Selamat tinggal sepatu butut..

Hari ini, tanpa direncanakan, aku membeli sepatu sport baru di Deichmann.. cihuyy!!
Sudah lama sebenarnya aku harus menanggalkan sepatu butut yang selama ini sudah menjadi teman perjalananku sehari2. Tapi karena aku terlalu sayang dengan sepatu ini, makanya tetap kupakai. Selain karena modelnya yang sederhana, sepatu ini juga sangat nyaman dipakai. Mau nginjek apa aja, kepentok apa aja, kalo pake sepatu ini kayaknya gak akan terlalu berasa deh.

Tapi hari ini, mau tak mau aku harus rela melepasnya. Penggantinya sudah datang..
Sepulang dari Deichmann, kupandangi sepatuku ini lama2 dan baru kusadari kalau ternyata dia memang sudah sangat jelek, bau, dan sangat butut. Sebagai penghargaan terakhir atas jasanya selama 1.5 tahun ini, kufoto dia. Kemudian akhirnya kumasukkan dia ke dalam tempat sampah.

Selamat tinggal sepatu bututku.. Goodbye.. Au revoir.. Tschüß..

Konsep Diri

Oke, kayaknya ini bahasan yang sudah basi deh ya. Tapi biar saja, wong saya lagi pengen nulis ini kok, hehehe...

Tadi pagi saya ujian presentasi di kelas Hypermedia. Buat anak2 Digital Media, yang namanya presentasi itu seharusnya sudah jadi makanan empuk, saking seringnya (harus) berpresentasi di depan kelas :). Kalo diitung2 mungkin ada 5 kali dalam tiap semester.
Sayangnya, saya ini punya konsep diri yang kurang baik (baca: sangat tidak PD-an). Belum juga apa2, sudah panik duluan, takut kaki gemeteran, kuatir kalo ntar ada pertanyaan yang gak bisa dijawab gimana ya, trus ditambah lagi dengan perut mules yang bikin tampangku jadi makin tidak karuan... Kasian banget deh saya ini, huhuhu...

Suamiku adalah orang yang paling sering ngomongin konsep diri. Akibatnya, aku jadi ikutan sering mikirin ini, tapi belum bisa nerapin semuanya.
Konsep diri itu seperti cara pandang atau cara menilai diri sendiri. Orang yang punya konsep diri negatif akan cenderung bersikap pesimis, mudah menyerah, gampang kuatir, mudah dipengaruhi karena tidak punya pendirian, dsb. Akibatnya dia akan tampak seperti orang yang kurang PD dan seringkali mengkritik dirinya sendiri.
Sebaliknya, orang yang punya konsep diri positif akan terlihat lebih optimis dan sangat PD.
Idealnya sih tentu saja menjadi orang dengan konsep diri positif. Tapi menurut saya, kalo terlalu PD juga bisa kebablasan jadi terkesan sombong ya... Yaa pokoknya diatur2 sajalah supaya tepat pada porsinya.

Konsep diri sangat dipengaruhi oleh pembentukan karakter sejak kecil, di dalam keluarga dan di sekolah. Selain itu, 'dengan siapa kita berteman' juga sangat mempengaruhi konsep diri kita.
Saya pernah punya teman yang selalu melakukan sesuatu yang sebenarnya tidak ingin dia lakukan, dan dia pergi ke sana dan ke sini hanya untuk mendapatkan satu penghargaan dari orang2 tertentu di sekitarnya (ini menurut pengakuan dia sendiri). Dalam mata saya, dia sebenarnya orang yang hebat, dia punya segalanya: pinter, cantik, dan berduit. Tapi yang membuat saya heran kenapa konsep dirinya masih bisa dipengaruhi oleh 'apa kata orang nantinya'. Satu hal yang pasti, dia berteman dengan beberapa orang dari satu kelompok tertentu dan teman saya ini ingin sekali diterima di kelompok itu. Akibatnya hidup teman saya ini jadi seperti bergantung sekali pada komentar dari orang2 di kelompok itu. Sayang sekali...

Satu contoh lain. Sewaktu masih kerja di Surabaya, saya punya teman dekat yang akhirnya jadi seperti mbakku sendiri: Mbak Dina. Orangnya pinter dan pengalaman kerjanya oke banget, tapi dia tetap rendah hati. Yang membuat saya kagum adalah konsep dirinya yang kuat sekali. Saya seringkali terpana ngeliat bagaimana dia bisa tetap tegar dan tidak terpengaruh dengan sekelilingnya. Entah orang mau bilang apa, dia tetap jalan. Tentunya ini menyangkut hal2 yang baik dan benar.

Ingat pesan dari orang tua kita: Kebiasaan yang baik, jangan sampai jadi rusak hanya karena pergaulan yang tidak tepat.

..to be continued..

Boring

Just back from AVM class.. and sad to say that I felt so bored in the class..
The worse fact is that I have to face and be ready for another shooting (again) tomorrow. Ohh no!

Song for today: Great is the Lord

This is the song that we sang today at the IBC Bremen service...
-----

Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise
The city of our God, the holy place
The joy of the whole earth

Great is the Lord in whom we have the victory
He aids us against the enemy
We bow down on our knees

And Lord we want to lift Your Name on high
And Lord we want to thank you
for the works You've done in our lives.

And Lord we trust in Your unfailing love
For you alone are God eternal
Throughout earth and heaven above

©1985 Maranatha! Music
Words and Music by Steve McEwan

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

This is one of my fave reading. I have read both Indonesian and English versions. So touched and impressed me.
Before read this book, I used to think that Geisha is only such a 'hostess' (couldn't find any more suitable word for this, sorry!). But then I knew that I was completely wrong.

Arthur Golden has been tremendously telling us about the hard life of a Geisha. A Geisha has to learn so hard in order to be capable in singing, playing Japan traditional music, doing a beautiful traditional dancing, etc. Besides, a Geisha is expected to be smart in entertaining her guest.

Ok, this is a short overview of the book I copied from Yahoo! Movies.

In the years before World War II, a Japanese child is torn from her penniless family to work as a geisha house. Despite a treacherous rival who nearly breaks her spirit, the girl blossoms into the legendary geisha Sayuri. Beautiful and accomplished, Sayuri captivates the most powerful men of her day, but is haunted by her secret love for the one man beyond her reach.

I'm happy that Columbia Pictures in collaboration with DreamWorks SKG decided to produce the movie of this book. And they did a great casting since Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh are on the artists list. Perfect! No wonder if the movie has been on the box office list in some last weekends in the USA.

Happy New Year!

Time goes by so fast. Year 2005 is about to go some hours left and here I am, celebrating my 2nd New Year in Germany with my best friend, my lover, my husband: Felix.
Let me spend some times of the last day in this year by sitting in front of my computer, trying to count some tremendous events happened during year 2005. Some points I would like to highlight now...

Starting from the sad occurences. Some good friends who have been such a bro and sis for us, had to leave Germany for good. Novi had to go back to Indonesia, Lala had to move to USA (but currently she is spending holidays in Jakarta -- good to know that!), and Viona moved to Hirrlingen (another corner in South Germany). It wasn't easy at all for us since we used to spend most of our times with them. Met up and visited each other, chatted on the phone... They were really friends we could trust on, friends who would always be around us in good and bad times. I will always keep the memories deeply in my heart.
Lucky that we still have Hellen, Marlen, and Lars here in Bremen.

Another sad thing came in the middle of the year. I heard that a newborn baby boy of my cousin in Makassar, died some hours after born. Hard to believe it, mais c'est la vie... Couldn't do anything at that moment :(.

Well now, let's jump to the pleasant things. Start with our moving to a new renovated apartment in the beginning of May (I know there is no way to express my thankful to Jimmy, Lala, Widha, and Syakir for their help and support on that hard day!). The location is a bit hectic because it's in the center area of the city. But still, some friends said that the flat itself is quite nice and modern though. I personally would say that it's much better than the one we had before :).

The next fabulous thing highlighted this year was a new job I got from my Professor. I'm so blessed by offered this job as sometimes I think that I don't qualify for the post. Doing some literature researches to assist my Professor in writing her cookbook. Meanwhile, it has been unconciously enriching my own knowledges. The good thing of this job is I could do it from home... Yeah!!
Then a great thing happened to my husband. He got two jobs at the same time! Thanks God! One is a work in Fallturm Uni-Bremen (a space research center) -- in my eyes, he deserves for that position. And another one is a work in Bombay Restaurant near by our apartment.

Last but not the least that really higlighted year 2005 was some trips to other places: Amsterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Köln, and ended by celebrating Christmas in Paris. On the trip to Amsterdam, we met new friends from India: Namrata and Nirdesh, and still keep in touch with them till right now. In Berlin, we had wonderful times with my husband's DAAD friends and we were so lucky because of the whole journey and accomodation were funded by DAAD. In Paris, we were glad to see again our friend from long time, Gregory. He came with his mother, Nelly -- it was the first time we met Nelly face to face :).

There all you have sum-up of year 2005 from me.
Now, let us pray for the coming new year, that there will be no bomb anymore in Indonesia (some people will doubt this), and put our hopes in all the way just in Him.
For ourselves, we hope that we could finish our thesis by end of July 2006 and could experience to have a baby wherever and whenever in 2006.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Many greetings from the snowy Bremen.

Merry Christmas!

After a week wonderful holiday, I'm glad to be home again and get contact back with my computer...

Just wanna say Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it...
Whatever you did to celebrate this wonderful time of year, and whether you headed for the beach, to the slopes, or visited some friends and family, or just stayed at home, I hope you really had a joyous time.



I celebrated the Christmas eve at the Cathédrale Notre Dame, along with my husband, Gregory and mommy Nelly... That was a great moment!
Again, Merry Christmas!