semalem
longpura 
kedatengan tamu org indonesia.
mrk stayed at the Golden Tulip hotel, deket nieuwezijdskolk, n sebelum mrk dateng tu org hotelnya nelp k resto, nanya makanan d resto halal apa engga. so i told them klo yg dr islamitische slagerij d sana cuma lamb sama chicken. but of course we also hv fish n shrimp dishes. n then the hotel-person told me that there's goin to b 3 people on their way to the restaurant.
kay.. dan ta-da... 3 org indonesia masuk. kesan pertama: "ufh, orang indo nih, bakal susah nih."
soalnya experience sy ngelayani org indo adalah sbb:
1. ga pernah ngasih tip :p
2. ada yg bakal sok kayak majikan dan babu
3. ada yg bakal sok keren sok tajir jln2 k eropa n because of that she/he is a total hottie
negative-thoughts aside, i approached the table with my most friendly face n talk to them in Bahasa. awal2nya emg kerasa klo pada jaga jarak dikit. the ppl turned out to be some kelapa-sawit kebun owner. 2 were from medan (husband&wife) n the other man was from surabaya.
and "the wall" started to crumble when they askd me about my religion :p they didnt believe at first when i said im a moslem, they askd me to cite the Shahadah (buset xD). well mereka bilangnya "coba baca".. i was like (ermmmmmm.... baca.. apa? but then i tried my luck by citing the shahadah.. which satisfied them.. kqkqkqkq xD)
they were like these umm... bapak & ibu culun :D lost in Europe, probably just got a lot of money thx to the kelapa sawit plantation.
ibu Medan: klo mo foto2 pke baju belanda di mana ya?
ulma: oh.. ke volendam
bapak medan: ke sana naik apa?\
u: oh, bisa naik bis
bapak surabaya: aduh jgn bis dong, taxi bisa ga?
u: *nyeh?* bisa om, bisa ^__^" tp bapak ibu harus coba naik kendaraan umum d sini, beda sama di indonesia soalnya ^_^"
bapak medan: klo mo belanja2 barang high quality d sini dimana ya?
u: (buset, barang2 high quality? wuts dat? :p).. umm kalverstraat tuh pak, deketnya dam square (mo bilang pc hooftstraat
sih tp ribet ah ntar ngasih tau jalannya :p) ~ come to think of it kayaknya harusnya i should just told them bout pc hooftstraat. ga kebayang mrk beli2 baju d wonder woman xD
yah.. then i spent some more time at their table, chattin. the restaurant was not that busy, we had a group of 16 n there's another table of 4. my boss and sam (another colleague of mine) were working as well, plus the bar-woman. the bapak surabaya got 3 children all of them went to switzerland to study tourism. (my head went ka-ching!)
they ordered gado2, pepesan, soto n udang goreng tepung. i apologised if the taste was not as good as if they were in Indonesia. but they're very nice n did not complain at all. the bapak from surabaya even ordered 1 extra portion of Gado-gado for take away. emg beda kali ya.. attitude pekerja dan pejabat :D
when they were ready to leave they askd if i could call the cab heheh. i knew they would ask sumthin like that. but quite understandable. myb it'd be 15 minutes walk to their hotel, n the weather last night was also not tropical-people-friendly. they were actually had just arrived n should be very tired.
in the end they also gave good tip! (a RARITY amongst Indonesian guests). it was a nice experience really. made me less pessimistic towards my fellow countrymen :D ow yea, they also askd if i could find some friends that could accompany them touring amsterdam today. i couldn't go myself coz i hv to work. setelah telp org2, si
prima,
vina dan ifta bersedia :) awww thanks girls!
before this there were also 3 Indonesian coming to the restaurant, myb 3 or 4 months ago. forgot what they ordered but they signed the guest book (yea the restaurant has a guest book that can be signed by guests, pretty neat :) some people wrote poem, drew pictures, n scribbled things that did not even use the Romanian alphabet :D). two weeks ago (i think) my bf went to the restaurant n was leafing thru the guest book. he stumbled on the page where the 3 ppl signed.
[reconstructed conversation ~my memory fails but this is more or less how our conversation went]
bf: "wah, suciwati pernah makan di sini?"
u: "suciwati siapa?"
bf: "istrinya munir"
u: "what?? can i see?" *lookd at the book n immediately remembered the night with the 3 indonesian*
"no way! she's munir's wife???"
bf: "iya.. ni ada asmara panaban, usman hamid, it's got to be her"
u: "n who are the other two?"
bf: "asmara panaban is a noted lawyer in human rights, and usman hamid is the exc-dir of KONTRAS" (the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence)
u: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
*at this point i really2 felt embarassed & ashamed of myself*
"i remembered mr. panaban coz he gave me his credit card n i commented on his name, 'wah namanya bagus, asmara'.. HOW LAME WAS THAT!!! n when mr. hamid signed the book suciwati said 'dia artis lho mbak', i was just like 'huh?! oh klo gt jgn lupa tanda tangannya ya ^^' BEGO GA SIH???" O_O
bf: "dont worry, i dont even know them by face, so if i saw them on the streets, i wouldnt recognise them either"
u: "but u would recognise their names rite?"
bf: "yeah" *grinned widely*
u: "thank you, but that doesnt make me feel any better" -.-
if only i read TIME Asia 2 years ago i would have recognised her.. xp~
image source: TIME asia Magazine's website
picture credit: Since her husband's assassination last year, Suciwati Munir has become a voice for justice
maybe that's the reason they didnt leave me any tip -.-
oot since
i watched that travis barker video my ears found comfort in this:
at the end of the day, n i was closing the restaurant (incl. blowing out more/less 30 candles xD) si
alvin, 16 y.o. anak baru d resto (works in the kitchen), was about to go home, he said bye2 to me n umm he motioned his right fist towards me, n stopped mid-air, .. split-seconds, i realised that the right thing to do was to move my fist the same way. our right fists met n wow i just did a cool hand greeting :D suddenly i felt young again :D myb next time he would teach me a "hip" or "gangsta" or "street" greeting :D
arriving at home, flipped the channel, n guess what.. korn's
concert (mtv live) was on :D yay.. head-banging to korn was a perfect closure for the day ^______^
