Florence, 29 July 2014

What is free in Italy?

When you travel in Italy, make sure that you always have a one Euro coin with you, because anytime you need to use WC or toilet you have to pay one euro either to the keeper of the WC or to the machine that guard the door to the toilet. It is a good business indeed, because people can't hold their pee after a long trip, especially when we travel by a bus. We can pee in the train for free.

I just found out today that the cost/fee for using toilet are different depending on where you are. It cost 0,60 euro at the Santa Maria station. In that area next to Mc Donald, a lady with her machine charge those who want to use toilet. If we use one euro, she will give change. It is a fact that the line to the lady's room is always longer than to the men's room. (Insert a picture of toilet in McD)

Later on at Il David, I found out that the cost of using a toilet is 0,70 euro. In that place you need to use the exact change otherwise you won't get the change since no one is there for that. (Insert a picture of toilet at Il David)

While in Venice, we have to pay extra one euro if we want to drink or eat inside a cafe. The waitress will ask us, "to go or here?". If we say here, she would say,"you have to pay one euro extra for that!"

Being tired from walking around, of course we would say, "okay!"

So, things are expensive and nothing is free. By this time I wrote this, I have been tired translating the prices into my own rupiah currency because they all are very expensive. 

Apa Artinya Sebuah Nama

 

What's in a Name!

Apa Artinya Sebuah Nama!

                                                                Yes, I am a Balinese woman

My full name is Ni Wayan Pasek Aryati/Ariati Hunter. If you are familiar with Bali or if you are anthropologists working on Bali or Indonesian studies, you will be able to tell that I am a Balinese from my name. There are two ways of writing my name. First when I was in elementary school, my older cousin registered me as Ni Wayan Pasek. The teacher said that my name is a boy's name, therefore the teacher added "Aryati" in my name. However, when I was in Junior High School (SMP), in my certificate my name was written as "Ni Wayan Pasek Ariati" not "Aryati" 

Anthropologically my name has several meanings as follow:

"Ni" is the gender marker which means I am a woman as the opposite of "I", the gender marker for men.

"Wayan" is the birth-order name which means that I am the first child in my family. There are some variation of the first-born child in Bali. It can be Wayan, Putu, Gede, Luh Gede, or Gung Gede depending on the region of where we are from in Bali. 

The second-born child is called "Made, Kadek, Kade, or Nengah".  

The third-born child is called "Nyoman, Komang, or Keming"

The fourth-born is called "Ketut, or Kerut"

Those are names for four Balinese family planning for common Balinese families outside the three gentry groups which have more complicated name because they need to add their gentry title in front of those common birth-order names. 

"Pasek" can be my clan name or just given to me as my parents' teknonymy, where the community members called the newly wed couple like my parents as Pan Pasek and Men Pasek or Mr/s. Pasek, therefore the first child of that couple (my parents in this case) automatically will be name either "I"/"Ni" Wayan Pasek. Since Pasek is a boy's name, therefore people think that I need to have additional name after Pasek. 

According to the ancient belief as what my grand parents told me that having four children in our family is like a building with four pillars which make the building very strong. If we have only one child, when that only child die, s/he will be roasted by the demon in the hell. If a mother doesn't have any child during her life-time, when she dies she will be forced to nurse a caterpillar until that caterpillar transforms into a beautiful child either boy or girl. 

Anyway, what's in a name? 

                                                                        Am I a Chinese?

When first I had to fill in the form during my Junior High School (SMP), I did not know my parents' name because we are not allowed to mention/know older people's name. I just knew that my parents' name were Men and Pan Pasek or the mother and father of Pasek. My grand parents' name were Mbah and Kak Pasek or the Grandmother and Grandfather Pasek. Therefore, I went home to my village to ask my parents about their real name not their teknonymy's name. Then, after i got married and had my first baby boy, people started to call me Ibu Indra, or the mother of Indra since my boy's name is I Putu Indra Ari Mahayasa. 

When I travel abroad, when we have to fill in the arrival form, there are some questions that we need to fill in with our first name, middle name, and last name. I got confused on how I should fill in that form. I just put in the form that "Ni Wayan" is my first name, "Pasek" is my middle name, and "Ariati" is my last name. But this was not good enough, when i arrived in Hawaii in 1994, i was interrogated for two hours because they suspected me as an illegal worker because they found a fax of invitation to teach Bahasa Indonesia in one of the Universities in the USA. Those two officers at the interrogation room asked me my first, middle, and last name. They did not like the fact that i do not have any family name. They messed up my name in the form as "Ariati, Ni Wayan Pasek", which is not correct at all according to my given name. My ancestors will get confused about me. They will ask, "Where is my child Ni Luh Pasek?". 

When I work for a western company, they also messed up my name's order by writing Ariati, Ni Wayan Pasek. Oh well, what to do. As a woman from the third world country, i think that we should just follow what rules being set for us by the super power country. 

                                                                    Am I a Samoan?

In an International conference, someone addressed me as "Ni", she asked the audiences about the definition of "culture", she called out my name, "Ni, can you please inform us what culture is". Well, i was just stayed quiet, because I have no idea that she wanted me to respond to her question. 

In a snail mail, people address me as "Dear Ni" and the letter went to Belize first before reaching me in Bali. 

Thus, I have several names as follow:

Ni Luh Pasek (by most people in my village)

Yan Pasek (my school mates)

Luweng (female) (by my grandparents)

Bu Indra (most people in my village)

Bu Ary/Ari (by our students)

Bu Hunter (by our students)

Bu Tom (in Java people called my by my husband's name, Thomas Hunter or Tom Hunter). 

                               

Who am I? I am wearing a red hijab posed in front of a famous Islamic Boarding School in Ponorogo, East Java. Am I a Muslim woman? 

Now that I have my first grandchild's name is Mitha, people now call me Mbah Mitha, or the grand mother of Mitha.