around and around, and found more interesting stuff. We didn't take any shopping basket since we wanted to buy shampoo ONLY.
I just couldn't help it! I grabbed pitted prunes, it's hard to find it, you see.. Then, the fun had just begun!
I didn't realise how excited i was till Detty told me that i kept saying "OOH..Oooh!!" with buldging eyes and mouth-circled shape. But we both were so bad. Detty kept touching everything in green color, even a small plastic chair, plastic container, etc, etc.. When we were done with first floor, we finally took a basket each and went upstair.

Detty: There are two ways, which one will we go to?
Putri : Here on the right, FIRST. Then we will go there (pointing the other stair)
Detty : OK!
So, we went exploring the second floor and was amazed of what we found there. From mugs to waching machines, from floor brush to cooking pan, from barbeque box to 'cobek' (a stone mortar used with a stone pestle).
cobek


So, after satisfied going around the 2nd floor, the 3rd is our last destination. They have even more amazing stuff there. Plastic from all sizes, loyang (brass) and imitated flowers, and stationaries. In the end we stuffed our basket with: candle nut oil, 24 pencils, 16 erasers, cutters, panceke pan, 2 packages of pitted prunes, measuring spoons, candles, 2 kinds of floor brushes, raisins, hair mask, shampoo+conditioner, cheese, bread and floor cleaner. At first we were going to buy shampoo and conditioner ONLY.

Then we went for dinner in a chinese restaurant and played with the son of the owner who were bubbling to us.

And we decided to walk home since it's quite close to our house. So, we had these: floor brush with long handle + all that shopping bags + creative idea + guts =

THIS!



We carried our shopping bags home in style :D. "Ringan sama dijinjing, berat sama dipikul" - Indonesian proverb which detty said represent out style. I also bought banana on the way back, which we put on the "shopping handle", and somehow some of the bananas fell down and got stepped by me.
Anyway,we had a good laugh, even until my stomach was so hard and couldn't walk.

Shopping is always fun, anywhere you do it, with the right shopping partner ;-).



Saturday, May 7, 2011

Receiving International Package, the Journey.

Hari Sabtu ini rencana untuk bangun sesiang-siangnya gagal. Ingat ada sesuatu yang harus dilakukan, mengambil paket yang dikirim Karen dari Korea Selatan.

Paket ini sebenarnya tiba sejak hari Senin lalu, tapi karena lokasi kantor posnya yang lumayan jauh dari kos maupun tempat kerja, baru bisa diambil Sabtu (untung buka!). dan lagi, paket ini tak bisa dikirim sampai rumah (padahal sudah bayar, kan?!)

naiklah aku bus Pusaka ke arah Parung. Sampai belokkan ke arah cimanggu, mulailah bus berjalan senti per senti. Macet lagi.. apa si Komo sedang lewat? Bukan, ternyata ada perbaikkan jalan (lagi?!).

Sebelahku seorang perempuan yang sama-sama naik dari depan terminal Bogor. Pertanyaan yang dia tanyakan:
1. Apa aku orang seberang?
       hmmm... aku dari Jawa Tengah.
   Iya, berarti orang seberang.
       (hmm... ok. orang seberang maksudnya adalah dari luar kota.)
2. Apa aku sudah kerja? Kerja dimana?
        Sentul.
    jadi apa?
        Guru
    kelas berapa?
        2
    kalau guru lulusan S1, ya?
        iya
3. Untuk apa ke kantor pos?
        Ambil kiriman
    Dari rumah, ya?
        hmmm.. iya (aku ga bohong loh, kan dari rumah Karen)
Sebenarnya ada banyak lagi yang lain, tapi lupa. yang paling aku ingat adalah...
4. Sudah nikah belum?
        belum (~_~").

wanita ini inquirer banget, yah.. Coba murid-muridku se-inquirer dia pas pelajaran.
Kenapa pertanyaan seperti ini muncul di bus dari orang yang tak kukenal?
Well, anyway, dia baik kasih tahu kalau kantor posnya sudah lumayan dekat.

kemudian, ada bus di depan kami yang berhenti dan oper penumpang. Ada ibu-ibu dengan bayi dan anak kecil masuk, jadi aku kasih tempat dudukku buat dia, toh, si teteh ini bilang kalau kantor posnya sudah lumayan dekat. Ternyata susah juga berdiri di bus macam ini dengan tas ransel. Sempit.
ga pa pa lah, kan kasihan si ibu dengan bayinya (di pelajaran PPKn kan kita harus kasih tempat duduk buat yg lebih membutuhkan).
Waktu si ibu ini kemudian turun, ternyata aku belum sampai di tujuan, tapi tiba-tiba ada teteh yang serobot tempat dudukku itu. Yaahh... berdiri lagi deh.. bahkan sampai si teteh ini turun, aku belum sampai. mana sih ini kantor pos? Kata si teteh yg duduk di sebelahku itu, karena macet jadi lama. Ok.

Beberapa menit kemudian (setelah menempuh perjalanan selama kurang lebih 1.30 menit dengan bus) aku sampai juga sih, say goodbye and thank you ke teteh, aku turun dan nyebrang.
kantor Pos ini lebih kecil dari yang di Jl. Juanda. Trus aku ketemu sama Mbak Lina yg sms-an sama aku sejak senin gara-gara paket ini. Dia baik. Prosesnya tak berbelit-belit, dan cepat! Aku harus bayar 230 ribu untuk pajak barang karena diatas $50.
Demi hp tersayang, aku keluarin deh duit yang seharusnya buat makan. Puasa lagi minggu depan.

Pulang lebih gampang dan cepat soalnya jalan yang diperbaiki hanya di jalan arus berangkat. Turun di Botani dan fitness deh. Dan yang penting HP sudah ditangan.

Ooops, aku lupa, seharusnya aku bawa juga barang yang aku mau kirim ke Karen ke kantor pos sekalian diposin. harus balik lagi ke kantor pos nih.... Dasar pikun!!!!

Jeju Island

Monday, 18 April 2011

Another trip, the time to go to The famous island of Jeju.

I went there, with Tisa, by plane : D, booked by our hosts. It costs us KRW 145.000 for two with Jin Air. We departed from Gimpo Int'l Airport, the same subway line as Incheon airport from Seoul. There are many flights to Jeju, so don't worry.

One thing i like about this Jin Air is the employees uniform. So cool! They wear jeans and T-shirt. Yes, JEANS and T-SHIRT! There was a male flight attended who looked like one of the korean start in Memory In Bali, i don't know the name, but he looked like him. And i was planning to take picture with him, but the line when going out the aircraft was too crowded, with ajumas (ajuma - middle-aged Korean woman) behind you, you need to be fast!

Arrived at Jeju Int'l airport on time and got picked up by Khan, our host from Hani hostel. This hostel is nice, but the location is not like what i expected. yes, it's near a beach, Hyeopjae Beach, far from any other places, but near Hallim Park, a tropical park (KRW 8000). Hallim Park is a nice park, so many things you can see there, caves, flowers (cherry blossoms and rape flowers - this beautiful flower's name is rape).

The view of cherry blossoms and rape flowers in Flower Park, Hallim Park, Jeju Island.

Folk Village, Hallim Park.

Because we dont know where else to go around the hostel area, Tisa and I decided to have a bus trip to Jeju city. FYI, Jeju Island has two main cities, Jeju-si or Jeju city in the north and Seogwipo (sogipo) in the south. So, the bus trip to Jeju-si took around 1.30 mins (KRW 2000). We plan to go around the city and took photos. At about 5 pm we arrived there, and it's raining, worse, quite strong wind and very cold. I didn't bring enough jacket, and forgot my umbrella (This is just one of the examples of my annoying forgetful character, which i wish i can erase). Luckily, Tisa lent me her gloves. Thank you!!!

The weather forecast said that it's gonna be raining that day, but i kinda ignore it, i didnt think it's gonna be that bad. Actually the rain wasn't heavy, but the wind and the freezing air made it worse. So, we dicided to go back. Looking for the bus to Hyeopjae, we stopped by a shop and bought hot coffee to warm us up. It's around krw 800 - 1500. The shop assistant was so helpful, with body language we communicate since we both don't speak each other langauges. She then wrote down the name and something else, in korean. Well, she's very nice.

We then took a bus to the local bus terminal and took another bus back to our Hostel. Arrived at the hostel area, it's 6.30 pm, very cold, dark and windy, we looked for Soju (korean traditional liquor) and noodles, for dinner. It was so quiet and dark. We kinda lost looking for the hostel, but finally made it. It was around 8 when we entered the hostel. Inside our room, it was so hot, especially the floor (heated floor, genius!!), so contrast with the outside weather.
ohh, we had a roommate, Maggie from US. We had dinner together at the dining room/kitchen, with the same menu, noodle. I made hot Milo too.. nice!!

So, that's was the forst day at Jeju.