hafizsanesia

on the bright side, this is also my first time doing the fasting in the land where I’m the minority.  and it does put me in another perspective.

in my living area (dorm & school) may be the only moslem are just the two of us (me & beny).  the people here has very limited knowledge about Islam -and mostly they would ask about our religious things- and the most wonderful thing about that is they don’t cause any trouble for us to do our religious activities.  two of my professors even asking about how we carried out our duty for fasting, and promised not to serve food, making drink -one of my professor likes the smell of coffe that she usually made one in her room just for the aroma-, smoking, eating and drinking during our class in the ramadhan.

and because nobody else doing the fasting, so everyday works as usual.  usual time, usual works and even usual time of eating dinner -since we are cooking our dinner, we usually start around 10 pm.   and so far, I feel allright with that usual & routine things.  that the fasting month indeed is special month but it doesn’t have to be treated with special ‘treatment’ -such as shorthened working time, the closing down of various eating places during the day (hey, there are people who are not having the compulsory for fasting) even the ’sweeping’ to ‘guard’ "the holyness of the ramadhan"

being the minority eventually lead to another perspective of life..

and I just remember the saying of one of my teacher, "sometimes, even the non-moslems act more islamic way than the moslems theirselves.."

back home in indonesia, I could be catagorized as the majority ‘power’ and usually would see things from the majority’s standing point (I’m no racist, but being born as moslem and mostly ‘javanese’ ethnic indeed put me in that kind of ’situation’..) although I tried to see things in a different way and might be shared a thought different than anybody else, especially in my thought about one particular ethnic.  and to be honest, it’s still kinda hard to think different way since you’ll be againts all odds: the power of ‘majority’.

in korea, the world for me has been turning upside down.  in here, I’m the minority ’species’, an alien in alien land -seen from my point of view- and sometimes life IS difficult when you are in that kind of place.  but everything always has two ‘opposing’ side or might be three sides if you believe in neutrality, and that’s what I face in everyday life here…

starting from this term, there were so many chinese students from nanjing that started to study at the school.  and suddenly, my dorm was transfered into ‘mainland china’ since most of the occupants are now chinese.  so, if outside the dorm I’m minority ‘againts’ korean people, back in the dorm I’m also minority ‘againts’ the chinese..

actually I didn’t mind about that change and a friend of mind also said that I had the opportunity to ‘learn’ other people’s culture - a word that I trully believe-.  but sometimes being the minority does cost you some thing.  and just this morning, I felt as a ‘victim’ of minorty between minority.

the night earlier, a chinese friend of mine said that tomorrom morning (that mean today), all the chinese student had to gather at the field near the dorm to practice something… 

and suddenly this morning at nine o’clock, the speaker that attached to each room in the dorm, sang a very loud chinese song -that for me sound VERY terrible since they played it VERY loud.  and the songs went about 15 minutes that almost ruined my mood that time.

I understand that it might serve as the clue for all the chinese students in the dorm to get out of their rooms and gather at the field.  and may be the terrible songs were used to ‘kick’ them out of the rooms.  but, was the way had to be done THAT way..?

I know that I’m a minority -since there are only three indonesians in the dorm, one india student, around twenty vietnamese, twenty laos, several other russians and also korean students ‘againts’ more than two hundred chinese.  and maybe since there are so many chinese, that the most effective way of informing is by using the centralized sound system. 

but I believe  I has equal right in my personal room in the dorm.  somehow I just felt being ‘invaded’ that I was ‘forced’ to be part of the majority that ‘rules’ the dorm (by listening that awful songs in the weekend that forced me to wake up, while I had the right to sleep since I didn’t have any relation with the activity in the field)..

however, there are always positive side in every bad occasion: the more understanding of what it felt of being the minority.  hopefully that would make my act wiser in the future…

may be it also served as a ‘test for the patience’ in the ramadhan..? may be…

a very modest tajil - food to break the fasting time- for our first ramadhan here in korea :p

hope the ‘karunia’ is not THAT modest, too..  amin.

more stories about ramadhan here, later on..

it is a automatic vending machine, but the items inside is quite different from the machine I usually see.  The average machines usually sell drinks in cans or a coffe-milk machine.

this machine sells cookies & chocolates!  and first we wonder how the machine works.  after deciding to spend cheonwon to buy a box of brownies, the procedur is quite easy :p

first you enter the money then type the number of things you want from the input interface (not shown here).  then from the lower part of the rack, a lift ‘arm’ will go up to the level where the item you bought is placed. then another mechanic ‘arm’ will push the item, so it moves from the rack to the lift ‘arm’.  then lift ‘arm’ will go lower itself, and at some point creating some degree to enable the item to slide down to the opening area where you can take the item.

and all of us were quite amazed by this process :p

a quick info for update in visual journals and new photo gallery at my multiply site, here.  and also several photos in my yahoophotos folder: friends&me

another trip to expo park because of sam’s resistance to bring all of us there last saturday. as usual it was a nice trip, while at the same time acting  as margaret’s full body guard, ha.. ha.. -since she was the only girl in the group ;P   the group consisted of me, sam, beny, jason & margaret.

the expo park is a nice place with beautiful and interesting architecture & building, built specifically for the international expo in daejeon in 1993.  unfortunately, several area seems desserted, and some attractions are also closed down due to heavy maintenance.  but, as I’d said earlier, it is a nice place to visit, especially under that bright blue sky in korea’s autumn

the trip ended in daejeon’s old downtown, with a dinner in the warung indonesia with olia and a lightsaber-like ice cream for everybody

for the photos of the trip, just click here.  enjoy

a unique device that attached to most of the korean car: a gps navigation system!

this tiny device not only shows the exact postion of the car in the city, but also can be used to find places we are going to go but we don’t where it is.  after we enter the destination’s location, the navigation system is hard at work, showing which way we should take to reach the destination.  it also can mention various datas from the street such as intersections, even the police speeding camera on the streets.

the gps service is free, but the real price lies on the device itself: it’s expensive, he he..

another week full of ‘trip’ although this time was not  THAT far…

after being invited to prof. lee’s home for dinner last saturday, at the following wednesday, we (me, gyu seung & beny) had another invitation by another prof. lee..  (there are two professors with the same "Lee" family name: prof lee, ja hae and prof. lee, soo min).   it supposed to be a dinner at the indonesia restaurant at daejeon’s downtown since my professor was interested in trying indonesian food, but the restaurant was closed on weekdays.  so we had to change the eating plan and when to a nice fish-barbequed restaurant in busa-dong..

the next day, another trip to dowtown to buy our own restaurant’s supplies..  ja yeon & gyu seung also wanted to go there, so the journey ended in a nice restaurant that served meat stuff, from chicken to pork.  I ordered chicken pokkeumbab that tasted just like indonesian’s nasi goreng.  what a surprise!! :D  and the unique thing in this restaurant was that on each table, there was a nintendo gameboy advanced that can be played, by paying 100 won for three minutes of game.. :p

and today, after went to kaist for friday sermon, we went for another sightseeing to ppuri park at the south of daejeon.  the ppuri park is an open space park that filled with statues that resembles 72 original korean family names.  and the best thing about this trip is when you see the sky and you see a very deep blue colors, it’s just the way the sky is.  I didn’t do color adjustment and such, just resizing the pics.  gyu seung said that in autumn, the korean sky always turns into the deep blue color..

just enjoy the photos of ppuri park visit, here

Everybody’s looking for that something
One thing that makes it all complete
You’ll find it in the strangest places
Places you never knew it could be

Some find it in the face of their children
Some find it in their lover’s eyes
Who can deny the joy it brings
When you’ve found that special thing
You’re flying without wings

Some find it sharing every morning
Some in their solitary lives
You’ll find it in the words of others
A simple line can make you laugh or cry

You’ll find it in the deepest friendship
The kind you cherish all your life
And when you know how much that means
You’ve found that special thing
You’re flying without wings

So, impossible as they may seem
You’ve got to fight for every dream
Cos who’s to know which one you let go
Would have made you complete

Well, for me it’s waking up beside you
To watch the sunrise on your face
To know that I can say I love you
In any given time or place

It’s little things that only I know
Those are the things that make you mine
And it’s like flying without wings
Cos you’re my special thing
I’m flying without wings

And you’re the place my life begins
And you’ll be where it ends

I’m flying without wings
And that’s the joy you bring
I’m flying without wings

——————————-
another song I heard during the research thing I did yesterday and somehow it stuck again in the head, especially the part about sunrise…

the version I like had BoA as the guest singer in it.  may be that one of the reason I like it..?

dedicated to my future partner in life..

last weekend was another busy stories…
we (me with beny, gyu seung and ja yeon) went for another round trip to seoul, to visit seoul museum of art -should be a monet exhibition, but there were mis-information so we saw the sema exhibition instead- and ended the trip with a dinner at my professor house in icheon, seoul.

more stories later on, but photos of the trip could be found here and here.  the first one is about the sema visit and the last is about the wonderful dinner. also another addition at friends and me folder.

have a nice day, especially for my friend who just had a cold few days ago..  wish U for being healthy again, very vera very soon, yah!