Ole Ole Ole: Part 3

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

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

Ole Ole Ole: Part 2

Real Madrid is in LA, too?

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

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

Ole Ole Ole: Part 1

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

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

Rainy Season

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

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

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

Early wake up call

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

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

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

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

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

Winter Break - New York: Part 4

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

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

Another subconscious adventure

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

The 3D Diary

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

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

Winter Trip - New York: Part 3

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

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

Break

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

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