Mizan & Anin

Seperti biasa, saya mengantar si sulung ke sekolah. Terjadilah pembicaraan seperti ini di dalam mobil:
"Mah, jadi ya nanti abang dibelikan Handphone kalau sudah kelas 3 SD?"
Saya pikir, wah kemajuan nih... kemarin-kemarin soalnya Mizan ngotot dibelikan HP saat ini juga...
"OK Bang..." kata saya, dengan perasaan sedikit curiga dari mana 'kelas 3 SD' muncul.
Mizan nyambung "HPnya Nokia ya Mah.. yang bisa dilipet". Saya diam saja. "Biar rasain tuh Kak Anin... ga bisa sombong lagi.. kan aku juga punya HP Nokia...."
Oh.. itu toh asal muasalnya...saya tertawa dalam hati. Anin adalah anak temennya Mas Eko - mantan pacar a.k.a suami saya. Minggu lalu Mizan dibawa ke kantor sama bapaknya, dan di sanalah dia ketemu Anin. Pertemuan pertama mereka diawali dengan Mizan mendekati dengan PeDe mengajak kenalan.
"Kamu kelas berapa ?" tanya Mizan.
Anin menjawab "Kelas 3 SD, kamu?"
Mizan hanya diam...hahaha... ga lucu kan kalau dia ngaku masih TK B... soalnya badannya sama tingginya dengan Anin.
Kembali lagi ke dalam mobil, Mizan tiba-tiba bilang, "Kalau aku udah punya HP Nokia, nanti Kak Anin pasti mau jadi pacaran sama aku..."
Gleg !
"Pacaran itu apa sih Bang ?" aku berusaha tenang.
"Mah... kayaknya abang udah nemu neh siapa calon istri abang nanti.... "
"Siapa ?" (pura-pura bego)
"Kak Anin...."
Haduh.... abang..... mama pikir masih lama lagi pembicaraan seperti ini bakal muncul... ternyata.....

Beda Budaya... Beda Bahasa... Beda Pemikiran ?

Minggu pertama saya di Houston terasa cukup berat. Bukannya mengeluh, cuma sedikit sharing bahwa saya baru bisa keluar dari hotel di hari ke-tiga, itupun hanya keliling-keliling komplek hotel yang luasnya berhektar-hektar itu. Rasanya seperti dalam kapal (vessel), sampai paru-paru terasa sesak karena hanya menghirup udara dari AC selama 3 hari berturut-turut. Ketika berhasil keluar menghirup udara segar... ah... sungguh menyenangkan !

Di kursus ini cuma saya sendiri yang dari Indonesia... lainnya kebanyakan dari US, Canada, Inggris, dan Spanyol. Ada juga yang dari Scottland, Ireland, Australia, Trinidad, Brazil, dan yang paling dekat dengan Indo: Vietnam.

Kalau di kantor di Jakarta saya terbiasa berkomunikasi (pasif dan aktif) dalam bahasa Inggris, ternyata berbahasa Inggris 24 jam dalam sehari sungguh melelahkan... Berbicara mengenai pekerjaan dalam bahasa Inggris yang baku mungkin umum bagi saya, tapi ketika berhadapan dengan teman-teman dari US, Canada dan Inggris dalam kelompoknya, suasananya sungguh berbeda dengan berbicara dengan mereka di Jakarta. Ternyata sulit sekali menangkap arti obrolan mereka yang sering menggunakan istilah slang atau non formal. Rasanya ketika kita mau buka mulut selalu ketinggalan karena sering kita men-translate dulu dalam pikiran kita, sementara mereka sudah cas-cis-cus sambung menyambung. Kadang rasanya hanya ingin bicara kalau ditanya saja..hehehe...pundung.....

Kalau di Jakarta, mungkin karena berada di negara orang, para bule itu cenderung bicara lebih lambat dan menggunakan bahasa baku. Kalau grammar kita salah-salah dikit mereka pun mengerti. Tapi di Houston sini, mereka sering ga ngerti kalau kita salah grammar sedikit, kadang suka ngebetulin lagi... ih... sebel juga !

Yang kayak gini sempet bikin saya mangkel pas kerja kelompok. Rasanya mau sumbang pendapat kok ga pas terus timingnya. Saking keselnya saya diem aja, tapi ngerjain tugas lain sementara mereka sibuk berdebat. Saya jadi berpikir, apa ini karena waktu sekolah saya tidak terlatih untuk berbicara di depan umum ya... juga tidak terlatih menulis essay ... sehingga kemampuan bicara saya jadi kalah kalau dibanding mereka, padahal kalau dari segi isi pembicaraan sih ga kalah..... cuma dari segi 'kosmetik' dan 'wrapping' masih banyak yang harus ditingkatkan.

Ada lagi yang lucu... kalau mereka melempar joke .... karena beda budaya, sering yang lucu bagi mereka tidak lucu bagi kita atau sebaliknya. Jadi yang sering terjadi adalah... saya tertawa ketika semua orang sudah selesai tertawa....hahahaha....

Dan 'gongnya' adalah ketika pada hari-hari terakhir di sana, saking rindunya berbahasa Indonesia, saya menyapa rekan dari Vietnam seperti berikut:

"Hi Lien Ha, apa kabar ? Capek ya ?"

Terang aja yang ditanya cuma bengong...hahahaha...

NASA - Houston Space Center

As per scheduled, today's program is half day visit to NASA continued by half day shopping in Katy Mall. I tell you about the Katy Mall later on.

About 20 of us took the organised transportation bus to go to NASA. A day before a ticket of $12 has been purchased through the conference management team. The original ticket price is around $ 20, so we got discount. There is also another option which is to become a member, this way you never have to pay again for your multiple visits in a year time.

The door was open promptly at 10 a.m. When we enter the building, we can see a giant playground & climb activity for children on the right side, and in front of us is the door leading to the Tram. Before boarding the tram, they took our pictures with a greenbackdrop - which turn out they digitally changed into some NASA backdrop.

Me and Gene Kranz -

the flight director who took Apollo 13 safely back to the earth

on a dinner held separately as part of my course program

First stop is the Mission Control Building, where they control and monitor the astronouts activities in the International Space Station (ISS). Through a glass window we can see the flight director and his team take in charge and schedule the activities in ISS. The flight director held the highest hierarchy in the mission, even President of USA can not overrule him when he is in a mission. The guide explained that the ISS that seems floating above earlth is in fact moving with speed of 17,000 mph that means the astronouts experiences 16 sunrise and 16 sunset every day !!

Next stop is the building where they put the mock up of Space Shuttle - to train astrounots on the living environment outside of earth. To feel the "no gravity" situation, astronouts are "drowned" with their full suites into a big tank. Looks like NASA is very busy in their mission to put "living quarters" on the moon which I heard will be sometime in 2020, and their first mission to Mars which is planned for 2030.

We then stopped at the "Rocket Park" - where inside a warehouse building they displayed the Saturn V Rocket - one of the rocket that launch the Apollo mission. It is huge..... as you can see below.

And finally, the tram went back and I went to the souvenir shop to pick up something for my family. The space center have a lot of other attractions such as the Gallery where you can see the moon rock, or "blast off" where you can experience the high thrust when you are in space shuttle, but unfortunately I do not have time as we are heading to Katy Mills Outlet Mall at 1 pm.

Crusing the Clear Lake - Gulf of Mexico

Akhirnya... setelah seminggu penuh kursus dari pagi sampai malam (termasuk kerja kelompok bikin case studies), hari ini puncaknya minggu pertama terlewati. Cape banget rasanya tiap malam tidur jam 11 paling cepat... cape pikiran juga karena tau di kantor banyak kerjaan yang ga kepegang.... Belum rasa kangen sama anak2 di rumah. Kok ya kepikiran mereka terus, mudah2an mereka sehat2 saja.....

Barusan pulang dari naik kapal pesiar di Clear Lake sama teman-teman kursus satu cadre. Entah kenapa dikasih nama Clear Lake, yang jelas itu bukan Lake (lebih tepat disebut Teluk Meksiko a.k.a Gulf of Mexico) dan tidak Clear, karena airnya keruh.

Anyway, great experiences... ini foto-fotonya...

Transiting in Hongkong

Surprise... I can write before I arrive in Houston !

That's good news, the bad news is I thought that my flight going directly Singapore to San Francisco. Little that I know, this flight is going to have 1 hour transit inHongkong. So you can imagine to get to Houston, I have to transit in 3 cities, 3 countries Singapore, Hongkong, and San Francisco ! Not good eh... ?

Another good news is I found mini USB Charger in Changi. It costed me Sing $ 27, but it allows me to get connected to the world... so be it...

All right, I'm about to re-boarding in again.

With Love from Chiang Kai Sek Airport
Hongkong

On My Way to Houston

Yep.. right... I'm heading US now.. Houston to be more precise. I was enrolled to this good course last year but I had to postponed due to work-life balance. Now, I have no excuse not to go. Besides, not all people can be nominated to this course - so why waste the chance.

That's the good part.

The sad part is to leave the kids behind for 2 whole weeks.

My eldest, he never complaint before if I had to travel abroad. But today, he hugged me closely... and said..... "So you are going to come back 2 weeks from now ? It's two Sunday from now, isn't it ? It's too long... " and he started asking what was this trip all about.

From Jakarta I'm gonna transit in Singapore ... for 1 hour. That's not enough time for me to find a USB charger for my cell phone. I don't know, seems that I always left behind something... That really gets me uneasy... I did not tell my husband that I forgot to bring my cell phone charger, I know what his reaction would be !

From there I will fly 17 hours non stop to San Francisco, and take Continental Airline to Houston. This is my first 'alone' trip, don't have anybody from my office ... and what's not fun about it is I need to speak English 24/7 and go around Houston for sightseeing (most probably) by myself.

Anyway.... I'm about to Pray now in the next mushala... Probably I will not write until I arrive and settle in Houstonian Hotel. I'll share nice pictures of Houston... and probably SFO airport later on...

Wassalam,
From Esplanade Lounge - Soekarno Hatta Airport