Pages of Mariskova

Yep. Life is full. Period.
That's what I've been feeling for a month. Well, of course, not just this month that I've learned a life lesson, I believe every month, or every day, the lesson is there waiting. However, in this particular month, things have gone a bit... too much. Almost. That's why my conclusion to end this month is Life if Full. Of lessons, of choices, of sadness, of happiness, of tears, of laughs, of many things.
I bet you don't understand a bit what I'm saying, do you? hehehehe....
Now, let me just tell you what happened this month, before I'm starting to transform into a kind of philosopher you all hate about... By the way, this will be an awfully long story. So make sure your kids are sleeping, your hubby/wife/honey doesn't bother you staring at the monitor, and most importantly, you have your boss stuck in the toilet for a long time!

First of all, the news that I(!) have to move out from this apato and that we won the dorm (instead of the university apato) shook my life's yin and yang. It's kind of difficult to move out because I've felt at home here, and that's rare! The only place I've called home is the Halim's house. But, well, I finally agree to move out. For the sake of world peace. And of course, the promise of some nice compensations from Papap ;b

And then out of the blue, I decided to join the blogfam's August 17 competition (Wish me luck, puhleeeezzz). I nearly couldn't come up with something. I didn't have any ideas at all of what to write about the Independence ceremony since we live far from the Indonesian embassy and we wouldn't be able to go there to attend the ceremony. More to that, the owner of this computer brought the computer along with him to campus and that left me with no computer at all. How could I write? I also had to wait for Hikari to sleep (at 1 am!) before I could sit down and type something! Still the problem was: what should I write? But then, something struck me! Not something, then. Someone! You can read who in my posting below.
On the D-day, the August 17, I spent the Independence Day eating out, or should I say, eating in the room of our Bangladeshi friends, in the campus dormitory. This Bangladeshi couple invited us (our family and other Indonesian friends) for lunch. Really really yummy..mmm... It came in a complete course: appetizer, main course, and dessert. So, it was quite amusing: having Bangladeshis treated us on our Independence Day. Please don't say it's ironic...
While riding my bike to the dorm, I decided to take some photos of the road we have to take from our apato to the dorm. This road will become legendary for us, later when we move to the dorm because it will be the road from the dorm to... civilization... ahhh...



Start from the upper left: the road from our recent apato. It's faaaarrrrrrr behind that road. Then the road to campus, on the upper right. Left below, the scenery along the road. Right below, the shinkansen station in front. Behind the station is the road to the dorm, the hills, and behind the hills is the the campus.
And when you see the pictures below, they are the forever-climbing road to the dorm. You can actually see the building among the trees. Nice place. For meditation.





After that, Saturday the 20th came. We went to Kumagaya -a city 20 minutes away by train- for hanabi. This is my first hanabi as well as Hikari's. Together with Papap's friends from campus, we set up a mat at the Arakawa's river bank. Unfortunately, we don't have a camera that's good enough for advanced photography since its main use is as a handycam. But, may be you can check the pictures of these fireworks in Ully's blog, that is if she finally decides to sit down in front of her computer and update her blog huahhaahaha.... Meanwhile, I provide you with some pictures of the hanabi from my camera.



The river bank was already crowded when we arrived at 5 pm. The hanabi itself didn't start until 7 pm! At first, Hikari didn't like the sound of the fireworks. He even cried in the first 1 hour. But after that he got used to it, well, after we closed his ears so to speak. So he watched the fireworks with his ears closed for 2 hours!







They look like stars above me, don't they. Actually, the moon at that night was quite pretty. And it was in full shape too.


After hanabi, I got some news from Jakarta that my parents are going to move out too in a couple of months. Actually, the plan is there for ages, but I just keep wishing it won't happen. Thinking that I won't ever be able to see my old house again quite depresses me. I just so happen to love the house very much. And that even doesn't make sense, you see, because when we return to Indonesia, I won't even live in that house again anyway! I mean it's my parents' house, not mine, and I have to leave someday... But, somehow, I just can't get rid of the memory that I've spent 99% of my life in that house. I guess that's all I can keep.
But, that news is not the worst news, eventually. A couple of days later the worst news reached me: my dad was hospitalized for hemorraghic stroke (read: brain bleeding). It hit me so hard because I know my dad doesn't have high blood pressure. I couldn't sleep for a couple of days and got my self a migraine. I didn't know if I had to return to Indonesia or what. Finally, I decided I stayed, for various of reasons.
My dad is Hikari's best friend. They were always had mischievous plans around the house. Hikari even inherited his style and his humor.


Alhamdulillah, he wasn't unconscious. He stayed in the hospital more than a week, and then he was able to return home. The doctors advised him lots of things such as less salt, less fat, less all of the yummy-edible food. Another important advice from the doctors is no stress! My dad actually giggled when he told me this. He said how could he be in a stress if he didn't have anything in his mind at all... Once he started to make jokes, I knew he'd be alright.

Our next duty was to take Hikari to hokken senta (health center). Every child that is 3 years old in Honjo would get a health check up. For free! So, after filling a long questioneer about Hikari's health and abilities (e.g. can he do this and that? can he see an object? can he hear something? etc.) we went to that place. For 2 hours, Hikari got a complete med check up, from body, teeth, ears, eyes, etc. Hmm... may be this is what our Pusyandu's supposed to do... Well, I don't know, I've never been to Pusyandu before. Before we went home, we were given a bit of advice on how to raise a healthy and happy kid. Wow! It's like all the pages in the parenting books. The best part is this is free! Papap was there too (or else I didn't know how to get to the place). He was the only 5 men in the whole building, excluding the kids and including 2 male doctors. Hehehehe.... Although he was a bit 'shy' at first to enter the building, he was relieved because he found there were 2 other Dads inside among 60 something women. Hihihihihihiii.... Thumbs up for you, Pap!

I think another peak in this month's story is when Hikari's going to school. He started kindergarten on the 25th. He's been waiting for this day ever since he arrived in this country. Yes, that long! It's because in Jakarta he was already in preschool and he missed the playground and the kids, I think. We prepared him for starting school for... 4 months so that he would be fine at school without us. And this first day could be a wonderful day, really, except for the rain. That day, a big typhoon hit Japan, so the rain was pouring down heavily all day long. Having no car and being unable to ride a bus (no bus is going to our direction) or a taxi, we decided to take Hikari to school by bike. One hand held the steer/handle, the other held an umbrella. We didn't have a raincoat for Hikari, so we put him in his winter coat. Keep him dry, that's what matters most! We're glad Hikari enjoyed the first day of school. He didn't even look for us. Our worries that he might not be able to understand instructions disappeared at once. Although Hikari speaks bahasa and his teachers speak Japanese, they seemed to understand each other very well...

Then suddenly, the apartment seems 'empty'. I've prepared myself for this time for a few months, but Papap hasn't. These 3 days, Papap kept saying how quiet -not peaceful- the house is :( He even made time to wait for Hikari's school bus at the pick up point behind our building, just to see if his son was doing okay. Fortunately, his son was okay! So, everyday, I have new tasks: taking Hikari to the pick up point to wait for his school bus, picking up Hikari from the school bus, and cooking after Subuh pray... the last one is the spoiler, surely! After 3 days at school, he can already say, "Ari kan udah bisa sendiri, Ma." Hmmmm..... our son is a big little guy now (my husband said, half proudly, half sadly).