Three simple, important and mostly ignored by people

Hi guys..... travelling around the world is one of most of people's dreams. To visit new places (cities and countries), to learn the culture, to meet people, to try various typical foods and of course to take selfie photos on the landmark of a place have become precious and priceless experiences for some people. To achieve such dreams one simple key to open the golden gate is language. At least, you could speak English. When you are able to use English in your daily activities, the gate will be widely opened. You could learn any other languages if you want. The more languages you know, the more benefits you will get. For examples in the professional life, social network, personal relationship, etc.

A friend of mine told me that when we master three United Nation languages (let's say, English, French and Spanish), the "visa" of the world is in our hand. It is not the absolute requirements to discover the world. As I told you before, English is more than enough. But, in my opinion, there is unwritten ethic whenever we visit a new country. 

What is that?..... We should be able to speak these three important words on their own language. There are "thank you", "please" and "sorry". Although you use English as your main language, you should say these three words on the local language in order to respect the interlocutors. Your interlocutors will more appreciate you as you have tried to speak at their language, although in fact you couldn't. Let me give you an example in French (A would like to ask the direction to B in the road):

       A   : Excusez-moi... (Excuse me)

       B   : Oui, je peux vous aider? ... (Yes, can i help you?)

       A   : Could you  tell me how to go to the train station, s'il vous plaît (please)? 

       B   : Train station .... bla bla bla.... (showing the directions).

       A   : Merci beaucoup (thank you very much).

       

From my own  experiences (in the case of trip to several cities in France, Spain and Italy),  when we start a conversation with the unknown people in our trip (asking direction for example) with "excuse me" instead of "excusez-moi", I have found that 4 peoples directly said "I don't speak English" and go. The situation was different when I started with  "excusez-moi".  

The next one, when you ask for a help, you should use the word "please" or "s'il vous plaît" should be better. When I used this powerful word, the people whom I asked gave their best efforts to explain me in English (even they don't speak English well). You will see another power of this word later. They were only several cases and of course we could not generalize them to all cases. Again, it should be better to do so.....

In this post, I will show you how to say the three words in various languages and also some experiences behind those words. 

Thank you

http://www.livinglanguage.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Living-Language-Thank-You-World-Map.jpg

http://reiki-store.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Thank-You-message.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_A_9A4NUw

I have read one real story from a book about Indonesian student in US. The general story: On the way back home to Indonesia, He has lost his connecting flight due to the technical problem coming from the airline. The airline employee at the gate seemed did not want to help him. He was hopeless at the time and suddenly one officer with Asian face come and he explained the condition to the officer and at the end he spontaneously said "arigatou gozaimasu, thank you in Japanese". Having waited, the officer told him that he could use the next flight tomorrow and the next connecting flights had been arranged. The student really thanked to the officer. The following day, the student was surprised. Before boarding to the airplane, the officer came and checked whether everything  was fine to the student. Again, the student showed his deep thanks to the officer. Surprisingly, the officer said "We are Asian, we should help each other). Perhaps, it was because the word "arigatou gozaimasu". 

Please

http://thumb10.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1934153/181849997/stock-vector-tag-cloud-please-in-different-languages-vector-illustration-181849997.jpg

When I studied French in Indonesia before leaving to France, I found some photos with the same meaning: 

French version

http://lesmoutonsenrages.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Cafetier.jpg

Spanish version

http://www.emezeta.com/articulos/42-carteles-curiosos-y-desconcertantes

At the time, I thought that it was joke. In fact, I have found three cafes in Marseille, France with the similar board in front of the cafe. Such a powerful word!!!.... Here I show you "please" in various languages.

http://thumb10.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1934153/181849997/stock-vector-tag-cloud-please-in-different-languages-vector-illustration-181849997.jpg

Sorry

In my opinion, "sorry" is a simple word and the most difficult word to say, do you agree?. Well, I don't have any special story behind this word. But, I am sure that life will full of peace if everybody forgive each others for the mistakes they have done. Here is a video about the word "sorry": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwMJrKT1Z0k

The three words are not just useful when we travel, but also in our daily life. The seemed simple but they have, let's say, big impacts. This is a simple way to respect others. Last but not least, let's us respect ourselves by using the words "thank you", "please" and "sorry" in our daily conversations!!!......

Here I also upload the video about the words:

Hello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDrBMpMdW0s&list=PLB54BB545EF7CA798

Happy Birthday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gParpNbPD8Y

What are your the important words in your life???

Radiotheraphy week 8#

It was my last week of treatment. I was happy as everything will finish. Pleasingly, my weight increased 1 kg, not bad. But still, I lose my appetite, I lose the sense of taste and I had got some headache, I did not vomit, I felt less tired. With those reports, I had a consultation with my doctor at the following day. She even did not realize that that week was my last week. Perhaps, she hoped that I will stay longer (hahaha). She explained me that everything will become normal soon. So what I could do was being patience and trying to increase my weight. The next consultation would be on March 2014 and then it would be every 6 months. 

Finally, the last day had come. There was no late. One side, I was happy and another side I was not happy to say goodbye. The hospital and the nurses were very kind, nice and warm to me. Like a coin, there will be the end if there is the beginning. At the end of the treatment, the nurses said that I was cooperative and didn't complain too much. I said in my mind that it was because I couldn't speak French to response their questions. I didn't forget to say thank to the nurses (who kindly helped me and gave their smile during the treatment), secretariats (who always greet me with warm bonjour) and also my taxy driver Eddie (who was very kind). Last, I leave the hospital by saying au revoir!!!.....

Radiotherapy week7#

Such a long journey it was, my 5th-6th week of radiotheraphy. Loosing the sense of taste, having double jetlag, passing unpredictable new year eve in Bangkok Airport, taking my first A380 would be my own unforgettable experiences during the radiotheraphy. Since the first day of the 7th week, some questions totally filled my mind:

• why didn't finish the treatment first, and then went to my country?;
• why did I make the professional affair as my priority at the time instead of my health?;

For sure, I ever thought that I will not waste money if I didn't do such journey. I was also afraid with the bad effects that might be appear if I pause the treatment. Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining. Thanks God, now I have a position as a lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia in the field of chemistry and I don't find any health problems after the treatments.

As the previous weeks, I started the week by weighing my weight. Surprisingly, there was no change. Tuesday, I met my doctor and explain her my condition. To make sure, she asked me to do the blood test. And we will see the results next week.

There were a lot of trouble in the machine in my 7th week. We had to wait for several time and the worst was 1h30. Frankly, it was horrible. At the same time, I met many people. There were some patients who were patience and some patients were impatience (perhaps, because they were tired). Usually, I did not speak too much to other patients because my French was bad. What I did was listening to their conversation and trying to understand. I was afraid to interrupt their conversation and to join them with my bad French. But at that day (Wednesday) an old woman (who has similar schedule like mine) asked me to speak. She had a tumor near her eyes. She spoke about her disease and life. 

Until that day, I thought that I was the youngest patience. Apparently I was, until there was a 3-years-old kid who came to the tomotherapy room with wheel chair. He came with his mother and a nurse. He was bald and very thin. Believe it or not, He had got a tumor in his head, like me. In my case, I was operated and then was treated with the ray. In his case, he was treated with the ray. After the radiotheraphy, the doctor will decide whether he would be operated or not. The treatment time for him arrived. While waiting her little boy, the mom spoke to the patients. She spoke very fast and one question that I understood the meaning was "why do you have the hairs while doing the treatment?". Didn't she see me?. I was bald, no hair. Maybe, she knew that I am foreigner and she thought that I couldn't speak French (I couldn't). In my opinion, the question was normal for her as a mother. All the people at the waiting room shared their empathy to each others. Unfortunately, the machine went down when he was on the machine. How poor the little kid!. Ten minutes after, the machine re-worked and he passed the treatment at the day. He came out from the room in sleeping condition. The old woman next to me asked the nurse why he slept. The nurse said that, he was injected with local anesthetic in order to make him sleep and did not move during the treatment. What a sad!!!....Thanks to the nurses who gave us some drink and snack while waiting.

There was nothing special on Friday and there was no late on the treatment. Having finished the treatment, the nurse gave me the schedule for the next week. At the moment, I was surprised why the schedule ended at Thursday. But suddenly I figured out the answer, next week would be my last week of radiotheraphy!....

Radiotheraphy week5-6#

I asked my doctor to have her permission since I would like to go to Indonesia for a week. We have already discussed it long time ago before the treatment began. Actually, she did not totally agree if I go to Indonesia at that period. This was because the treatment has been started for 4 weeks and she was afraid that if we stopped the treatment for a while, there would be a problem in my tumor. Finally, she gave me permission to leave.

 

Since it was a high season, so I took the cheapest flight. It was Marseille-Barcelone-Berlin-Abu Dhabi-Jakarta-Jogjakarta with the duration of more than 30h. It seemed crazy by taking such itinerary. But, yeah it was, I was crazy. I have a different-or maybe strange- "behavior" in this case. I love aviation, I like travelling, I enjoy to stay in the airport and in the airplane for a long time, I prefer to take several transits to visit new places-although only transit). By taking this itinerary, I could visit Barcelone (my favorite city), I would transit in the two new places, Berlin and Abu Dhabi and I would use three new airlines that I've never taken before, Vueling, Air Berlin and Etihad. That's me.

 

The journey was started. I went to Barcelone and met my best friend Nuzuly Tara (she used to be a student in Marseille and she did her internship in Barcelone). Then, I continued my flight to Berlin. I had 5 hours of transit and I decided to go out of the airport and had city sight seeing. For sure, that was one of a good points travelling in Europe. I could say that I also have a "vacation" in Berlin and Barcelone. Then, it was the time to say goodbye to Berlin and say Hi to Abu Dhabi. I liked Abu Dhabi airport, it was big and there were a lot of facilities for the passengers. I love travelling by airplane and enjoy to have long haul flight. In this flight, I felt different. I did not totally enjoy the flight and it was really tiring (it was because of the treatment, for sure).

 

The journey continued to the final country. Finally, I arrived in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, it was 23.00. My next flight would be at 6.40 at the following day. At the time, I flied Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Jogjakarta with the main reason that the terminal for Garuda is in the international terminal and I could take a rest comfortably inside the terminal. But, when I went to the Garuda terminal, the officer say that it is closed during the night and will be opened two hours before the first flight in the early morning. I said, it was disaster and I have to stay outside during the night???. In my normal condition, maybe I could accept that. But at the time, I would say again that it was disaster with my condition. I had no choice and I had to wait outside. The other bad things were waiting for me outside. First, the different weather. In December, it is winter in Europe and it was hot and sunny all the time in my country. The different weather made me feel more tired. Second, there were a lot of people outside (they would go to Saudi Arabia to have Umra). So, there was no much place to take a rest. Such a disaster!!!!.

 

Finally, I arrived in my city, Jogjakarta. Having finished my work there, I asked my friends to hang out together and tried different kind of Indonesian foods. Although, I tried many kind of food, I couldn't enjoy their taste because they were tasteless for me. There was nothing I can do and i had to accept it.

 

The time passed very fast and the time to go back to Marseille had arrived. In this journey, my itinerary was Jogjakarta-Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Dusseldorf-Marseille. The flight was nice and I arrived to Dusseldorf. I went to the passport control and there was a problem. The police said that I could not enter Europe with my documents. At the time I had "Recipisse pour Demander Titre De Sejour". This is a temporary document before obtaining the French identity card. This document is given as the preparation of the card is time consuming. Principally, the recipisse is equal with the identity card.  I had explained everything to the police. But, the police did not accept that. I was REALLY panic at the time and i had no idea what should i do. At the end, the police said that I had to go back to my country and prepare the visa. I had no choice and believe it or not, my next flight was heading to Indonesia instead of Barcelone.

 

I said hi again to Abu Dhabi airport. Fortunately, the flight to Jakarta was delayed for most than 7 hours. It means that i did not need to spend the whole night outside the airport  like the last journey. I spent the 7 hours to take a rest and search the information about the legality of my document and i found that my document is legal and i could enter Europe. Having arrived in Jakarta, I directly searched another DIRECT flight heading to France. I chose Thai Airways. Two things that made me smile were I would visit Thailand at the new year eve and I would use Airbus A380. Thanks God, the first time i could fly A380 was at the 1st of January 2014. EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING.

 

Welcome to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Honestly, I was a little bit afraid to pass the passport control. Afraid that the same incident would be happened as in Dusseldorf. Pleasingly, I had the stamp on the airport which mean that i could enter Europe. I clarified whether i could enter the Europe with the recipisse or not. And, the police said, "yes and the Germany police is strange". I took the TGV (fast train) from Paris Airport to Marseille. From Marseille train station, i directly go to Romain's house. We spoke about everything that happened to me. Ten minutes later, I had a deep sleep due to the "double jet lag"............

 

 

Radiotheraphy week4#

I started my week by greeting "welcome" to the 4th week of the treatment. I did not believe that I had already passed my first three weeks. If you ask me, was it boring to do the radiotherapy? what did I do for the daily life?. I will say, yes, it was really boring because I had to go to hospital everyday to spend 30 min or even more to do the treatment. When I arrived at home, I felt very tired as the same as I had worked all day long. The doctor suggested my to do some activities to fill my time. I had tried to fight the tiring, sometime it worked and sometime it did not. When I did not succeed on it, I would directly take a nap and I would stay alive on the night. The activities I did during the treatment were cooking, going to the city center, reading the gift books, watching movie, or sleeping. Courage!!!.

On Monday, I found that my weight was the same as the previous week. I was surprised because I thought that I would loose more weight due to the fever. Such a good news, I told to myself. BUT, I also found that I could not taste anything, sweet, salty, acid or even spicy. The salt, sugar, lemon and chili were even tasteless. Every food was tasteless and sometime bitter to eat. Strange....

On Tuesday, the doctor said that it was also one of the side effects. Aie Aie Aie (like the French people said when something bad happened). I have lose my appetite and now I even lose my sense of tasting. So what should I do???.

Having just known that, I did not wanna eat. I only ate once a day and drank the food supplement. I knew that it was bad. After that, I never cooked anymore, I was afraid of doing that.

What do you have in mind when you hear about chemotheraphy or radiotheraphy?. YES, loosing hair. I didn't see such effect on my first three weeks. But, I did on my fourth week. Imagine, when you scratch your head and you find that some of your hair fall. I was really panic at the toilet at Thursday morning. So, at the night, I asked the help from Romain to cut my hair. For sure, it was funny when we did the "experiment" on my hairs.

In the same week, I had got the news from my University in Indonesia that asked me to go back to Indonesia for professional reason. That was not FAIR. First, it was high season (Christmas vacation), so the ticket was very high. SECOND, I came back to my country, but I could not taste the tasty delicious Indonesian culinaries!!!!!!!.....
 

Radiotheraphy week 3#

It has been a long time I did not write any blog. I decided to continue my blog on my days during the radiotherapy first. In fact, I almost forget the detail and unfortunately, I record the general things on my book.
 
The previous week was ended by the Christmas party at Indonesian embassy in Marseille. I hope that by eating so many food, I will gain my weight.

On Monday, with a big confidence, I went to the hospital and was sure that my weight would be at least stable or even increased. When I entered the tomotherapy room, I was welcomed with the other warm "bonjour" from another group of nurses. And, here we came. I went to the balance and see the number marked on it. No, I lose my weight. I was 68 kg. Disappointedly, I started my tomotherapy while listening the song from Olivia Ruiz.

The following day, the tomotheraphy went on as usual. After the treatment I have the consultation with my doctor. I told her that I lose my weight, I felt tired easily, I vomited, I had the headache. She told me that such effects were normal and encouraged me. She said that I should loose any weight more, so she gave again the prescription for the protein-riched-drink. I replied, ok, i'll try and see you next week.

When passing the rest of the day, my condition was getting worst. First, I was very tired and I've got the fever (I did not know whether it was because of the treatment or the climate as it was winter). Second, I also lose my appetite. I only ate twice a day with 1/4 (even less) of my normal plate. The following day, I found that I lose my sense on my tongue. At the time, perhaps it was due to the fever. In my mind, it was normal when people got fever.

(No correlation with the treatment) At the last day of the week. It was 13-12-13. I had just realized that it has been one year I stayed in France. The time passes very fast. More, at 12h13 (I exactly remembered the time). At the entrance gate of Hôpital Nord, I told my story to my friend Romain de Carvalho. Thanks for listening.