Sam Po Kong: Peninggalan Budaya Cina di Kota Semarang

Kadang-kadang kita merasa terbiasa dengan apa yang ada di sekitar kita sehingga hal tersebut menjadi tidak terasa spesial atau menarik. 

22 tahun tinggal di Semarang saya baru menginjakkan kaki ke Sam Po Kong dua kali. Yang pertama saat saya balita, sudah lupa kapan tepatnya, saya cuma bisa mengingat tante saya yang saat itu masih remaja mengajak saya dan kakak mampir ke Sam Po Kong yang hanya berjarak beberapa meter dari rumah kakek dan nenek. 

Namsan Tower: Another Seoul's Icon

Just like Tokyo Tower in Japan, or Eiffel in France, Korea has its tower in Seoul the capital city called Namsan Tower.

Korean Fashion Brand: Pancoat

                                    please ignore the snow drop on my beannie   

Sebenarnya sudah lama saya ingin menulis at least satu post saja tentang fashion Korea, selain karena saya senang sekali mengamati dunia fashion, pastinya akan menarik untuk melihat trend fashion apa yang sedang berkembang ketika saya tinggal di Korea Selatan karena perbedaan musim atau trend dengan Indonesia. Tinggal di tengah-tengah anak muda Korea yang sadar fashion sedikit mewarnai gaya berpakaian saya, bagaimana tidak? Karena barang-barang fashion yang dijual di Korea rata-rata sesuai dengan trend saat itu, jadinya apa yang saya beli mau tidak mau mengikuti trend yang sedang hype.

SEORAKSAN: Mencicipi Keindahan Alam di Korea Selatan

Bengong.

Ya, itulah satu kata yang bisa mendeskripsikan saya pada beberapa hari pertama menginjakkan kaki di negeri kimchi. Pasalnya, saya tidak tahu menahu tentang kota kecil di provinsi Gangwon ini yang bernama Gangneung. Sebelum datang di kota Gangneung sih saya sudah riset kecil-kecilan di internet, tetapi tetap saja tidak banyak yang bisa ditemukan seperti apa yang sudah wara-wiri di internet tentang Seoul. Tapi memang saya sengaja tidak mencari tahu banyak demi “being surprised” sih. Dalam beberapa hal saya memang tidak mau knowing everything in advance, saya lebih suka membiarkan diri saya berkelana, terkejut, terkesima, karena menemukan hal baru yang dialami sendiri.

Jalan-jalan saya di minggu pertama di Korea sendiri dipelopori oleh mba Agnes dan mas Joni, mereka berdua ini adalah sepasang kekasih yang sudah lama tinggal di Gangneung dan menyambut saya dan partner exchange si Fifa di hari pertama kami tiba di Gangneung.

Anyway, tiba-tiba pada suatu hari mba Agnes menghubungi saya untuk mengajak naik gunung. Dalam bayangan saya “wah, naik gunung? Bakal capek nggak ya, nggak punya peralatan naik gunung nih, nggak pernah naik gunung nih”, tetapi dengan excited-nya saya mengiyakan ajakan mba Agnes ini. Tidak peduli dengan tidak punya pengalaman naik gunung, pokoknya saya sudah excited bakal punya pengalaman menjelajah tempat baru.

Esoknya, saya dengan pakaian seadanya, dijemput oleh mba Agnes dan mas Joni dari asrama dengan mobil mereka, kemudian kami menjemput mas Ansori yang juga seorang warga Indonesia di terminal, lalu berangkatlah kami ke Seoraksan.

Seoraksan? Ya, itulah nama gunung tertinggi ke-3 di Korea Selatan yang kami daki. Seoraksan ini juga merupakan taman nasional yang terkenal di Korea Selatan

Charmsori Gramophone and Edison Science Museum

gramophones in Edison Museum

Inhale..exhale, I have finished an internship in one of the place where many people want to work at. It was a great experience, glad to know many cool people there and the most important thing is now I know how working in high level office feels like. After I graduate from university, that cubicle where I used to stay during internship should be mine, HUAHAHAHA *amen!!!*

Btw, as I mentioned here that I changed my playlist annually, I’ve just changed all kpop songs in my iPod with EDM songs. I like listening to EDM songs nowadays because these new DJs bring a fresh air of EDM, especially ZEDD with his achievement in Grammy Award with Clarity. And I’ve just found out that last year Indonesia had a big show called Djakarta Warehouse Project where all the cool DJs were gathering and play their music along with a great LED effect in front of thousands audience, there were striptease dancers on the stage as well wtf. But I personally don’t like being in the middle of such crowd. Girls with their inner sneaking from their see-through outfit, mini pants, smoke, alcohol, all those crowd is just not so me. I like the music, I like dancing, but I don’t like being in the crowd.

Talking about the revolution of music, I am so amazed that artist are so creative when it comes to music making. From traditional instrumental to electronic devices that now people are being able to create music just from in front of their computer screen, it brings my memory back when I had a trip in Chamsori Gramphone and Edison Museum in Korea...

Kenapa tinggal di Korea Selatan itu enak?

Tulisan ini berisi pandangan saya selama tinggal di Korea Selatan. Kenyamanan public service dan kultur masyarakat yang saya rasakan selama di Korea sering membuat saya mendambakan Indonesia untuk segera berubah menuju yang lebih baik. Mari satu persatu saya utarakan alasan-alasan tersebut:

Sneaky Pinocchio

Seoul subway is always crowded and busy, there are 9 main lines in the subway, there are around 5 millions passengers coming in and out the train or transfer from line to line every day. As Seoul the metropolitan city so I think the government concerns on making the subway become more comfortable and not being another stressful place to go, that's why there are many underground shopping centers which integrated to the subway station and a lot of convenience stores, snack shops, and vending machines inside the subway station.

When I was waiting for the train to arrive at the Seoul subway, there were some benches provided for the people who are waiting. There were some intricate depictions of cartoon characters on the right side of each bench which I assume that it's one of the way to make the subway stations look more interesting instead of being stuffy.

There was a moment that caught my attention. There was a guy who was so into his smartphone, as almost all Koreans do when they are inside the public transport, sitting closely next to Pinocchio sculpture on the bench while Pinocchio was looking toward to the right side on where the guy was playing his smartphone. I took a picture immediately of it secretly in a flash so that the guy wouldn't be aware of my action. This moment was so funny because the Pinocchio looked as if sneaking and being curious to death of what the guy was looking at his phone screen. If I could narrate that moment, it would be like: "hey dude what are you looking at? I want to see, I want to see, let me take a look!" said the clingy Pinnochio while elbowing that guy in the black coat.