Budaya Mengunyah

Hello from Canada!! Ya inilah pertama kalinya gw bikin postingan setelah sekian lama dan kini gw nulis (atau ngetik) di Canada. Alhamdulillah dapet kesempatan buat kuliah di University of Alberta, walaupun masih harus nyelesain beberapa dokumen, doakan aja lancar dan kuliahnya kesampean dan sukses. Gw dateng di Edmonton tanggal 1 Juli, pas saat Canada day. Sayangnya gw masih Jetlag dan ketinggalan banyak saat pesta kembang apinya. Masih sempet menikmati juga suasana malam Canada day dan ketemu orang gak dikenal tapi gak kalah ramah sama orang yang gw kenal. Mereka saling sapa-menyapa satu sama lain mengucapkan selamat Canada day. So sweet.

Hari ke 14 di sini…. ada satu hal yang menarik buat gw. Mungkin lo semua udah pada tau kalo Inggris dan mungkin sebagian besar negara-negara barat punya budaya minum (bir) yang kental, terutama Inggris (menurut guru EF gw). Tapi menurut gw ada satu budaya lagi yang gw liat di Canada, yaitu mengunyah permen karet…..

Ini semua berawal dari beberapa pengalaman pertama gw naik LRT (subway), gw duduk berhadapan sama orang (mungkin seumuran sama gw tapi rada tuaan dikit) lagi ngunyah permen karet, menarik perhatian gw karena setiap kali gw ngeliat orang lagi ngunyah permen karet, gak tau kenapa mukanya jadi songong. Pengen juga gw gebukin rasanya. Makin sering, sampe hari ini pas gw lagi beli nomor hape, ketiga orang di front desk ngeluarin permen karet dari kantong baju mereka dan mereka barengan ngunyah permen karet di depan gw. T*i.

Tepat sehari sebelum gw beli nomor hape, gw penasaran apa bedanya permen karet di Indonesia dan di Canada. Akhirnya gw beli permen karet bermerek sama dengan yang dikunyah tukang nomor hape (ya ketiganya ngeluarin permen karet dengan merek yang sama)

Pertama gw kira mungkin permen karet Canada rasanya lebih tahan lama, tapi setelah gw kunyah sama aja, setelah sekitar 3 menit rasanya udah hilang. Padahal yang gw liat orang-orang di sini bisa tahan ngunyah tuh permen karet sekitar 2 stasiun kereta yang berarti 8 menitan dan mungkin lebih. Tahan amat ngunyah barang hambar kayak begituan. Menurut gw apa mungkin ini budaya mereka juga ya? hahaha. who knows, I didn’t ask them.

Wayang, Mahabharata. Indonesia/India? mencuri?

Kenapa wayang? ya pertama-tama perkenalkan hobby saya yang baru. sekarang saya suka wayang. semua bermula dari komik asal Indonesia yang diterbitkan koloni komik dan dikarang oleh Is Yuniarto, yaitu Garudayana. untuk yang belum tahu komik apa itu, anda bisa cari post saya yang sebelumnya karena saya sudah pernah bahas tentang komik itu. keren juga komiknya, asli Indonesia lagi. terus tanpa sengaja saya ketemu novel tentang wayang, judulnya “The Darkness of Gatotkaca”, yang nulis namanya Piyoto Amrih. mulai dari situlah saya mengerti lebih jauh tentang wayang. bagaimana manusia terdiri dari 2 sisi yaitu sisi baik dan jahat. tidak ada makhluk yang 100% benar atau salah, baik maupun jahat. sekalian ini adalah budaya asli Indonesia (hmm sebenernya ini yang mau saya bahas di post ini) jadi saya lebih bangga lagi. bagi saya sama aja kayak mythology-mythology Yunani. kalau Yunani punya Zeus, Wayang punya Batara Indra; kalau Yunani punya Hercules, wayang punya Gatotkaca. ya sekian dulu paragraf pembuka ini, pembahasan sebenarnya akan dimulai di paragraf 2.

Di judul ini saya memakai kata mencuri. sebenarnya apa yang mau saya bahas? ya pertama-tama saya sudah gak ragu lagi tentang kepemilikan wayang. UNESCO sudah mengukuhkan wayang sebagai warisan budaya milik Indonesia pada 7 november 2003. tapi bagaimana tentang cerita-cerita yang ada di wayang itu sendiri? Mahabharata? Ramayana?

saya mencari di google dengan kata kunci Wayang lalu Mahabharata. saya klik link-link wikipedia (biasa gak mau repot, jadinya baca di wikipedia). biar adil saya klik pertama sumber yang berbahasa Indonesia lalu yang berbahasa Inggris. dalam 2 bahasa dua-duanya mengakui Mahabharata dan Ramayana dikarang oleh pujangga India. pertanyaannya sekarang adalah, “Apakah kita mencuri budaya India?”

Kita sudah sering marah, ketika budaya-budaya kita diakui oleh negara tetangga. lalu bagaimana mengenai pustaka-pustaka tersebut? apakah Indonesia mencurinya? mungkin argumen yang bisa saya berikan adalah, “Indonesia menyadur bukan mencuri”. Perjalanan cerita tersebut sampai ke Indonesia berawal dari pujangga-pujangga India yang berkelana ke Indonesia pada jaman perdagangan. masuklah budaya India ke Indonesia seperti agama Hindu dan juga cerita pewayangan yang kita kenal sekarang. Akhirnya bercampurlah budaya India dengan budaya Indonesia dan pada perkembangannya Indonesia memiliki ciri-ciri khususnya sendiri. banyak perkembangan di wayang Indonesia yang tidak ada di cerita India. seperti tokoh Antareja yang ternyata adalah asli tokoh wayang karya orang Indonesia.

hmmm mungkin saya gak bisa ngasih kesimpulan tentang apakah Indonesia mencuri atau tidak. sedikit kurang bertanggung jawab juga meninggalkan sebuah masalah tanpa penyelesaian. tapi apa boleh buat, tulisan ini ditulis hanya oleh seorang bocah yang baru lulus SMA.

Ada yang mau berkomentar?

Garudayana

There was a legend

in the world of Arcapada

about whom is titled the Gaganesvara

the king of the sky…

the wind praises Him

thunder was conquered

the dragons fled from His sight

and this is the tale….

that’s the english opening from” Garudayana” that I tried to translate from Bahasa Indonesia. Garudayana according to the storywrought and also as the Artist, Is Yunarto, means “the tale of Garuda”. It’s a comic that’s written and drawn by Indonesian ; that’s why I bought this comic from the first place. It’s great to see Indonesian comic book among those from japan in most bookstores in Indonesia. in my opinion, if we want to be proud of Indonesia, firstly support what Indonesia is doing. So I think by supporting Indonesia comic books, the books will be something that we can proud of someday. It still needs improvements. and to make a good improvements something needs to be supported.

back to Garudayana. I don’t know exactly when the story took place. I think it’s in the same time like in “wayang story” (wayang is a traditional Indonesian puppet show. For more infos just google it.). Kirana is a treasure hunter. She someday went to the Batara’s ancient ruins and there she found the last egg of Garuda (it’s a mythical bird shaped like eagle). The egg was searched by many creatures and people for several purposes, like the one kirana firstly encountered, The Ashura (a demon). Kirana was saved by gatotkaca (it’s a legendary character and He belongs to many legend, including Indonesia, India also claims to have a legend about Gatotkaca, but fortunately we don’t have any claim-fighting about it. maybe because it’s considered as religious legend than some country’s legend). the egg hatched and so It’s a new task for Kirana to guard the last Garuda and The garuda has to train to become the king of the sky like a garuda should be. ok that’s some about the story.

In my opinion this comic can be qualified like those japanese comic because it has good stories. it’s taken from a legend and from what I know many of japanese comics’ story is also taken from legend. and salute to Is yuniarto for being so creative to create such a comic with such a topic.

The characters are also taken from legend and more about it, It contains indonesian legend in it. like Garuda, Gatotkaca, the Punakawan Trio, Semar and Arjuna. eventhough some of those characters are also used in other country’s legend, Indonesia also has its distinctive points that differentiate it from the same character in other country. for example in India, gatotkaca only able to enlarge his body, but He doesn’t have iron muscles like Indonesia has told about Gatotkaca. so overall it’s a good work. It’s worth to be proud of and I’m proud of it.

It actually just released on august 2009 and I only see the first book at the bookstores. I’m looking forward for the next book.

Gatotkaca in Garudayana. cool isn’t it? and this is Arjuna

SBY’s 2nd term

SBY-Boediono inauguration was held today, so SBY is officially the president of Indonesia once again. maybe it’s for the last time, because according to UUD 45 someone can apply for a position only for 2 times.  so Mr. SBY, do your best this time.

we know that not all the citizen of Indonesia agree that SBY become our president again. It’s alright in my opinion for us to have different opinions toward SBY becoming our president again. honestly, I don’t prefer SBY to be the president, but that’s the decision. SBY has gone through the democracy process in the presidential election this year. so I think He is legitimate to be our president, despite every issues of data manipulation accused to SBY.

I resent all the protest acts of disaggrement that have occured since yesterday. why they do the acts now? I think it’s useless since SBY and Boediono have been augurated. they only make the situation worse. if they really disaggre with the decision of making SBY to be the president, they can do it when the decision just been made. not one day before the president to be augurated.

In my opinion, the best stance for us now is to support the government’s programs. if there’s a disaggrement we should discuss it in the way of democracy. not by the late acts that make nothing to be better like the acts protesting the election result happened today.

The Ruler of Nabari

I went to a bookstore to buy some things for school and in addition I bought this manga. the title is “The Ruler of Nabari”. I haven’t known anything yet about this Manga except it’s about ninja world and about the synopsis that I read on the back of the book.

“Well don’t judge a book only by its cover” ,but first impression of a book does come from its cover.

I took a glimpse on the back cover. it showed an image of Shuriken ( it’s a ninja weapon. just google it ), so my first assumption was this manga would be about ninja.but the front cover really interests me. unlike other manga about ninja that the characters wear some costums that make them look like in an old age, the cover shows a character dress in usual school uniform. in my opinion it’s cool.

the main character itself is potrayed as a regular junior high student, except for His ignorance and His potential in Ninja power. so the story, I assume, will take place not only in Ninja world but also in normal daily life. might be different from Naruto that the story takes place in a 100% Ninja world. there might be some urban life exposed in this manga. that’s why I decide to buy it (and maybe I will put it in my collection list).

I think this manga won’t be as popular as Naruto in my place. but that’s fine. it’s cool to collect a manga that people seldomly collect

huh there’s nothing much to tell yet because I haven’t even broken the seal so I haven’t read the manga. It’s not a right time for me for a manga reading I plan my SAT and TOEFL schedules earlier and I have to prepare more intensively to reach high scores.

But I have googled some image about this manga and the results get not far from my assumption. most of the characters wear usual clothes like school uniform. these are some image results of it

another good news Nabari no Ou Manga scan is available on Onemanga

Hometown

finally after two years, I can go to my hometown this idul Fitri. well a bit late to call it this Idul fitri. It’s almost a week after it. actually people are already going back and I just spend my first day today.

I was woke by my dad from my sleep 4 o’clock this morning. I slept tight but I felt I didn’t sleep well enough. we headed to airport at 5. My brother drove us. tomorrow He is heading back to Bandung.

our flight was at 7 o’clock. but my dad intended to take the 6 if possible. but it just took off. I had one hour of waiting. should be able to sleep but I preffered to read Twilight. FYI I waited in one room with “Debu”. well I had the same flight with them. they were also heading to Surabaya. on the flight I still continued my reading. I just slept when the pilot told we’re going to take off.

we stayed at our relative’s for around 20 minutes and then we headed to Tuban. and finally We arrived around 2 PM.

well talking about hometown, I am not really sure if I can call this place my hometown. actually my parents were born here. I was born outside Tuban and just one year after that we moved back to Tuban. I didn’t remember most of my childhood. most of the part I remember are the moment I grew up in Jakarta until now. So where’s my hometown exactly? the place I was born? well no memory about them. Jakarta? hahaha I don’t think it’s such a nice place to be called my “hometown” .

I am in a bit of trouble right now. so one of the reasons I come here is to find a peaceful mind. it’s a good thinking that I just left my chemist homework back in jakarta just before I got in the car this morning.

so far everything’s good . I can be relaxed here. I talked with my grandma. told her everything I knew about Indonesia right now. My grandma has a big interest in our nation right now. She’s a great person I told you.

I took a sleep here very tightly. I am sure  I was lack of sleep this morning. no AC in here but still I slept comfortably.

well I can be relaxed at least until monday I think….. Bye!

Tamagotchi ver.6-Music Star

maybe this is another unusual thing for me to do. but yeah I have a tamagotchi . firstly I got my original Bandai tamagotchi was only this ramadhan. I bought the version 5 Familitchi that time. I went to kidz station at Kelapa gading and I found the ver 5 on sale for 50% discount. so it was priced only Rp 89.500 . so cheap for a tamagotchi to be priced under Rp 100.000. so I bought it.

It is so interesting to have one. then I check the website and get some information about the latest version 6, the Music Star. the ver 6 is a music-theme tamagotchi. you aren’t just raising a tamagotchi but you are making it a music star too. from the internet I found it has 20 and more instrument available for your tamagotchi to use.

I love music so I buy it. well it’s still new so the price hasn’t been reduced yet. I bought it for Rp 250.000 . huh quite a price. fortunately I feel satisfied after it. and again it can connect to my ver 5 tamagotchi so my old tamagotchi won’t be wasted. The design that I have is called “Scarlet Rhythm”. it is red with piano tuts and some key notes drawn on it. I like the design. it looks classic. just like a theme for classic music. red is also cool for me. glad I found this design.  there is another design called “symphony”, but It’s pink so I don’t like it.

now is the 5th day i raise my tamagotchi (every day the tamagotchi will age 1 year). it just married. he is using a mic right now. actually I’m looking forward for a violin. but i don’t know how to get it, except getting it randomly after the baby’s born. but that means I have to  start it over and over until I get the violin . I even have started over to get a male tamagotchi. so how many times do I have to start over to get a male and violin tamagotchi? hahahaha

I can’t connect to the web because I don’t have any infra-red appliances to connect my tamagotchi to my PC. I bet there are lots of interesting things, if  I can.

so can anyone help me to get a violin for my tamagotchi?

Twilight-the novel

Who doesn’t know about this Twilight? yup most of you must have known about this Stephenie Meyer’s bestseller novel. the first novel of the four-book saga, has been brought into movie and coming soon the second book, New Moon, will also be brought into movie.

although the last book, Breaking Dawn, has been released since february 2008, I just bought this book two days ago. without any planning before, I just bought this book when I searched for TOEFL and SAT prep book. thinking that I have watched the movie and I like it, so when I saw this book I took it.

well, no wonder why many people like this book. It’s quite addictive when I read it. I planned to read it one chapter each day, but now it is only the second day but I already read half all the chapters hahaha (it contains of 24 chapters).

eventhough the movie has some differences from the novel, watching the movies still makes me easier to read. I remember some scene from the movie when I read it. so it’s not that hard to imagine the novel. but I prefer to read the book first, you’ll get the thrill better.

The second movie will be released soon, so I hope I could finish the second book before the movie is out. yup I guess I’ll collect all the books hahaha.

Alice in Wonderland poster

The mad Hatter! this is the poster of upcoming movie Alice in Wonderland. showing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. eccentric as usual.

My Movie list

Well guys!!! Holiday has come!!!!

But  since I’m a XII grade student, which means “prepare for your future!” , consider that holiday doesn’t mean as interesting as ever hahaha. well, school don’t give me much homework for this holiday. I just get a chemistry task to make a review about “Kimia unsur” for this holiday. but that’s not it. I have to prepare for the tests to enter those  universities, because next year I’ll be attending college (may God blesses me) . well, many things have to be prepared.

ok ok. that’s not what I’m talking right now. this Holiday I find so many great movies which already  been released or will be released soon. It’s been a while since the Ramadhan begins. maybe they are holding on those movies to be released because of Ramadhan hahahaha. guess you know the reason, Me, myself is a bit uninterested to watch movies on Ramadhan.

ok just move on to my list of movies which I want to watch:

[ x] G force

guess I’m watching this soon, since it’s already been released and it’s an animated movie which means no problem to watch it on Ramadhan.

[ X] Alice in wonderland

I’ve always been interested to watch Johnny Depp in His another eccentric character. Now He plays the role of “the tea guy with a hat”. But, I don’t really know the story so I don’t really know what “the tea guy with a hat” role is hahahahaha. and I just know that there will be pirates of the carribean 4. ok let’s be as mad as a hatter then hehe

[ X] Sherlock Holmes

[ X] New Moon

[ ] Planet 51

I just watch the trailer from Cinemags’s bonus CD. I love the idea of making the human as the alien in another planet haha

[ X] Marvel’s heroes

such as Spiderman 4, Ironman 2, and at the top they’re gonna be met in one movie, “The Avengers”. Cool!!!

guess that’s all I think for now. I don’t think that I’ll be able watch them all. huh XII grade!!