Last one from the Cafeteria

I am now sitting alone in the cafeteria having what may be my last lunch at St Johns for times to come and I just cannot believe what is happening. As one of the last to leave today, I realize that I have to pay a very expensive price. The price tagged for those who stay for last, those that have to stand and see their fellow birds fly towards new horizons before taking off themselves: I am alone in the cafeteria, witnessing the soul of this place washed away... My dear ones, St Johns is not the same anymore after you. It could not mean the same anymore after I saw the tears in the eyes of Reem and Hima today. I do not feel the same anymore after the baseball game then dancing with you in the sky last night. The walls are now meaningless and the food has no taste.

Guys, I miss you already.

:'(

Pasar Bandeng

Each year, five days before I'ed, my hometown, Gresik, always organize a "Pasar Bandeng" or If I translate it in English it becomes "Milkfish Market". Bandeng or Milkfish is a top commodity from Gresik since it is located in the north beach line of Java island. Bandeng is sea fish. people will caught the small bandeng from the sea and grow them in fishpond located near the sea. The water for growing this fish is a kind of mix between fresh and salt water.

I don't know why people in my city like to eat this kind of fish. I personally avoid eating this fish. It is not because of their taste is bad. It is because they are a bonny fish. It has a lot of bones that could end up stuck in your throat if you're not careful enough. Let's get back to "Pasar Bandeng". There a almost all of milkfish farmers around Gresik will come and put their comodity into an auction. People will compete to buy the biggest Milkfish. But, usually the city mayor is the winner in this auction.

  

 

Beside buying milkfish, you could also looking for anything. such as: clothes, shoes, flower, toys, etc. My favorite toys in pasar bandeng when I was a kid was a small ship which uses simple steam engine mechanism. All we have to do is fill the water pipe inside the ship and then we put a specially-made torch to heat up the water and produce the steam that boost the ship forward.

World Englishes

English, the most widely used lingua franca, mediates among almost all people throughout the world. However, there is not a single variety of English. Even in the United States we can hear different varieties. Since the ultimate goal of second language acquisition is to achieve the target language competence, we all strive to achieve so. In my country, we studied differnet theories of language learning and teaching. We also studied the levels of language specially the English language. We used three term description for all 24 consonants and also described vowels: both monopthongs and diphthongs. We learnt different grammar rules and analyzed English sentences using tree diagrams, phrase structure rules and transformational rules. We studied the semantic and pragmatic aspects of vocabulary items and so on. But if my Fulbright friends sometimes do not understand me when I speak in English, I ask myself a question if I am speaking ENGLISH. I thought over it a lot and came to realize that all colleagues have their own idiosyncratic features. We all have our idiolect. Therefore, we sometimes do not understand each other. Perhaps this is due to the existence of WORLD ENGLISHES.

Fruitful Weekend

From community services to the home visit, from Queens back to Queens again, the last weekend was very fruitful (and, was physically demanding as well). Since for the previous two weeks our activities were much focused in Manhattan, the trip to Queens opened much broader perspective of New York City. The sprawling landscape of Queens, as opposed to the dense and hustle-bustle Manhattan, allowed me to grasp the air more.

The community services that were conducted in the Queens Botanical Garden was perfect to feel the natural ambience again. We delved into the soil, weeded out the 'parasite' grass, and created the beautiful circle around the trees. At the end, I thought we were surprised by the results of our work.

Following the community services program, on Sunday I went to Queens again with Gerry, Qadeer, Servio, Chenda, and Veronica. We visited the beautiful house of Schulman family. The house is located at the amazing neighborhood setting with arrays of trees adjacent to the spacious row of houses. At the backyard of Mr./Mrs. Schulman's house, we had a dinner, played volleyball, and discussed anything that crossed in our minds. It was really a lovely moment.

Below, a short video about the community services in the Queens Botanical Garden.
(P.S.: I would like to apologize if the video did not capture each of us, peace!)

Queens Botanical Garden from Alyas Widita on Vimeo.

The Best Holiday Ever (in The U.S)

Yesterday we went on home visit. We were lucky to have Sue as our host family. Sue's house is quite far from St. John's University since it is located in Ringwood, New Jersey. We took a bus from New York Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) to Ringwood. I really enjoy our trip since along the road I saw beautiful trees. Unfortunately, I don't know what kind of trees was it. The trip took aproximately 1.5 hours. When we arrived at Ringwood, Sue, Dan (Sue's husband), Pam (Sue's neighboor) and Romero (Pam's husband) already waited for us.

Since I was appointed to go to Sue's house, I took a ride with Dan. He told me that he is a teacher. He teach acting also He acted in Leonardo Dicaprio's newest movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" as a judge (I should watch it). I was amazed at the first time we arrived at Sue's house. The house is so beautiful. It is a lodge which made from Chestnut wood and surrounded by maple trees.

Sue's told us that long time ago (if I wasn't mistaken around 1920), Northeast America was occupied by American Chestnut trees. But, suddenly there was this plague which attacked the American Chesnut tree and all of the trees died and people used the wood to make houses. That's why the neighborhood's houses also made from wood.

At the house we were greeted by Sue's family members. They are Shaun (Sue's stepson), Jack (Sue's son), Sue's mother(I forgot your name grandma), Sarah (Shaun's wife) and Victora (Jack's girlfriend). Sue's live in the house with her mother and her husband, Shaun lives in Brooklyn, New York and Jack is on his senior year as an undergraduate student in Rutgers. All of them are very friendly.

In the afternoon, we started to have a barbeque party. Actually we did nothing. It was Dan who prepare the barbeque and Sue prepared the snack and vegetables. I was lucky because Sue also prepared rice because it reminds me of home (Indonesia). After having the barbeque, we went to the lake. Sue's house is also near a lake and there is an artificial beach with white sand on it. Many people from the neighborhood spent their time there. I think because it was holiday and the weather was perfect for outdoor activities. Everyone seems enjoying the summertime on a beautiful lake.

 

Overall, I enjoyed visiting Sue's house because it give me different scenery from Manhattan (which is dominated by big building). The country side sight that I really expected from the U.S. I would really love to come to your house again Sue. Thank you for giving me the chance to visit your beautiful home.

''Moment of Peace...''

Hey guys, i hope you are fine, it has been a long time i have not been here i admit, was thinking hard about what to tell you...

Then tonight the idea came, to write about the sense of ''peace'' i had today.

New York and St John's are still great, offering me what they can, but the past week has not been really easy for me, with one of my grandma passing away and my little s

ister not getting her visa to study abroad, my family is just going through a hard moment, and even though i cannot change a thing, i wish i could just be with them to share in our pain, i can say that it ''suspended'' my honeymoon stage to a bit of homesickness...but i know everything will be fine.

What is so great for me is that we never know what can help, that's why we should at the least give ''gifts of smiles'' as i call it, because for me the laughter and funny moments in the cafeteria, in the classroom, with the latinos dance kings, in the subway, in the chinese restaurant trying to eat sushi, in the cinema with Hima and elsewhere we find ourselves together is just really really great, it has helped me throughout, so smile and laugh guys!!

Today we were to this amazing place called New Jersey at Sue's house, oh my God , the trees, the lake just breathtakingly beautiful. When we finished our meal (we ate A LOT!) we just relaxed and i just felt a sense of peace, real peace that reminded me that i am not alone, that everything will be fine. It was just great and i wanted to share that with you, hope it is not too personal!

You can see our Moment of Peace, Moment of Smiles in some of the pictures



Good night Fulbright Fam, and thank you for all these great moments, i sense it will be hard next week...

Motherly Earth: The Botanical Garden

The Botanical garden of Queen's Campus reminded me of my homeland today. I liked the big trees, flowers, vegetables, and above all the earth. When the drops of rain fell on the groung, I could smell the earth very much in the same way I did it in my garden and land. In the Nepali language, the earth is called the mother "Dharti Mata". It is because all the living creatures and the non living things exist on it. We weeded out unnecessary plants around some big trees, spread the mulch, trimmed off some small, irregular and unwanted branches of some trees at the stems, and so on. When you are asked whether hunger or food is greater, your answer may depend on situation. But I could see all my friends eating whatever they had without complaining because hunger was greater after hard work. I do not mean that the food we had was bad but it was not like going to cafeteria and choosing the items you like. Another interesting thing for me was the "wedding garden" in the area. The garden is mailny used for wedding ceremonies. It was being cleaned and prepared for one ceremony in the afternoon. I think some people love nature so much that they do not even care for big party palaces. I felt very good when I touched the earth and smelt it. I realized that the earth is the same everywhere whether it is New York or elsewhere. I do not feel that I am away from my motherland because the motherly earth is the same here as well. Thanks to Queen's Campus for this opportunity.