Hometown experience, part 1

The night (almost) immediately after I arrived in my hometown I crashed into a bed (right after shower). I had a jet lag as expected, went to bed around 9 PM and woke up around 2 AM. During the day I have often been sleepy.

While awake there was a loud noise at 4 AM. I realized I was in Indonesia, a muslim country where you can find mosques just about anywhere. They put 4 big speakers facing 4 directions to ensure everyone one could hear it and they are very loud especially when a mosque is close to your house. It reminds me to my house before, a mosque was just right across the street from my house, just imagine having the Riverhills church Praise team (with bass, guitar, keyboard, and drum) playing in front of your house 5 times a day and one of them is at 4 until 5 AM every single day.

My uncle got up around 4:30 AM and we went to a school to do exercise. All of the people in the school were over 50, that made me the youngest one. It started with Tai Chi, based from an ancient chinese martial art. It's a slow and smooth motion sort of imitation the flow of air or water. Then they changed the music with higher pace and different moves. They have been doing it for many years and I was pretty impressed with how well they did it. I underestimated them but later after sweating a lot, boy, it's much harder than I thought. After an hour later I went for a walk with uncle to cool of for half an hour then went for breakfast at a restaurant.

After shower I went with bunch of relatives to our ancestors' cemetery. Worshiping ancestor has been an ancient Chinese ritual for thousands of years and integrated into Buddhistm. I was there to observe, flashback to when I was a little kid before I became a Christian.

After visiting cemetery my uncle spent the entire day taking me to countless of relatives, felt like a long day. Pretty much I was asked same questions over and over. Anyway I am back in the culture that revolves around food. All conversations begin with something like "Hi, have you eaten yet ?". One question that every single person ask as far as living in US is something like "so, do you eat bread every day, right ?" Everyone has been trying to feed, asking me out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The good thing is all of them come with small portion, that's the way it is in Asia, half the size of typically restaurants in US. So here I keep eating out, most dishes cost less than $1.

Rough trip all the way to Indonesia ..... hm...

After 11 hours in the Singapore airport finally I departed and arrive one hour later in Medan, Sumatera island, Indonesia. I was totally exhausted and so looking forward to getting out of airport. Another obstacle was on my way, the airport custom.

I made a big mistake by speaking Indonesian with a custom officer, thinking I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible after a very long flight (I left Mar 31st and got there on April 3rd). Before I even picked up my luggage they searched my carry-on bag. Not getting anything what they would like to see they asked for my luggage. Instead of opening my luggage (it's locked) in the search area I was immediately escorted to an office, in a closed door and was faced with 3 unfriendly officers. Growing up in Indonesia I knew I was getting into, they tried to extort money or belonging. All I have to do is minimizing the damage.

After unlocking the luggage they couldn't find anything illegal. Then they picked up a bottle of calcium supplement and Omega-3. They asked for the prices and I told them they were around $25, it was a long day I didn't quite remember the exactly price plus I didn't have a receipt to prove it. Probably they were more like $30 or slightly more, bought from Sams Club and I was not far off. They said they didn't believe me, with about 15 bottles (many small bottles) they said the total would be very expensive. The limit according to the law is $500. I remember my receipt was less than $200 from Sams Club. To minimize the damage I had to find a way to negotiate. I said I would not let them take any bottle and I might report it to the US Embassy about it. They offered to pay me for those supplements for their prices, $25. I knew they could hold me for a long time. They would not let get out of the room without getting something out of me. Reluctantly I agreed just to get out of there and of course I was not happy. After carrying them for a long distance only to give them up, it's not about the money. As I packed my luggage to leave the office, two other officers said they had bone problem too and wanted to buy a couple bottles of calcium. This time with subtle and firm way said "no". My relatives told me later that they were surprised that I was paid, usually they just take them away without paying. Perhaps they wanted to protect themselves just in case I report to the US embassy, saying they paid for them. I believe they thought they could sell them for higher prices.

While I was waiting for someone to pick me up one of those officers followed me and asked for some money. He said something about being American I have a lot of money. Instead I offered to buy him a drink in a shop next to the airport. Without my permission he picked a pack of cigarette up. He asked for my address and another one later approached me to give me a ride. Again in a subtle way I turned it down. The way it works is once they know your address then you'll come later to ask for money. That's the way in Indonesia, government officers are not your friend. I grew up dealing with them and always had to spend extra cash. I should have spoken in English and refused to speak in Indonesian to make the communication difficult so they might have let me go. I was just too exhausted to realize that.

I was able to call my brother's in-law in Medan to pick me up after half an hour waiting. Then my uncle picked me up from his house and we drove straight to my hometown that day. We had dinner in a town a long the way. We arrived in my other uncle's house. After I took shower I headed straight to a bed and snoozed immediately. What a long day .......... I thank God for a safe trip.

I am still in Singapore .... hhhhhhhh

Another bad news, another delay and I am stuck in the airport for 11 hours. It has been way too long of a trip, exhausted, not to mention jetlag ... oh well. My final flight will depart in 2 hours, hopefully no more surprise.

While online I had a chance to chat with a friend who lives in Singapore. It is interesting that the airport is so nice that Singaporeans love to hang around and shop in the airport. It's like a mall with shopping stores, food court, free internet, free electronic foot massage, and impressive gardens.

In the waiting area I saw a group immigrant workers (I guess they are on working visa) from India (I overheard the conversations). They were called by immigration officer as a group. Their ages probably are from 20s to 40s with humbling faces. Probably they have to leave behind their families to work overseas to support their families. It is probably harder for them to leave their families than I do and I believe it is for a longer period.

Stay tuned.........

Trip update: just arrived in Singapore

I just arrived in Singapore around 2 AM local time. Free internet at the airport, awesome, never seen that in any airport. It has been a long trip and delays.

Due to heavy snow in Minnesota my flight was delay. First, the plane arriving from Washington DC was delay for about 2 hours. The pilots for my flight were from Miwakee, Wisconsin, and it was delay too. We had to wait for another hour after we boarded the plane. The total delay was 3 hours. I missed the next connecting flight which was supposed to be with Malaysian airlines. Northwest re-book my flight from Malaysian Airlines to Singapore Airlines but it didn't depart until 12 hours later. They put me in a hotel and I got some sleep.

The next day to my surprise Singapore Airlines didn't have my name in their system and I had to carry my luggages to Northwest counter. LA airport is huge, it was a long walk. Then another surprise, Northwest didn't have my name either, I was a bit upset, it was unacceptable. Then they said they would take my word for it but still couldn't book me on Singapore airlines. It said the plane was full but I told them the singapore airlines told me they were plenty of seats. They were working on booking me for an hour but couldn't. He apoligized that there was nothing he could do, I said it was unacceptable. I demanded to see the manager. She improvised and put my name on the FIM (booking system) for the next day flight in order to put my name on the system (go figure). Perhaps they couldn't do it for that time while Singapore airlines was doing check-in. If that is the case they should have had me on the system the day before when they re-booked me when I missed my flight (with receipts to prove it). It seems like computer synchronization problem.

Then I had to go for another long walk with luggages to Singapore airlines ticket counter. They couldn't find my name until I mentioned that Northwest booked for the next day flight. He said he wasn't sure he could move my name to the flight that day. He said I could either talk to Malaysian airlines (original connecting airlines that I missed) which doesn't open until 5 PM and fly the following day or buy a new ticket at my own expense. I said neither one was acceptable option. They had to work something out and I wouldn't take "no" as an answer. He went away and called Northwest and his manager. Half an hour later he came back and booked on the flight.... phew.... finally. By the way the flight wasn't any near to being full, not even 3/4 full, plenty of empty seats. It looks like Northwest can't access their computer system (but I still wonder why Northwest computer said it was full).

Singapore airlines is very nice, like an upgrade from Malaysian airlines. There is a monitor screen on each seat. There are more than a hundred movies available, play games, and monitor flight status. I watched I am Legend, National Treasure: book of secrets, and Golden Compass (bad movie, not because I am biased but it was truely bad). I sat next to a Canadian who travels a lot. He is an electricians and this time he is on business trip to Singapore. We talked quite a bit.

Ok, now I am at the airport and have another 4 1/2 hours to kill and free internet before my final flight to Medan, a city close to my hometown. I am going to spend time in Binjai (my mom's hometown) and visit relatives, Medan and visit relatives and friends, then Siantar which is my hometown.

Stay tuned.....

Phew... glad Feb is over

Annika's three birthdays in the row were cancelled because she was sick. Feb has always been a bad month in Minnesota, many people get sick. Last Feb was particularly the worst one in our family, not just about for Annika.

First, our garage door broke down early Feb when it was so cold, sub zero Fahrenheit. The bearings inside the garage door rollers were rusty which made the garage door harder to move. The garage opener had a hard time opening or closing the door. Shortly after that the garage opener completely didn't even move the door. I opened the garage opener box and found out the gear was broken. Fortunately I could find parts from Ebay, and also ordered a set of rollers (10 of them). The installation was particularly challenging in the cold weather. It was time consumming because it involved taking the motor apart and assembled all the parts together after replacing the gear. In the process I accidentally broke the RPM sensor (a sensor to measure the speed of the motor). I went back to Ebay and ordered the part. Two weeks later I got the new set rollers and got them installed. One thing I learned about installing those rollers, it has to be done by at least 2 people because the garage door is spring loaded with high tension, the door is heavy, and the cables that balance the door easily come out of their wrapper when you install the bottom rollers (which attached to the spring). Fortunately I could find my neighbor to help me out, I almost messed it up, not to mention seriously injured myself.

Secondly, our basement got flooded. The sewer line was clogged and at night when the water softerner degenerated the water flooded the floor. I found out early in the morning and we had to do a lot of clean up and removing some carpet.

Third, the next day after the flood I got bronchitis infection and the entire family got sick and ruined Annika's 5th birthday.

I am so glad Feb is over, pheww...... It makes you thankful when nothing goes wrong.

Monthly Blog

It looks like I only updated my blog on monthly basis. Here I am, with heavy heart, updating my blog .... (joking).

Perhaps I should say something about my children this time. Tara is starting to be more active in speaking, mostly in baby language. Fortunately we have Annika to interpret Tara's words or sentences that my wife and I do not understand. It's funny how it works. Tara loves to dress up, making goofy faces, and wearing things on her body that look "ridiculous" and she knows when she gets attention and she will go around the house showing everyone.

Annika is "maturing", lots of reasoning everything she is observing. Last October when we were above the clouds on the way to Orlando, she asked why she couldn't see God. We are constantly bombarded by sentences begin with "why". Every night I pray that my children will be godly women since they were born, more godly than myself. I believe if I pray hard enough God will listen.

Recently I have been getting ready to visit Indonesia. I got my tickets, leaving on March 31 evening and back on April 25th. In the last trip I didn't realize how much I missed people, places, food, and many different things until I arrived there. I have so many relatives, more than 60 first cousins, former classmates that still keep in touch, friends, and old teachers. I grew up with most of them, including many friends since kindergarten. We had tears because we laughed so hard every time we talked about our past. It was just so many stories. I'll try to update this blog about this trip as much as I could access internet in Indonesia. So stay tuned .......

A New Beginning

Jan 9th marked a new beginning, I was naturalized to be an American citizen. Now I can proudly call myself an American. The ceremony, which was held in St Paul, was remarkable. The projection screen showed pictures of immigrants many years ago from all over the world. When I looked at their faces I tried to imagine their experiences such hardship, reliance on each other, sacrifice, and hope. It's not easy for me to imagine how it is like to bring my whole family to a place where you can't simply go to a store to get what you need, especially food, not to mention shelter.

The judge gave a memorable speech, told us the story of his grandmother. Her father came first and worked at a mine, I believe in Iron Range, to save up money to bring the rest of his family from Croatia. Her grandmother sent her little grand-daughter to the ship. I tried to imagine her grandmother's feeling that she wouldn't be able to see her grand daughter ever again. His grandma didn't have much food and she was very hungry in the ship on the way to New York. Then all the way from New York to Minnesota she ran out of food. My guess it was at least a 2 day trip by train. Fortunately there were some men from Germany who gave her some slides of apple and that's all she had the entire trip !!! She never forgot how hungry she was. Her family and other immigrants lived in a community relying on each other. Her father didn't live long, he died in a mine accident.

You may be surprised that it's my first citizenship. Yes I was born in Indonesia and so were my parents. In Indonesia citizenship by birth is only granted to pure indigenious people (inter-racial children with an indigenious parent is not eligible either). While driving back from the ceremony to my house it took me awhile to sink in the feeling of belonging to a country. When I opened the door and stepped on the ground I felt the unsettling feeling of being a foreigner is finally over.

While waiting for the ceremony, all new citizen candidates were given a big envelope. I had the chance to read the preamble and the entire constitution to have a better idea what the founding fathers stood for. We made an oath and pledge of allegiance. I do not believe in what many people think about the idea of patriotism. Don't get me wrong, I will keep my oath. To me patriotism now is about keeping the ideal of the founding fathers and integrity of the entire nation. Thanks God for all His blessing after all. He must have a plan for me.