blogwalking my blog

since my last post, i've been blogwalking my own blog (can i use the term for my own blog?! haha) and i found so many interesting stuffs! most of it i dont remember at all. but it's nice to have such diary and remind me of the past.

i wrote a lot about my love life. how i broke up with him, miss him, found another him, broke out again with the another him, hating the another him, and i found the last him, the last him that i hope will be my last.

i wrote as well about my daily life, mostly about school life, how the teacher gave alot homework, about friends that will be missed, about part of the life that i won't forget.

i miss the past, yet i have to face the future.
hope everything goes well!

girlfriends

i sometimes have this insecure feelings about having girlfriends.
the girlfriends that usually ppl put a hashtag bff on instagram photos.
the girlfriends that we can do all the stupid things.
the girlfriends that we can share everything that we can't share with the boys.
the girlfriends that will laugh so hard at each other.

i do have some now.
i considered them to be my girlfriends.
for some people maybe the word best friend doesn't have strong meaning, but for me, it does.
but i always have this feeling of losing them because of what i did.
i know it sounds so emo. but perhaps it is because the past experience.

so it was when i was still in elementary school. i had someone that i considered to be my best friend. like the best of the best. i was kind of tomboy back then (until now actually), and play more with the boys (they were a gang) than girls, yet the ex-bestfriend (if i may say) was this kind of a pretty girl whose boys will like more. it was not a problem at all for me. until one day i was mad with the boys because some reasons (i forgot what was that - for god sake it was elementary, like ages ago!) and i didn't speak with them for some time. until one day it was fine.
but then there was one day that i found out when i was still not speaking with the boys - one of the day was the ex-bestfriend's birthday - she invited them for some kind of birthday party yet i was left alone. i didn't know at all about the party at the moment until someone recklessly said it about the matter. i felt confused, betrayed, and mad at the same time. and when i asked her, she said because she afraid i won't be happy if she invited me and the boys at the same time.
so, the someone that i considered to be best friend simply chose the boys over her best friend (which she claimed to be so) as easy as that. from that moment on, i dare not to call anyone best friend.

i made friends, a lot.. boys, girls, but mostly boys. simply because boys are less fake than girls. i can simply express anything without having to feel guilty or having thinking what they will think about me.
as time goes by, i open up myself to make a new best friend. but it was limited only for the boys. somehow by having a best friend boyfriend won't make me thing about betrayal.

until i moved to china. i don't make friends a lot here as i thought i would be. i knew some, i hangout with some, but didn't really found one that really fits me in (my boyfriend is simply exceptional). but than i made friends with these girls, start to hangout, and start to do all the stupidity together. we became closer and closer. we start to share feelings and secrets.
but there still this one insecure feeling.  afraid of what i'm saying is gonna heart them. afraid of what i do will think that i'm an asshole. afraid of another betrayal if i start to call them best friends.

maybe i'm thinking too much.
maybe ex-best friend is just a way to find the bestest friend.
maybe best friend will stay best friend.
i don't if you guys are my best friend yet... but i'm happy to call you girlfriends.

beijing and harbin

harbin has always been on my top list for 'must-visit-city' during winter.. especially during winter time, because i heard it's just amazingly beautiful and ridiculously cold. from 2012 winter holiday i've planned to go there but simply no accompany makes me cancel the trip.

so, since i found someone who also wanted to go harbin as well, here we go!

they are two sisters from thailand.. friends from the university. ruth and may.
at first, may (the younger sister) didn't want to go because she simply afraid of the cold. but with some good words and some bully, she agreed to come with us.

ruth and may

at first we planned to go to harbin by train. it'll take 6hrs from hangzhou to beijing, then 9hrs from beijing to harbin. it was a lot of time but i thought it's ok since there were three of us. but then when i looked for some tickets and stuffs, i found this cheap airplane ticket from hangzhou to beijing, which was even cheaper from the train ticket. so we decided just simply flew from hangzhou to beijing and took train from beijing to harbin (because no cheap airplane ticket at the moment).

we went to beijing at 24 january, planned to stay only two nights (since the first night we arrived at beijing it has been midnight). 

on the second day we went to the tiananmen 天安门 (because you haven't been to beijing if you didn't go there) and an old street. i kinda forget the old street name, but it was just ok.

may, erica, ruth, the guard, and mr.mao

on the night we planned to go for outdoor ice skating, and yet when we arrived there it's been too late that the skate has been closed. the outdoor skating is on Shichahai 什刹海. so we decided to go back on the third day.

the weather was nice in beijing, around -5˚C at noon. so the third day, as we planned, we went back to the outdoor skating and play for around 2hrs. the place is originally a lake. and because the winter in beijing is quite freezing, the water freeze as well, let the people to play on it.

the fee is not expensive, for the shoes you can rent for just 20RMB for as long as you want until the lake is closed. they also have a place for depositing your stuff (so you don't need to carry while skating) for only 5RMB. on the ice, they also rent out a skating chair, for you who can't skate or afraid to skate without something to hold on, or simply just to rest on the middle of the ice if you are tired. or, just like the chinese, to put the things they don't want to put on the deposit box and carry all the way while skating.

it was fun after all, we even get a little of our sweat out. the sun was bright. and so it was a good day.

after skating, we went to the famous wangfujing 王府井 just to spend the time. we got our train on midnight. so we'll spend the night on the train and woke up the next day in harbin. the train was ok, i spent most of the time sleeping. and on the train, there was this notification on how's the temp out and inside. and it was written like internal temp 21˚C, external temp -21˚C. scare the hell out of me for a bit. and when we arrived we went out of the train, and the first wind that came to my face was painful. the cold is piercing to the face. and i can feel my snot frozen.

as we arrived at the hotel, everyone was so sleepy because the sleep in the train was never be a good sleep. and may who (supposed) set the alarm at 1.30 pm mistaken and making it to 1.30am. so everyone was sound a sleep and may and i pretty much woke up at the same time, and it was already 4pm. we woke ruth up and set ready to go out. the closest spot to our hotel was the St. Sophia Church. by the time we were there, it was already 5pm and the church was closed. so we took some picture outside the church, and the architecture was magnificent! 

the next spot to go is the ice festival in the zhaolin park 兆麟公园 and it was all walking distance. we walk along the central street 中央大街 with some ice sculpture in the middle of the street become exhibition. not forgetting it was like -24˚C and it was freaking cold! once we arrived at the zhaolin park, we bought the ticket with our student id (the power of student id! half price!) for 100RMB. once we got there, somehow all the electric devices were short in battery and everyone got nothing to take pictures (at that time we had like 3 handphones, 1 DSLR, and 1 power-shot camera). and like everywhere in china, there were some photographers we could hire to take photos of us. we had no choice but to hire one of them to take pictures for us or else it's gonna be a waste to be there (right now i'm still kinda confused of how their camera can be fine but ours were running out of battery). the photographer we hired was a middle-aged woman. the first price she said to us was 10RMB/pic. we didn't want to print out the photos so we asked can she just use our SD card and give us lower price. so we agreed with 5RMB/pics and she took 30more pics of us. it was a good result after all.

on the second day in harbin, we went to yabuli ski resort 亚布力. we went there by one-day tour because the place itself quite outside the harbin city and it took 3hrs by bus. we spent in total 860RMB in total (include the transport, the ski, the stuffs for the ski, tour around the village, lunch, and fun!). in yabuli  they also offer a ski coach for 200RMB/2hrs. we didn't take it because we almost got no more money left so whatever will be will be. it was fun, not so much photos from the camera because walking with the ski shoes and the sticks were already a challenge for us, so we didn't want to risk the SLR to skiing along with us. most of the photos were taken by iphone. it was tiring and it was cold. but above all, it was fun!

because without failing you can't success

it was around -17˚C when we skiing but it's either the clothes or the ski itself that didn't let us feel cold. or at least not as cold as it was on the previous day. we got back to the city just right for dinner time. we had some local dish that is ok, and back straight hotel. it was a tiring day. the third day and the last day in harbin, we went to this famous ice sculpture festival in sun island scenic area 太阳岛. the hotel guy said we better go there at night, since on daytime we only can see white. but we had no choice since we had to fly back to hangzhou at 4pm that day. so whatever will be will be.

so we went there by taxi. the ticket price was 120RMB because it was daytime. and it's gonna be doubled at night. it was still ok to be there at daytime, since the people are less and you can take a lot of pictures with some strange pose without people looking at you. and on that day, it was also as not as cold as the first day we arrived. it was only -10˚C and we were happy. 

i guess it's inappropriate to sit on that, but we just had fun :)

the photos was taken by the security guard who has been to singapore (so what?!)

from the sun island scenic area, we were heading back to the city and it was already around 12pm. our flight was at 4pm so we planned to go to the airport at around 2pm. there was still time, so we decided to go back to the church to see what's inside.

a little bit history about the church. the church is the largest eastern orthodox church in the far east. it was built by the russian on 1907. the byzantine style church is so beautiful, it is said to look as if it had been made by God's hand. in fact, st. sophia means God's wisdom. (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/heilongjiang/harbin/st-sophia-church.htm)

i was a little bit shock when there was the sign to buy ticket to get into the church (like since when do you have to pay to get into the church?! but well, it's china after all!). it was 20RMB and 10RMB for student, so it was still ok. once we got inside, i myself felt disappointed because the church was just a museum now. there were hanging some pictures of harbin on old time on the wall. so it was just like that. but still, on the outside it was a beautiful architecture of the past.

after finish visiting the church, we went back to the hotel to take our stuffs and headed straight to the airport by taxi. it was a fun (and freezing) journey with them and a fun (and freezing) experience as well. can't wait for the next destination! :)

north sumatra trip

so this is my second part of the summer trip.
like I said before, at first I wasn't planning to go home this summer.
I was planning just to go around Hangzhou with my boyf and leftover friends -- cause they ain't got holiday -- cause they are medical students ---- and since they don't have holidays, they don't really have time either to travel around, mostly my boyf. Sometimes he also has to go to the hospital on weekends to do the rounds.

So one day my mom told me that mom and dad are going to North Sumatra with the church for pilgrimage and recreation. I have never been to North Sumatra before, so the plan was making me tempted. And since, nothing I can do in Hangzhou, so I simply request my dad wether I can buy ticket home and join the pilgrim trip or not. And since my dad is generous, he let me.. haha love you, Dad!!  ♥

I went to mainly 3 cities : Medan, Perapat, and Berastagi.
All the trip was done by bus, except Jakarta - Medan by flight.

Toba Lake. A lot said the lake is dirty, but as I've seen, the lake is quiet pretty. Though actually still need more maintanance and attention from the gov.

Look! Who's that gooner boy on the Samosir Island?! ♥

The view from Gundaling. If I'm not mistaken it is Sebayak Mountain.

One of a catholic church with Batak Karo architecture style.

Taman Alam Lumbini, a temple by Myanmar's monk.

Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni. There's a spring water that comes out under the statue of Maria Annai Velangkanni, and it believes that it can heal. Many miracle has happened during the construction of the church, up to now.

And here are the participant of the pilgrim.

long time no blog..

whoaa.. it's been almost 2 years since my last blog!! look, how lazy I am hahaa.. and indeed I am being lazier day by day.. *uh oh not a good thing

quick catch up with myself,
I'm still in Hangzhou, China doing my study..
I'm in my 3rd year of study..
I'm having my 2012 summer in Indonesia..
I'm getting fatter, rounder, bigger, bunciter, babier, and so on so forth..
I'm planning to diet from last year, but it just never go right..
and I'm still in love with my almost 2-year-boyfriend.. so much.. ♥

♥♥♥

This summer I got 2 months more holiday, and it supposed to be a lot things to do!
But here I am, 2 weeks from the start of new term, doing nothing but lazying all day long. *uh oh, again not a good thing.

But I do have some travel! haha
What is holiday without traveling, eh?

So this summer holiday I had 2 travel journey, mainland China and Indonesia.
At first I wasn't planning to go home this summer. Just spend the summer and enjoy the heat in Hangzhou. But the heat is too much that everytime you step out of the door, you get in to a sauna. I'm not being over, but summer in Hangzhou is sucks. Last year it even reached 47'C!!

So, because I didn't plan to go home, my parents come to visit me and travel around China.. Our destination this time is Western China. We went to Chengdu (成都), Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟), Xi'an (西安), Luoyang (洛阳), Zhengzhou (郑州), and finally back to Hangzhou (杭州).

Less word I'll say, let the photos talk more.

As everyone knows, Chengdu is well known for its Giant Panda Breeding. Too bad, it was a hot summer that all the pandas are locked up inside an air-con cage, sleeping, lazying, doing nothing..

There was a cute/beautiful little boy I found in Chengdu

On the way to Huanglong, it is also a Tibetan land

Huanglong, with a good scenery, yet tiring.

Jiuzhaigou, the color of the water is natural, and it's too good to be true!

Another cute boy I found

Bell Tower in Xi'an

Terra Cotta! It's amazingly beautiful.

I don't know what this old man do, but seems like he's posing so I took a snap of him.

A little shaolin monk is having a lunch 

Shaolin performance

Longmen Grottoes, the big Buddha is... BIG!

*************

That so much for my summer trip part.1 (china part). It was from 22.6 - 6.7
Just the 3 of us. my mom, my dad, and I.

So much fun. So much sweat.
Next post will be about the part.2 of the summer trip, North Sumatra, Indonesia :)
Stay tune!