There's Gotta Be More to Life

There are a lot of wonderful songs that I like. I danced to them, I sang it, but none of them get into my heart.

Not like this song.

This song tells us about how Arashi had been through their 10 years. From the very first time I heard it, I felt something warm inside. It gives me strength. It gives me peace. It gives me spirit to face my hardest day.

Those guys, from their songs, from their TV shows, are really brilliant. Brilliant in making all of their fans have the feeling of becoming the part of Arashi. Have the feeling of belonging that name together.

I know, I'm not following them since their first debut. I know I'm nothing compared with those loyal fans who follow them since their first debut. I became their fans since July this year. But I know that I am really welcomed to be a part of "Arashi". I feel like having new family, new friends, new big brothers, new role models...

But because I started to know them less than a year, I'm so afraid. Now they have through their 10 years. I'm so afraid that all that is left to see is farewell. I am so afraid of it. I don't want it to happen.

This 5x10 song, somehow they dedicated for those fans whose they have seen supporting them. Watch their concert, for example. But you know, Arashi, out of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, there are more to see. Those who can't meet you. Those who can't deliver their support straightly to you. But they keep supporting you, their spirit always be with you. Yeah, it's me including. I will never ever meet you, guys. It's too impossible. But here, from my place, I always give my support.

You probably think my post is childish, kinda dreamer, or whatever it is. But I just want to say to those guys:

Minna, arigatou.
Mainichi,
Chikara wo agete kureru.
Tsuyoku naru.
Mainichi,
Shiawase wo agete kureru.
Itsumo sumairu ga dekiru.
Ima,
sabishikunakute, kanashikunaku naru.
Subete, anata ga iru kara.

Watashi wa, kono tooi tokoro kara, anata no tame ni, chikara wo okurimasu.
Itsumo, gambatte ne!

the tastiest porridge ever! Yo Gazibu!
The first thing in my head when I woke up on Sunday morning is, "ok! here we go! a battle of icy water! Ganbatte, Maya!" I wouldn't dare to imagine how cold it is. I made it! Yeah!



Since I was so hungry, starving exactly, when Fika gave me choices: kupat tahu or porridge, I definitely chose kupat tahu. YUM! So tasty! But when I tried my friend's porridge, DAMN! It's even tastier! My regret. When we were about to continue our journey, the porridge seller said to us all, "besok-besok dateng lagi ya, neng!"

Definitely, sir! *thumb up*
I promise, when I come visiting Bandung again, I'll visit and buy 2 bowls of your porridge!

Ciwalk: Korean Style, Shodou, and a girl named Airi.
We made our youngest member, Guido 'Ningyo' Ray, happy. We finally decided, "Ok, we're going to Ciwalk..." There was a Japanese event called Bandung - Hamamatsu whatsoever. Full of people in their brilliant cosplay idea (or weird?). We were looking around for something interesting. Then we found it! A shodou (is it the right spell, sensei?) corner! There was an old man who can't speak Indonesia taught people in that corner how to make Japanese Calligraphy. No matter how hard we tried, all the kanji we wrote went wrong. We did a mess in that corner, you know, noisy, a lot of error trial and many more. Until I convinced my self that the people gathered there were not interested in Calligraphy, but just wondered what happen in that corner due to our noise. We closed our visit by saying "Arigatou Gozaimashita!" then ran away (after all the mess).

Few of us found an interesting booth sold a lot of knitted things. It's cute enough to pull us buying few stuffs. I bought a cute gray knitted hat :)

Ah, Ray-kun was talking to a girl! A girl that made him so excited and nervous all the way to ciwalk! A girl with chicken hood! (I swear, it's chicken hoody vest!) Umm, they looked similar, you know? We all agree with that. Especially when they laughed. Does it mean something? Well, it depends on your imagination! :)

At night: what a tiring day!
After Ciwalk, we decided to take photos at some old colonial buildings, so we went to gedung sate. Unpredictable (actually we should have predicted it), taking pictures at Gedung Sate at night made your pictures show nothing but you, plus we are not able to go inside. Gedung Sate's fences are not a good spot. Disappointed, we ended our journey by seaching something to eat. We then had ayam cobek, near University of Padjajaran. THAT WAS DELICIOUS! I love it! The most interesting thing was that we show a 'concert' of 3 street musicians. I said concert because they were playing violin, too. We all agree that their creativity had impressed us, so that we gave much more money than we usually gave to other 'pengamen'.

Accross the ayam cobek seller, we had to wait for Ai's friend who promised to pick Ai up. Quite long enough, so that we thought his friend lied to him. While waiting, it was like more than 3 angkot stopped in front of us offer us seats. Maybe they thought we were lost or something. But sorry, sir. Our car just parked few steps from where you stopped by. Only Wiwid, I thought, the spirited one in that waiting session. She was playing with the camera's self timing mode. She was kinda excited with that.

Got Lost!
Umm... we had some good drivers and navigators for driving this whole trip: Teh Lisa, Fika, Andien, and Wiwid. No wonder we got a very nice trip. A very nice trip without got lost somewhere we didn't know. Well, that must be our thought BEFORE we got back to Rini's house. No matter how clever the squirrel jump, it will also fall down (english translation for: Sepandai-pandainya tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh juga). The shameful thing is: WE GOT LOST INSIDE RINI'S HOUSE AREA! INSIDE THE BLOCK!

for about 20 minutes, we just went around the neighborhood, til Teteh said "kalian emang mau ngerjain aku ya?"

hihihi, gomen ne, Teteh..

Whuaa.. what a tiring day... tiring but fun! Bandung, I wish I can visit you with a bunch of money next time.. YEAH!

As what we had planned, Saturday (July 18th) me and my 'Jepang 3' classmates went to Bandung. Although it was the first time for me, I couldn't feel any excitement about it, since there was also a QUIZ! Quiz means I have to clean up my brain to provide extra space for bunpo (grammar) and kanji. (Yokatta! 100 kanji! but I'm sure there are only about 70 that I can recall). Damn. I had tried my best. But quiz is never been fun. Grrr!

Trying to forget that nightmare, we (without Oki Sensei and Ayuk Diah for reasons) happily went to the train station to get a train to Gondangdia then gambir. After a long noisy conversation about Japanese idol and dorama (there, I felt Fika-san is more like a 'Japan music and dorama alfalink') we heard an announcement:

Kereta ekonomi AC jurusan Jakarta Kota tidak dapat diberangkatkan karena aliran listrik putus untuk waktu yang tidak ditentukan

What??! You've gotta be kidding!!
I felt like, "ok, this is where our series of unfortunate event started." We then decided to go to Gambir by bus. The bus, again, turned into chaotic and noisy when we got into it. The main cause is the question that is left in our head about what was happening to Fika's head when she said confidently 6000x8 = 54000, while she was holding Rp 56000 in her hand!

Actually, my Dad was also waiting for the same train. He was about to go to gambir to get Damri to the airport. I forgot to tell him that the train would be fixed at 4 pm. He would be late. I decided to call him, telling him about it. He said he was already on his way to the airport. The surprising thing is he had been mistaken reading his plane's departure time. He thought it was 5 pm, while it should be 9! Oh, God...

Back to my trip mates. Train was just the same with us in it. Our voices was the only thing that was heard. Other people silently sat or slept. But we never stop telling jokes. It was really noisy. (If I were other passenger, I would have regreted for being there). I was trying to sleep, but I couldn't. I also shocked by a sudden sound of something hit the window. Seemed like some of naughty boys outside were playing "throw-the-stone-and-laugh" to our train. It scared me enough.

Two of Fika's nice friends (along with the family) was so kind to come and see us at Bandung Train Station. They event rent us a car! Wow! I was surprised how a trip by train made me so exhausted. I tried to sleep in car. But the hell damn driver drove crazily. The sensation was the same as angkot. The different is just we had a little bit more expensive car than angkot. How ever, I was too tired to complain, so I slept.
Arriving at Rini's house, a very kindhearted girl that didn't mind to share her house with us, we had nasi goreng for dinner. (It was tasty. I swear!) Bale Indah is so cold, I was barely freezing. I decided to not taking a bath at first (I couldn't imagine how cold the water is. I might have been frozen). But the offer of having a hot water bath saved me. Although the hot water came in the middle of my bath (they forgot to turn it on), it helped me sleep well to prepare for tomorrow's all day long trip. :)

The stupid thing is that this stuff:

Ga bisa bobo,kebisingan osaka sngat mengganggu...ada emak2 ckikikan pula..ceyem (Ai's status on facebook)

made people believe that we were really in Japan. *sigh*

Starring:
Daivi (FE-Mene 07)
Co-starring:
Cecep-FE Mene 07 and other people of Wisma Asri
Wisma Asri girls: Icha, Cici, Aska, Nduty

Prolog:
This had happened few months ago, where Daivi and I had a big trouble of 'Balinese-food-sick' (refers to homesick, not 'sick' in the meaning of had enough) . Let me explain some basic circumstances:

When I wrote this, I tried to translate the Indonesian foods into English, but when I searched the first word 'tempe', it said

'a food that is made from fermented soybeans'.

"Nice. Really helpful."
Since my alfalink made tempe seems similar with soysauce, I decided to stop that effort.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scene 1:
Sunday Morning, when Pasar Kaget is always held. Me and Daivi heading up to the kitchen with all the ingredients and cooking equipments we need. Today, we were gonna cook 2 dishes: tempe goreng tepung and sambel sera (sera means terasi). I was done with the tempe. It's not Balinese food, it's a very simple Indonesian food. Just pour a little water to the flour (we used Bumbu Racik Goreng Indofood), wrap the tempe with those, and fry. That's it! Yummy!
( Guys in the next room talking, "...tapi mereka masak tempenya pakai bumbu racik...". What the hell I care. I'm starving!)

Since I'm done with the tempe, I was willing to help Daivi with the sambal. Sambal sera is Balinese traditional sambal. The ingridients are: onions, garlics, small chillies (cabe rawit), salt, and terasi. Note that this is traditional recipe so that I can't give you the exact ammount of the ingredients. 'Feeling and intuition' is the key.

Me:
Apa lagi yang perlu dipotong?
Daivi:
Bawang merahnya aja. (She gave me 5)
Me:
(Struggling not to cry while cutting the onions, suddenly stopped) Cabenya segitu, bawangnya mau ditambah lagi? (considering the unbalanced ammount the things I cut and things she cut)
Daivi:
(While continue cutting the chillies) Nggak. Bawangnya segitu aja.
Me:
(eyes getting bigger) Nggak kebanyakan cabenya.
Daivi:
(picking more chillies) Nggak. Ntar nggak pedes kok ini. (convincing me)
Me:
(decide not to ask anymore. Well, those chillies were cut already.)

Scene 2:
Frying time! Yep! This sambal is fried.

Daivi:
(adding the ingredients to the fring pan which had oil heated already. Did a little stir.)
Me:
*coughing* (suddenly felt my nose and throat smarting and hot) *coughing louder*
Daivi:
(ignoring me) lebay ah lu, may.

(Suddenly, there was a cough sound from upstair. 3 times and sounded really suffered)

Cecep (the upstair boy):
Daivi masak sambel pedes banget ya? Baunya sampai ke atas!
Daivi:
Masa sih?!

(suddenly the entire boys building coughed)

Daivi:
Hehehe... iya ya? Masa sih? *coughed*
Me:
(Guess it has answered)

Daivi:
Sambelnya terlalu pedes ya?
Me:
(speechless. Thinking if it isn't gotten my eyes wet, then it will make me take stomachache pills.)

I understand. To get small chillies here is kinda difficult.Maybe she got too excited when she finally got it from the market.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epilog:
Honestly, I couldn't eat all of the sambal alone. Thanks God, there were few girls of Wisma Asri who really like it too (it was their first time). But the next day, one of the girl came to us and said:

Icha:
Daivi, Maya, kemarin tanganku panas banget seharian habis makan sambel kemarin.

Sorry, Icha... xD