shoooot, I figured this would happen...

I'm having a stomachache right now
It's actually predictable but I didn't know it would come very soon.
Don't even bother leaving my seat. It hurts. Ouch...
Hope I'll cope with it soon so I can rest myself in the warm bed peacefully tonight

Down the streets of San Jose

Just today, I officially enter the first week of holiday prior to the start of the Fall term, or quarter, whatever you call it.
Even Elda and I started making an unofficial list of places we intended to visit in our "do nothing days". I mean, this is United States! Sure there are tons of interesting place nearby (not as far as Las Vegas or Los Angeles though. Arrrghhh how I really wanted to go there).

Anyway, two days ago, which is Saturday, Elda and I went out to do fulfill some basic necessities such as going to a local networking company to complain about the name's misspell written on Elda's bill. Peace of cake, but still can't be tolerated. Later, we went to the bank since Elda wanted to open an account. It took quite a while but the procedure went quick.

We still had plenty of time and I mentioned that Elda always wanted to go to the public library in San Jose, and so did I. Therefore I came up with an idea about going to San Jose public library. Through Google map application in my device that has the same use to what's called GPS, we quickly figured the directions to go there, and it turned out, we only needed to take one bus ride.

I was thrilled to spot some tall buildings just like the ones I saw back in San Francisco.
San Jose is like the nearest and probably the second largest city located at the bay. But the situation is unexpectedly less crowded than in Frisco. What I thought I'd see bunch of people crossing the streets and boarding the "tram" (yes, even San Jose has a tram, but too bad I didn't take a picture of it). It seems very weird to me.
There are some people passing by but compared to the amount of tall buildings surrounding it, it's not to my expectation.

Anyway, we strolled around still with the help of Google Map and the public library seemed too far from our drop off. The closest destinations would be Museum of Art and Museum of Technology.
Well this is interesting. Elda is very much into technology, since it's going to be part of her major, and I'm into art (we both are). So at first we were planning to visit Museum of Technology and Museum of Art later.

Museum of Art is the closest though.

What I can tell so far from my trip, San Jose is definitely a city with huge sense of art and history decorating every corner of it. I'm pretty sure it conceals much history yet to be revealed. The architecture and everything, they're just gorgeous. Definitely a city worth to explore more :)

Moving on, Elda and I were about to go inside the museum when we finally figured out from the official that it had already closed. But we could already catch a glimpse of the exhibit that featured blinking colorful lights from the entrance. It's just too bad that I didn't get to explore more of it. Perhaps next time. Bet the museum offered more than what we saw.

The museum's yard is worth to look as well though, with palm trees and a piano. Elda actually gathered her guts and went over to a lady with her daughter playing the instrument. She actually asked if the piano belonged to the lady and that whoever wanted to play it should pay her (it's like renting a piano, I guess). But then Elda went back and told me that the piano was free for anyone to play.

Wow, they've never had this kind of free stuff on display on the streets of Jakarta. I'm pretty sure that if it really happened, the piano must have been taken away to be sold. Just a personal opinion though.

Near the museum was a huge historic-looking building and it turned out to be a cathedral. Even the cross was (I think) made out of pure gold, as I could see it reflecting the sunlight.
Elda and I intended to take a closer look of the church and as we did so, we spotted bunch of men in suit walking to the church as well. Elda later asked if they would be preparing for an event or maybe a wedding, because if not then she wanted to go in and had a moment to pray.

Fortunately though, the men in the suit let her in and while I was waiting her to pray, I could see a glimpse of the hall inside the church.

It was...really...huge...and spacious

I've never been to a cathedral before, even to the one in Jakarta.
But this experience is just so overwhelming. I knew that I wouldn't be able to go inside and pray because I'm not a catholic, but I got this contemplation, religious, and historical vibe all mixed up in that place. This impression might be different when I visit St. Peter's Basilica some time in the future. :)

Free pianos were found later on in some other corners of the streets, and also jazz musicians performing in a cafe. But something happened here: my camera's battery is dead. Too bad I didn't even get the chance to take pictures of the jazz musicians nor the fountain.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day just strolling around before going back to the bus stop to return to our apartment.
Near the bus stop was another piano on the sidewalk but the color was green. Elda and I played a few songs there. Well, actually no need to feel shy or what because apparently no one's passing by to watch us. Haha.. if there were actually people looking at our performance, I would definitely run away. I'm a lame pianist, I'm telling you.

Well, the bus finally came on time and we headed to Cupertino, where we stopped by at Daiso to buy two containers.
You know, kitchen-ish stuff. :)

The night was getting colder and I guess that sort of ended our whole trip today. It's been an exhausting day but a great one, since we finished some of our basic necessities earlier and ended the day nicely with a perfect stroll in a perfect neighboring city.

San Jose definitely offered the vibe Cupertino doesn't offer. Cupertino definitely doesn't have any tall buildings or artistic looking buildings like the ones in San Jose. Well, I hope I will be able to visit this city in other times aside of San Francisco.

Ahem, guess who's been writing a loooong post tonight.
I think I've posted enough pictures yesterday so today is writing's turn. And now, I'm getting back to watching dramas at MySoju.com.

The City by the Bay

Beware of the picture spam in this post

Just yesterday I did a one day trip to San Francisco again, purposely to accompany my mom to go shopping and sightseeing for the second time, because - if you paid attention to the post before - we sort of weren't satisfied yet with our previous trip. But this trip excluded my dad since he returned home a few days earlier, and also Elda.

Away we go

Again, my mom and I took the Caltrain from Sunnyvale to San Francisco and we arrived right on the lunch time. Anyway, we decided to go to the famous landmark of the city first, which is the Golden Gate Bridge (we didn't get to go there in our previous trip though).





Fyi, I realized that I forgot to bring the guide book and map because we were sort of in a hurry to catch the train.

Luckily I installed Google Maps immediately to my phone and eventually it worked! I really thanked this application for preventing me to get lost despite for not bringing the map and such, because it also gave out the directions to get from one place to another one and what bus we should take.


Nationalism


Looking at the bridge

San Francisco was colder than the last time we went here, and windy, so that made things even worse. Even worse, I wore a piece of thin cardigan as a jacket... ~___~ It was even more torturing having to wait for at least fifteen minutes for the bus (okay it didn't sound like so long but waiting for the bus in a shadeless and bench-less bus stop blown by the freaking cold wind? Now that's another story).




Help, I don't know which way to go

However, I love this trip even more even though I only spent only a couple of hours in this gorgeous city (my mom didn't want to miss the bus in the late evening so we had to catch the train early), for I got to take more pictures.

Little time, many places to go, but luckily my mom and I didn't get lost. All thanks to this Google Maps installed to my blackberry. LOL.


Coffee time in Frisco

Anyway later on, we went to Fisherman's Wharf again for a stroll, explored a bit more than the previous trip this time and got to capture a lot of intriguing sights around me and I had a quick late lunch with calamary and fries, with, unfortunately no picture of the food, since I was too busy eating it. Yum. Despite its small portion, apparently the price for all the fingerpick seafood is quite expensive.

I haven't got a chance to taste the famous Clam Chowder of Pier 39. It was sold at the same seafood depot where I bought calamary and fries with a quite reasonable price which is $3.00. However, at that moment I was extremely hungry that I didn't think that the portion would be enough for me. *oh greedy me* -__-

Pier 39


Reach for the sky




Keep an eye on you






Sewing



Oh yeah this city possessed lots of interesting photography object :D, especially the streets. Union Square so far has the best photography shots since it kinda resembled a small version of New York, with also some branded goods like Nine West, Louis Vuitton, and Zara. Definitely a paradise for heavy branded shoppers.

I spotted this pair of ankle boots in Nine West with a discount price and felt so tempted to purchase those but...even with a discount, they're still a bit too expensive -__- Maybe next time.




The food must be somewhere here


Waiting for the bus


Bike crossing


It's crowded

So hope you're indulged enough the pictures I posted today. I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out to be, and that my photography skills have improved despite having no tutors at all.

Anyway, my mom and I quickly caught the 5.30 pm train and headed straight back home to Sunnyvale. It was an exhausting day but finally - at least finally - I got to see the famous red bridge instead.

Sorry I'm babbling, but it's getting late and seems like I'm writing this as my eyes are beginning to close -____-

molto bella!

I'm writing this in the midst of despair and exhaustion.
Too many, just toooo many information that I have to fit inside my head.

Today is Counseling 100 second day. The instructor - just like yesterday - gave us a lot of helpful information. Not too many. It's just that hopefully the capacity of my brain would have to cope with that. So what I just did tonight was dropping and added (hopefully) transferable classes.

A little about my apartment so far, well, it's fairly quiet these days.

There were just two desks (the desk shown above is my roommate's, Elda, mine is located in the other side, unseen on the picture) currently sitting at the living room. So as you can see, we barely have anything in the room just now. No couches, but we just set up the TV. Still couldn't turn it on since we had to install the cable network.

Ugh, in Indonesia, once you buy a TV, you can plug it in straight away and you'll get to watch several local TV channels, unless if you want to watch international channels, you got to install cable network.

It's complicated really. >< Anyway just today after the Counseling 100 session, a class that required me to stay fully awake while beating this severe sleepiness for two hours only to get everything inside my head, me and my friends went to Cupertino City Center to watch Eat Pray Love.

Good thing that one of my friends luckily got a free movie ticket after answering a tricky question in her class.

One thing that I didn't know about cinema systems in the US. The usher actually sat right in front of the cinema entrance, unlike in Indonesia, where she (yes, always a 'she' in Indonesia) usually stands by in front of the studio's entrance.
So with a $8.50 ticket (that's like triple he price of movie ticket in Indonesia where it's actually $1.40 only there, tsk tsk) we got to watch movies that we wanted. We're free to enter which studios that offer our preferred movies, and even after one movie finishes, we can watch another movie without having to pay for it anymore.

Cool huh? Would it be better if the price sticks with the Indonesian one while the cinema system sticks with the US one? If that way though, cinema would be my second home. LOL

Anyway, the movie is quite entertaining. I've read the book and even though sometimes this movie has its boring parts especially some conversations in the movie (that my friends mostly dislike that they almost exited the studio).

The cinematography, the food that makes me want to go to Italy and taste those spaghetti alla carbonara etc, the molto bellissimo language, especially the scenery the movie offers are just indulging.

And one more good thing about the movie: it features Indonesia

How great is that? The cinematography was just right and it captured the whole beautiful thing about Bali foreigners should see (like the temple, the roads, the mountains, the paddy fields, the women in their traditional clothing).
Christine Hakim also played a minor role in the movie, but too bad her acting isn't so satisfying.

Once the movie ended, we initiated to watch another one which is The Expendables, a movie famous with its ensemble action-martial arts actors. I didn't watch right until the end, because my mom just happened to text me and said she wanted to go out and that I need to guard the apartment. So I have to exit before the half of the movie.

Okay I wasn't in the photo because I went home earlier like I said. My friends tagged me this picture on Facebook though :)

Have a pleasant day guys!

-----------------------------------
MY BFF FINALLY HAS A BLOG!!
Yeah I once persuaded her to create a poetry blog and she finally did!
Her name is Widya and you should really go see her poems since they're all good.
So I'd like to welcome her to the world of poetry blogging.

irashaimase tomodachi-desu!!

Makna Kata Untukmu dan Untukku

Viewing San Francisco

Heyy
It's been a while since I blog eh? I had a good week and just finished orientation last week. This week is going to be three days of Counseling classes where new students are expected to make educational plans for the first quarter.
Sounds depressing huh?

Anyway, my weekend was awesome. Just on Friday, my parents, me, and Elda took a trip to San Francisco. It wasn't initially a vacation though, since we only came to San Francisco to report ourselves to Indonesian consulate. Yeah, that's quite a proof of us being a law abiding Indonesian citizen even though we're out of the country.

We took a train from Sunnyvale all the way to the last stop: The city famous of its long red bridge itself.

This is my first time going by train in the US, and it was exciting! The train might be as convenient as Indonesian executive trains, but well, it consisted of two stories! I decided to take a seat at the lower story though.

First impression when arrived:
FREEEEEEEZZZZZIIIINGGGGG

San Francisco was just different from this small town of Cupertino that I live in, obviously. It was more crowded for sure, tall buildings, narrow roads, more cars, and livelier than my town. But since it was located more in the north, the air was chillier and it was cloudy, unlike Cupertino.

And even better, it was a place with sooo many beautiful photography spots and objects. The sceneries, the buildings, the roads that go up and down, the trams, the people and their activities, and well...just so many things. It's common if you see people carrying their cameras all around and tourists from various countries!!

First stop was the consulate, as that's our main destination to this place.
The procedure didn't take a long time and it was nothing close to tenseness like applying for visa or passport. The thing is, the place itself didn't look like a formal place, but more like a normal quiet office with strong Indonesian vibe. We even had a short conversation with the officer. I'm sure he must be darn lonely too behind the counter.

He said that we had to come back to the consulate around 4pm to pick up our signed passports. While waiting for our passports done, I was thinking if we could stroll around the city just to sightsee. Then this lady came out and I asked her if it was far to go to the Fisherman Wharf (it's like a market with many restaurants and good places to hang out).
She was like "Oh you don't need to take a bus to get to Fisherman's Wharf. Just walk a few blocks away from here."

And that's what we did. She was right though. The place ain't that far. ^^

Before reaching the place, we happened to stop at some souvenir shops and took a look around. My mom ended up buying a few fridge magnets.
The lunch time was just before we hit the Fishermen's wharf and we had no idea what to eat since there weren't restaurants around, just the crowded streets and small stores.
So here's what we came up with our lunch:

In and Out (Jumbo) Burgers and two fries.
Look, they have this red container instead of tray.

Later on, we went strolling the rest of Fisherman's Wharf places. Then I was reminded my friend, Vania, recommended me to visit Pier 39 whilst visiting Fisherman's Wharf. Excitingly though, the pier was much more crowded and it was even more thrilling, sort of reminded me of Kuta Bali, strangely.

They even have this kind of trampoline stuff where you'll be bounced up in the air but you're tied to two belts. I watched someone doing this and it was funny, since her friends kept encouraging her to flip upside down while she was on the air.

Sea Princess liner docked at the pier.
The largest ocean liner I've ever seen so far. Wish I could see what's inside it and joined the cruise

Pier 39 is also a nice place to view Alcatraz from afar. I didn't get to take its picture, but again, another strange sighting here occurs when pelicans were seen flying over and even walking on the streets. Some were even found to be actually swimming on the water.

We spent the rest of the day riding on the tram surrounding the city. It was almost like a thrill ride because the tram went up and down the roads and when the road went down, the tram sort of "fell" due to gravity but then the tram driver cleverly hit the brake.
Anyway, we got off at Union Square and walked back to the consulate, which was a looong way to go, not to mention that we got lost midway and we had to pass around more than 6 blocks that went up and down.

Oh. My. God.
That was exciting. I mean, the roads of San Francisco are really steep! Even I wonder why those cars could stop at a traffic light on a steep road.

It's like climbing a mountain, only better.

Well, I got to see what my dream university are like from up close, which is Academy of Art University. What a very valuable experience, because I actually used to look up to its campus just through the website or its catalogue book.
This is an EPIC feeling. See? I got to take the picture of its logo, and I already felt ecstatic!!
Hopefully I would be able to transfer to this university two more years.

Shortly after that, Elda and I obtained our visas back, had a nice chat with the lady we met earlier and showed us the direction to Fisherman's Wharf and turned out she was an alumni from my high school! But she graduated like long ago already. keke...

We caught a 5.00 pm train and headed back to Sunnyvale.
Short trip but very memorable. I was even thinking to explore more of San Francisco especially Union Square, because basically what we did there was just a transit then we walked back to the consulate without even bothering to see what was there. As far as I could see, there were so many branded shops there, including Victoria Secret.

An hour later we arrived at Sunnyvale and it was already time for (early) dinner. We stopped at an Indonesian and Thai resto called Bayleaf near the train station and I had myself a bowl of Lontong Cap Go Meh.
Felt like home all of sudden, but not really though, since I haven't tasted this food in Indonesia before. :p

All in all, it was a great one day trip but I wasn't satisfied since I haven't got to see the landmark of the city itself which is the Golden Gate, and I even haven't got to taste the famous Clam Chowder of the Fisherman's Wharf.