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ABCDEF (not you)

Although I didn’t mean to sing Gayle’s song, I can’t help myself 🙂 I wrote a series of Vitamin ABCD without slightest knowledge it’ll continue to the next alphabet, yet here we are!

What would be the representation of letter E?!

Eschborn!

Never heard about it? #me too. It all started at the end of April when I met Ashley and Ongky for the first time in Dortmund. We “knew” each other because my father and Ongky’s father are friends. Ongky had a Seminar in Düsseldorf then they drove to my favorite Italian restaurant 🙂

Prior to our dinner, I always texted with Ongky’s wife, Ashley. Thinking back, it was kind of our blind date as we didn’t have any video call before, I mean…. we are Asians in Dortmund, it won’t be that hard to recognize 😉

During dinner, she told me there will be an Indonesian Festival in Eschborn. The Indonesian Consulate General asked her if she’s interested to participate on selling foods. She hasn’t really confirmed at that time, however as the times goes by, I know they will have a stand, so I’ll definitely go! I already realized right there and then that she is a good cook as no one would offer her a stand if she can’t cook and it’s true! She brought me her signature PemPek TOP TOP TOP! I couldn’t sleep that night, woke up at 23:30, fried the PemPek, proceed to ate it! I slept happily after that heavenly snack!

Times get closer, let’s dig into more serious matter, where is Eschborn? its about half an hour from Frankfurt using S-Bahn. What a coincidence is my Archery photographer, Daniel Cuesta also in Frankfurt on that weekend, I told him, he’d better be free on Saturday to go with me to the Indonesian Festival 😉

We found the place! we were a bit confused with their disguise entrace. I thought it should be an outdoor event therefore I kept looking on tent or something that could represents as an event going on, na ja! it’s inside the building. OK. First mission, found them!

The building was OK, many people already sit on the chair… which not belong to them yet they treat it as if it’s generational, they won’t leave it for a seconds! We had to stand in kind of sharing table thingy. Good things we stood there though, we met another guy, precisely he was standing with us eating, I heard him saying “the sound system could be better” directly whispered to Daniel “he’s 100% German” “why?” “German stereotpye, always complaining” 😉 he was indeed completely right! the sound system, the mic, the loud Indonesian customers on behind, everything was horrible. I can’t hear anything what the speaker said. Poor man!

We started to talk to him to some point he asked “why are you speaking in English?” because this Mister right here is from Mexicooooo haha he’s not Indonesian, come on, dude, it’s written in all of his face. We asked the basic stuff until we know he came a long 2 hours S-Bahn journey only for this Indonesian fest! what an honor! thank you! what is more surprising about him is he was everywhere in Indonesia! from the most touristic place to less touristic place, he already plan for his next holiday to Indonesia, on top of everything, he had a Spotify playlist for Indonesian songs, boah! respect! Finally I know a foreigner who comes to Asia often other than the other way around #once in a blue moon!

At 18:00 there were some culture performance on the second floor. Me, Daniel and Pascal were confused (again! nope we are not dumb! the building floor plans confused us) where the damn stairs? I saw a kind of back stairs with an A4 paper stick to the door written “hausmeister” “treppe zur Bühne” guys lets go here!

We arrived, they haven’t open the official stairs yet but we were already inside. Few minutes later more crowds are filling the so-called auditorium. Opening speech, memorable ‘plakat’ were given, yeap, skip skip skip, performance please 😉

Dancers, singer, angklung performance were all out. Guess what? Ashley played Angklung! She didn’t tell me before, what a nice surprise 🙂

In the middle of the event, I was a bit worried if Daniel got bored… on the other side, he cant do nothing anyway hahaha suck it up!

A rather “old guy” (he refers himself like that) sit next to Daniel, he got some questions… so I, being an Indonesian, answered him. He came with his Philipine’s wife, he knew Bandung, from all the place?!?! turns out his ex-girlfriend was from Bandung haha. They stayed until the end, for the whole event I was sitting next to him. Until we were about to be separated, his wife wanted to take a selfie then he said “let’s ask her (read: me) to be in the camera too” I took it as if they won’t mind to have their picture here 😉

A saxophone + band act as our closing performance, they were amazing! all photos and videos about the performance comes from Pascal’s phone.

Here is the recap of Indonesian Performance

Hey! its a culture exchange thingy, they do have some performance by the Germans 🙂 The choir did sing one song from Mexican folks, La Cucaracha. Daniel was “whaaaaaatttt”

That’s our experience in Eschborn 🙂

Daniel comes with me to Dortmund, one step back on the Alphabet 🙂 we didn’t really do much… due to the reason, there is not much to do here haha here are some activities we did when he was here, the rest off to Düsseldorf + Köln by himself.

Jump to alphabet F, I had a seminar in Frankfurt from Facebook regarding finance thingy. Since the seminar is in Frankfurt meaning I went to Ashley and Ongky again yeayyy!!!! their apartment is amazing! the one you wish you could have #Genie, that’s one of my 3 wishes!

On Saturday morning we had a video call with my family so my father could see Ongky again after some decades aparts. I had PemPek as breakfast! best best best! Sister said “for sure Ashley is a good cook, otherwise Marlyn won’t come to Frankfurt” #Im sold easily by food 🙂

They drop me to my Seminar hotel, Ongky said “make sure the Seminar is really there” I was afraid it turns out as a scam or MLM that’s why I prefer to go alone. Long story short, it was actually a nice one, I might join again as a paying customer if they hold it next year 🙂 Afterwards, we went for a Korean food.

We also did some sport heyyy! run 5km! we gained calories while not burning so much haha #this is life!

Thank you beautiful people! Something as regular as eating, watching, sightseeing, even fucking running is more fun when you have friends around. Happy to be able to do it with you 🙂

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Vitamin D

May in Deutschland, what can you offer? hmmm…

There are indeed more public holiday in May compare to other months, let me take you to a city called Stuttgart 🙂 For this trip I took 2 days off + weekend + 2 days mobile work + 1 national holiday = perfekt!

Texted Binbin’s, he welcomed me to stay at their apartment, very well received! Yes I’ll stay in your big place again! Happy to be back!

I am still traumatized with my first experience taking ICE from Dortmund to Stuttgart due to more than 2 hours delay and the end result was the train not stopping at Stuttgart Hbf. Opt to take a Flixbus, it took me 7,5 hours including 3x stops at the gas station, not so bad I’d say.

Arrived their apartments on 1st of May, Binbin was still in Amsterdam only Andreas was at home. No special things planned as it was already evening. Day number 2, I do home office while Andreas went to the real office. Binbin will be back late in the evening. I had a dinner plan with Beaaaaa! Last time I saw her was in year 2017, first time I met her was in Shanghai back in year 2013 whoaaaaa so excited to meet her again!

First dinner in Stuttgart with Beatrice!

We met in front of the Stiftskirche, since I was there earlier, I took myself to visit Markethalle. Although there are many interesting food there, I didn’t buy anything as we plan to eat Korean food! my oh my, how I miss Asian food!

We doubted between two Korean places, Soban or Mandu. We both visited the places yet decided to go to Soban as it has broader variety of menu. At first we felt like we couldn’t finish it but after sitting for more than 2 hours plus kept talking, you could guess right? yep! it’s all gone! we finished it! We or let’s say correctly, our intestines just need some times to digest the food before we deliver a new one.

There is always funny story you entdeckt when you meet your friends. One example is Bea wasn’t exactly sure how to pronounce my name! ha! caught her! I said some Germans are not pronouncing my R in Marlyn, to that she commented “no, its not that they are not pronouncing the R, they are swallowing the R” hmmm… okay? using this chance, I asked her “What’s my name Bea?” she’s like “eeehhh I’m not so sure” haha!

After all of those foods and laugh, we were strolling around the city. She used to work in Stuttgart so she more or less knows the place.

Then she drove me to Binbin’s apartment, thank you lovely Bea for the evening! Good food, good conversation, what else can I ask more? Blessing to have a friend like you.

Who else lives in this city? Nora!

My food nerds friend! Told her I want to have a Chinese food, later she suggested to have a Hotpot, yaissss! it has been sooooo long since I have a Hotpot! Basically because it’s always contain lots of dishes, for me, I’m living alone so eating all at once would be impossible, doesn’t matter how long you spend the time sitting on the chair eating.

We were 3 people, meaning without at doubt we could handle it! While Nora was preparing she asked me if I know one of the dishes, I said “potato noodles” she was totally begeistert I knew it 😉 Okay Nora, it’s a revelation time, Binbin made Potato Noodles at home for lunch, that’s the only reason why I knew it haha, not so begeistert now… right?

They live in a very cozy apartment, I hope someday I can buy an apartment too, for sure it will be smaller than theirs, on top of that, I need their luck to get the one that already has floor, kitchen, bathroom and lamps! Perhaps many more apartments so I could qualified to be a 包租婆 haha if Nora can’t realize her dreams, who knows? maybe I can 🙂 Thank you Jacob and Nora the 王木木! 😀

My brother Thorben! What a pleasant surprise to know you were in Stuttgart while I was there!

How can I miss not to see you? No way in hell! Binbin, let’s gooooo! Since Thorben only have a limited amount of time, we met in the Stadtmitte SBahn to have a drink in the Cafe nearby (P.S: it didn’t make us less happy!)

Then we went to Lululemon where Thorben always says “you don’t need to wait for me, I feel bad” Oh brother, don’t worry, we do have time, this is what happen when you really have no agenda haha

Afterwards, we separated in the SBahn, Binbin got an appointment, Thorben went to the hospital and I went to Porsche Museum #Tourist!

Last day already! #schoked! I do have more time on this visit but still not enough!

After I visited Mercedes Benz Museum, I go pick up Binbin while he was walking Emil. Then he went to Edeka and I’m waiting outside with Emil. Andreas was busy with Billy.

On the evening, let’s have Paella! Me and Andreas already calculated when should we change clothes, when should we leave the apartment so we can catch the bus on time to be there at 19:30 as our RSVP.

Seconds before we left the elevator, last check, Andreas asked Binbin “do you have the DE Ticket?” dadammm! Binbin forgot where is his ticket and he said “there’s no one will check” being a German, Andreas insist him to look for it, if he is Asian for sure we will just schwarzgefahren! hihi #adrenaline high!

We three almost starve to death while waiting for our Paella, yes we knew it will takes around 45 minutes but it was more than that! The waiter, he gave us some more bread, good enough to wait until our main food arrived. At the end, we couldn’t finish it so I took it home for my lunch on the train #no food waste!

Oh Shanghai, what an amazing people you kept introduced me, thank you for all the time guys! I think I will see you soon….as Andreas said I should come more often to put some rational thinking to Binbin, exhibit a. not buying 45 kg of stone from China haha 😉

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Vitamin A

Australia, second home to so many Indonesian 🙂

How many? let’s see how many I can meet during my short stay in Sydney:

(P.S. one of them is not an Indonesian, you’ll know who #wink)

Betsy

First time I met her was really back then, on my 2nd year of primary school in Bandar Lampung, SD Xaverius Pahoman. Never will I ever miss that bloody school! So so so strict! Can’t remember how many hats I have because every Monday we had a ceremony where we must wear hat and I forget it from time to time so I need to buy it every damn time or else I’d go to detention.

Enough with that school, back to Betsy, she was my classmates, I remember she was the smart one 🙂 Last time I saw her was in year 2016, she was a newlywed. Now I met her again, she’s already have mini Betsy + mini Andy = Bethany!!!

Bethany wasn’t even chill, she can already run, thus she ran all the time. We, the grown up ones were the one who worried if she will hit something. While we had our Lemonade drink, when she’s not running, she’s eating her grape raisins and chocolate, she does have a job to keep us busy 😀

She was fast yet easily get distracted. Betsy said “this is what happened when you walk around with toddler, never really know when will you reach your destination”.

Let’s see what could Bethany do next time we meet again…. perhaps fly…. to Germany? haha you have one aunt here Bethany! Someday it’ll be your time to visit me 😉

Leyfa

Mamacita! Thank you for seeing my post on IG otherwise I wouldn’t know you’re in Sydney too! Brendan say nothing about your whereabout when I told him I’m going to Australia.

Archery has brought us together, I still keep all the clothes you gave me, both the <3 Leyfa Por Favor is Coming and Mamacita needs a Margaritha. I’ll keep wearing it, the only way I see I’m not wearing it, is if I frame it.

Her place is in Dee Why, this is the moment where I realized Sydney is big! Because Dee Why is one hour and ten minutes away from City Center and the whole time I’m in the bus, I kept asking myself, where the hell am I?? Say no more, it’s worth a travel to see you!

I’m so proud of what you’ve endured, achieved, became and will become. Wishing you and Charly a great life in Australia, you are welcome anytime in Dortmund. I know, tragic ehhh from Shanghai to Sydney then to Dortmund hahaha

Queen

My brain and beautiful influencer, Q! This girl is so damn busy you can’t really catch her, her schedule is like a jetsetter! I already texted her a long time ago that I will be from X date to Y date in AU, got not a reply from her until I’m already in Brisbane. AAAAAA need to meet her before she spread her wings elsewhere!

I thought I’ll meet her for lunch before I come to see Leyfa for dinner but I lost my glasses so I switch the plan. I met Leyfa on lunch time then her for dinner or else I can’t see the way for me to be back to City Center in the dark time without my glasses hahaha

I always a bit insecure with her because she’s so pretty, I told her to just be chill and don’t wash her hair hahaha #I know very important, anyway she violated my request. She’s appears gorgeous as always 🙂

We reserve a table, what I mean is we came and say to the waitress “a table for 3 please” so we didn’t even reserve nothing haha while waiting for her +1 to come, we went to Darling Harbour #Sydney mandatory place.

+1 came, it’s eating time at Bar Totti’s #nom nom

From all the places in the world, Shanghai’s Church Courtyard is the place that connected us. It is so weird to type it in one sentence, a church courtyard in Shanghai #yeap, still weird.

You have brain and beauty, you studied medical, you are officially a doctor for f#$k sake! entrepreneur too, what’s next? have some projects in Europe please!

Mario

My highschool friend Yoyo! Sophie need to thanks him, without him I wouldn’t find the Southern Wild Co. Candle she asked me about 😉

He showed me the highlight of Sydney other than Darling Harbour (as I went there with Q already) met in Town Hall, ate the famous cake, went to The Rock. Said to him “Yo, took pic of me that looks like I’m abroad” he understood the assignment very well.

Then went to Ibis to take my luggage thank you for carrying all my $h!t, took shower at his place, airport #tough schedule.

SMA Saint Aloysius Bandung met us up, Parahyangan Catholic University met us up again although he was in a different Fach than me, honestly even from high school we were already different, he chose science while I chose social. He and his wife are the smart couple, they met on a accounting competition, the hell was that?!?!

He visited me when I still in Shanghai I guess it was year 2017 then now I visited him, next…. you and your wife need to come to Germany!

Thank youuuu friends for all the time you spare with me, do remember to contact me if you ever go anywhere in Europe. It doesn’t have to be Germany or Dortmund precisely, I know there are much better options hahaha I can promise you that I will try my best to catch you up in any part in Europe.

Love you all and really wish you the best in each step of your life!

#Peace out

Until next time 🙂

*Btw I don’t like to show pictures of an underage children. Thanks to Flaticon, I got it covered. Grape raisins icon from Raisins icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

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Bingo No Bingo

With the pandemic of Covid-19 spreading all around the world, I guess people on social media is trying to do something to kill the time. A couple of weeks ago there was a very trendy “this or that” or “bingo” thingy running on Instagram, well at least that what happened in Indonesia and one of my friends also tagged me on it but I have no idea how to edit it to mine pffff so I couldn’t participate on those trend things…

Anyway, there was about Shanghai and Bandung. For Bandung…. I’m so ashamed I didnt even reach bingo haha! where all of these places? it’s a new one or? I don’t think I knew any of it!! #facepalm

  • So not active in the Uni
  • Have no idea what is these snacks!

BUT!! for Shanghai its BINGO ALL THE WAY!! haha I’ve spent 7 years of my life there so bring it on, Susan!

Learn a Shanghai dialect?! what is learning? I even participating on a “competition” haha they chose me and Frederick Visti (I called him Fimu) as Donghua representatives. Honestly speaking, we both forget everything and think that this is the shame of our lives, we were under 3 months intense class but none of it stuck in our brain 🙁 The show was on a local TV but really none of us remember anything T.T

Yesss! I found the video! not the final one because the article has been deleted by the author don’t know why. This is probably the first and my last time I went on a Television and it really made me appreciates all the actors now I really do understand why it took them months or even years to make a movie! It took us legit more than 4 hours to make a 4 mins video.

I went to a lllooooottttt of weekend trip! it’s basically a water town! me and my friends all went to almost all water town around Shanghai, yes it all looks the same, but we were a poor broke students what can we do besides went on a bus 1.5 hours away from Shanghai haha we don’t have budget to travel by plane 🙂 but it’s always fun because at that time our Chinese is not so good so we always got lost #facepalm

Christmas market was a highlight for me! I’m from Indonesia and Christmas there was and is not a big holiday so it was my first time to come there! and it became a tradition to at least got a feeling of Christmas vibe and I fall in love with the cup mwahaha so every year I always come back and buy the cup 😉 and yes my nails should follow the theme as well. Together with the first snow that I ever witness fall down from the sky. Once I noticed it, I grab my jacket and ran outside haha what a memory 🙂

Study in the library all day? yes of course I was a dedicated student! this is me and my team! all laowai that doesn’t understand what is what so it took us all day to figure it out 😉

Pisen (Thailand), Betty (Italy), Linas (Lithuania) and Zolo (Mongolia)

Have a crush on international friend? DEFINITELY! No questions asked 😉 I love all my friends that I met here some I’m still in contact even some who are not… I’m glad that I met you all XOXO

  • Eri- Japan
  • Russel- Turkmenistan
  • Ali-UK
  • Harim-Korea
  • Sara-Iran
  • Adil-Azerbajian
  • Bakhnur (Qina) -Kazakhstan

Say farewell?? Ouch too much! T.T

  • Syuke-Malaysia
  • Jennifer-Indonesia
  • Francois-France

Another Bingo for Shanghai from Kristopher #cool

Yuyuan Garden? Around CNY is the most beautiful one as they have a lot of lantern shows and yep it’s crowded 🙂

  • Anya- Shanghainese

Xin Tian Di, duh?! this is only the place for us (broke ass students) only to come and take picture on the fountain and go back mwhaha the restaurants are too pain for my wallet back then… and still now haha 😉

Oriental Pear Tower, Mr& Mrs. Bund, The Bund of course! These are the MUST! After 4 years in SH I only went once to Mr&Mrs. Bund and it was for my graduation when my parents were there mwahaha 😉 For The Bund? bring it in! we were there on 31st Dec and it was sooooo many people we saw the last countdown and fireworks there 😉 and after that nope we don’t want to go there anymore, once is enough!

  • First and Last NYE on the Bund

I think Muse on The Bund was the very first night club that I’ve ever been too. I was never go on a night club before and then it was after we had Christmas dinner so without plan and without proper clothes (me and Jennifer was wearing legit sweater jacket etc) and not a clothes to go out at all and yet we went to Muse on The Bund, feels a bit weird because every girls were wearing dress and minimum outfit while we were complete gear to fight for the weather haha

SH Movie Park and Thames Town this two far away place! yet still I was there mwahaha with my classmates 🙂 so fun! we didn’t even care how long the ride was and in fact we took metro or buses, what taxi? thats too expensive 😉

  • Chuandao (Japan) and Rosalin (Malaysia)
  • with Jennifer (Indonesia)

These (except picture with Syuke) was my memories during my 4 years being a student in Donghua University, crazy how time flies! and as I saw through the old pictures it made me laugh of how good the memories are and made me a bit emotional also as some of them I lose contact and I can’t find their number or wechat ID or even emails but I hope they remember the funny times that we had 🙂

Thank you Shanghai for the memories, I am forever grateful that I spent my 7 years time in this city. I promise you, once this pandemic is over, I will go to visit you all, Azerbajian, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Iran etc etc etc and I will search for you.

Until then, stay healthy! keep safe and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the times that you shared with me and I love you all #big big hug from me to you <3

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My Game Changer

Two years ago, on October holiday I went to an underground repelling trip and I met a girl, her name is Lexi. While other people bring their friends or family, we both went to the trip by ourselves and we hit it up quickly. It is pretty common that people hit it up during some events or in this case during the trip but when we continue to keep our friendship after the trip was over, this always feel so special to me and this happen with me and Lexi 🙂

We met again in Shanghai, she introduced me to her boyfriend Yoann and we played tennis together with his friend named Alex. That time was the first time I ever tried tennis, Alex was the best among all of us… I guess… this game is very unprepared, I didnt have any sports clothes with me so she borrowed me her tennis sports shirt and sports bra which obviously none of them fit haha

We played in kind of rooftop of a gym or sth like that and after I threw away 3 tennis balls off the rooftop to the ground we call it quit for that day Haha hope it didnt hit anyone! And it was the last time I played tennis 🙂

We changed the game to the sports that I know better which is badminton! Yeah Im pretty good on that!

One day she invited me to a group chat called Hungover Games. I was very skeptical about this name, I asked her “is it a group for people to get drunk and do stupid shit? I mean… like how you get your smiley tattoo when you were drunk?” And she said “No, its a group for doing archery sports like Ive told you on the trip” and I remembered that she asked me if I like to play archery and I said that I can try, never play it before but yeah why not…then I joined this group 🙂

Fast forward the story, Lexi and Yoann moved to Wuxi for I think 1 year or so and I havent met them since… We did meet when they came to Shanghai but I never came to Wuxi, until the time for their farewell arrived 🙁

They are leaving in 3 weeks to Prague and I knew right away when I saw the poster that I need to be there! Yoann was really nice and caring, he knows that apart from them I didnt know anyone, mostly they are either French or people in Wuxi so he helped me to asked his friends so that I can take the same train with them #thanks Yoann! And those friends were Ossian aka Ocean and Octave 🎼

Three of us arrived Wuxi and went to the place called Mojar bar 么哈 #饿了么的么and 哈哈的哈 #wink to Ossian and Octave.
We arrived French late at 8:03 while the party starts at 8pm.

Baptiste was there already, I always see his name on archery list and I think I saw him before but this time was the first time I finally talked to him. Fun fact about Baptiste is he was the first one that know hungover games! He said to me “I brought Yoann, Yoann brought Lexi and Lexi brought you, so you can thank me!” Yais Baptiste! Merci beaucoup!

The party started with a speech of Yoann and at some point his voices changes as he get emotional and awwwww little that I knew it was first proposal that I witnessed!

Love is in the air <3

or… should I say Love is in the 么哈 😉

Okay Baptiste, dont be so upset that Yoann didnt mention your name on his speech but he did tell me that the day he met Lexi, you wrote that date on QC black board plus a sentence “Yoann met the love of his life” see he didnt really forget you! 😉

Then, the dinner finally started…after a lot of delays 😉
Me, Ossian and Octave had our own winking bro code against one Italian guy that has many “moms” everywhere #wink

We also need to write some words for Lexi and Yoann because their Wuxi friends prepare the photo frame but Ossian and Octave treat it as if they were writting an exam 😉

  • Ossian and Octave

Our host is very very talented, they also became the waiter and gave us all the food because somehow 么哈kind of messed it up

At some point I need to leave first as it passed my bedtime 😉 and they gave me the key to their apartment and an instruction of how to get there, where Simba will be, how to open the door to the main entrance using a spoon that is on my right side, how to find my bedroom, how to find my sleeping shirts that is located on their wardrobe 😉

Lexi said that she prepared all new stuff, toothbrush, clean bed sheet, new towel and its really new she even still have the tag on it hahaha! Thanks Lexi!

She made breakfast for me too! Bacon and egg, banana smoothies and lasagna 😉

Btw, this farewell also a birthday celebration for Yoann as he turned 26th years old 🙂

Please note that the voice that you hear singing happy bday song, thats not my voice 🙂

Hear that voice? surprisingly it wasn’t me 😉

I personally want to thank to Lexi that introduce me what is Hungover Games and you need to know that you are my game changer in Shanghai, my life would be totally different if you didnt introduce me to them and I’ll forever thanks to you.

Last but not least, I am so grateful I went to that trip and met you. To Lexi and Yoann, I am happy for both of you and wish you all the best on your new life as husband and wife.
Lots of love from me <3

  • 2017
  • 2019
  • Love you Lexi! and Yoann! 😉