Talking about the people in this town – no.. no.. no.. - I think it’s more suitable to say in this province – I feel that the percentage of the expressive person is higher than the percentage of same people in Java – including Jakarta, of course.

On my second day here, one SPG at Carrefour talked to me while I was serious picking rice cooker, ‘Kak, tasnya bagus kali..’
And me, **melongo** I don’t have any proper answer yet, although finally I said thank you.

On my third day here, we were eating at seafood restaurant. One of the waiters served us. When he just distribute the menu, he talked to me, ‘Kakak, rambutnya bagus kali, panjang, lurus. Itu nggak di-rebonding kan? Duh.. ga kayak rambutku, keriting-keriting (sambil jari di kepala, melintir-melintir rambut sendiri). Kenapa kakak ga ikut Gadis Suns**k aja? Aduh aku juga mau-lah punya rambut kayak kakak.’
Hohoho… he’s a man, mannnn!!!

Several days ago, we went to Medan for several days. On the way home, it was in the evening, we decided to have dinner at Indian Restaurant at Tebing Tinggi. The husband has ever had dinner in this restaurant with his friends but he is not sure of the place since we don’t know this city.
Trying to follow our instinct, finally we found this restaurant.

We ordered Nasi Goreng and Bihun Goreng. It tastes Indian. You know what I mean, right? It’s cooked with Indian spices. See the picture:

Finished the meal, then I was thinking that I still can eat more. Hehe.. If you know me well, this is weird ^.^
I was so curious to try one of the foods which I never heard before, so we ordered Roti Planta. It’s actually just like an empty “martabak mesir’ but they put chocolate milk and butter in it. Hmmm… it’s so sweet but still tolerable on my tongue. I can say that the taste is ‘lucu’ - in my language.

About the price, it wasn’t so cheap but it wasn’t expensive as well. Usually, I have three responses after seeing the bill. One, I’ll have sparkles in my eyes and suddenly make promise to come back to the place. Or two, just regular me, no changes happen. And three, I’m thinking to hit the waiter/waitress or the owner for giving me such an unreasonable price. Unreasonable doesn’t always mean expensive. It could be expensive but still reasonable because of the taste, the place, the service, etc.For this, I choose number two.

Talking about local language, like I ever mentioned before, agak terkagum-kagum ngedenger orang sini berbicara.

1. Intonasi. Setiap kalimat diucapkan dengan gaya seperti bernyanyi. Jadi untuk mengucapkan satu kata yang sama, dibutuhkan waktu lebih lama dari orang lain yang bukan berasal dari daerah ini. Misalnya, jangan, the local people will say it, ‘Jaangaaaaaann..’, atau ‘Aaadaa..’

2. Term/word. Di masa-masa awal pindah kesini, agak bingung dengan perbedaan kata/istilah yang digunakan, terutama yang menyangkut alat transportasi. Beuuhh.. Kebolak-balik.
Sepeda motor, itu disebut kereta disini. Atau ada juga yang menggunakan istilah Honda, which is salah satu merk sepeda motor itu. Jadi kalau si A punya sepeda motor Yamaha, maka mereka bakal bilang, misalnya, ‘Naik Honda Yamaha..’

Mobil? Itu disebut motor. Jadi kalau mau merencanakan pergi jalan-jalan bersama satu kantor –yang berarti pesertanya banyak- jangan bingung kalau mereka cuma pake satu motor, karna motor disini muatannya banyak.
Kalau kereta api? Ya, khusus untuk ini, tetap disebut kereta api. Jadi hati-hati kalau mau menyampaikan informasi, misalnya kalau ada yang kecelakaan. Ditabrak kereta atau kereta api?

3. Volume suara. Beberapa kali berada di tempat keramaian, apalagi kalau sedang duduk di tempat makan, yang biasanya posisi duduk akan saling memunggungi tamu lainnya, suka tiba-tiba kaget karna tamu lain yang dipunggungi tiba-tiba berbicara dengan volume sangat keras.
Berhasil tersedak beberapa kali..

4. Pada beberapa kata, mengubah huruf e jadi o dan l jadi k, seperti di kata ‘kecil’ menjadi ‘kocik’, ‘kebun’ menjadi ‘kobun’, ‘pening’ menjadi ‘poning’, dll.

Demikianlah.

Speak about the church in Aek Kanopan, I experienced several surprises here.

1. I got the parish name from mr. google, completed with the address and phone number. On Saturday night, I called the office. After long rings, a man picked up the phone. Then I asked about the Sunday mass schedule. But he said that there will be no mass tomorrow because the pastor was requested to deliver mass at another place. He also said that usually the mass is available only on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd week, meanwhile on the 4th week, the pastor certainly serves the mass at stasi.
Then I asked about the nearest church where the mass will be available. After thinking, he said that there is another church at Pulau Raja. It’s about 5 km from here, around 20 minutes driving. He said that the mass will start at 9.30am.

So the day after, we went to Pulau Raja, looking for the church. Asking several people on the road, finally we can found it at 9.50am. I thought we were so late. But why are there so many people in front of the church? And surprisingly it’s not a catholic church, but everyone led us to come here. So then I asked someone there, ‘Ini Gereja Katolik ya? Mau ada misa kan ya? Kok gereja nya bukan Gereja Katolik?’ Someone answered me that the mass will start soon and it is. So officially, it started at 10am then, not 9.30am.
About other question, no one answer, so I conclude that it is borrowed from other community.

A week after, we again came here because I remembered that it was the 4th week so there were no mass at Aek Kanopan. In the last mass, there was an announcement that the mass will start at 9 sharp. When we came at 9am, there was no one there so that we confused and tried to remember what was announced last week. We decided to wait and yes, it was finally started at 9.30am.

Conclusion: the schedule is never on time so if you want to attend the mass at Pulau Raja, you just need to come 30 mins after the said schedule.

2. I think the people who attended the mass in Pulau Raja were not more than 100 people. So everyone knows each other. And because we’re ‘an English man in New York’, so people easily recognized us as a stranger. On the second coming, someone finally asked about who we are, where we are coming from, etc. But they were surprised when we said that we live at Aek Kanopan. They said that the church here is bigger, so why we should come this far to Pulau Raja. When I said that there is no mass at Aek Kanopan, they said that it’s impossible. So after that, we directly went to Aek Kanopan’s church and guess what! People were just finished the mass. Ooohhh.. why is it so difficult to get a valid information here?? I’ve prepared myself by calling the office before coming, but still, I’m disoriented. So I asked everyone about the mass schedule. They said that it’s 8am on Sunday. And we also try to find the schedule at the announcement board in front of the church. But it was only mentioned as Sunday morning, without specific time.

3. On next Sunday, we came here at 8.10am. We were late. We were. But no one was here except a family – one man, one woman, and one baby -.
From him I know that the mass will start at 9am today since it was Easter. Ooohhh… not againnnnn… We have asked this last week, but no one told us.

Conclusion: Oh my God..

Speaking about the hotel at Pematang Siantar, we stayed at Wisma Humanitas. According to the husband, this is the most reasonable hotel in this city. There is a bigger hotel that is famous but he said that the hotel is scary, gloomy, darkly, and moreover it is much more expensive.

About the hotel itself, the husband has told me that I can’t expect too much for this. He described that the hotel is just like ‘kost-kost-an yang bagus’. To get a better understanding, I asked him whether we can use the hotel’s towel or not and he said big no. For me, it’s enough to get a better view of the hotel.

So then, we arrived there almost in the middle of the night. We checked in and got a room, I forgot the type –maybe executive, but not sure enough- the facilities are including AC and TV, but not hot water. Hufff… I hate this part.
The AC - Siantar is so cold at night, so we thought that we don’t need the AC on. When we decided to turn off the AC, it was around 1am. Unfortunately, the remote was not provided in the room, so we need to call the receptionist. But because there was no phone in the room, so the husband needed to go to the front office. But there were no one there. Hence we can’t turn off the AC.. *Sigh..*

The TV – there was also no remote control in the room, but at least we can do it manually on the TV itself. But there was only one channel available since it was controlled by the receptionist. So whatever they played at the front office, all rooms should watch the same.. *Ooohhh..*

In the morning, the breakfast is provided in front of each room. It was lontong medan that is soooo spicy… *OOuuhh.. What a shock therapy for my stomach..*

Overall, we can say that this hotel is OK – not good but also not bad –
But for sure, local government and investor should take a look at this area so they can provide an international standard hotel at this city. I think this is important to attract visitor to coming here.