Bruises, scratches & a great weekend!

Like PROs! 
After raft smiles!  Well, I finally have some time to write again, haven't had for a while. :) We went on a rafting trip in a river on the west side of Bogor (it's an hour drive from Jakarta) the past weekend. We started pretty early, met at Bursa Efek Jakarta (Jakarta Stock Exchange) at 5:30 am. It was so funny because BEJ is one of the most cosmopolitan buildings in Jakarta and there we were outside looking like backpackers! Anyway, we were 40 minutes off schedule since Christian apparently only awoke when Stephanie phoned him. Before I continue on, I'll enumerate the people I was with: Cristian (Romania), Stephanie (Hong Kong), Renata (Peru/Germany), Caroline (US), Anja (Belgium), Christian & Yohan (the "Locals"). Anyway, we got to Bogor around 8:30 and got lost for 30 minutes. If I remember correctly, we did at least 3 U-turns. The "Locals" happened to be both guys.. so you know what they say about guys and directions (or should I say the refusal to ask??). So we got to the Villa (where we spent the night) at around 9. It was a very pretty Villa, with a swimming pool in the backyard and a kindergarten school in the compound??? No wonder some of us started acting like kindergarten kids during the rafting trip, they adjusted to the environment a bit too fast. So off we drove in an "angkot" (it's like a jeepney but closed and smaller, too) because Chris refused to bring his car. Given the road condition afterwards, I understood why. Anyway, we were cramped in the rented "angkot", all a dozen of us (by this time we were already with the adventure group who organized the trip for us). We got to the river and we met the "skippers" (one per raft who take charge of us, shouting directions and all that). The guys said these were the best ones in Bogor. Hehe. We geared up with helmets and life jackets and were assigned to our respective rafts. We had 3, 2 for 8 of us and 1 for the rescue team. Mine was with Yohan, Cris (who was paddling so strong.. in the wrong direction, the "skipper" had some exercise maneuvering the raft!), Stephanie and Renata (who expected the worst from the time we got in the raft). After a couple of instructions (in barely-understandable English), off we went! The first strong current with lots of rock we encountered (a few minutes after starting), our raft toppled over and jeez, was I staring death right in the face. I think this sport is really dangerous, given the rocks and all that but I'd do it again and again and again! Hehe. Anyway, so off we fell and we started being carried by the current in a different directions, smashing on a rock then another then another. I was so scared I started shouting things in Tagalog and from the other side, Renata was telling me to calm down.. in Spanish!! It was like the Tower of Babel when they started speaking different languages. We had quite a laugh about it afterwards. It was 3 more hours of toppling over, climbing up, shouting, toppling over again. It was so much fun! Not to mention, my legs are now covered in bruises and scratches like I've been beaten. The first time ever that I got them while laughing like hell! We went back to the Villa for some Indonesian lunch then swam in the pool and slept afterwards. we were all so tired. We woke up just in time for dinner, ate and drank really cold beer, lots of it. Some guys from the adventure group could do reflexology, henna tatto (I have been thinking of getting a real one, I want so much!) and all sorts of things. So we ended up having reflexology (which as Stephanie panted and shouted and moaned might just be orgasmic! ;))and getting tattos. The night ended with the Circle_of_Friends_Indo (our mailing list, corny name but effective in dispersing invitations and planning trips, very centralized!) falling asleep on the living room carpet with empty beer bottles around them holding on to each other like only real (and drunk) friends can. It was a wonderful weekend with wonderful people from all over the world. P.S. I'll upload photos soon.

Whirlwind passing of days

I've been 22 for a week now. It's been a whole week since I last blogged. And it passed me before my very eyes, I didn't even notice. My days have been awfully fast eversince I started on my new job (I've been 3 months in Lowe now!) and time err.., well, flies. I wake on a Monday morning and before I could even start on some nice thoughts while tucked under my Precious Moments comforter, I'm sleeping on a Friday night. Fast, really fast. Not to mention, in a month, I'll be 1 year in Indonesia. When was it again that I was aboard Philippine Airlines PR-something bound for Jakarta, worried as hell that I'd pay precious dollars because I overpacked? Thank heavens for a 30-something Mexican guy (I had to talk to him the ENTIRE flight to show my gratefulness) who took the other 15 kilos of my baggage on his boarding pass. Well, it seemed like yesterday. To cut a bit of the exaggeration, perhaps a week ago. Maybe more. But what I'm certain about is it definitely doesn't feel like a year, not at all. Farthest from it. How my life is right now, how everything turned out, is by far, my most proudest achievement. I ended up in the industry that a lot of people tell me is tough to get into. I found myself a cubicle (come on, the rat race starts with this padded cell without a door) in Indonesia's largest advertising agency (and the largest agency of the Lowe network in the region). Not to mention, it's an agency under the world's 2nd largest media company (Interpublic). I am proud of what I do and I am passionate about it. I fully-adjusted myself in a country whose religion is a mortal enemy of mine. I have risen above the differences to win the hearts of people who, in turn, won my heart. I have made great friends and extended family in this country that had everything strange to me 12 months' ago. I can speak and understand the langauage that was mere meaningless monickers to me before. I have travelled to places in the country where my best memories of the past year have been made. It has been an amazing year. I am proud. But over that, I am grateful. Indonesia will always be one of my favorite countries (I stayed long enough to have some "emotional" bond by the time I leave) and, in a way, will be home since I know the streets and shopping places like the back of my hand. But this is just the first stop of my very ambitious journey. By this month, next year, I'll be making last minute preparations for my next adventure. I want it to be in a different continent now, I still don't know how things will fall into place, but they will. I know they will. I will make them. Perhaps Prague or Tallin or some eastern europe capital. I want it to be there more than anywhere. It'll be another year of proud achievements, God willing. I hope the stars fall right in line. Because I will do everything humanly possible to make them in line. Fate is 20% fate and 80% work, I've proven it many times over. You see, I had a pact with myself. 3 different countries I'd call home for a minimum of a year before I can settle on travelling just every summer (to earn the plane ride and all that). And I can't let myself down, can I?

Amazing Day

Catch 22: Stab 'em!  Today is amazing, not because I was born on this day 22 years ago, but rather due to very special people who were born on their specific birthdates (am I making sense? I hope). Birthdays are special. They remind you of the many special people who make this day meaningful for you. The special people last year might be oceans away now (or a 6 hour plane ride) and the ones this year were complete strangers (and foreigners) to you then. My point is, the jungle that life is, is indeed, a jungle. You trudge through one path and as you keep on walking, you find obstacles in your way but in the same breath, you find wonderful people who help you out. Then you're never the same. Now, you are more helpful.. you try to touch other people's lives the way someone touched yours. In gratefulness, pay it forward, so they say. Also, "a home away from home" is more than a phrase that rhymes. There is more than a hint of truth in it. I found it here, in the cosmopolitan jungle of Indonesia, Jakarta. I found family in the advertising jungle of Lowe. I found family with other "without-families" (my foreigner friends) in the streets of Jakarta. I found a stronger me in my home away from home. I had a great birthday this year. One I spent away from home but it felt like home. A birthday my grandchildren will hear about. I'm 22 and the 4th of June, no matter what year, is always special.

Turning 22 and other realities

I am young. A lot of people tell me so. My circle of friends, people at the office, even strangers I meet on the plane. This is a usual reaction when they find out that I'm done with University and I am venturing on an advertising career abroad, all in a span of a year or so (I graduated April of last year). And I feel young, too young oftentimes, but I also know that I have to grow up faster because I chose to trudge this jungle. Despite the fact that everything is happening a bit too fast than I'm prepared for yet I'm coping, at the end of the day, I am still just a little sister and I felt this especially strongly when my sister visited me this summer. Sometimes, I feel empowered and independent, paying my own bills and earning my own keep; other times, I just long to feel like a daughter who can ran to her mommy's arms when things seem too much. Sometimes I get a dose of quarter-life crisis but most of the time, I just work to make my dreams come true. I am happy with the choices I have made, most of the time. I'd be the last to say they were easy because they are far from a walk in the park, or a ride in the sky (to put it more accurately). Choosing to fly out of the country 2 month's after graduation is an exciting choice at that time.. but staying out for almost a year now leaves you with reality rather than a perspective of things through rose-colored glasses. Being away from home is the highest price one can pay for success-- whatever it means to each of us. I'd do it again anyway because it is here that I proved to myself, I CAN. There is nothing I can't make happen for me.. but making it happen means temporary sacrifice of things that mean the world to me: my family beside me. At the end of some days, at my lowest points, I see the face of my mom in my mind and I ask myself, where am I? And instantly, I would hear her answering me.. "You are somewhere making things happen for you and making mom and dad very proud." And I fall asleep, with a kind of peace that can only come from a mother's voice. I am turning 22 in 2 days and I am still young, it won't change anything except the figure I put in on forms. I would still have independent days and trying moments of homesickness. And time and again, I would still have my mother's comforting support, my source of strenght to keep on sailing. I am blessed and I am grateful. I will be 22! *This is for the greatest mother on earth, MINE. I love you and Papa very much. Despite everything and through anything, you will remain to be MY REASON.

On Trojans and Brad Pitt

Last Saturday, after hauling all the stuff I've accumulated in my 9 months in Jakarta across the long road of Sudirman, I met up with my ex-flatmates (I moved closer to the office, the long way stresses me too much I just had to) to watch the midnight premiere of Troy. Yes, Jakarta is VERY, VERY late. The entire world have seen movies a lifetime ago and it's just premiere here. That's why half the population settles for pirated dvds along Menteng. On to my pimary topic. Greek literature has always fascinated me. This is one of the rare pieces of literature that I can read in old English even when examinations are weeks hence yet. I actually pore throught them for myself rather than for an A+. As my friend Niqui and I realized after watching the movie (she's in Manila so she saw it first), it somehow made us look at the Trojans from another perspective-- from a more positive one, I would say. Paris made one stupid mistake (for love, so it's justified?! Please.) that changed the face of history for mighty-burned-to-ashes Troy. And to be quite blunt, Orlando Bloom made me crawl out of my skin every time he comes out on screen. Especially that bit when he fought Menelaus and came crawling back to Hector (I'd marry the character any day.. the one who plays him is no minus either. Wishful thinking aloud), it was just the last strike for me. Then again, family is family.. even back in those times when bravery and word of honor make or break a man and his empire. I left the theater with a greater respect for the father that King Priam was, the totality of being of Hector (a brother, a son, a leader, a husband and a father) and as for Paris, well, he made the story happen, didn't he? Pfft. Now, Mr. Brad Pitt. It's an interesting coincidence that Jennifer Aniston is half-Greek. Anyway, Brad looks amazing in this movie. My guy friends say that 75% of the success of this film should be credited to Mr. Pitt's jaw-dropping behind (and I'm guilty as charged, jaw-dropping it was). I'm not really a good judge of acting and the bum really took a chunk off my objectivity so I'd steer clear of the acting-analysis. Achilles was not really one of those characters in Greek mythology that appealed to me in an extra-ordinary manner (but then again, when Homer wrote he was handsome & well-built, Brad didn't cross my teenage mind then) but highlighting his "killing" (both literally and figuratively) skills was really a significance booster. The famous Achilles' heel that was left undipped when Thetis gave him the gift of immortality in the River Styx put an end to all the "killing" and gave the poor guy some peace of mind (that he credits to the Briseis) and gave Paris some redemption of his sissiness. Lastly, the bit when Achilles said his last words to Briseis is a great praise for womanhood and the role women play in the lives of history's most significant figures. Femininism aside, kudos to the fairer sex. Troy is a film above most. Worth my Rp. 50.000,- even more.