Lift-off

Hey hey, it's been a while since I posted an entry. My blogging muse has recently ceased but I'm working on reigniting it again. Things in internship have been going really well. I've been catching up with deadlines and other than that, I've been having tons and tons of fun, especially after the Epcot visit.

I'm so privileged to be living in what the people here call Space Coast, which refers to the areas around the infamous NASA's Kennedy Space Center. One of the events that buzz around here is of course, the rocket launch.

Back to the Giant Golfball - EPCOT (Part 2)

GERMANY 

Ich bin da! There was apparently no ride or attractions in Germany. We just went into the shop and Vivia tried a sample of ham, cheese, and bratwurst for a small, snack-like portion, for only $5.00. The meal wash't a part of the festival though, but still, $5.00 for an authentic German dish was worth it. 

Back to the Giant Golfball - EPCOT (Part 1)

Hey there, it's been a while since I posted the last time. I've been pretty busy these days, with me moving to Melbourne (the one in Florida, not in Australia) for internship for 4 months. Settling down is never easy but I got it over with soon. I'll talk further about Melbourne in my next posts but now, let's get on to something more exciting! 

It's been approximately two years since I transferred to Art Center. A year before, I was still in De Anza, and one of the most magnificent vacations I've ever had in my entire period in US happened as I went to Orlando and New York in one winter occasion. Living in Melbourne gives me a chance to revisit Walt Disney World, whom I got to spend quite some time there three years ago with Elda, Aymee, and Ardy, since Melbourne is only an hour away from the so-called theme park capital of US. 

This very weekend, I had a blast revisiting one of Walt Disney World parks, and that was EPCOT. Vivia, my current roommate and colleague, and I had been planning to go to EPCOT since last week, but the weather had always been in the way. It had been raining for the past couple of weeks here in Florida and being drenched in the outdoors is the last thing we would ever want to be. However, we finally got to go this week. 

Ole Ole Ole: Part 3

Cont -  After the crowd started to disperse, it was time for us to have lunch. We were going to have lunch in Tatsu Ramen, just a few miles away from UCLA. Mirandy, Evan, and I carpooled with Bella. Right after the lunch there and sat down for a boba, we dropped by at a nearby Daiso since Evan wanted to get his own personal sketchbook to get signatures. All the sketchbooks in Daiso happened to have these cute illustration of animals at their covers. He doubted he would get one of those. "You could hold the sketchbook by the cover and scream with the manliest voice 'DIEGO! POR FAVOR!' " We all instantly cracked up. Just imagining how it would be was already hilarious. Talk about the irony. If Evan did that, he might as well attract the soccer players into giving him a signature more than all other fans, thanks to the cute giraffe illustration at the cover.

Later on, after we were done eating, we were heading back to UCLA. Bella needed to go to the class at 3, while Evan, Mirandy, and I agreed to go back to the spot right outside the locker room at 3.30 pm. The three of us told Bella that we all turned off our phones so in case she was done with her class (or office hour, as she said), she would just have to find us in the same spot this afternoon.

Ole Ole Ole: Part 2

Real Madrid is in LA, too?

I knew that Real Madrid added the list as a number of UEFA clubs that were coming to US (alongside MU) for a tour. In a status I made about my disappointment for not attending LA Galaxy vs MU, a friend commented that Real Madrid was coming to San Diego to practice.

It turned out that they, after all, would be coming to UCLA instead. I was "meh" at first. Real Madrid was always my favorite team but I was skeptical by the idea of spotting it. My UCLA student friend, Bella, told me that Real Madrid would indeed be practicing for five days in UCLA. It was a private practice though, but they would have a photo/autograph session when they were on their way to the stadium from their locker, and vice versa.

Ole Ole Ole: Part 1

You probably have heard of me fangirl over Kpop artists before. After years of being apart from the fandom ever since I transferred to LA, I re-embraced it again just a couple of months ago when again, I got another free ticket to a Kpop concert. However, I'm not gonna talk about that now. It's a whole different thing.

I have always loved soccer since I was little. I'm one of a few girls that got overly ecstatic when World Cup came up. The first World Cup that I tuned in was the 2002 one. It instantly got me hooked to soccer. Weirdly though, my interest in soccer is, you can say, seasonal. It occurred whenever big events such as World Cup or Euro came on. I occasionally see matches between games: Bundesliga, La Liga, or English league. But as time goes by, I never kept up anymore. That was when Kpop swept my life before it slowly ceased the past few years.

Rainy Season

One of my friends conducted an interview for someone with international background. Being an international student that still proudly bears Indonesian heritage miles away from home, I was happy to answer her questions and shares about practices and customs from Indonesia unfamiliar to Americans. One of the questions involve sharing an unusual experience that happened in the hometown. Take a look

Tell me about something funny/hard/exciting/frightening/good/bad/etc. that happened to you in your home country.

Before I begin with my experience, let me give you a proper introduction about the difference between Californian rain and Indonesian rain. A friend rushed into the classroom one day (in Art Center, of course). "It's raining outside." she was controlling her breath with a panic expression on her face. A year ago, I barely experienced rain in LA.

Early wake up call

Having moved to an apartment in the third floor never left me from worries on earthquake (This apartment where I live right now is the highest point I've ever lived in).

Today, my curiosity was answered. Today is one of the days when Mother Nature decided to be a mass wake up call for those who were still nestled in bed. It was 6.30 am, and it was still dark outside, when I thought my neighbor's children living right above me were up and stomping right above my ceiling (as usual), but they were unusually more hyper than ever. However, it didn't occur to me that what I heard was stomping. It was more of the ceiling rattling rather than stomping, like it was about to fall apart. The rattle was rather strong and right afterwards, I felt the bed was shaken slightly from side to side. At first, I didn't quickly jump out of my bed and run out. My superstitious instinct just had to kick in. However, the shake was getting more obvious and then stopped shortly. I quickly checked Twitter on my phone, which I put near the bed's foot, and just as I thought, it was an earthquake (besides, what sort of superpower could toddlers living right above my unit have to make my apartment shake?).

I quickly ran out of my room and checked the small chandelier above the dining table. It looked like it just stopped from moving and left slight hints of motion. Since the earthquake had stopped, I didn't feel the need to descend down to the ground level to seek for safety (just as I - as well as people whose hometowns are located right above the Pacific Ring of Fire - were taught to do). My roommate was still asleep in her room so I assumed she might not be aware of the early Mother Nature's wake up call.

It marked my first time feeling an earthquake in US. Last time I felt it was back in Jakarta, about five years ago.

Anyway, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Too bad no beer for me today since I'm having midterms (kind of) tomorrow.

Winter Break - New York: Part 4

Hey guys, sorry for abandoning this blog for over two weeks. I've been doing pretty well here. I just went through a midterm frenzy week. Plus, I've been trying to work on my portfolio website and this Korean drama called My Love from Another Star came along and became a major distraction. Anyway, I'm back on the track with more stories from my previous winter break which I'm still determined to finish it up hopefully by March.

Well, let's continue where we left off. Christmas was here! It was a pretty unproductive day for someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. Elda woke up early in the morning to attend the Christmas service in the Cathedral we visited earlier. That would leave me more time to sleep and again, wake up nearly in the afternoon. Yeah I know that it's not strongly recommended for tourists to wake up late during the vacation. That was such a waste of time. However, we didn't really have many places to go to. After all, the sole reason we came to New York was to enjoy its vibe on Christmas.

Another subconscious adventure

Warning for unsettling subject matter
The sleep paralysis that once haunted me, came to me again this morning. In case you have no idea what sleep paralysis is, it's a sleep apnea where you're in your subconscious, but you're aware of your surrounding but you can barely move - thus, the feeling of being paralyzed. Except this time, it's slightly different. It's more annoying than creepy. I shared this to my friend, to which surprisingly she replied that she would be excited to have this type of apnea. Really, sleep paralysis is no fun. It's freaking annoying because it kind of absorbs the energy that you're supposed to preserve while you're sleeping. It's very unsettling because you have to struggle to wake up.
Actually, before this episode that happened today, I already woke up at like 8 am. After spending about two hours browsing, I felt sleepy again and fell asleep at 10. I set my alarm at 11 am (an hour later). This was where the weird episode occurred.

The 3D Diary

Hey guys, I just wanted to give you some heads up about some new technique and stuff that I got to learn from 3D Motion Graphics class. I got my hands on some features that allows me to create organic forms. It was pretty challenging but it was fun at the same time.

The assignment using these features would be to make a fictitious vehicle. I couldn't help but to make a futuristic spaceship (after getting through arguments with myself whether or not I should create a cool steampunk spaceship, but that would be too much work). I didn't sketch the vehicle. It just came out from my head, also with some time of experimenting and trying out if some forms would work to be put on the vehicle. I really had no special concept on the vehicle, though I managed to make some transparent dorms that allows its fictitious passengers to look through it.

Winter Trip - New York: Part 3

Hello, I'm finally back with some stories from New York. It was Christmas Eve and we woke up quite late (again). Since we didn't really know where to eat within two blocks from our hotel (We just had Applebees the day before, and McD sounds a bit too overrated), we decided to have a little fancy dine that afternoon at Nanking.

Despite the lavish interior and vibe, they actually had a pretty good deal of meal. I had a bowl of Singaporean fried rice that cost up to $8.00 excluding tip. So it wasn't so bad at all.

Break

Hey guys, I'm currently taking a break from writing for a short period of time due to focusing on my portfolio development, which I hope would be launched soon. Also, my homework for the upcoming week has piled up so I need to also look into that.

In the mean time, feel free to explore my blog and read my past posts. I'll get back to blogging hopefully really soon.

Should ACCD have Permias?

Permias stands for Persatuan Mahasiswa Indonesia di Amerika Serikat and it is an organization that unites Indonesian students in US universities.

This might just came up as a random crazy idea at 3 am, that kind of idea that you happened to dig into after you finished a research for a project. This idea is merely triggered by those Chinese New Year event pictures hosted by Permias in some regions and schools. I joined a sub-organization of Permias in De Anza College, not as a core member though, but being a part of Permias itself would be even a greater honor.

Imagine the idea of teaming up with other members to establish an event, attending cultural nights, getting a chance to encounter the Indonesian Ambassador in the US, and attending nationwide conferences. Wouldn't that be nice?

Winter Trip - New York: Part 2

Okay, I feel like I'm going pretty slow on the winter break story, but bear with me, guys.

The next day, we woke up pretty late and had a quick brunch in Applebees at 50th and Broadway. We had no idea how expensive that restaurant could be, and it was just for brunch. Anyway, it was a good brunch though. We were all filled up and ready to start our day.

Year of the Horse

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

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La maison de mon reve

Because it actually is.

No, not really. I want a bigger one. This semester, I'm taking a 3D motion class. I know right. It's crazy for someone that used to hate motion so much because the program lagged a day before the midterm was due, wanted to take the next level of the class. 3D motion class is different though. Instead of using After Effects, I learned this cool new program that integrates the use of 3D, which is Cinema 4D. I thought learning that program would help me since I would be going on Transmedia track. I learned this before in Google Sketchup, but since I taught myself that program, I was never really good at that.

Winter Trip - New York: Part 1

I'm so glad to find out that I wouldn't have so many homework this week. I've finished up my homework for one of my Thursday classes, and another Thursday class would be a field trip, which means I pretty much don't need to turn in anything.

Well, last time, we covered two parts of Ann Arbor, but let's hold up Ann Arbor stories just for a bit because after the day we ate at the Mongolian BBQ, we were actually leaving to New York for a couple of days. Elda and I actually visited the city priorly with our own parents, but I personally never get tired to this city, especially when the city gets lit up even brighter at the end of the year due to its thick Christmas/Winter vibe.

We left in the afternoon with a taxi that took us straight to Detroit airport. We were supposed to catch a bus that would leave from Downtown Ann Arbor to Detroit Airport, but the tough weather condition made it hard to go there. The bus to Downtown Ann Arbor from Elda's apartment never came, so in order not to miss the flight, we had to go for the plan B, which is to take a taxi that would bring us straight to the airport. Yeah, the part where we had to let go a certain amount of money we had spent to book for the bus round trip was a bit painful, but at least we figured it's better than missing the flight.

Winter Trip - Ann Arbor: Part 2

OMG, so sorry for the lack of posts these days. It's just the third week of school and Thursdays, particularly, have been killing me. Imagine having 3 classes in a day, from 8 am to 10 pm, back to back. Anyway, I'm back to blogging, just to keep myself sane.

After Aymee, Ashley, and I went back from Frankenmuth, we woke up, again surprisingly, late. The day almost hit afternoon, but then we remember that we were meeting up with Elda that day. I suppose it was the day that Aymee and Elda had been waiting for, because they would finally meet up after years of not catching up with each other. The three of us had always planned to meet up during breaks, but the plan never worked out. This day proved that finally one of those plans worked out, and it was this trip that finally would bring Elda and Aymee together again.

Interconnected

So just a few weeks ago, I had a very strange dream involving my friend. I couldn't help but to tell her this. By the way, the friend I'm talking about is Aymee, who joined me and Elda in our Michigan trip. Here's an excerpt from our chatroom:

How creepy/funny/coincidental it is that we assure safety when we put each other in danger. Any dream experts could figure this out?

Forgiveness over Hatred - Philomena Review *SPOILER ALERT*

Just to take a break from writing about my winter break journey, I'm going to share my review of one of the movies I watched on the last week of the break. I got to see this movie on my own in a smaller scaled cinema, as I'm pretty sure the movie isn't considered a mainstream for people of my age (I'm convinced non of my friends are interested to see it).

If you guys aren't familiar with the movie Philomena, you should it look it up. As of now, the movie has been earning abundant accolades, particularly on Best Actress category for its leading lady, Judi Dench. Even this morning, it was announced that the movie garnered four Academy Award nominations. Anyway, it's based on a true story which was later adapted into a book by Martin Sixsmith, and later adapted into the big screen last year. The story followed an elderly woman named Philomena Lee. Having grown up without her parents, she spent her teenage years convent in Roscrea, Ireland, which literally means she was raised in a strong religious upbringing. At one point, she fell for a young man and later found herself pregnant.

Winter Trip - Frankenmuth

The day after the long walk to Boba Island, complete with our feet getting ached and soaked, Aymee planned on going to Frankenmuth. I've never heard of Frankenmuth until the day before our departure. I was unaware with what else Michigan had to offer, and that would be Frankenmuth. According to Aymee, who knew that place from Ashley who hasn't even been there either, Frankenmuth is a small German town located about 20-40 miles from Ann Arbor.

Getting there by public transportation such as buses would be possible, seeing Frankenmuth really is a small town and quite isolated too. It's not one of the big cities in Michigan, such as Detroit or Ann Arbor. Getting there would require a taxi, and that was what we were planning.

Winter Trip - Ann Arbor: Part 1

I finally made use of the last two days of the break (Gosh, I hate the countdown), writing and posting stories and pictures from my recent trip. My trip started out on December 15, 2013. Since I spent two weeks out of town, I'm just going to share some highlights instead covering each day. I was originally going to leave on the 16^th but the flight on that day was much more expensive. I assume because the closer the date was to Christmas, the more expensive the flight got. I left on Sunday night to the airport and had a chat with my school mates on Facebook before I got on to the plane.

After an overnight flight, I landed in Detroit feeling psyched, not only that I got to feel a completely different temperature and vibe from California, but also because I finally got to see snowcapped buildings and snow-covered roads, something you wouldn't be able to spot in California unless you go to Big Bear or drive a bit to the border where Lake Tahoe is. The bus Elda booked for me took off on time and I reached Ann Arbor shortly. Elda was there and we had a reunion, although we just met a couple of months before. Without further ado, Elda took me to this noodle bar – Tomukun – just a few blocks away from where my bus arrived.

Winter Breakers (a teaser to the winter trip stories)

(I make lame titles, I know)

It's been quite a 50/50 week for me as I'm currently in my last week of break. I know, I'm wiping these tears off my face. Dude, a month just went by so fast. If I could borrow Adam Sandler's remote from Click, I'd really love to so I can click rewind and go back to the moment I just finished my last finals. Well, LA feels a bit lonely these days. Some of my friends have got back to school and work since last week, some of my Art Center friends haven't even got back from their hometowns. I have some errands to run before school starts claiming me again. Good news is, I just got my car back, but I'm still currently recovering from the accident that happened to me 2 months ago, thanks to LA's hideous traffic and my clumsy driving. So I can only drive into far distances only with a company. Hopefully it's all good from now on. Why this week's been a 50/50 week for me?

Border Crossing

Warning for touchy subject matter.
I've been video editing for the past couple of hours, but the lag has been testing my patience. It's a big file, so that might explain the lag. So I'm taking a break from Adobe Premiere Pro-ing for now. I'll be getting back to it in just a second. This year, I'm determined to be a more legit writer by making more meaningful posts rather than keeping this blog as an online diary, the kind of blog in which you just post stuff you do every now and then.
I think I might have mentioned about this in a post before, about drinking, but I might approach this subject matter a little deeper.

New Year Resolution

I know it's late, but I just realized that like anyone else, I need to compose some New Year Resolutions. I can't say that these are promises, but at least these would serve me as goals and targets to accomplish this year. It'd be great if I could accomplish all of them, but at least it's the effort that counts:

I don't mean to show off or brag in this post. I just need something to keep on track with my targets, so if these resolutions somewhat strike you as bragging, I'm sorry but that's not my intention.

Flight delayed

So this post concludes my winter break trip. I'm waiting in the gate right now as the gate where I'm supposed to board the plane is still packed with the previous flight that is delayed. The previous flight that also occupied the same gate and was scheduled to leave an hour ago, was still delayed up until now. Now the gate is PACKED with passengers from my flight and from the previous flight.
It started snowing again in Michigan, and it's been snowing for 3 days in a row, ever since before the New Year. Anyway, I had a blast this break! I had the opportunity to go to Ann Arbor to visit my friend Elda, and to reunite with my old friend Aymee as well as her sister who studies in the same city.

Thank you 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

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Wishing you a great and blessed year ahead.