7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol. 46

- 1 -

These two days I have been spending my time at a preschool to conduct experiment. Yesterday I broke my record doing experiment on 10 kids non-stop!

- 2 -

I've been browsing about Advent Calendar on pinterest. I have not really made Advent Calendar, but I love to make Advent resolutions. This year my new year resolutions were not really written black and white. Even though every day I make some 'small' resolutions, I feel that Advent is a golden chance to really get rid of my bad habits and struggle harder against the grain.

- 3 -

I think one good thing about 2014 is I exercise more =P As the preparation to walk the Way of St James, my friends and I walked with 5kg load for 5km once a month. I also tried to run regularly. Well, I haven't run again since September, but I finally managed to go climbing on Sundays =) Last Sunday my boyfriend asked to try an inclined 6a route. He helped me along the way by pulling the rope tighter because I am not that strong yet. However, I really enjoyed that particular route because I felt like doing acrobatic.Hahaha. I must twist my body a lot. I'm also very short (152cm), so even if my boyfriend can reach a tile by extending his hand, I need to move my body higher through other way before I can reach the same tile. Hahaha

- 4 -

I think it's very important to have one or two hobbies, to know what we like and what we dislike. I recently meet a few university students who are still confused in choosing what they want to major in. It also seems that many high school graduates that I know choose a major in what they like or what they are good at in high school only, without knowing what kind of work they'd actually like to do. At the end, when they realize that in university there are much more people who do better than them in the subjects that they are good at, when things get very tough and the nature of the project/future work are not the types of work that they'd like to do, they do not enjoy university life anymore.

I guess, if I could suggest to high school graduates on what to choose for their major, I think it's good to see what kind of jobs we'd like to have (we may not get it though!). Are you people-oriented? Or do you want to work in labs? Or are you like my boyfriend who likes animals a lot (and like to eat them a lot too)? Do you enjoy reading or do you prefer project works? --> I still have bias about reading. I don't really like the fact that some universities do not push the students to read basic theories in their field now. Or..encourage 'holistic' education that makes students have a lot of co-curricular activities that they do not have time to read cultural books (like me!)

Anyway, out of topic a bit, reading is a choice. =)

- 5 -

Yesterday as I took a taxi to the preschool, the taxi driver talked a lot about Indonesian politics (the new president was appointed two months ago). I felt embarrassed because I didn't know about the recent controversial appointment of Prasetyo as attorney-general. Question: so attorney-general shouldn't be appointed from political party?

The recent increase of fuel price has also caused some protests. When I was in high school, I was one of those who were against it. I really don't know how the people with lower income can survive with the rise of price of necessities. I guess we really need to cut the subsidy, but I hope the system is ready soon to make sure that those who urgently need the assistance gets one.

- 6 -

After two months, I just managed to write about the first three days of the Way of St James.

- 7 -

Some thoughts after a conversation with my friend about life and children.

This week quick takes is hosted here!

when my friends are confused..

It's quite interesting to see how our topics of conversation has changed throughout the years. Remember the moments when you talked about your crush to your girl friends? Or perhaps talked about whether you think the guy that you like also likes you in the same manner? hahaha. Now our conversation has changed to how to save for future house, how to know if he's Mr Right or not, what kind of values you want to impart to your kids, and so on and so forth.

Recently my 'normal' catchup with my friends stumbled upon the topic of abortion. I don't know how my friend suddenly shared how she knew a couple who told her that they actually had a third child, but they aborted the baby because the baby was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. She said that the couple thought it would be better for the baby not to be born, rather than having born with Down Syndrome. I was a bit shocked at the beginning, but I tried to stay calm and reminded myself how normal it is to think like that now (even though we claimed to be Christians or Catholics).

I looked at my friend and asked, "Do you really think it's okay?" And she looked reluctant for awhile.

I remember my other friend turned to me and said, "What would you do in such situation?"

So here's my answer. I'm writing this down here and now because when difficult times happen, there will be many people who influence me not to do what is right. Not because they are 'evil', but because the society now really thinks of what is useful, what is not burdensome.

I said it will be tough to make the decision to defend the baby's life.
It's not easy to raise children with certain illness or psychological conditions. 
However, I've met and witnessed more and more courageous parents who decided to bring up these children, who are not influenced by society that tried to dictate us to choose what is the most convenient choice for us. Next time when I say my marriage vow, "...in good times and in bad...", it is a vow to enter a marriage that is not portrayed by most of the Hollywood movies.

I have seen a mother with her teenager who has Down Syndrome. This girl made the most beautiful genuflection in front of Our Lord (I would say better than many adults). Her parents believed that their children, both the typically developing and the one with developmental delays, could grow in virtues too.

When I was waiting for my friends outside a shop in Rome, I managed to have a short conversation with a Japanese lady and her teenager-daughter who has a Down Syndrome. I was a bit 'tempted' to talk in motherese (there's a tendency to treat them as children). However, I was reminded that even if their mental age is lower than their chronological age, at that stage, she was not supposed to be treated like a child. So I asked a few questions just like how I normally talk to the teenagers. I observed how the mother talked to her in Japanese, and I was just amazed on how refine this young lady was!

I also witnessed a young couple defending the life of their first-born baby who 'just' lived for three months. I don't think I can forget how courageous they are and how supportive their friends are from Legion of Mary. For some people, perhaps this is a 'waste-money-decision'. However, for a lot of us, this young couple has become a real example how it is very possible to be heroic to say no even though other people may say "it's better to abort the baby".

To be honest, I felt sad. And a bit scared... I've seen more and more friends are confused despite the fact that we go to Church every Sunday (again...it's not sufficient to just go to Church).

So I pray that I can journey more with my friends. I pray that we can talk more about these issues about life, because life is not a small matter. I pray that we can be strong support for each other if any of us needs to make difficult, but a right decision, just like how I've seen some other mothers supported each other.

Day 3 - From Palas De Rei to Arzua

Hi. It's been awhile since I posted on this blog. My internet is very slow and this creates a new excuse for me. The only time for me to go online is in the morning (like now).

This is the story of the 3rd day of walking the Camino. I can't remember what time we left. I guess around 5.30 or 6am. It was still dark too, but not as cold as the morning of the second day. We walked in the dark for around 2hours, until we stopped for breakfast. As a reminder, this will be our 30 km walk. We'll pass Melide town after around 10km. The aim was to reach Arzua by 4pm and meet at a restaurant called Ultreia. Our guide as also told us that there would be quite horrible uphill and downhill along the way.

During breakfast, we decided to deliver Lilynne's backpack to Arzua. We also dumped our 'unnecessary' stuff during the day (our sleeping bags!!). We still need our sleeping bag at night though. Actually we walked with a good pace on this third day. Audrey and I kept singing and we did an 'experiment'. When we sang upbeat songs, we walked faster. Hahaha. I think the song that made us walk the fastest was "Give me oil in my lamp" =P A few hours after breakfast, we reached a beautiful bridge and took photo for awhile. We also did our half-an-hour mental prayer as we walked from there. On our way, when we passed Melide, we saw a...Sim card shop!! YEAY! I finally got a sim card. hahaha.

morning =)

view from the bridge

this way!

Near this river, a guy who had lost one of his legs sat and provided the 'pilgrim stamp'. I think he was a soldier. After he lost his leg, he participated in paralympics (he was really fit!!)

We also stopped at a Romanic church that had a statue of Our Lady of Snow. There, Carol, our Spanish friend, told us the story about Our Lady of Snow and how we would visit St Mary Major Basilica in Rome that was built because of this apparition of Our Lady and the origin of this title. Anyway, in this Romanic church, a guy stood there and explained about the apparition and he had a thick notebook with various ways to say greetings (hello, thank you, buen camino, etc) and some terminologies of things that they had in that church (e.g., ancient baptismal font). Many visitors from various countries translated the words to English, Japanese, Korean, etc. When Carol told him that I am an Indonesian, I was asked to write down some Indonesian words too. I don't know how to translate "baptismal font" to Indonesian language!!

Our lady of snow!

Inside the church

Some of us took 'profile-picture-worth' photos here

A guy playing recorder at the bank of the river!

We also stopped at an old lady's house along the way. She is Conchita's friend and Conchita brought us there because this lady prayed a lot for young people. This lady also showed us her small chapel. We also sang a Chinese song (朋友 = peng you; friend) for her.

Congrats! We've reached Arzua ^^

We continued our journey and started eating our chips =P I guess it was around 11.30 because soon afterwards we said the Angelus. It was quite a terrible downhill. Audrey and I were really like non-stop-radio. Fast forward the story, I also managed to teach Audrey Indonesian song (kindergarten song =P). I think the funniest part was when we sang Bon Jovi's "It's my life" when we walked uphill and some guys that walked faster said to us, "Continue singing, I like Bon Jovi." Once we stopped singing because we were panting, but our foot were really aching, and we decided that singing was the only way to forget our ache. =P

We reached a wide road and a church that had a big clock and lots of prayer cards in the Church.Okay now I can't remember which one comes first, but at one point, I think Wei Lian took out her recorder (flute, not audio recorder) and played Sound of Silence, A Whole New World, and the Hobbit soundtrack. It was really an amazing experience ^^

Fast forward again, we reached another terrible downhill (a wide road). According to Conchita, our guide, we need to walk zig zag to reduce the pain. That's how we survived downhill so far. However, we were really tired and decided to sit for 5 minutes outside a small store. Lili got her Aquarius here (an isotonic drink). Well, this part may not be significant to you, but this brand (Aquarius), was so nice! Not too sweet like 100+ or Pocari Sweat and less 'gassy'.

Anyway we walked and walked. We passed another bridge and we saw a guy playing his flute at the side of the river!! Hwahhhh.. We thought, aha..just 3 km more, so let's sit and listen to our friends playing flute. Anyway, by 3.40 we continued walking, and I think the signage 3km was a bit deceiving. We walked for quite some time on a wide road after we saw the sign "Arzua". We reached the restaurant at 4.10!! Congratsss! It was the first time we reached our target.

The food was just amazing!!! This time I chose wine instead of water (they're same price anyway). Citing Carmen, we had the "best ribs we've ever had". We also sang the same Chinese song "朋友" for the waitresses. Afterwards, we proceeded to EFA, a school and residence for girls who'd like to study administration / nursing etc.

We attended a meditation and Mass in English!! (yeay!!) Apparently the priest spent quite some time in Australia, so he also had exposure to Indonesian language and he kept telling us that he knows how to say 'book' in Indonesian (buku). =P We also had chance to go confession ^^ On that day, the priest talked about St James because we would reach Santiago in two days.

At first they told us that the students may be shy because they just arrived in the residence a few days beforehand. After a short Q&A sessions during get-together in the living room (they asked us few questions on what we think about Spain, what we like about Spain, etc), we sang the same Chinese song (again!!) plus another Chinese song (Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xing = the moon represents my heart) because Carol could accompany us with a guitar there for this song. After that, seems that the girls 'warmed-up' already. One of them started to demonstrate how she played the tambourine. So fast and skillful!! Then, another three of them danced while this girls played the tambourine. Hwah...so nice!!

Well, the most memorable experience of this Day 3 was I guess the lesson that even though things seemed difficult and I was often unsure whether I could get through a difficult moment (i.e., this walk), God helped me a lot and He sent many nice people along the way. I also experienced the 'loudness' and family atmosphere of Spanish people =) I was not scared to say that I felt much at home when I stayed in EFA, even though it was only for one night.