Posted on

Just Have a Little Faith

My sister sent me a birthday present from faaaaarrrrr away (read: Australia) to Germany, mind you that my bday is on September but due to Covid, the numbers of plane reduced a lot so she told me that the package might arrived up to 3 weeks. It’s not a big deal anyway, I’m not a believer of “only open my presents on my birthday date” so I am up if anyone wants to give me something prior, on or after my birthday 😉

Package sent via Australian Post and after 3 weeks it arrived Germany, yeay! however… it’s not that simple, I have been waiting and checking it every day but it shows no movement, still in custom, no one calls me and I can’t call them because its from AU post and who knows which courier that will take care my package and sent it to me… waiting… waiting…and it got sent back to Australia haha!

However, my sister is a fighter, she tried once again directly from the store in Korea and let them sent it to Germany using DHL. Now we both have confidence in it and just like we thought, DHL handled it very fast, they already called me 3 times and with my broken German I tried to say some sentences. I’ve been told that I need to fulfill the custom code etc so I asked my sister about “what is exactly in this package? how much is it? they need an invoice” and it’s close to Christmas so for sure they also have holiday, they want to finish it before and we want to receive the presents too! me and my sister both “works” as fast as we can by asking the sellers “do you provide the invoice on the package?” and guess what? the invoice is there but inside the package which DHL guy won’t just opened it.

Also okay, few more days then, my sister kept asking “can you call again?” no! no way! it’s giving me enough headache to reply them in German, I can’t volunteer myself to call them and ask mwahaha. Nevertheless, Christmas passed, they should back to work again before Silvester holiday, I asked Julia to help me call them and good thing is they have all info ready and just wait for the custom which is out of DHL control. I was already skeptical if I can receive it in year 2020, worst case scenario I’ll receive it by new years but you can’t be really patient when you know the stuff is just right in front of your eyes!

On 30th of December! I got an SMS that DHL will deliver the package, the time limit is until end of the day but I told my sister to wrote company address instead of my home address because for sure someone will be at the office and can help me to take it other than at home and the last working day at the office is on 30th! So I sent email to our facility management guy and told them if any package came from Korea for me, please call me! and he did! wohoooooo, informed my sister directly, prepared myself to go to office, picked it up, done! Indeed, a little bit of faith is just what we need 🙂

Theeennn….. we have our video call 🙂 about how and what to do with the new skin care!! #luph luph <3

Very happy! unboxing and showing it one by one 🙂

  • our happy face
  • but im happier 🙂

My sister is soooo nice! she got everything covered! I got all complete product from Korea, she knew I don’t have any skin care with me and she felt ärgern by it, so directly she sent it out. Another good thing is my cream face etc was almost used up so yeay! got new supplies 🙂 the problem now is…. where to put it? haha she got a strict condition to not put it near the window and not inside the bathroom, she said I need to put it in a basket next to my bed, yes sister! I follow your advise.

  • Morning
  • Evening
  • Weekly or monthly
  • Full box!

I am so glad that I am the little sister of her 🙂 If our position is switch, I am the bigger sister and my little sister doesn’t have proper skin care…. sucks for you! hahaha 😉

She told me to stop using my cream or whatever things I used and try her skin care. Yuhuuuu that what I’ll do, I got the supplies anyway!

New years, new skin care 😀 thank you Sissy!

Posted on

Daddy-Daughter’s Moment Gone Right

Hungry…. I am so hungry…. I have no foods for my own…. Oh I’m so hungry…. that song from Akon with a little bit of switching some words was exactly how I felt last Sunday. It was already passed dinner time but I have no appetite but hungry yeah how to explain. I was hungry but I had no clue of what to eat and what do I want to eat, not that I didn’t have food on the table but I was not willing to eat it.

I kept opening the fridge to see something that I can grab a bite, I did had some snacks but not a proper meal. I was kept asking “whats to eat?” and my father also gave me some suggestion: McD in front of our home? pasta? this? that? but I still don’t want it and he said “my fried rice?” and my eyes were wide open YESSS!!! he said “but we need the seasoning from Indomie noodles” so I checked whether we have it and yes we do!

My mom was in her room at this time watching a live streaming video so she didn’t know what me and my father doing. He said “okay, seasoning is here, we need egg, ketchup and tomato sauce” and it’s everything that it takes haha in less than 5 mins my dinner is ready 😉

He said these are the emergency ingredients that I should have no matter what, where and when.

For my whole life, I probably only seen him in the kitchen cooking like less than 10 times. That’s why it’s worth to take pictures of him doing the cooking! Without a doubt I know that he can cook, he just lazy of doing the dishes because we don’t have a dishwasher! and nope every other household also don’t have it, it’s not common here in Indonesia.

Thanks Daddy for saving me from “starvation” 😉

Posted on

Addition or Subtraction

Last country on our trip! France and where it will be? To the city of light and love, Paris <3 We finally stayed in a hotel with elevator! Our hotel is near Champs Elysees, the weather wasn’t so nice when we were there, rainy, cloudy but it still didn’t reduce the fact that Paris is a beautiful city- the scenery, the arc, the bridge etc. We got some hours with sun but this sun followed by a crazy wind hahaha

I was so lucky that I can meet up with my 2 friends, Vinh and Lansana. I met Vinh first and he became our “tour guide” he showed us the tunnel where Lady Diana involved into an accident and when we heard it we were “oh! we didn’t notice it’s here” and he said “it’s just a tunnel ya” hahaha but it’s historic tunnel-worldwide famous so we went there then we went to his fav bridge in Paris which is Pont Alexandre III and Arc de Triomphe.

The next day we got additional person who is not strange to us, he is my sister’s boyfriend 😉

we went to the famous Louvre, Opera building, Gallery Lafayette but at some point we need to stop because it started to rain heavily.

Then for dinner we went to Asian restaurant which called Kok Ping sth like that also near Champs Elysees and the food there was sooo good! We first ordered in a small portion but we kept adding it. After dinner I met with Lansana, my sister went with her bf to the top of Arc de Triomphe, my parents went to bed.

The next day, we went with hop on hop off bus and we visited Marina’s fav place in Paris which is Sacre Coeur and it’s indeed way way way more beautiful than Eiffel Tower- I guess hahaha but since its hop on hop off, of course we stopped in Eiffel Tower.

We wanted to go to the Dom in Sacre Coeur but after more than 1 hour waiting on the line, another rain came by and we still waited on the line but the line didn’t even move so we gave up.

Then, the wonders of the world- Eiffel Tower! My father said “Oh, I can’t believe I’m on the feet of Eiffel Tower” and I said “Let me take picture of you” but the Eiffel Tower is so big and so hard to take a proper picture and I need to make sure that I lied down completely to the ground mwahaha 😀

Last day in Paris we went to Petit Palais, Place de la Bastille, Notredame, Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, Les Invalides wogh! tiring day! We also went to the cookies place that my father want to buy. So basically, the purpose of this last day is to buy the cookies but we don’t want to carry the cookies with us the whole day so we put it on the last things to do. I checked from the internet and as far as I know the place close at 7:30 PM so when I checked it again on 6:30 PM it’s written closing soon which make sense in 60 minutes they will close and we arrived there like either 10 or 8 minutes to 7 and we chose the cookies slowly and the girl said “I need to close the shop, we closing at 7” and we asked her for 5 more mins and she locked us in so that no other guest can come. What a day! Thanks God we made it otherwise my father would be so upset hahaha

The trip ended with me going back to Shanghai, my sister and Dom continued to Barcelona and Germany and my parents went back to Jakarta. Thanks for the light and love, Paris! wait… love?

This trip also ended up with addition of a not so new person, what does it means? Hint: Look at the blink 😉

Yes peps! my sister got engaged! The ring was too big for her so she put it on her middle finger first hahaha there will be subtraction from the Praseli but addition to the Berger 😉 She told us after she came back from Arc de Triomphe so actually Lansana played an important role, otherwise I would be with them and if Dom asked me to not join then I already know what will happen! My reaction was pretty random I jumped to her when I saw the ring and yes she hasn’t told me at that time, I think she’s about to but my eyes works faster than her word 😉 so I realized it was for the best that I’m not with them in the Arc otherwise it could be another different story ahahaha They told my parents the next day during breakfast. My mom cried, my father thought that he will be there during the proposal hahaha owh daddy!

I’m so happy for both of you, I mean we all are! Looking forward for the wedding but before that you need to solve the many wedding issues 😉 haha

#Keep Calm There’s One Praseli Left 😉

Posted on

Good Things Come In Small Packages

This summer I got a chance to visit the same countries that I visited 10 years ago but of course with additional time and places. Now it’s time for Belgium. For Belgium we went to Antwerpen-Brussels and Brugge. I only visited Brussels before and according to my memory Brussels was nice back then but now it wasn’t impressive at all, not that I disappointed it just showed me what 10 years could do to a city 😉

For Antwerpen, the train station was IMPRESSIVE ! It’s an old station but so so stunning in a way that only the building itself is able to mesmerized me. We stayed in a boutique hotel called Hotel Diamond and Pearls, it was about 30-40 mins by Taxi from the station, no elevator people! because it was such a heritage building and when they built it, the elevator doesn’t even exist-at least that’s what the GM told me.

Jason is super funny! He’s so cute and helpful, he recommended the place to eat and place to visit with a very clear explanation, he said “everything is so close, to go to Friday market its only take 2 minutes” btw it’s only the name Friday market but they have it every day 😉 and I said “Yeah, 2 minutes according to your pace but my pace could be slower” and he followed “no, it’s only right-left-right and you’re there” and it was literally just there, we came back to Jason to asked if we were on the right Friday market place and he said “yeah you found it, just like I said”

Then there is a place called Big market which is bigger than the Friday market but still close by, there’s also another place that looked like either a fort or Hogwarts school called Steelplein but unfortunately it’s under construction so we cannot go there 🙁

We also visited many churches, at least there are 2 churches in this area. I saw the coolest church every which they have a “fitness” corner haha!

Besides the kind of city center area, there is also a Tunnel for Antwerpen people or so to cross the river to the other side, it’s called Sint Anne tunnel where we went at least 30 meter below and what is so special about this? It’s the escalator! Jason called it a moving stairs hahaha 😉 that made out of wood and he said it’s pretty cool place to visit just to see the escalator and we trusted him so we went just to hop on on this very special wooden escalator, we didn’t even bother to cross the tunnel as Jason said it will take 20-30 mins to go to the other side.

Finished with Antwerpen, we went on to Brussels and to my surprise Brussels are dirty 🙁 but yeah here we are, let’s made the best out of it, waffles! churros! and the peeing boy-manneken pis. As far as I know there is only a boy but there’s also a girl and a dog! We went to the girl but it’s rather creepy and better not see it and the dog, meh! we didn’t even bother to search it.

Here is the famous manneken pis!

Ooops! he’s a boy so he’s not big and tall hahaha and def he’s not peeing while holding a waffle or peeing to the waffle hey kid! behave! here is the real one 😉

So…to whom who think the famous peeing statue is big… no oh! wrong! hahaha it’s really small. At least, the town hall is good!

Another famous attraction in Brussels is the Atomium, still have no idea why this could be it hahahaha there’s Mini Europe there so it’s the miniature of the whole building in Europe. Imo, it’s not necessary, even if you have time, you won’t miss anything if you missed it. If I may, better go to Brugge or even stay there for 3 days and visited Brussels for one day that would be the smart plan! Brugge is like 40-50mins away by train from Brussels but once you step in there…it’s a fairy tale land! I love it instantly, my sister booked a walking tour for 2.5 hours from Legend walking tour, our tour guide a 68 years old named Louis is a very nice guy and he also recommend a very nice restaurant, even until my Europe trip finished, no restaurant can beat the food we had in Brugge! He said he also do night tour where they go to a spooky, urban legend kind of place with torches and stuff and that’s sounds so appealing!

He said there are only 2 homeless guy in Brugge and they were put on a nice old house which many stuff enough for their daily needs and when I heard it it’s so nice that Brugge does it to their people. As someone who loves and believe in fairy tale haha #shy, and fast forward few years after that I could see these building that I only imagine exist in the fairy tale land in real life, I was amazed by it.

He also said that only in Brugge they have a pipe line for beer! So that the truck doesn’t need to do the unloading and pass through the city center as it would damage the streets.

Owh how I can’t get enough of Brugge #eyes drooling 🙂 we also went to churches and the town hall.

Cheers to the very satisfying dinner we had in Brugge 🙂

I think the saying of “Good Things Come In Small Package” does exist as Brugge and Antwerpen is smaller compare to Brussels but they do have better things here! At first I thought the saying was “Big Things Come In Small Package” but someone told me that it’s not true because if it’s big things then how can it fits in the small package? hahaha so we searched it on the internet and turns out indeed he was right, not big things but good things 😉

After that we went back to Brussels as we will leave the next day to the city of light and love, Paris! …stay tuned 😉

Posted on

This Is The Greatest Show!

Meeru Resort Welcomes You!

This resort located 45 km, approximate about 1 hour away from Velana Airport is really the best! It has the best services, food and staff!

Thanks to my sister that booked the Jacuzzi water villa room so that we can enjoy the beach directly under our room! the feeling where you just jump to the beach right after you wake up was amazing!

While we were staying there, my sister booked the resort together with buffet, so for breakfast, lunch and dinner it’s already included and the good system from Meeru is they put us on the same table everytime so we don’t need to be afraid that we came late to the dining hall and we don’t have any table to eat or so on and they also have the same staff that responsible for each section of the dinning hall, the dining hall is really big btw which means they also serve many foods! many good foods! 😉

On dinner time, they put LED lamp on every table with the same color which is yellow, but because it was dinner time so it’s a bit dark and I got lost so the person in charge of our table-Nasfah asked “what is my fav color?” and he changed the LED light to green so that I won’t get lost again haha

This resort always have somethings to do, some events to see, etc etc they never running out of idea of how to satisfy the customers! awesome 😉 Me and my sister did the free trial breathing exercise for diving, they did it on the swimming pool with the diving gear and when I carry the oxygen tank I swear it was so heavy and I almost fall down carrying it, it was more like the oxygen pulled me away hahaha.

We did the exercise on this very cool swimming pool

Then, we went to do snorkeling coral reef, they took us on the speed boat maybe about 15 mins away from the resort and we snorkeled on the ocean, we saw a lot of fish! many finding dori around, seems she didn’t get lost this time hahaha but we couldn’t stand on the reef because it is sooo deep.

We also did sunset on yacht and they provide some snacks on the yacht! perfect!

This time we went further away probably 1 hour from the resort, I saw the gradation of blue colors from light blue to darker blue to navy blue! To all the garment boss out there please visit Indian ocean first so that you can adjust your navy blue color of clothes hahaha 😉 because the real navy blue is really beautiful! hahaha during this sunset hunting, we met some dolphins! the dolphins jumped in group, did salto and the staff on the yacht said that dolphins like the noise so me and my sister, also my mom and dad was screaming when we saw one dolphin and we made some noise! hahaha and the dolphins jumped again 😉 I was like don’t worry Ibrahim (one of the staff’s name) screaming is my area of expertise 😉

They also have the buggy or golf car every time. So from our room to dining hall even though it is close but due to some reasons (read: excuses) for example the weather is too hot or I just want to feel like I’m a king 😉 hahaha I always call the buggy pfff….not me calling the buggy but I always asked the staff to call the buggy hahaha

At Meeru we can also go anywhere barefoot haha this is the best! just like at home 😉 because the floor is decorated with sand, it literally everywhere including the dining hall, the staff also barefoot…well, except the buggy’s driver.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was really a relaxing and refreshing time in Maldives, this place is really 10/10! Btw just FYI, the raining season starts from Feb-July so better not to go on that months and maybe…..just go directly to the resort, unless if you want to see the city 😉 hahaha

As 2018 is about to finish within 24hr, I hope you all doing good, people 😉

Get busy living!

Posted on

The Falsifying Advertisement

First of all, alert! alert! there is no wifi at Maldives airport everyone! WHATTT!! *shocked! They have free wifi but you need to register with your local number which is of course we don’t buy it so I can’t tell my sister where I will wait for them, the airport is small btw so you can’t be lost unless! you were not waiting on the arrival hall nor on the place where you said you would be 😉 HA! I said to my sister that I will wait them at Starbucks or some cafe shop to have the wifi and so on bbuuuuutttt I was on the lounge 😉 so there was a bit of hide and seek part between me and my sister but she was the one that seek me more and me, I’m just hiding under the cold AC with cookies, fruits and wifi from the lounge 😉 haha but long story short, we were able to found each other 😉

And we met the driver that took us to our hotel called h78, the hotel was nice, right in front of the beach. Btw this is not the resort yet, we went to the city called Hulhumale. The receptionist of this hotel is a woman from Nepal. My sister knew that this hotel provide the city tour and we wanted to go there but when we arrived the city tour has finished and we were kind of sad but the woman told us that we can go by ourselves and she gave us the map of where to go and what can we see there. We became enthusiast when we heard her explaining the touristic places. There are parliament building, city garden restaurant, presidential jetty and park, sultan mosque, souvenir shop and fish market and she suggested us to take taxi to the park and then walk around and that’s exactly what we will do!

The taxi driver named Ahmad came and he became our “tour guide” by saying this building is Maldives bank, ministry of foreign affairs building, jetty blablabla. But during the way to our Presidential Park, he suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, take a bottle of water, get out of the taxi to the sidewalk, rinse his mouth and came back. We were confused if he is fasting or what but yeah nobody knows what is going on with him….. Anyway we arrived to the one that called “park”. I was like…this doesn’t seems like a presidential park and I said that we want to go to the presidential park and he said “oh this presidential park is behind the mosque” and he dropped us there. Before we got off he asked how long we will be here and I said maybe 3 hours and he said “No, it’s too long. Everything here is so small only 500m walking distance, 1 hour is enough” I was like hmmmmm this is such different energy from the receptionist and the driver.

And here is the Presidential Park, they have the what so called “Fountain Bridge” which is…. See it by yourselves people 😉 the fountain was just like this and this height, doesn’t go any higher and the lights are blue, green and red ahahaha

They have a unique swing and a man-made tree.

Then this is the Sultan Mosque, Jetty and another park which has many birds and the ministry of foreign affairs 😉

The souvenir shops was not appealing at all, because all the shops are darks so we didn’t go there. And the highlight was the so called artificial beach. Our receptionist said many people take pictures of this artificial beach and I was just curious how did they make the artificial beach in the middle of the city? And here it is people! Hahaha

See the sand, the salt water aka beach and then see those rocks act as a border between the artificial beach and the sea and the sea! haha

So…..the winner of this city tour explanations goes to the driver! Hahaha the way the driver explained everything to us was very simple and the way it is. But it is still good that we visited this city, because we got to know the places otherwise we will be curious about how the city will looks like and no wonder why the city tour already finished by the time we arrived there, I mean….there’s not much things to see anyway hahaha 😉

But we got to know that the people that we met in Hulhumale they all are very friendly and helpful and they can speak English! Wohooo so this makes our life easier haha and time goes really slow here #times goes by so slowly, times goes by so slowly lalalalalla by Madonna.

Next day we will go to the resort! To the real Maldives where you will see on google or any other search engine when you type Maldives. THIS BETTER BE GOOD! 😉

 

 

 

Posted on

Dede with Mom and Dad…. and other relatives

I’m coming home, tell the world I’m coming home. The world?!?! pffff that’s so exaggerating haha 😀 Yais, yais, yais! I’m coming home finally for 13 days minus the flight, so I was at home for 11 days actually.

Crazy Rich Asian was so hits! and I haven’t watch it in Shanghai therefore I was so happy when I found out that it still air in the cinema here, I watch it with my mom. I was extremely happy to see Asian face in Hollywood 😉 Spoiler: I really like the soundtrack of one of the scene at CRA which is Cant Help Falling In Love, covered by Kina Grannis, OMG! that was such a very touching scene! And from CRA followed by watched Searching, gezzz! Searching is sooooooo awesome! not only because it was also another Asian face but the story itself is soooo unpredictable! 😮 My sister was the one that very very very keen about Searching, because it was aired for 1.5 months ago so she was afraid that the movie already taken down and she was right, it was almost taken down but we still managed to watched it! highly recommend!

My parents wasn’t so update about what kind of movies that new released, of course they know about Mission Impossible or another James Bond movie because these are the Hollywood Hollywood style of movie, but for the one that starred with Asian actress they don’t really know. My father didn’t watch CRA, only mom but she likes it, the three of us watched Searching and all of us like it a lot! Me and my father like the movie that was based on a true story, so I downloaded Hacksaw Ridge and watched it with them, and I also asked them to watch Lion. And maybe tomorrow we will watch Venom at the cinema haha! Yes, we watch many movies 😀 But I also learn how to cook Thorben! haha

I brought my HSK 6 book with me because in theory I will learn the HSK back home but in fact I didn’t even open that book! hahaha 😮 gosshhh I think I will have to postponed the test otherwise it will be the same as I’m tossing RMB 650 registration fee to the window hahaha

First weekend, I met the family from my mother side (not all only 2 uncles with their family) and OMG my cousins all are grown ups already! These 3 are the ones that still shorter than me but I’m sure next year they all will be taller than me huaaaa 🙁 but yeah what do I expect anyway 😀 They were 10 yo, 15 and 16yo….. and me… 27! haha!

We went to Abuba steak to kind of celebrate my birthday

But honestly speaking, it was nothing compare to Thorben’s 😉 and I’m serious!

Fast forward to the next weekend, we were at the mall and yes! We as Indonesian went to mall often haha something that maybe European or American cannot relate to that *face palm* and my father saw an orange squeezer on discount to only Rp 20,000.00 which is around RMB 10 and my father said to my mom that this is on discount, let’s have a look on this shop. And we bought that orange squeezer and my mom bought something for the bathub and while we want to pay to the cashier inside, we found out that all the furniture there was also on discount! I mean BIG SALE! and my father just asked the shop assistant “Are you getting to close down so everything were on discount?” anddd! She said “Yes, this is the last day, we will close tonight!” And suddenly out of nowhere my father got all the energy to checked the furniture hahaha! and in the end we came home with a new dining table + 6 chairs, and a new shelf 😀

At first, the reason why we need to buy the new dining table and shelf so that our home will be more neat because everything will be on the places, but not long after they finished assembled it and they started to put everything on the table and I was like “The table and shelf now is bigger and indeed has more space but you will also put more stuff so in the end it will be the same always full and not so neat” hahaha *face palm* it will be full sooner or later as my mom will bring her collections somewhere from the boxes to put it on the shelf haha 😀

Another family meeting! We met 1 aunt from my father side 🙂 we went to Central Park (also mall! don’t get deceived by the name Park and Central) we had lunch there. She was my most realistic aunt! She said she just had a high school reunion, for about 40 years they haven’t met each other and she said all of them they still recognize her, without a doubt, while everyone was still guessing who is who because all of the changes that happened within 40 years but to her, everyone could guess it was her. And I was a bit confused of why? she said because when I was in high school I was already 62kgs and now I’m 70kgs so it was only small differences, while the other was 35kgs and now become 80kgs of course nobody would recognize them. HAHAHA! I was laughing so hard, she said it very relax XD.

And I remembered my highschool, I was between 40-42kgs let’s see in 40 years how much weight I will be 😉

Next family meeting is my uncle from my father’s side but I only meet his kids which is my cousins. They are the youngest cousins from my father side which is 18 yo and 15 yo and kids…. you grown so fast! haha I’m the smallest one then 🙁

Out of the sudden this is the last weekend I’m here 😮 and I’m flying back to Shanghai again on Tuesday morning another 😮 Also, I will see next time I’m coming back home again, how full our shelf will be 😉 haha

Stay healthy and happy Mom and Dad! ‘Till we meet again, hopefully next time we will have full Praseli’s clan 😉

 

Posted on

Daddy’s Rules Number 1

“You can’t never be the last, this will be too painful to me, in everything you do you have to be at least second from the last, then I will be OK”

Yeap that’s my dad’s number one rule, when I was still an elementary students, junior high school and high school students every year my father always asked me “are you the smallest one in class?” and my annual task is to find somebody that is smaller than me, we don’t care if that someone will be taller than me next year but at least at that moment I’m not the last one, he said if I’m the last one then I’m in danger. If I had a bad grades, he always ask “is there someone that is worse than your score?” and of course there will always be someonesssssss (with the s which means its plural haha) and anyway with this rule I carry on with my life 🙂 my “I can’t be the last” attitude haha!

I think it was Aggy that having an idea to do Camel Pop Quiz on Tuesday and I was available to do that on Tuesday and so were Thorben. The Quiz starts at 8PM, Thorben had company dinner before so he might arrives late, I asked Miguel, David, Gordy, Andy, Yves, Thorben texted Rich but everyone couldn’t make it, including! the pioneer! AGGY! phewww you gotta organize your schedule because you were the one that always go to Camel, we need your help! But in the end, Stefan (which Thorben claimed really good at music and movie) came and also James from UK. And Thorben arrived at Camel way early that the quiz and I arrived exactly 8PM German Time.

At first, I thought the pop quiz will be like in the old broker way like the DJ asked question and we need to answer it as fast as we can like raising up our hand or ring a bell etc haha but turns out we need to write the answer on the paper quiz which gives us more time to think about it.

We picked up a name, Thorben said we will be so bad Marlyn, we only two people, lets write our group name “No Name, No Shame” so if we lose we won’t be so embarrassed anyway (German mentality that always prepare anywhere anytime, he even knows before the quiz starts that we will lose haha! do I look like someone that has no knowledge?!?! haha)

The very first question on the camel and the one that I know the answer was:

I knew it was INDIA! Because both my sister and me are the supporter of LGBT and she posted it on her IG that India finally legalize same sex marriage and that’s actually how I know it. And!! Thorben didn’t know about it! Booyah! I suddenly full of knowledge, and I’m quiet happy that I can answer it, I’m ready to go home hahaha!

But then it’s just go went all the way down, giving all the credits to Thorben haha! But at least I know the first one yo! And because that Tuesday was 11th September, so they asked the history about 911, like how many hijackers on the plane- which is 13, how many people died, what was the name of the attackers etc.

And then the pyramid questions came like:

name 6 largest cities in Germany which is easy because we have Thorben and Stefan, and then name 5 personnel of one direction which is easy because we have the UK representatives-James and MOI obviously! haha. And getting more serious, name 4 countries that start with D but the democrats doesn’t count I guess or sth like that we only knew 3-Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, and we put…. Deutschland! haha technically it wasn’t wrong people! And….I was so sure that Indonesia was one of the largest producers of Brazil nuts, we have a lot of fertile soil….so why can’t we be one of the producers? see the logic… haha!

And there was 4 pictures of men and we have to write down who are they and what was the connection. But during this time, Stefan’s mind occupied by something else which is the fact that we can’t take Didi taxi anymore from 11PM and he couldn’t take his mind off it….

And the questions regarding the second most spoken language in some countries for 10 times and Stefan got so bored, he came back to the Didi’s driver issue. What is the second most spoken language in Australia? I was so sure it was Indonesian because they taught Indonesian language in schools and there were many Indonesian stays there, but turns out I was wrong, it’s mandarin.

The first page of the paper is done, we have to exchange it with the others and!! tararammm this is our score!

I was sooooo proud when I see the score! haha I’m not the last! at least the way the DJ put our group name was on the second from the last 🙂

And there here we continues, with Stefan’s area of expertise! MOVIES! but it was the movies that Burt Reynolds played, it was hard! haha. We need help from Rich and he knew the answer! awesome! apparently it was too late for us to write it down.

And somehow out of nowhere (well, we know where you suddenly got the “inspiration”) Stefan and James “knew” 2 of his movies title.

 

And then the music section came! we were so sucks at it, we (well, I guess it more Stefan’s) only knew one which is from The Beatles, he said it the title was “Shake It Up” and somehow James got “inspiration” to change it into “Twist and Shout” and I like that song sooo much! I was wondering why I never heard my dad played that song before….hmmm father please!

And the era of 1991 music arrived! I knew one which is “More Than Words” but I knew it from Westlife instead from Extreme haha!

And here was our results:

We WERE NOT THE LAST! Gosh, I’m so proud of myself that I could fulfill my dad’s number one rule! We did everything we could just to fulfill your requirements dad!

I think we can go to the next pop quiz, but we will recruit more people to join haha! But maybe the next pop quiz will happen somewhere by the end of October or maybe even November, let’s see if we can still be obedience to my father’s rule or not ;p

Posted on

Owh Mother!

The last time I met my mom was on November 2017, and for the past few months I have been dreaming of my mom, there were 2 dreams. The first one was quite scary because me and my mom was in a disaster area, a flood in Indonesia, a real flood and I was hugging my mom and the water just took us somewhere and then I woke up. The second one was I was having a phone call with my mom saying “Oh, this weekend is a holiday, I will go home to stay at your place (in Jakarta, while me staying in Bandung)” and then I woke up from my dream and realized that my mom is in Indonesia and I’m in Shanghai. I’ve told this to my mom and she became sad realizing that both of her daughter are not with her. And then out of nowhere she knew that there was a cheap tour to Hainan and that’s why she and I got to meet again 🙂

Before she went to Hainan, she went to Thailand and she knows the only snacks that I eat back home was Pocky. But in Indonesia (or at least while I was there) the flavor of Pocky was only chocolate and strawberry, and while she was in Thailand she saw many many many different flavor of Pocky. So she bought two flavors for me mango and cookies & cream. She said I will bring it to you when we meet in Hainan and she did!

This is not the only snack that she brought, she also brought the famous noodle for us to eat it as dinner as we both landed Hainan pretty late and we did kill that noodle.

Prior to her boarding from Jakarta, as this Hainan was a cheap tour and Hainan did a crazy promotion to Indonesian therefore its not only people from Jakarta that knew it but also from another city like Semarang, Bandung and so on. And one of my cousin get married with a guy from Semarang and turns out his parents also went to Hainan! the same trip as my mom, but different tour agent as they are from other city. At first while still in Jakarta’s airport, my mom didn’t really recognize them, my mom was recalling about who is this familiar face but didn’t really 100% sure that it was the parents of my cousin’s husband, until the boarding time then she remembered who are they.

They sat on the same airlines but different rows, my mom was sitting with someone else from the same tour but mostly at first she was alone because she didn’t know anyone. While this aunt and uncle (yes we can’t call by names in Indonesia it’s consider impolite) sat quiet in front, so my mom could see them. And during this flight this couple was “ngebala” (Idk how to translate that to english but this words only use if you have too much snacks and the rubbish are everywhere). And my first reaction was “oh poor the flight attendants because they need to clean it” but turns out it’s not like they’re throwing the rubbish everywhere but my mom just use this words to describe that they have many snacks and eat many snacks during the flight! haha. From behind, my mom could see that this auntie gave varieties of snacks to the other passengers on their group, and my mom said “I was sitting on behind and drooling to see that they have many snacks” hahaha! I was laughing so hard when I knew that turns out my mom wants to eat their snacks also, and I said to my mom “had you knew they have many snacks, you would have say hi to them at the first place, instead of making sure of who these persons are” hahaha

Moving on to the next day, the breakfast at the first hotel wasn’t so great, and we have to got up early but the night before my mom’s flight got delayed for 2 hours and then she got stuck at the immigration for 1 hour and the flight from Jakarta to Hainan was 5 hours so it was a lloonnnnggg “flight” for her, that’s why we got up late, and we only had breakfast very little. My mom went to the bus first, and then when I arrived, I found that she’s eating my Pocky! hahaha! I was like “mom, didn’t you say that this Pocky is for me?” and she said “hihihi I’m hungry, but there is still half of the Pocky for you” and I ate the other half 🙂

Is it just me or do you also feel that your mom know everything? Like for example when you were a kid and you were looking for a pair of socks, and your mom said it’s in the drawer and you looked for it more than 3 times and you couldn’t find it and you came to your mom and she came with you to the drawer and then find it within a second? That’s my mom, she knows everything, including the time in Hainan when she knew it already that I will have 1 clothes less, I didn’t realize it until the fourth day that I don’t have any clothes to wear again! As the weather was hot there, and I can’t wear the same clothes twice, and she said “I have another spare clothes for you” and I was really against her to wear it, but I don’t have any other options and my mom insisted me to wear those. And she dressed me up as Luigi!

I said to my mom that I will looks like Mario Bross’ cousins but she couldn’t remember Luigi, she said “No, Mario bross is wearing jeans and red clothes, you’re wearing jeans and green” and I said “Yes! That’s Luigi!” and I will have to search for Luigi pictures and ask her to see that but in the end I still wear that clothes… pfff…. I just need to wear the hats and I become Luigi……tsk tsk tsk

And then here’s come the times where I will have to say goodbye to her, due to my flight was domestic because I’m flying back here to Shanghai and her flight was international as she was going back home. I thought that I will have to hop off from the buss to the domestic terminal but then I hop off to international terminal and walked to the domestic. During the time that we still on the bus my mom asked me “So, you will hop off first, will you turn around and say bye bye to me?” I was like “Of course I will, and it’s only 3 weeks before we meet again at home”. We both got off at the international terminal but then as I walked to the domestic terminal I kept turn around to see her until the point where the trees was too much too block our view.

Owh Mother, please don’t worry, I am super OK here and I hope you’ll be fine there too… Lots of love from me!