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.

Christmas is around the corner !!!

I know I know, I have been slacking in updating this blog. Vacation in Florida seems to drag all the way back to Minnesota. It was a wonderful vacation minus a car flat tire (I'll talk about it later).

As soon as we got out of the airport, it smelt like Indonesia, hot and humid have distinctive smell. We were sweating and it was a rainy day too. There were many bugs around, restaurants were moldy. I have to say Florida is a nice place for vacation but I don't think it's a place I would prefer to live.

We had great time playing in a pool in the Time-share we stayed at, Disney World, Sea World, and Clear Water beach. It's my first time in a disney world. If I am asked to put the list that I enjoyed the most I would say Clear Water beach, Sea World, then Disney World.

On the way to the Clear Water beach we got a flat tire. It almost ruined our vacation. We got it taken care and interestingly we noticed more than 10 cars had flat tire on the way to beach and back. When I called my insurance agent about the flat tire the first thing he said was he noticed many flat tire when he went to Florida. My theory (joke) is there is a conspiracy between the Department of Transportation and towing companies in Florida. So if you ever consider going to Florida make sure you are prepared for flat tire.

Anyway, christmas is around the corner. When I grew up in my school/church (school is part of church) there were so much going on prior to christmas, starting in november. There were so much excitements and activities. Everyday students were practicing for dancing, singing, decorating, etc. The church was so busy with people running around all the time but they were all so joyful and lots of spirit. I loved walking around the school/church and watched people preparing and I also voluntered myself. Often times I made false excuse to my teachers to skip classes for singing practice which I was not involved in for example (not a good example is it :)). So it was also a great time to goof around. There were many services. I went to about 8 services, starting from kindergarden, 2 for elementary school, 1 for junior high, 1 for senior high, 1 for church youth, 1 for church young adult, and 1 for church adult/general. They were all different and every christmas was a blast. On christmas eve went around the town, going house to house caroling from 6 until midnight. Usually we lost our voice the next day. Gift was not really part of it, as a matter of fact I never knew gift was part of christmas. But those years were my best christmas. Perhaps because I was brought up differently. I just think people should not be sad because his/her gift is not as good as what they expect. It becomes "what you are going to get for christmas". I hope everyone will simply enjoy christmas no matter what they get and think about the spiritual part of it, the birth of Jesus as the best gift.

A day before Orlando

Today is one day before we are leaving for Orlando. Cary went to a meeting with her sister and mom, it's something about advocating her dad's health condition. I take today off, having fun with my two daughters. I was excited to bring Annika to school and picked her up. It's a great feeling watching her in the class. I wish my dad had done that to me. The closest one was dropping me (and my brother) off in front of our school and left immediately.

I went to the same school from 1st to 12th grade. Many same classmates for 12 years. From 1st to 6th grade, 3 times a year the best 3 students from each class were given the honor of standing on steps similar to what you see in an Olympics. The best one on the top step down to the 3rd one. Grade 7-12 used semester system therefore best students were announced twice a year. 90% of the time I was on the top step but my parents never showed up. I wish they would. It came back to me when I took Annika to school today. Anyway earlier today was georgeous, in the 80s. Can't wait for tomorrow, hmmm..... Florida. It's my first time............ yeah......

Fall is here, busy ... busy....

I have been very busy at work lately. My deadline for my current project is Nov 9th. The parent company, Sanken, is planning to get their designs out by the end of November. So there is a lot of pressure to get things done. Nevertheless I haven't worked overtime... yet. In the past when I worked overtime it didn't seem to work. When I get over tired I become error prone. Mistakes just slow things down and redoing them just make it worse. It's a lot of stuff to get done but I learned efficiency and clear mind were more important. Even before I started this project, I laid out my plan to tackle it. So far it seems to work pretty well and I might even get it done a head of schedule. I'll just keep doing what I have been doing, show up at 9 and go home by 5.

By the way, I have to say after my turbinate removal surgery, even though still a slow recovery process, it helps me a lot to do things especially remembering things. I used to forget so many things at work and problem focusing. My head felt bloated all the time because of constant congestion and having problem coordinating my thought and speech. Slowly I have been feeling the improvement.

Uz.