For the last three weeks, I’ve been living in this horrendous city and I’ve never been more exhausted than this. Being in the road when the dawn breaks and the dusk comes, I practically never see my house in daylight except in weekends, which I spend most of it in Bandung. Yes, I’ve traveled back and forth between Jakarta and Bandung for a while, but I really have no complain if it comes about going to Bandung. The amount of money, time, and energy that I use for traveling to Bandung don’t matter. Bandung is all the break I need from the stressful city and its routine that I’m currently living in.

I used to refer to Sumbawa when people ask me about my hometown, and sometimes I still do. But lately, I realize that Bandung feels a bit more like home to me, and my reference has changed slowly from Sumbawa to Bandung. And maybe that’s why I always feel this weird sadness whenever I leave Bandung for Jakarta: I leave my heart in Bandung.

Sumbawa still wins my heart for the definition of hometown. But there’s a saying, “Home is wherever your heart is”, and by that definition, I think Bandung satisfies me just enough.

Meanwhile, I’ll deal and hang on in this city I’ve never liked.

A day after the new year celebration, I got my driving license. Finally. Unfortunately, it was lost exactly a week later, along with my purse and other cards (ATM, student card, discount cards, basically everything one could ever think to put in a purse). Luckily enough, I got the replacement two weeks after it was stolen, with a new photo, and new bang! I was so excited when I got my bang cut, because heaven knows I never changed my bang style since my freshman year in high school.

The old driving license

The new driving license. Yes, I was wearing the same blouse with the one that was taken for the old driving license

And this January, my job as ‘manajer pendidikan’ of LFM finally hit the peak. The burden was getting heavier and heavier each day, but thank God I have really good friends who support me endlessly, who offer me their shoulder whenever I need to cry, and always come with helping hands whenever I need them. Thank you, my dear fungsionaris.

This is why I can get through all of the hard things

One of many good things in this January is the one-day getaway to Jakarta that I posted earlier here. To see Iota’s story about this, click here.

After playing laser tag

Another fun I had is, pendidikan LFM! I really can’t get bored with this. Ever since I was a ‘cakru’, I’ve always loved it. Why? Because it always has super fun theme and dress code! Here’s the examples, when we had ‘Disney’ as the theme.

Zeus, Peter Pan, and Hercules

Peter Pan kissing Mickey Mouse. How fun is that?

Triton and Peter Pan

But wait, the real fun is not all above. The real fun is, the Big Day at LFM, or better known with its codename ‘Hari Kiamat’. As a manajer pendidikan, I got the right to choose the theme, and based on the voting, I chose Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was super fun! And even though I was doubting the theme at first, it turned out to be great.

Azula and Zuko

Fire Nation Army

White Lotus

The Water Tribe

The Earthbenders

The silly Sandbender :p

The Airbender

The old man who sells cabbage and Mai

Fire Lord Ozai and his wife

The panda (?) and the owl

Kuruk, the previous Avatar

Honestly, I forget this character's name :p

The beautiful Kyoshi

Momo

Aang, The Last Airbender

Ah, boys will always be boys

Before the war began

The Fire Nation characters

Let the war begin!

Dinner at Fire Nation Palace with White Lotus (does this even make sense? LOL)

Me, being the busy White Lotus ;p

I could go on and on about how fun it was, but I’m afraid I’ll make you bored. But seriously, it was fun indeed!

I can’t thank God enough for all those blessings. I’m blessed with such a wonderful life, great friends, and the best family. Thank you, dear God.

And January, thank you for treating me good. This will be the most memorable January in my life. February, I can’t wait for you, for on job training in Kondur and for Feist concert. One more day and I’ll see you!

I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was doing, but we didn’t have all the pieces put together.

Donna Shalala

I heard about this restaurant from one of my friend. She described it as ‘heavenly delicious’. So on a gloomy Saturday afternoon, off we went to this restaurant, which by the way, is located on Pasir Kaliki Street, one of the most dense area in Bandung.

For starter, we ordered fish fingers, IDR 30,000. Disappointed. My sister and I thought it wasn’t worth that much for such a small portion. But we set aside that thought and keep the expectation high. Maybe it would taste so great that the price wouldn’t matter anymore. Wrong. It smelled bad, like it was made from rotten fish. I lost my appetite instantly. The good thing was, the mayonnaise. Really delicious, with the right acidity and consistency.

Fish fingers

Okay, let’s move on from the starter. For the main dish, I ordered a student package, and chose chicken over vegetables for the main ingredients. It tasted okay. The chicken curry was splendid, but the vegetables tasted like gulai.

Student package (chicken)

My sister ordered nasi briyani and something with lamb as its main ingredients (I forgot the name). The lamb came in a little cauldron, and it turned out to be a little too much for two people. The lamb was so tender, and the spice marinated perfectly. The nasi briyani tasted sooo great. Combine those two, and you’ll get a fantastic meal!

The lamb dish

That I-forgot-its-name lamb with nasi briyani

Would I come back here again? Maybe, but not in a short upcoming period. Maybe one day, when I crave for Indian food.

Thank you for the video makers, Dewi and Mail.Thank you for always taking shots and put it beautifully in a video, and still have time to make beautiful costumes. You guys literally made me cry when I watched the video.

Mail and Dewi

Thank you for Malik and Nadya for being such fun and cooperative danlaps. You guys really made my job a lot easier. Thank you!

Nadya and Mail

And thank you for Kak Haiva, Cupris, and Dinoy, who always supporting me and giving me practical advice until the very end. Thank you guys, you’re such awesome seniors! I hope I can be as good as you.

Thank you for all crew who’s been giving me tremendous and enormous helps. I cannot thank you enough for that. And thank you for willingly making unique and mind-blowing costumes, I love it so much.

Thank you for my wonderful team: Shesa, Avi, Isro, Tifa, and Inay. Shesa, thank you so much for being such a responsible and cute staff, for always doing anything before I even do it myself, for backing me up, and for being someone I can always trust and rely on. Avi, thank you for being the creative one in the team, and the one who shows me how to relax. Thank you for all those posters you made whenever I asked you, be it in the middle of the night, early morning, or midday. I know you were going under an intense pressure from a particular someone all the time you were working for me, and I’m really sorry for that. I’m happy to be here, sitting and watching you share your brilliant ideas with all of us as a caketum. I know you’ll be great. Isro, thank you for being someone so neat and organized, the complete opposite of me. I’d always been calm when it comes to your work, because I knew you’d do it right and great in time. Thank you for all those funny costumes you made. You made me laugh in my most stressed days! And Tifa, you’re the one who I always watched carefully because I was always scared that you could break down anytime. I felt really bad to make you feel stressed and sad, and I’m sorry for not doing better for you. You’ve done a splendid job I can’t imagine it be done by someone else. Thank you so much. Last but not least, Inay. Thank you for doing everything wonderfully and have a faith in something people are losing faith on. I know it’s not easy to have a change like this, so once again, thank you.

Left to right: Isro, Qinan, Avi, Tifa, Alyssa, Inay, Shesa, me

Tifa and Shesa. Aren't they the cutest thing you've ever seen?

And finally, to my dearest fungsionaris: Ai, Timothy, Didi, Qinan, Faisal, Zahra, Mamet, Faba, Nadia, Ikhsan, Damas, and Iti. Thank you for always supporting me through the time, being there for me when I break down and assuring me that it would be okay in the end. Thank you for making such a great decoration in 9009, turning it from a boring classroom into a magnificent Fire Nation Palace. Thank you for all the support and help, this wouldn’t have happened without you guys. And especially for Ai, I owe you much. Thank you for always calming me down when I’m stressed, understanding my silent behaviour and always knowing when I need a break. Thank you for always reminding me of little things I usually forget. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wouldn’t have gone through this if it wasn’t because you all. I love you guys.

My dearest fungsionaris :')

So according to that, last night can be counted as a wonder. We decided to have a little culinary trip, starting from Coto Makassar we saw a few months ago, but never had enough time to taste it.

Located at the very edge of Bahureksa Street, this place looks comfortable enough if you want to have a meal there, but this is definitely not a place to hang out for hours. The Coto Makassar tastes good enough to satisfy our craving. Being born in South Celebes, I spent my first ten years of life living there and I’ve grown to like this food. Many places serve this traditional food, but only a few have the original taste. Unfortunately, this is not one of that. It’s a bit like beef stew rather than Coto Makassar. After all, it’s acceptable for our Celebes tongue, and it’s delicious enough if you don’t compare it to the original.

Coto Makassar, best served with buras. But ketupat will do me good

Next destination: Spatula. We don’t give much a chance for the food to be digested as we went straight to Wira Angun Angun Street. I’ve heard about Oma Anna‘s craft and the famous homemade jam, and I was sooo curious. We ordered chicken macaroni schotel and toast with orange jam. For the drink, we decided to share and only ordered Oma Anna’s homemade syrup. The best thing is, insert drumroll here, the toast! It’s the best toast I’ve ever tasted, and I’m not exaggerating, I swear. The bread is soft and chewy, the butter tastes so creamy, and the jam adds special kick. To make it better, the jam is organic. The schotel tastes good too, but it could do better with longer baking since it’s too moist. The syrup, well, my sister looooves it!

After all, this is a very recommended place to eat. I’m craving for more, and will definitely go back here. I’m impressed with the owner. When all diners in Bandung are racing to build a European atmosphere, Spatula maintains a strong old Indonesian atmosphere. Entering Spatula made me feel like going into my grandma’s house, and it’s heartwarming in a weird way. In addition, it’s cheap too!

The BEST toast with orange jam

Chicken macaroni schotel

Follow Spatula’s twitter, @spatulaBDG or kindly visit the blogs here and here.

Let’s have another culinary adventure, Div!

You can count on me like 1 2 3 I’ll be there And I know when I need it I can count on you like 4 3 2 And you’ll be there Cause that’s what friends are supposed to do Bruno Mars, Count On Me

April 29, 2011

We will never be together. We’re too different, and the universe won’t let us. You’re organized and I’m messy. You’re a walking miracle and I’m a walking disaster. You want to be an eagle in the next life (if there is) so you can fly and go anywhere you want, while I want to be a dolphin so I can explore the ocean. You want to get a master degree in Germany after you graduate, while I want to take a year off and live in Spain for a year or two. You want to work in this industry, I want to build a bookstore and publish books. You want to get married in a big hotel and have at least four children; I want to get married at the beach, barefoot, and have two children. You want to live a big city, while I want to live in a quiet little town. See? We want different things, that’s why we’re different. And I have enough experiences to know that too many differences won’t do any good.

December 23, 2011

Things change. Feelings change. People change.

We say, why not try to work it out? You can live in Germany and I can live in Spain, and we can meet in the middle once a month or so. Say, France? Beside, opposite attracts, people say. It’s like yin and yang. And magnets pull something that has the opposite pole, doesn’t it? It’s differences that make things aren’t so boring. 

So seven months from now, at the graduation, I’ll say, “Let’s sail the ocean, leave everything behind and chase our dreams. I’ll send you a letter from Spain, tell you to meet me at Gare de Lyon.”

Three years from now, we’ll be at places we want to be, and I’ll smile every time I remember you and Gare de Lyon.

Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer’s deep affections. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines unrequited as “not reciprocated or returned in kind.”

Enough said.

Me: Here, take a sip.

Him: No.

Me: Seriously, this is nice.

Him: Nooo. Dix, I’m driving.

Me: You’re exaggerating. A gulp won’t do any harm.

Him: It’s called precaution. Remember when I ate that rum cake and took a sip of Baileys? I felt a bit dizzy afterwards.

Me: Well, in that case, if that happens, I’ll drive.

Him: Are you fucking serious?

Oh, crazy little thing called love.