A Thousand Traces

Hari libur nasonal. Lundi de Pentecote. Senin Pentakosta. Entah untuk apa. Karena mereka yang beribadah, tentunya melakukannya di hari Minggu. Hari Pentakostanya. Mungkin dulu pertimbangan pemerintah adalah memberikan waktu Senin libur untuk istirahat, kumpul keluarga setelah merayakan Pentakosta. Tapi sekarang? Berapa banyak keluarga yang mengadakan acara ibadah kumpul keluarga di hari Pentakosta? Paskahpun sepertinya hanya berburu coklat saja.  Dan meski pemerintahan dikatakan sekuler, tetap saja ini dipertahankan. Seperti juga Senin Paskah... Yah, kami sih melihatnya sebagai kesempatan tambahan hari libur saja. Meski tetap merasa tak adil karena dari sekian banyak libur keagamaan Katholik yang rasanya tidak perlu diliburkan,mengapa tidak dihapuskan dan diganti dengan libur Idul Fitri atau Idul Adha, misalnya?... Tapi itu bahasan lain lagi!... Hari ini hujan. Tepat seperti prakiraan cuaca dari Meteo France . Kami mantap tak ke mana-mana. Sepagian santai saja di tempat tidur. Saya...

Ya, Sabtu kemarin saya dinyatakan telah menyelesaikan MOOC  Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest   yang diselenggarakan oleh Commonwealth Education Trust ! Setelah sekian tahun mengikuti MOOC di Coursera tanpa sertifikat, senang juga bisa memperolehnya kembali. Berkat penawaran spesial gratisan awal tahun Coursera nih!... Melihat-lihat arsip, terakhir kali saya mendapatkan sertifikat Coursera adalah untuk Marriage and The Movies: A History   yang diselenggarakan oleh Wesleyan University pada bulan Juli 2015.  Waktu itu, sertifikat masih digratiskan. Bukan sertifikat resmi dari penyelenggara sih. Hanya Statement of Accomplishment . Total saya sudah mendapatkan 13 sertifikat. Ada 4 kuliah di Coursera yang saya selesaikan tanpa sertifikat. Termasuk yang terakhir  Introduction to Classical Music   yang diselenggarakan oleh Yale University. Perjalanan panjang sejak kuliah The Science of Gastronomie dari  The Hong Kong University of Science...

At the beginning of her marriage, my mom didn’t know how to cook. My grandparents always have someone who comes to cook for the whole family. And when my mom was a student in another town, she always bought her meals from a nearby warung, a small, usually family business restaurant with an affordable price, which we can find throughout Indonesia. So she didn’t have the opportunity to properly learn to cook. Well, like most of Indonesian, she can cook instant noodles and fried eggs, of course! But then she married my dad and moved to France. There’s no way they could hire a cook. It’s way too expensive for an average income like theirs. My dad knows that he married a woman who couldn’t cook. “It’s okay. I’ll cook for us. Or we can buy meals,” he said. And that's what they did. They adopted French style for breakfast. They bought baguette or croissant from a nearby boulangerie. So no need to cook in the morning. At noon, when my dad wasn’t home, my mom prepared something easy; plai...

This is a realistic, with some fantasy parts, 16 pages picture book, meant for two- to six-year-olds. Bunny is Nina's favorite plush.  Nina takes Bunny everywhere she goes.  Well, except to the bathroom so as not to get it wet.  And also not into the classroom.  Nina has to leave it in the plush box, so Bunny can play with other plush while she learns and plays with her teacher and friends.  Nina is always happy to find Bunny again after school ends. She wants to hold Bunny all along the way home.  Mommy doesn’t agree. Nina has to put Bunny in her backpack so Bunny can rest a while.  But that day, Nina didn’t want to listen to mommy and hide Bunny under her jacket while mommy talked to the teacher.  And so Nina went home holding Bunny under her jacket.  But at home, oh no! Nina couldn’t find Bunny! Nina cried because she missed Bunny and also she regretted not listening to mommy.  The next morning, Nina went to school sadly without Bunny...