Happy Eid Mubarak, Yet?

This year's Lebaran will be slightly different from previous ones.

Yea I went mudik already. To Cirebon, of course, where else?

Turns out that the other families of my big family had already planned their own Lebaran trip and won't possibly come to Cirebon during the holiday. So why bother coming, my family thought?

But we have to.

Every year, we have to.

So yea last weekend, the weekend I supposed to have at home, celebrating my first joyful weekend after spending my first occupied week working, sitting-by-the-desk-doing-nothing-kind-of working, I went on a road trip instead. Like a "pay in advance" kind of trip.

At first, got to be honest -and dad, please don't be mad yet,

I was totally bummed and hoped that I could skip the trip.

But one thing led to another, and eventually,

I enjoyed the trip.

The whole trip was set just like we were having the real ones. By car, shifting in driving -and yea, I got the least portion of the shift, drifting through the same roads and streets we usually passed, overall, the ambient, the euphoria, it was all, all the exact same with Lebaran days.

What made it memorable was the culinary trip. We never miss the signature dishes Cirebon has, and those dishes never fail my tummy. So we had ayam bahagia, nasi jamblang, mie koclok and some nice Sundanese meals for lunch before heading home. Damn I'm hungry.

So yea, that's how we eat. You pick what you like, and pay at the end. And it's so cheap :')

But you know what, the best part is not yet to be told. Well I'm telling now.

Long ago, before my grandma passed away, we always stayed in this hotel named Cirebon Plaza. After her funeral, grandpa built a small house near the graveyard and forced us the whole family to anually stay there during Lebaran. But things changed quiet much lately, and we tend to celebrate Lebaran in Jakarta more often.

But for this trip, my mother booked rooms on the hotel. The. Hotel.

We were all so excited, it's been a while since the last time staying there.

It rebuilt the memories of my childhood, with my brothers, cousins, everyone.

God. I'm a little bit carried away typing these stuff.

It kinda broke my heart seeing grandma's tomb yesterday.

Knowing that this Lebaran, I can't pay her a visit.

I know I paid her in advance, as I said.

But still...

Quick

So last weekend, Saturday to Sunday, I went to Singapore. Yes, it was only two days. My mom was wondering, my dad thought it was a waste, my brothers said that, yea, in summary, they criticized me.

But somehow, traveling for only two days was really effective. I mean, the time limit you have will force you to spend every second wisely. You won't even think about slacking off or just lying around at your hotel rooms. It's like, "Move, move! Chop, chop! Sauté, sauté!" all trip long.

Then I guess I'll make this post quick as well.

Day One: Universal Studios Singapore

First of all, before I entered the gate of the studio, I warned myself that I'd turn like a freak geek when it turns to cartoon characters. Then yea, I did. Seeing Woodpecker, I freaked. Getting saved by animated Bumblebee, I thanked. Interacting with Donkey, posing with Gloria, having myself scared by the mummies... Gotta say, I acted like a fool there.

But the main spotlight was awarded to the Sesame Street. Well no, it's not because of the ride -the ride was amusing tho, but that wasn't it- it was more because of the souvenirs shop. You know what turned me on? The hand puppets. They're crazy. They have it all. From Cookie Monster to Big Bird, they do have it all.

Day Two: Symmetry

Before shopping for mom's sake, my friends and I had a brunch at this cool restaurant named Symmetry. It's placed on Jalan Kubor, which, literally, there are graveyards there. One of my friends had this idea that name "Symmetry" is another way to say "Cemetery". At first I thought it was just a make-up fact, but when I explored that they put Jack and Sally dolls in front of the restaurant, I now believed what she believed.

Now about the food, it was all brunch-time meals. I ordered Eggs Benedict which was a portion of two roasted bread, with poached eggs and bacon--well, beef bacon on top of that, served with hash brown and salad with olive oil. And seriously, that was the best brunch and, the best yolk I've ever had. I never liked yolk, anyway.

Done.

Overall, I liked every single detail of my trip.

But these two made that even cooler.

Now quick, get back to reality.

Close your blog, forget about your wonderful journey,

Go find your boss and ask for something important to do.

You do realize that you're typing this from your office desktop,

Right, boy? :)

Check One: Sixth Term

Somehow, this post is quiet outdated.

But anyway...

Final exam of the 6th term finished almost a week ago, thank Goodness, and it means that I've passed the first step before New York!

Okay so after this term, yesterday, I only had like four days of holiday before the semi-professional work started. So last weekend, I went to Singapore and I'll make a separated post to talk about it.

Today, I'm starting my internship at BBDO Indonesia as a copywriter.  I now am typing these things right from their office, near the window and hey! I got my own computer :') Ahh thank God, it's what I've always been waiting for.

Now about the 6th term, enough talking about the 6th term.

It has ended and I'm just letting my God Allah Almighty to do the rest.

So...

Several steps away to New York.

God, please make it work.

Now ad world, I'm ready to lurk

Final Overview

Mei 2013, adalah bulan tergak banget sepanjang perjalanan pendidikan gue.

Tugas bertaburan, kelompok beragam jenisnya, deadline dimana-mana.

Tiap hari mulut ngeluh mulu minta cepet-cepet diabisin itu bulan.

Juni dateng, hectic seketika.

Ya, minggu pertama langsung UAS.

Tujuh mata kuliah, satu sit-in, ENAM take home.

LIMA diantaranya dijadiin tugas kelompok dan

EMPAT diantaranya, well... Nerve wrecking.

But somehow, God's on my side. He knows that for the whole semester, I've been busied by enormous number of assignments, back-to-back, big-time-killing deadlines, as well as the presence of some dickhead useless people.

God's on my side.

So for this final exam,

He made it smooth for me...

... Like for the researches

Jadi di semester ini ada dua mata kuliah penelitian. Satu Metode Penelitian Kualitatif, satu lagi Riset Periklanan. Dua duanya, hemmmmmmmmmmmmmm gabisa diungkapin dengan kata kata. Sumpah, time consuming, mind screwing, pokoknya $#%@ banget!

Selasa di minggu pertama, itu deadline buat MPK. Gue dan temen sekelompok gue udah mati-matian ngejer hal-hal yang belum keisi dan swhooshh, ketika deadline menyapa, langsung ajalah dikumpulin. Setelah itu hanya berserah diri pada Allah saja yang kita lakukan dan taraaa, dapetlah nilai B+ :') Bahagia?? BANGET!

Sementara Riset Periklanan, well, entah kenapa gue dan kelompok gue salah milih brand buat diriset. Alhasil satu semester ini ngejalanin semuanya dengan berat hati. Tapi gimanapun juga, apapun harus dihadapi. Jadilah kemarin kita melakukan presentasi dengan hasil seadanya, tapi performa semaksimalnya. Kinda smooth, and the lecturer enjoyed. But I'm not brave enough to talk about scores now. Only God and her that knows.

TELADAN group, from left to right are Cika, me, Pus, Fierda and Kinta
We do the research about IM3 anyway, that could explain the dresscode.

With the lecturer, Mbak Nadia

... Also for the baby task

Talk about a successful assignment my group and I made, I have one. Di mata kuliah Hard Sell, dosennya minta kelompok gue bikin sebuah aktivitas promo buat sebuah online baby shop bernama Bilna.com. Pernah denger? Nggak kan pasti? Nah apalagi gue. Dan temen sekelompok gue, yang semuanya cowok.

But when it came to the presentation day...

"As I expected, when a group is 'crashed' with something they're not relevant to, eventually they'll come up with something brilliant. And I'd say that I might consider using these promos you proposed."

Itu yang dibilang dosen gue seselesainya kelompok gue presentasi. Gila pengen nangis rasanya. Perjuangan gue ke PIM pulang pergi ngebusway, selama dua hari (hampir) berturut-turut, dan keterbatasan data yang kelompok gue dapet karena susah banget minta ke Bilna nya, semua itu... Paid off really, really well...

A long, tiring evening at FatBurger with Yabes (left), Olip (middle) and Ridho (the photographer).

Everybody, with Mbak Anne in the middle

... Especially for the teatime clip

Oke, ini bagian yang paling epic nya.
And it happened today, so I can still feel the glorious moment.

Jadi untuk mata kuliah Eksekusi Pesan Audio Visual, gue dan kelompok gue dapet brief buat bikin PSA Sariwangi yang ngajak targetnya buat ngebiasain minum teh 15 menit sehari. Dan itu harus dieksekusi sampe ke bentuk iklan TV beneran. Cool nggak? Nah hari ini, semua hasil shooting dari anak Reguler sama Paralel ditontonin rame rame.

And at the end of the screening, the lecturer announced the best two clips according to her. Kelompok yang pertama menang adalah rekan sejawat gue, kelompok Paralel. Udah riuh nih ceritanya. At least we secured one spot. In case the other spot is awarded to the opposed teams, yeaa... 50:50 laahh.

Nah. Pas diumumin kelompok yang satunya lagi, itu yang namanya Rifky Ramadhan Amin udah kayak menang kuis dapet tiket gratis nonton konser Pitbull, plus sesi meet and greet dan karoke bareng, trus Pitbull nya kayak sadar akan potensi rapping gue sehingga gue pun dibawa ke Miami buat kolaborasi bareng.

Yes, that was my team who won the other spot. Senengnya bukan main. Karena gak kayak beberapa kelompok lain, kelompok gue sama sekali gak pake bantuan outsource mahasiswa broadcasting buat jadi kru. That's one. And two, the main reason why I screamed like a retarded bastard, was because both spot was obtained by my class.

Remember last year, like, really last year, on the same month of June, there was the same head-to-head competition like this, and neither team of my class won the match? Yea, now we call it even. Revenge is sweet. Especially when you know that your class of four groups, swept all spots from those six groups of theirs.

TG+F Group from left to right, Gilang, Utha, me again, Abi, and the girls from the research team

The whole class with the lecturer standing on the very middle, Mbak Tari

Okay I'm a little bit carried away.

No, I'm not bragging about these stuff.

I'm just so proud of myself, for my efforts,

And my teammates selection