Our extraodinary life changing

Being here in the US and continue our study has always been our dream. So this is dream comes true. And it's quite an experience...really. Even it's only been few weeks. This is experience of a lifetime, we have to deal with all issues..and make the best out of it.
Starting from we had to walk 20 minutes just to get our clothes washed, or shop for groceries, and all those in between. Doing our own dishes, house cleaning, and not to mention 24hour parenting.
Whoops, that's quite a work!!
Some of the time, I remember the luxury and convenient life back in Indonesia, and this is no where close to that. and I always told my self and think positively that not everyone had this chance. So I have to stand tough. Right??
Funny really like today I felt like I washed dishes every one hour, hehe....of course not, but felt like it.
some times we r pretty hard on the little guy,...I was actually torn because of that. And now Im trying..to put all that together in a nice life for all.
Zee has been quite an angel sometime, and not quite an angel some other time...hehe...
but again..."nikmat Allah apakah yang engkau dustakan?"
This is one hell of a good life, we just need to be wise on it

ARZIKI 'S ROOM...

It's Arziki's room! He loves it...so much. He picked his own bed.....furniture, sheet set and of course put on the thomas stickers by himself. Actually I also loooove this wall stickers, they are so easy to use. and u can always peel them off easily and put them somewhere else.....

Those are our pictures. Taken at Ave of The arts with the back ground of Philadelphia city Hall.
This is a beautiful part of the city....all the hustle bustle and nice restaurants situated here. Also among the finest shop are situated in this area. Also....many theaters...broadway like. And a beautiful building of academy of music......

Furniture, Laundromat, and all that in between.....

Our first trip was ...hum...interesting. We walked from south juniper to colombus blvd. (Please look at the map to see that it is a looooong walk). I dun even know how we could survive that walk.
But It's good to get to know the city... ;-)
We shopped at walmart for some furniture and also IKEA. Nice shops.... and to get to the apartment looks decent (wink2 ) we had to spend quite big amout ;(
IKEA was interesting....The store is quite big.... and have many choices of furniture.
I can only say...oh well...
Those trips are amazingly exhausting, cause mostly they don't do delivery...even if they do...it's expensive. Carrying them around was interesting...we didn't have a car yet, neither international driving license. But we HAVE TO deal with the apt asap.
N yes, off course we also picked up some used furniture that people threw away...ugh....
but well those hidden treasures are nice..
Finally we set up decent looking room within our budget, some of it I actually wanted to upgrade...but I am waiting lil bit later, if I got some more money.
Like our bed room carpet, it just cost too much...Im thingking a way of getting a good bargain for that....Enough about the apartment. you'll be bored..hehehe

What an apartment!!!

After longing and curious of how our apartment will look like...we finally saw it.
And it was...hahahaha...It cracks me up!! It was...make me give this impression :
"This all we got for 950USD per month??u gotta be kidding me.."
then
"Am I dreaming?, pinch me!!" "Nope, it's reality"
There's nothing nice about it except well...location of course.... and since it's unfurnished, it's just hopeless lil unit.
But well..we have to take it since we paid one year about it. And you know what the landlord said about our concerned? "U can't say u want a red car instead of blue after u made the purchase for the blue car..."
Well, what the heck....we probably can make the best out of it (I fairly doubt it, but it helps me a lot to think positively). Forget luxury, welcome to the real world babe!! But It really did crack me up..hahahaha...and I can always have a good laugh about it.
(If u want t know how bad the property management is...when I called them to tell that the waste disposal is not working and to get It worked properly I had to stick my hand into it which is dangerous...and they said "well...if that works, just keep doing it then...") What a loser!!
Anyway, we spent the whole day pitying the place (which I realized now It's just useless....) and arguing about shits. Just made us more tired, and ended up w/ nothing.
BUUUT....the location is superb. It's a quite safe area (well in the center city u have to be cautious all the time anyway, n use your ins ting) . U arts is very close by, and south street is just a walk away....and BAve of the Arts is your neighbor.

]][3oth st station (photo courtesy of pictureninja.com)

Here we are in Philly at last.....
As usual, the 30th station is as beautiful as it always be. This trip is finally accomplished....
Met Geoff not long after that, he looks like he lost some weight since the last time I met him, well...but I was like 10-11years ago.
I forgot to hop on the wrong side of the car, lol! Then off we went to Geoff's beautiful town house at West Chester.
Many of Philadelphians row houses we saw on the way, some are victorians but most are just the cutest lil things I ever saw. Philly didn't change that much since the last time I was here (as long as I remember... ;-))
Oh yeah, Geoff and laura has a very cute town house. It's soooo cute, sometimes I probably should take a pics of it, I actually had it videotaped, will upload later.The guest room is decorated very Victorian, and the guest's bathroom theme is lavender and purple. Laura put them all very well I must say...
It also has this one large room that Laura use to sew, make some craft project, it has a really cool sewing machine also.
West Chester situated just about 20 minutes out side Philadelphia. It's a very nice suburb, with all the best view you could get.... Thinking about livin' in suburb someday, definitely not now....
The dinner is.... Chili and Rice. Geoff makes the best chilli dinner, ahahah....not remember the last time I enjoyed it, but It's good, there all it is in my memory.
Finally we can get a goood nite sleep.. Nite nite

New York to Philly

New York Grand Central Station (photo courtesy of http://www.new-york-city-travel.net)

JFK airport (photo courtesy of http://naamtobatao.files.wordpress.com)

John F Kennedy Immigration was loooong. And plus my husband had to go trough special registration which took forever. Zee started to got really hungry and cranky.. and It started to got on my nerve. Not to mention I had to keep him entertained for about 3 hours. I had no idea what they did inside, but it seems a bit scary (for me, who are waited suspiciously outside). Oh yeah, the special registration took place in a separate rooms with couple officers there. When the time I saw my husband out from there, Alhamdulillah...I was never been in so much relief before. ;=)

Out from JFK airport, we catch a bus.... It said that It will take us to NY Penn Station. (that's where we wanted to go to catch train to Philadelphia)
Ended up we have to transfer at NY Grand Central Terminal, it just throw us out to the street waited for the transfer van. With our humongous suitcases, that was just so inconvenient. We argued the whole time about who put us in this situation, it really was ugly.... We were both tired and just want to scratch each other. So the situation is just well expected.
The van that ACTUALLY took us to Penn Station is the worse ride ever, but oh well...we just have to make the best out of it. And it dropped us of.....in front of Penn Station, what I meant here is across the street from Penn Station. Hahahaha...... We just stared at each other with so much pain. Dragging those suitcase AGAIN is not a happy happy time....
Getting the ticket was also quite an experience! The train is almost leaving and the regular line is just long. So we decided to bought it with machine that took cc, and we got charged 192USD for three of us. Quite a price...
and the train ride was really only a blink. Hehehe....
PHilly...here we come....!!

What a trip....

What a trip... That is the best word to describe my recent airplane trip from Jakarta to New York.
Been searching for the best fare and the best airline possible we ended up with Etihad. It has a quite good record and the fare does make sense, this what matter most...!
Checking in well we thought this wont cause much trouble, and WRONG!!
Our heavy and not to mention giant suitcase is not acceptable on board, especially to New York.
The lady said :
"well, u can go ahead but if they refused to carry your suitcase fr Abu Dhabi to New York, then...we are not responsible for that..." Whaaat?? So we had to run around buying a practical and....of course durable n reasonably priced suitcase there...unpacked our thing...split them. Imagine those undies..craps.oh only God know what else are flying everywhere in public spaces. Good start, heh??
Ok...mission accomplished, then after a sobby Good bye everyone...we stpped in to the plane...and...hum...nice plane. The interior is nice, definitely looks new and spacious...They have on board entertainment (which is a good thing, although I doubt it on how far it could really keep me entertained), the seat is okay..... So I will give it a thumb up for this one. During the flight to Abu Dhabi, the flight attendances were helpful and nice...and my zee was keep entertained with all the movies there. So It was one great journey.
Landed on Abu dhadi 8pm abu dhabi time, the airport is packed with people. And it's sooooo small. We looked for a hotel for ur only 4 hour transit, coz the waiting room is not so comfy at all.
Ended up...they are full, and it cost 175USD for even one hour....that's not worth the money.
But I REALLY need to take a shower, so we checked in to lounge that cost us 20USD per person just to sit on it and eat snacks. And additional 7USD if we want to use the shower room. Oh well, not much of a choice, right?? They have really good strawberries and chicken cheese or sumthin like that.....so that's a plus.
Then....we board......to JFK, the plane is worse than the last one.... And you don't want to know....the bathrooom got really disgusting in about 2 hours flight. The attendance didnt respond to our call, they only serve the first and business class passangers (i wouldnt mind traveling first class....hahaha, you wish!!). And when I look at the TV it says 15 hours flight.
I almost fainted right there on the spot.Oh God!
Zee of course was bored to death with the flight...and went to the bathroom zillion times..and the bathroom is sooo nasty. 15hours flights...only God knows what people did there...hehehe
It was one hell of a ride...
And in the last 4 hours my tv screen went dead , seriously...dead. It annoys me soooo bad..... I rang them...but no one...again NO ONE came . It sucks.....so I was bored to death (is there any other words to describe that). Here is my only luxury and it didn't function promptly.
Anyway....eventually we landed on JFK. Fiuuuh....... what a relief!!
Photos courtesy of airliners.net and marathe.net