Orang Asing di Taiwan disebut Alien, Nah lho...

Yap begitulah paling tidak sebutan kita di kartu tanda pengenal keluaran pemerintah Taiwan buat para penghuni Internasional, baik itu pelajar maupun pekerja. 

Setiap orang luar Taiwan yang datang ke negeri asal Bubble Milk Tea ini (Zhen Zhu Nai Cha) diwajibkan mengurus KTP versi Taiwan khusus untuk pelajar ataupun pekerja yang menetap lebih dari 6 bulan di sana. Kartu ini sebutannya ARC atau Alien Residence Card awalnya aku dapat kartu ini ketawa sendiri, ajegile nih negara, kita-kita disebut alien, dikira Keroro Gunsho kali yak! haha Buat yang penasaran gimana bentuk ARC, begini ini nih:

setelah di edit beneran kayak alien gw (-.-")

Trus buat kamu yang mau datang ke Taiwan dan mau ngurus ARC terutama buat pelajar, caranya gampang aja, kamu cuma perlu siapkan beberapa hal sebelum datang ke kantor imigrasi mereka:

1. Isi application form 

2. Pas photo warna ukuran 2 x 2 inch (sumpah kamu kudu poto paling manis disini, soalnya 

    kartu  ARC ku versi sebelumnya, ada poto gagal ku yg dikenang sama satu jurusan 

    sampe saat ini*memori gelap

3. Pasport asli dan copy an

4. Residence

5. Tanda kamu diterima masuk perguruan tinggi alias LoA (Letter of Acceptance)

6. Sertifikat akomodasi dari universitas (biasanya dibantu urus sama petugas kampus)

7. Biaya NTD 1000 untuk 1 tahun

Pastikan kamu mengurus kartu ARC ini dalam kurun waktu 15 hari setelah kedatanganmu ke Taiwan, jangan sampe kena denda nanti harus bayar NTD 2000 - NTD 15000 (di kali aja dengan Rp 400,-  per 1 NTD).

Nanti di OIA (Office of International Affair) masing-masing kampus pasti ada kasih kamu kertas yang satu ini buat ngurus ARC, isinya kira2 kayak yg aku tulis diatas juga deh.

Okay deh sekian kira-kira penjelasan tentang alien nya semoga bermanfaat dah. See you again 

Greenship Assosiate Training Bikin Kangen Taiwan

Kenapa bisa begitu?

Karena waktu aku ngambil S2 di sana thesisku ada hubungannya dengan Green Building atau istilah beken di Indonesianya Bangunan Hijau. Hijau disini bukan berarti gedungnya warna hijau yak, tapi bangunan yang dibangun dengan konsep ramah lingkungan dari mulai material hingga metode yang digunakan sejak persiapan hingga selesai sebuah proyek bangunan. Ibaratnya makin hijau gedung yang kamu bangun, artinya kamu makin beken and cakep deh (maksa :p)

kondisi ruangan kelas GA

Nah kenapa bisa tiba-tiba aku ikut training hijau ini? karena dibayarin ma kantor dunks..hahahahah kalo gk, mana sanggup bayar pendaftaran nya men! Jadi ceritanya aku sama bos ku ikut kegiatan ini yang diadakan oleh Green Building Council Indonesia di Jakarta pada 27-28 Maret 2015 lalu (Alhamdulillah aku diajak ma pak bos! makasi ya bos yang baek hati dan pintar menabung hehe). GBCI ini adalah lembaga yang tergabung dari beberapa orang yang berasal dari konsultan atau kontraktor besar di Indonesia juga merupakan lembaga yang mengeluarkan sertifikat Greenship sebuah bangunan. Mungkin kamu pernah dengar LEED punyanya Amerika, BREEAM nya Inggris? nah alhamdulillah Indonesia sekarang udah punya Greenship Indonesia yang juga menjadi rating toolsnya bangunan-bangunan yang ingin mendapat sertifikasi hijau.

Iya itu aku...bukan! bukan yg didepan yak!

Training ini buat menambah ilmu dan konsep pelaku konstruksi agar lebih peduli terhadap efek yang diakibatkan jika kita membangun tanpa memperhatikan atau mempedulikan tentang efeknya pada lingkungan sekitar kita. Trainingnya ada dua tingkatan, tingkat umum atau tingkat dasar namanya Green Associate Training sedangkan tingkat lebih emejingnya lagi itu namanya Greenship Professional.

1. Greenship Associate Training (GA)

Disini kamu diperkenalkan konsep hijau, fakta-fakta tentang pencemaran lingkungan yang terjadi di dunia selama ini yang tidak kamu sadari. Serta istilah-istilah hijau lainnya. Ibaratnya mereka kasih kamu materi dasar nya supaya kamu kenal dan tau. Ibaratnya tak kenal maka tak sayang, kalo kita gk kenal apa yang sedang kita hadapi sekarang, apa yg kita rusak. apa yg kita sia-sia kan dari bumi kita yang cuma satu-satunya di seluruh galaksi ini, maka kita bisa-bisa gk sayang sama si bumi ini dan akibatnya kita gk peduli dengan kehacuran bumi yang kita lakukan perlahan demi perlahan, trus ntar gimana dunk dengan anak cucu kita yang harus menanggung akibat dari ketidakpedulian kita?

Biaya pendaftarannya lumayan mahal, sekitar Rp 3.000.000,00 tapi kalo menurut aku sih worth it! Disini kamu akan mengikuti 2 hari training dari mulai pagi jam 8 sampe jam 6 sore dengan pemateri yang penuh dengan pengalaman dan ilmu yang luar biasa yg mereka sharing dan bagikan pada kita semua. Setelah training kamu dikasih waktu 1 minggu untuk membuat paper yang temanya bisa apa aja yang berhubungan dengan materi yang udah diberikan. Setelah kamu ikut training 2 hari full + submit paper nah kamu bisa dapet sertifikat GA dan kalo udah ada seritifkat ini, kamu bisa ikuti training lanjutannya yaitu GP.

2. Greenship Professional Training (GP)

Disini kamu akan di training secara intensif dan diberikan konsep lebih dalam seputar ilmu praktis yang bisa kamu terapkan langsung dilapangan. Nah namanya juga intensif, trainingnya bisa sampe malam dan kamu juga akan diberikan tugas besar (kalo istilah tekniknya Tugas Rancangan) dimana kamu akan di bagi dalam beberapa tim dan diberikan sebuah contoh kasus untuk membuat gedung tersebut mendapat sertifikasi Greenship Indonesia. Pokoknya kalau kamu bisa menyelesaikan tugas besarnya yang diberi waktu selama 3 bulan, kamu bisa dapat sertifikasi GP , nah kalau udah dapat sertifikasi ini  kamu bisa di hire dalam tim khusus GP oleh beberapa proyek yang membutuhkan sertifikasi hijau untuk gedungnya berdasarkan rekomendasi dari GBCI tentunya. Keren ya? ya iya dunks, bayarnya pendaftarannya juga keren, Rp 8.000.000,00 huahahahahahahaa (ketawa putus asa).

Pokoknya selama kegiatan ini, materi yang diberika merupakan materi-materi dasar yang harus aku pelajari dalam menyusun thesisku dulu, jadi banyak banget istilah-istilah hijau yang lumayan familiar di telingaku dan meurutku training ini jadi sebuah review dari ilmu yang sudah pernah aku dapatkan sebelumnya.

Tertarik untuk mengikuti trainingnya? langsung aja kunjungi website mereka disini. Kalau udah ikut training GP ntar bagi-bagi ceritanya ke aku yak !

Elegi TAWA

Tertawa lah secukupnya,jangan berlebihan

karena di akhir hari,kamu akan menangis sendirian

#sebuah kisah dan momen setahun lalu yang terulang kembali dan lagi lagi menjadi pengingat diri 

Enjoying Hot Spring Waterfall in Semolon, Malinau

March 19, 2015

 

Rare experience happened again when I had a chance to go to Malinau for one of my job here to assisted some people from Jakarta to survey about the flood happened here last January. This trip was unprepared and really sudden.

 

Malinau Regent Office

 

Ulin wood (with a real skull hanged on top) and Alligator Sculpture

Landmark of Malinau Regency

I went here for 3 days and I got a chance to visit Semolon just because the last day, my plane was postponed for 6 hours and the crew noticed me on 8 o'clock and I just could not imagine how I spent all day long in this city without being so bored. I decided to call the driver I knew here and asked him whether I can go to some exciting places near the city before I went back to Tanjung, and he gave me a good suggestion, "why don't we go to Semolon, miss? there is a hot spring and waterfall there, only 2 hours to go there, I can guarantee you to go back here without getting late for the flight schedule" he suggested, and I gave him a big YES. hahahaha. 

So there we went, although the mountain road very tortuous, and the road is still not paved but I enjoyed all of it because this is my first time to go there alone without my friend with me. It was really excited! I managed to see Dayak community (one of the tribes in Kalimantan who are still living in the jungle and mountains), they used to live in a cave but lately some tribe get a relocation houses because the last flood took many casualties of their kind. The driver said that every weekend, many people go to Semolon and will pass this teritorry, so at those times, all the Dayak tribe will wear their traditional clothes and dance in front of their house to get all the attention of the visitor.

 

find another Alligator which is owned by private property

you need to get permission to take a picture here, the owner was an ex-village thug

 Dayak relocation houses entrance area

 

the government even built school for Dayak children

standard houses for Dayak Tribe

Around 15 minutes from Dayak relocation houses, I finally arrived to the final destination, hot spring and waterfall, yeayy. The scenery can only be explained by pictures , I guess. So here they are:

 

 

we need to cross this bridge to get to the waterfall

 

 me and the driver

 

exciting me haha :p

 

I really happy and thankful to God that I can visit this place and enjoyed the warm water of the waterfall. I didn't go to the hot spring because it took 30 minutes more to walk up there and I am afraid I cannot catch up my flight. 

So if you guys have a chance to visit Malinau, you should try to visit this place. It is only 2 hours from the city compare to the other places which can take 6 to 8 hours. So why not try this destination, isn't it?

I am Big Big Girl in a Big Big Flood…. (using a lyric from Emily – Big Big World)

Today I would like to tell you my experience for a big flood happened last February at my new residence. Actually I already wrote it in advance exactly at the flood day but I only have the chance to upload this story now.

February, 10 2015

Woaa who knows that heavy rain these days ended up with being a big flood! It was only one month after I moved to my new residence to the youngest Indonesia’s province. I was just moving to my new boarding house a day ago, cleaned up and settle everything, but now look here! Aww man it was a big flood out there and water threaten to come in to the house. It was only in the yard in the morning, and then slow but sure the water began to rise to the front steps.  On the same day, I got text messages from my chief division to gather around the main office and formed 2 groups of people to measure the water level. Actually this is not my division but since we have lack of member here so all division need to help each other let alone it was emergency situation. Each division rode one double-cabin car (a ranger car) each carrying a measuring gauge, a GPS to mark territory, paper and stationery to record the measurement results. We took three points in every way (start, middle and end point).

I was a team with mas Ali, Afiq, Singgih, Suwito and Ms. Eka. After performing measurements on four roads, turns out the water began to increasingly high so it cannot be passed by cars. Finally we decided to walk for the sake of completing the rest of the measurement which was still a long way to finished.  Funny phenomenon that I noticed from this flooding along the way Tanjung was this society truly is excited at this flood event. They are busy playing and making flood water as if it was an extra large swimming pool and make this moment as a means of recreation and they went walks around the town to see flooding in various places. Though the water looks cloudy and dirty and just imagine all the water in the ditch were mixed in this flood but they seemed did not care about it and casually swim and enjoy their pool. 

Semangka Road, the highest flood level

According to some friends who come from this city, a city famous for its hornbills, previously they had experienced a major flood like this, probably about 10 years ago. Since in this small town, there are rare things that horrendous the city, so even for the flood moment they made it as a special event to be enjoyed. I could only shake my head only to realize  this phenomenon and think, Did they not realize that this is a disaster and must immediately evacuate? Well that’s a thing for a small city like this.

Finally after a sore foot, toe blisters (I wear sandals in the water, kind of regret about this) as well as experience itching due to unsanitary water, finally we finished the measurement and then headed to the main road (near the monument of peace) while waiting for a car shuttle to return to office (at that time the water on the main road is not as high as in other road).  In this activity we get the highest measurement is on Semangka Road with water elevation around 95 m height. Noted that that was only the first day and water was still  continue to increase up to 3 days ahead. 

After joining the other teams we were invited by the team leader, Mrs. Pelmi, to eat noodles, dumplings and meatballs, and all on her .. yesss I've just heard  free food and my spirit went up again hahahaha. After I got home, my feet sore already and feel really itchy, so I had to rush to get cleaned up and then afterwards packing all stuff (again) as a precaution in case of the increase of water level again. 

The 2 team regroup together after an exhausted walk

February 11, 2015

The second day of the flood and the water has risen to the top of the front steps, leaving only a distance of as high as 2 knuckles before inundating the patio as a whole. This day is still as usual, we did shoping and cooking. it was the most exciting shopping activities ever, because I finally have a chance to ride a Ketingting (a small sized water transportation modes) used by local people every day if you want to cross over to the next town, but this time the boat was used inside the city road because the water was high enough and only can be passed by this type of transportation. 

Originally, we intended to charge our gadges at one of my coworkers because earlier we heard from him that there is a backup electricity machine at his home and his house was not waterlogged yet. But unfortunately when we arrived there, turned out his house was almost the same condition with us and the machinery cannot be started because it was slightly submerged in water. As a result we went straight to the market and did the shopping. I took some photograph during the ride though hehe

 

 in front of my boarding house

After shopping and cooking activities, I just lie down at home because there was nothing else I could do, mobile signals was off and it was really hard to have communication and sending news to others. Water still increasing and at the dusk, heavy rain began pouring Tanjung city. I just can expect flooding to subside because this disaster reminds me of similar events in my hometown of Banda Aceh in the year 2000. Flood reached 3 meters high and I still remember how difficult it was to get clean water and food are only dependent on outside assistance channeled through Getek and Ketingting. Hopefully this flood will subside soon. Amen.

February 12, 2015

After heavy rain overnight, Thank God when I woke up this morning the water had receded. Water already passed its highest point overnight and began increasingly recede. But the problem today was clean water. We have a shortage of clean water, only use it  for primary purposes, just enough for BAB, BAK and ablution for 2 days only. But thank God the clean water began to flowed back again at 9 am and our home was filled with gratitude. We live again!!!!!!!!!


note:

I realize something after this disaster happened that whenever I come and live in some cities, I always experience the most tremendous disaster ever happen on earth (or at least in that city). 
I lived in Aceh and I experience flood (2000) and earthquake and tsunami (2004)
I lived in Taiwan and I know how it feels to have the biggest Typhoon on 2012
I live in Tanjung selor and I (again) experience the biggest flood ever happened there on 2015

What a life :P