Attack of the "Hot Wolves"!

Haha...finally, a post about boys! Just like what I promised! Okay, so let's get this story started.

It was Monday, September 7, 2009, yet it was an ordinary Monday. Well, everybody hates Monday, right? I do hate Monday too and what makes it worse, I have a Math class at the end of that day. Math was just so frustrating and the class was in mid-afternoon, the peak of exhaustion and bad mood. But apparently, it wasn't an ordinary Monday, because the school had reduced the length of classes activity, from 45 minutes to 30 minutes, and said that we were all going to have a movie workshop at the end of the whole school activity.

As for my class, my friends all groaned and said that they all preferred to go home than attending another boring workshop (yeah, basically all workshops at school revolve around universities promotion, higher education seminars, or seminar from a foundation, etc). And when the school announced about the so-called movie workshop, we were all assuming it was going to be a workshop where we would all watch a documentary film, maybe about global warming, garbage, etc (boring stuff, you know).

It was around 12 o'clock in the afternoon, and we were still in the frustrating math class, discussing about whatsoever matrix (anyway, it was an easy lesson though ^_^ but I guess since we were all very tired, we could hardly think no more). And after the class ended, the school announced all students to go to the auditorium to attend the movie workshop. Meanwhile, my friends were still grumbling that they didn't want to attend the workshop and preferred to just go home.

I went straight to the auditorium with a friend (the one that didn't hesitate to stay in the 3rd floor during the earthquake, if you read the previous post) and used a shortcut from our classroom. The shortcut I talked about here is a corridor, but rarely passed by some students, so basically it connected from our classroom to the auditorium door. So we used that path and we were all about to enter the auditorium through the back door, but a security said that we should enter through the main entrance of the auditorium so that we could also receive some merchandise.

While going from the back door to the main one, I happened to come across this very tall guy, wearing a V-neck T-shirt, donning glasses, and a fedora hat in the corridor. He struck me more than just someone from an institution or foundation (someone came from an institution or foundation to promote their stuff normally wear something simpler, with a badge of the institution logo or something like that). But he happened to be just very stylish! Haha gotta say that.

Well, finally we arrived in the main entrance, and happened to meet with the other students (it was a crowd actually) entering the auditorium, outside the entrance, there was this woman giving away these merchandises (turned out to be a note with "Serigala Terakhir" poster on it, and a pin). At first I was confused what Serigala Terakhir was, but turned out it was not just a workshop, it was like private screening (yeah like in film festivals) and a press conference. On some sides of the aisles, the crew set up two flat screen TVs, so that the students sitting in the back didn't have to look on the screen in the distance. While at the stage, six posters featuring six guys were also set up.

And then, the host suddenly announced "The Cast of Serigala Terakhir" and these guys, including the one I met in the corridor, made a super cool entrance through the back door (which I was about to enter). The girls' reaction, well, you know. It strikes me as if they've never seen guys. And when it comes to this moment when this school was 'invaded' by these hot guys, they instantly went 'KYAAAAA.......!!!!!' with some 'oh my God, that one is sooo hott!!' or 'soo cutteee!'.

These girls even made strange gestures other than applausing, as these boys were entering the auditorium. Even a friend of mine, who clearly never expressed her inner fangirl out, suddenly just freaked out as well. That's one big thing. In fact, I must say, I was among those fangirls screaming, well, I didn't particularly scream but I just thought 'wow, they're so cool, kind of hot, but...cool. Hot and cool, get it?' >_< style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);">a female director! Wow! Way to go!) named Upi also attended.

Apparently "Serigala Terakhir" is not a movie about werewolves, just like I thought. It turned out to be a movie about gangster, like a gang of six rebellious boys, something like that. She played some casting videos for us to see. The first one, and the most breathtaking one because it featured the cutest actor among the rest, was the video of Agung playing as Bara. The casting video for each cast was divided into (I think) four sections, the original casting, the rehearsal, the scene shooting, and the real footage of the scene from the movie. The casting video of Agung featured a scene where he took his shirt off, and the quiet auditorium suddenly went....... you know.... Also, some students who were interested in motion picture and students from drama club were asked to stand up and went to the stage.

And then the workshop continued and all girls continued to go 'aww...' throughout the session. Well, during the session, I finally figured out that the guy wearing a V-neck I met earlier, was no other than Vino G Bastian himself. He's one of the most known cast members among the rest, since he's played in several box office movies in Indonesia, such as 30 Hari Mencari Cinta. I quickly told my friend. "Vino? I happened to walk pass him in the corridor before entering the hall." and my friend went like "What? How could you not realize that you just walked pass a superstar?". That's because I didn't realize it was him.

Throughout the session, Agung always fascinated me (and apparently all girls there) the most. He was innocent and cute and charming. I thought he was the youngest, despite the fact that he was tall and his costars were all in their twenties. There was a moment in the Q&A session when a student asked what grade Agung was in, and he replied (still in his innocent way)

"I'm in Grade 9."

Anndddd.......cute guy, quite tall, YOUNGER THAN ALL THE STUDENTS IN THE ROOM? He was in Grade 9! And we, Indonesians, call that kind of crush towards younger boys as "Berondong" as in "Popcorn" in English. The room grew completely noisy, with loud 'AWWWW...HE'S A BERONDONG!' or 'HE'S THREE YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME!' echoing.

Haha that was cute. Anyway, Mbak Upi also answered some questions about her difficulties, obstacles, and problems she had in the movie set, and I must say she really is a tough woman. She's a woman and she can deal with guys while working on a hardcore movie! Two thumbs up for her! At the end of the session, before we closed the entire session with a prayer, the lights suddenly went out, which surely embarrasses the school for they're having movie stars guests. But it didn't let down everybody's mood, so the seniors, followed with the juniors and freshmen, finally sang our school theme song, to lighten up everybody's mood in the room.

The electricity didn't go on, and the entire workshop (since the electricity went off) was ended. All students rushed towards the stage to ask for photographs and autographs, but the host told them to do that downstairs. Two of my friends were really excited to get the autographs and photographs, so they said rushed downstairs and waited for the cast members to descend.

Well, this was the moment all students' mode switched to paparazzis mode. They waited in the school entrance near the stairs. Well, there were two stairs near the main entrance at school and I heard some girls saying. "You wait here, I'll wait in the other stairs." exactly, like paparazzis chasing Paris Hilton. I waited and waited (it wasn't me who was waiting though, I was just waiting for my friends who were waiting for the cast members). And then one of the girls screamed "THERE THEY ARE!" (at the moment, I was thinking of making a PC game called Mamarazzi, about bunch of fangirls chasing hot celebrities).

Okay, the students quickly rushed and took pictures with them. I was neutral though and even some of my other friends asked me to take their pictures with Vino, before he was shoved into the car. My close friend was excited to take pictures with the other celebrities remaining. One named Dion and the other one Reza Pahlevi. When my friend was posing with Reza, I took the picture, and then she offered me to take picture with him too, alone.

And Reza, unexpectedly, happened to offer me as well. (a celeb offered a not-so-fan to take a picture? way to go.) He happens to be the nicest celebrity ever, and down to earth too! So if you scroll down a bit, you'll see what the picture looks like. Me and the celeb. Well, at that moment, I didn't know the actor's name I was posing with is Reza. It was weird, wasn't it? That I didn't even realize whom I posed with. Even the next day, my classmate (who excitedly told me that she got an accidental access to the Language Lab, the base of the movie crew and cast, and happened to chat with AGUNG! Man, I was so jealous. She even asked for his Facebook account, and, since she was a financial staff for the upcoming school event, she even asked for him to donate for the event)

Oh sadly, my classmate who was madly in love with Agung didn't get the merchandise, because she made it through the back entrance while entering the auditorium. So, when I put the notebook on my desk the next day, she was suddenly excited and flipped it open, only to find a movie still featuring Agung and begged me if she could have that picture ONLY.

Anyway, here is the picture :)

GO SEE THE MOVIE
SERIGALA TERAKHIR
OPENS IN THEATRE ON NOVEMBER 5, 2009

...and everything goes shaking....

I'm in mood of posting another stuff, although I'm not so sure what that is. Okay, I've been wanting to post this. It's quite unnecessary but it keeps popping in my head telling me to post this, since it's like something rare ever happened to me. It's just I haven't got the time to post it.
But you can skip this post, and I'm planning to create a more exciting post (involving boys!).

======

Alright, so what I'm about to talk here is something about the earthquake. Well, Jakarta may be quite far from the subterranean plates near the southern coast of Java. But we never expected that we would feel such a major effect caused by 7.3 Richter Scale earthquake located in the southern coast of Java. In fact, I'm sure everyone must have never experienced such a strong shake like this before.

It was Wednesday, September 2nd, and I just went home from school after dropping my aunt and cousin at PIM. Shortly after, I arrived at home at approximately 2.50 pm and directly went upstairs to slump myself at the comfy couch, and turned on the TV and stumbled upon my favorite TV show, which is SpongeBob SquarePants. I was extremely exhausted that I could barely sleep at the car, and it wasn't until I felt like there was a soft, gentle shake. At first I thought my heart must be pounding so hard, thus creating an effect to my whole body as if my nerves were also shaking.

But then, the gentle shake was getting harder and harder and even more violent. I started to feel that it was real and my heartbeat wasn't playing any tricks on this. The first thing that popped in my mind was, of course, earthquake itself. Then I looked up at the hanging lamp and much to my horror, it was already hanging so violent and spinning all around. Something flashed in my mind all at once that if that lamp could sometimes fall off, and I was nearly underneath it.

I was positive it was earthquake, and then I stood to my feet to make sure how violent it was shaking, and that was when I felt the floor underneath me was shaking violently. I quickly called my maids, who at that time, one of them was storing my clothes to my closet.

"Mbak, is it just me or there's an earthquake?" I asked her. The other one came up. Silly me. I was actually already positive that it was earthquake, but stupidly I still felt the need to confirm someone else if there really was an earthquake.

My maids absentmindedly went 'huh?'. I mean, I have no time to respond to their 'huhs?' and waited until they felt it, while it was shaking really hard. So I just snapped. "Get out of this house!" instantly. Well, you know that whenever there's an earthquake, the first thing we have to do is getting out of the building, right? So the first thing popped in my head is just getting out of this house instantly, before (I was thinking) everything in this house began to fall off or collapse.

At that critical moment, my heart was flipflopping and I was thinking "We're so doomed!" (yeah I'm pretty narrow minded, gotta say that XD). Even I was thinking to bring with me some precious things just in case...you know. But well, as the things were still shaking so hard, I climbed down the stairs with an adrenaline rush, afraid if I would lose my balance. You know, it felt as if you were on the moving staircase in Harry Potter, the staircase wasn't moving, instead it was shaking back and forth, something like that.

I quickly rushed barefooted and still in my tartan uniform to the garage. I thought when we reached the ground floor, we would feel less of the jolt, but in fact, it was still as hard as we all felt on the second floor. I had a feeling this earthquake was BAD. As in really bad. Because usually if there's an earthquake hitting Jakarta, the citizens would even hardly feel it, not until there's an announcement about it and they will go

Oh really? An earthquake hitting the capital? I hardly felt it."

But this time it was different. Since people could feel the violent jolt even if they were on the streets, inside their car, it was just bad. I noticed all neighbors in the neighborhood were on the streets as well. I even spotted the tall palm trees across my house were jolting in an unusual motion. Well, if the trees were being blown by the wind, you could see only the branches were moving, but this time, even the thin logs themselves were moving. You could tell the difference. The birdcage, the bells hung above the door, were all shaking whilst there was no wind at all. Well, if you don't know what I mean, try imagining yourself inside a plane which is currently experiencing a turbulence, but in this case, you feel that turbulence at home, on the streets, which is...even scarier than experiencing turbulence up in the sky.

I waited there until a minute passed and everything grew calm, much to my relief. I asked maids. Still paranoid. "Is it over?" They nodded and we all went back inside.

There were three hanging lamps in my house. Two were located downstairs and another one upstairs (near the living room where I was watching SpongeBob earlier). I quickly switched the channel to the news channel, wondering where the epicentre was located. With an earthquake this violent, I was thinking the epicentre would be somewhere close.

Still, I waited for a minute and there wasn't any breaking news appear, not until an announcement from BMG (Badan Meteorologi dan Geofisika) appeared on the screen, with the information that the epicentre was located 145 km South West of the town of Tasikmalaya, located in Indian Ocean (which is pretty far from where Jakarta is), 30 km deep under the sea floor, with 7.3 Richter Scale, which is yes, considered as a major earthquake. Well, I learned Geography before and studied about Earthquake, and the earthquake with the hypocenter 30 km deep is considered a dangerous earthquake and the shallower the hypocenter is, the more violent the jolt will be created.

My thoughts wandered off to my mother, whose office is located on the 28th floor of BRI building in Sudirman, very high up. I called her many times just to make sure she's OK. Meanwhile, my dad's office's building only has two storeys.

I turned on the computer and logged in to Twitter to see people's reaction about the earthquake. All of them were, of course, shocked for they'd never felt an earthquake this violent before. It was so hard that I believe it could wake someone up from sleep. My friend even told me that she was sleeping and she felt as if someone was shaking her bed. See? It implies that the earthquake wasn't like any other we'd felt before.

My friend texted me, while I was still dialing my mother in despair and there was still no answer. Apparently the telephone connection all over the city was busy due to the earthquake. Well, my friend said she was in the 3rd floor of Tendean Plaza, going shopping with her mother and that was when she felt the earthquake. Everybody just rushed out of the building all in instant to survive. I texted my friend.

"And you did go out with the others, didn't you?"

She went like. "No, I just waited inside with my mother, watching people stampeding to get outside in despair, waiting for the earthquake to last."

I went. "What? You just watched people going out while you didn't make any attempts to survive?!"

Ugh, my friend, she thought earthquake would be like an easy peazy thing to handle? I guess she needs to read the tips to survive earthquake.

Alright, back to my mother, finally after almost 20th attempt, my mom picked up, telling me she was going STRAIGHT home. Then, at home, she told me how things were going in her office. I was thinking it must be very scary to be on the 28th floor. "It was terrible!" said my mom, who admitted how painful her legs were shortly after climbing down the emergency stairs. "Everything just went shaking and even some of my friends calling God's name in despair, then they blacked out. I had no time to drag them out of the building so I just went straight to the emergency stairs and climbed down (from the 28th floor) to the lobby, where everyone was gathering outside. The receptionist desperately stayed behind her desk and went like 'Oh my God! What am I going to do now?!' That was silly, because the receptionist was located in the lobby and she could just walk outside easily."

Even more, my aunt's office was said to be in the 52nd floor!!!! But strangely, she was still able to use elevator.

I decided to stick in front of TV for the rest of the day and followed the updates of the earthquake news and felt sad to learn that some people were killed from this violent earthquake. As time went by, more dead victims increased up to 50 people. I guess from this natural disaster, we should start not to destroy the nature, for I believe that even mother nature has a feeling.

6C [++] Re-United Tarakanita 2004 (w/ Gadiz)

Lovely Friday night! I'm sooo glad I could attend this lovely occassion, meeting familiar faces. We went like 'Ah, you still look the same!' or 'I can't believe you're thin now, you used to be...um...you know.' or 'Hey your hair's grown', or 'You still got that familiar funny voice with you!' or... alright, enough with or. The point is, as 5 years have passed, everybody IS changing. No matter in what way someone changes, but mentally or physically, people must have gone through many phases from graduating elementary school to being a senior in the high school today.

But I kind of hated my appearance, especially my smile -.-

Whatever... :)

6C [++] Reunited Tarakanita 2004
(w/Gadiz)

Date: September 4, 2009

Place: Just Steak Mahakam

Host: Gadis

Photo Courtesy of: Anin and Nessie

Actually I brought my own camera but I was too occupied that I did bother to ask someone to capture images. Lazy me.

Alice Cullen Style + Looklet Creations

Again, something about fashion. Hope you're not bored. I'm currently taking a break from writing travel stories.

I just found Alice Cullen's new still from IMDB, showing her wearing this beautiful blue outfit below. I love her new hairstyle though, and at least it's better than the first one, which looks kind of too spiky.

Alice Cullen in New Moon
played by Ashley Greene

And more of my Looklet creations! Enjoy!

Countryside Outing

Mission Accomplished

I can't really come up with anything much tonight, maybe because I'm having a cold right now. Ugh, which doesn't allow me to go for a tarawih prayer at the mosque. Huhu...

The Students, The School, and the Saturday Classes

I don't understand these people --> the principal (Her Majesty) and her freaking vice principal (Her Royal Highness).

Last week, the students of my school had four days off because the teachers went to Singapore and Malaysia for some kind of a field trip, and since we had four days off, we were given bunch of assignments and tasks in order to replace the school activity. Just for a note, when I said bunch, I really meant, A LOT OF HOMEWORKS. Although there are lots of them, I agree that we should be given these homeworks, so that we can also study at home, and I guess it's kind of fair too.

But then, one fine day, we all received this stupid letter, saying...

'Students must attend school on Saturday for four times (means four Saturday every week) to replace the school activity last week.'

Aaahh....where's the justice? I mean, where are those two women's common senses? Well, the assignments were given for a purpose - which is to replace the school activity while the teachers were away - but then if bunch assignments were already given, done, and turned in, why else should they force students to come on Saturday to replace the school activity, while it's already replaced by the freaking bunch of homeworks? I felt like the assignments I'd already done during the holiday were useless, because I felt like I did it for nothing and in the end, we should come on Saturdays.

Besides, I guess the teachers' field trip has been planned even since before the term began, so the teachers should also plan about making up target of lessons to teach to students before they left.

What's more, don't these two women even realize that students already have appointments, courses, classes, events, or occassions on Saturday? It's not easy to just cancel the appointments and courses for school purpose. Oh, or maybe the women thought:

'Students must come to Saturday in any way. I don't care if they have freaking courses. School is their first priority over other stuffs like courses or blahblah. They HAVE TO attend school and cancel all their plans, appointments, and courses for it' --> it's like saying 'School always comes first'

Okay, I get it. I know school always comes first, but don't they think that students already have plans on Saturday? Now, I was wondering if they were in our positions. I guess they would find it hard too.

That's from the point of view of students, now from the teachers.

I'm 100% positive teachers disagree with this decision too. They do come to school regularly every Saturday to have English course or just some random sport activities. But are they in the mood of teaching on Saturday? I mean, come on, the teachers need some rest too. Forget about schools who have Saturday classes.

Finally, yesterday, all students from all grades came up with a decision that we decided not to attend Saturday classes, for good. Being an absent on Saturday may be reasonable for those who really have appointments, plans, and courses. But what if students who are free on Saturday attend Saturday classes but only to find there are only a few of them who are present? And then the teacher comes in and they're like

'WTF, where's everybody? Oh geez, if there are only a few people present, I shouldn't have come to this class and stayed in the teachers office instead. I'm so not in teaching mood. Or maybe I should give them an assignment to do and better explain about the new unit next week (on weekdays)?'

That way, the school activity on Saturday became ineffective and hours passed at school uselessly. The teachers are not in mood to teach and the students don't really feel like studying either.

The point is, the teachers are on our side. Although I consider them to be more in a neutral side.

THE TEAMS

School vs Students

Teachers (Neutral)

Even when I was about to turn in my thesis registration form (and got rejected, huhu), this nice teacher said. 'Bring the form back to me on Saturday, ONLY if you came.' and then she kind of smiled, which convinced me she already knew about this idea.

Trust me, I've experienced this too, before. That was when I was the only one who attended class when the school was flooded and I felt like I really wanted to go home instead. The teacher also felt not like teaching either.

OK, back to the secret plan of all grades, we all decided not to come on Saturday. Apparently a lot of parents give support this action because they disagree too. Too bad that the secret meeting was discovered by 'The Punisher' (a nickname I give to the most feared teacher at school because of her habit of 'punishing' students. She's some kind like a rules freak). When she popped out everyone in that place was all surprised. We were all like 'We're so dead'. But it didn't turn out that way. The Punisher didn't blabber. I thought she'd be furious and say. 'How dare you're all against the school! Blahblahblah...'

Instead she let us all go back to our classrooms and had a talk with the Student Council members (who suggested this idea in the first place).

When I was at class, my friends began to worry about one of our classmates (a Student Council member). We were afraid that she would be threatened to be dropped out if the secret plan really worked. One of my friends even said.

'If she was to be dropped out, then we should drop out too. This way, the school would soon lose its students and the next thing that'd happen, the school would
be closed.'

Alright, maybe not that harsh.

But instead my friend came up and told us a good news that The Punisher (strangely enough, because usually, she'd be on Her Majesty's and Her Royal Highness' side) understood about our mission and plan and gave us a go, because apparently she also disagreed about attending Saturday classes.

I guess Her Majesty and Her Royal Highness had no idea about this just yet so they still launched the announcement to remind all students to attend Saturday classes

'It's a COMPULSORY!' said the speaker.

I hope The Punisher won't reveal this plan and if she does, then she will be no one but a traitor for she can't keep a secret.

I consider this action to be some kind of a strike, so the school will realize about the unreasonable plan they've made. IF this plan fails and on Monday, all grades students will be summoned by Her Majesty and Her Royal Highness and then we were put to detention (one school in a detention! This would be a record, wahaha...silly), I hope we all can give out the best reasonable answer or else the parents will back us up.

Let's hope nothing will happen to all students from all grades on Monday. Amen.

Got to go to bed now. Sahur will be in just six hours.

RAMADHAN'S COMING

Ramadhan's coming!
We'd better prepare ourselves for it.
Fasting is not just about not eating for thirty days
But it's also about how to restrain yourself, not to curse, and also to stop doing bad things.

All in all, I just wanted to say is...

HAPPY FASTING GUYS!! ^_^

I also wanted to apologize for all the mistakes I've done, please forgive me :)

Mohon Maaf Lahir Batin

Have a great Ramadhan and God Bless You

<3

Inspiring Lyrics

This is a very inspiring song from KT Tunstall called 'Suddenly I See'. When you're down or you're feeling like you don't belong where you are, you should listen to this song.

KT Tunstall - Suddenly I see

Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

I feel like walking the world
Like walking the world
You can hear she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
She fills up every corner like she's born in black and white
Makes you feel warmer when you're trying to remember
What you heard
She likes to leave you hanging on a word

Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

And she's taller than most
And she's looking at me
I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine
Oh she makes me feel like I could be a tower
A big strong tower, yeah
The power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)

(Suddenly I see)

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

Tartan Coat + Something about Fashion

I fall in love with these items lately: Tartan Oversized coat

Alexa Chung

Honestly I love how she combines the coat with socks and pointy flat shoes. :)

Alexa is a true fashion icon

I kind of like this one but the collar is just too wide

This looks good too, especially I love purple

Unfortunately not much tartan oversized coat pictures I can find. :(

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There's this website called Looklet, for those who love fashions. I'm more into a winter-ish girl because I love everything about winter fashions. The fashion in this season is more elegant than any other season has offered.

New York Girl in the Winter
This is my fashion work on Looklet

The Vintner's Luck

Just found this trailer on Youtube and I think it's very touchy! The movie is called The Vintner's Luck, based on the book by Elizabeth Knox and directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider).

STARRING:

Jérémie Renier (Atonement) as Sobran, the winemaker
Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising) as Xas, the angel
Vera Farmiga (Orphan) as Aurora de Valday, the Baroness
Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) as Celeste, Sobran's wife

PLOT

"An irresistible story of love, wine and angels. The tale of an ambitious young peasant winemaker and his lifelong relationship with an angel as together they grapple with the sensual, the sacred and the profane in search of the perfect vintage." - moviefone

So the story is about a winemaker who falls in love with an angel (Ulliel) who visits him every year. In the other side, the winemaker (Renier) also has a wife (Castle-Hughes) and he also falls in love with a baroness (Farmiga). So it's kind of a love triangle story, except what is shocking is, there's some "Boy's Love" content. For those who are uncomfortable with gay stuff, I may not recommend this movie to you.

TRAILER

But still, when I watched the trailer, it's very deep. It leaves me an impression that the protagonist is in dilemma. The angel is very breathtaking though.

The movie will be released in November.

My Feb US Trip - Part 4

Previously: At last, we shared our stories that day and that we happened to see the red carpet of Oscars (still it was one of the most memorable moments ever to happen that day). As I was eating my spaghetti, my mom said that the next day we would go to Disneyland (round 2), since we had two days passes.Alright, we went home to the hotel and crashed on the bed, ready for Disneyland round 2 the next day!!
- - - - - - - - -

Sunday, February 13, 2009
Alrighty, again, I woke up at 6. Nothing much, except this time, it wasn't the alarm clock set to wake me up, but instead my mom. She was so excited to go to Disneyland Round 2 this time and when she woke me up, she said. "Hurry up! Indiana Jones Ride is waiting!! I don't want the queue to get longer!! We have to be there as early as we can! Indiana Jones! Indiana Jones!!" Aha...I see, she couldn't wait for the Indiana Jones ride. Well, the day before she was pretty eager to go to that ride but the queue was very looonggg and she was very determined this time that she would get that early before the queue got long.

Lazily, I got up, took a shower, had a breakfast with my dad who was about to take off for the helicopter exhibition that day, and took off to Disneyland at around 7 am. I was still sleepy at that moment that I could sleep while walking (aah lebay!). We entered the Grand Californian hotel and went through the Disney Downtown, where most shops were still closed and some were about to be opened.

At the end of the Disney Downtown, a bunch of people gathered around in front of the entrance. Apparently Disneyland was still closed and some visitors chose to sit near the fountain or just stood there waiting for the theme park to be opened. Not long after that, it was opened and my mom eagerly pulled my hand towards the Indiana Jones ride and at that moment, I was STILL sleepy. I was very tired that morning maybe because I was too excited to have visited Hollywood (which is one of the places I'd kill for going)

INDY RIDE
Of course, the ride just opened but there were already quite a lot of people lining up, but not as many as yesterday and it only took about 5-10 minutes for queueing. While lining up, I was almost - once again - fell asleep. I kind of hoped that this ride would be quite bumpy that it would be a warming up for me before starting the day (sorta like jogging or morning exercises, but this time, we exercised using a thrill ride). Finally my mom and I got onto the ride. Well, she was right to choose this ride for "morning exercise" because I instantly got shaken here and there, going through many drops before finally at the end of the ride, I was 100% awake (it worked!!)

Then we went to Mickey Toon Town and took a look at Mickey's, Minnie's, etc's houses.

But nothing much to see there though. I did go to Mickey's House, saw the unique, cartoon-ish furnitures just like the ones in Mickey cartoons, and there was also a room where visitors could take a picture with Mickey but it was a looongg queue and I was kind of tired and hungry. Then we went outside and bought two hotdogs for lunch. We sat near a fountain while munching on our hotdogs and seeing the mini roller coaster ride in Mickey's Toon Town.


then, I read the brochure that there was a spot near Mickey's Toon Town to take pictures with Disney Princesses. I was *embarrassed* a Disney princess fan and I was quite determined to take pictures with them, so I got on the long queue, longer than the any queues we'd ever been in Disneyland. I mean, hey, Disney Princess is like my favorite. Not that I dreamed to become one like any other girls but I just love their dresses. Aurora and Belle are my favorites and I was hoping to see them. So I lined up along with other girls dressing up in their Disney princess costume, some dressed as Aurora (Aurora had the best dress among other Disney Princesses), Jasmine, and...well, mostly dressed as Aurora.


Finally it was my turn and the first princess turned out to be Ariel (she had legs, not fins surprisingly. Just kidding, what I meant here is, the cosplayer dressed not as a mermaid but a blue dress) and then the next princess was Belle, with this nice yellow coat (haha, I'm talking like a fashion police!), and the next one was Jasmine. She asked my name and I answered "My name is Carissa, from Indonesia." She replied. "Hi Carissa. Nice to meet you, I'm Jasmine from Agrabah."

Me with Ariel (she got feet! lol)

Me with Belle

After that, we went off for other rides, such as:

• Storybook Land Canal Boats: my mom was very eager to get on this ride, and she was pretty sure it would be another "thrill" ride like Indy. But I told my mom that it was only a normal boat ride (and slow too) cruising along the river to see miniatures of Disney palaces. Nothing much. I was even almost sleeping on the boat. And when we got off the boat, she complained. "That was all? Not cool!" she said, and I was like. "Told you so." >.<


• Peter Pan's Flight: It was always my mom's favorite. She loved this ride the most.
• Alice and Wonderland: ahem, my favorite this time
• It's a Small World: like "Istana Boneka" in Dufan only this one is in English version.
• Pinnochio's Daring Journey: Nothing much. It's just like Alice in Wonderland.


• Snow White's Scary Adventures: It was INDEED scary. I didn't know it would be scarier than Haunted Mansion, since this ride focused much on Snow White being lost in the forest and feeling haunted.
  
• The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh: Just like Alice and Pinnochio's ride. Only the ride cart is designed like a bee's house and it shook slowly back and forth while moving. It was enjoyable though.
  
• Autopia: Like a gokart ride.

While taking a break from the rides, my mom suddenly got interested in the event she read on the brochure. It said that there was this daily event called Pixar Playparade held in Disney's California Adventure and she was very eager to see it (Parades are always her favorites). It would be held at 5 pm so all we had to do was just wait.


It was already late afternoon (almost sunset) and I was thinking to have another last ride (in the Disneyland) before we took off to Disney's California Adventure. And the last ride turned out to be another ride in Haunted Mansion. It was very impressive that I wanted to go there for the second time. After that, we took off to Disney's California Adventure which was located right across Disneyland Park. Thankfully, we didn't need to pay for the admission because the 2 days passes we had already included an admission to Disney's California Adventure.


DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
After entering it, my mom quickly took a position on the side of the streets along with other people waiting for the parade. Not long after that, the parade began and Pixar characters started to come out one by one. Sorry for the poor qualities of the pictures. I'm a poor photographer, I gotta say that. But at least better than my mom :). I like Lightning McQueen the best, because he's made out of real car, modified, and you should see his eyes. It moved around.

Lightning McQueen

Ross from Monsters Inc

Mr. Incredible (looks like he was on a diet)

Flik and Atta from A Bug's Life

ALADDIN PLAY
Well, after the parade, we strolled around Disney's California Adventure, visited Animation Museum to see how animation (2D and 3D) were made, which was pretty cool. Then we watched Aladdin Musical play. While lining up, I looked at the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror ride. I could see the lift was coming up and then there was a spark of light before the lift fell, along with screams. It was a definitely no-no ride for me, since I don't really like drop rides. Then we entered the theatre and the show began. It was FANTASTIC! The best Disney play I've ever seen. It had amazing sets, sceneries, cast, and effect. During the "A Whole New World" scene, the cast got on this carpet tied to the ceiling and it had an impression as if it really flew.


My mom was very impressed by it and said that it was worth it. The next ride (it was already dark but the theme park was still crowded), we went to Monster's Inc Ride which was the newest ride in the theme park. It was almost like rides in Fantasyland in Disneyland (Alice, Pinnochio, etc), but there was a twist at the end of the ride. You know Ross, the slimy green monster from the movie? We stopped for a while in front of her statue as it moved and identified the visitors sitting on the cart. She said. "Hey you, man on the second row. I'll be in your closet tonight." I had a feeling it was not a cassette but instead there was an operator controlling it. :)


A BUG'S LIFE RIDE
Ookkkaayy...it was already late and the last ride was 'It's Tough to be a Bug'. It was actually like a 3D short movie with Flik as the host. He explained how tough it was to be a bug. We were required to wear a 3D glasses. It was pretty impressive yet annoying, since there were these strange, bug-ish smell coming out when the bugs appeared on the screen and pretended that they sprayed something to the audience. Everybody went 'ewww....smells gross!!'. At the end of the show, Flik said "Please let the bugs to get out of the studio first". Everybody was questioned with this, and while still sitting, suddenly everyone felt like there were hundreds of bugs moving under them. Of course, everyone jolted out of the seats. It was very funny! Especially my mom was panic because she thought they were real bugs. Of course not.

Alright, it was already late and the theme park was getting quieter. I told my mom. "We're going for another right tonight." She asked. "What ride? It's already late." I explained to her. "So in this ride, we go into a room where there's this bed and a TV. And we sit on this bed..." My mom replied. "You mean going back to the 'hotel'?" Haha... Somehow I hoped we could still spend longer time in Disney's California Adventure because we didn't know that there were still other exciting rides other than Disneyland park. Well, better next time.

We found the shortcut to the Grand Californian hotel and went straight back to the hotel. We had dinner and slept. Enough with Disney, tomorrow......UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!!!

YES, TO BE CONTINUED....