Moving Day

I had to leave Surabaya for Tegal today. After thinking about it over and over again, I made a decision to move out of this city I’ve always lived in, for although Tegal is a much smaller town, it pays better salary than the companies in Surabaya. I have never been too materialistic in the old days, but I need a lot of cash (or digits in my bank account) at the moment. SO… I decided (half-willingly) to move and sacrifice my good life for a big saving in the end of the contract.

It was hard to leave. But in another sense, it was good to leave.

It was hard to get into the taxi with Michelle crying before the fence. She was in her mother’s arms, who apparently finally came back from Jakarta after three months. But she (Michelle) has been so close to me lately. It broke my heart that I almost cried.

It was hard to leave my lovely mother. It was hard to leave so many good friends in Surabaya: Rina, Veve, Tina, Nyoh etc. It was hard to leave my brother, though he didn’t seem to really care about it J (my family is so used to me traveling, but hey… I leave to LIVE in another city).

It was good to leave, however, because after two months wandering around Tunjungan Plaza and home, back and forth, back and forth, without any specific useful reasons, it was good to leave to WORK. My life is so lame when I don’t have anything to do, but babysitting Michelle. Not that I didn’t like that, but it is just absolutely not a dream job. Especially that I didn’t make any money out of it (hehe).

It was good to leave since I felt that my life was surrounded by so many fake things lately. All the fancy restaurants, clubs, coffee shops and department stores didn’t interest me anymore. Especially when I didn’t have the money to enjoy them all.

It was good to leave for one of my close friends, Jun, was avoiding me for some reason that she never told me about. I guessed the reason, with the help of Rina’s hints, but I truly expected her to tell it right off to my face. Get angry if she wants, but she didn’t do it. I was disappointed at her, and she was disappointed at me. The walls between us were getting higher and higher when a big misunderstanding happened in one evening, when she and Rina texted Dimitri, an American friend who was staying in Surabaya, to go out to Tavern Lounge and Pub, and asked him to take ME with him there.
I was like… huh? Shouldn’t they invite me first and take Dimitri with me there? Where did I stand in this friendship thingie?
I hated the fact that it happened 2 days before I left. But in a way, I’m glad I can get rid of these things.. though my heart doesn’t rest, for never in my life I can think of losing best friends like Jun or Rina.
I’ve been thinking of a way to get this right. But for now, being so far away from where they live, it’s not that easy.

All of those thoughts haunted me during my forever journey from Surabaya to Tegal. I decided to take a bus instead of a train because I always believed that buses took us faster to a place than trains.

Well not in this journey.

First, they needed to get the bus full. So although I arrived at the bus terminal at 11, my bus left at 1 (urgh…). Second, there was a bridge falling down in Rembang, a city in the border of East Java and Central Java, so we had to take a MUCH MUCH MUCH longer turn and a big traffic jam was delaying us even more to get to our destination. We were stuck there for about 3 or 4 hours only in REMBANG! Gggggrrrrrrr!!!!!

The result was I arrived in Tegal at 2 in the morning! So a total of 16 hour-journey! Dang! Even worse than a 7-hour train. But a lesson is a lesson. Next time, I’ll surely take a train!

Now I understand why people invented the word “WORSE”. Because there are always worse things coming up after the bad things you’ve had.
Well, I arrived in Tegal long after midnight, weary, physically and emotionally tired, to find that I couldn’t contact one of the teacher’s cellphone (the only number that I know!) to open the door for me! I tried a thousand times to call her, but the network (HER network) was always busy. I called a friend in Surabaya and I managed to get through. But nothing could be done from there. So I tried and tried (also tried to call the office but it directly connected me to the fax machine, so no use) and after 30 MINUTES, I could get her pick up my phone. *sob*

I went to bed at 3 that day (spent about 30 minutes to wash my face and brush my teeth and so on and so on). But hey, I was there anyway. That was better than waiting for the office to open at 7. I just hoped that it was all worth the effort. :-~