Gone
to Bali for important meeting, Mas Dalih sent Mbak Abmi to teach in his
creative writing class for the last two meetings. Being a guest before, last two
week she taught us by playing a movie “Bag It” – a movie I reviewed on my
previous blog. Then, last week she brought is a beautiful guest with long hair,
and pointed piercing nose. This guest
looked like a beautiful woman, yet I felt something unusual about her.
Surprised
I am when she came to the front of class and introduced herself kindly. I suddenly
I realized that she was a He. That was the first time for me to meet a
transgender in class, and I guest most of my friends were surprised too as they
started whispering.
Born
in Klaten, Mbak Sonya had been living in Jogja since she was in Vocational
School. She is a hardworker and extraordinary people as she has many activities
and jobs such as online shop seller, and PKBI – an Indonesian organization
concerning of marginal society.
Finding
his identity is not as easy as the imagination. Her mother still cannot accept
her being a transgender. She still has to convince her family about his
identity. When she was a child, she prefer played with girl since boys would
bully her. This led him to be girly. She began dressing as a girl, and being
like a girl. As she was in Junior High School, she used to hang out dressing
like a girl at the night. One day, her friends met her in girly dress, and they
laughed out loud and made this “accidental meeting” as a joke. She did not like
when people made a joke of her just because of his difference.
Coming to Yogyakarta, she found
her “new home” where she could be a transgender. She became volunteer in PKBI, helped
people, and joined some communities against HIV AIDS. This is a proof that
being a transgender doesn’t mean being alienated. It is a proof that
transgender also has great contribution to society and world. She is Beautiful
for her inspiring idea, and effort to the world.
Kim Yee Seul, an English Department student of UGM, started painting with acrylic at
four years old. She was inspired by Van Gogh. Most of her paintings are well
combination of fashion, style and nature. This is one of her painting.
Two
boys are playing video game. It is a little bit weird since they are playing on
green grass. However, that makes this painting excellent and has its own
character. The setting of “gardens” giving this painting atmospheres of calm,
relax, and free. Moreover, the jackets they worn giving a touch of sporty.
Holaaaaaa,,, I just
want to share my findings of some newspapers and magazine in Indonesia using
English language. It is a little bit difficult to find, so I only can find some
of them. Here are the lists:
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away, ere break of day, To seek our pale enchanted gold.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells, In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells.
For ancient king and elvish lord There many a gleaming golden hoard They shaped and wrought, and light they caught, To hide in gems on hilt of sword.
On silver necklaces they strung The flowering stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, on twisted wire They meshed the light of moon and sun.
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away, ere break of day, To claim our long-forgotten gold.
Goblets they carved there for themselves, And harps of gold, where no man delves There lay they long, and many a song Was sung unheard by men or elves.
The pines were roaring on the heights, The wind was moaning in the night, The fire was red, it flaming spread, The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale, And men looked up with faces pale. The dragon's ire, more fierce than fire, Laid low their towers and houses frail.
The mountain smoked beneath the moon. The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom. They fled the hall to dying fall Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.
Far over the Misty Mountains grim, To dungeons deep and caverns dim, We must away, ere break of day, To win our harps and gold from him!
The wind was on the withered heath, But in the forest stirred no leaf: There shadows lay be night or day, And dark things silent crept beneath.
The wind came down from mountains cold, And like a tide it roared and rolled. The branches groaned, the forest moaned, And leaves were laid upon the mould.
The wind went on from West to East; All movement in the forest ceased. But shrill and harsh across the marsh, Its whistling voices were released.
The grasses hissed, their tassels bent, The reeds were rattling—on it went. O'er shaken pool under heavens cool, Where racing clouds were torn and rent.
It passed the Lonely Mountain bare, And swept above the dragon's lair: There black and dark lay boulders stark, And flying smoke was in the air.
It left the world and took its flight Over the wide seas of the night. The moon set sale upon the gale, And stars were fanned to leaping light.
Under the Mountain dark and tall, The King has come unto his hall! His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread, And ever so his foes shall fall!
The sword is sharp, the spear is long, The arrow swift, the Gate is strong. The heart is bold that looks on gold; The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells.
On silver necklaces they strung The light of stars, on crowns they hung The dragon-fire, from twisted wire The melody of harps they wrung.
The mountain throne once more is freed! O! Wandering folk, the summons heed! Come haste! Come haste! Across the waste! The king of friend and kin has need.
Now call we over the mountains cold, 'Come back unto the caverns old!' Here at the gates the king awaits, His hands are rich with gems and gold.
The king has come unto his hall Under the Mountain dark and tall. The Worm of Dread is slain and dead, And ever so our foes shall fall!
Farewell we call to hearth and hall! Though wind may blow and rain may fall, We must away, ere break of day Far over the wood and mountain tall.
To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell In glades beneath the misty fell. Through moor and waste we ride in haste, And whither then we cannot tell.
With foes ahead, behind us dread, Beneath the sky shall be our bed, Until at last our toil be passed, Our journey done, our errand sped.
We must away! We must away! We ride before the break of day!
yeaaaah, that is a poem written by JRR Tolkien.. yeaaah i know what's in your mind, The Lord of the Ring, right? but yeah, you will not find this poem on LOTR, because this poem is on The Hobbit,, the beginning of LOTR. this poem is interesting,, misty just like the title, and this is a description of the world of Dwarfs... (*and suddenly remember the twins Kili and Fili).
in the movie which is released last year, this poem become its soundtrack... wooow! i like this song for some reasons i cant explain. i used to listen to it almost everyday... the song is a little bit simple, not as long as the poem.
And
how if someone is both of male and female? A really big question need to be
answer..
What
society know, what they accept, what they admit is there are only two type of
sex, gender i.e. male-female, man-woman……
Then
the reality is not as simply as it is.. some people are born to be a Man, yet
when they are growing up, they find their selves not comfortable to be a man,
because deep down in their heart they believe, they know that they should be a
woman. Their attitude, their feeling, their point of view are as the same as
woman, not a man. And when this happens, some of them are prefer to be a woman,
dress like a woman, behave like a woman, and just-be-a-woman.
So
here, I just want to write, try to retell a little bit a story I listened to in
my creative writing class. I would not retell all of the story because it will
be a really really long long long story. I will tell you first, her name is
Olivie Sonya Aresta. Sounds a nice name! just call her Mbak Sonya. It’s a
little bit difficult to tell where she comes from since she was born in Klaten,
lived in Klaten for few years, then moved to Cilacap, and then moved again to
Jogja, and there she is now.
Then,
I will bring you back to see her past stories, the story of her childhood..
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
Childhood???
when
she is asked, how her childhood was, she enthusiastically says “H-A-P-P-Y”. Her
childhood was happy as it should be. Children, yeaah they are still innocent,
not to think of problem, difficult life. Children are always happy, full of
laugh, no pain, and sometimes they are naughty because of their curiosity. So does
mbak sonya. When she was a child, she was a happy boy. She is happy to play
game, to gather with her friends, and still child nature, she is also naughty. Then
what makes her different? Most of boy will play with boy, such as playing
football, fishing, or playing other boy’s game. But she is not. She doesn’t play
with boy, she prefer to play game with girls. Why? The answer is simple because
boy is more naughty than girl. Boy likes to bully their friends. And yap, when
they play game, and one of their friend loses, they will bully him, or mock
him. Then it make lil Sonya annoyed and not comfortable to play with
naughty-boys. When she play games with girls, she feel comfortable because she
thinks that the girls always take care of her. and you know,, most of girl’s
game are not as rude as boy’s. Their games are in safe zone, such as pretending
to be doctor, playing doll, cooking. That means there will no one of them who
will bully her. Because of that, she prefers to play with girls, and do what
girls do. She also has Barbie collection, while most of boys prefer to have car
collection rather than Barbie. But she had it nearly complete. Her grandfather
used to buy Barbie for her. that’s her childhood, a really happy childhood.
NO
with capital N.. not only your life is too plastic, but our life is too
plastic, our world is too plastic. No space without plastic, everything is
plastic. Unfortunately, I can say we cannot live without plastic. This awesome
useful and totally dangerous thing has become part of our life. (and I only
hope this will not be permanent part of my life). Poor we are! We live with
plastic, we eat with plastic, work with plastic, sleep with plastic, all of our
day is with plastic. We cannot be separated.
Then
now, lets open our eyes wider and see the message behind a great movie BAG IT.
BAG IT is a documentary film (2010) directed by Suzan Bezerra. As I told above,
this movie tells about the effects of plastic bag and other plastic and its
effect to our beautiful environment, wonderful nature, and even to human body. So,
that is what BAG IT movie tells us, to make us realize that OUR LIFE IS TOO
PLASTIC, and poor we are as we never realize how harmful it is. We never
realized that we have killed so many cute innocent animals outside there because
of plastic. Well, we haven’t recognized it yet because we don’t see the impact
directly. We only think that plastic is useful, effective and efficient, and of
course it makes our life easier.
This
documentary movie completely presents to us the history of plastic, especially
plastic bag, the phenomenon of plastic bag, some comments from the expert of
plastic, and yeaah the bad effects of plastic bag. It shows us clearly how
plastic can be a dangerous enemy for environment, animals, and even for human
body. And unfortunately we never realize it. most of people will not care of
plastic. They just throw it after they use it, and it will fly far far away to
the sea and kill some animals living there, or it is buried down, deep deep
down to the earth, and in the future we will not see land again, the only thing
we can find is the land of plastic.
No
body wants this terrible condition, right? so this movie, BAG IT persuades us
to care of our environment, to minimize the use of plastic, and start from a
little step. DON’T USE PLASTIC BAG! This is a little step we can do right now. Some
countries who have realized the danger of plastic have banned the use of
plastic bag. They use paper or bag to bring their stuffs. And this will work
well. If every country in this world can apply this, we can save our environment
step by step.
So,
then just let’s do it, from now, from a little step, from ourselves, and don’t make
our life too plastic!
What will be in your mind when you heard
the word Dawet ?
I bet you will imagine a glass of green cendol served with santan, and palm sugar. Yeaaah, your mind will cross to Dawet Ayu Banjarnegara, a kind of Dawet you can find anywhere you go.
How if the cendol is not Green but Black? It is weird, isn’t it? yeaaah, but
this happens. That’s called DawetIreng.
It is weird, rare, yet unique. I find it in my hometown, Purworejo.
One day, My friend and I had a trip to
Jogja. It was two years ago, and that was the first time for me to taste the
delicious drink from my hometown. It was weird since Purworejo was my hometown,
yet I had never tasted Dawet ireng.
Well, back to the story. That was a shiny day, the sun was burning us, and we
felt so tired, and sweated. When we passed Jalan Jogja in Purworejo, we decided
to have a rest for a while just to get some drink. And yeaaaah, we saw a place
looked like a hut in the side of street. I could see the writing on the hut “Dawet IRENG”. Yeeah we went there to buy
Dawet Ireng, so that we could refresh
our energy. The seller, a woman aged around forty, welcomed us with nice smile
and greeting. Then, I felt welcomed and relaxed being there. I sat down while I
was looking at the beautiful sceneries there. It was surrounded by rice farms,
and I could see many hills and Sumbing
Mountain from there. It was great sceneries and I could feel the wind clapped
my back. Actually, the stall was not big. It was only a hut, simple hut in the
side of road with two long chairs and one long table. The place was made by
bamboo. Most of it was covered by bamboo. The floor and wall was made from
bamboo. And the roof was covered by coarse grass.
And finally, what we were waiting for
was coming.. A cup of Dawet Ireng. A
lot of CendolIreng kept silent in the bottom of the cup. I mixed it till the
ice, palm sugar, santan, and cendolireng mixed in one. It became so unique. I wonder why the cendol is black. It made it looked like
horror. However, I was so excited to eat it, I meant to drink it. first, I felt
the coolness because of the ice and santan.
Then I could taste the pure sweetness of palm sugar. It was so delicious, and yummmmyyyy.
While we were drinking, the seller told
us that the blackness of cendol was
made of the ashes of merang (rice
straw). The ashes was blended to the water and it was filtered. Then it was
mixed to the sago flour-the main ingredient of cendol-. That’s why the cendol
color became black, so black. The coloring was natural, it was not from textile
coloring, or other synthetic color. It was pure from nature.
Actually there was no significance
difference taste of Dawet Ireng and
other Dawet. The only thing that made it different was the color and the flour.
Mostly dawet was made of rice flour,
yet this Dawet Ireng was made of Sago
flour. However, Dawet always tasted
delicious especially if we drink it near rice farms. We could feel the village
atmosphere.
And yeaaah,, last but not least.. if you
go to Purworejo or mostly known as Pordjo, Don’t forget to buy Dawet Ireng khas butuh Purworejo. You
can find it almost along the roadside of Jalan Jogja, and Butuh. And it only
cost for Rp. 2.500, 00 Yeeeaaaaahhhhh!
“There
is no need to panic” said Widya, a freshman in UGM.
Late October, Merapi, a volcano in
Yogyakarta, was erupted. It produced ash plumes, lahars, and pyroclastic flows.
It also released sulfur dioxide, which could harm human. Yogyakarta was in
terrible situation. It was covered with the grey ashes from Merapi eruption.
Even, this eruption was worse than the eruption in 1872. There were many
victims at least 151 people were died and hundred thousand people should be
evacuated.
Media spread the news of the dangerous Merapi.
The condition was dreadful as media emphasized each news. Everyone got panic
especially for them who did not know exactly what happened. Many school and
University didn’t hold learning activity for a week since the Merapi eruption
was getting worse. It affected some students from outside the town deciding to
go home as soon as possible. Most of them were panic and went home in hurry. It
made Yogya condition getting worse.
“For me, I just need to relax and think positive,”
Widya said “being panic will only lead to terrible thing”. She only kept calm
and stayed at her boarding house when Merapi was erupted. She didn’t get panic
because she believed that everything would be fine. It was weird since she was
a freshman and her hometown was not in Jogja, but she was still calm in that
horrible condition.
“However”, she added, “thinking positive
doesn’t mean you do nothing”. She told me that she had had also plan if the
condition getting worse. She watched news to know the development of Merapi
condition. Then, she decided to go home tomorrow morning because her parents
would get worried of her.
She underlined that being panic in such
condition would make everything worse, and having no plan to do was also not a
good thing. Therefore, she had made plan to do yet she did it calmly to prevent
the terrible thing.
|| full of dreams, live in my own world - my imagination world ||
Potterhead || StoneStar47 || Ravenclaw || wish to learn magic
|| Halflings, like gardens, trees,and farmland, fond of mushrooms, go to bed late, get up late, do not travel much ||
