Once Upon A Time in Medan

There are a lot of story that I really want to publish (and delayed - and cancelled) here mainly about my life as a Medan citizen. But well, here are some pictures, and I will make it as short as possible - although it still long and has a lot of images. Be prepared!

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Medan. Pertama dengar nama itu, yang langsung terlintas di benak adalah: orang Batak! Hohoho. Maaf lho, tidak bermaksud SARA sih. Tapi seperti kebanyakan orang lainnya, kurasa hal itulah yang langsung terlintas di benak hampir setiap orang Indonesia - Jawa khususnya. Medan, yang pertama kudengar adalah betapa kerasnya kehidupan di sana. Orang-orangnya, lalu-lintasnya, dan juga *ehem* harganya. Hal itu membuat saya kikuk juga pada awalnya. Tapi yasudahlah. Kebetulan ada 6 orang yang seangkatan yang ditempatkan di Medan pada bulan Desember 2012 itu. Dua di antaranya (termasuk saya) adalah perempuan. So I was glad that I wasn't alone.

Hari pertama memang selalu jadi yang terberat, apalagi di tempat baru dan asing. Dengan berbekal segala sugesti dan asumsi, mau gak mau kita tetap harus berani menyongsongnya. Kalau enggak, kita akan semakin lama untuk beradaptasi. Tapi di Medan kasusnya agak lain. Gak cuma hari pertama, minggu-minggu pertama itu saya cukup dibuat pusing dengan beberapa hal. Misalnya:

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Transportasi

Bentor dan angkot, sebagai dua jenis angkutan umum populer di Medan, itu mirip banget kelakuannya dengan Bajaj. Sudah ngebut, kebal aturan pula. Kadang parno sendiri tiap abis naik bentor atau angkot di sini karena kecepatan jalannya udah kayak orang balapan. Dan klakson, di sini klakson itu murah banget! Sedikit aja jalanan terhambat, semua kendaraan membunyikan klakson. Apa gak pusing? Tapi setelah beberapa hari, terutama sekarang ini saat saya udah gak di Medan, saya kangen juga naek bentor. Abis, itu memang kendaraan yang paling gampang ditemui di Medan. Mau ke mana-mana gampang, karena dia prinsipnya persis Bajaj. Ditawar dulu harganya di depan, baru kalau udah deal, langsung cabcus deh ke tempat yang dituju. Apa gak praktis?

Growing Artsy

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. - Pablo Picasso -

Ever since I was a little kid, I used to have this imagination, that someday I will have a big printing company, producing lots of books (with pictures in it), be a part of magazine, and an art gallery that exhibits my artworks. But time flies and my interests have been growing, from medical to architectural, from comic to illustration, from chemistry to computational chemistry (it's fun thing to know that I don't have to do any lab works; I know, I'm a lazy-bone :]), and sometimes in the opposite direction. Also, I have a huge interest in biochemistry and molecular biology. You know it's a very interesting science stuff, mainly the immunology, knowing that you can actually fight a lot of disease just by modifying its arrangement at the smallest molecular level.. it's just priceless. Not that I'm the smartest kid in this field (in fact I only have the interest, not really the knowledge). See I have a lot of interests except anything sporty (I don't even understand soccer!duh).

Okay, but still, journalistic is the best field for me (come on, I'm a blogger and I do advertisement like in my whole time).

A Motivating Arrogance

One good thing can basically makes your day; while another thing doesn't. How about TWO good things? Like, when they are combined into one. It supposed to make a combo effect, like a good good-thing. But lately I found it wrong. And this is what happened to me a week ago.

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Ketika kamu berada dalam sebuah tatanan sosial, dengan sendirinya kamu akan mencoba banyak cara untuk fit in dengan tatanan tersebut. Contohnya saya. Ketika saya merasa orang lain melihat sesuatu dari sudut pandang yang lebih tinggi dari saya, saya pun mencoba untuk berdiri sama tinggi dengan mereka supaya kami bisa berbicara tanpa ada seorang pun yang merasa direndahkan. Salah satu cara termudah adalah dengan memakai sepatu yang disebut "wedges".

(Nah sekarang anda tau "tinggi" seperti apa yang saya maksud *huft*).

Wedges adalah bentuk lain dari high heels atau sepatu ber-hak tinggi, namun dalam bentuk yang lebih "ramah" karena hak-nya itu tidak selancip sepatu-sepatu model dan bisa dikategorikan aman karena tebalnya itu. Saya yang alergi high heels melihat fenomena ini sebagai suatu kesempatan besar. Oleh karena itu sebulan yang lalu saya pun membeli sepasang wedges. Jarang sekali saya membeli sepatu akan tetapi ketika melihat sepatu ini di payless, saya pikir saya harus membelinya.

My wedges.

Cancelled

Just derping around with my old files when suddenly found these pieces of comics (lame ones, though). So here they are (its in Bahasa, sorry):

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2013 = 23

I told you this like over and over again, but well I can't help not to say this. So this is why I'm excited with the whole new year thing: I've got my birthday just 2 days after the NYE. Hehe. No, I'm not really celebrating myself. It's the same day as the other days are. Only, people send us their prayer, their gifts, and their treat-requests. (Thanks for everyone who sent me the birthday messages, texts, walls, mentions and calls).

One of the best moments was I've got a rainbow cake for my birthday from my new friends in the same boarding house. It was really unexpected because they are my new friends who apparently haven't know me well to give me something like a cake. But I do appreciate that. Big thank you guys! :)

Thank you "Pinky Residence fellows" :)

The best part is of course the prayers you guys sent me. You know, I truly believe in the power of prayers. So I'm not bothered with that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 0:)

7 cm

I never know that having a long distance relationship is this hard. Every time I look up the map, searching for my exact location, I am like, "Okay, Medan to Sumedang is only like 7 cm". But it is only on the map. The exact distance between Medan to Sumedang is 2,367 km and the only way to reach it is only by plane. *poker face* Traveling by plane is not something you could easily do every time you feel like you want to do it. Despite its expensive price, you still need to book the seat first.

Medan - Sumedang is only 7 cm.

For me who had a very long life in Java, I still surprise how our planning and time management skill are extremely required to live in here. So now I have this notebook with everything scheduled and written here. I start to write our holiday and day-off dates and plan my trip (not to mention if I suddenly have any occupational trip). Also, I need to save a lot of money to prevent me from bankruptcy (I KNOW this is soo exaggerated) so I can easily fly when I need to - or in this case, when I miss this person. The worst part is, now I'm so poor I can't go to Sumedang and meet up. :(