Friend Shock

Okay i am so damn bored right now. This is holiday, my boyfriend is still out of town, my family is busy with some guests coming to our ‘guest house’, and my friends….. Well they’re gone. So here I am, have nothing to do, and next to me there’s my lil sis, who just got back from watching 'Sherlock Holmes’ with a friend and now waiting for her other friends to pick her up to spend the evening. What a life.

I experience what I call as friend shock. It’s similar with culture shock, but it friends. I know, stupid…. But when you have nothing to do, sometimes your mind, or my mind, is getting weirder and weirder. Anyway, back to this friend shock thing, 6 months ago before I went to Singapore I had a lot of friends and a boyfriend. They always filled my day and evening. I always had things to do, watching movie, going to computer fair, watching theater, going somewhere far just to try the food, Karaoke, book store, coffee shop, and many more. Even when I didn’t have company, I just need to text one of them and off we go.

When I stayed in singapore, I made some new friends. Since we stayed in The same building, the time that I spent with friends was double the one I spent in Jogja. It’s like the time that I had was divided into 3, school time, me time, and friends time (studying is include somewhere in each of them :p).

There were not many things to do in Singapore actually, especially because I didn’t have much money. The cinema was double the price. The type of the theater was different. There’s no cheap coffee shop or cafe. As for shopping, no money no shopping. I think I explore orchard road more when I was a tourist compared to when I was a student.

Even though there’s not much to do, there were always people. I just need to go down to the common room and chill there. Fortunately the common room in my building was rarely empty. When we had test, everybody study. When we’re free, we played stupid games or talked about random things. When it’s Saturday night or Sunday, we just wait until someone popped out things like “let’s go Clarke quay” or “let’s go Arab street” or “wanna go vivo?” but the Favorite sentence in my last days was “let’s go utown!” haha….There were times when I felt the common room was boring. I took it back. Nothing is more boring than my life in the past couple weeks.

Now that I’m back, some things changed. My best friends from architecture department graduated (Alhamdulilah…). They are rather working or staying in their hometown. As for my friends from english department, well all of us finished all the class and focus in the final year project. They rarely go to campus. Same things happened to my friends outside campus, working, getting married, studying for master, bla bla bla. 

If there’s a thing called culture shock, then I now experiencing friend shock. I used to meet at least 1 friend every day. Every time I got bored I could text a lot of people or just crash in their boarding house. But now…. nobody. I can’t ask them to meet up when they have deadline to do or come to their boarding house gossiping when they are tired after work. 

At first I thought it might because of this exchange things. For the past 6 months I lived in a dorm where there are hundreds, maybe thousand students living altogether. But when Fela, one of my best friend, also experienced similar things, I realized that might not be the case. Fela is an architect, she works in Jakarta now. As written in her blog, she planned to go to Jogja on for New Year’s eve, to celebrate with us like last year. She then cancelled her plan and go back to her hometown instead because only few people available. We used to have a deadline for studio project at this time when we were still architecture students. We also had our exams in January. So everybody was here in Jogja, studying, drawing, designing, rendering, modelling, busy busy. But now,,,, no deadlines, no more exams, almost no reason to stay in this town. 

Fela wrote that as she grow older, her circle is getting smaller. She has workmates and new friends, but people that she can really talk to decrease. Mem, our close friend also in Jakarta, but it's impossible to meet her everyday. It is Jakarta anyway, we need at least 2 hours to go from one place to another.

It could be because of the work, or the city, or final year project, or maybe an exchange program. No matter what the reason is, there will be a time where everybody feels lonely and friendless, for me and her it is now. 

Another example of the ‘bad’ group picture. This was from our last dinner before Robert and Nurman went to KL. We finally had a nice seafood dinner after the failure in Jimbaran because it was so so expensive. The first comment when we saw this picture was “where’s the fish?”. Oh well….

If there’s one thing that I really hate about group picture is about how bad it is. Just like this one, we want group picture with the Wisnu Statue, and when we saw this one, Wai Yan first comment was, “where’s the head?” Some people maybe really know nothing about picture or they might be too lazy to move or zoom to get a proper picture. Either way, there we were with headless Wisnu statue.

The Garuda from ‘Garuda Wisnu Kencana’ in Bali. Wow I am so amazed on how long this project takes place. It started back when I stayed in Bali, which means, around 1999-2000.  I remembered it was quite booming. My dad got him 1 mini statue of Garuda Wisnu and one statue of Garuda because of that. Owh, we saw a Balinese theater performance too there, Ankur said it was exactly the same with what he saw 10 years ago. Well, some things just stay the same.

Random picture from Prambanan. I actually really love to take picture from the stage of the Ramayana Ballet. The last time I went there was an LO last year. I saw Prambaban from far away with all the lights and the stage, awesome scenery. And when I saw it from close, hhmmm….. not as good as the scenery from the stage.

Random picture from Borobudur.

If there’s something weird in that picture, it was the rain. It’s been years since I visited Prambanan. I remember nothing, God my memory is so so bad. I didn’t remember there were so many rocks from the temple ruin. It’s like unsolved puzzle, I wonder how many years the rocks have been lying there, with numbers, yet nobody built them into temple again.

Yogyakarta, a peaceful city.

After Bali, I went back to my hometown, Yogyakarta. Before this trip, I managed to push 2 of best friends to join me in Jogja. They were Robert and Nurman. I told them the beauty of Jogja, Borobudur and Prambanan, and about the fact that Jogja is the 2nd destination for tourist after Bali. Well, I did told them the truth about Jogja, but honestly….. I’m not sure that this small city could satisfy them.

Being friends with them for almost half a year make me realize that tourist except Indonesia has different preferences. When I think of indonesian tourist, I’m thinking about Malioboro and Bringharjo. But when it comes to foreigner, they dont like shopping or souvenirs. They prefer sight seeing and doing activities, which is not that much in Yogyakarta, or at least the ones that I know of. Not to mention, when I flew from Singapore to Jogja, I chatted with a French guy sitting next to me and he said he just gonna spend a weekend. Eh? It seems a weekend is enough to explore Jogja. So I asked Eline, a friend of mine who teach bahasa to exchange students in our campus. I simply asked her to ask her foreigner friends about what to do in this city, where to rent bike, ect…..

And there we were, arrived in Jogja, so disgusting, so tired, no money (we slept on the beach the night before). For the first day, all we did was simply sleeping. The next day I prepared nothing but the temples for them. Eline told me some places, so just in case they asked, I know what to answer and where to go. Fortunately, Nurman also had things to do in his mind, about the mountain climbing and wayang kulit. So I think I’m gonna be just fine.

I was wrong, it was not fun. It was GREAT!! Apparently Nurman and Robert enjoyed being in Jogja so much. Maybe because we had a rough time in Bali with all the robbery and other stuff, Jogja seemed to be a good place to rest. As for the activities, it was so simple and easy. I didn’t know that they were easy to pleased.

First place we went was Internet cafe because they need to work on the stolen credit card. After that we went to the biggest mall in my city to get some groceries for breakfast and they were so excited because they found some European bread and butter and cheese. Eh? They could find even better one in Singapore. They bought some bread, milk, kiri, and…… they made me a simple snack called ‘kiri gretchen’. For those who know 3 of us will know how special that snack is. I gave them more respect after the snack. I did asked them, why they so excited about bread and stuff here, whereas in Singapore it is more complete. The answer was so sweet, “because it feels like home here”. Owwwhhh…. Maybe because they stayed in my house which really is a house. Oh, and because of them I knew that some bread are actually hard to chew. I thought it was badly made, hahaha…

As for the evening, we spent some evening just chilled out at the balcony with beer and music. I didn’t drink though, just sat with them and talked about random things. That was so much fun, I never thinking about hanging out in the balcony with drinks and music could be so much fun.

Now that I think about it, we spent the rest of the evening in starbucks (yes people, indonesia has Starbucks),had sisha in one of the local coffee shop in Jogja, and we also talked there. I mean there’s nothing else to do when we had coffee and sisha isn’t it? We even chatted outside the mall after getting some groceries. Yeah….. We chatted a lot here. Nurman even said that he feels that 3 of us getting closer here. Maybe because we’re always together in Jogja or because of the robbery and all the bad things that we’ve been through together. I don’t really understand about that, as far as I know, both of them are my first friends in Singapore so I already feel close to them.

Besides chatting and buying groceries, we went shopping. I know that for some people, especially foreign tourist, Bali is a better place for shopping than Jogja. But since they got robbed in Bali they don’t have much options. When I saw them shop, I sense 'revenge’. Well after almost 1 week not having money, what do you expect?

One day, I went with them to 'the basement’. This is actually just a room made by my dad for Shifa to play. There are play stations, games, comics, novel, UNO, and some other games. Apparently they love playing playstation, so we brought the playstation all the way to our house and spent the night playing DOA. Wow!! I never see someone playing fighting games as good as Robert. He knew all the combos and counters. I gave him one more respect point for his fighting skill. One more thing, he’s amazed to see my games collection. He said the price of playstation games are expensive in Germany. My respond was “Tee he he… Welcome to Indonesia!”

After the groceries, the shopping, and other routines, we went to Borobudur and Prambanan, the most famous tourist attraction around Jogja. They have gone to Cambodia before, so this ones were okay. Owh now I’m really curious about Ankor Wat. Thanks to them I found out that foreigner has different ticket box with AC and coffee and tea. But the tickets are way more expensive too. Borobudur trip was cool but Prambanan was more interesting. It’s not because of the Temple, but the visitors. Most of the visitors were local and only a few foreigner including my friends. So both of them became center of attraction and there were many visitors that asked to take picture with them. It started with a group of students from west java, then the teachers, then random girls. Hhwwaaaa….. They were idol. Of course the one that was asked to take the picture was me. It was fun, Nurman was a little bit nervous because he chatted with some teachers using bahasa while Robert was a little worried because the last time he surrounded by children, he lost his card. And me, I enjoyed it!!!

So that’s a wrap. Six days passed so quickly and most of the time we spent doing daily routines, shop, playstation, watch DVD, go to cinema, visit some temples, go to Internet cafe, have a coffee and sisha. Whoa, when I think about it, most of our days spent like local student rather than tourists. Except for the temples, the plan for mountain, wayang, and jazz were cancelled because we choose to do the local student’s routines. It was similar to Bali, every time we made plan, we ended up doing something slightly different. But that’s one of the reason I love being with them. It’s just spontaneous and unpredictable.

I had so much fun with them as always. I think I worry to much about how to please them, I forget that they are my friends and it is always fun to do anything with friends, no matter how small that thing is. Just like when we’re still one big group in Bali, no matter how many unfortunate events that we had, I enjoyed every second of it, because I was with my friends

The group picture in Tanah Lot. I feel like crying… miss our time together. Btw, I looked around during our trip and I’m so proud to say that we’re the only group that consist of many races.

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

- Greg Anderson -

This is the best I could get with my 18-55mm lens. Just the sunset without people, resort, or any object. Believe me, it’s hard because Kuta was so crowded. 

Okay, this picture is not from my camera but from Robert’s. I was too lazy to get my pink camera. It is Lumix with fixed lens, awesome camera. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this sunset was good because of us and the resort in Sanur. From left, Richard, Me, Soo, Robert.

Sunset in Tanah Lot with Ankur as the object. Now that I think about it, why didn’t I took picture of the sunset too? I guess the sunset meant nothing for me. Anyway, after this picture, Robert admit that I could take good picture tee hee hee….

The Sunsets

During the bali trip, I saw 3 sunsets. The first day I arrived, I saw the sunset in Tanah Lot. The first and last sunset we saw as a group. Honestly, I don’t really understand the beauty of sunset and sunrise. Maybe because I lived in Bali for 3 years. After Bali, I moved to Kupang where I lived in a house located on the highland. Since Kupang was not crowded at all, I could see all the way from my house to the sea. Too bad I know nothing about photography at that time.

Anyway, back to the first sunset in Tanah Lot, I just chatted with Ankur and Wai Yan and suddenly the sun’s gone already. Oh well…..A few days after that, Soo, Richard, Robert, and me (the others already left Bali) went to Sanur also to see sunset. I just followed, anything would be better than doing nothing. We supposed to meet Nurman there, but we couldn’t. We walked along the beach and found a nice resort with clean private beach and the sunset. At that time I was too busy with my spicy corn and Robert’s camera, so…. whatever….

In the last day in Kuta, for the first time I saw sunset from very beginning until the very end. Well I admit, it was pretty. When I was amazed with the color of the sky after the sun’s gone, Nurman tease me by saying “well you always leave right after the sun’s gone”. Ups….

I couldn’t escape this sunset not because I wanna see it, but more because I don’t have option. We had no money and no hostel. What’s left was to wait until 6 am tomorrow, so I watched it. And still, I can’t say I found that event special, except that I saw it with my best friends.

n.b: gonna post the pictures in different post.

Farewell Trip

During my exchange program, I became really really close to some people, especially the ones that stayed in the same residence as I did. We spent most of the days together from breakfast, dinner, shopping, and hang out in the lounge for almost every night. Most of them are also exchange students. Some of us, including me, only stay in Singapore for 1 semester. Some other will spend the next semester in Singapore but after May they will go back to Europe. In short, it’s hard for all of us to meet again after this semester. That’s why we planned a trip together somewhere.

After days of discussion and lots of options, from Thailand, Laos, Korea, we ended up in Bali. As the only one in the group that never see snow, of course I’d prefer Korea, but I really don’t mind because what matter for me is spending time with my friends.

On December 5th I arrived in Bali. The others already arrived there. There were 8 of us, me, Nurman, Robert, Ankur, Wai Yan, Richard, Soo, and Jay. There were 3 people who could speak the language, me as the only Indonesian, Nurman who learn bahasa in his college, and Ankur who lived in Jakarta for 14 years.

It’s been around 10 years since I left Bali. I am so excited seeing some things that don’t change like the statues and my elementary school, my house, the neighborhood, even some old supermarkets. Too bad I didn’t meet any of my neighbors. Some things totally changed. As far as I remembered, it was only 10-15 minutes from my house to Kuta by bicycle. But during this trip Kuta seems so far far away. Robert called it the long way, which is from Legian all the way to Kuta.

There were not much to tell about this Bali trip except for the bad luck that kept coming again and again. First was Ankur lost his motorcycle key. Then Robert and Nurman got robbed by children, they lost their credit card. Soo’s phone was missing. The room key somehow disappear. I left my wallet in the cab. Not too mention we got deceived and lost so many times. It’s like time passed by so quickly and most of our times wasted to waiting for the group to gather, to look for way to go back to the hotel, or simply just to discuss which took forever…. I remembered at some point someone said something like “we keep on discussing and do nothing, just discuss.” kk

Although we wasted so much time just chatting, eating, waiting, drinking, and especially discussing, we still managed to visit one place as a whole group, Tanah Lot. At least that’s the only group picture I found after browsing almost every picture from every camera uploaded in facebook. 

We spent 3 days in Bali as a whole group. After December 8th, some of us went back to either their home country or Singapore. Started with Jay on 8th, then Wai Yan and Ankur the next day. Soo flew one day after Wai Yan and Ankur, leaving the 4 of us alone in Bali without money. It was only 2 people that got robbed, but somehow 4 of us run out of money. Three of us would fly to Yogya including me of course, Richard’s flight had the exact time with ours, but he’s going back to Korea.

Since our flight was on 6 in the morning, plus we didn’t any money left, we decided to check out from hostel on 12 noon and spent the last night somewhere, the options were between airport or beach. And there we were, as disgust as I have ever been, no shower, no money, sleeping on the sand of Kuta Beach, under the star. I was so happy that it wasn’t raining. I guess we still had some luck after all. 

So that was it. My first trip with friends. Despite what happened and all of the troubles, I had fun, I really did. In fact, it was such an experience and adventure for me. A story that we could retell when we meet again in the future, a story that we could laugh about in the reunion, a story that I will tell to my children, a memory that will never be forgotten for the all of us.

Ankur made this video about our trip to Bali. Despite the quality or whatever it is, I admire his work. The only suggestion that I have is about the name of our group. Well it’s not officially a group…. Anyway, quoting from Robert’s statement, the name of the group should be Ratking group. Not because we’re like the real one but because 8 of us has different preferences and things to do. So we move really really slow (gonna talk about it in the next post). But still we are A-W-E-S-O-M-E :D

This is a video montage made by my friend, Indah. I wanna learn how to make it. Too bad I already left Singapore. Thinking about make one from my next Bali trip, I think the right song would be Kesha or Lady Gaga though….

Siang hari di depan Takashimaya

I and Soo on MBS. Low-quality picture from my phone. Thx to my stupidity of forget putting the mmc inside the camera. 

Hari yang membingungkan

Kemarin hari saya dimulai dengan….. well, buruk. Sedikit ironis sebenarnya, karena kemarin pagi itu exam terakhir dan subjeknya yang saya paling suka. Saya sudah membayangkan habis exam bakal hura-hura. Apalagi sahabat saya mengundang saya (lebih tepatnya saya maksa dia ngundang :p) ke Marina Bay Sands, hotel paling happening di Singapore sekarang.

Jadilah saya sudah merencanakan dengan sempurna. Pagi hari exam, siangnya dihabiskan dengan tidur, sorenya saya berangkat ke MBS, berenang di kolam renang infinitive-nya, poto-poto, pulang, ditutup dengan skype dating sama Popo. 

Namanya manusia, begitu berencana, kok malah kacau? Exam saya berantakan dan untuk yang satu ini saya males elaborate. Jadi tidur siang juga tidak nyenyak, kepikiran sama exam yang berantakan itu. Sorenya saya siap-siap, saya bawa baju ganti, cek batre kamera (penuh), trus cap cuss lah saya ke MBS. 

Di MBS, saya dijemput sama Soo, tetangga saya di PGPR. Jadi ceritanya mama nya Soo datang menengok, karena, sama seperti saya, program exchange Soo akan berakhir pada bulan Desember dan dia akan kembali ke Illinois. Sebelum programnya kelar, si tante pengen liat gitu deh. Dan ternyata Soo itu tajir abis. Dia dan mamanya menginap di MBS jadi mereka bisa berenang di infinitive pool yang (konon) tersohor. 

Sudah siap dengan baju renang, saya langsung mengeluarkan kamera saya. Tadi di asrama, saya sudah cek baterainya, jadi aman lah. Dan ternyata………… saya lupa bawa mmc *gubrak*. Wah benar-benar anti-klimaks. FYI, Soo juga tidak punya kamera, kecuali di ipod, dia memang bukan tipe orang yang ambil pusing soal foto. Jadilah foto-foto di MBS yang seharusnya bersejarah, jadi foto-foto dengan kualitas foto hp.

Setelah berenang ternyata si Tante nraktir saya makan. Wah sebagai mahasiswa yang pas-pasan, siapa yang bisa nolak. Alasan lain tentunya karena enggak sopan. Lha, udah diundang. Dan ternyata….. makannya di MBS. Omigot….. makan di hotel berbintang kan mahal banget. Dari situ saya baru sadar, ternyata dia emang tajir abis, cuma emang orangnya sederhana, jadi enggak keliatan.

Jadilah kita makan malam di salah satu fine dining restoran yang ada di lantai 57 (ternyata ada banyak restoran). Wah baru kali itu saya makan makanan sampe terharu. Penampilannya cantik banget, sampai enggak tega buat makan. Jujur baru kali itu saya melihat makanan secantik itu di luar acara master chef #ndeso.

Dan baru di situ juga saya menyadari the art of food. Selama ini saya selalu berpendapat kalau makanan mahal itu hambar, lebih enak makanan kaki lima yang lebih ‘sedep’. Paling enggak itu yang saya rasakan setiap saya sarapan di hotel dan waktu Popo ngasi surprise dinner di hotel bintang 4 di Yogya waktu anniversary kita yang ke….6 apa 7 yah? (Kalau sudah pacaran kelamaan, kadang lupa saking banyaknya anniversary). Bahkan waktu saya dan teman-teman sasing ikut kelas tata cara makan di hotel (yang juga) bintang 4, rasa makanannya hambar.

Tapi ternyata saya salah, makanan yang saya nikmati malam itu makanan hotel, tapi enaknya bikin terharu. Ternyata daging mentah itu kalau diolah dengan baik itu rasanya enggak amis. Ternyata steak yang medium-rare itu masuk akal (saya dulu berpikir, buat apa sih makan steak setengah mateng, kan atos?). Ternyata scallop itu bentuknya beda sama sate kerang.

Dan masih banyak ternyata-ternyata lain yang bikin saya bengong. Untungnya saya pernah ikut kelas cara makan itu, jadinya enggak malu-maluin banget. Saya juga pertama kali nyobain yang namanya champagne, sebenarnya sih saya enggak boleh minum alkohol, tapi karena si Tante minta, dan demi alasan kesopanan, saya minum deh. Kesan saya; enggak enak, pahit, panas.

Sayangnya semua memori itu cuma terekam di kamera hp. Pada akhirnya ini semua benar-benar pengalaman yang menyenangkan buat orang yang datang dari kota kecil seperti saya. Bersyukurnya saya cukup beruntung untuk mengalami semua itu gratis, thx to sahabat saya Soo.

n.b: setelah ditimbang-ditimbang, saya memutuskan buat menulis ini dalam bahasa dan bukan bahasa Inggris. Daripada dibaca teman saya yang dari luar, trus mereka ngakak. Sudah cukup beberapa dari mereka mengira tidak ada jalan raya di Indonesia. Bule…. 

Laziness

I now I am never a diligent student. But there’s times where I just do all my works and done long before the due date. There’s also times where I am really really lazy and doing nothing for days, like….. now :P

If I track back to the past. I realize that I’m really lazy on certain time. Usually it happen when I have so many assignment or deadlines. The harder the work, the more laziness that I have. 

In the opposite, when I have nothing to do, I am so energetic. I wake up early and do many things. I plan my trip or go out somewhere, or simply just clean my room. 

Besides deadlines, I also realize that I am lazy to take pictures. I love photography, so I do take picture of good object and scenery. But I don’t like taking picture of people for so many times at the same place. And when it comes to taking picture while doing something else, it’s frustrating. Using SLR is already hard, changing the apperture and shutter speed all the time while doing something else is not easy, at least for me.

One bad example happened recently when me and my friends went to Cold Stone. Ankur, one of my friend, asked to catch the ice cream. So the waiter threw the ice cream and he was about to catch it. At the same time, other waiter kept asking me what I want to order. Confuse about capturing Ankur’s moment with ordering my ice cream, I ended up taking picture of him but I missed the ice cream, because it’s too high and I didn’t raise my camera. 

Other object that I think not important is my neighbourhood and myself. It’s connected actually. Let’s say picture of NUS campus, I’d prefer not to take it without me in it, because if it is just the picture of NUS, there will be a lot in the net. What makes it special is a person, which is ‘me’. 

Again, that will cause another problem. Obviously I can’t take a picture on my own unless I bring tripod everywhere, which is troublesome. And asking random people wouldn’t be as good as I want. Not to mention, some people can’t or just too lazy to change the setting of the SLR camera.

Still connected with photography, I didn’t realize that pictures are important until recently. I had to make a photo essay of my activities during this exchange. It was so hard for me to find pictures. I did a lot of volunteer yet I only had 2-3 picture about it. I knew from the very beginning that I had to make that photo essay. But when I did the community services, I tottaly forget and, again, too lazy to take picture. I mean, I enjoyed my work and I didn’t want to lose my concentration just because of picture. What important for me was I enjoyed my community services.

If I could blame someone for this, that would be papa. I love him, but the way he hate picture just make me sad. We moved and travelled a lot around in Indonesia, yet I don’t have any memory of it. I don’t have picture when I did snorkeling in Menjangan island, or when I visited Martapura and Banjarmasin in Borneo, or when I stayed in Kupang which was one of the nicest city I’ve ever lived in. I didn’t have documentation about our family trip to Batam, East Borneo, and Manado. 

I guess in the end, pictures are important. At least it’s more important than how I used to think it is. I’m not saying that I take a lot of pictures now. But a few days ago, right before I packed up my things, I realize that I don’t have pictures of my room. So I took it. Without me in it, but there’s my stuff. So it’s different from random picture in the internet.

Almost Over

I can’t believe my exchange is almost over. I’m going back to my small and peaceful city in a couple of weeks. Back to my campus with its old buildings and spend my weekend wandering in those tiny malls with mom. Leaving this developed country with all the great facilities. The weird thing is…. I can’t wait!!!

I know that I cannot compare Yogyakarta with Singapore. Perhaps, in many aspect Singapore is way better than Yogyakarta. Cleaner, low crime rate, better campus, better libraries, bigger malls, and so on. But I still miss my hometown. I miss eating on the pedestrian, miss going to crowded hot yet really cheap batik market, miss riding my scooter, miss hanging out with the girls in the cheap cafe with dime light. What I miss the most is about how live in Yogyakarta is 24 hours. I can always go at 2 in the morning just to find a gudeg place that just open and fresh, or 6 am and found fresh porridge scattered everywhere. But….. it is also not easy to leave Singapore.

I am experiencing what Robin, from How I met Your Mother, called as graduation goggles. “It is the nostalgic feeling one has about a time or someone in their life when it is about to end, even if the time was completely miserable.” ( I found the description here, little weird)

I don’t like my room here, compare to my own room, this one is too cramp and it has no AC and shared bathroom with expensive rate. I also don’t like the lack of entertainment here. Most of the weekends were boring. The options are clubbing, shopping, or doing nothing. Three things that I couldn’t do if I’m broke. 

Ahhh… now that I remembered, there’s a seesha in arab street, which was fun, but somehow always ended up badly. First time I went seesha, I ended up in a weird bar, second time ended up with me and Ankur running all the way to catch the last bus. So, that were some of my weekends.

Some might ended up badly but I will miss it. I even gonna miss the most lousy weekend where some of us just stay in the lounge, either studying or daydreaming…..

Now that I know I’m gonna miss the bad part of it, I also realize I’m gonna miss the good part of it, my new friends. I think in the first week when I am back in Yogya, I’ll miss the lounge. Especially because I spent most of my evenings chilling out there. 

But it just gonna happen so there’s nothing I can do except make the most of it…..

Sebelum ke ERC

really late update… Gift from Popo….

Random chat in the lounge

Ajeb-ajeb

I know it’s sounds really lame and so uncool, but I never go clubbing. Kalau di terjemahkan ke bahasa Indonesia, saya tergolong kaum culun. Dan seperti magnet, saya menarik orang-orang culun lainnya (in a good way). Jadilah saya dan teman-teman lebih banyak menghabiskan malam di warung kopi di Seturan atau di Malioboro. 

Tapi semua berubah ketika negara api menyerang. No I’m kidding, sorry I just can’t help it. It’s so funny. Kembali ke laptop, semua berubah ketika saya mengikuti program exchange dan berteman dengan orang-orang dari berbagai negara, yang herannya mereka punya satu kesamaan, doyan clubbing. Mau dari Jerman kek, Korea kek. Apa ini bentuk globalisasi? Yah apapun itulah. Akhirnya tadi malam saya clubbing for the very first time.

Tempatnya ada si daerah Clarke Quay, pusat clubbing di sini. Jadi satu area isinya kebanyakan bar dan club. Di situ juga ada jembatan yang isinya buat minum bir dan ngobrol-ngobrol. Kalau kata teman dari India, ini ide bagus karena memusatkan tempat mabuk disini, jadi mereka justru tidak bisa berbuat onar. 

Saya sendiri sudah beberapa kali kesana dan selalu minum cola dan nongkrong di jembatan, tapi belum pernah masuk ke club-nya. Ceritanya sih mau hemat, makannya memilih hari rabu yang notabene ladies night. Dasar eggak rejeki, ternyata kita datangnya telat, jadi tetap harus bayar dan ternyata muahal banget $28. Dapat 2 minuman sih, tapi kan saya enggak minum. Jadi ya duit segitu cuma buat cola 1 gelas, kupon minuman satu nya saya berikan ke teman yang kayaknya kok lagi ‘haus’. 

Begitu masuk, hwaaa….. gelap, kabut, dingin, terus teman-teman saya yang kayaknya enggak mau rugi itu menghabiskan sekitar 85% waktu di lantai dansa. Buset dah, kayak enggak ada capeknya. 

Kesan berikutnya adalah cowok-cowoknya, agersif banget. Mulai dari megang tangan, cium tangan, sampai yang membuat saya bengong…… Untungnya saya ditemani teman-teman yang menjaga saya dan teman cewek lain. Jadi ya asik-asik aja. Karena cowok-cowok ini juga saya jadi harus nempel sama teman-teman saya. Ditinggal ke toilet aja saya gelisah. Enggak berani liat kemana-mana, soalnya banyak mata yang ngajakin kontak, yang bisa dipastikan kelanjutannya. Enggak mungkin kan cuma kontak mata doank.

Pemandangannya juga enggak kalah heboh, terutama buat kelas teri macam saya ini. Hwaaaa…. yang biasanya disensor di berbagai macam media bisa dilihat disini. Salah satu yang bikin bengong itu waktu ada cewek berdiri sambil ngobrol sama teman cowoknya, eh pantatnya dipegang gitu sama cowok lain, terus si cewek itu santai aja ngobrol. Haaazziinnnggg….. Gilanya itu cowok pegang pantat, menyapa saya terus ngajakin gabung minum bareng dia dan teman-temannya. Wah saya langsung merinding geje gitu. Terus ngabur deketin teman-teman saya di dance floor. Sejak itu, saya enggak berani jalan sendirian. Enggak enak juga sih sama teman-teman. Saya kan enggak mau mereka ribet nungguin dan ngejagain saya, yang sayangnya memang jadinya begitu, sorry guys….. ):

Ada juga cowok-cewek yang dance nya hot abis. Dasarnya saya kampung, saya sampai berhenti joget terus bengong gitu melihat mereka. Herannya mereka enggak sadar tuh kalau diliatin. 

Secara general sih, saya enggak bisa terlalu menikmati, secara saya enggak minum dan musiknya juga, buat saya, kurang ajeb-ajeb (ngeles dink, sebenernya karena muahal abis entrance fee nya). Dan memilih sebuah club di luar negeri sebagai tempat pertama buat clubbing sama sekali enggak ada di rencana saya. Dari dulu sih saya cuma membayangkan bakal masuk club di Yogya dulu, dengan analogi bego-begoan bahwa karena Yogya kota sederhana, clubnya juga sederhana. 

Tapi kalau kenyataannya saya justru langsung merasakan club yang isinya bule-bule, yoweslah, bejane. Entah ini efek bagus atau jelek, tapi jadi penasaran pengen masuk club di Yogya. (;

Turning 2x years old.

When I was accepted in this exchange program to NUS, I realize that I would spend 3 special moments abroad, fasting month, ied day, and my birthday. Therefore I didn’t expect anything to happen. All my friends that participated in this exchange program stays in U-town,while I’m here in PGPR. Popo would come on October 8th. Mama, papa, and sipa were definetely couldn’t fly all the way here. And as it already destined, my birthday this year was on monday. 

So I already said to my self, even before I got here, it’s just gonna be a normal monday this year. Who would’ve thought that I actually got a surprise.

It was 11 o'clock when I decided to go to bed. One hour later, someone knocked and screamed “maintanance!!” I was about 50% awake, other half was still somewhere dreaming. When I open the door, and there they were

Ankur, Soo, Nurman, Robert, Patrick, Wai yan, Nadine, Jay, Richard,…. yeah, that’s all I guess. I needed like 1 minute to fully awake and I just realize they gave me a surprise and a plastic bag full of pink snacks.

I know that it’s not romantic, with the plastic bag and the snacks. But the fact thay they gave me this surprise and already realize my favorite color are more important. Well it small things that matter.

I used to be a skeptical person. I don’t believe that any kind of relationship, either it’s friendship or love, can be built in a short time. But based on what happened last night, maybe some friendship can really be built just within 2 months.

Full birthday card. Love them all……

Turning 2x years old. Gifts from Soo, Wai yan, Nurman, Robert, Richard, Jay, Ankur, and Patrick….. 

Oleh-oleh from Hongkong, Robert brought it. The Bruce Lee. Thx Robert…. :D

love the color. Red,yellow, blue.

Went there for Birthday Party of 2 friends…. First time eating mexican food. Tried to use the manual mode for the 1st time. Ended up with the focus on the middle bottom. Weird…???

New pictures...

Sitting in Arin’s room, have nothing to do, so decided to update my tumblr.

After thinking again and again, I realized that I don’t need another camera. My old and standard canon still works and I’m too busy to focus on photography now that the photography class over. But I just can’t help it. After delayed for a couple of weeks, I decided to bought the pentax camera online. Too bad I had to go back to Singapore before the camera delivered in my house. Well, I am a shopaholic after all.

Last weekend my family came to visit me, bringing me my new camera… Yyyaayyy!!!

I used it on automatic mode, first because it’s new and I wasn’t familiar with the buttons, second is because I don’t have time to learn the manual. Owh I wish Bayu were here to help me.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this camera makes pictures almost as if it’s made by real photographer. Especially with the most common effect that people know, focus on the person and blur on the background, I don’t know what it’s called though. You know, the one that using f 5.6 or 1.8…. Owh I really need to refresh my lesson…

But that doesn’t mean I underestimate the professional photographer. I know that a prof like Bayu can say directly that these pictures were taken on auto-mode. But for common people, I think they wouldn’t know.

Random conversation with Soo

Worked on my essay last night and got really really sleepy, then decided to go down to common room, chit chat with some friends to freshing up a little bit. 

Soo: Do you know Patrick, friend of Spongebob?

Me: Yeah, why?

Soo: He is so sexy.

Me: How come?

Soo: Because he’s half naked…..

Soo: But do you know who is the sexiest cartoon character?

Me: Who?

Soo: Pooh… the bear

Me: Winnie the pooh? why?

Soo: Because he doesn’t wear pants.

Me: *amaze*

Thx to her I felt awake and was able to finish my essay.

Singapore is an 'unfriendly' country?

I heard that, I read that, I kinda sense that.

But it turns out to be wrong. 

I heard from some friends that Singapore is ‘cold’, not by the weather, but more of the people. In contrast, my home is always famous by the kindness of the people. One of my friend even said, “Once we handle Singapore, we can live in every part of the world, because this is the coldest place in the world”. Wow..!!!

My friend showed me a book, telling the story about the author’s life here as student. She seemed to have a rough life without friends and surrounded by individualist people. Okay, that made me even more scared. 

The last but not least was my own experience when I came here as a tourist for a few times. Usually I spend 3-4 days here, around Orchard Road, and go back to the peaceful Yogyakarta. During those days, I see people get so busy with their gadgets and the crowded MRT is so quiet. My mom, who usually so talkative, becomes so stress because she can’t speak to anyone but me or Sipa.

But now that I have been spending more than 1 month, I started to change my mind about Singapore. I’ve experienced some small but rather important things, at least for me.

- On my first day to campus, afraid of getting lost, I ask someone sit next to me about my destination and she showed me with a very kind and nice attitude.

- It was raining a few days ago. I didn’t my umbrella and suddenly a guy offered me to share his umbrella. Nobody have ever done that in my home. Well, in a way, yes, but I have to pay for the 'ojek payung’

- Considering Singapore as really hi-tech country, I feel awful whenever I can’t operate some machines, and I also kinda afraid to ask for help, because the machines already put the manual somewhere around it. But it turned out to be okay not to understand the machines. 

Once I had a problem about borrowing and returning books, the librarians were so nice to teach me how to borrow and return the books. Another time, I didn’t know how to use the photocopy machine, and I asked a woman next to me, she taught me or if I might say, she actually did the photocopy thing for me.

- The students and professors also the tutors plus the staff are so nice. They replied my email and sms. Some would gave me personal time to discuss. It’s kinda rare in my hometown. Especially because some of my lectures are so busy with too many students.

I know it sounds as normal and small things. But this is beyond my expectation. Other thing is about how these small things never happened to me back in my country. Nobody would care if I run through the rain. The librarian …eeerrr… never really help me with the books and other things. Some of the staffs wouldn’t even look at me when they give explanations.

I remember several lines in the book I mentioned above. It is said how the friendly atmosphere in Singapore stops at the airport. Well maybe the author never go to the mountainous are where I live now. 

I guess the main purpose is not to judge who’s friendly and who’s not. On the contrary, maybe I should just stop judging and making assumptions. And just enjoy my life here for the next couple of months. 

In the end, this place is not so bad after all.

Shopping.

So tomorrow is Lebaran and I don’t have new clothes. Despite of the tradition of buying new clothes for Lebaran, I actually buy new clothes because I don’t have anything to wear for sholat Ied. Well Singapore is a very hot and humid country and I thought I’ll go back to Yogyakarta for Lebaran. For conclusion, most of my clothes are hot pants and tank top. So not Lebaran costume.

So I decided to buy the cheapest long sleeve shirt and a scarf for covering my hair. I asked Soo to help me shopping and at the same time, Robert also need to go to harbour front for fixing his new camera. 

Got a scarf from forever 21 and a long sleeve shirt from Uniqlo which is on Sale. Happy happy happy…

Thx to Soo (and Robert) for helping me pick up the store and the color. Korean are really good in fashion aren’t they? 

My beloved but so not famous country....

Ever since I arrived here, I realized how Indoesia is so not popular. It all started when I met some western from Europe and America. They asked, “So, where do you come from?”, and when I answered “Indonesia”, they just replied “okay”. They were so nice not to ask “where is it?”, but some people know it tough, they know Jakarta and many other things.

I always knew that my country is not very famous, but when I really experience it, I’m still surprised.

The funny thing was when I chatted with a friend from Germany.

Him: So, what do you have in Indonesia?

Me: Well, there’s Bali.

Him: Bali is in Indonesia? I thought it’s in Philippines.

Me: ………(if he understand Indonesia, I would answer: hhhhzzzzzz….)

That’s why I show him some pictures from google, but not Bali, because it’s no longer popular, well at least among Indonesians.

The gorgeous ‘Raja Ampat’ which is so famous today.

I heard there’s an expensive resort located there. This area is actually restricted for commercial because it’s a conservation area, but the Ministry of Forestry allowed some resorts to be built with many conditions. I hope there aren’t so many resorts otherwise the nature will damage. Just like other tourism spots in Indonesia.

The next interesting spot would be Borobudur and Prambanan, (these images are also from 'mbah’ google).

I’ve visited these temples several times, so I don’t think it’s special, until I met two guys from Philippines on the plane, who said Borobudur is bigger than Angkor Wat. Wow!!

It reminded me about a conversation with my father a couple mothns ago.

Me: Pa, let’s go to borobudur.

Him: What for? it just rocks.

Me: hhhzzzz……..

And the response from my German friend after I showed the pictures

Him: So you have culture.

Me: …….. 

Waffle for late night’s snack and fried rice for sahur time…

I was so stupid to ate the waffle at my desk without plate, the maple syrup leaked through the paper and now my desk is sticky… ahahaha…

that’s great. aku cuma sama mie instan…. lagian dapet nasi ati dari mana sih??

wavedin:

Sahur: main course as you see, nasi ati ampela dgn dua telur rebus, appetiser caramel bread’ dessert buah naga dan susu.

The Cute Little Arin

Arin is my friend from UGM who also join this exchange program. She’s so cute and funny. Just like a few days ago, me, Arin, Jendra, and Corina went to vivocity. Arin and I waited at the skypark for Jendra and Corina, they shopped in Daiso.

Arin: Jendra bbm me.

Me: About what?

Arin: He wants to share sponges with me, because Daiso sell 1 package of it. Nad, Do I need sponge to wash the dishes?

Me: Well, do you have plates to wash?

Arin: No

Me:……..

Amazing Race

It’s tiring and so hot…. I don’t really like this kind of activity actually, but I want the goody bag. So I got the goody bag, it’s pretty nice tough….

and the contents are….

Not so excited… because I don’t really like cooking, especially here where I don’t have enough utensils and spices… 

But we got the 8th place in the race, and I got a nice mug which was great because I really need a mug. Thx God I haven’t bought it yet…

Despite the goody bag, it was AMAZING after all…..

what I got from clementi mall… I really miss something that taste familiar in my mouth. So I bought this, $1.50 for 5 of them…

Esplanade and Laskar Pelangi

Esplanade is amazing. I love it ever since I first saw it. I was lucky to be able to see and learn about the building during study tour in architecture department. But, I also want to go to the building as a spectator, not only as an observer. 

So there we were, me, Jendra, and Corina, looking for a canteen but ended up in office of student affairs. There, we found a pamflet.

I can’t believe Laskar Pelangi will perform in Esplanade. As an Indonesian, I’m so proud. But at the same time, I also feel some kind of irony. I mean, I can watch it in Jakarta. Anyway, I’m still going. (insya allah)….amin…

I got these things right after registration. It reminds me, what did I get from my university when I registered???? Ahhh…. nothing….

Because I can’t use the photo with red background, the campus take another photo of me at the registration place. He didn’t even mention 1,2,3… so that’s me, before I came here (with red background) and after I arrived here…

Before and After

So a few days before I checked in into my dormitory or residence, that’s how they call it here, I stay in a very nice hotel with my mom and sipa, my liltle sister.

After 2 days, my mom and siap had to go back to Yogya, so I started to stay in my residence, inside this room

Ahahahaha…. i don’t know why I laugh tough…

Saying goodbye

I’m not really good at this. So I acted as if nothing happen and it’s just a regular girl’s night out. But it is true that nothing’s gonna happen. I mean I only go for 4 months. The girls also said that they’re probably still staying in Yogya even after they graduate.

Anyway, almost every celebration in our groups take place in Pizza Hut, Dixie (pasta house), Nanamia Pizza, or Mang Engking and Jimbaran with the seafood menu. We’re kinda bored with that. So I decided to hold my farewell party in a new indian resturant. There are 2 new indian restaurants that I knew in Yogya, I guess it’s a new trend for food. I chose taj mahal in Sagan…..

I always knew my friends are unstable, I’m also labile. So first they choose an indoor private room but the we changed it into outdoor. It was so dark (of course) that the picture was not clear. It was taken by anin, 

trying to put the 'link'

so this is my handsome boyfriend

need a Pink

Link: need a Pink

I desperately want the pentax pink camera before I go to singapore…. hiks…

Yogya isn’t quite big so I can’t found it here. But I do find a store that sell it online. This store.

And now I’m kinda scared. I bought clothes and shoes online, but it’s a DSLR camera. I’d prefer buy it in a store. But I leave this country next week….

Aaaaarrggggghhhhh…… so damn confuse….

In this situation, my mom really knows how to comfort me.

She said, “why didn’t you order it right away? you’re leaving next week.”

Ohh how I love my mom.

Refresh with comics...

So i was so bored with the long holiday. I had a long trip to jakarta with my family and popo….

But then I came back to yogya and feel bored anyway. My friends are in community service projects and working. So I’m all alone. 

When that kind of things happen, the only thing that can cheer me up is comics. I rent like 8 new comics and my favorite is the one called miso con by Rika Yonezawa.

                            

The reason why I like it so much is because it’s so close to reality and it describes a lot about it. Well, the setting is in Japan, but I find it similar here, about how much women are still single in the age of 30s. 

Most of the time the book talks about the kind of women who are so passive that they are not married yet. Also the ones that blame ‘work’ as the cause of their single status, whereas the real problems are actually them.

After 4-5 books, Yonezawa turn the topic from 'how to meet new man’ into 'how to manage the relationship’. Then a little about working with partner and client. In short, this book explore about how an individual  deals with other individual, as friends, as lover, as workmates, ect. I do learn a lot from this book.

and.... still learning

so I’m still learning about this blogging stuff. Trying the features one by one, which makes me look pathetic and stupid. 

Anyway, I am so stress…..

Can’t wait for tonight with the girls. Yosi treat us for her b'day. 

And, Popo also come back from purwokerto…. 

The gorgeous Pentax camera

Link: The gorgeous Pentax camera

this is the camera I was talking and dreaming about….

good parents, bad daughter

So after reading my favorite blog written by diana rikasari, i found out about this gorgeous colorful camera from pentax.  I said to my mom, 

me: “The price is 6 million mom.”

mom: “Okay, let’s buy it…”

me: “Haaahhh????”

My mom is the best…