Christmas Break

A friend of mine who is an Indonesian, Bertie, invited me over her house for a Christmas dinner. I was not sure at first, since I would probably be the only one who’s not celebrating Christmas. But she said it’s ok. So I came to her house, which is located a few metres away from my apartment. I met her neighbour, Loren, who is also an Indonesian and really likes photography; her classmate, Maria who is a German and a very nice country girl; her Chinese housemates, Dean who is a great cook and studied Engineering, and Alex who WAS my C++ tutor at UQ (oh, what a coincidence). I was a bit embarrassed meeting him coz I remember I was a very annoying student in his class… trying to understand what he said :P. Well, I have a difficulty understanding his accent — I have a strange accent too when I speak in English (people said it’s not an Indonesian accent), was so impatient, and wanted to do everything very fast. I felt sorry for him from the beginning because he had to deal with a student like me hehehe. But yeah, when I met him again, he was so nice and I didn’t feel awkward anymore :P. Anyway, Charles, also an Indonesian, came over a bit late. We ate so many things… from mashed potato, salad, fried chicken, to laksa… hahaha. A weird combination, huh? But it was great! Then we played cards… Loren taught us different kinds of games and magic hahaha. I had a fun time with them!

On a Boxing Day 26 Dec, my housemate Mayu and I decided to go to the newly refurbished Westfield Chermside Shoppingtown, which is now the biggest mall in Brisbane. In Australia, Boxing Day is a day when retail stores sell their excess Christmas inventory at reduced prices. Although most of the stuffs are still much cheaper in Jakarta, I decided to hunt for oleh-oleh from now on. I know I still have a loooooong way to go back, but I don’t like to be panic about this thing at the last minute. Anyway, I asked Maria and Charles to join us. Charles’s housemate, Tao, was interested to come too, and drove us to the mall. I became a “guide” for Tao who’s driving and Mayu helped me a bit. I once again had to refer to the map! It was quite frustrating for me, coz I became panic very easily hehehe. Mayu always told me to calm down :P.

My biggest nightmare was to pass through the City! When my family came to Brisbane, I became a guide for my dad who was driving at the time. I was quite “stressed” when we went to the City, coz the streets are soooooo complicated. Some streets are one-ways and some are not; the map that I had didn’t have a sign whether the street was one way or two ways. I was sooo panic that I screamt all the time, while my dad and the entire passengers were on the edge of heart attacks! hahaha. I was worried about the correct way to go to the destination and at the same time was frightened of getting fines LOL. The driving rules in Australia are quite strict, at least they’re stricker than in Indonesia and Arabic countries. And I knew that my dad was NOT at all relaxed by the rules, since it was the first time for him to drive in this sort of “situation”. We were all soooo anxious. It was a crazy experience hehe.

Anyhow, this time, we passed through the City quite easily although sometimes we had to turn back again and find the correct roads/streets. Once we get out of the Chinatown, we just went straight and followed the road until we found the mall. It was quite easy indeed. We arrived at about 12 and spent about 30 minutes just to find an empty parking lot!! This mall certainly needs a bigger car park! Once we parked the car, the girls and boys were separated. There were soo many people! It is a big mall — not as big as in Jakarta, but quite big for a city like Brisbane. There were many discounts as well. I don’t normally spend money for clothes here (since the price is expensive and the Tanah Abang quality is better :P), but I forced myself to buy a $10 shirt so that I don’t feel like I’m too stingy hahaha. I also found few cheap accessories for my cousins and friends. Then at about 3 pm, we all met up again to have lunch together. On our way back, we stopped in Chinatown for a while, coz Tao and Charles wanted to buy some tofus. I bought Mung beans (finally I can make bubur kacang hijau!!).

I had a great time during this Christmas break. A few days before Christmas, I accidentally met my high school friend, Kiki and her friend Tika. I was wandering around the City alone and was planning to check on the ice skating shoes that my friend asked. I ended up going around with them; talking and gossiping hahaha (helloooo… high school memories!! LOL). Sometimes you need these things to clear up your mind hehehe. Yeah, it was great!

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