A little picture from me

How fast can u go! 

What a happy day

Mood :

Music : None

Took the ESL test today in campus, brix accompanied me today in place of my sister, cause she was at work. The test is pretty simple, only write a simple essay just like TOEFL and you get 45 minutes to finish it. The topic i choosen is the benefits of modern technology, kinda hard though, luckily i still remember some of the lesson when i attended TOEFL preparation class in TBI when in Indonesia. I make the 1st paragraph that contain intro, and made 3 statement & explanation paragraph and the last is the close paragraph. At that time my handwriting was really bad, cause it's sure long time since i wrote, so i am not used to it again. I must wait for the result between 1-2 weeks, after the result is out then i can take math test, and after math test done, i can go to the advisors to register class. And not to forget i also met amy bureau, enrollment advisors in columbus for international student.

After taking ESL test we went straight home, since i didnt have any breakfast and lunch yet he treated me McDonalds. It's located near our apartment, and bought it through drive thru. Since i dont have favorite so i choose the same as him, Quarter pounder Meal, it contains beef burger, french fries and a coke, it'll cost you around $3-4 each meal. I thought the the burger is huge, but it's same size like in indonesia, but a little bigger, kinda dissapointed, it wont make me full with just only 1 burger, at least i eat 2 of them.

In afternoon, brix prepare the dinner, chicken with spinach, my sister favourite. And i almost forgot that he do all the laundry for us (omg), i dont think that he would go that far. The laundry is here are done by machine, the apartment provide us with that, it's located in the underground and for using it you must pay, if i'm not mistaken it's around more than $1 for cleaning and drying (yeah, cleaning and driying are on separated machine). And he wouldnt mine paying for that. In afternoon my sister went to target to buy a blanket/futon for me, it's not necessary for me but she insist.

Another thing i done is download anime and manga, so far i only dowload naruto manga and gundam seed destiny eps 9-12. Can wait for the eps 13 to go out, because in the preview that freedom is out in this episode, dont know whos driving it, and probably saviour too will appear. Somehow what for today bittorrent was acting good, i downloaded eps 10 before i went taking ESL, and when i went home it's already finished, it's less than 2 hours of downloading 200mb+, i approximately the d/l speed is around 100Kb/s/ And for the next 2 episode the speed are vary between 20-80Kb/s.

Little things that i want to say about

Mood :

Music : None

It's already 4 days since my arrival, and (not) so many things happen in that time. When i arrived in columbus, it's winter season in here, and also there is snow too. The temperature may vary between -10 degree celcius in the night to around 10 degree celcius in noon. And there is possibility blizzard / snowstorm happening in near future. Most of the area are covered by snow except for the road itself. The vegetation are dead, the only thing we can see from the tree is the trunk.

The apartment is located in the north area, north riverside residential area. When i say apartment, it's not like what you think like the apartment in the big city, in here where i stay there are only 2 buildings, 3 floor tall for each building, and separate by parking lot. We occupy apartment number 216, it has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 closet, kitchen area that merge with tv room. Each apartment furnished with carpet and also air cooling system that double as heater. The interior are painted in white.

For entertaiment there is a cable tv that my sister subscribe, the name of the operator i think time warner cable. The subscribtion is the premium one, so not all the channels open, right now there is around 200 channels to watch, but if you have full one, the channels can be double to 2-3 times. Beside that they also provide movies on demand, it's not just movies cause there are also tv series, news, music, etc that i think popular, you can watch all of those anytime, it's just like playing vcd/dvd or cd/cassete but with no media. To make it easier it's just like sharing the files on computer, one computer share the files to another computer, so everyone can acces the files on that computer.

Other than that we also have intenet connection, DSL i think. We got the connection from neigbors (which are indonesian too), our neighbors subscribe to DSL provider (he said roadrunner) and then sharing the connection with other people in the apartment. This computer i am using it right now is my sister laptop, it run on wireless pc card to connect to the router/modem in neigbors room. The speed may vary depend on the site, mostly for direct download i get 100-200 Kb/s or more, and if good condition can boost to 300 Kb/s, sadly it perform poorly in bittorrent and mirc.

For transportation we have a car, it's honda civic. Cant tell much about it, the color is silver, and all the other thingsare standard.

It's very cold in here.......

Mood :

Music : Any Christmas song

Firstly i want to say merry christmas to everyone who read this ( though i doubt there is no one read this page anyway ). At last i can all the stories from the last post ( last post i was in singapore changi airport ) cause i already settled in in my sister apartment.

From changi airport i use bigger plane than before, this time i using Boeing 747-400 Megatop, i got seat in last section of the plane, and i didnt get seat in the emergency seat instead 2 rows behind it. To make the matter worser, i had to seat with 2 indian middle age woman. In other way the seat infront and back of me is empty, and i planning to change seat after stopover in hongkong. In hongkong airport (dunno know the name) it's already night, we all must get off the plane and go for the new gate, cause the airplane need to be cleaned and refueled before the long journey. Not long after i arrived at the gate, boarding was announced, i went to to the same plane, with the same seat, and with same fellow traveler.... but wait, this time those 2 wont be accompanied me cause i think they're went off in hongkong (at last the noisy one were gone), and also the women in seat row infront of me, in other word the row seat in front and back of me are totally empty. And also there are a lot of an empty seats this time -> less people. I forgot to tell that passenger who were seating 2 row infront are indonesian family, same nationality just like me. And here goes my 12 hours flight hours to san fransisco. First thought that i must spent 12 hours with uncomfortable, but gosh god help me this time, beside getting rid off 2 passenger beside me, the entertaiment in plane was great, we had our own personal lcd screen. There are few things to do, but it still great, with it we can watch movies that are vary from the latest blockbuster movie to asian movie, there also musics if you like to hear music with many genre to choose, and if you get boring you can play games, yes video games, but most of the game are for children (taken from gameboy) like mariobross, pokemon, zelda, etc. The collest thing is there are games that you can play with others pasenggers in the plane, but not many to chose, only 3 : chess, othelo, and a cardgame. That are all activity i done in the plane, hear music (most heard is you raise me up by josh groban), watch movie (there are so many movie, all in total about 66 movies beside others channel), play games, slept, and had meals and lavatory of course.

After 12 hours i arrived in sf airport, its around 6 pm, this is the first time i visit USA so i must to register (man only-> thats not fair), because the last time i went to the usa was around 1996, and after the 9/11 accident the regulations are changed. All the people that come to USA must report they arrival to immigration office (again man only), also if they want to leave they also have to report again. After long procedures i got out at 8 pm, i am tha last 2 person that came out that flight beside there is another man that still interogated when i'm done. Outside my brother already waiting for me, yeah he waited for 2 hours, i still remember he paid $17 for parking fee, after that he took me a dinner in 2nd chinatown and chose japanese food. You can order of 2 combination that you like, I myself ordered fish and chicken, beside that we also ordered sushi. Japanese food kinda expensive in japan, a set of combination will cost you around $13. After dinner we bought a bubble tea next to the restaurant. My brother show me sanfransisco a little, he take me to a angel island, and a glance of sanfransisco at night. After that we get back to apartment. The apartment itself is rather far from the city, it will take around 30 minutes or so, it's located in hayward, but the apartment is close to my brother univercity (hayward too), after that i straight to slept, my brother told me to slept in his room.

Next day, around 3 pm we get off the apartment. We went to the only mall in that area searching for jacket, we couldnt get it cause there is no size for it, after that we search for a shoes. We went to the store named Payless Shoes Source or Payless Source Shoes dunno know which is right, got the shoes but the size is to big (14) and that store doesnt have number 13, the worker said that another store had number 13 so we went there and bought that. After that we went to Ross if im not mistaken searching for a jacket, I got a jacket (not a good one) and also bought a bacpack for me. And for dinner we went to barkeley and eat korean food. My brother took me crabbing after that, he met with his friend that invite him to crabbing. It's located in the pier 7, and for those dunno know crabbing, crabbing is just like fishing, but you only catch crab. For information, fishing and crabbing in this area is free, you cant catch, but there is a limit to a size of fish that you cant take, and there is another warning that eat at your own risk, because fish in this area are contaminated, they only suggest ate 2 fish /month. There were also few friends of my brother came joining crabbing later thought only 1 people done the job, the others only watching and chatting, they only help when the nets were ready to raised. Got not many crabs this time, only 10 or more so, maybe because the current are strong and also the wind is very cold that night. I got home around 2 am that night and we were all exhausted.

The next day, the last day i'm staying with my brother. Woke earlier this time, around 10 or so. My brother took me to the san fransisco bay to watch sea lion. We parked then went for a walk, since my brother dont know the exact location we just continue to walk, alongside the road there were no many people at that time and also there are restaurants, cafes, etc scattered along the road. The sea lion itself located in the pier 39, already had a lot of visitors at that time. Enjoying seing sea lion for sometime and after that continue to the pier 39 itself, they had a regular show everyday in the open theatre. At that time they performed a jugler, it's not funny thought, after the show finished, the jugler expect some donation from the visitors. After that we bought churos and and icee for me and get back to the car, at the walk back we also bought a cup of crab meat. Next was get a lunch, he said that we will went to chinese restaurant in chinatown area -> li yat that famous for it's delicacy -> pig intestines, but since the parking are full instead he took me to the thai restaurant and we ate roast duck in there. After that we were planing to buy jacket in niketown (a store that only sell nike product) located around union square, but since that night was christmas eve you can imagine there ARE many people in the road, and not to forgot the traffic jam. Since it's impossible to found parking, so we agreed to went home cause it's already 5 pm at that time, and i must go home to prepare the bagage cause that night i had to flight to catch.

We went home with traffic jam along the road and after arrived i immediately packed the bag, not long after that we already took off cause san jose international airport kinda far from hayward. As soon as we arrived, parked the car, and went in to the terminal, and check in. In usa you check in your ticket with computer, there is no need to go to counter, you only go to counter to check in your bagage. Got some trouble with the bagage, the first bagage seems to overweight that surpass the limit, sure you can but you must pay extra $25 for that, but it's okay, we already predicted that before so we exchange some of the belonging between those 2 bag. After that i went pass the security check, as usual the check was very strict, we must remove all the belonging from our body except for the clothes, and somehow what only certain people that were checked closely, including me. The guard using metal detector to check me, and the other check my bacpack. After that i waited in the gate until boarrding. The plane i using this time is 737-700, and the airline is continental, it's old and small plane from 737 family, seat configuration is 2-2 for bussiness and 3-3 for economy, and 1 thing for sure the seat was very cramped, it made my ass hurt, as i must hold for 5 hours like that. They only provide only drinks, and for food we must to pay. After i arrived in newark airport (new jersey), i had 3 hours free time to spent, and as usual i alway went search the gate first, and just sit down nicely there waiting for boarding. Boarding time got little delayed, but it's okay, the airplane itself can be consider as a small plane, like private jet but bigger, embraer 140/145. Its operated by express jet in colaboration with continental. The flight time only less than 2 hours.

2 hours later i arrive in the columbus airport, there only 2 flight from newark to columbus that day. The view from plane before i landed is clear white, most of the landmark are covered with snow except for the road. After landed we have to walk a little cause the trunk cant fit the door of small jet, so we must get off the plane and took the stairs down and took the stair again entering the trunk, thats my first time experience cold weather, even my breath can be seen in air like smoke. My sister picked me up in the airport with her "friend" (later it became boyfriend), when i came out after taking the bagage, into the drop off / pick up area waiting for the car, the temperature was VERY cold, the first time i felt VERY cold, and i mean it, it's very very cold outside. My sister introduce me to her "friend" brix, then help me load all the bagage into the car, and after that we went for a lunch, we went to the chipote, a fastfood restaurant that serve buritos, and the buritos in that place is sure big, even myself can eat them all. After that we drop my sister at her workplace, near the chipote, exactly at the mall, my sister told brix to show me around, and he first brought me to best buys, and nobles & barnes bookstore cause he is searching for particular books but sadly he didnt found what is he searching for (he bought me a starbucks coffee here), so he decided went to another nobles & barnes, got a traffic to until got a phone from my sister to pick her up at the mall. So we pick up my sister at the mall, and go to the bookstore and this time he got the books. After that we went home cause it's already afternoon, first glance at the apartment -> that sure is nice place to live. My sister place is located in 2nd floor, room number ??? ( i forgot ), and there was still her roommate in there. That night my sister took me to brix house to celebrate christmas with his family, also brought her roommate jimmy (jimmy is 17 years old, younger than me, she already in her 2nd quarter this january), spent christmas with brix family, cause all the brix family is christian. After went to apartment i spent my time in front of computer until morning, and then i slept in the morning until afternoon, in the afternoon my sister took me to the ICF gathering (Indonesian Christian Felloship) that regularly held every saturday. Most of the people were stranger to me, since they're all indonesians it was easy to got to know each other. After that they all go to some sort of entertaiment centre, i was invited but i refused to go. And we went home to apartment.

I thinks that's all happened, thought it's not very detail it covers all things that happen this week.

USA here i come

Mood :

Music : none

Just like i post in tagboard, currently i am in the changi airport of s'pore, just left today from Jakarta to S'pore at 10:30 this morning, arrived in s'pore at 13:00 pm singapore time. Have to wait another 2 hours before my next departure at 16:00 pm, and now playing internet since they offers free acces but only for 15 minutes per session ( who cares about that, i already 30 minutes in front of this computer ). The reason i acces internet cause i must check my email for online ticket that my brother send me through email, sadly i dont receive any email that contains about the ticket.

I thinks thats all, tired standing, still 2 hour left. I post completely after i arrive in ohio.