G'day, Mate!

Assalamualaikum,

G'day, how are ya? 

Taken from aussieproducts.com 

Sapaan-sapaan itu pasti bakal kamu denger di Ausi. Generally, sapaan itu bisa berarti menanyakan kabar dan bisa juga sejenis sapaan 'hai'. 

Sama seperti G'day, mate! - bahasa Slang. It simply means hello/hi.Jadi kalo ada yang nyapa G'day!, jawab aja lagi pake G'day!.

Gimana kalo 'how are you?' Waktu awal-awal agak aneh juga tiap kali ketemu orang pasti mereka nanya 'how are you?'. Kalo cuma ketemu sekali dua kali sih ngga apa-apa. Masalahnya adalah bisa aja aku tiga kali ketemu sama orang yang sama dalam waktu 30 menit. Gila kan? setiap 10 menit terus nanya 'gimana kabarnya?', dan setiap 10 menit juga jawab 'baik'.

Aku pernah ketemu sama salah satu staff di sekolah tempatku mengajar, Benalla College. Waktu itu aku mau ke toilet, as usual we greeted each other :

Staff : Hi Muti, how are you?

Me : Good, thank you. Yourself?

Staff : Good.

Lima menit kemudian, setelah keluar dari toilet, kami bertemu lagi di lorong:

Staff : Hi Muti, how are you?

Me : I'm still good. Yourself?

Staff : Good.

Me : #hening (jadi mikir apa ada korelasi antara kabar sebelum ke toilet dan sesudahnya?).

Mungkin kalo dilihat dari segi arti frasenya memang sedikit aneh, kenapa sih mereka selalu nanyain kabar setiap waktu. Salah satu teman di Ausi mengatakan kalau 'how are you' bisa berarti dua hal; pertama, benar-benar menanyakan kabar. Kedua, hanya sapaan seperti 'hi/hello/G'day'. I think, greetings mean politeness. When you are being greeted by someone at the street, school, or everywhere, meaning that they just try to be polite to you. No matter what your answer is. Biasanya sih selalu merespon dengan 'good' karena jarang juga orang merespon dan mau mendengar kabar 'not so good' or 'sick'. Entah kenapa alasannya. 

Kalau dipikir-pikir lagi, sapaan  (walaupun terkesan basa-basi) bisa membuat kita akrab satu sama lain loh. Jadi ngga ada tuh ceritanya orang ini sombong karena ngga pernah nyapa. 'How are you', 'Good day', 'hi', 'how is it going' bisa juga disebut sebagai sapaan kesopanan. Walapun awalnya aku kagok juga nyapa orang-orang di sini, tapi lama-lama it comes naturally. Kalau aku ngga nyapa duluan, ya mereka pasti nyapa. Seolah-olah kita berebut ingin menyapa lebih dulu.

Jadi inget, salah satu temenku di Indonesia pernah juga cerita tentang temennya yang baru pulang dari Ausi. Waktu itu aku baru saja menceritakan 'how are you' thingy. Kemudian respon temenku : Oooohh pantes si doi (temannya) mun ketemu abi sok nanya wae 'kumaha, damang?' (translated). Puguh urang teh geus ngomong 'sae'. Ternyata udah jadi kebiasaan dari Ausi toh.

Walaupun bagi aku (orang awam) kebiasan-kebiasaan tersebut sedikit aneh, namun harus diakui setiap negara memiliki ciri khas tersendiri. Setiap negara juga memiliki adat-istiadat yang berbeda-beda yang seharusnya bisa membuatku lebih banyak belajar dan mencari tahu lagi. Seperti kata peribahasa dimana bumi dipijak, disitu langit dijunjung. Dimanapun kita berada, kita harus selalu menyesuaikan dengan kebiasaan tempat tersebut. 

See ya in my next posting!

Cheers.

First winter in Australia

Assalamualaikum,

It's been a month not sharing my stories here. I reckon I need to be more organized in writing blog. Some of my friends asking me a new story every time. Sorry guys for writing so late. I will try to write my blog regularly ;)

Well, this is June. Winter has started since 1st of June. My heater is always kicked in every time I'm home. My electric blanket is also always turned on when I'm bed. Boots, gloves, jumper, and jacket are really needed when I'm outside. Sometimes I'm lazy taking a bath in the morning, but I have to. Honestly, I tried not to take a bath twice (Oops!)

Benalla, the place where I live, is near Alpine mountain which consists of Mount Bullar, Mount Buffalo, and Mount Beauty. So it becomes colder in winter. Few days ago, it was 0 down to -1 degrees in the morning. Sometimes, we could see frost on the top of the grass and covering the cars in the morning. When it is frosting in the morning, we will have sunny day all day long. One of Indonesian teacher said the weather would be colder when it's sunny. But the weather would be warmer when it's wet. I think it's a bit strange. Below is the map of Benalla and the mountain landscape around. 

Benalla and Alpine Mountain, Victoria, Australia (see the circle places)

In Australia, you wouldn't find any snow every time and every where. Not like in Europe or America. You need to go up to the certain mountain to see snow. Mount Bulla, Mount Buffalo, Falls Creek, and Mount Beauty are the best snowing place. I have seen snow on the top on Mount Buffalo three weeks ago when I went to Bright. It's only few snow there. Subhanallah it's gorgeous. It makes me want to see more snow and do skiing ;)

It was taken by Heidy Perry (My Liaison) on the way to Bright in Autumn.
Look at the top of mountain behind me. That's Mount Buffalo!!!!
At that time, we only could see few snow. In Winter, it would become more and more snow.

Many people get bad cold in Winter and some of them get flu. I thought flu is as same as cold. But they aren't. Cold is not as bad as flu. When having cold, even bad cold, you would just have runny nose all the time. However flu is worse. You would not be allowed to go outside and just laying on the bed. You would become weaker, runny nose all the time, bad headache, dizzy, cough, and sometimes you would have cranky voice. All you need is having at least a week-bed rest. Flu becomes very bad in Winter. In Autumn, I got a very bad cold. It took me three days having runny nose. Honestly, my body is not tough enough in colder weather. So I took flu Injection at school. Even though some Aussie are not taking this flu shot,I prefer to get one. I do not know what will happen to me later, so it's better to prevent the disease. It costed $10.50, quiet cheap! But Alhamdulillah I haven't got any cold or flu until now. Hopefully, I wouldn't get one. 

I always wear more than 3 pieces of clothes everyday to keep me warm. It's a bit 'heavy' and 'not simple' way of clothing. FYI, I used to hate jumper/jacket/sweater before coming here. Now, I really really really love them. Here there are:

1. Scarf

red scarf.  I love wearing scarf every time and every where.
It's nice keeping your neck warm. Make sure you have soft and fluffy scarf ;)

2. Warm long pants
  

My teacher lent me this long pants. Woolly inside so makes you warm. 

3. thermolactyl 

Mom's student gave me this. It's like topless but keeps your body warming. 

4. Long john

My pink long john. I bought it at Twig House, Bandung, Indonesia.

5. Jumper/Sweater/jacket

50% Woolly sweater. I love this sweater!!!

Jumper from Melbourne. It's worn for jogging in the evening ;)

6. Jeans

My old jeans.

7. Coat

Aha! This is new for me. Coat! In Indonesia, I don't need it.
But here, in Winter I hafta put it on.

8. socks 

It is not woolly socks. I'd love to buy one, but these socks are still warm enough.
I bought it in Indonesia. It's made from rabbit fur. 

9. gloves

The reddish and black one (left) is from my teacher. It's a bit furry.
The black one (right) is bought in Indonesia. It's Kashmir gloves.
Both are warm enough.  

10. Boots 

this is my favorite boots. You know what?
I bought it only  $8 at Opportunity Shop a.k.a Opp Shop.
It's a good deal because it doesn't look like secondhand boots.

There are always bad and good things when we get something new. The good thing is I shouldn't buy warming clothes expensively. Even though some of them were bought in Australia. Also, I started wearing those clothes since Autumn on March and would be until middle of Spring (If it's still cold). The bad thing is how many suitcases should I take back to Indonesia??? 

Anyway, Winter is still going on until the end of August. All of the preparation to keep me warm are set. Hope God always taking care of me every time and every where. 

Cheers.