| — | meself |
Hi everyone!
I know it’s late already to tell this story. But I was busy until now. So now is my chance to tell you the tale of 5S.
SQ953
You know that I was chosen to be Google Student Ambassador (GSA) and was invited to GSA Summit in Singapore on 10-12 July. And there I went.
9 July 2012. I didn’t sleep that night. I spent the night packing, watching something (which I forget what). At 3 in the morning (10 July already) I went to Rama’s (@ramadputera) house to go to the airport together (he’s also GSA). At about 3.30 we (me, Rama, and both his parents) departed from his house. In the car on the way I listened to music from my phone and fell sleeping. When I woke up we were in the entrance to Terminal 1 already. We (Rama’s dad) picked the wrong way, we should have gone to Terminal 2. So we cruised through Terminal 1 to get to the other side and went on to Terminal 2 (by the way, we departed from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)).
When we hit Terminal 2, me, Rama, and his mom alighted while his dad parked the car. We then did shubuh prayer first. After that we met Mufid (@mufid), and then Ade (@ade_sudiman), and then Nila (@nilargh), and then Cendol (@fcandle), and then Tika (@mustikarizki), and finally Irfan (@irfan_IF, who had checked in before) (all of them are GSAs!). Then we went on to check in.
cendol, rama, ade, and half-mufid
me and irfan
cendol, nila, and tika
melly goeslaw was there too!
In the check in counter, we were offered to have adjacent seats. We agreed. But we were separated from Irfan (who had checked in earlier) and Ade (who had not checked in online first).
le stamp and le boarding pass
And after several talks and gossips in the waiting lounge, we boarded the SQ953!
I was very excited because it was my first time to board a wide-body airplane (an aircraft with two aisles cabin). We boarded Singapore Airlines’ B777-300. The in-flight service was great! There were two kinds of meal provided, Chicken & Noodles and Egg & Chicken Sausage. I chose C&N and it was delicious!
my meal set (ps: i asked for chopsticks because i don’t eat noodles without ones!)
the counterpart
daily need :9
the one in garuda indonesia flight is not this good
le wide body triple seven
badass me. it was on flight mode by the way
Singapore
changi airport!
We arrived at Changi Airport (SIN) at about 10 am local time (it was 9 am on my phone!). Funny how Singapore which lays on the left of Jakarta geographically is one hour ahead of Jakarta. From what I read, simplified, Singapore follows West Malaysia which follows East Malaysia.
And then we checked in through immigration. Me and Tika were scolded by one of the officer because we took pictures there. I didn’t notice the “No Camera” sign hahaha. The officer asked us to delete the pictures we took there. And when we were leaving the terminal building Cendol freaked out. I worried for a while, asked her what had happened, and she said that she’d lost her Big Bang pin (one of the member, I forget who). Man I thought something more valuable got lost! And then we left the terminal building and were welcomed by Googlers!
fad, andy, hani (@HannieMayer), and tinaga
Tinaga is the secretary for Google Student Ambassador SEA program. She is Indonesian. Hani is Malay Singaporean who’s the closest Googler to us GSA Universitas Indonesia. Andy was the center of some GSA Babes (term I use to call girl GSA) attention! Cendol and Nila were and still are crazy about him! And the last one Fad is also Malay Singaporean (I’m not so sure about his nationality though).
We were the first ones to come. And on the same flight as me, there were also GSAs from Binus University, ITT Telkom, and Unibraw (and by the way, Tika is GSA from Unpad) ! They are Hengky (@hengkygagbecanda), Krishna (@krishnanugraha), Rheza, Vivi, Janet (@janet_val), Tania (@cassietania), Ocha (@och2), and Adit.
hengky, krishna, rheza, vivi, janet, and tania~ le binusians~
adit from unibraw malang, but he’s actually from bekasi!
tika from unpad and ocha from itt telkom
While waiting for the others to come, we bonded.
le bonding
krishna making funny faces
some of gsas from indonesia and the googlers
Up next was Azri and How from Penang, Malaysia.
how and azri arriving
And after another waiting and bonding time, GSAs from Philippines came in!
filipino gsas coming!
our lunch!
And then we were guided to the bus that would take us to our hotel. Tinaga came with us while Andy, Hani, and Fad left to wait for other GSAs. Before boarding the bus, we waited *again* in another lounge.
what do you expect from nila? of course gossips!
the filipino gsas asked me to take their picture together
There were only four GSA Babes from Philippines. Three of them are from the same university, and two of them are cute :”>
And then we rode the bus to our hotel.
first sight of marina bay sands and singapore flyer
sights
tinaga said the google office is in this building, and it turned out to be true! (you don’t say?!)
oops i caught you driving and using your cell
And so we arrived at our hotel: Grand Copthorne Waterfront.
my room with ade (funny how everyone else got roommate from different university, i got my own friend! and oh we got the small twin room, some gsas got huge twin room)
oh don’t mind this picture. carry on
Summit: Day 1
welcome to google student ambassador south east asia program!
After resting for a while at our hotel, we changed into our national/traditional costumes. We GSAs from Indonesia mostly wore Batik and some Babes wore Kebaya.
adit and rama with our first google swag: cute gmail bag!
the stage
me posing with the gsa shield on stage
irfan expanding his “network”
google sweets!
The first day was ice breaking day! But before that, Miriam Schneider went first on stage to give speech titled “Being a GSA and Events Planning”. I’m not going to evaluate the speakers nor their speeches. That afternoon we broke out by countries. GSAs from Indonesia gathered in one place and talked, bonded, and discussed things. Each of us was asked to create our own Androidify “doll” (this would be a surprise later).
After that, came the game time! First game was Human Bingo. We were given papers with queries like what our favorite color is, what our dream vacation place is, what animal looks weird the most, and any other. We had to find someone with the same answer with ourselves for each query. So there were 25 (5 by 5) queries and the first one to get line of 5 same answers wins. It was Toff from Philippines who won if I’m not wrong.
And the next game was “I don’t know the name” game. First, each of us was given a paper with something written on it. We had to find anyone else with the same writing on their papers, BUT with no voice communication! We had to do gestures and weird sounds to represent our writing! Mine was elephant, so I used my right hand to form its trunk and my left fingers to form its tusks, and alternatively I used both my hands to form its ears. Others got aliens, Spider-Man, Superman, and many others. After we gathered (the ones with the same writing) we were brought to another game, group game. So each group was given an android doll. We had to throw the doll to another member of the group by saying their “name”. The “name” was an adjective chosen by our own followed by real name. Mine was “Round Ricky”. The others in my group were Pinky Ping, Quiet Queenie, Wonder Weilson, Angry Amour, Amazing Ahimsa, Miracle Mufid, Kinky K(forget this one), and many others. And then from each group, the one with most strikes (being passed the doll to) had to get on stage. From our group it was Pinky Ping.
the ones with the most strikes
pinky ping!
After the games, we were brought upstairs to have dinner (entitled “Food Food Food!” in the event rundown). Then we queued to the what-I-call-as Google Kitchen. Granted me a chance to take a snap of this cool wall decoration:
The name of the dinner wasn’t wrong at all. There are food, food, and food. I had three slices of pizza + one glass of root beer + one bowl of gelato!
me, rama, hilary, ahimsa, and audrey. hilary and audrey are from singapore and ahimsa from indonesia
gelato
And a surprise was given by Google! They brought a birthday cake for the July-born attendees (The July Babies)!
And after dinner, we were separated into groups of twelve where in each group there had to be at least one GSA from each country. But in my group there was no Singaporean GSA because the number of them was not enough to provide for all the group. My group even had thirteen GSAs in it! Each group had a task to project a plan for Google event to share Google products in creative ways. It had to be presented on Day 3. So that night everyone discussed with their own groups about the events.
After that, we took group pictures!
the gsas and googlers. credits to: queenie reyes for the link to the picture taken by minty cai
After that we went back to hotel. And in the bus I found something interesting:
recognize this? ;)
After we got back to the hotel, me and some other GSAs from Indonesia went on a night adventure! We walked to Great World City, a mall near our hotel, and then tried to find 7-Eleven to buy sim cards for me and Irfan, but what we got from two 7-Eleven stores were only EZ-Link cards, Gulps, and snacks for the others.
Summit: Day 2
Day 2 starts with me waking up late! I woke up at 8! I then had breakfast and met up with fellow GSAs in the hotel restaurant. After that we once again boarded the bus straight to Google office!
Day 2 was full of speakers. The topics were about Google in south east Asia, Google Culture, several Google Products, Media, Marketing, and Communities. I won’t summarize the talks though.
you should know who they are by now
cute and great-taste google candies in close up
hilary and shaileesh from singapore as the emcee
le chromebook!
the only speaker I took picture of. rebecca michael, google+
After the talks and speaks, we went to Merlion Park! We were treated a cruise along the Singapore River (is it the name though?).
finally a picture of me with marina bay sands background
in the “cruise ship”
our hotel from the river
other boat with other gsas
too bad the main merlion in merlion park was being renovated
After cruising, picture taking, and all the laughing, we once again boarded the bus to get to Medz, where we were gonna have dinner!
the welcome board from Medz
moslem side
After dinner we went back to the hotel. And that night, the ones went to 7-Eleven the night before once again had an adventure (minus several plus several people). We went to Mustafa to buy souvenirs. In Mustafa I only bought PEZ dispenser and the candies while the others bought chocolates and others. Then in front of Mustafa we found little shop with nice offer for merchandises. I bought keychains, cup, and other merchandises. Then me and Irfan bought sim cards in another shop in front of Mustafa for $38! OMG right?!
look what i found in mustafa
pez i bought :3
Summit: Day 3
It’s the last day!
I woke up early that day though I slept late the night before. Then I had breakfast with the others.
my breakfast
The morning in the Google office started with discussion about the event plan. And after that we presented our plans in front of fellow GSAs and Googlers. Turned out the best team was Group 5 (the name was RGBY if I’m not wrong).
they got google snuggies as the rewards!
And so the Summit ended. We were announced that we were officially Google Student Ambassadors. Then we took pictures!
my group: wow group
these are the androidify surprises! our official google student ambassador badges
me and sarah, googler who came from new york
miriam schneider i mentioned earlier
minty cai and cheryl tang who made this all possible! thank you!
…
round ricky and pinky ping!
hani, andy, and fad!
and of course with the great tinaga angkasa!
After the summit ended, several GSAs went straight back to Changi Airport to go back home while some others went to the hotel to get their bags. WE’RE EXTENDING OUR STAYS! I was one of the extending GSAs. Others from Indonesia included Irfan, Tika, and Radhen.
From the hotel, I used my EZ-Link card for the first time. With Irfan, I boarded bus 51 to get to our accommodation for two days. Me in City Backpackers in Hong Kong street while Irfan in Amrise Hotel in Sims avenue.
my second place to sleep in singapore
That afternoon I went to Central, a mall near my hostel, bought Starbucks Singapore tumbler (and free Java Chip), bought a necklace in a store inside Central, and sat on the river banks in Clarke Quay.
central
ada abang-abang tukang walls juga ihihihihik
sister cities, sister tumblers~
the “galau” site
even “galau”er
Then I went back to hostel and had a rest for the day.
Sentosa
On 13 July, I woke up in the morning and texted Irfan, Tika, and Radhen whether they wanted to go on a journey together or not. I didn’t get any replies.
So I went alone to Sentosa Island!
I took the MRT from Clarke Quay station to Harbour Front and then continued using bus RWS8. I used no cash for transportation because of the convenience of EZ-Link cards. I hope someday in Jakarta this kind of thing exists.
fountains in vivo city, a mall in harbour front (above the mrt station). taken using different shutter speeds
the card scanner
i could also use monorail train to get to sentosa island with extra $1 ;)
peeking :3
the casino in resort world sentosa. too bad i’m not 21 yet
near universal studios
the infamous universal studios globe!
the entrance to universal studios
I did not enter Universal Studios. I was saving my money to buy Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 miniature on the flight home. But I got into this damn place:
where I spent $100.5!!! It made me cancel my plan to buy the miniature and to go to Harry Potter Exhibition!
le penseur
the thinker
first sight of giant merlion
little waterfall beneath the huge merlion. *again* taken using different shutter speeds
path to the beach but i didn’t go there
After sightseeing and picture taking, I went back to the hostel. The RWS8 going back to Harbour Front was free of charge! In the station, I bought double cheeseburger from McDonalds first for lunch. The store employees were mostly Indonesian! Then I went back using the MRT.
At the hostel while having lunch, Tika texted me than she and Irfan was currently in Harbour Front and asked me to come along with them! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I told her I was too tired (which was true). I then spent the rest of the day resting.
SQ956
My flight back home was a morning flight. 09.25 to be exact. So at 6 am I left my hostel and took bus 2 to Kallang station. From Kallang I boarded the MRT to Tanah Merah interchange station where I changed train to Changi Airport. At about 7 am I was in Changi already.
the triple seven that was gonna take me home~
le stamp and le boarding pass
I landed in Jakarta at about 10 am west Indonesia time. Then I took Damri to Pasar Minggu, but I fell asleep in the bus so I alighted at the bus terminal while I was supposed to alight at Pasar Minggu station to get taxi easily. Therefore I took Angkot 04 to Depok and then from Depok I took taxi home. Well my house is in Depok.
got home and zhafira! oh and my cousin
I think that’s all about the tale of 5S. It’s been 4 hours of writing. It’s time to have sahur already. Today I start fasting! Ramadan mubarak everyone! Bye!
p.s: if you want more pictures and with better quality, check my G+ account @ araishikeiwai.com/gplus!
So 4th semester just ended?
Here let me tell you something. At the end of this term, I had no reason to live anymore. Sounds exaggerated. But really, I was really depressed. Why? Why should I be? I could have moved on but the stress was just too much. Come to think of it, well, not really “reason to live”, doesn’t mean I was ready to die, what I mean is I lost my spirit to continue.
What happened? You broke up? — I wish it were a break up. (OOT) 2012 is not “Girlfriend Year”. I had girlfriend(s) only in odd number year (2007, 2009, 2011). So I guess next year I will get another one.
So what really happened?
Let’s go back to January. 2012.
I was planning which classes I would take for the 4th semester in my college, I did some research about the lecturers of the classes, which ones are good, which ones are not good, and which ones give good scores. But for one class, which happened to be MPK Bahasa Inggris (it’s English class more or less)—I chose MPK-I class E for one silly reason: 1st semester, I enrolled in MPK-T (MPK Terintegrasi, I hated this class) class A, I got A minus, 2nd semester I enrolled in MPK-T-B (MPK Terintegrasi B, better than the A counterpart) class E, I got A, 3rd semester I enrolled in MPK-A (MPK Agama, religion class) class E, I got A. So I chose MPK-I class E so I can get another A. Silly, no?
Okay that’s the start of it.
Now moving on to February, March, April, May. I moved to new house on December 2011. I had not gotten used to new sleeping pattern since my new house was far from the campus and I had no motorcycle yet (which means I took bus to get my lazy ass to campus). Therefore, I was always late for morning classes (which was everyday except Friday). Therefore, due to the extreme lateness, I had many absences for English class. This implies I couldn’t attend the final exam (because the absence threshold was 6 times max, and I was absent for more than 6). Because I couldn’t make it to the final, I didn’t pass the class. I DID NOT PASS ENGLISH CLASS!!! What’s more hurting is, I got 54.65 score, and the C limit is 55.00 (C is the lowest score you should get to pass a course). Yes. I got C minus. Far from my expectation in January. I needed only 0.36 point more to pass which I could have gotten from my essay assignment which the lecturer gave me 60. Had he given me 65, I could have passed this class. I had incredible results in the midterm and another assignments. But the essay score made me speechless. He (the lecturer) gave me 60 just because I misplaced the thesis statement. Aaaaand the other lecturer for the class (which was a ‘she’) gave me low score for presentation assignment, JUST BECAUSE I WAS NOT LIKE WHAT SHE EXPECTED ME TO BE. Well I was pretty nervous and a little sick that day, she expected me to perform well, but I couldn’t, so she gave me very low score. BE FUCKING OBJECTIVE!!!
Yeah. That was what made me don’t want to continue life. I had my cumlaude dream crushed just because of a class which doesn’t really relate to my major.
But life goes on. I moved on. I found reasons to continue my life. I called my parents and they supported me. Cumlaude is not everything. They said that they just wanted me to understand my field, what I’m learning, good score is just a bonus. Lucky for another 5 classes I took I got satisfying scores each. There, I moved on.
But my parents weren’t my only reason to move on. Here’s what made me get my spirit back:
- PMB 2012 (Pembinaan Mahasiswa Baru, new student orientation program). It excites me as I am the head of Documentation division. The staffs are just great. They are very lively.
- New camera coming! Yes, due to my position as head of Production bureau at Xociety of Movie Lovers (.XML) in my campus, head of Documentation for PMB 2012, head of PR, Publication, and Documentation at UI Table Tennis Club (UI-TTC), I need a camera! I told my father that I chose camera over new phone. And it’s coming. I’m waiting.
- Google Student Ambassador. Yes, this is what made me happy the most. I just got my passport done last Friday. And I will be in Singapore from July 10 until July 14.
- Film projects. At least 4 film projects have to be executed. Of course it makes me sooo happy. I love making film very much.
- The plan to assemble new PC. Still a plan. Still saving money. I need a high performance PC very much. For gaming and video editing.
I think that’s all I can think of for now.
I have to continue.
It’s been many times I’ve had first experience in doing something with no cost. I mean, somebody else paid for me, I mean, somebody not from my (close) family. It’s just some kind of blessing I hope to continue till I lose my breath for the first time.
First thing I can remember, the first time I traveled by plane. It was September 2006. Before that, I’d been eager for plane-boarding. I’d escorted and picked up my dad to/from airport a lot. I asked my parents so many times so I could be on a plane. Unfortunately, I had no free-time and we had not much money to spend on it. Luckily, circa August 2006 my headmaster at my middle school told me that I was eligible for Olimpiade Sains Nasional 2006 held in Semarang. I was very excited of course. Not only I got to meet new friends and experiences, I finally got to be on a plane! And also it was my first time to step my feet on Java Island (well actually when I was a baby my mom told me that she brought me to Jakarta and Bogor, so it was my first time to step my feet on Java Island consciously). Two birds one stone. It didn’t stop there. On the excursion day, we went to Taruna Nusantara high school, Borobudur Temple, and Wonderia Park in Semarang. Five birds one stone. Not only that! I “played” with some Physics stuff and tools like micrometer, jangka sorong, rheostat, electrical thingies, and many others. Boom! I killed a population of birds with one stone. And they’re all free! The government did all the paying. Ah ya! The accomodation also. It was my first time to stay in a 5-stars hotel!
Circa 2009, there was a travel package offered to our school students. It was very cheap. Rp 3.200.000 for 1 day in Singapore, 3 days 3 nights in Malaysia, and 3 days 3 nights in Thailand. I asked my parents to take it, they approved. But then I canceled the tour, not because of the money, but it was ‘rebek’ for me to make my passport since my parents’ ‘buku nikah’ have lost. Bet we’ll get to this later.
And then the time jumped to 2010. It was July 2010, my brother had this Family Day from his office. The employees got to spend the day together in Dunia Fantasi (Dufan). So my brother (along with his wife and his daughter) took me along. And it was free also.
Also around 2010, my cousin’s husband who is an American stayed in Hyatt hotel for his job. Then he invited us ‘children’ to come visit him. We paid a visit and swam in Hyatt and he took us to dinner. We also spent the night watching World Cup and played cards.
And currently, with my KTP (I.D. card) being on process, I’m about to make my passport because I’m going to Singapore this July! For free? Yeah! It is for the Google Student Ambassador program. I’m so excited and can’t wait for it! I’m gonna meet new friends from Indonesia (other universities), Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and maybe other countries. It’s gonna be a whole new experience! And my postponed tour to Singapore since 2009 will be paid.
So those are some of my free-time-first-of-charge, eh, first-time-free-of-charge experiences. Maybe I skipped some others, but you get the point ;)
November 2010.
I still remember how my brother @luthfidaniel cut my pretty long hair in front of @armandobilal’s house. I did regret a bit for what he’s done (and it was my will also). I had always been wondering how I would look like if I had long hair.
I then looked like this:
ignore the cupu-ness
Since that day, I never cut my hair. I liked how I looked with my long hair. To be exact, afro hair. I looked like this:
ignore the ugly-ness
It was long until I lost my afro hair.
In my heart, I wanted to have a longer afro. But in reality, my hair started flowing down. The afro doesn’t form well since it had ‘hole’ in the center. I looked not-handsome. And at home, in my room, at night, in front of this computer, on my bed, with the fan on, THE HAIR IS KILLING ME!! It tickled me, on my forehead, on my eyes, and in my mind that I can’t concentrate on what I was doing (mostly being lifeless on Plurk, Twitter, and Facebook games). I NEEDED TO CUT IT DOWN!
So circa April 2012 I planned to cut my hair in May. Why always May [see what I did here? why always me?] ? Well, first thing, it would be exactly (well maybe not exactly since I can’t remember the exact date of November 2010 I cut my hair, it was between 17-25 maybe) one year and six months after the first cut in college! Second, my sister would be married on May 20, sooo I would need to look neat and handsome B)
So one day before the marriage, exactly on 19 May 2012 at 4 o’clock (maybe, I can’t remember) I had my afro hair cut at Gloria Barber Shop, Pasar Atas, Bukittinggi. It was tearful moment, my tears fell, the barber tore my hair down [see what I did here? but my tears didn’t really fall, it’s just for the pun]. On the marriage day, I looked like this:
ignore the handsome-ness
That was the story of my journey with my hair (and it didn’t really explain the chronological feature between November 2010 and May 2012 of my joyful adventure with my afro hair).
Ciao!
So, I just used Exquisitetweets to collect all birthday wishes for me from twitter users in a single page. Read them!
However, it doesn’t contain (new style) retweeted tweets.
A little statistic here:
Kawung2011: 50
Turbo2010: 20
Jagung2009: 8
Ultra2008: 4
Kangkung2007: 1
Family: 5
High School Friends: 4
Middle School Friends: 2
Total: 95 (I missed one tweet, if you sum all the numbers above, the result will be 94. Once again, it doesn’t contain retweeted tweets)
Well, that’s only from Twitter. It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate other wishes from other medias. Actually, some people texted me. It feels better when someone texts you for your birthday while they can use twitter/facebook/plurk, somehow I feel that they love me.
No, this is not about Adele’s album.
No, this is not about Indonesia band.
No, this is not about the number of credits i took last semester.
This is about me.
I am now 19. I am one year due to be called “kepala dua”.
What’s changed? What’s new? What’s up? What’s down? (from last birthday)
My GPA! OMFG just because of two idiotic gibberish classes, my GPA went down. Faaaar down. Last birthday GPA was my highest GPA I’ve ever got. So sad that last semester from nineteen credits I took, two classes took 4 credits each. The rest is 3, 3, 3, 2. God these two buttcracking classes really pissed me off, I couldn’t understand a thing the lecturer said to me. And the final test results were the lowest test score I’ve ever had (as I recall). Therefore, those two motherflipping classes really ruined my track record. While the other four classes, I got outstanding results for each. Too bad that the classes I liked or that were easy to get nice grades only had few credits and the two baldheaded classes had four credits each, therefore they really ruined my GPA. And my second semester GPA was also below first semester. But not really far down.
Girls! Ahhaha I shouldn’t share about girls here :p
Phones! Ever since my 18th birthday, I’ve changed my mobile phone for about four times maybe? One of them was brand new and was only used for ten days before it fell down a table and died totally. The rest were my brother’s, and he gave them to me. I can’t believe how come I never carry a same phone for over 2 years. Mobile phones hate me.
Friends! Well I never really had good friends before here in Fasilkom. Now I’ve found them!
And the other things I couldn’t recall.
What are my wishes?
My 19th wishes are my 2012 resolutions. Here they are:
There.
Done.
I will edit this post later for any changes :))
