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….