Sunday, April 22, 2012
I just finished uploading, tagging, titling, and writing some descriptions on 67 pictures in flickr. That's pretty exhausting. Anyways, hello people. I'm back in Singapore. I was back exactly last Saturday. Where did I go? Did you guess correctly based on my last post? Well I went to Turkey and it was awesome. Why Turkey? Well it wasn't the first plan for this year. However my travelling mate, YeeMaggio, wasn't able to leave work to go to our first destination so Turkey it is. Still doesn't answer why Turkey and what's the first destination? Well I'm not gonna tell you what the first destination is because I felt I jinxed it when I told many people about it. So I'm gonna keep it quiet. The why Turkey, is because this year I just want to go to a country which will accept an Indonesian like me without the difficult process of applying visa beforehand. Granted, I've never been rejected of schengen visa the 2 times I applied for it. However I dislike the fact that I had to prepare many paper works which include things like disclosing my personal information like statement from the last 3 months of my saving account and also getting permission here and there which involved telling people in charge of where I am going to go. Turkey allows Indonesian to get in with visa on arrival and it was so painless. I guess that's why I've seen and heard many Indonesians out there. Most felt in Istanbul, the invasion of Indonesians is just beginning! But that's another story when we reach the Istanbul leg. Today we're gonna start with my first leg, in the lovable Cappadocia.This time around, I'm gonna give some information which is hopefully useful for people who want to go to Turkey or Cappadocia. I didn't have a lot of time to plan this trip. We only finished settling everything like 1 week before departure. From Singapore, there's a direct flight to Istanbul (everyday I think) from Turkish Airline. I chose Turkish Airline but they have code sharing with Singapore Airline. So when booking from Turkish airline's site, do check which airline serves the flight. Basically Singapore airline offers same day arrival, it leaves after midnight as opposed to Turkish airline who leaves before midnight, so that's why it can arrive on the same day. However the price difference can be 500 euro more expensive. If you are one of those people who are in love with Singapore Airline (= rich), go ahead. Let me just tell you that 500 euro can get you a nice hotel accomodation for almost a week or a really nice handmade Turkish carpet :) So anyways, got into Turkish airline. When I chose the seat, the seating plan seemed to still be rather empty so I was hopeful in having a quiet flight. Lucky for the airline, unlucky for me, it wasn't so. There were many Indonesians actually. I talked to one of the Indonesian tante (lady / auntie) while we were waiting for the lavatory. She's from Bandung and she's in a group which were on an umroh package tour. They would have a small tour in Turkey after their umroh. I was thinking it's been a long journey for this lady. Bandung to Jakarta, then transitting in Singapore, then Istanbul, then around 4-5 hours more to Saudi Arabia. That's like around 2 days of travelling. Anyway, having that many Indonesians in the plane made me feel good. I chose an aisle seat at the side block. The plane was rather small, there were only 2 seats at the side block instead of 3. That made me rather uneasy because I don't know, I don't know how plane works. I just wonder if this small plane will fare as well as bigger planes on a long journey (it takes more than 10.5 hours). I just thought bigger planes will not get easily blown by the wind but they do have more surface area to be struck by lightning I suppose. Anyways, unfortunate me was seated next to a big inconsiderate guy. I cannot blame him from being big and you know how guys just cannot sit with their legs closed, but bottomline is he's invading my space a lot that I basically only used like 75% of my space :( I was pretty pissed. Suffice to say, I couldn't sleep and I ended up watching 3 movies, Moneyball (very very good), The Big Year (very good, I found myself be more curious about birds), and A Dolphin's Tale (so-so, borderline boring).
So then we arrived in Istanbul Ataturk airport which is the airport located in the European side. Istanbul is a city located both in Europe and Asia. It is separated by the Bosphorus strait. We haven't actually arrived yet at our destination because our first leg was Cappadocia and so we have to fly to Kayseri or Nevşehir. I chose Kayseri. It's a domestic flight, so in Istanbul, I had to do my visa and go through immigration first. We left before midnight in Singapore and arrived just after 6 am so the airport was pretty quiet. After some walking and asking for direction, we found the counter for visa processing. Since YeeMaggio is a Singaporean, she doesn't have to do this. When I was there, there was this group of Indonesian ladies in front of me. So they went first but they didn't give the exact change. It's 25 USD for one Indonesian. I had the exact change so I gave my money and passport. Since I had the correct amount, the guy quickly put the visa sticker and returned my passport first with a smile :) Easy peasy and so painless! I was super happy :) :) :) By the way, one of the lady in that group was maybe an Indonesian celebrity. She looked like the lady who played the teacher in Laskar Pelangi. She was all smile to me, so nice. I'm not sure though because she didn't look so pretty but we did just go through a long flight and I am just bad at recognizing people.
Anyways, after that we walked to the domestic terminal. The flight was leaving at 9 something. I think there might be an earlier flight but I chose this flight because I wasn't sure if the visa thing would take some time. So we just waited at the airport. Now, Turkish Airline is by no mean the cheapest way to travel domestically. There are budget airlines like Pegasus and Sun Express. I forget why I chose this. Perhaps because the other timings were not so good or I just didn't want to risk missing flight doing visa or waiting for the luggage and doing check in again for another plane. I have to say that Turkish Airline domestic flight is SO MUCH BETTER than its international one. The plane is smaller but the seats were bigger. There were more legs space and we were wishing if only our international flight was like this. 1 hour something later we arrived in Kayseri. Here I noticed part of my luggage was torn. Darn it! I'm not sure if it's because my luggage was too full or it was bad handling. I was pretty down and I wasn't sure if it's gonna survive all the way back to Singapore. Anyways, we found the driver that supposed to pick us up. I was so worried he left us because we left the airport later than the rest of the passengers because we had to pick our luggages last from a different place since they were international luggages. Thank God the driver was there. The drive took 1 hour plus and it was through this area which was pretty barren. Maybe because it's not really spring yet, all were still brown. There were wide open spaces and it felt like in a middle of nowhere and there's this beautiful snowy mountain in the distance, I think it's called Mount Erciyes. Then I saw remains of what I think were grape vines but I couldn't be sure because that would mean it's a vineyard. Vineyard in Turkey? A country with a majority muslim population? Seriously? Apparently they were vineyards as I found out later and man so it began my many shocking cultural experience in Turkey. I have to be honest, I knew nothing about this country before I came. My cousin asked me where it was and I told her I seriously didn't know. That time I wouldn't be able to point it in a blank map. I just knew like Indonesia, the population are mostly muslims and the capital city is
Cappadocia is a region. By the way, I've been pronouncing it the Italian way and I don't know if it's the right way to pronounce it though I did hear some Turkish pronouncing it that way. But people like my guide pronounced it Kapadokya which is another spelling of the region and Indonesians will definitely pronounce this correctly like how my guide did it. Moving on, I decided to stay in small town Göreme which people wrote that it's a good place to stay and also because the hotel I wanted to stay in is in Göreme. But you can also stay in other city like Urgup just like this other Indonesian lady who stayed there and kindly answered my query when I asked her about getting visa on arrival. The hotel that I wanted happens to be the first in Trip Advisor list and so it's fully booked and so did the second, third, and so on. So I settled with Nature Park Cave Hotel after going through the list. Partly because you can book the activities as you did your booking which is actually what all hotels can do for you. In fact even though I have specified it through my online booking, the guy only did it when we reached there. Another website that you can try is this. They handled my airport transfer in Göreme and Izmir (at a cheaper rate than all I could find) and they were very prompt, efficient, and helpful in answering my mail - love Ms. Seda. So anyway, my hotel is run by a mother-son team. I didn't find the room and facility to be amazing. I think it's adequate. YeeMaggio found it to be interesting. Well it is different. The location is not bad. It's a bit away from the town center but the town is rather small that you basically just walk 5-10 minutes to find food. The town is filled with hotels but there are still people's houses around our hotel. In fact from my room's window I can see the neighbour's house. I just called the people around us as our neighbours there. The older ladies like to spend the day gathering, chatting, and drinking tea. They sat on the old sofa being put outside this neighbour's house and one time laid a carpet in front of the sofa, drank tea, while the kids played. There's a small playground nearby. Nice existence. As I was spying them, the mother of the hotel waved at me :) and Mama Imran is the reason why Nature Park Cave Hotel with all its imperfection is pretty awesome. She doesn't speak english except for a few phrases but she's no nice. The next day when we finished dinner, we saw her just finishing buying vegetables from the seller at the street, so we gestured that we helped her carry the load. As we arrived, she insisted that we had kiwis then cucumbers. Kiwi is fine with me but I had a hard time accepting the cucumber (I don't eat vegetable). Since I couldn't gesture it to her without sounding rude, I ate it (well done Eka!). Then she cut another cucumber since she thought we like it. Luckily YeeMaggio does like vegetable :) At one point she pointed at me and said teacher. I don't know if she's throwing her limited vocabulary or she sensed that I am a teacher. At that time I said no, because I am not a teacher but then I thought well I was once in that position. Maybe I am meant to be a teacher for real? Anyways, as I said I love Mama Imran. She would blow us kisses whenever we go. I didn't feel good calling her only by her name. I wanted to call her Umi which I believe is Arabic for mother, at least that's what I learnt from Indonesian tv, but I don't think they got it. I love her and would really want to see her again but I think I would love to try other hotels, especially the first one I wanted when I have the chance to return.
So that's been a long story. Let's continue. I wanted to go to Cappadocia because I knew you could take hot air balloon ride there and it's one of the best places on earth to do it. Seriously, google it. The list will also normally include Maasai Mara in Kenya which seems to also allow visa on arrival for Indonesians - why, hello :) By the way, apparently India now also allows visa on arrival for Indonesians. Maybe my europe days are over and I should focus on these countries which welcome Indonesians (a bit) openly. I used "a bit" because you still need a visa. I'm digressing. So the plan was to take the hot air balloon ride as an awesome 30th birthday present for myself and then the red tour and a green tour the next day. It was listed by the hotel, so I just took them. For the balloon ride I chose the deluxe one which cost 225 euro / person which is by the way pretty cheap if you compare it with the price in Australia for example. The deluxe ride means you are in a basket with less people and the flight is around half an hour longer. There's a however to that which I will explain below. The green and red tour each cost 30 euro / person which I think is pretty cheap - admission ticket + transport + lunch + guide included. Now the hotel guy kinda dampen my spirit because he said, about the balloon ride, let's hope for the best, let's hope the wind would be okay. I was like what?!?? I knew there's a possibility the weather is not making it possible to fly hence you should always aim to do it on your first morning there. There were some people writing in blogs that they couldn't do it because of the weather, so it's a real REAL possibility. I just thought, I have 3 mornings there and don't tell me I still couldn't fly. Suffice to say that with my luggage situation and the fact that there's a possibility we couldn't fly, I was feeling pretty sad that evening. After dinner, we asked the guy about the confirmation and he said it's okay, they'd pick you up at 05.30 am. Halelujah! THANK YOU GOD!!! I was so happy and grinning and HAPPY!!! You cannot believe! So it's off to bed, I slept nicely I think partly because of the flu medicine I took since I sneezed a few times since I left. I did get awoken by YeeMaggio who claimed to be hearing strange noises. I was so sleepy that I didn't really address her issue much and went back to sleep.
So 05.30 am came and they were early actually, the hotel guy had to knock at our door and he thought we couldn't wake up. So the pick up people picked other people first and then came back to us. Then we were driven to the meeting point. We were gathered in the meeting building where they went through the list of names and gave us a card with pictures about the inflation of balloon and landing instruction and our pilot's name. By the way, to go through how the balloon is being prepared please look at this step and go to the next picture to see the second and third step. Once you got this card, you can go have breakfast. It was pretty cold that morning, pretty much because it's still a bit cold in Cappadocia in early April. We did this on Good Friday, April 6 (thank you God, it was an awesome Friday for me). After breakfast, we went to the van which had our pilot's name. The van would take us to our departing point. Some balloons departed at the same place, but there are many different places located all around. We drove pretty far to our place and we were the only balloon there, perhaps it's part of the special deluxe treatment. In our group there are 2 american couples, 1 young, 1 older. A malaysian family (mom, dad, daughter) whom I initially thought to be Indonesian. Then there's a venezuelan family, I forget how many they were, perhaps 4. Anyway, I made friend with the older american couple, Andy and Robyn, who's from New York. Andy was pretty nice, he started talking to me and they're awesome, they had ridden a hot air balloon before in Egypt. I saw a balloon moving rather fast and that kinda freaked me a bit but Andy reassured me it's gonna be smooth and awesome. I think he's excited that I was excited. I made them laugh when I told them that I was thinking it's funny that he doesn't sound like Raymond, from Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, I was once in Cinque Terre with a group of New Yorkers and they sounded like Raymond so that's the first thing that came to my mind and I thought it's funny. They thought it was funny as well :D Making people laugh, especially strangers is super priceless. Andy then proceeded with a lecture on the different sections of New York which unfortunately I cannot relate with.
Moving on, in the basket, there are 5 sections / compartments. 1 middle one for the pilot and his 3 gas tanks and 2 each at the side for the people. Me, YeeMaggio, Andy, and Robyn shared a compartment. When we were inside the basket before they untied the rope which tied the balloon to the van so that it wouldn't float straight away, we were given instruction on what to do during landing. Then we were off. It was amazing. The basket was high enough to prevent you from falling but it was still scary enough for me. I sure didn't want to get knocked down accidentally and fall or get my camera or phone fall as I was taking pictures. I tried not to make big movements. It was awesome, I will never stop saying this. Apparently the pilot cannot control where to go, the wind does that. The fire for the balloon is not on all the time. The pilot fired it up to go up. So he can only control going up and down and rotating the basket. His skill is in reading the wind so that we can ride it. Obviously I don't know how to do that, I was absorbing the view that I didn't pay attention if reading the wind is actually something that is visual. Anyways, there were ballons all over the sky. It's one amazing view, not only seeing the land below with the weird formation and the rocks but also seeing balloons all over with different colors. It's amazing!!! Now apparently I think every balloon carries 3 gas tanks during flight. Overall they use 4 tanks, 1 is used during preparation. We were in a deluxe trip which apparently means our basket had to be smaller so that with 3 tanks we could technically fly longer than the ones with bigger baskets. We were actually pretty squeezy in there :( However all are controlled by the wind and that day the wind was pretty strong that we moved pretty fast and so in the end our flight was also around 1 hour. The pilot said he only used 2 tanks not 3 and we would get a refund. Since I paid my hotel guy, I should have taken it back from him but because none of us made an effort to ask our hotel guy about this, in the end we didn't get some of our money back. So I guess if you want to take the flight, perhaps the normal standard package will be sufficient but I know one will be tempted to be up there longer. Look! It was a really awesome 30th birthday present for me.
The red tour group was pretty small which is great. There's us. 2 Japanese ladies which we ended up hanging out with, Miyako and Setsuko. An american girl with a japanese heritage and fish tattoo down her neck, Keiko. She seemed to be travelling alone *awesome*. 3 chinese tourists, all girls. Seriously girls are more adventurous in exploring the world than guys, you'll always see more girls than guys. 2 brazilian, Rafael and Beatrice, which are now living in Lyon, France. I think they are students, I'm not sure if they are boyfriend and girlfriend. An Indian couple who seemed to be living in the USA. Then there's our guide who in the middle of the way I realized to be handsome. His name is Mehmet. I love handsome guys and he is one :P He's very young though. I found out he's 25 the next day. I was lucky enough to have him again the next day (the please please please God perhaps helped). I am in the age where everyone is younger, so finding his age made me look at him as a boy boy, little brother kind :( Anywaaaays, first stop was to look at Uçhisar Castle. Can't go in, could only see it from a distance. Here we met Andy and Robyn again. The nice Andy was calling out to me. They also were doing the version of what I think was pretty much the same tour. We were sure we'd be seeing each other throughout the day but we never did again :( and I'm pretty bummed out about that.
Then it was to Göreme Open Air Museum, which were basically the remains of churches, chapels, living quarters for christians, made in the caves and inside the rocks formation. It was pretty cool. There were christian paintings inside the walls but don't expect elaborate frescoes like the major churches in Italy. It was pretty simple but there were also chapels with more details and it was pretty awesome. We couldn't take pictures though. Mehmet was very particular about this. I think the museum is very very interesting, obviously because physically it's so different. Just look at this.
Then it was to this ceramic pottery place where the guide there brought us through all the rooms, except the burning oven. We saw the artists painting the ceramics and they are amazing people. Then a master showed us how he formed a vase and then of course we were guided to the shop which was filled with many beautiful things. The nice thing is the guide pretty much allowed us to see, take pictures, without pressing us at all or hovering around us to "explain" about the items. I was just admiring all the beautiful pieces and be in awe with all the artistry.
Like the red tour, the green tour started at 09:30 but I was awoken earlier than that. From my window, I could see balloons bobbing up, so I went to the hotel's terrace and took some pictures of balloons which were visible.
After that we went to Ihlara Valley. It was quite a drive and we stopped for lunch nearby. We sat with the Japanese again and the Chinese group on my left. The chinese got more annoying. They complained that they had to pay for drinks, the rice was too little, and then they asked the waiter why they got the same portion of oranges as the table where there were 2 people instead of them 4. I felt very uncomfortable that they demanded more. We decided that we gave our oranges which we couldn't finish but I think they rejected it. I felt sorry for the waiter but I also think it's just oranges, give it to them and shut them up. Oh well ... I'm not trying to be racist. I am stating observation and I am sure the same sentiment would be felt by Indonesians as well, like by my family. But I think Indonesians lack the gut to demand it especially if they don't speak proper english but these chinese don't let it stop them. In a way that's what make them so ahead of other people, because they fight more? I don't know. Anyways, Ihlara Valley. First stop was to see a church with paintings inside its walls. There's a depiction of Daniel in the lion's den. Then it's a 4 km hike / walk which was easy and fun enough. I think the valley would be nicer when it's green and really I've seen pictures when Cappadocia was green, it's pretty. Seeing the view I had, I often thought why I came at that time. Things would be much more beautiful when it's green maybe a month later but then I thought about the people I met and that's the reason why I should be there at that exact time.
After Ihlara Valley, we went to this place I think called Yaprakhisar. Another interesting place to explore but at this time I was already rather tired.
The hotel guy was driving us and another 2 ladies who also stayed in the hotel, apparently from the Czech Republic. We arrived just on time. I don't know if they were waiting for us. Again I think everyone know everyone, maybe our hotel guy told them to wait. The place was full and so we couldn't sit in the front. It was really something. It was in Arabic and I don't speak Arabic but nonetheless since I grew up in Indonesia, it felt very familiar. It did get repetitive at one point but it was still something which is kinda hard to explain. You just had much respect for it though I have to shamefully admit that I took pictures during the performance (but it was without flash). I didn't know you couldn't. They did spin again after the performance without the song so that people could take pictures. Anyways, they ended it with a prayer which I don't know from which part of Al Quran but it's a prayer that I'm sure all Indonesians have heard before. It sounded so comforting for me. In fact things like hearing azan (the islamic call of prayer) was strangely comforting for me and I looked forward to it though I don't when I am in Indonesia. I guess it's because it reminds me of home and it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside to feel that bit of home.
We left the next day for Izmir. Mama Imran blew me kisses when I said my goodbye. I had a super good time in Cappadocia. A nice place, awesome experience, a handsome guide, nice strangers who crossed my path. I could only hope they also had a nice experience meeting me though only for a little bit. This is a super long post! Phew. I guess I covered pretty much all. Next leg is Izmir which I will try to write soon. To see more pictures, please go here :)
* April 26, 2012: I'm an idiot!!! The capital city of Turkey is Ankara not Istanbul. Istanbul is the largest city though. Still, I'm an idiot!!!
:) eKa @ 1:23:00 AM • 0 comments
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
It's That Time of My Life ... Again :)
Hello peeps. Leaving the country today. Not really gonna say where, though the people who read this blog most probably know where I'm going. I am instead going to give hints.1. This country is located both in Europe and Asia. If you ask me this, only 1 country comes in mind but I googled it out today and apparently there are around 5 countries fitting this description.
2. This country is bordering Syria, Iran, and Iraq. When I found out, I have to say it's exhilarating :P Though, I have to say that I hope politically this country and its neighbours will be safe when I'm there.
3. You can eat this country. Easy peasy right. I'm sure you got it right.
It's pretty rush to reach this state or today. It wasn't the plan for this year but it's what's been given to me so I'll take it. I am thankful to God for the opportunity. I am thankful that mom's supportive towards the end. I am thankful that I have a friend on this journey (going with YeeMaggio). I am thankful that as much as I am worried about things not gonna happen, not gonna get done, God has made it work out on time.
So some minutes ago, I just hung my laundry and locked my luggage. Today has been spent doing last minute errands which included praying, exchanging money, eating Indonesian food (molto importante!), and getting flu vaccine. My doctor didn't seem well today but she's nice. Sometime I feel like my mother is channeling her spirit to people around me. So doc was showing concern, saying things that she doesn't feel it's safe there and told me to be very careful, to watch my bags, wallet, and asked me if I have medicine for tummy ache. Hearing her saying all that felt like that's my mom's speaking. Her assistant apparently went there long time ago, maybe around 20 years? Without thinking, I said, "you must be so young then" :P Anyway she also told me to be very careful. She said her group got so many unwanted attention. Well my reasoning is that maybe it was so long ago and they haven't seen many tourists there so it was something curious for them. Hopefully it's all different now.
Today when I wanted to do my laundry, Max was outside getting dressed. He said something like, "oops, luckily I have my pants on". Yeah, that's what I am dealing with, people! Anyway, I saw there's a vaccination mark on his arm and I said, "you got your flu vaccine today?". I was right and I said, "we are telepathic already". Another telepathic coincidence is that apparently her granny is travelling to India tonight, but it seems her flight is later than mine. She will also be back on the same date as mine, which is April 14. It's a short trip, I am already dreading the life I have to come back to. Anyways, so Max is gonna stay at grandma's empty house by himself which allows him to go back home late without anyone noticing. He's even already planning a night out today. I am surprised that Jenny just said okay. Seriously?!?! I wonder if she's gonna do a spot check.
Anyways, I want to call mom but I'm not sure where mom is now. Mom went to Bangka to do the grave praying thingy. I thought she's only going this morning but apparently she left Monday and I'm not sure if she's already back today. By the way, Jakarta is in flood alert *sigh* I hope all will be okay or at least my house will not be flooded. Even if it's not, it's pretty hard to move around. While my parents can just close the shops, I think my brother still has to go to work and he rides motorcycle. I can imagine it's totally a pain when it rains heavily. I wonder how he does it. By the way, it's also gonna be a pain with a car because the traffic jam will just be crazy. Add flood to that, miserable is pretty apt to describe the situation. So let's pray so that it will not be so bad in Jakarta and let's pray that I'll be okay in this journey. May we have blue sky and sunshine. Take care peeps!
:) eKa @ 8:14:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Movie of the week was, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen which I really like. It's witty in a British sense of humour sort of way (I guess). As much as I love the movie, I wonder if it's very strong in the story. It has this feel good vibe into it. Ewan McGregor played a scientist with an asperger syndrome. His character reminded me of Sheldon Cooper if he was to be more normal. Emily Blunt was very likable. I think I start to warm up to her. It was a nice little movie and I think I'm in the mood of something nice and relaxing.Yesterday in French class, I finally talked to one of the newer classmate. It came up in discussion some weeks back that he speaks Italian and finally I got to confirm it. I started the conversation in Italian and it was pretty good to be able to speak it and hear it. I may be lost in translation but it seemed this philippino even taught Italian at one point in the Phillipines. He also speaks fluent french. That made me feel very disappointed at myself. I know there are people who are just talented and maybe this guy is one of those people who learns languages easily. However, learning and studying are still paramount and I wonder if I really haven't done more to improve my fluency in the languages :( Darn! Anyways, I'll be missing the next 2 classes and when I come back it's test time. I'm actually not sure if I should come for the test even though Mr. N was telling me to try it. It's just, it's not gonna be easy and at this point I cannot aim at 90 and above with the skill I have. I think I'll be very lucky if I can reach 80 :( If I don't come, it'll be 5 weeks without french exposure because after the test, it's a one-week break and a public holiday coming. Missing that many classes is not a good idea. All the french knowledge I know will just disappear. Alright, let's just see what's gonna happen.
Last night as I was sitting in my chair feeling very tired, I started to feel rather anxious. I guess when I'm tired, my mind just go to many different places and I'll have such difficulty to focus and relax and deal with one thing at a time. It wasn't a good feeling last night. Too much anxiety :( I'm still stressed out about things, things that I have yet to do, things that I still have to endure, things that I promised people and now I'm not so sure if I'll be able to deliver, things that will await me. It was just horrible. I woke up today feeling slightly better but the stress is still there. Right now, I am just trying to push them away. I'm tired and this whole worry and stress are definitely not gonna be good for my health. So even though stopping may not be a good idea now since time is of the essence, I'm gonna stop for awhile and at least enjoy what very little of my Sunday has left.
:) eKa @ 7:50:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Movie Updates - March 25, 2012
Hello guys, how are you doing? You know it's March and it's ending and I haven't found myself playing Águas de Março much. I guess I kinda forget the fact that it's March. Oh well, anyways, watched 2 movies this week.I finally got to watch Laskar Pelangi. It's this pretty famous Indonesian movie which are loved by many people back home, including my parents. It was out some years ago but I only found it recently in youtube. I thought it was not a bad movie. I had already a bit of tears even at the beginning of the movie and then on some other parts. I also laughed. Overall the story was meaningful that I'm gonna force my kids to watch this movie when they don't feel like studying. Yeah, that's conviction right there, that I'll have kids and they're gonna be able to speak Indonesian. The language in the movie was kinda weird for me. I'm doubting the authenticity of it. It's set in Belitung which is the sister island of where my parents come from, Bangka, and yet the language the people spoke in the movie was more like a combination of the Malay language and the Indonesian language and less like the Belitung language which I immagine should be more similar to how my parents speak. Maybe they just wanted people to still be understand it easily and not having to put subtitle in it. As much as I love the movie, I do feel the movie is rather disjointed and slow moving at times. I love all the kids, but it strangely felt that none of the character was invested deeply that I felt I still don't know much about them until the end of the movie. I still think it's a great movie and I'm gonna try to find the sequel. I hope it's somewhere in youtube world.
Another movie that I watched this week was The Hunger Games. I didn't read the book but I feel that the movie may suffer the same problem as some of Harry Potter's movies - the books are more interesting than the films. I like the movie but I wasn't blown away from it. I felt the movie ran really long and yet I know that there are many things not being shown in it. Even though I felt it was long, I did feel that it's lacking on more action during the game and lacking in some character development. It would be great to see more of the characters like Rue and Gale and of course Lenny Kravitz. Love him!!! :P It is kinda tricky, I found that those characters didn't get a lot of screen time and yet I found the movie to be running long. I think that's the thing about books being made to movies. You need to see all and yet you can't possibly do it.
So with the lack of action, I wonder if some people in the US would think that watching the Indonesian movie, The Raid, is so much better. The US title is actually The Raid: Redemption and it was released on the same date as The Hunger Games. I'm excited about The Raid and I really hope that it'll be shown in Singapore commercially. The thing is, the first Indonesian movie which I actually paid to watch in the cinema is Merantau which came from the team who did The Raid. I thought it was very nice of them to continue collaborating and make movies which are totally in a different genre than the kind of movies being produced in Indonesia currently. Also the reviews that I've been reading said this movie totally kicks ass. It's gonna be super violent which I'm not sure I'm gonna love, but I really really want to watch this movie. Let me show you guys the trailer. On other news, I'm preparing my 30th birthday present for myself. It feels pretty last minute in the preparation. I had a super hard time to confirm the possibility of it and since the last bigger plan fell apart, I kinda keep this quiet and under wrap because I didn't want to jinx it. So far I've only told Ms. J, aside for my mom. I have to say that we kinda completed the bigger tasks today and there are a few more to complete and the more I think of it, the more I think there are many things to cross in the task list. It's been quite a burden in my head that I couldn't really sleep this week. We don't have much time left and right now, I am most worried that I'm gonna get sick so I have a lot of prayers to do. I feel really really good though that mom has been pretty supportive in this. It feels so much better and so comforting when your mom gives you blessing in something that you want. So I am truly thankful to God for that. I'm gonna stop now. Hope you guys have a great week ahead :)
:) eKa @ 6:59:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Hello peeps. It's been awhile since I last wrote. Well, I've kinda been sick both physically and mentally. I had another bad flu attack. It was really bad and it took sometime for me to be okay. I had so many drugs that at one point I was calculating the timing of taking them wrongly so I got the dosage wrong. I'm not sure if I'm fully well now. After somewhat surviving the flu, around a week later which was last week, I had a day when I suddenly just had a fever. I went through the entire day feeling really cold while my body was rising in temperature. It was really really bad that I was totally thankful that I could make it back to my room in 1 piece. At that time, I could feel that even my balance was off and it was like my soul and body were not aligned. I was really worried that I would just collapse and faint on the road. So I'm truly thankful to God for bringing me back to my room safely. I had the usual dose of panadol and it did get a bit better, then it got worse again, I found myself waking up at 2.45 am with rising temperature and ache all over my body that I had to force myself to get up and take some panadol again. What followed in the days after was headaches and all. Suffice to say, I was not having the best of time and that truly brought me down mentally. I began to wonder if anything is wrong with me, what's with all this sickness. I'm just tired and I just want to stop and that is something that I didn't do, stopping.So anyway, I think mom got worried and perhaps that caused her to have such an uneasy dream about me. When she told me, I did think, okay what now? what else? what other misfortune to befall upon me?!?! But I suppose such things are better to be let off in their own realm and we shouldn't think too much about it or make any sense about something which is nothing. With all my sickness, mom still asked me today if I'm okay. Well, I'm alright. That's all I can say.
I turned 30 this week. Well the birthday week started last Sunday. My family celebrate more of our Chinese birthday than our actual birth date. My chinese birthday was last Sunday and I turned 31 based on the Chinese calendar. Mom had her bad dream about me the night before my birthday, so it was a rather awkward timing. It made for such a strangely delightful Sunday morning. I woke up with a text from my brother telling me happy birthday on behalf of my dad and told me to have an egg as it was the tradition in our family. I totally forgot about the egg deal. Then after, I got a text from mom telling me that she dreamt about me. It's kinda nice to be getting those texts.
My actual birthday was of course on pi day (3.14). Decided to do something which I hadn't done before ever, which was to make the day all about me. It didn't work out so well. Well the evening before, I decided to start doing things that I like. I like watching movies, so off I went to watch The Lorax. I wanted something light. I don't think it was a really good movie. I agreed with the message but it came across as a bit preachy. It's not really that funny and it's not really that touching. However, I was in such a weird mental state so maybe it's just me. Coming back to my room that day, I just lost it. I had a total melt down. I started crying pretty intensely. The like of which reminded me of my darkest days and those were some really shitty period in my life which I'm not sure I've bounced back fully. Perhaps I didn't hence all the traces still creep back up and hit me with lots of despair. There was just this huge wave of sadness and hopelessness and I just reached a point of not knowing how to do my life. Wow, that's some pretty private part there for you all to read. I seriously contemplated if I should write it but without the illustration, you may not get what I'm saying and that's the thing. People around me don't get it. I tried telling them and many came off as these wise ass people that I'm just so tired of talking anymore. They started saying you should this and that and I know that they are perhaps right but at this point in time, I would just rather have someone telling me, please don't cry Eka, you're an awesome person, and things will be alright, there there, please don't be sad. God, I'm crying again now writing that. I did feel that at a point, perhaps God understood my need to be comforted, that I got a text from il Gatto, wishing me a happy birthday. He's never done that for the past few years and getting that message seemed like to show that God will always give me someone to help me when I really really need someone. I need to keep that faith in God. Still, I broke down really badly. I couldn't see that possibility in the future that this will all pass and I'll have some genuine peace and happiness. It took some time to push the thoughts away and stopped crying. That's really the thing, I pushed the thoughts. I haven't really revisited them and addressed them and for that reasons, I think they will still come back to haunt me because I truly believe, issues will always be there if you don't try to resolve them. However I'm just too tired. It's a really dark place to be in and right now I just want to be numb rather than facing it. I'm tired and I'm tired of crying. So I did break down nearing to when I turned 30 but surprisingly it's not because of me turning 30. As usual my life issue is always more complicated than just one place or one situation. I did think it was overly dramatic to feel this bad about my life when it can be said as good, especially after learning not long ago someone I knew had a really devastating situation, also if you compare it to actual bad problems in this world. Those thoughts made me cry harder for feeling sucky about my life. I cannot deny the sadness and unhappiness that I felt. At the same time, I felt sad at myself for feeling that way. It's so messed up.
I did stop crying at one point. It was more because I was telling myself that it's getting scary, I was hyperventilating, my chest started to hurt that I told myself I needed to calm down. I woke up the next morning rather earlier than I wanted to because I stupidly thought that a package that my best friends sent me would still arrive on the agreed morning time. There was some miscommunication and basically I was looking at the prospect of spending the day waiting for that package to arrive. Yeah, that's fun! *rolling eyes* Then, I wanted to get my flu vaccination but since I was still having a sore throat, the doctor refused to give it to me. So I had wasted time waiting for her for nothing. Then it was raining as well, so I was just, yeah of course it had to happen to me. Everything should go wrong for me, even on the one day, the one day that I decided to do something for me!!! Seriously, there were blue sky the day before and after my birthday and I got crappy weather!!! I'm one who refrain from blaming God for things being sucky, however at that time, I seriously was like, yeah of course, shitty things happen to me. I tried to go through with my plan but let's just say I wasn't having a really good day. All and all, considering the effort that I tried to put and the result, it made for a kinda bad birthday. Oh well ... just my luck.
There were some nice birthday wishes. I got my first birthday present this year from Ms. J and I haven't even given her a present. She got me a book which is a good choice. I like getting books. I also got a book from my best buddies. The package finally arrived, not on my birthday though. The delivery people decided to reschedule even though I kinda already asked Max to help me with it. He looked rather sorry when he told me that he waited but it didn't come. Anyway, my cousin, Marlisa, which I am sure was behind the whole birthday present package, made me this really cool scrap birthday card. I like it a lot. She also got this cool box to hold the card and the book, which by the way is Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, which is the book for the movie, Sang Penari which I mentioned before. I guess she read my blog. Anyway, the box, today I realized that I think the box was specially made for me because there's my name on it! I think she got someone to do it. On the box, there's only another word. It's smile. I take it as another sign from the universe or God, to smile.
It's something which is changing in me. I can feel it that I had turned into when I was in those period when I always looked sad. It's back again. My energy is draining away. Strangely I think I feel this change more in my french class. We have more people in class now and their french are really awesome. That coupled with the fact that I'm just losing interest in everything in my life, found myself not fighting or trying much to be better. I think Mr. N even can sense it that there's something different in me. He tried to get something out of me but today I think he's started to relent. I know I'm losing it. I need to pull myself together and pull myself up. I am better than all this but right now, I'm just not there. I don't know when I'll be.
On other news. Max went to Hong Kong today for a week or so to spend time with his mom. I was thinking that I'm living with a breathing living half french boy and I should use him to help me with my french. The other day I told him that and he spoke 1 line really fast and I didn't get it and I thought, that's why we don't speak in french to each other. At least perhaps his english will get better with me. The other day, we were talking about The Walking Dead and he said something like, "do you think he's enough strong for ...". Now, bad english grammar hurt my brain. I can feel my brain cells dying when I read or hear wrong sentences. I corrected him, "strong enough". I know where he came from, it's the same as the Italians and the Indonesians actually, the way we form that sentence in our languages. A few days later I was thinking that some racist people would think that the Indonesians are so dumb when they make a mistake like that because we come from a less developed country and when a french like Max makes the mistake, they would see the mistake as cute. Well, that's the state of my brain now, it goes to many random places. Anyway, I'm starting to get used having Max around and sometime talking to him can be pretty nice when he's not throwing his teenager-I'm-too-cool-and-busy-to-talk attitude. So in a way, I'm gonna miss him but I think I will also welcome the space without him. I was already not liking the fact that he invaded my spot and I have to sit in another chair during dinner. So getting the space back will be nice.
There's something that I'm planning that I hope will work out. However, considering all the plans that have gone wrong, I begin to doubt it will happen. It's stupid really when I can sense it's not gonna work and yet when it was really declared to be a failure, I was still broken hearted. So anyway, this thing I'm planning may not happen as well and so I was thinking, darn you're 30. It should empower you with the knowledge that you are old and so you know stuff and you've lived pretty long to be braver in the face of things and so come on, let's do this on our own. We'll see how it goes. I wonder what mom will say. Again, her dream kinda makes her worried about me but I guess she wants me to be happy and if this is what it'll take perhaps all she can do is just let go and pray for me.
Before I go, let me add this one bit which I also took as a sign. I finally finished reading Più Felice Del Mondo by Umberto Pasti. It's a book that I got when I was in Rome. So it took almost a year for me to finish it. I didn't use a dictionary in reading this so I am lost in many of the short stories inside it but I like to think I get the gist of the stories. So in the last short story in the book, in some of the last few lines was this line, Capii che finché si è vivi gli anni felici finiranno mai, perché l'avventura che ci unisce è di per se stessa misteriosamente felice. God is speaking to me in many different form. Keeping the faith is the hard one.
:) eKa @ 7:43:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sang Penari, Hugo, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The second half of this week are really filled with great movies. I just cannot resist not watching movies :| The other day, I talked to Ms. J about how regretful I am for not having watched a few movies because one thing or another. It made me realized that yeah, out of all the people in my world, perhaps Ms. J is the only one who keeps up with what movies are out and what movies are good. We have the same level of knowledge in this :POkay, let's start. Watched Sang Penari with Vivy and Denny this week. Perhaps it's because I suddenly feel that with my friends who are married, they are now like in a pair, buy one get one free, I felt the need to ask Vivy if she and Denny would be interested. I am thankful that they were. Sang Penari was shown in Alliance Française as part of an Indonesian cultural week focusing more on Javanese culture (I think). I got a free ticket, but I could only ask for one :( The sistic lady did kindly let me buy the tickets for Vivy and Denny with my students price. I actually also had a free ticket to watch Didik Nini Thowok dance yesterday, which I really really really wanted to watch. However in between me feeling tired and very self conscious, I decided to skip it. I do regret it but I just couldn't bring myself to it. The sistic lady was telling me, "you can watch it alone, it seemed nice!". I felt sad that I let her down. She was really friendly.
Anyways, Sang Penari. I love it! It was inspired by a novel which I haven't read, which I am so tempted to ask my best buddies at home to get for me as my birthday present. I read in someone's blog that the movie did not follow the novel exactly. I used the word "inspired" up there, not "based". I read that in the novel, the age of the main characters are very young. I suppose there will be a lot of complication if the movie makers stick to the actual age, what with the strong adult theme in it. The story, set between 1950 something to 1965ish, is actually a love story of a guy and a girl who's been friends since they were kids and whose lives and the situation around them caused their relationship to never really bloom. You see, the girl wanted to be a ronggeng dancer. I'm not a Javanese and I certainly do not have much knowledge about Javanese culture so there are many things in this movie which surprised me just like it will to any other non-Indonesians or Indonesians like me. There's a lot of mysticism infused to the culture and I kinda like that it's being shown that way. It showed Javanese culture the way it is before Islam dictated how their life should be. I'm pretty sure this doesn't gel with the Islamic extremist in Indonesia, but who cares about FPI (Front Pembela Islam) - okay this is another story, another time, I'm just glad Indonesians are starting to take a stand away from them. Back to the movie, apparently being a ronggeng dancer kinda means that you are also a glorified prostitute. I said glorified because instead of being shunned for sleeping and getting payment from it, the village ladies actually wanted their husbands to sleep with the ronggeng dancer because they believed that the dancer had a certain kind of spirit inside her which would help / bless / empower the guy during sex after the guy slept with her. Yeah, shocking! Oh I have to say that this girl also danced in an erotic way. I read somewhere that the oldest profession in the world is prostitution. I guess since long ago, people know that sex sells. So anyways, yeah, who can deal with having a girl who's pretty much a village property? So the guy decided to join the army. Then the year came when the government was eradicating communism and communist party in Indonesia and the guy was part of the army who sweeped through villages and rounded everyone suspected to be involved with the communist party. The girl like the other villagers were rounded up and when the guy found out about his village, he tried his darnest to find and save her. I love the guy playing the main character, Rasus. I've never seen this actor before. You can really see the growth in his character in the way he acted. He started as this simple minded uneducated villager and towards the end of the movie, he turned into a really manly soldier. The way he gazed and stood told a lot about him. I thought the movie was well made but I didn't like the ending. I guess at the core, I just prefer happy ending. In the movie, the girl started out high and go down low in her status and that's the opposite with the boy and I guess that's the reason why in the end, they couldn't be together. With all they've been through, they have just become such different persons, that the love they once had really just belong in the past. Maybe they'll never love anyone that way again but I guess they realized they can live without that kind of love. I am seriously curious how it goes in the book. The film was first released last November in Indonesia. I remembered seeing the trailer when I was home for Dewi's wedding. Perhaps there are better films than this in Indonesia currently but since this is the one I watched and I like it, I hope they will do well oversea. I hope they try to make it for movie festivals and they'll win something.
The second movie this week was Hugo which I decided to watch in 3D. I love it but I have to say that it's not really a kid movie. I think kids will find it boring. I, however, like it greatly. It felt like an adventure. I love the world of the movie. It's touching and most of this come from the young boy who played Hugo. He's just kinda the saddest loneliest thing ever. I did think that his whole world would lose meaning the moment he managed to fix the automaton. Thank God, the hand of fate brings more things into his life. It seriously made me wonder, that could it be so, that it's just fate that many different pieces will come to you like metal to a magnet and all would make sense? I like the movie for many different things. I thought the story was smart. As like the 2 children (by the way Chloë Moretz looked so young here) who kept on going to find meaning in everything, I was too in bated breath waited in anticipation about what's gonna happen next, what does this all mean. I thought the actors were great, even the every single person in the train station though little and insignificant their role maybe. They have a sentimental romantic feel about them, especially with the movie being set to an older time. I like the clock tower, machinery scenes. I love the parts where old black and white movies were shown. It's so cool and of course one can sense the sentimental feeling that Martin Scorsese must have had with these movies. If only tv would show more of them. I am lucky to be able to watch some Charlie Chaplin, Shirley Temple, Jerry Lewis movies on tv when I was young. I seriously wish that tv these days would give the same opportunity to this generations to watch movies like that. I'm digressing. My point is old movies are sentimental and the story seems to be less complicated back then. Hugo is a very meaningful movie and one of the line that kinda hurts for me was when Hugo the boy said, Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose ... it's like you're broken. While I do like the movie very much, I have to admit it's not really a mainstream movie. I can imagine people finding it to be very boring. Well I guess those people are not a helpless romantic like me :P
The last movie this week was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I cannot remember which movie made me cry the most but perhaps this is it. I cried from beginning to end. I knew the movie is related to 911 and even though I know noone who died from 911, it is a very sad incident. Whenever the newspaper or tv show 911 related things during the anniversary, I sometime get teary eyed reading what people wrote or said. So anyways, I cried a lot in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that my eyes kinda hurt after the movie was done. It was really really intense and I think it was a really really good movie though many critics disagree with me. A bit like Hugo, this movie deals with a boy who lost their fathers. Unlike Hugo, the main boy in this movie, Oskar, is a boy who undefinitively may have asperger syndrome, who's very smart, who analyses everything, and at the same time has many mental flaws. You should see the way his brain worked in trying to find a lock for the key he found, he's amazing. He's not sad looking like Hugo but he's really sad and though his anger may make him less pitiful and hence less likable that Hugo, I still think Oskar is a really cool boy and I love him for all his bravery and determination. He summed up the difficulty that he'd have in his reconnaissance in this line really well, "I didn't know what was waiting for me. Although my stomach hurt and my eyes were watering I'd made up my mind that nothing was gonna stop me. Not even me." Really often time, it's us ourselves who stop us from getting to where we want and this young boy realized that. I think the boy who acted in this role is awesome. He also narrated the movie and it's really touching hearing him speak. I wonder how good the rest of the guys in best actor category for this year Oscar that he wasn't nominated :( As for the rest, the cast were awesome. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock are always awesome. The man who played grandpa was pretty cool too and also Viola Davis (she's pretty much always in good movies). Overall I love the movie a lot a lot and with that let me put my ranking for the best picture award for this year's Oscar.
Unfortunately, I didn't watch all the movies which are nominated :( I missed The Artist and Moneyball. So with the other 7 that I watched, my ranking are as follow:
1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
2. Hugo
3. The Help
4. War Horse
5. The Descendants
6. The Tree of Life
7. Midnight in Paris
I based this ranking mostly based on how much I love them and also by how much effort I think went into making them and how meaningful the story is. So even though I actually like The Tree of Life the least, I think it's more meaningful and deep than Midnight in Paris. Also, though I like War Horse and The Descendants pretty much the same way, I place War Horse higher because obviously there are more effort required in making that movie and the cinematography was better than the The Descendants. So based on the list, it's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which I like the most because it touched me the most. However if I have to factor in the way the movie was made, I think Hugo should win the best picture award, it was well made, has a really good story, nice effects, and a good ensemble of cast. Well, that's what I think. As I said I didn't watch The Artist and Moneyball and I'm really not sure how they will go in the ranking.
I will stop now. Cried a lot today and with Up being shown on tv now, I found myself getting teary eyed again. Well, I hope you guys have a good week ahead and I hope God will guide me on my way. Ciao tutti!
:) eKa @ 8:15:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Hello guys, how are you doing? It's been awhile since I last wrote. Well it's because normally when I write something, I'm talking to you guys about movies and I haven't been watching anything recently until today. Last week I was sick. Bloody phlegm and all. Antibiotics made my throat better and the blood component of my phlegm is gone but the phlegm part is still here, even one week later. I guess I'm not fully well? The doctor also gave me some antibiotic medication for something else I'm having but that issue hasn't been cleared either :( Well, perhaps I should be thankful that it at least doesn't seem like it's getting worse? Point is, I'm seriously not in a very healthy condition right now.On mental news, last week a news was delivered to me that made me feel so much better. I suppose I pray for things to God which I think are going to make me feel better but God has other ways to fix things and right now this is what He's giving me. I seriously felt so much better and it's like for the first time I can breathe again. It's not gonna last but I think for the time being it's okay. If I think about it, I still hyperventilate and get all depressed. Again, perhaps it will never be the solution that I want, it'll be God's and the main thing is to keep the faith that He'll have it covered. So for this week, life is not necessarily bad. I'm not sure how next week will go, but I guess we'll take it day by day.
There are still things that pissed me off of course. This week I had someone telling me that he hoped the things he said doesn't offend me. Well, doesn't that make me sound like some overly sensitive bitch? The reason why this guy was putting this line was because I am furious and basically not in speaking term with some people after the awful thing they said to me, as mentioned in one of my posts sometime in November. I know there are people (one of them is Dewi) who would say, "Yeah, I'll get over it and not be like you who keep grudges". But these same people also say things like, "Just don't associate yourself much with these kinda people anymore". So whatever, you know. Some people have certain things that make them explode and I have mine and my reasoning is totally valid as confirmed by many people. It's just some people are more forgiving and I am not. Since I'm in a bitching mood right now, let me tell you the kind of moronic things that I deal with. So I emailed someone something like this, "the changes are done but it will not work now because of X and Y needs to be done so that it'll work". Less than 15 minutes later the person emailed me back and told me, "I've checked it but why doesn't it work?". If you're in my place, wouldn't you be like, geez, didn't you read the mail?!?!. So what I did was, I replied back with, "As mentioned, ..." and I copied and pasted the one line from my previous email. I turned the whole texts bold and red. The damned person came back to me telling me there's no need to turn it to red because she could read it, thank you. Oh my dear Jesus!!! Don't you just feel like wanting to slap this dumbass. If you can read it, why the fuck didn't you read it the first time around? Every single thing is always my fault without anyone checking and going through the situation first. I remember telling my dear cousin, Marlisa, about it and she's a real fiery person herself and she normally has very eloquent, interesting, snappy retorts and she did give me some lines to say. However, how can I say those when just putting a line of text red and in bold form already garnered me some blow. After that whole episode, I chose to just shut up. You know, if I had been in that girl's position, I would have replied back something along the line, "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot, I didn't read the line you wrote. So sorry and thank you for your patience with me". Yet here, I am the one being vilified.
*sigh* So there, I rant. I normally try not to speak much about negative personal stuff that bring me down but I guess shouting it to the world is necessary sometime. I promise that I have been trying to see some positivity in my life. The proof is, have you checked my nicest things? It's not easy to do that but I am trying. On other news about my life, well, I just want to talk about french class. I seriously don't speak french :( well I suppose I could have tried better but mustering that conscious effort is hard and today I feel like a failure :( We have a bigger class now. Our class was combined with another small lower level class (they jumped up). 2 smaller classes should make a rather bigger class, but there are still not many people in the class. 5 to 6 normally since some people often come and often not. It seems like we're a go for next term and I hope we'll survive. Next week is the last class for this term and we're starting a new one immediately in the week after. I am okay about having Mr. N again as our teacher simply because it's like a comfort zone with him. I can speak in english and he'll just be interested in what my head would spout in whatever language it comes out in. Still, I should really be speaking more french now with some actual processing in my brain to deliver structurally and grammartically sound sentences. I'm so lazy :(
I guess I have nothing much to say in my life that I talked about french class. Life has been trudging along. Due to my massive homesickness and not wanting to deal with life here, I've been listening to a lot of Indonesian songs. I have to embarrassingly admit that I enjoy Cherry Belle's songs a lot. The line, you are beautiful, beautiful, kamu cantik, cantik couldn't get out of my head and so I got their albums and I actually enjoy them. They are korean girl band wannabe and Indonesia is currently filled with these types of korean girl and boy band wannabe. So while the girls can sing, I believe they are not particularly strong singers or anything. I just feel that their song writers are not so bad. So been hearing those and been trying to watch Opera Van Java when I can. It feels comforting to know that mom and me are watching the same thing even though we are in separate places. It made me warm and fuzzy when I texted my mom saying things like, "Eko is in Opera Van Java, it's pretty funny" and mom replied back something like, "Yeah it's funny, I'm watching it too". It doesn't happen all the time though, since mom favors the sinetron (to the dismay of Oshie). I was actually thinking how wrong this whole thing is. It's like I am in one place and my mind is in another place, like I'm not living in the place I should be. I don't know if it's making any sense but the idea of home, of Indonesia is really my safe house. My home back home is really seriously my safe house.
So those 2 lines above tie us to the title of the post which is also the movie I watched today with YeeMaggio. A weak linkage, I know. Anyway, I had 3 movies in mind, J. Edgar, Moneyball, and Safe House. Among the 3, Safe House is something I had the least preference to but I let YeeMaggio choose and she chose that. I'm not sure why, perhaps Ryan Reynolds. Maybe it's me, maybe I'm in a place where I need more amusing things to interest me that I didn't find Safe House to be particularly nice. I felt rather bored and got sleepy. I wonder if I would have understood the story if I haven't read the synopsis. Denzel Washington was his usual awesome and fierce. Ryan was handsome but overall I think the movie is forgettable. Ryan Reynold's character has the same age as mine and that made me think that gone are the days when the people in the movies are older than me. They are now mostly younger than me or at least the same age. I am reaching that age when things are being marketed to people younger than me. It may sound overly dramatic because it's totally premature but I feel like being phased out. I guess I'm in a state of mind when everything just bring the saddest thought in my head. Well, I guess I'll stop now. You guys take care, aight. Buonanotte!
:) eKa @ 8:01:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Things I Love When I Was In Indonesia
Hello guys, I'm back. Been back since Monday evening and my emotional state has plummeted so greatly that I shouldn't talk about it. Let's just talk about things which has a more positive vibe and things that I miss really dearly since I came back.1. Mom. I love mommy. While my mom has certain views and opinions which differ greatly from what I have (and can annoy me so), there are those certain things which make me feel touched a lot, comforted, and down right think that she's the best mommy for me. One of the things that she told me to do really comforts me and I love it simply because it's not really something that Singaporeans here may think. One may argue because mom is not living in Singapore, she's perhaps out of tune with life here. However, I get where she's coming from and it's all really comforting to know at the bottomline what really matters. I also love mom for the fact that she got things or food that I may like. I miss home so and mom is one reason for it.
2. My bed. I love my bed and I miss it so :(
3. My family. I love how my extended family do hang out with each others. I love hanging out with my aunts. I love how a certain aunt is really funny about wanting me to have someone soon. For the past 3 years, I've only seen her once a year, and everytime she's egging me to get someone. She's funny. She didn't have much time to hassle me this time around because there were many people at her open house. I also love how my other aunt is teaching my 2-year old nephew (cousin's son = nephew?) to sing Bengawan Solo. It's by no mean an easy song and yet that's what they chose as the song to teach him. It's impressive that my aunt remembers the lyric. More so than me. It's downright really amazing that's what they want to instill in him. Then I love the fact that I can pinpoint that my brother has been spending time in Starbucks. I mean, seriously, like I told mom, of all the places in Tomang, I could sense correctly that he's in Starbucks. Pretty cool. I also love the fact that my bro gave me money when I didn't have smaller change and he got me the food I wanted on his way back from Starbucks.
4. I love my best girl friends, Dewi, Marlisa, and Emilia. Love talking to them and getting insight on their lives. It was really mind opening and also love having them listening to my woes. In general, I think all of us are not having the smoothest of lives right now though I feel that perhaps Emilia and Marlisa are the ones with the least agony right now.
5. I love Indonesian TV that make me laugh. I really have to be detailed on this because in general Indonesian tv still sucks. However, I am pleasantly surprised that some of them do get me laughing my ass off. One of them is Opera Van Java which I love and still trying to watch since I came back. I was curious about this show because a facebook friend, AA, often put it in his FB status. The show has been around for sometime but I only really watched it on this trip. It really made me laugh a lot and overall I think I have laughed so much more in my short time at home than I had been in the past year because of the so many amusing things. Anyways, I have to say that Opera Van Java style of comedy is pretty distinctly Indonesian. I may say it's low class at some point but darn it's funny. Most of it are slapstick but since it's pretty much an improvised live shows for 2 hours plus, moments like when they broke into speaking in pantun (rhyme) show how witty and smart these people are. Try coming out with rhymes on the spot every few minutes, it's not easy. I particularly love the part when they broke into songs suddenly. It does impede the whole story but it's funny funny funny!
6. Still related to number 4, I love how there are so much talent in Indonesia. Indonesia is like a huge range of ugly despicable moronic things to the highest high of really talented creative bunch of things. As comparison with my life here, I don't see the poor quality on things the way I see it in Indonesia, but I also don't get amused and taken away by the creativity in it. Like in Indonesian music scenes for example, while there are those that made me switch the channel the moment I saw them, there are those also which made me totally in awe that such things are in Indonesia.
7. I love the Indonesian-ness of Indonesia. I got my first batik shirt on this trip (courtesy of mom). I chose a red one to fit the chinese new year theme. I love how Indonesians embraces Indonesian culture and I think it's awesome.
8. While traffic and the pollution in Jakarta is something that I really don't enjoy, I am impressed with the busway. For the first time, I finally tried it with mom. It's definitely far from perfect, however the fact that they manage to create so many routes (the routes are definitely more complicated that Singapore mrt system) with so many busway bus stop points is pretty commendable. If it could run smoothly, it's a pretty good alternative to things. I am actually looking forward to try it more and perhaps on my own the next time I am home.
9. I had the chance to watch The Iron Lady. It's always nice to watch something ahead of Singapore and it's very rare. Went to Taman Anggrek and felt pretty impressed with their cinema. It seemed new as compared to when I was there years years ago. It's a high quality cinema and it's so good to be watching in an almost empty cinema. As usual I chose the aisle seat but as it started, I moved to right smack at the center of the cinema and my row was a divider row between 2 sections, I don't really know how to explain this, but basically I had more legs space. Wonderful! The Iron Lady was insightful and Meryl Streep was of course always awesome. I thought it was amazing how she managed to look so different and how small size they managed to make her be, especially in comparison to when she played Julia Child. Overall I think it's a nice a movie.
Being in Indonesia was really really relaxing to me. I have people who was glad to see me. I ate well. There are always many fruits in the house. I had good conversations. I had lotsa love. I basically felt I was loved. I really really miss home and all that really made being here sucks so badly. I felt that I am a different person when I was home than when I am here :( and it's frustrating sometime that these people whom I love dearly at home cannot see how I am here :(
Life here has been really bad. Right now, I am having difficulty sleeping all the time. I don't have a good appetite. The only moment when I had a good laugh this week when I was watching Opera Van Java streaming live off the net. Overall Singapore hasn't made feel good about being here. Well, finding out that prices went down in McDonalds was good but it's not KFC Indonesia for example, which really is much much better than Singapore's. Oh my God, when I was eating it, I was thinking this is how KFC should taste like and what the hell have I been eating all this time? Another reason to miss home.
So I have practically lost all will to live. I thought when I come back, I'll start doing something which I had planned and would perhaps gave me hope for the days ahead, but I found myself not interested in it. I did do other things which I really need to do but no luck so far and I prayed and pray and since there's still nothing so far, I'm pretty much bummed out. Hence I think I made my mom so worried. My dear cousin was so nice to be encouraging me and all and I feel guilty for having them to have to do this and be worried. I'm just really mentally down now. I'm sorry. I wish I could even spark a little positivity and light to bring me up but right now I can't really. I am in the point of tears most of time :( Alright, I shouldn't talk about this anymore.
In an attempt to do something which I normally like, I went to watch The Descendants today. I have to say it felt like a chore to get me to go and watch it. You see how down I am. Even the prospect of watching something nice didn't manage to interest me much. I was late and I missed some of it - that sucks. However, the movie was really good. I have watched some really heavy, borderline boring, George Clooney's movies but this one was not boring. It's pretty sad and in a way perhaps it matches how my mood is. I think the cast were great and if you don't mind getting quite depressed, you could go watch it.
Alright, I'm not gonna say much more. I hope your days are much better than mine. Take care!
:) eKa @ 6:31:00 PM • 0 comments
Thursday, January 19, 2012
I wasn't sure if I was to write anything, simply because I have nothing good to say. I know one may say, here she goes again, down that hole of self pity and negativity and depression or what have you, the usual shit hole of Eka. Oh well. Since I last wrote, as foreseen, the days haven't gone fast enough. In fact today still feel like a torturous existence. Even though the past days have been filled with Modern Family, Glee, and some newly found songs, and telling my woes to people who would listen, it still wasn't enough to make me feel better. However the clock never stops ticking and today's arrived. In a few hours it's home to Jakarta and to my wonderful bed which I miss so. You know, I am not kidding about the shit hole I am in. I know a lot of things are just how we respond emotionally to things that happened to us, but like last night, I was so sleepy and for some reasons I let my mind wander and it wandered so far that I ended up feeling fully awake and I'm not sure what time I finally slept, perhaps 1 plus. Yes that is my fault, just like everything else is my fault in this world! So anyway, that made me miss my bed even more so.So home. I am sure the time spent there will pass too fast for my liking. Perhaps it's the zone I am in right now but I am not feeling much love about home. Somehow being home and of course chinese new year demand one to be super social but I am really really really not in a social mode. I am not looking forward to meeting many (happy) people. I just want to sleep, wake up late, relish that short time everyday when my house is empty except just for me. However I know that meeting and talking to these (happy) people will reel me in and see what really matters and bring me into perspective and hopefully make me more positive and optimistic about the future. I really need this since I kinda made a chinese new year resolution yesterday. Please let the stars be aligned, please the universe, please conspire to help me, PLEASE!!!
:) eKa @ 12:16:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Hello peeps, how's your first week been? All's been good? My first week of 2012 and my last week of 2011 were rather rough but today has been a good day so it's all as we always say, at the end of it is good.In the last week of 2011, one of my auntie passed away. Mom, dad, aunt, and uncle flew for the funeral which was done very very quickly. I think our culture and tradition are different from the Chinese here who do the 3-day wait. Anyways, my aunt and I lived in different islands and now in different countries so the geographical distance did make it rather impossible to develop such strong connection. I did however felt good that I managed to see her 2 years ago. That was my last time seeing her. I think it's been more years for my brother or other cousins. The death kinda brought a lot of questions to my brain. I was picturing how I'd answer my kids, if they were to ask where people go after they die? Well I have absolutely no idea. If we follow the story of they're becoming perfect and freed from their sickness and go to paradise, well my aunt had down syndrome. What does that mean for her to be perfect? She'll have down syndrome no more? But that wouldn't be the auntie that I know and that made me feel rather sad. Then I was thinking about the bright light that you suppose to walk into and I'd like to think my other aunts were there to welcome her. The thoughts really posed so many different questions into my head and let's just say that for a day, I had quite an existential crisis. I wasn't planning to blog about that, but since I did, maybe I shouldn't go on further.
Another sucky thing was that there's something wrong with my ipod. The earphone jack needed to be replaced. Apple as you know it (well I'm not sure if it's everywhere or just Singapore), doesn't do repair, it replaces. I need to pay a whole lot to get it replaced. With a bit more, I could get a new one and I don't want a new one, I want my one be repaired with all my things inside it! That kinda makes me feel icky about Apple. So anyways, google provided some answers which included me to almost operate the ipod myself but I refrained and in the end opted to trust a dude from the internet. It was distressing but at a certain point, I decided to just let go. If I was to be fooled then so be it. I wasn't, the guy did a good fast job, all for S$59 and it was rather painless for me. So that's one thing that make this week rather good.
In the last 2 weeks, I also managed to watch War Horse. I didn't write it earlier because as mentioned I've been in a funk. I just didn't feel like sharing much. I'm still trying to get out of it now. So anyway, at the beginning, I wasn't interested in watching War Horse. It's about a horse, how interesting can it be? However the reviews were glorious and so I decided to give it a go. Well I like it, though I can feel that some people may find it boring. There were a lot of handsome blonde actors and it's always good to see handsome guys :P The story was pretty nice though I cannot understand the undying love the boy had for the horse, but I am pretty much void of any kind emotion like that in my life, so not understanding is expected. Of course there were many horses being used to play the main horse and I found it amazing that these horses had so much characters in them. It seemed that they were also acting at some points with their looks. Steven Spielberg does really have good eyes. The ending scene felt like an old hollywood movie for me and it felt good. I am looking forward to watching more wonderful movies with the Oscar season coming. Right now, I am really interested in watching My Week with Marilyn, unfortunately the timing sucks :(
It's like less than 2 weeks before I go home. It feels rather too soon with the so many things that I have yet to do but I'm sure come Monday, I will feel it's not soon enough. French class started again today. I actually felt that the 2-week break was too short. I had a hard time waking up today but to class I went. We got Mr. N again. Apparently everyone was at a different point taught by Mr. N. I thought he's nice as a person but I wasn't sure if his class was nice and the class has shrunk so much that there were only 3 of us today and I don't know if we're gonna be having exciting times with him. Overall I thought the class today was so so. The good news was I got to speak english and that made me feel rather good. I know there are many of those who would be saying, I'm there to speak french not english, so having to speak english in class sucks! Yeah whatever. I just felt good to be speaking english and making sure my points get across without being reprimanded. On mornings when your brain is slow, this flexibility is most welcomed for me. Well I always believe what the students get out of the class is as much what the students do as what the teachers do. I am sure if we are proactive, the class can be awesome too. I am quite worried though about the survival of our class. There are only 5 of us in the class and it's evident that our attendance record is not so good. Today there were 3 and after next week, I'll be missing for 2 weeks. I really hope that this class can continue on until I finish advanced :( Let's keep our fingers crossed.
I'm pretty hungry now. There are many things to be thankful about this week. One of the thing to be thankful about today is my Max time. I haven't been talking much to him simply because his aunt has been around and so he's been spending time with her and also because he's started working part time. I caught him just before he was getting ready to leave for work today. He promised to give me free meal at the place he works (good boy!) but I rather not get him into some trouble. Then he insisted that I watched some youtube videos which he found hilarious. It was about this (I think) American guy who was criticizing and making fun of an 18-year old Singaporean boy who was kinda threatening another Singaporean boy, who's 14, who seemed to be "stealing" the 18-year old girlfriend. All in youtube. Do take note that the American put himself into the drama. Yeah, they are all crazy and stupid. I didn't find it amusing at all, so that shows how a 13-year difference between Max and me really does reflect the huge difference in how our brains work. That doesn't mean I think that people with such huge age difference will have nothing in common. I believe as the younger one grows more mature and the older one basically just grows older, it'll get easier to understand one another.
Alright, that's about it peeps. May your days are filled with sunshine and your nights are filled with cool air and the bright moon and stars illuminate your way :)
:) eKa @ 8:23:00 PM • 0 comments
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