Monday, April 26, 2010

Juicy & Fresh “Nira Aren”



Ah..it was in March I had these shots. Last month, I had actually an intention to publish this writing on my blog but I just didn't have time to do it. Or, I might be too lazy to do it haha...(of course not)

Well, it's the picture when I went to the Dutch cave and Japanese cave in Bandung with buddies of mine at My English Club. I had a pretty long, tiring yet fascinating journey that day. We spent half day there – caving, singing, sight seeing, and of course drinking this kind of water you may see in the picture (the second).

The bamboo I'm holding the picture contained water called “nira aren” or sap obtained by tapping inflorescence of various palms used to make sugar. The water derives from the palm tree. Palm tree is kind of tree you might not be able to find in the non tropic region such as Europe and USA. This kind of tree is like a palm tree but it is not. Hm...it's hard to explain, just see the picture bellow then
The person who was selling sugar palm then was indeed so experienced in selling and collecting this fresh water. I groped around IDR 2000 for a glass of sugar palm and it was totally worth it. I had ever once tasted this water when I was kid but I didn't like at all. I thought the smell was kind of disgusting like an alcoholic drink. But when I tasted it lately, I so much like it.
This kind of water is really Indonesian and I'm proud of drinking it, I cannot do it regularly though. Besides, I have not been able to read and learn so-called article or anything about this – pros and cons about it (if there is any).
Hm...I was so quenching when I drank it. The seller also told me that he had ever joined an exhibition about the traditional drink at Sabuga ITB. Ensuring me, he showed me the piece of newspaper containing his picture. “Okay....okay...I truest you”, I said.
Readers, please consider to drink “Nira Aren” if you go to Japanese cave and Dutch cave in Bandung. I'm sure it's also available in many parts in this province. You may know more about this kind of water by visiting this webblog: http://arenindonesia.files.wordpress.com.
Well, happy drinking a very Indonesian sweet beverage!

Monday, April 19, 2010

PPAN Jawa Barat 2010


Hello blessed brothers and sisters!
I'd like to share something, hope it'll be meaningful for all of us. Your comment or question is kindly appreciated and I'll try my best to get back to you then. Post that ya...

Buddies, I am currently being quarantined in Trio Hotel with 22 friends of mine at Gardujati street Bandung. Well, what crosses on your mind when you first hear this name of street? Yes you might have known that around the hotel where I am staying now, is the center of prostitution in this city known as Saritem. Well, I won't talk about it anyways, I didn't choose myself to be placed here. I just joined the selection and then I have to attend all of the steps. In fact, I never went outside of the hotel after 9 p.m. in the night, it's quite risky everyone!

The 23 of us are all the participants of PPAN program held by the PCMI and Disorda of West Java Province. PPAN stands for Pertukaran Pemuda Antar Negara or youth exchange program between Indonesia and other countries. PCMI stands for Purna Caraka Muda Indonesia which more or less means the organization deals with youth and it exists in some cities in Indonesia. Disorda is kind of government department which takes care of sport and anything related to youth activities.

We all come from several regencies or cities in West Java, I do come as a representative of Garut regency. We all here are being quarantined for three days and only 3 lucky, skillful and appropriate persons will be chosen to go abroad to represent West Java. Those lucky youths will fly to Canada, Australia and Japan. They will stay and do all fascinating, tiring and challenging activities in each country for about 3 – 6 months. I myself chose to go to Australia but it's all will be known two days later. Will I be one of those three lucky persons? Well, go or not isn't the main purpose of mine joining this selection. I know I have passed the last two steps and this is going to be the last - the final round. There's no point of not doing the best for this ultimate step. Pfuh....it's not that easy though, I consider sort of things that I'll face if I am chosen. Will I be happy? Yes, but will it be the best for my life? I just hope God will give me the best. It matters me not of being the chosen one or not. The main point is I have to make every second I have in this selection as worship to Him. I have to make each process as the thing that will make me closer to Him. Just Allah, that's all very much it!

See my next post soon, sleeping time :)



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Windows live Writer

Assalamualaikum

Hi buddies,

Now I’m using the newest operating system from Microsoft – Windows seven (professional 32 bit edition). It’s a great OS which has gorgeous look and I just love it, period. I can do anything with it except install some software which don’t have any support to be operated using this platform. I am now trying the sweet feature called Windows live writer which lets me post any posting on my blog automatically without having to sign in on blogger account. It needs me to connect to internet though.

This genuine Windows I got from my university for free. Can hardly believe it? Yes, since my university has cooperation with Microsoft called MSDN, I can then download and install it for at no cost. Microsoft gave me directly the serial number and when I activated it, it was successful, ah..so relieving. Here’s my screen shot:

Egi desktop ok

Windows live writer feature didn’t come in bundled software when I installed the windows  seven OS. Instead, I downloaded separately since the version of my seven is the professional one, not the ultimate one. It still looks great though.

Aside from the windows life writer, the package I downloaded also contains several software, i.e. movie maker, photo gallery and windows life family safety. I haven’t tried the last though.

This feature is also superb as I can preview the post I’m about to publish, right away on the Windows live feature. It also allows me to give effect to the picture I embed in each posting. You may ask me if you have question about MSDN, windows live writer or anything.

Well, it’s just great to use genuine software again since for about 1,5 years I couldn’t use the original one. It was because my genuine vista was unintentionally deleted from my hard drive, so I just used the non-genuine one. So sorry to Microsoft. I now use the fully original anyways :)

 

Thanks for reading :)

 

Monday, April 12, 2010

H2SR cafeteria

Hi all, the title above might not really familiar for you, right? Yes, it's the name of a cafeteria around my lodging house at Ledeng sub-district, in the city of Bandung West Java province, Indonesia. So, if you have never been to this area, no surprise of not knowing this. But please consider to visit this place sometime, you won't regret, guaranteed. I don't know what does this stand for as I have never asked the owner of this hut. I have never seen the acronym of it in its brochure or ballyhoo either. So, it's still unknown till this moment. However, I've got some things I want to share with you all about his cafeteria and hope it'll help you. Especially for those the students of UPI.

H2SR is situated right before the terminal of Ledeng. It's just around 10 meters from this bus station and it usually opens from afternoon until night (around 10 P.M). This cafeteria sells many kinds of foods and beverages which are all quite affordable for college students (you know students have to strictly manage their money). As it's located near to the campus of UPI (Indonesia University of Education), the costumers mostly are this university's students. Right besides this cafeteria is also a cafeteria called “Warung Pak Akim”. It provides cheap meals for the students and staffs of UPI campus. But, it is open only from around 7 A.M in the morning till the evening. So, even though they are quite close, they don't somehow compete to each other as the operation time is quite different, there's a bit interception though. Besides, the foods sold by the two canteens are also slight different; in “Warung Pak Akim” we can find almost all kinds of Sundanese dishes such as kangkung, soup, soto, curry, tofu, mushroom and so forth, but in H2SR we are only provided portioned meals such as fried rice, jamblang rice (Cirebonese food), juice, tea and so on.

I sometimes go to H2SR for dinner and to “Warung Pak Akim” for lunch, not really frequently though. H2SR's owners has three children, 2 daughters and one little son. How do I know? I and other customers are pretty much served by these two daughters, the eldest one is a senior high school student and a the second is a junior high. I knew this from the uniform they wore when I passed this cafe by and met them. You might agree or not with these two underage women working to help their parents work in the cafeteria. But to me, it seems just fine. They learn how to manage something and how to be good daughters from their parents. They help their parents out since the father is maybe busy doing another business and the mother maybe takes care of their little brother. So, in any cases, they just do the good thing. But, the father seems always help the daughters too when the number of customers is quite plenty.

The services provided by this cafeteria used to be quite horrible. I needed to wait for several time to get my meals served. I pretty much ordered fried rice. Once I ordered one portion of nasi jemblang and the taste was out of my league. I'm not the one who loves spicy food anyway, so I just tried it once and that's exactly the last for me hehe..... The price of regular fried rice is IDR 5000 or around US$ 0.6. You can never find this price in other cafeterias. It's the cheapest among all since normally the fried rice costs around IDR 7000 or maybe beyond. The drink I like best at this cafe is hot-mellon-tea, I don't know the exact name though. But it's kind of relaxing to drink such kind of drink in the night. It's best drank after doing several tasks on the day and it indeed soothes our nerves better than any other drinks.

Talking about service, hospitality, manner, sanitary and whatsoever, you might won't find them all at this tiny cafe. But for sure, if you wish to find smart price with quite nice taste, indeed this H2SR is is the good choice. I don't say this cafe is the best for me, but I just thank this cafe so much as it has been serving me for about 4 years. I don't know when I am leaving this town. But for sure, this cafe has a contribution in my life. Thanks to H2SR cafeteria!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Cherry blossoms


If you ask me what color I like best, I'd answer blue. But if you ask me what color I love the most, I'd answer pink, that's why I put more pink as the banner above, haha...no point anyways! It actually simply means that favorite colors of mine are blue and pink, that's it :)

Well, hello hello everyone, it's April now. What seems to be so special for you in this month? Is there any? It can be yes or no. But for me, it's certainly quite special month since I was born in this month. It's not that special anyways. I just born this month 23 years ago, that's very much it. Hm...getting old? True. Being an old is certainty but being mature is a choice, as what people say. I hope I can catch up the latter since it's quite hard to be fully mature in all aspects of our personality – piety, mental, behavior, financial, career, intelligence and so forth, I'll keep striving, you too guys!

Aha...I've got a question. What do you usually do when you celebrate birthday, milad or whatsoever? I'm sure everyone has different answer. Different person, different answer, for sure! I've heard a friend of mine pretty much goes to someplace which is not in the place where she was exactly born. She does this as the form of celebrating so-called birthday. Another pal of mine always tries to finish reading particular book he's interested in. Whatever it is, so long it doesn't burden us too much, I'm all for it. For me, I've got also several my own rites before breathing the air on my April 16, I can't let those out here though – putting them on the down low!

One thing for sure, a birthday is a moment to flash-back any vivid thing we did the past and plan for big things in the future. But don't forget to live and be thankful to God for our present life. They are all must be balanced and proportioned so that we won't be too stoked in a way of celebrating, and we won't be too depressed either when remembering mistakes or failures we did in the past – put things in mediocre!

Back to April and pink, yes this months is the early spring in 4-season countries such as Japan and the USA. It means there are many trees, flowers and many other plantations haughtily blossom and show their beauty – their leafs, branches, fruits etc. Few days ago I saw on BBC that people in Washington DC were so glad of having this month. They could see Sakura flower with its gorgeousness changing up a bit the atmosphere in the DC. I have never been there but I am sure it must be so great.

Taking the relationship of April, pink, sakura, birthday, mature and all things mentioned above. I'd like to say that a birthday is milestone or the best time to be really mature and grow like Sakura! Sakura shares its lovely pink color to everybody, it shares splendid fragrances to anything including animals. It never segregates in terms of giving and sharing. Let's then grow and share out anything we have, let's make changes to beautify our surroundings, let's make breakthrough within ourselves so we'll be a better person! Hope I can. Thank you for reading.