2020 in Review

It’s not easy to sum up 2020 in one post. The year of 2020 was quite something for every single person in this world. It was the time when everything was put in pause and everyone lived in uncertainty. It was the year of resilience, of forgiving, of making peace with the prolonged, unbearable situation.

January 2020

Like most people, my family and I started the year with a certain level of optimism. For me, especially, it was the year when I started working as a tutor in Medborgarskolan. Although it’s not a full time job, it was my very first paid position in Sweden so it’s quite special for me. In January also, we went to Copenhagen for a staycation, and visited Copenhagen zoo which was really a highlight for the kids. We even tried the yummy Barbacoa in La Neta (more complete story about this can be found here.)

Then, the news about Covid-19 reached Sweden.

We started to worry about it but not too much as there was only one case in Sweden that time and it was quickly controlled with a self quarantine. We, therefore, still traveled to Stockholm and later Abisko in mid February. This was the best trip of the year as we were having once in a lifetime experiences there (by the way, I wrote our journey in Arctic Circle in these series).

February 2020

When we went back from Abisko, there was a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Europe, including Sweden, so new recommendations were put in place and we got more familiar with the 2020 “catchphrases” such as “social distancing”, “zoom meeting”, “keep the distance” and so on. It was around the same time when we found out that my husband, following his visit to Emergency Room at the end of January, has a genetic condition in his stomach, which makes him prone to GERD symptoms. This condition was another thing we needed to deal with throughout the year.

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A News from Duluth

Last month, I was contacted by Sarah Brown, a student from University of Minnesota who asked me if I’d be interested in sharing my experience about writing in Sweden, especially writing for The Newbie Guide to Sweden. It was for her class project and as someone who was once a journalism student as well, I understand how it feels to be able to contact a source for an interview, so I said yes. She sent me her article the other day and I think it’s a good work with a nice balance of primary and secondary sources. No wonder she got 100% for this work.

By the way, there’s actually a funny story behind this “encounter”. I’ve been watching Fargo TV series lately, and one of the settings for the story is in Duluth, where University of Minnesota is located. So when I first read her email signature:

“University of Minnesota Duluth| 2023
College of Liberal Arts”

I felt like it was an amusing coincidence or maybe a sign that I should visit the place one day 😀

Anyway, I decided to share her work here for archival purposes, after having her consent of course. Sarah Brown has the full right of the article so any question and acknowledgment regarding the article should be addressed to the author. Happy reading! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

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Anak Komunikasi Belajar Sastra Kelas Pekerja

Seperti yang sudah sering saya bilang, menulis adalah satu dari sedikit hal yang konsisten saya lakukan sejak kecil. Tapi sebenarnya, saya ini penulis otodidak, tak pernah punya latar belakang sastra, bahkan tak pernah ikut kegiatan atau pelatihan sastra semasa remaja hingga kuliah S2. Baru-baru ini saja saya punya waktu khusus juga keberadaan akses untuk terlibat dalam forum-forum dan kelas-kelas menulis.

Training kepenulisan saya, secara formal, justru di bidang jurnalistik karena latar belakang pendidikan saya yang adalah Media dan Komunikasi. Sejak SMA, saya terlibat di pembuatan buletin dan majalah sekolah. Saat S1 dan S2, saya aktif di pers mahasiswa bahkan magang/bekerja untuk beberapa media. Sementara segala bentuk tulisan berbau sastra, saat itu masih di tahap wacana saja 😄

Pernah suatu ketika di tahun 2011, saya nekat ikut lomba menulis novel. Dan tentu saja kalah, bahkan lolos shortlisted saja tidak 😆 . Kekalahan itu membuat saya mempertanyakan kapasitas kepenulisan saya, utamanya dalam hal menulis fiksi. Maka mimpi bersastra ria itu pun saya kubur lagi dalam-dalam. Baru pada 2013, saya akhirnya menulis cerpen lagi, kemudian memberanikan diri mengirimkannya ke satu lomba yang diselenggarakan oleh komunitas Retakan Kata. Cerpen saya yang berjudul Laki-laki dalam Kereta, secara mengejutkan, terpilih menjadi cerpen terbaik keempat (bahasa kerennya Harapan I 😄 ) dan menjadi salah satu karya yang dibukukan di dalam antologi Jendela-jendela Aba. Sejak itu, semangat menulis fiksi saya balik lagi meskipun faktanya, menulis masih menjadi hobi sambil lalu karena kurangnya ketersediaan waktu.

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Hayu Hamemayu2 Comments

Cerita Preschool Baby K

Sudah lama saya tidak menulis di laman ini. Belakangan, saya memang sedang disibukkan dengan beberapa hal baru. Salah satunya, mendampingi anak bungsu saya masuk sekolah. Yup, sejak seminggu terakhir, si kecil mulai masuk kelas pra sekolah alias förskola kalau dalam bahasa Swedia. Sebenarnya, di Swedia, setiap anak berhak masuk preschool sejak umur 1 tahun. Tapi karena pandemi dan beberapa pertimbangan lain, kami baru mendaftarkan K Oktober lalu dengan waktu mulai awal Desember ini.

Sebenarnya lagi, ini bukan kali pertama K sekolah karena sebelumnya dia sudah bergabung di open preschool atau sekolah terbuka yang bebas jam masuk dan durasi di sekolah. Tapi tentu saja dua pengalaman ini berbeda untuk saya dan K karena sistem dan bentuk sekolahnya memang berbeda.

Nah, kalau-kalau ada yang ingin tahu sistem pra sekolah di Swedia itu seperti apa, cerita lengkapnya ada di halaman-halaman berikutnya ya 😊

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A Farewell Note*

It was all started in one of those dark and gloomy days in November 2017. During a regular browse on the Internet, I came across this announcement in The Newbie Guide to Sweden website where they’re looking for a volunteer blogger. It was naturally interesting for me because writing was the thing I wanted to invest myself in ever since I moved to Sweden, so I thought that could be a good opportunity.

But I hesitated at first

“What should I write? What’s so special about my experiences? Why would people read my stories?”

Then I realised that the idea of the blog section in the Newbie Guide website is to share stories of living in Sweden. Any story. It doesn’t have to be inspirational; it’s enough with being informational or even just personal.

Besides, living abroad is not always easy. Just like living elsewhere, it has its ups and downs. So if we can read other people experiences, it may not give you an instant solution but at least, it makes you feel that you’re not alone. I think that’s quite important when you’re living far from home.

So I decided to join the blogger team.

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Hayu Hamemayu5 Comments
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