I did it!!!

At last I showed my naked body to my mother in law!!!!

Tonight Hiro is drinking with his colleagues. It's too far from home that I decided not to join. I was afraid not to be able to arrive home on time for Iki's bath and sleeping time.

Then my mother in law said that she would be glad to bath Iki. But she's very old and father in law was worried to let her alone in bath in Iki, so....as a good daughter I stepped in. I joined them taking ofuro (@_@).

Let's say this is a training for next week's onsen. When I must get naked together with many other strangers inside Japanese style public bath!

I felt so awkward and embarassed, and THANKS to Iki for playing with my breasts and showed them to my mother in law! (_ _;)

First day in Japan

We're in Japan now. What a long exhausting day. We got stuck in a traffic jam for hours (_ _o).

We stay at my parents in law's house in Tokyo. They pampered us with delicious Japanese dinner. Sashimi (raw fish), Ikura (raw salmon eggs), Shirasu (boiled soft anchovy), Hijiki (kind of seaweed, black), best Tofu I've ever had, ham, tarako (fresh Tara fish' egg), yakitori, boiled edamame (Japanese green bean), mozuku (kind of seaweed seasoned with vinegar and soy sauce), avocado with wasabi, fresh sliced octopus, and yakana shouga (kind of ginger) with miso paste.

Loooots of food that we're confused where to start hahaha. Tooo bad I was too tired and hungry that I didn't take any photo (_ _;).

If we're going to be pampered with these kind of food during our two weeks stay here, my body shaping program is sooo going to be ruined!! I'm afraid by the time I have to go naked in onsen with my mother in law, fats will be all over my body again. Huaaaaa!!!

(@_@)

Is he NOT happy spending time with me? He's crying all the time no matter how I'm trying to calm him down. Really is driving me into the edge!

I just can cry silently at the kitchen. So frustrating (@_@)

Broken heart

Iki was too tired and didn't have enough nap today that he kept shrieking and was so irritating after bath time. We were fighting during teeth brushing time, though at the end he was sorry and I could finish brushing his teeth.

But then on the bed he started shrieking again. I knew he was too tired but at last I couldn't stand it and talked to him *a bit* strongly. "Stop it, Iki!"

He looked at me angrily with his almost-crying-shape-lips, wave "bye bye" (means go away, mama!), turned his back to me, and fell asleep in a minute.

My heart was broken into pieces. I couldn't let his angry eyes and waving goodbye hand out of my mind afterwards. So sad.....(_ _o)

My BIG Little Sister

I miss her though it's only been 1.5 months since we last met. Especially when she texted me telling that she's going to be sent to Marampit Island to complete her training program (PTT).

Marampit island? where the hell is that? She just said that it's located at Talaud in North Sulawesi. I googled right away to find information that it is one of the 12 Indonesia's outer small islands which are potentially lead to conflict with the neighboring countries. It is located nearby the border line with Philippine, even closer to Philippine than to our mainland. Transportation depends on weather condition, and only small boat can reach that island once in 3 weeks (or more if the sea's not friendly). During bad weather time people can only eat Keladi (kind of potato?) since it's the only edible plant they can grow (can't even catch fish then). That island is surrounded by deep dangerous sea, and one big earthquake underwater could possibly "wash" it away. Electricity is only from 17:30 - 01:30 and no phone line available. Fresh water is also one luxurious thing. How can I not worry about her?!?!?!

Agnes: Don't worry. I'll bring a lot of food. Mama prepared abon cakalang pedas (dried fried spicy tuna) for 6 months.
Me: Hee? you won't have refrigerator there. It won't last long
Agnes: It's packed separately for each month. And I'll bring also lots of canned food, if you're still worried
Me: What about during bad weather time? you could only eat keladi as the main food
Agnes: I'll bring 20 kgs of rice and rice cooker!
Me: Hahaha RICE?!
Agnes: :p yeah
Me: Water? clean water is difficult to find there
Agnes: I'll bring water filter as well. Don't worry. I'm well prepared
Me: How would you manage to bring all those stuffs?! It would be only YOU
Agnes: I'm a doctor. There will always be someone around to help me. I can't wait to go there. I have lots of plans for that place. Would be tiring yet exciting. I want the people there to trust me and let me help them too. Please wish me luck!

Hmmmmm.....She is not my "little" spoilt sister anymore. She is my BIG little sister (^___^)

OMG!!!!!

I just finished my midnight bath and started to do my midnight routine: "dating" my PC. Accidentally I watched one of Hirai Ken's video clips during blog browsing. My eyes wide opened in a second as I remembered that hot singer.

I fell in love with his voice directly when I heard "Grandfather's clock -Ookina furu tokei" about four years ago during my rafting trip to Probollinggo with Hiro. That song, came out to be "our" song, kept running inside my head for days. I listened to it for so many times, sang it out loud, also used the melody for my cell phone's ringtone. Tick tack tick tack, I remember I made lots of friends frustrated listening to that song again and again :p. Too bad I couldn't find the clip at YouTube (_ _o).

But then I found this video clip. A new one. A rumor that he's a gay once broke my heart, but watching this clip......OMG!!! I don't believe that stupid rumor anymore. OMG OMG OMG. He's sooooo damn hot!!!! (duh sesek napas liatnya, sampe "semriwing semriwing" :p)



And I like this song as well. Hitomi wo Tojite...



Hirai Ken....I'm still in love with you (^________^)

Trying mobile blogging

It's 2:18 a.m now. I'm lying on my bed, in my dark room, typing from
my cell. Just finished watching downloaded Spiderman 3.

It's chilling tonight. The temperature has dropped these past three
days. Still wishing a little more summer sun would come again next
coming week. Though I'm afraid global weather changing has forced
autumn to visit early....

Saturday at Gangnam

"I'm bored. Let's go somewhere else..."

Was my greeting to Hiro when he woke up almost 11 a.m last Saturday. Thus we ended up waiting for the bus to Gangnam at 12.30 a.m; sweating after walking in a hurry in a humid summer day.

It took 1.5 hours to Gangnam. More than half an hour longer due to traffic jam. We were really hungry so we just chose the nearest restaurant we could find (of course after Hiro went in first to check the menu offered there). We stuffed ourselves at a bakery not far from the bus stop. I was too hungry that I didn't take any photo of the bakery or the large amount of tempting bread and pastries displayed. Something we would never find in Incheon, at least for now. The food was really nice, but pity we couldn't spend a little more time there since Iki wanted to get out of that place asap :(.

It was really a hot afternoon, and apparently Gangnam is not a place for relaxing with a baby around. It's a shopping area with lots of shops and cafes and bars, and hawkers along the streets. I used to enjoy Gangnam when I was still pregnant, but somehow I felt different now. Blame it to the heat? :p. At the end of the street we found a big book store, Kyobo. A perfect place to cool down and find something to read.

The foreign books section is not too large and I couldn't really find interesting novels there. But I found a pocket Korean phrase book by LonelyPlanet. Yeah right.....buying Korean language book just few months before we leave Korea?! HAHA!. But still, for me the book is worthed to buy.

We strolled the street once more, so that little Iki could enjoy walking here and there. But again it was too hot (how many times did I mention "HOT" already?! :p), and look what we could only "enjoy" in Gangnam:



People, people and people.
Yes. Lots of people that we could hardly walk. This phenomenon is just sooooo common everywhere we go, either in Incheon or Seoul. That's why we don't dare to go to the zoo or big amusement park. Once experience at an aquarium in Seoul is more than enough actually.

So we decided to go back to Incheon. Again Iki was a really good boy. Didn't sleep but didn't cry during the bus trip. I was dead tired when Hiro said: "At the end people would realize that home is the best place. Did you enjoy the trip, Shierly?"

I smiled and said, "Yes, I did. I could eat that very delicious bread and most of all could spend this saturday afternoon with you and Iki. And oh yes, I also got refreshed :p"

Hiro: "good answer otherwise I would punch you"

Hahahahahahahahaha hey....I did enjoy the trip!! (^__^)

Favourite author(s)

I like reading since I was very young. As far as I could remember, Bobo and Donald Duck were my weekly magazines when I was in early years of elementary schools. Then when I moved back to Banjarmasin from Manado, I started to attach to novels. I spent lots of times at the school libraries, and re-newed the cards often because I borrowed too many novels. My mom was always angry at that time because once I started to open a new novel, I would forget to eat, to nap and to study :p. At Junior high school I was introduced to Japanese comics by my friend and since then I became a big fan of them. Anyway I love reading. It could be novels, or comics, or magazines, or newspapers, or blogs, or even supermarket brochures (esp. SALE page ha ha!)

Now that I don't have much time anymore to read a lot, I become selected to some particular authors. I love Clara NG for Indonesian novels. I read all of her novels by now (not the children books she wrote), and always ask someone to send me one if there's new novel published. Her novels are a good balance of imagination, life values and great humors. All of her novels could make me laugh out loud, especially "The (Un)reality Show". I just couldn't stop laugh and read the book again and again :p

I am also a big fan of Dan Brown. Yeah yeah, because of the famous Da Vinci Code. But actually from all his novels, I love Angels and Demons the most. Dan Brown's novels' are rich of interesting scientific pieces, religion's facts and phenomenons (usually kind of testing my belief hehehe), as well as adventures. I'm waiting forward for his next novel, waiting forward to be drown into his next adventure (^___^)

And other one is OF COURSE Rowling and the best seller Harry Potter series. I believe you all know why I collect all the Harry potter books and intend to bring them whenever I go. I want Iki to read these books also later in the future!! (and perhaps his kids? hahahha)

But it doesn't mean that I don't read other novels. Now I'm reading The Alchemist, a birthday gift from Uti. Some people I know said that this book is a magnificent piece, and I'm going to prove it myself pretty soon (^_-)v

Do you like reading novels? Who is your favorite author(s)?

It's finished.....

It's 2:27 AM, and I just finished reading it. The last book of Harry Potter. Can't believe that the whole series have been finished. Feel relieved that now I know the ending yet feel empty that I won't be able wait (curiously) or read Harry's next adventures.

Anyway I've been enjoying these last four days with Harry. Thanks Ibu Rowling!! For the awesome imagination you shared us. And thanks Hiro for buying me that book and for being so understanding to take care of Iki whenever I felt like reading :p

PS: Anyone wants to know the story? I'd be more than glad to share hehehe

My treasure

This is only one box of treasure I brought from Manado. From instant noodles, canned food, Indonesian tea, beng-beng, kacang hijau to gula merah. From antangin (my only powerful medicine!) to beras kencur. From dried chillies to kemiri.



There's still another box with jars of dried home made food, sambal khas Bu Rudi (I looooveeeeee ENYO!!!!), spiku cake (from Enyo again), and some novels from Valens. Plus additional package sent from my mother with sexy clothes and accessories from Mariza and lots of clothes for Iki. I'm really satisfied though I couldn't bring more boxes here.

And look what I found in my mailbox this afternoon. My Harry Potter. At last I received it after waiting like ages from 21st of July. Pre-ordered means that they sent it on the 21st July and I had to wait like half month to have it delivered. Meanwhile lots other people have finished reading it (including Sheila!). Amazon delivered it in a special Harry Potter edition package. Too bad it will go to my trash bin :p but anyway YAY!!! I'm happy!!!!!!

It means, dear friends....I will take holiday from blogging or chatting for a while since my reading time would only be at night. Same time with my routine blogging or chatting time :p



See you again with the ending of Harry Potter's story ;))

Billy's Bootcamp

Hiro said something alarming 2 days ago:

Hiro: hmmm kamu look fat ne....esp. cheek area
Me: WHAT?! (shocked)
Hiro: fat dan hitam sekali :p
Me: hitam no problem. Fat?! Really??????????

It's really a sensitive matter for me. Well OK, I still have lots of Indonesian food and especially sambal Bu Rudi from Enyo. I know they're responsible to the uncontrollable raised of my weight. Plus the midnight snack I have lately. Deep in my heart I actually realize that I gain some kilos in this past few weeks. But still.....when someone finally really mentioned that I looked fat, oh well I'm freaking out :p

So at 12:30 a.m I grabbed my hula hoop and did some weight lifting as well. It was when Hiro said again that the hula hoop might not help much for my body shaping. He said that he read somewhere about a popular aerobic method in Japan nowadays. We looked for information right away and turned out that the popular method is tae bo workouts.

It's Billy's bootcamp and the reviews said that the DVD series are really effective for body shaping. Almost bought the DVD from Amazon when Hiro realized that it could be downloaded from BitTorrent. Well, his motto is: "Why should I pay for something I can free downloaded?" :p

Anyway then I tried the exercise. Gosh, I only did 20 minutes exercise but it could already sweat me out. Much more than what I had from Yoga practice (what a comparison hahaha). I felt so healthy and great afterwards. When Iki's asleep I tried the full 1 hour exercise. Have been doing it for two days now, can hardly move because of muscle pain all over my body. The result could be seen in about 3 weeks. So let's see how sexy I would be later hahahahaha

Mother tongue

Yesterday I read an email from the foreign wife mailing list in Japan. About a Russian mother who speaks English to her daughter as a mother tongue instead of Russian. It's because of the parents want the girl to speak English and Japanese as the main languages. She said she will teach Russian later after the daughter speaks the first languages well.

This idea got confronted by a British woman. She said that the Russian mother should not teach English to her daughter because it is not her mother tongue. Because the daughter later on would speak "weird" English in term of pronunciation, intonation, and grammar (jahat amat!!)

Anyway those emails made me thinking this whole day. I also speak English to Iki as the main language meanwhile Hiro speaks Japanese to him. Of course he is familiar also with Indonesian because Hiro and I speak "GOOD" mixture of English, Japanese and Indonesian. Now I'm worried if my English is not good enough that Iki will speak "weird" English later on (quoted from that British woman statement). I had a chat with hiro about this mother tongue thing and he insisted that I keep English as the main language to communicate with Iki. No matter how "weird" the English would be. There are lots of English versions in this world. British, American, Australian, Singaporean, and many more. People from different countries speak "different" English. Maybe for that British woman, British English is the only correct English form in the world?! :p

It passed my mind to speak Indonesian to Iki. But even if I want to teach Iki Indonesian as a mother tongue, which "Indonesian" would it be?! The formal Indonesian "EYD"? (Well, I don't even master it :p), Banjarese dialect(I thought it's my mother tongue but in fact I don't use it at all lately), Manadonese dialect? (When I went back there I couldn't speak Manadonese dialect well, and didn't understand LOTS of words), Suroboyoan (I think it's my "language" now but Hiro doesn't understand at all) or The Kondo's Indonesian?! ("very" simplified Indonesian used in this house).
Oh well most likely he will master the Kondo's Indonesian since it's the Indonesian language we use at home. Then Iki's Indonesian will be "really weird", right?!

Look at our conversation few minutes ago:
Me: tadi Iki bangun then kamu ganti pampers dia?
Hiro: ya, sudah yo. tapi after change langsung dia tidur, tidak minum.
Me: oh sudah yo minum
Hiro: minum water? tadi baru dia bangun?
Me: ya, sudah minum banyak

THAT kind of Indonesian. Not to mention the intonation!!!

OK....Make up my mind now!!
I'll stick to English as the main language then hahaha

Additional note based on Sheila's comment (^_^):
Since I'm not an English native, I always switch to Indonesian whenever I don't know how to express something :p. And listening to his parents conversation in "our" Indonesian, Iki understands some Indonesian words pretty well though I don't talk in Indonesian that much to him. That's why he was able to "communicate" with my family back in Manado.
And living in Korea, environment puts some Korean words inside his (quoting Sheila) spongy brain as well. So whenever we go out, he can do greetings in Korean (like bowing when someone said "annyonghasseo") for example. Also can give response to simple Korean questions. I'm really amazed of a baby's brain capability in absorbing new things, including languages! Though he needs longer time to be able to make up his mind of which language to speak first.
Hence Hiro and I are not worried if his speaking ability is a bit late comparing to other children of his age. He's living in 4 languages now though his main languages are English and Japanese.

Why oh why?!

I got my period this morning. Half of me felt relieved. The thought of having another baby with a super-attention-demanding Iki scared me. I was not sure if I could manage to be a good mother of both (and a good wife as well). One baby is already capable to take away almost all the patience I could possibly have.

But "one and half" of me somewhat felt sad. I felt like losing a baby. Somewhat it hurt me to see "it". Perhaps its because we've been talking about it. The consequences we might face if it happened. Hiro said it's OK. We would have to save at least another some hundreds thousand of USD ONLY for his/her education. Especially because having another child at his age is kind of critical. He would get retired before that child graduates from university. But if it really happened, it's really OK. No more traveling or gorgeous dinner or expensive shopping. But he'd feel really happy and blessed (in spite of waking up every two or three hours at the early months :p). Mostly because Iki looks very lonely after our holiday trip. The idea of having one more sibling would probably make him happy, and make our home more cheerful.

Anyway, again, I got my period. Half of him also felt relieved. I tried to forget this the whole day. The result? I bought a small cute wooden cupboard to put my accessories (dasar cewek :p). I almost forgot that I was so obsessed of miniatures of wooden furnitures when I was in university. I also got a haircut. Finally I found a good hair saloon in this city. It's recommended by Hiro's Japanese friend living here (he believes that something recommended by a Japanese must be good haha). Well, it is really good. The hairdresser could speak English and she cut my hair just the way I wanted it. At last I got a haircut again after 5 months :p



But as I finished my day with hot shower few minutes ago, it's coming back again. The feeling of losing.

Why should I feel so sad of losing something I've never had?

How addicted to blogging are you?

Found this quiz at Intan's blog:

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Are you addicted too? Try this quiz (^__^)

The family

Iki was really a good boy. I'm so proud of him. He made everybody happy. He enjoyed playing with everyone. My family spent really a quality time with him. They got really excited to come along way from Manado early in the morning and spend the whole day with him. We went home also for sure, and visited my grandfather at my father's hometown, Woloan. A village I spent 2 years of my childhood.

On the last day my busy brother and the last two of my uncles joined us at the hotel. It was really nice to meet them and we had last big dinner together at the hotel restaurant. The food was not satisfying yet the togetherness mattered.

As we got back here Iki looks very lonely and bored at home. Spending a full week with a lot of people surrounding made him really happy. I believe my famly in Manado are also missing him as much as he is. I promise myself to bring Iki to meet my family again later when he's bigger :)

Going to Bunaken

We booked a boat from the resort and went to Bunaken with my family (except my brother). It was Iki's first time on the boat as well so he enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed it even more since there were my parents and sister taking care of him almost the whole journey. Hiro and I had snorkeling too. It was my first time and for me the sea garden there was one of the miracle I've ever seen. The fishes were sooo colorful (oh, I saw nemo!!!), the corals were beautiful, pity bit dirty with some potato chips empty packages among the corals! I couldn't remember how many times I screamed of excitement through my snorkel. I felt lucky to wear life vest because the wave was really strong I couldn't swim to the boat by myself. Hiro also got difficulty pulling me so at last we gave sign to the boat and asked them to pick us up nearby. I was really satisfied though Hiro said that Maldive is more beautiful (yeah yeah yeah...!).

We had Ikan bakar by the beach at Bunaken. It was really cheap and 3 times more delicious than hotel meals. The dabu dabu accompanied the fish was perfect too. Everyone enjoyed the food including Iki. He played a lot at the beach and on the boat. Really happy to see him enjoying the trip. It was really satisfying. (and thanks for my sister for NOT taking my pictures snorkeling (@_@))

Indonesian food, the best food in the world :p

My mom prepared most of the food I love to eat. It's just that my eating wish-list was too long that I still couldn't eat many food.
My mom cooked more chinese food like I used to eat during my childhood, and my aunt prepared the manado food when we visited my grandfather. My uncle gave us a huge koi fish from his pond, and Hiro ate his first bat ever there. He was so excited though then when he told his colleague here, he started to worry about the disease a bat could have :p
There were still lots of food I couldn't eat, especially those I could only eat in "warung". Lucky at the airport I found delicious bakso (which was for Hiro tasted like it was full of chemical stuffs :p). That bakso with warung style avocado juice was like a perfect ending for my holiday.

Kima Bajo

We stayed at a resort named Kima Bajo. It's about 40 minutes north of Manado city. It's a resort on a hill with a private volcanic sand beach. Really a place that offers nature. It has a large garden with lots of coconut trees, and banana tress, and many other kind of trees and flowers I couldn't name. I love this place since we could introduce natures to Iki. One thing that is missing in Incheon ( esp. the butterflies, the sea, the stars, the frogs, and many more). We booked a villa there, and even inside the room Iki can still find excitement to see young cockroach, cricket, some other insects, and frog inside the bathtub!!! Thanks God there was no snake during his bath at the outdoor Balinese style bathtub :))

The spa was really nice too. I had traditional massage just after we arrived there and it really satisfied me.

The staffs are really nice and friendly, and sometimes could be good baby sitter for Iki while we're having our meal. It's just that the food was really standard, and Indonesian food on the menu (except ikan rica-rica and grilled squid) were much below our expectation. I ate the yuckiest gado-gado in my whole life there :p.

Anyway we enjoyed our stay there though I'm not sure we would go back there. We even talked about the possibility of naming an-accidentally-could-be Iki's "adek": Kima-chan hahahahahaha

We're back (^_____^)

The holiday has finished. Back to real life again.
It was a really nice getaway. Tiring yet satisfying. Our skin are all well tanned now, including Iki's. Thanks God he has my skin DNA. So it just got dark without suffering from sunburn like Hiro. Everybody was happy. It was not just a holiday. It was family time, and....eating time (especially for me :p). I was the one with camera so back home in Incheon I realized I don't have many pictures of myself (T_T), but here are some that captured our happy moments there.

For all my friends in Surabaya, so sorry I didn't make lots of phone calls and sms. I couldn't find myself alone to grab my cell phone. I didn't expect pulang kampung would be that busy. But hey.....I promise to come to Surabaya one day to show my little boy (^__^)