Tribute To The Beatles

You say, “Goodbye”, and I say, “Hello, hello, hello” (hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye) That’s just a bit of lyrics from “Hello Goodbye” by The Beatles and this is exactly how I feel right now, every story has two sides, one side is a “Hello” and the other is a “Goodbye”.

On 28th of August I landed Germany, I was so nervous but not afraid-nervous, I was hyper-nervous, too happy to be here. When I accepted their offer back in May, I only informed sooooo few people, as few as my sister, my parents, Markus, Thorben and Marina. Because I don’t want to be too excited as the situation with Corona was still very absurd, the German Embassy closed until further notice, Germany still closed their border for international flight but I don’t lose hope, I put one foot in front the other and keep going. And fast forward to 27th of August as my last day in mother land and going to Vaterland haha!

Once I landed at Duesseldorf Airport, I’ve done my corona test there for frei! yuhuuuu! in love with this country already 😉 after that “Hello” to my two helpers that put a significant contribution on my relocation journey to Germany!

Little did I knew, they even prepared me welcome gift… I would like to say box but it is not a box so a welcome gift paperbag-sounds more environmental friendly too 😉

Then they put me in a hotel to wait until my corona test result came out which should be beginning of next week, after that I told Thorben and he said “it’s time to announce the Disturbed Family!” haha yes Thorben thank you for keeping the secrets away from them for so long 🙂 Haissshhh this is the hardest moment, the “Goodbye” part, they are more than just friends, they’re my family and even better they all are distrubed and (such an) ass-ociates 😀

It took me some time to write them and even some time to look my phone back after I pressed that send button. Thank you for all the messages, such a heartwarming one and I knew I will never have the balls to say goodbye to all of you.

However, since my goodbye is through text, I don’t think it is a proper goodbye and mostly you guys are European anyway 😉 I’ll come to your home invited or uninvited mwhaha to have my “Hello” moment with your parents, Hello Sir / Ma’am, I’m a friend of your son / daughter 🙂

Germany, you are such a whole new world, a hundred thousand things to see and I can’t wait to reveal it one by one 🙂

Hoop Hoop (not yet) Hooray

Living in China for almost 7 years give you the advantage of having 2 times to set your New Year’s Resolution, just in case the first normal New Year didn’t go as you expected you can always make a new one on a Chinese New Year 😉

One of the resolution that I always have is: I need to have a routine exercise! On Zero Gravity pole dance studio, they had a new sport called “Aerial Hoop” I had that class once before Christmas but back then the instructor-Cleo went away for having Christmas and New Year’s holiday, but on the first day of the CNY I had another class with different instructor.

There was only 3 people that joined the first year of the rat class 🙂 Me, Joasia and Joy and ofc our teacher-Sia. Joy and Asia was much stronger than me so they already went to different moves while for me I kept practicing my own moves mwahaha they went from movement 1-6, I just kept “perfecting” my first 3 moves haha!

And mine! Well, for the purpose of taking pictures I will hold all my strength and hide the hurts with the smile 😉 Asia said “think for your instagram” 😉

I never had a class with Sia before because she only teach the instructor so imagine how dead I was when I got her as my teacher!

I hope the virus will be over soon so Zero Gravity can re-open and we can be hoop-hoop-hooray soon!

中国加油!

Ready Player One?

The first month of this special year 2020 has been the longest January ever! Bombing in Iran, bush fire in Australia with a special hail that only last for 30 mins in Canberra yet successfully destroyed my sister’s car pffff, flood in Indonesia and Covid-19 in China… what a tough month indeed!

I witnessed the easiest order, within 15 mins we collected over 3000 pcs mask N95 but our lovely Taiwan factory only have 2080 pcs left and we took it all, delivered by air freight and the next day we got it. This was 1 day before the Chinese New Year so it is indeed the best present 🙂

It really strikes me when 24 hours before we all just had lunch together, drawing a mouse in the red paper to welcome CNY

and the next day it was mandatory to wear mask, the following days after that we were advised to not go out unless its necessary. How things can change within 24 hours?! #I may sound very dramatic now but it’s either I am over-react or the condition is really not good. I really wish that I was over-react and laugh about it later.

Few days after wasn’t bright either, restaurants started to closed mainly because they want to celebrate CNY and secondly because of the virus. So what did I do? I cooked! I managed myself to get back to the kitchen again #proud me! but I did what everybody else do which is stocked up some snacks! At that time it was still around 4-5 degree Celcius in Shanghai and quiet rainy so going out was kind of a hassle therefore snacks is definitely necessary!

Besides that we also need to equipped ourselves with mask, see my mask-volution 😉

However, with my new home, my stock of food, my mask and my laptop I think I’m ready for the situation. But…. one major issue that I still need to face is the IELTS test that I will take on 9th of February. On 27th January, I received the official news that they cancelled the IELTS test in China for the whole February and March but I need to do it in February therefore what should I do? I decided to fly back home and do the test in Indonesia. And yes, I am heading home the next day. It is indeed a very spontaneous decision.

Indonesian, my country mate, no need to worry, I declared myself as healthy because I did my self-quarantine for 14 days and I’m clean! Yeay!! Also thank you for my friends that texted me to make sure that I still alive (read: Eiman, Frida, Arana, Tabitha, Elle, Dennis, The Bejes- Revina, Erin, Marissa, Cecil, Memey) You guys can’t get rid of me yet 😉

How long will I be here? probably longer than I expected, my plan was no longer than 3 weeks but almost a month now and will still be here for another as the official cancelled flight to China until end of March.

I have a mix feeling, of course I am sad that I leave Shanghai unexpectedly but also gyms and restaurants are mostly closed until who knows when so I’m still glad that in here I can eat and still go out freely without anyone measuring my body temperature and so on.

Owh well, this is life I guess, we as the Player One of our live need to be ready to expect the unexpected.

Wish the very best for China to fight with this coronavirus, 中国加油!