This post is just to let you know that I am still alive. I have been occupied with a lot of activities for my startup project with my friend Budi; and other small stuffs (relocation, catechism, etc…). Unfortunately that means lower priority to maintain this blog.
And as wise men say, a picture worth a thousand words. And turned out it takes much lesser effort than writing, too 🙂 So here are 7000 words of decorations in my new house, that are gifts from friends and relatives.
A book called On a Street in Singapore, gift from my badminton friends Abhineet, Albert Quah, Albert Tjipto & his girlfriend, and HeldiNotebook with messages and greeting cards from my ITB friends in Gemalto, along with other gifts.A unique wall clock, gift from other ITB friends, who were with me since I moved to Singapore.Singlish candies from my former landlord Christine, Pineaple cake from Budi, and a nice Paul Allen memoir from my brother DanielSwan doll made of unused cement paper from my aunt Meme, along with some decorations I bought myself.A cross to help me feel safe. A gift from my aunt Veronica more than 5 years ago, but I still keep it until now.Finally, a celebration to start using my new workshop! With help of my girlfriend and her family. Thanks Budi for taking the picture.
It’s hard not to miss Singapore after that four years, but the gifts helped me to remember the good (and bad) times there. I feel very grateful to have friends and relatives that gave those gifts!
And as you may notice that I’ve changed the blog title. I still hope that I can write frequently again in the future.
It will take sometime until I can post a nice article, if any. The quality of mobile internet connection is Indonesia is not as good as in Singapore, and I am practically a nomad for a few moment now. I really want to tell some interesting stories about my adaptation to the new life, but let’s see. For the moment, I have a story about my trip to Malacca, just days before I left Singapore for good. Here it is.
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My landlord gave me a very nice suggestion to spend sometime around Singapore before I left it for good. Therefore, Malacca it was. Malacca is a 4-hour journey from Singapore, depending on the traffic and immigration. As it is a small town and I didn’t have too much time to spend, I only spent a night there along with my friend Handy.
We departed from a bus terminal in Bugis, about 8 AM in the morning; thanks to my Malaccan colleague Jia Hwang who bought the ticket for me. The bus was quite nice, and we were lucky to sit in the back. About 1 hour before we reached our destination, the bus’ air conditioner system seemed had overheated, spilling fresh water every now and then in the middle seat area. On the bright side, it made people laugh of the silliness.
We reached the “Malaka Sentral” terminal about noon, but we had to take a cab to the main tourist area, about 15 minutes journey for MYR 20. We alighted near the end of Jonker Street and quickly queued up for the chicken rice ball restaurant there. It seemed quite famous among tourists, but after all it was just a chicken rice with the rice rolled into few balls.
We continued by walking along the Jonker Street (a.k.a. Jalan Hang Jebat, Chinatown), which was very interesting. Walking along that street felt like going back in time. All buildings were decorated in a Chinese 50’s era style. Being a tourist attraction street, it was quite amazing to see some unpopular buildings like a newspaper office or a mortuary over there.
We then checked in at our hotel, Baba House, located not far from the Jonker Street. Exactly as described in a Lonely Planet book, the lobby decoration was very interesting and classic, but the rooms were quite bland. However, it’s not bad at all for a MYR 145 per night rate.
Outside the Jonker Street, the town was influenced by Portuguese culture. There were classic buildings like churches and fort remains. The well-known Stadyhus is the central of the surrounding buildings: Christ Church, Windmill, etc… We climbed up the hill a bit to see the St. Paul Church. Plenty of tombstones were planted there, remembering the names of several Portuguese lived in the past. Just nearby, there were some Malay Sultanate museums and the Cheng Ho museum.
An uncle selling fried potato at Jonker Street
The sun was almost set when we went back to Jonker Street. Interestingly, that street was closed for vehicles and transformed into a night market, similar to those in Lau Pa Sat. We rested a while in our hotel, and out again, this time to the infamous satay celup restaurant, Capitol Satay, about 15 minutes walking from the Jonker Street. We were a bit late, so we had to queue for more than an hour for a seat. On the same street with the Capitol, there were 2 more satay celup restaurant with almost no visitors. They were selling alternative value propositions, like “Why pay 90 cents in Capitol, while our satay is 60 cents only” or “We have 40 years experience!”.
The queue was paid off when we started to dine there. The menu was simple: you pick several uncooked meats or vegetables in wooden sticks, then you cook it yourself in a bowl of peanut sauce. However, it was somehow very interesting and quite delicious, too. While we were eating, we heard all staffs were talking in Javanese. It turned out that the owner of the stall was from Java and had become a Malaysian resident.
After dinner, we headed to the Maritime Museum, not far from Jonker Street. Unfortunately it only opens during the day, so we only spent the time outside, taking pictures of the massive ship that acts as the museum.
Goodbye!
On the next day, we spent morning time by walking to the Fort Santiago, which is well known for photo taking spot. It is the remains of a fort that was built also by the Portuguese. The place was nice but not exceptional, perhaps because we had seen St. Paul Church the day before.
Before going back to the hotel I stopped by a shop selling cendol. The interesting thing about this chendol is the cup. It was made of thick paper, and equipped with the handle; also made with paper. The patented paper handle was made strong enough to hold a full cup of the drink.
For lunch, my friend Handy had the infamous peranakan laksa, while I chose the safer side by ordering a normal noodle (I had bad experiences with spicy food).
It was then time to go home. We had to go back to Malaka Sentral to take the bus back to Singapore. We would like to try the public bus there, but it was too crowded hence too risky for my weak knee. We then decided to just take another cab anyway. Few minutes before 2 PM, we were already in the bus heading for Singapore; ending our short journey to Malaka.
It has been almost 4 years since I moved to Singapore, and that is not a short period. Shortly I will be leaving this so-called red dot country to start a new journey in Indonesia. There were ups and downs during my stay here, but all gave a wonderful experience.
It all started when I joined Gemalto, early 2008. I arrived here with my dad, to meet Ronny who became my roommate for about a year. He just graduated from NUS, and looking for an inexpensive room before securing a job. To save money, we shared a non-airconditioned room near Commonwealth MRT, living with the landlord who is an auntie (old lady).
Though Ronny moved out after about a year, I stayed at the very same place for the rest of my life in Singapore. The place is not exceptional, though. I didn’t install an air conditioner, and since it’s located next to a main road, it’s quite noisy during the day and sometimes at night. At some months, the room temperature at night can be up to 35 °C, leaving the bed drenched with my sweat. However, I am the type of person who prefer to accept things and avoid troubles (or as the Chinese says, cincay), so I kept staying here. Anyway, what doesn’t kill you just make you stronger, no? The good thing about it is the location, being near to MRT, my office, campus, as well as Orchard road; all accessible within 20 minutes. And here’s a little secret for you to save money, if you can live peacefully with a single auntie or uncle, usually the room price will be discounted, since it’s more important for them to have someone to talk to than the money itself.
The cincay policy also applied to my job, which I have been taken also for the whole life in Singapore. It is very clear until today that working in this company does not give you a lot of money, but instead more of experiences, upgrades (in term of trainings) and flexible working hours. There is one thing I was trying to prove, that you don’t have to work late to perform well at work. I am glad to say it proved well, at least in the work environment I was. The key is to give as much as your time in the office hours to work, and strive to optimize the way you work to make it even more efficient and effective. It is also important to spend your time outside the office hours not to work, so that you’ll start afresh when you work the next day. And lastly, especially in Singapore, be prepared to accept your colleagues saying “Wow, your team is always relax one, never go OT (overtime) what!” (Singlish pun intended).
After my first few days in Singapore, I visited a friend who had spent more than 4 years in Singapore, and he gave me this wise advise “You’ll get bored here in just a few months”. It is true that one can get easily bored in Singapore. Singapore may have more shopping malls compared to Jakarta, or larger than the town of Kuta (Bali), but everything here seems to be, well, in order. I don’t know how many times I got lost in a new HDB (residential) area, because all the building looks the same. When I go to work, I take the same bus through the same road everyday, unlike in Jakarta where you have to find alternative roads everyday due to traffic jams. Having said those, there is small hope to go out of boredom in Singapore. If you have more cash, flying abroad to nearby places in Asia is a good option. Otherwise (or if you want to save), it’s also good to look for alternative interesting places in Singapore, as you can see in my blog posts. Public parks and museums are good start, and they are usually free or very affordable.
Photo by Egon
It was surprising at the beginning to know that Singapore is in the top 10 of highest life expectancy countries in the world, despite the stressful life here. However after spending few months here, the reason became clear. People really care about their health, watch what they eat, and do physical exercise – a lot! Countless of marathons are held every year, also running events with lesser distances like 5km and 10km. Realizing that me and my family has history of hypertension, I started to follow the healthy habit. I started with the child’s play distance 1-2 km, until my boss told me that running shorter than 15 minutes would not have significant impact to the heart. Despite whether it’s true or not, I started to push myself to run longer, up to 7km. For variation, I also went swimming in nearby swimming pools, which is ridiculously very cheap, ranging from $1 to $2 per entry. Finally, I managed to gather few fellow Indonesians to play futsal almost weekly. Ironically that futsal sessions led me to a knee injury that forced me to get a surgery and absence from sport for few months (see the story here). Despite that, I am glad that I now have the physical and mental capability of living a healthy habit, which I look forward to keep when I am back to Indonesia.
Last but not the least, life is not complete without friends. And one of the most important friends I knew here was those people from Institut Teknologi Bandung. Starting from a friend I knew in a project back in college days, she introduced me to several other friends from various departments in that university. All being new to this country, we were close together in our early years. We even managed to visit Phuket together for a vacation. Unfortunately, after that few years each of us started to settle down, and occupied by different priorities: me taking my master degree, a guy committed to his girlfriend, a lady getting married, others went abroad for study, and et cetera. However we do try to meet once in a while during birthday celebrations and keep in contact through social media means.
Well, those are a bit of story of my life in Singapore. When I post this, it should be few days before I leave the country. Whether I will still write in this blog, that’s a question for me, too. Thinking about the places in Indonesia that I can write about…
If there is the time I don’t like Singapore, it could be this weekend. It happened few days before my last day here, so it could be bias though. However, read on and you judge me.
Last Saturday, I went to the library to read a book I was interested at. I went out from home at 9, but forgot that the library actually opens at 10. This was not the first time I arrived too early at the library, but this time was different. Few months back, when I was too early, I just stop by a nearby hawker center to get a cup of coffee while doing something productive with my laptop. But this time, the hawker center was not there anymore: it was demolished and replaced by construction of new HDB. All right, there’s no hawker center, but I remember there was a small park nearby with chair and table made of stone. So I went there, only to be disappointed since they were not there anymore. In the end, I spent the waiting time by sitting at the floor in front of the library, as with other fellow nerds who wants to be the first people inside the library when it opens.
The second disappointment came when I was about to meet my friends at Raffles City mall. I came the earliest, so I had to wait there. Given my recovering leg condition, I preferred to find for a place to sit. Similar story, I remember that months before there was a convenient place to sit in front of a small man made waterfall (and the way the water fall is programmed in such a way it can form simple pictures), just few steps from the MRT entrance. It was not there anymore, and guess what, it was replaced by yet another shop. There was another free place to sit at the basement, but as expected it was full of people. It was very obvious that if you want to sit in that shopping mall, you have to go to one of the cafés there and buy an overpriced drink. There were plenty of seats, unoccupied. Luckily, I finally found a sofa at a CD shop, where I could sit for free. But as you know, the future of physical music stores is gloomy, so I expect that sofa won’t be there anymore in near future.
Lastly, another incident on this Sunday, where I was about fight boredom by having dinner at my favorite Japanese food restaurant, Sumo House. Located in Clementi, it claimed to have the “cheapest sushi in Singapore”. The restaurant occupies a small building with other shops, you can say it as a small plaza. Compared than the newly built Clementi Mall, this mall is a bit old and unpopular. And perhaps that’s why they were already closed when I tried to visit the restaurant. Almost the whole building was closed, leaving only 7-11 and KFC. It’s sad that I couldn’t have dinner there for the last time.
Well, there’s always another point of view to look at this problem, and the same problem happens in other countries, too. That’s a fact that we have to accept, but, quoting a reader comment in a local newspaper about Cantonement Close HDB tear down… “In our efforts to evolve, do we sometimes forget to stop and sniff the flowers?”
For the past few weeks I’ve been preparing several important changes in my life. One of them is my Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction surgery, which occurred few days ago. Flashback to August, I twisted my own knee while playing futsal with friends. The next day I went to see a doctor who said “this is very clear, you need a surgery”. I was really surprised and literally said to the doctor “oh shit! really?”. Along the way, I understood that surgery may not be necessary if I live a sedentary lifestyle, but highly recommended if I want to continue doing sport. In the end, I decided to get a surgery, given the fact that I’m still in Singapore (with world-class medical facilities) and some (initially I thought “most”) of the expenses are covered by my employer’s insurance policy. So I started meeting a specialist Dr. Siow and the physiotherapist Vineet regularly at Alexandra Hospital. I had an MRI scan and several sessions of consultations and physios before securing the surgery day on 12th of October.
Though I said no need at the beginning, my parents insisted to come to Singapore to accompany me during the surgery (which I later regretted saying no at the first place). On the evening before the surgery, I went to pick them up at the airport. Then we stayed at a nice little hotel Pasir Panjang Inn. I could’ve gone back home, but since I had to report to the ward as early as 7.00 AM, I preferred to stay with them for convenience. Luckily, it was easy enough to get from the hotel to the hospital, with only one public bus trip.
I arrived at the hospital around 6.30 AM, but the ward I supposed to report at was still closed. It opened few minutes before 7 and I registered right away. The nurse asked me some questions like my name, IC number, and what kind of surgery I will be getting on (seriously, they asked this several times to ensure they did the right surgery to the right person). She also taught me how to communicate pain severity post operation, from level 1 to 10 (“at 10, you’ll cry already”). Afterwards, I changed to hospital robe and went right away to the pre-operation room.
Inside the pre-operation room, the anesthesia doctor explained me that I will get a general anesthesia, which means I would be going to sleep throughout the operation. So she injected a small tube to the vein at my wrist, to allow the anesthesia to flow into my blood vessel. She also explained that another drug would be injected to my groin (ouch) to make the right part of my legs go numb, helping to ease the pain post-surgery. Then, the operation team doctor approached, verified me for last time my particulars and the type of operation I will have. He then marked my right knee with a pen so that they won’t cut the wrong one, and told me that he would shave my hair on that area. I was then brought to the operation table, ready for surgery. A doctor injected some tranquilizer to help me calm down. But they saw me still uneasy, so they injected another one, and…
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The next thing I remember was waking up by the doctor calling my name and asking if I was okay. I was feeling very drowsy at that time but managed to answer her. Then I asked her if they had done the surgery on me. She said “Yes Pascal, it’s over”. So I sighed a relief. On the next few hours I was still feeling drowsy and very nauseated. I vomited my lunch and dinner, and practically sleeping the whole day. The doctors kept asking me if I feel any pain on my leg, which I don’t have. In the next morning I persuaded one doctor to reduce the dosage of the painkillers with the hope of less nausea. But eventually it went away already, anyway.
Too bad I didn't take any pictures at the hospital.
I was ready to be discharged about 11 AM, but waited until my parents came about an hour later. We then had lunch and went back to the hotel to have short rest and pick up my clothes. Then, we went back to my house to clean up the room, preparing it for few weeks of disabled person staying there. After few minutes, we headed to Orchard for shopping and dinner (on second thought it sounds like a crazy idea, noting that I was just discharged at the very same day). Finally, my parents sent me back home, also to meet my landlord for a short chitchat.
Few minutes later, sadly, my parents had to go back to their hotel, to get some rest before leaving Singapore on the next day. And I started my journey of recovery and rehabilitation for up to 6 months…
Not exactly today's picture, but it was taken at East Coast, and coincidentally I wore the same shirt.
As a human being, I need cardio exercises regularly to keep the blood flow in the highway. However, due to my knee injury, it’s not recommended for me to do jogging, except a very light one. One alternative is to cycle, for which I have tried to do it in gym. However, riding a static cycle proved to be super boring. “Hills” are simulated, but what I see were only a small room.
Therefore this weekend I decided to go to East Coast Park for a real cycling. It took at least an hour journey by public transport from my house, so there were temptations not to go too, especially without my friends joining. I started in the morning around 10 am, and was lucky to have a friendly weather. The rain poured heavily earlier, leaving only the cloud and cool temperature when I cycled.
After renting a $10 bike, I started cycling towards the eastern side, trying to get to the corner of the park. The east corner is not an end itself, since it’s connected with a park connector towards the Changi Beach Park. However, it was too long of a journey, so I decided to go back. Then I cycled towards the western corner, but before I reached it (the corner as shown in the map), I was blocked by a construction site, which I remember had been there at least last year. So I returned back to the place where I rented the bike.
All in all, it took me about an hour to complete the 22km cycle covering the whole east coast park. It was surprising that the cycling was relatively effortless, most probably because I cycled in normal pace and of the scenery I can’t find daily in the concrete jungle of Singapore.
Today is Indonesia’s Independence Day. But it has nothing to do with the story, anyway. Just happened to see something not so ordinary on my bus trip to Orchard Road.
After finished working in the office, I went to Orchard Road to buy some personal stuffs, riding bus N° 14 sitting on the upper deck. In the first few minutes of the trip, I heard several times banging noises as the lower part of the bus seemed to hit the road. And when it stopped several people at the bus stop were seen looking at that lower part, like something is wrong.
Few stops later, the bus stopped completely and I heard from below the sound of the machines beeping as people tapping out. Few people who were sitting at the upper deck started to come down, but I kept waiting as it was only 1 stop ahead to my destination. After few minutes, the waiting time for people to alight didn’t seem to be normal anymore and I decided to come down too.
Below, turned out that the driver was asking people to tap out at the machine that reads “Vehicle malfunction, free ride” and giving a receipt. I gladly tapped out to cancel my earlier payment and retrieve the receipt. However, what I first thought as a receipt turned out to be a complimentary additional bus trip. I then used it to take the connecting bus to my destination. It may be a waste since I only used it for 1 stop ride. But turned out the driver didn’t take the receipt from me, so I am entitled to at least one more complimentary trip, I guess… 😉
And please forgive me for lack of posts, I just injured my knee I couldn’t go out too much recently.
This is part two of the story. You can read the first part here.
Pekalongan Station
After spending quality time in Singapore, It was time to go back to Indonesia. I went to Bandung with my girlfriend using an AirAsia flight. Still having euphoria from the celebration, I spent a bit more of money by booking the hot seat at the front row. I felt lucky as the one seat beside me was empty, so I had some extra room. Until a guy from the back seat came in and took the seat. Fortunately, he agreed to move back after I convinced him that the seat is for hot seat passengers only. When the plane landed at Bandung, I realized one more benefit from the hot seat purchase, which is a faster waiting time at the immigration checks. There were only 2 officers on duty, hence arriving later at the gate contributed significant amount of waiting time.
I spent two nights in Bandung, and at the third day was the time for another trip to Pekalongan. It is a small town in Central Java, where my parents once lived their childhood. It is well known as Batik producer, but as I found out it’s also a heaven for seafood lover, thanks to its proximity to the ocean and low living cost. When I was younger, my dad used to take me there by car. We usually spent 1 to 3 days on the road. Not the whole day of course, but we tended to stop and stay overnight in the towns we passed by to enjoy them. This time, the ritual didn’t seem to be feasible anymore and the best option was to take a train!
About 7.30 in the morning, both of us boarded the train to Pekalongan. Unlike the years before, the Bandung-Pekalongan train this time took a much longer route by catching up the rail from Jakarta on the northern side. This means huge maintenance cost saving for the company, and longer journey time for the passengers (but on the brighter side, more scenery to see!). We arrived in Pekalongan about 2 PM, having only about five minutes to alight as the train was scheduled to go again to Semarang
After meeting the rest of the Singapore team (my parents, brother and his girlfriend), I freshened up by taking the legendary Es Teler at Jalan Dr. Cipto, followed by another desert es duren (durian syrup with ice). At late afternoon, we spent some time at the beach. It was not as clean as Sentosa beach, but at least there were not so much tankers there. In the evening, we went to a restaurant near the beach to have a big seafood dinner. For less than S$ 10 per person, we had grilled fishes, whole squids (more than just the rings), salad, and kangkungs (water spinach).
The beach at Pekalongan
In the morning next day, we went for another culinary trip: a soto tauco (traditional spicy soup) at a small alley near the Es Teler restaurant. In the afternoon, we had another famous food from Kombor’srestaurant: chilli crab. Not really similar to the chilli crabs in Singapore, their crabs have less meat but better sauce. We tried to burn our fat afterwards at a local franchise of the Time Zone arcade center. After one hour of games, we started to get bored and went back home. Turned out that my aunt just bought a carrom discs for the table that she had had for a long time. Hence we started to spent another hour playing the game (even without precisely understanding the rules). Evening was another chance to taste various local foods in Pekalongan. We started by having swikees (frogs) cooked in various ways for dinner, followed grilled toast (yes, it was really grilled using charcoals!). As for the “dessert”, we had martabak. It was sold by a guy named Ibrahim, who we thought first came from middle east for his figure. Turned out that his father came from India.
I’ve been talking too much about food, haven’t I? Anyway, unfortunately on the third day we had to go back to our hometowns. My girlfriend went back to Bandung while I went to Jakarta along with my family. It was another train trip, but this time much faster. It only took about 4 hours of journey. In Jakarta, me and my brother spent some time to watch a live soccer game by our old friends. Finally, I took a flight back to Singapore in the evening. It felt so fast, though in the end the story worth two posts of blog.
After 2.5 years of part time study in NUS, I have finally got the right to retrieve my master degree and participated in the graduation ceremony. The ceremony, or “commencement”, is one thing, but it was the time where people who are close to me came to Singapore to celebrate with me. And this serious business turned into an exciting plan when I found out that the room rate for a hotel in Sentosa Island is not much different than the ones in city. And so I booked the hotel at Sentosa for 4 days of fun, and only 2 hours of commencement (wait, you said 8 days? well, keep reading…).
My parents, brother, and our girlfriends arrived at Singapore on Sunday afternoon after a 1.5 hours of flight from Jakarta. Carrying big bags with us including myself, we took a maxi cab straight to the hotel to check in. We stayed at Siloso Beach Resort, just next to the Wave House Sentosa. It’s would be a perfect place (it’s a stone throw away to the beach), if only there are no tankers resting at the sea, practically covering most part of the horizon. The rest of the day was spent walking around the beach, followed by shopping at the Chinatown area. In the evening, we went to my landlord’s house, who was very kind to invite us for a home-cooked dinner at her house. Few hours later, we left her house with the hope to catch the 9 PM Crane Dance attraction. Unfortunately, the machine was down for maintenance on that day, leaving us only to watch the Lake of Dreams at 9.20 PM. It was okay.
The next day, four of us went to the Universal Studios Singapore, while my parents preferred to go shopping as they have been there before and a second visit is not that interesting anymore. I didn’t expect to be that crowded inside the theme park on Monday. But it was. Except for the Spielberg’s effect showcase, Shrek 4D and Water World, it took about and hour to wait in the queue (and less than 10 minutes in the ride itself). The most exciting attraction was, as before, the Mummy’s roller coaster. At the end of the day, we didn’t ride the infamous Battlestar Galactica, cowardly backing off when we saw that the estimated waiting time is at least 1.5 hour. In the evening, we headed to nearby Vivo City mall to buy some souvenirs, as well as to have dinner at the Food Republic on the top floor. I always like to dine here for its oldies-themed interior design. We then met my parents who were there since afternoon and went back to the hotel to finish the day.
Trip to Universal Studios Singapore
The third day was the commencement day. Since it was held in the afternoon, I spent the lazy morning swimming at the hotel’s swimming pool. There was a man made waterfall beside the swimming pool, giving a natural feeling, although a bit awkward. After a late breakfast, we walked at the beach, again lazily enjoying the scenery and the breeze before we had to go for the commencement. About 12 noon, we went to NUS to have dinner at a cafe in Mochtar Riady building. This is a new building owned by the Business School (while they gave their older COM2 building to School of Computing). Then, shortly before 2 PM we took internal shuttle buses to go to the venue at University Cultural Center.
The commencement itself was good and well managed. But perhaps it was too formal to me. It’s more difficult to wear the gown, compared to what I wore in my undergraduate commencement. The seats were arranged in a somewhat random manner, hence I didn’t know the guys who sat next to me. While this is quite normal given the large number of students, it just gave me an idea of a facebook app that retrieves the friend connections from facebook (with student’s consent, of course) and tries to group students with their friends as close as possible. Anyway.., the current seating arrangement turned out to be not so random for some people. The guy who sat on my left turned out to be a good friend of the guy on my right, hence they spent most of the time chatting with each other with me in the middle. After sometime I politely asked one of them to switch place with me, to allow them chat easier and give a relieve for me for not being a man-in-the-middle. The best part of the commencement was, of course when it ended and I had the chance to meet and greet each other and took pictures with fellow graduates I knew. It was such an exciting experience, realizing what we have been through together and finally got the fruit of our labor.
The night was again spent by lazily enjoying the beach, as this was the last night in Singapore. At the next day, most of us went back to Jakarta, but me and my girlfriend took a separate flight to Bandung. Yes, I indeed took the flight to Indonesia! I actually decided to take more leave and spent the whole week for vacation instead of just watching them gone and spend the rest of the week at the office cube. And then the next 4 days of adventure begins! (to be continued…)
