Going home

Six years have passed and I reached the finish line. The finish line is temporary, as a whole new start is about to begin. I first arrived in San Francisco on August 2010, with a six luggages and both of my parents eager to take me to the orientation day. Coming straight from a country nestled close to the equator, United States seemed very big and cold, with all the spacious roads, the unfriendly, bone-prickling breeze, restaurants and stores standing on its own building instead of cramped next to each other. I wore a ton layers of coat. Now it’s November 2016, I walked out in the Bay Area wrapped in a cardigan and I felt fine.

Many asked me why I decided to go back. First off, the visa issue seemed quite obvious and inarguable. The work visa system barred me from staying longer in the States. As much as I wanted to stay in US where opportunity, wage, and lifestyle couldn’t have been better, I couldn’t stay if it weren’t for work. That ruled out the possibility of going back to school. Also, I had personal matters at home too.

Band saw and Laid

Hey guys,

Guess what, it's a long weekend! I won't have class on Monday, which is good. What makes it even better, the homework load is not as crazy as I thought. But I know I will regret for saying this in the latter.

This term, I'm taking the last required class for integrated studies, and that is Materials of Art and Design. Honestly, I'm not really fond in building and making things. Cutting, sawing, and carving are just not my thing, which explains why I never had any pottery class. However, the first two projects seemed to be a fun thing to do! The first project involves carving a name out of a 0.5 inch MDF wood using the band saw. Frankly though, I hate the earsplitting sound of the blade cutting through the material. That machine doesn't seem so friendly.

But I'm pretty fond of how it turns out!

Oh nanny...

Good news is, I finished my type homework that's still due in a week!!
Bad news is, I will use band saw tomorrow or on Friday. Yes, band SAW :s

I'd like to dedicate this post to one special lady that has contributed a lot to most of my childhood to early teen life. Why? Because she just randomly popped out of nowhere in my nap's dream today, and that was the umpteenth time she appeared in any of my dream. Umpteenth. Yes.

Horas North Sumatra (pt 2)

The next day after our arrival in North Sumatra would be energy spending, as we were all going on a full-day trip around Brastagi. I actually underestimated this town in the first place, but the visit proved me wrong. There was a lot to take a look in Brastagi. Anyway, our journey started with an early breakfast at the hotel, as usual. I had a plate of omelet and fried rice to kick off my day. My dad apparently already took off earlier in the morning for a stroll. The clear, unpolluted sky in the morning allowed him to take a snapshot of a nearby mountain which the hotel overlooked.

Once the breakfast was done, we set off on our first destination of the day. I was made curious with brief mentions from others that we were going to see some sort of a “golden temple”. A place like that in this pretty isolated hillside place almost sounds impossible. However, when the van started to enter a smaller road with rough surface, a glimpse of blinding gold color reflected by a tall object in the far distance caught my eye.

Horas North Sumatra! (pt 1)

Finally, North Sumatra trip post is up! At least only the first part of it. Last winter break, as you might have known, I went back to Indonesia to take care of some things. One of the events that took place during my almost-a-month holiday includes a trip to North Sumatra. I have to say I really anticipated for it, considering that I've never stepped a foot onto one of the most renowned major islands in Indonesia, Sumatra. Such a shame I've never been there.

On December 27, 2012, two days after Christmas (6 days after "the apocalypse"), I woke up early in the morning, around 6 am. I couldn't believe our flight was actually at 9 am and at that moment, I doubted if we'd make it on time for the flight. However, since it was going to be a domestic flight, so I assumed the check-in process and everything would take shorter time than the international one.

My family and I hitched on a cab to the airport, where we soon met with The Gunawan family and The Tanu family. So there were around 9 people in our trip:

Summer in SG pt 2: Dancing Fountain

Day two of Singapore!

Whoa takes me a while to get this post up! Sorry for the delay. School's been holding me up. Anyway it's going to be a little bit shorter than the last one.

I forgot what date was that, but I woke up quite late in the morning. Mom and Dad had been up since morning and they went out for a moment to look for breakfast meals. It was true that the hotel didn't offer typical breakfast meal service like any other hotels would do, but that's okay!

Around 11 (sooo late, I know right???), I got up for real and munched on Nasi Lemak my dad bought for me. My mom and dad had apparently taken a long walk to Chinatown just to get their meals and mine - very much appreciated for their effort. After brunch, I took a shower and got dressed, and we needed to decide where to go today. I heard many people were recommending Vivo City as another shopping destination. My mom and dad also agreed about going there, so it was settled then.

We took a bus ride to Orchard Road to have lunch at Lucky Plaza (second meal of the day, only an hour away from the previous one). I helped myself with a plate of chicken rice. Chicken rice is also another authentic delicacy Singapore has to offer! Shortly after, we shopped a little and decided to take a bus to Vivo City for shorter trip instead of MRT. It was raining outside so the roads were a bit slippery. Too bad we didn't bring umbrellas cos we didn't see it coming.

Vivo City is, well, huge...much bigger than any other shopping centers in Singapore. Unlike other shopping center who were connected or located next to each other in Singapore, Vivo City is an independent mall, a shopping town likely Grand Indonesia in Jakarta, only Vivo City is located at the seaside facing Sentosa Island rather than at the downtown. We strolled for a while and went to the boardwalk to take pictures.

The boardwalk itself resembles a vast veranda overlooking the sea filled with a shallow pool where everyone could practically splash into. Some fine restaurants could be found at its sides.



The boardwalk apparently didn't just overlook Sentosa Island, but also before my eyes was one of the theme parks I'd been dying to go to: Universal Studios Singapore. The infamous dueling coaster tracks and the Far Far Away castle just stood there far enough for me to reach. I was thinking once of spending the rest of the afternoon there, since my friends - who had clearly gone there - implied that the theme park is small enough you can even explore it within 2 hours. But that'd be just waste of money, so I had to skip US Singapore this time.



Dad got instantly captivated with National Geographic Store. It was actually my first time seeing it as I've never seen any of them before, not even in the US.



Dad was particularly mesmerized by a simple, blue sling back with the National Geographic logo, but he hadn't got it till later in the afternoon.

Wine festival! Dayum!!!

After nearly 3 hours strolling in Vivo City, we barely shopped anything. Mom was apparently hunting for a Bossini Store but since there was hardly any at Vivo City, I suggested we should move our shopping destination to yet another famous spot in Singapore, City Hall. I didn't know whether it should be better called City Hall cos that's not the actual name of the collection of shopping centers. I just happened to label it that way since we needed to take MRT to City Hall station, which is directly connected to the bunch of shopping centers I mentioned.

I looked up for the nearest Bossini store on my phone's internet. I believe the area should at least have one. Bossini's quite popular in Singapore and it's impossible not to find it in one of the most popular shopping spots after Orchard.

After nearly half an hour walking through the city underpass complete with rows of restaurants and clothing stores, we reached Suntec City and found a Bossini store there. At once I thought mom was getting herself something but apparently all she wanted to buy was just a pair of jeans...for me (mom, I got jeans overstock both at my home in Jakarta and even the one in Cupertino, but I really appreciate you for still buying another pair for me :')

Well, we took a while to decide where to go next cos the day was still young (it was around 5). We actually have been thinking to do a bit different activity other than eating and shopping. We needed a little bit sightseeing! Mom offered me to go on a duck tour in Marina Bay, dad mentioned a river cruise would be operating up till evening near the hotel. I quickly found out that duck tour was hella pricey! So scratch that one. River cruise sounds quite boring. The price was slightly cheaper than the duck tour though, but still I couldn't stand its expensiveness.

However, I came up with the idea of seeing "Songs of the Sea", a famous water show in Sentosa, all of a sudden. I browsed for the tickets and found out they were actually much cheaper and looked even much more promising than the duck tour and the river cruise. Too bad mom wasn't a fan of seeing "dancing water", as she mentioned.

So from Suntec City, we took a taxi straight back to Vivo City and mom would take an MRT back to the hotel from there. While my dad and I were rushing to the top floor of the mall (Sentosa station) to purchase the earliest show we could catch. Apparently the earliest one (7.00 pm-ish) was fully booked and the next one would be at 8.40 pm. The show wouldn't take much time, and in fact, only 25 minutes. So there was no need to worry not to get a transportation back home (Dude, this is not Cupertino!).

Anyway, we got the ticket. We still got an hour to go before we should depart to Sentosa by monorail. My dad and I grabbed some light meals in Burger King. Remember the simple blue National Geographic bag I talked about earlier? My dad still 'craved' for it but he kept concealing his desire to buy it. The bag had a brand though it might be incomparable to those of Gucci or Louis Vuitton. But the price wasn't so bad earlier! So I had like minutes to encourage my dad to buy it, otherwise he wouldn't stop talking about it.

There...he has it. :)

Around 8.00 pm, we took off to Sentosa island by monorail. The ticket for the show apparently came with the monorail ticket, which makes everything even much cheaper than it looks like! When passing Waterfront Station at the entrance of Sentosa, a pack of people jumbled in carrying Universal Studios Singapore goods. I wanted to go there even worse -_-

We reached the last station (Beach Station) and got to the "Songs of the Sea" venue on time. I panicked a bit since I found ourselves lining up along with what-was-supposed-t0-be a group of Thai tourists. The tour leader passed me by shouting out some random Thai words as if she was organizing everyone to enter the venue in order. Anyway, we parted with them soon and found ourselves some good seats!

The show was spectacular! I was deeply amazed by the use of many effects, involving the pyrotechnic skills, lasers, lighting, and what mesmerized me the most was no other than the water effect. The fire at first half of the show came out nicely along the drum beats. The lights beamed out to million directions accompanied by subtle music. It definitely presents those effect combined with the music. The water formed fountain and darted animations and pictures as if the water itself was a media synonymously a screen. Anyway it was a really amusing show! I could tell my dad was completely blown away! $10 wasn't left wasted for nothing! (yeah you know the reason why I reveal its price now, cos it's considerably cheap)





Before leaving, I took some pictures with the show's mascot, Oscar.

Right after the show, the venue was closed immediately but Sentosa was still crowded as ever! It seemed people hardly wanted to leave the island back to Singapore to call it the night. However, my dad and I decided to take a monorail back to Vivo City. We didn't have heavy meals for dinner so we were thinking of grabbing some in Vivo City's food court at 10pm.


Martabak for Dad


Yong Tau Fu pour moi!

The feeling of devouring the delicacies after a long, exhausting day ended with a good sight and blown away with a show could hardly be defined by words. One thing for sure, it was a good feeling.

After heavy dinner, my dad and I headed to the MRT station located below Vivo City. We caught a train back to Clarke Quay, the nearest MRT station from the hotel. The night was considerably young we even thought of taking a stroll along the river to enjoy Saturday night sight at Singapore!

I have been to Clarke Quay before. It was packed with particularly foreign tourists as you could see fine dinners with beyond-the-budget restaurants spreading all over the place. The famous dining site itself was located across the river, meanwhile my dad and I could only hear the noise of the music blared out of the restaurants from across.

On the way, we also sat by the river for a while looking up at someone being slingshot. Their scream was epic! I could imagine the feeling of nausea and extreme joyfulness overwhelming whoever sat on that very seat being bounced up to the air.

I wondered how much it would cost to try that challenge, but not so long, someone from somewhere close to where I was sitting yelled. "Thank you $40!!!" Thanks dude, now we all know how much it costs. Even if you wanted to pay me with a hundred bucks I wouldn't ever dare to give it a try :)

My dad and I continued our long walk at the seaside until we reached our hotel. We quickly slumped at the bed and that's when we knew how much energy we spent. Our feet had definitely ached so bad I wanted to plug them off and put them on my lap.

In short, we were completely worn out for that day :)

Summer in SG pt 1: Delicacies!

Finally another post!
Yeah I just got back to Cupertino two days ago. So friggin jetlag, even till now. I only slept for 5 hours last night. Anyway, I'm here back to my slowly-awakening story telling mode, after a long time of being laconic. Well, let's just get started.

After spending nearly one and half month in Jakarta, I finally got to spend my last weekend in Asia not in Indonesia, but I picked a destination slightly further from the capital and out of the country border. Yup, Singapore is the one!! I haven't been there for years so it's really a thrill to finally pay our neighboring country a visit, especially I feel like Singapore is my third home (with Cupertino being the first and, Jakarta the second).

Spending one and a half month in Jakarta when you're on holiday - by any means, not doing anything in weekdays when your friends attend classes in their unis - can be hella boring. So going to Singapore is pretty much like giving me fresh air after being stuck in the messy capital city for a quite long time.

My parents and I booked the ticket exactly a week before departure. We first thought of going there on Lebaran week, but considering that there would be an explosion of people going out of town for vacation, chances to get tickets would lessen as well. So a week after Lebaran would be great cos tickets would be easier to find.

Anyway, my dad and I departed on Friday, September 16, 2011 on 9:30 am by Sriwijaya Air. Mom would catch up in the evening since she couldn't miss a day of work. There's actually a quite surprising moment on the plane. In an hour-long flight, I reckoned there wouldn't be any meals served, but apparently, there was. And even better, it's a HEAVY meal.

A slice of cake, some grapes, and the entree, traditional fried rice with sunnyside egg and spicy fried potatoes.

Sriwijaya Air I think I'm in love with you.
Nuff said.

We arrived at Changi at around 12-ish and decided to take a ride to the hotel by MRT. Oh how I miss this transportation. But since all MRT stops were nowhere really close to the hotel, we needed to stop at the closest stop (that's even quite far from the hotel) and take a taxi to the hotel. We picked Bugis to be our stop and hailed a taxi from there to the hotel.

Our hotel was located at the riverside, near Clarke Quay to be exact. Clarke Quay is a tourist attraction with many unique-themed restaurants. But if you want to dine there, you need to consider your budget cos the place is constantly dominated by foreign tourists, which means....

Anyway, I checked in with my dad at around 1.30 pm. The room was nice and all, but I was panicking over my phone which apparently didn't work in Singapore. But that wasn't just the problem. I had an appointment with my friends in an hour and I needed to get in contact with them. My phone received no signal. So I decided to swap with my dad's temporarily.

At around 2.30 pm, I went straight to Orchard Road to meet up with Eileena and Bella at Lucky Plaza, while my dad was still figuring out how to get my phone works. I give him credit for that...

Gong Cha bubble tea somewhere in Orchard Road.
Soooo darn delicious!

Then we went to Cineleisure and found a purikura booth. We decided to give it a try.
The result wasn't so bad. I kinda like how it turns out cos it automatically gives the effect of brighter skin and bolder, larger eyes, like the ones you see on cute Japanese girls (after all Purikura comes from Japan). Well, in short, it's cute! And we even got the chance to decorate each pics. The two below are randomly chosen.

From Cineleisure, we strolled down to another mall connected to Cineleisure. I don't know the name. Seriously, after landing in Singapore and getting to look around, I think the label "the city with most malls" should go to Singapore instead of Jakarta. I mean, Orchard Road is literally a road with rows of malls lining on its sides!

Oh and yes we spotted Mr Jung Yong Hwa aka the famous singer of CN Blue.
Looking good as always. I forgot what ad this is.

It was approaching 5.00 pm and we thought of having afternoon snacks. So we stopped by at a nearly crowded food court, found ourselves some seats and tried on this carrot cake. Nom nom.

The meeting ended up short cos Bella had a dinner plan with her family, and I had an appointment with my cousin coming up on 7. So I needed to rush to Bugis Junction to meet up with her. Beforehand, Eileena and I took Bella to her hotel where her family had already waited for her at the lobby. Then I was off to see my dad in front of 313 mall who was ready to take me to Bugis Junction by MRT.

And...I finally got to meet Monika, my cousin, at Bugis Junction, while my dad was leaving to pick up my mom somewhere (since she would be arriving in Singapore around late afternoon) Monika and I haven't met for nearly 8 months and she's currently studying dance in a prestigious art academy in Singapore. Look she's getting taller!
It's really sweet to finally meet her after 8 months. We're really close so you can imagine what it's like to finally reunite after a long time. Such an overwhelming feeling. Talking about sisterhood. Yeah I love her SOOOO much.

We basically just sat at the foodcourt while having dinner. I finally fulfilled one of my wishes that I hoped I could do in Singapore, which is to have a bite of its special fishball noodle soup!

Woops. Spotted: a receipt at the right hand corner of the pic :p

We spent the rest of the night just hanging out in Bugis Junction and Bugis Street, a row of shops located just Bugis Junction (The Junction's more like a mall, while the Street takes form of a marketplace selling items in lower price). I went crazy over the relatively cheap and clothes with good styles! It was unbelievable to see Monika - who lives nearby - did the same thing too. I ended up buying a nice $7 striped top and Monika got herself a different top with the same price and a wallet...WITH THE SAME PRICE!

I'm loving Singapore even more, especially I haven't explored Bugis Street before. So this place's kinda new to me.

The night was young but the half of the stores was already closed by the time we reached the Junction, leaving some restaurants opened till - maybe - midnight. I didn't know they close early at Singapore, unlike some places, which stay open till dawn especially on the weekend. I took a taxi back to the hotel, bidding Monika goodbye. We need to wait for another year to meet since we couldn't possibly meet the other day (she was so occupied with the whole Dance symposium she was participating that weekend, she even - I guess - sneaked out to see me. Love her even more).

Once I got back to the hotel, I was sooooo surprised to see my hotel room empty. My parents weren't there. Apparently my mom's flight happened to be delayed and I had to wait for them till around 11. When they reached my hotel room, my mom decided to get some rest while...my appetite suddenly kicked in. *horror music on*
My dad - who was also hungry all of a sudden - decided that we should look for something to eat that late evening. AMEN, it's not just me!!!!

We strolled around the famous riverside that we could access through the hotel's restaurant's door to see if there were some restaurants open. Across the river was a sophisticated looking German cafe - Bacchus - that provides beer and liquors with subtle, somehow exclusive vibe. I could see some young adults were sipping on their beer taken from a giant pitcher, and some couples had a warm talk with their wines before them on the table.

At first I was tempted to dine in since they had this bunch selection of fine, imported white wines, but since it lacks of family-friendly atmosphere, we decided to skip it.

Some part of the German cafe I talked about

Since no more restaurants were spotted around, we decided to go back to the hotel and had our midnight snack at the hotel's restaurant. I had cream soup for the appetizer then, my dad and I shared a super giant spaghetti! I mean, the size was totally ridiculous it even exceeded the space in the plate. I remembered mentioning the word "shared" to the maître d’ in hopes the spaghetti would come in a standard one portion. But apparently the maître d’ mistook the word "shared" and possibly interpreted it as in "two portions of spaghetti in a plate". Gee. No wonder.

Forgive my expressionless face.
I didn't know my dad was taking a picture of moi while waiting for our order.

Then I wrapped the night by watching The Haunting in my hotel's room. Can't wait for the other day to come! Another adventure in Singapore awaited!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Total Food consumed that day:
- Sriwijaya Air meal
- Macaroon
- Gong Cha Bubble Tea
- Carrot Cake
- Fishball noodle soup
- Cream soup
- Spaghetti

Wow, Singapore, seriously, do you put some sort of enchantment on your visitors to become big eaters?

-To be continued-

Jakarta Pt 3: Eid Mubarak!

Before beginning the post, I just want to say...


I really hope I can replace that cake vector with a ketupat one.
But yay, last night, I worked my butt off on designing this cake in Illustrator following this tutorial on Youtube. This artwork marks my very first vector made in Illustrator! (Yeah, I'm more a Photoshop person).

Anyway yesterday is surely one of the most blessed day for all Moslems in the world. Eid Mubarak finally concluded Ramadhan month this year.
Our Eid tradition hasn't changed for years! After Eid prayer, my parents and I took off to my grandma's house for what was supposed to be family gathering.

However, turned out that only my family present in the simple event. My extended family members had reportedly paid a visit yesterday, since they celebrated Eid yesterday. Actually, I'm pretty disappointed with this year's government's act in deciding Eid Mubarak day cos it supposedly fell on August 30, 2011, but for some lunar factor, it was slated to the day after.

Apparently it ended up causing a major confusion in Indonesian society. As a result to this, some people celebrated Eid still on August 30 and some - like most people and my family - followed government's regulation which is the day after.

So you see how the whole slating-Eid issue kinda lessened the participants of the social gathering event in my supposedly-big family.
Despite lacking of guests for this year's social gathering event, it didn't reduce my Eid spirit!

Sad news regarding the Ketupat: they only lasted two days before decaying. Good thing my family still had lontong as an alternative to be served to the guests cos this food actually lasted longer.

Nothing beat the lusciousness of authentic Eid food served by my aunt and grandma!

Spotted! A tissue box camouflaging as a blackforest cake! Darn, this thing is undeniably distracting! My cousin and I nearly thought of it as a real cake. She even told me how this thing was soooo tempting to look at during fasting days.

This artwork is made by my aunt. See how her talent is dangerously mesmerizing!

It was a small celebration compared to one of those social gatherings you might even step your foot in. But I love the warm atmosphere and how I surprisingly spent nearly hours chit chatting with my grandma, cousin, and aunt.

That same evening, my family returned home to welcome my friend's parents who came over to have a bite of our still-edible ketupat (apparently it wasn't on its decaying phase just yet). Just today, we had some more guests coming in!

Guess this year's Eid wasn't so disappointing at all.

I am HOME.

Heylow!
I AM IN INDONESIA!

Yes, I'm finally able to post from my home country. I skipped posting last time I went back here.
Ah, the joy of homecoming. Never knew it would be this overwhelming.

So you ask, when did I arrive here? I arrived here exactly a week ago, on August 7, 2011. That date also marks the anniversary of my departure to US. Wow, time does fly so fast, doesn't it?

Okay, story time. I promise I'm going to make it short, or at least...shorter than any other of my stories.

Days prior to my departure back to Indonesia had been sleepless times. Thing is, I barely had time to pack due to finals, and finals themselves took place right two days before my departure. So you can imagine days before finals, I put on my all-nighter instead of packing.

Packing itself was quite hectic. I technically only had a day to pack and I basically just threw unused clothes and whatever I thought would be useful to use in Indonesia into my 100x90 meters suitcase.

This might explain why I didn't get to take pictures during packing.

In the evening of August 5, 2011, I did final checking on my stuff right after going to Valley Fair to buy some additional souvenirs with Tony and Aymee (not to mention, having late lunch at Cheesecake Factory). While Elda and I were doing final checking, Tony, Aymee, Nancy, and Ray came over to bid me and Elda farewell, since they wouldn't be able to take me to SFO. Instead, Kathleen and William were going to take both Elda and me to SFO. I thanked Tony, Nancy, Aymee, and Ray for loading Elda's and my heavy loads to Kathleen's petite car.

Our flight was at 1.40 am on August 6, 2011 and we departed from the apartment at around 10pm. Since the traffic to the airport wouldn't be stagnant, we dropped by airport's nearby In-N-Out Burger to have ourselves midnight snacks. We bumped into another party: Amira (who was going home as well) along with Joshine and Kezia.

I was a bit worried that we would be late for our flight, but my friends assured me that In-n-Out wasn't so far from SFO. Instead, "It only takes 5 minutes to get there," said William.

At the airport, Kathleen accompanied me and Elda to check in and afterwards, we stumbled upon another Indonesian party and took a picture together (which sadly I don't have). Then Elda and I took off together to the gate.

There was a funny thing happening when I passed the custom. The custom officer checked on my photo ID on passport and looked at me at the same time for validity. Then she smiled and said. "You don't change at all." I burst laughing at her response, seeing that my passport was updated three years ago.

Then, we entered the plane from the same gate my flight was back in December 2010. On the plane, I sat between Elda and long, blonde-haired guy at the window. Things went just fine at first. Elda and I occupied ourselves with a movie (Water for Elephants) played far ahead on TV in the middle of the cabin, cos there were no TVs installed in each seat.

But it wasn't until the blonde guy next to me, poked me and had a conversation with me. At first, I was okay and kept responding to him as form of manner, yet I was annoyed with the fact that I was obviously seen wearing earphones and concentrating myself on the movie when he started the conversation (Dude, I need some privacy)

Then he started to drone on and on and jumped from one topic to another. He even started talking about nonsense in an exuberant way (like humanity, philosophical stuff, even monkeys, chemistry, you know...stuff people surely don't want to hear for light conversation). I felt like I was in some sort of a class, listening to a boring lecture. I gripped onto Elda's hand as a sign for her to distract me, which she did. Elda saved me by quickly talking to me about a scene she was watching at that moment, abruptly stopping the guy from continuing his gibberish talk to me.

Anyway, in Taipei for transit, I had myself a bowl of hot beef noodle for breakfast (It was 7 am and I still had an hour before boarding).
Once we got into the gate, we took some pictures using my laptop...just to kill time.

The flight was relatively shorter than the one from San Francisco to Taipei (although it was delayed for half an hour). Good thing the seats in the flight to Jakarta were equipped with personal entertainment unlike on the plane to Taipei. On board, I decided to see Thor and Kungfu Panda 2, this time, nobody interrupted my movie time.

At around 2.30-ish pm, Elda and I walked out to the arrival hall and greeted our parents.


Excuse my face. But you can see it's a mixture of excitement and exhaustion.

My dad excused himself for driving in the wrong side of the road, which I responded it truly as a joke. I needed to get my sight adjusted to Jakarta scenery after 8 months. Okay, call 8 months a freaking short time. But really, the toxic polluted stench, motorcycles stealing lanes, traffic jams, such things don't even exist in the States! I wonder what would happen to me if I stayed longer in the States, say like a year before coming back now, I would have most likely got a mini heart attack seeing all of these Jakarta mess.

Anywaaaay....I forgot one little tiny detail. It was fasting month, and when my dad asked me what was the first thing I wanted to do that day, I instinctively said: EAT.
For your info, it was freaking 3 pm, three hours before it's time to break the fast. Temptation lures. But my dad just said, "Okay, I'll take you home first cos we've prepared something for you."

And this is what he's talking about:

TA-DAAA. Presenting you, the holy traditional rawon soup!
This is officially the first meal I munched in Indonesia.
Nothing beats the lusciousness of homemade food, served yours truly on the plate and bowl I had longed to use, freshly cooked out of the pot. Really. I cooked stuff like this in States and it didn't even taste the same, plus I'm a horrible cook.

My dad and mom - who were fasting - just sat across the table and saw me munch on this delicacy.

I super duper missed this orange juice. Period. Nothing better to describe my love to this brand of OJ.

I took a short tour around the house just to make sure I didn't forget the layout of the house. There were some minor changes. Some furniture got moved, removed, added, and so on. And on to the most awaited moment.

Voila! C'est ma chambre!

At last! I miss it so much! Everything's still the same for my room, except my bookshelf has been moved downstairs to provide more space.

I didn't spend much time at home and we departed shortly to Pondok Indah Mall to take a stroll with my family, also as an attempt to reduce my jetlag (by keeping me awake).
Anyway, I took some nice shots using my dad's SLR camera. Oh oh, I felt so pro!

PIM has had a lot of changes! They have this new huge restaurant/food court section in the back of the mall.

Even I was so surprised they have Yoshinoya here! And it's pretty packed of people. Guess I need to give it a try though I live pretty close to one back in States.

We were at first trying to look for a place to break my parents' fast. But considering it was Sunday, all the restaurants and seats were fully booked that we decided to go home.

Well, so that basically wraps my August 7, 2011, the day of my arrival in Jakarta. So far, I had been busy for the whole first week in Indonesia, with friends asking me to go out, doctor's appointment, etc. I barely have a day to stay at home all day long. However, today, I decided to take a break for a day. It's good to stay at home after going out so often.

I might not continue relaxing for the rest of my summer in Indonesia. I might work part-time at my cousin's design firm or do something else that is worthy but not energy-wasting (It's summer! Time to relax your tense muscles before getting back to those thick textbooks!)

I remember that I once said I wasn't really excited about going home, particularly because some of my friends I like to hang out with, will study abroad this year. But when I stepped my foot to the messy Jakarta, I never knew I would miss this atmosphere. No matter how miserable the city is compared to Cupertino.

Have a great summer! I'll keep you guys posted! :)