I'm Legal now!

Wow, it's been over a month since the last time I updated this blog. I have a good excuse for this, and it's not a surprise that college has pretty much kept me away from blogging. Shortly after Fall quarter started, hardly no more exciting, flip-flopping things going on, unlike before. Things went as just as normal hang outs and stuff.
I even haven't got to share some stories that I've been planning to post. No promises that I'm going to post them soon. But I'm going to post them for sure, just don't know when. If time allows though.

Anyway, I'm just going to start from the most recent yet exciting event of the month. Just a week before my birthday, October 15, my friends and I were throwing a surprise for our friend Patricia at midnight. It was rather or considered brutal since they were throwing stuff (mostly food ingredients) to the birthday girl, but it was epic though. Too bad I missed the start since I had to wait for the bus for quite a long time).

After the surprise, we went for a late dinner in Sunnyvale with Pho noodle.

It was a nice midnight craving and I ended up returning to my apartment at approximately 1 pm. That was the latest time I'd ever got my butt home. I knew my parents were going to yell at me if they found out I got home that late *stuck out tongue*. But things were going just fine and I didn't (luckily) get yelled at.

Moving on to the next week, my 18th birthday was approaching and my mom suggested me to throw a party invite my friends for a birthday lunch. Good thing about this year's birthday, it fell right on Saturday. Saturday = weekend = friend's hangout time.

The funny thing actually happened on the turning night from the 22nd to the 23rd. My friend Dian was coming over at 10pm, which had to be questioned because it was peculiar for a friend to drop by so late.
But she just said "I'm bored at home." I stupidly believed in her cunning reason. Anyway, right at 11.30pm, she told me and my roommate Elda that it was time for her to go home because it was already late (I even offered her for an overnight stay at our apartment) and beckoned Elda to accompany her until she reached the bus stop.

So there I was, sitting in the turning night all by myself and skype-ing with my other friend Aymee. An hour passed and Elda still hadn't got back yet (where was I thinking that moment? Nothing but worries ><). I complained and whined to Aymee how I was going to spend my countdown to birthday all by myself, without knowing that Aymee actually knew all the surprise plans! I even screencapped our Skype conversation.

Look at that face concealing all the lies. Haha, kidding Aymee

It was already 12.15 am, October 23, 2010 and Elda still hadn't returned yet. Worried, I profusely texted her when she was going back since sure it didn't take long for someone to take a friend to the bus stop (especially the bus stop wasn't that far from the apartment). Elda told me she was accompanying Dian at Ihop buying a pancake for her brother, who was having a midnight craving, and that Elda might be coming home late. She even suggested me to sleep first.

There was actually this feeling in me where I felt I should stay up until she came up, and that was exactly what I did.

I went on believing them. Stupid stupid stupid. My dad called me through Skype and wished me a Happy Birthday, and at that moment, there was a ding sound at the door and I went up to open it. You would've figured what I found behind that door.

HA! SURPRISE!
Really, this moment reminds me with this one and this one.

To be honest, I really didn't expect my friends popping up at the door, especially since Elda was the first to enter and since she had the key to get in. Apparently Elda and Dian were involved in the plan, and so was Aymee but she couldn't join, so that's the reason why she still had a conversation with me through Skype. Perhaps, it's better to call her a bait then?

I was utterly speechless and that moment was like priceless.
It was my first time being surprised for like, officially.

We had a midnight time together for a while. Seeing my laptop was on, my friends were experimenting with its webcam (Photobooth application to be exact).

From left to right: Me, Inez, Patricia, Kathleen, Dian, Rebecca.







Together we munched on the super duper yummy Oreo chocolate cake (and the best cake I've ever tasted since I'm very much into chocolates). The whip cream and the chocolate was just so yummy (writing this makes me having this midnight crave, off for a second to grab the remainder slice of the cake).

Looks yummy eh?

We talked for a moment about the dance class Inez and I had earlier in the afternoon. My other friends simply asked us to demonstrate the recent dancing piece we had that afternoon. It was a bit awkward and the spacious living room became a sudden stage.

After a while, my friends bid farewell and left me and Elda alone. That wasn't the end of the night though. In fact, what we did was resuming the experiment with Photobooth. There was a funny clip made quite incidentally, which you can take a peek below.

It's a video of 8 seconds with us posing at the camera like we were about to take a picture. It came to a realization that the application wasn't set on Camera mode. It took a while for us (especially Elda) to realize that it was set on Video mode.

Her reaction simply LOL-ed me. We watched the video over and over again and decided to do some editing with it (like making it a slow motion that her voice sounds superficially like a groaning Godzilla, reversing it, etc)

The night ended at 3 am when we all had our stomachs aching out of LOL-ing at the video. We actually made out some of other videos as well. But there were too many of them. The video above was probably the funniest that I decided to put up here. Hope you don't mind about it, Elda. *peace*

The same day (of course it was the same day), I woke up quite late in the afternoon, and rushed to take a shower, preparing to go to the Pizza Hut, where I have made a reservation for my birthday lunch with my friends two days before. On the bus to the restaurant, I even met Amira.

The scheduled lunch was supposed to be at 2 pm but the host (aka me) arrived around fifteen minutes late. Terry, Agnes, and Jocelyn (my international friends who I also invited) had arrived there already.

At that point, you know, I felt a bit embarrassed since as the host of the event, I even got there late. So basically I didn't know where to put my face in front of my punctual friends.

From left to right: Agnes, Terry, Amira, Rebecca, Patricia, Inez, Kathleen, Idel, Kezia, me, Jocelyn, and Astha



The lunch went really well. The good thing was I got to introduce my international friends to my Indonesian friends).
There was a bit awkward moment between my Indonesian friends and my international friends though. But each of them got along very well during the lunch, especially some of my international friends hadn't got to meet each other before.

Did I forget to mention that it was a rainy day? The fact is, it was a rainy day. It'd been raining since I woke up and even until after lunch. The sky was terribly dark gray-ish. Scary, in short, like it was going to rain again. We called it a day though, and some of my Indonesian friends left the venue and so were I and my international friends.

Before getting picked up by their relatives, my international friends and I dropped by Staples, this small office depot located right next to Pizza Hut, to take a look around and see if anything's interesting. But soon, they had to say goodbye because their relatives had arrived to pick them up, leaving me and Elda the ones that were left.

Anyway, Elda ended up buying a small white board and a journal for herself. At first, I was like "Why the heck do you buy that white board for?" and she was like "It's freaking $1.00." Well turns out that the purpose she bought it was its price. But in the end, it was pretty useful since we put it up in the fridge and used it to leave notes to each other on weekdays.

Not bad huh? Nice choice Elda, although I knew the first reason why you bought it is because of the price. Low price, useful, pretty much it's worth it.

Anyway, from Staples, we went across the street to Target. Pretty much we didn't buy anything there, just seeking for some shelter since the wind outside blew kind of hard and it looked like it was going to rain. We looked up at the prices of beanbag chairs we were planning to buy for the apartment and even took a look at books (always the favorite section)

We decided to go home shortly before the weather worsened.

At home, I made a special dinner. I'm usually lazy at cooking, not to mention I'm not the best chef in the house, but well, I did my best.

I don't know what I should call this, but it's basically a mixed fried tofu and mushroom with a sesame oil

And also, the moment I'd been waiting for: unveiling the presents from my friends :)

The greeting card from my friends who came to surprise me the night before


From Astha!
She knew I really wanted to read these books! Thank you sooo much!!


Kezia and Idel gave me this cute Totoro frame. I couldn't resist to put it on display!

There's another greeting card from my friend Hang but I haven't got the chance to take a picture of it. Perhaps some time :)

Wow, what one heck of a post! This is what happens if I haven't posted for so long. But since this is also a special post featuring my friends' birthday and mine as well, I guess it's quite worth it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post!

P.S: My English's getting sucks. Another effect for not posting for a while.

welcome autumn...

Autumn (or preferably called Fall by Americans) is officially here, but I haven't felt a bit of the weather change here.

It still feels pretty much like summer, all the windy stuff and not so chilly air (except in the evening). I just tuned my self at the weather forecast on TV and when the weather man said "It's the last day of summer." I just put my trust in him.

Anyway, not so much to tell these days. Well actually there are quite many to tell, especially regarding my activities prior to the beginning of college days. I did go to this mischievous kind of place called Mystery Spot, but I'm going to tell you that later.

Speaking of fall, I have something important to tell you dear readers:

SCHOOL COLLEGE OFFICIALLY STARTED THIS WEEK

You know what that means. All the assignments have been waiting to be finished, and they have piled up since the first day of college. I know as days go on, the pile will only but grow thicker and thicker until I have no idea where else to put them.
Even I just finished doing my math homework halfway. It is halfway but at least I'm satisfied how I could set a target of finishing a bunch of homework but not doing it in a whole, but in parts. So part 1 of my overall 60something problems is done!

Here's my timetable schedule if you want to take a look
Also, I'm doing this to test my mac's screencapping ability

It looks very small I know, but at least you get that I have three classes. I'm not going to put ONLY since they're not ONLY three classes. You may say "Well, it's a good thing for you to have only three classes cos I have more than them."

The thing is, yes, I have - what you said with 'only' - three classes but in return, I have homeworks twice the amount of the classes I'm currently enrolled in.

One thing you should keep in mind that college ain't like school, especially when you go to the one not in your country. All the system and schooling system are completely different in Indonesia, especially when students here are given the liberty to choose their own classes not depending on levels or grades. So it's possible (not possible, but it DOES happen to me for real) if a freshman like me can get into the same class with sophomores, as in people who are much smarter than me.

Don't let me blabber all night long here. It sucks when I do -__-.
Okay it's already late at night here and I gotta go to sleep. Catch y'all later :D

cooling our heads

Okay, this story is a bit out of date, but I decided to just post it here since it's too hard to forget.
On late August (don't remember the exact date) I was invited by a friend of mine who comes from China, to attend a fellowship event. Elda and I also joined in the trip, with a little confidence and was quite assured that the whole event would be conducted in Chinese, since most of the participants come from Chinese speaking countries.

So here goes the event. It started with a visit to Santa Cruz. We carpooled from DeAnza college to Los Gatos first, stopping by a decent house to have a glass of orange juice, then went straight to Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz might not sound that strange to me, but the thing is, I had exactly no idea where that was, whether it was close or not to Cupertino.
Anyway, it was a good place though. In fact, a fascinating one. I've never been to any beaches in America not until that visit. Obviously it look different from Indonesian beaches, especially minus the seaside-counters-and-sellers part.

I met some new friends! Terri, my Japanese-born friend, and Sierra, who comes from Hong Kong

We had a group picture together. Can you spot me there?

Then we had a beach walk on our own. I felt like wearing the wrong dress-code (gah, there's no dress code by the way) since I attended the outing wearing a semi-formal checkered outfit, jeans, and sneakers, without knowing that we were actually going to the beach ><. If only I had found out, then I would probably wear shorts, Tshirt, and a pair of sandals.
The water was freakishly cold! In contrast of the hot weather and burning sand! So you can imagine me running confidently into the water then practically flinched when the water met my feet.













By seeing the pictures above, at least you get the picture of referred beach I'm talking about.
Right after a beach walk, we happened to spot that the beach itself was connected to a nearby small theme park called Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Before entering the theme park from the beach, we had to pass like rows of shop. Nothing interested me though, so I just kept on moving.

Anyway, I thought this theme park required every of its visitor to pay for the admission fee, but turned the entrance didn't have any ticket boxes so visitors could roam freely inside the theme park. BUT there was actually one ticket box in the middle of the theme park. So it turned out that we did have to pay for $3.00 or $4.00 per ride. We didn't need to ride all of rides though, but if we wished too, just go to the ticket box and requested your desired ride. The lady would hand you the ticket after you pay.

Piece of cake huh?







Doris was ecstatic about riding on some rides, but maybe one ride is enough since our time being in the theme park was obviously limited. Actually Doris was excited about riding on this pendulum-like ride, but she hesitated to go on her own (since all of us had this gut to ride the ride along with her). So we switched to another not-so-gentler ride which is Speed bump (boom boom car)



After spending quality yet fun time at Santa Cruz, we headed back to Los Gatos for barbecue time. Anyway before having dinner, we had some games to break the ice. The game was a bit hilarious but it kind of challenged the heck out of our memories to memorize everyone's name there.



After the game, we had a dinner. The host was kind enough to provide food ranging from spaghetti, chicken, to sushi. What a comforting yet warm food in the contrary of the cold weather and the blowing wind. The rest of the night was spent with some more games but this time, it was conducted fully in Chinese, so there was no way I could join in.







Spent the rest of the night watching religious videos in the living room and the goals of the organization. The host also thanked for us all for coming to her house though



An impressive night indeed. Got to make some new friends and joined in the game. The valuable lesson that I got to learn is that that language isn't the barrier of communication. I can hardly speak Chinese but some of those games don't really require language as two-way communication, only with gestures and laughter.

Phiew, that was one quite long post. Have a great day!

to anyone

They're back!!!
I'm sooo ecstatic. 2ne1 is frankly one of my most favorite Korean girl groups aside of SNSD and f(x). I think they did quite a great job with their first album, featuring "Fire" and "I Don't Care". Those songs were real HITS!
Who didn't get addicted with "I Don't Care"? Even that was my dad's most favorite Kpop song. (look who's being random)

Anyway, these girls' images haven't changed much since their first albums' concept. Maybe they slightly changed, into what's called with a more daring and punk-ish style.

(Phiew, finally a post that has something to do with Kpop)

A WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL!!

Just a week before school, but I already purchased all of my textbooks! I've shown you guys my Intermediate Algebra one which is freaking thick!

Lately I got two other textbooks for my English class which are much thicker and cheaper. Good thing, cos it'd be easier to carry them around.

Reminds me that I need to read them before school starts. Previewing, as you can tell.

Anyway, it also came to my realization that I lacked of nice casual clothes for college. Most of my clothes are dominated with white, and that's too monotone.
You wouldn't go to the campus everyday wearing the same color shirt would you?

So I was planning to buy (not shop) for some casual yet colorful shirts and coincidentally, my friends (Patricia and Astha) sort of asked me and Elda to hang out to the nearby shopping mall to just have lunch.
There was an impressive moment during lunch though. Patricia, who's also from Indonesia, happened to randomly asked Astha who comes from India about Hindi culture. We ended up talking about Hindi movies and the culture. Interestingly though, we also learned a bit of Hindi language, stuff like Namaste.

At the same time, the Asian lady happened to sit next to our table turned out to be an Indonesian and had a nice short talk with us. Apparently she comes from Central Java and had a pretty Javanese accent (how I miss hearing that accent). Her American husband suddenly popped out and greeted us with an "Apa kabar?".
It was sooo awkward that there was a short pause before we responded him. Isn't it interesting and surprising at the same time when you discover an American's able to speak your mother language?

After lunch, we moved to another mall located quite far from Cupertino and it's in Milpitas. To get there, we had to take a bus ride to Santa Clara, then switched to riding Light Rail (the so-called monorail you saw in my San Jose post eventually turned out to be referred as Light Rail instead of just monorail).

The second mall we happened to visit had cheaper stores. Elda, Patricia, and Astha were kind enough to help me look for some decent shirts.

On the way back to our apartments in the bus, Elda happened to hear two girls and one boy sitting behind her speaking Japanese. Then one of the girls and the boy got off, and there left the last girl on her own. Suddenly, the next thing I saw was Elda was already having a warm talk with that girl. I even heard some of Japanese words I happened to recognize, like "ima" which means "now" and "iru" which means "there/exist".

Everything seemed to go very fast and that the next thing I remembered, after Patricia (who sat next to me at that moment on the bus) got off, the Japanese girl gestured for me to sit next to her.

Here are some of the memorable quotes I was having with Ai-san (her name)

Me: Anata no namae wa nan desuka? (Trans: What's your name?)
Ai: Ai. (Then she sort of spoke "And you?" in Japanese. Forgot the words)
Me: Carissa. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Trans: Nice to meet you!)

To which she responded with a laughter. She kept complimenting us how our Japanese was good despite of us being beginners (no, ME being a beginner. Elda has learned a lot of Japanese through its dramas. So consider her more as an intermediate).

I tried to recall all Japanese phrases I've learned at high school. But using them to speak with a real Japanese person seems harder than talking with your own teacher.

FYI, this is my first time speaking Japanese to a real Japanese person. You can imagine the whole awkwardness and stuff.

Me: What school do you go to go? Are you a DeAnza student? (I don't know the Japanese words for this. Probably stuff like "Anata no gakko wa nan desuka?)
Ai: No, I go to San Jose State University. (her Japanese accent is soo kawaii!)
Me: Ah... *pauses* sugoi! (Trans: good!)

Ai mentioned that she was really happy to finally meet someone who could speak Japanese, because she hadn't met strangers (non-Japanese) who could. I guess that day was her lucky day? Anyway Elda continued speaking random things in Japanese about dramas and we ended up talking about Arashi (a Japanese boyband) on the rest of our bus ride.

We felt all saddened when we came to our stop and that we had to part. But Elda had asked her email already and Ai said that she was going back to Japan in a week.
Safe trip, Ai!

That day was a bit multicultural-ish. It started with us learning some Hindi words, met a Javanese born lady, and ended with a sweet conversation with a Japanese student. :)

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

Yesterday was a bit exhausting, but it was really worth it since I finally got to find good yet cheap shirts. Not that cheap but at least reasonable (yep, that's exactly the word).

Yet today I hung out with Patricia and this time with some of my other friends like Rebecca, Angie, and Amira. Good thing that today, we got to watch Going the Distance.

That's like one of the not-so anticipated movies for me, but it turned out to be quite hilarious! I can tolerate the cursing, dirty jokes, and whatsoever, but Drew Barrymore looked fantastic there. It's not a surprise anymore that her costar in the movie, Justin Long, IS indeed her real life boyfriend. That's one pretty interesting fact about the movie.

Movie time was over, but sadly there wasn't plenty of thing to see in the mall where the cinema was located, so we decided to go to Santana Row instead to take a look around.

Patricia happened to spot this CHILI restaurant where we munched on our afternoon snacks.

Cheese fries
I'm a fan of french fries but this is my first time trying a cheese-smeared fries.
Cheese is also one of my favorite side dish. So you can imagine...
French fries + cheese = perfection!

Love the jalapenos too.
Anyway I think it's spelled "halapenyos"


Chicken Crisper
You need some sort of thin bread (don't know how to call that in English) to wrap these chickens. Then you eat it the way you eat a hotdog


The side dish. :p


Chocolate Molten for dessert!
A combination of heated chocolate cake and a vanilla ice cream underneath the dome-shaped chocolate.
I luuurrrrveee chocolate so much!
This is probably my most favorite chocolate cake I've ever eaten. Yum yum.

Speaking of chocolate, I'm planning to make some experiments on chocolate later on. Lately I've been into cooking pretty much, mixing random spices, garnishing onions, garlic, pepper, and salt.
But the result's not pretty bad. I used to cook when I was little though, but then I always puked everything that I cooked, so that's why I stopped cooking until I moved to the US, where the situation forced me to resume cooking.

Cooking's been pretty much my current hobby aside of writing these days, and especially after I'm forced to temporarily skip my two favorite hobbies after moving in to the USA: photoshopping (I haven't installed it on my mac yet T_T) and playing violin (just broke its E string and changed it immediately, but considering that I live in an apartment, I can't do that freely. Unless you want a neighbor to actually knock on your door and ask you to shut up).

Anyway, back to cooking. So yeah, so far I've cooked random things without the help of recipe at all. I've been applying "Ratatouille" concept of "Anyone can cook". Maybe next time I'll post some of the food that I got to cook here.

It's been a long post. See you very soon!

SCHOOL STARTS IN A WEEK!!! ARRRGGGHHHH