love you both, dear friends!

Dear Anna Williams, and
Katherine Burley

Hi girls, do you remember those pictures?
Oh, how time flies so fast. And, I miss you.
I just wanted to treasure such great memories we had during my exchange year program in the States. Thanks for being one of the greatest people who genuinely shared many loves, laughter, and stories in my life. I hope we can meet sometimes in the near future, on some places on the earth. Please kindly keep in touch.

Much love,

" If I Had A Wing,.."

I missed the place above. It is one of my favorite places in Ridgewood, New Jersey, on my exchange year program. You can see from the picture, it was taken on 04.12.2006. It was such a peaceful pond to spend hours by hours, searching inspirations, writing poems, and remembering home, remembering my parents while singing alone "If I had a wing.." You might wonder what strange song that is. If you think so, you are not wrong. That song is English version, from my own translation. I transleted one of my favorite song. Here is the lyric " Andaikan aku punya sayap, ku kan terbang jauh mengelilingi angkasa. Kan kuajak ayah bundaku, terbang bersamaku, melihat indahnya dunia.." Yeah, I always sang that song on that beautiful pond. The song is a pray and a hope that someday I will take my parents to various beautiful places in the world. Amieen.

I like biking and going no where without knowing the direction. I did alot in the States. When I told my host Mom that I wanted to bike, she was excitedly showing me a bike that my host sister used to ride. But not anymore since she moved to Connecticut for collage. Thanks alot Mom for your genuine kindness. After getting that bike, almost every weekend I rode a bike to go around the town and discovered something new. What I really amazed is American people really appreciate bikers. They have their own path which is safety and comfy.

Here is the story : I discovered the beautiful pond above on my biking adventure. I called it 'if i had a wing Pond'. On that day, I just kept biking around the Duck Pond area, a famous pond in Ridgewood. I just watched on the bike sign that always guide me. It also told me how many miles I already reached. Then, finally I discovered this place. There was not mouch people there, quite, and so peaceful. Then, I liked to sit down on that bench with my bike position parked and leaned on the bench. I always bring the pink dressy notebook that given by the kids I used to babysit in Child Development Class. Her name is Chloe. If I am not mistaken she gave me on the Halloween Day. Hehe.

I could freeze the times then, especially when I already got inspirations. That's why I always brought sandwitch and bottle of water with me. Almost forget, I also had friends accompanied me. They are mostly birds and ducks. We were already be friended. Then, I would start singing, "If I had a wing.."

This is the lyric of one of my favorite songs..

"Satu-satu daun-daun berguguran tinggalkan tangkainya,

Satu-satu burung kecil beterbangan tinggalkan sarangnya

Jauh, jauh, tinggi ke langit yang biru

Andaikan aku punya sayap

Ku kan terbang jauh mengelilingi angkasa

Kan ku ajak ayah bunda ku

Terbang bersama ku melihat indahnya dunia"

The song flew in to the sky with his own wings, witnessed by the leaves and the birds. Then all universes would answered 'Amiien'. It was my whisper prayer.

INDONESIA on her eyes: "democracy, modernity, and gender empowerment"

Dear readers,

Maybe you wonder why I put the picture of a woman with black blouse, beatiful smile, strong eyes, and using eye-glasses on the left side of my post. There for a reason.

She is one powerful lady in this country. Recently she is holding a high position in Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Directorte General of America and Europe Affairs. She is the alumni from the same department as mine, International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Bu Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, we used to call it, Bu Retno, in short. Bu Retno-Deplu more spesifically, because UGM has two prominent ladies whose name is Retno. The other one is UGM Senior Vice Rector for Academic, Research and Community Service (WRS P3M), Prof. Dr. Retno Sunarminingsih, M.Sc., Apt, who happened to be a wife of Bambang Sudibyo, our previous Indonesian Minister of Education.

Firstly I heard the name of Bu Retno Deplu was from my International Law lecturer, Mr. US who used to talked much about his various activities and his networks, including his good relation with with her. He further said that he still stayed in touch by text messaging her. Then, I started to know her more whan I was accepted to attend international event in Norway. I searched with Mr. Google to find out the Indonesian Ambassador for Norway, and surprissingly her name was appeared many times in the results, Retno LP Marsudy, Indonesian Ambassador to Norway. I got so excited then, since I knew that she is UGM alumni so I thought it would be easier to approach her for helping my coming to Norway.

Until finally, my friend from Universitas Indonesia who's also got accepted in International Student Festival in Trondheim, Norway told me that Bu Retno didn't work there anymore. She knew her very well because Bu Retno is a mother of her (ex) boyfriend. Oh, I see:)

Then, I finally met her in person when she visited UGM in the occasion of the Rector meeting with the US Ambassador and White House envoy to Indonesia. The meeting was uphold regarding the plan of Obama visit to Indonesia, in the month of March, including the plan to visit UGM.

I can see that H.E. Cameron Hume, US Ambassador to Indonesia is likely keen on visiting Yogyakarta and UGM, especially. This is the second visit of him. The first one is when the US Higher Educators visited Indonesia last November, if I am not mistaken. The purpose of all the meeting whether with US Higher Educators, US AMbassador, and White House envoy are basically the same. They want to strengthen the cooperation and relations with UGM, as one oldest and biggest university in Indonesia.

What I want to say in this post as you can read from the title, I was impressed with Bu Retno thought and principle that she shared in a small discussion with the Head of OIA, the Deputy of OIA, PCs, and friends. I got so many insights which was beneficial from my self-improvement. Her sentences that I remember the most are about :
First, we have to start knowing 'WHAT WE REALLY WANT'. We often reject things without understanding what we really want. I thought that's a typical of woman. I think. Hehe. Second is about INDONESIA, as a country with the largest moslem population in the world, Indonesia is famous of being a moderate contry. She underlined that, "If you see Indonesia, you see democracy, modernity, and gender empowerment".

That's being so unique about Indonesia.

image 1 : www.detiknews.com/images/content...rop2.jpg

image 2 : mystockvoice.files.wordpress.com