The Graduate, The Graduation, and the Feast

Friday, April 8, 2016. 4pm.

I feel that my trip to Australia this time had a better reason and purpose than ever before. My youngest sister was graduating from the University of South Australia, on the 25th Anniversary of the university.



And the best barbecue feast I have ever seen in a restaurant.... yes, this is the outback style. Any meat you can imagine is here. Not for the vegetarian, of course.

On the Road to the USA ..... in Adelaide Australia.

April 5, 2016

The time was around 7:30 am when the JetStar jet touched down in Adelaide, Australia. I had already imagined my sister's smiley face waiting for me at the arrival door. Australian immigration was awesome. The officer was friendly. I dashed to the baggage claim and as soon as I gathered my belonging I began looking around for that smiley face in the crowd. I couldn't see her. I guess I have to get closer to the crowd since she is so petite. To my surprise, she wasn't even in the crowd at all. I began guessing around..... is she playing tricks on me? Five minutes ...ten minutes gone by, I began to worry. But my common sense told me that I would hang out at the nearest coffee shop if she doesn't show up after 15 minutes. After I ordered my coffee, I began looking for the internet connection. But my phone wasn't charged, and I forgot to place my international adapters in my purse. I was too lazy to open my suitcase for the adapter that I needed. Instead, I started talking to a gentleman sitting next to me and told him about my mysterious sister. He handed me his phone to call my sister and I did. As soon as she answered the call, there I saw her smiley face. She was walking around looking for me with the phone on her ear. It's always good to see Ita, .....at least on the first day...(I hope she doesn't read this).

She gave me a quick tour of Adelaide before we drove to her house. While touring, she tested my memories to see if I still remember this and that ..... It had been a few years since my last visit to Adelaide.
"Would you like to go to the USA?", she asked.
"But I have just left USA", I replied.
"You have never even seen it", she insisted. Then she stopped on the curb side and pointed at the building in front of us.
"That's the University of South Australia, the school I have been attending for several years", she explained.
"Oh, is that where we are going for your graduation on Friday?"..... without listening to her answer, my heart was warming up filled with joy. I thought of my family back in Indonesia.... they would be very proud of her, especially my parents who have long been gone, and my sister Iliek who passed away recently.

Eva Airways vs JetStar

Sunday, April 3, 2016.

This was going to be a super long flight. I was departing from San Francisco on EVA Airways heading to Taipei to transfer to another plane to Denpasar, Bali. Eva Airways has not disappointed me, the service is always as good as Singapore Airlines. But I found one of my suitcases was damaged substantially, the seam was ripped off and the entire content can be easily accessible. Nothing was missing, just annoying that I had to submit a claim for my damaged suitcase. I signed the claim told them that we would deal with it on my return from Australia. I was lucky to have my friend Titut at Astrindo Tours and Travel in Bali who arranged all my flights and hotels. After dropping off most of my luggage at her place, on the same day of arrival she helped me getting back into the airport to catch a JetStar flight to Adelaide. I still enjoy the old fashion way of booking my trips. If she can't meet me at the airport, she would send someone waiting for me and taking care of my needs.... her service is incomparable! Having her as my travel agent gives me comfort. Especially since I travel alone a lot of times.

The JetStar price was awesome, but I probably won't fly JetStar again. As with any low cost carrier, you only get a seat. That's it. Nothing more. They have the most minuscule luggage allowance too. Again, I feel fortunate to have a friend and agent who was willing to keep my luggage for me for 2 weeks since I was planning to return to Bali. Departing from Bali wasn't so bad. But returning from Adelaide was not very good. They weighed every belonging you have in your hand, not to exceed the limit stated on your ticket. This is something I had never expected. I can't remember the overage that I had to pay, but I wasn't happy about it. It doesn't matter even if you weigh 100 lbs. (I know I weigh more than that, but I know I weigh half than some passengers do). I must have slept all the way during the 5 hour flight. My body needed it after 30 hours of sleep deprivation, from the time I woke up to get ready for departure in SFO to the departure from DPS.

The Wild Animals in Our Backyard, Northern California.

Summer 2014

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We are very lucky to live where we are. Only 5 minutes drive from one of the largest malls in California, the Galleria Mall, yet we are surrounded with golf courses and wild animals such as cayote, mountain lions, deer, turkeys, squirrels, and more ..... who love our backyard. I have not personally seen the cayotes and mountain lions but my neighbors have. For many years they thought our backyard was their home until I became a serious gardener. Since I cannot have the animals and vegetable garden in one place, we decided to put the iron fence up. We didn't fence up our property line, but rather, we divided our property, for us and for the wild animals. That way they can still come close and visit us without destroying our garden.

Coming Home to my Neglected Garden ......

September 2014

After traveling to the Indonesian islands and South Korea for a couple of months.... I am now home to attend my garden ... oops ! Everything is ripe and ready for harvest... one of the last harvests for the year.

A German Village in Washington State, USA

february 13, 2016


At the bavarian village of Leavenworth, Washington Christmas lights are kept on for several months.



A restaurant with an outdoor barbecue, a heatlamp on every table and the aroma of smokey german sausages drew a long line of people trying to get in.

After spending every winter in the tropical countries the past 7 years, we decided to go for the snow this time. So here we go, on valentine's weekend Mitch and I decided to pick Leavenworth, in the state of Washington. We flew 2 hours from Sacramento to Seattle then drove 2.5 hours east. Destination .... Warm Springs Inn and Winery, which is located about 7 minutes drive from the town of Leavenworth.


Enormous amount of snow along the roadside and the snow-capped mountains left and right ....

A couple shots that don't depict the beauty of the Warm Springs Inn where we stayed.

The breakfast area overlooking a river which runs through the property and the mountain view.


https://www.warmspringsinn.com/

Titus - The Son We Never Had - From UNIKA Atmajaya to Catholic University of Korea

September 18, 2014

It was in January 2013 when my husband and I interviewed Titus at Catholic University of Atmajaya, Yogyakarta. With the help of the Dean of Political and Social Sciences, we received 28 applicants one month prior, and selected 5 top students for interview. He was one of the 5 candidates to receive our sponsorship for a one-month of educational trip to the United States.

"Mommy and Son"

After meeeting everyone of them, we found it difficult to pick the recipient as each student had his/her strong points that was hard to compare. We took a week of thinking over the holiday in Bali and still couldn't make a decision. It was one of the toughest decisions we had ever had to make. My husband returned to the United States, and I decided to stay in Indonesia for a couple more weeks. I invited the 5 students to our home in Semarang for 3 days to get to know them. Only 4 students accepted my invitation. We spent the time together, mostly doing some brainstorming about education, life philosophy, campus life, social life outside the university, the part time jobs they had while attending school..... and lots of silly laughter. We also tried several restaurants, went to the mall for little treats, doing some cooking together, chatting all night long...... just like a family. It was magical!

Catholic University of Korea, where Titus attended for his Masters Degree.

To make the long story short, Titus didn't get selected, but our chemistry has transitioned to a "mother and son" relationship to this day. It was a joy to both my husband and I to have him in our life, though geographically we are distant, he is always present in our mind and heart. The coaching continues for this young man is relentlessly trying to get a scholarship for higher education abroad. The "go getter" Titus later received a scholarship from the Catholic University of Korea in Seoul. These photos are taken during my visit in September 2014.

Titus and his friends at the campus cafetaria.

August 2015. He graduated with Masters Degree in International Relations.

Dian - A Law Student at Catholic University of Soegiyopranoto - ( UNIKA ) Semarang - September 2014

Dian, our newest sponsored student, started her student orientation in September of 2014. After one month of coaching on how to start a new life as an adult student, Dian is ready to live away from her parents for the first time. I walked her through her first week outside campus life, in the morning before she went to school, and after school in the afternoon. During Dian's first two weeks of her studies at Catholic University of Soegiyopranoto Semarang (Rofi, Irwan, Dian, and I) tried to have breakfast together every morning, and dinner every evening. I encouraged our students to share thoughts, ideas, and offered support to one another.

Left to right: Rofi majors on computer programming at Udinus, Irwan majors on graphic design at Stekom, and Dian a law major at Unika Soegiyopranoto.

I had also challenged Dian, as I did with other students, to meet a new friend on campus per day for the first two weeks. This time I asked Dian to invite all her new friends over for lunch and that I would be doing all the cooking of the food for her friends. Not only would it give me the pleasure of seeing our "daughter" attending university, but also to see the evidence that Dian really met her goal of meeting 10 friends would be an awesome experience. Photo below are her new friends she met during the first 2 weeks of being on campus.

Celebrating Lebaran - The Muslim's Biggest Holiday and Feast of the Year - Indonesia, July 2014

Beginning with shopping at the traditional market at 5 am the day before, we bought hundreds of frond sacks. Some are for decoration and some are to be filled with dry rice to make rice cakes in frond sacks called ketupat. A frond sack is a sachet the size of a cup made from fresh palm fronds (coconut leaves).



If this is the first time you see ketupat, it may be a bit hard to tell which ones are already filled with rice cakes and which ones are empty sacks.







They would climb on the tree and remove the young shoots of fronds (leaves) and after first removing the frond bone in the middle of the leaf they prepare the leaf tapes for weaving. Using both hands and all fingers, ketupat makers began weaving the long tape-like leaf and make a sachet one at a time.



A skilled ketupat maker would take 1 minute or less to weave a complete sachet. In the old days, each was sold for a penny or less. Though the prices have changed (Thank God) since the 60's they have not changed in how many they sold in a bundle. The magic number.. 10 in a bundle!



The much time-consuming handcraft was never appreciated as much as it is today. They finally understand economics and know how to value their time. I am happy for the people in Java, and for myself for I can still find ketupats in the market. Unless you are a food vendor who sells cooked ketupat on daily basis, you would only find them in the market. If you are food vendor selling cooked ketupat, you would either make the frond sacks yourself or have them made and delivered to your place.