Final Summer's End

What is crackalackin' ladies and gents, 𝙽𝚘 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚃𝚘 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙴𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚂𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚒 here, been a while. Missed an entire month without writing, almost two actually, but heyo I'm back at it.

Been working on something a little different in terms of writing, and boi is it hard. My shrimp noggin is only capable of so much creative thinking, this is something I've never done before. If you need to know what it is, let me put it this way;

Writing about my life is great and all, that is until nothing interesting happens. And to the argument, "but there's always something interesting going on", yes, you are not wrong, and I do agree, but the degree of interesting-ness of the subject varies. The bigger it is, the easier it is to write about. If it's only mildly interesting, that means I have to actually break my boundary as a sub-par, wannabe writer and pull new things out of the bag to make said mildly interesting thing super interesting. That is way too much work for dear ol' moi.

So in order to combat that, I tried to write something not based on my day-to-day diddlybobs. I'll admit, it hasn't gone exactly too well... but... I mean... look, shush ok, I'm trying my best.

Jokes aside, of course I'll try to write about anything at this point, no matter how minute it could be. I think that should be good practice for me.

Besides writing, this summer's brought a few things that are new, which of course contributed to my absence from this blog. Let's see if I can't list some of them chronologically.

Earlier this summer, I moved out from my old place. Why move out now when I'm only a few months away from graduating? Well, if you didn't know, I lived in a share house, at first with three other Indonesians, so there were four of us living in one house. One dropped out a few years back, and another one dropped out right before this summer began. With two of them now gone, the rent became way too expensive, soo voila.

Jadi, di saat orang-orang udah bepergian entah ke mana untuk menikmati libur musim panas mereka, gue kelabakan pindah rumah. I moved from an area called Kamegawa to somewhere near Beppu Station, basically from one end of the city to the other, so the process took a bit of time. Gue pindah dari share house ke... share house lagi. But this time, instead of renting out the whole house, gue cuma nyewa kamar. And it's not in a form of a house, it's a building. I wouldn't exactly call it an apartment, I'd say it's more similar to a dorm, soalnya selain kamar tidur, ruangan seperti kamar mandi, toilet, dan dapur are all shared among the residents.

Lokasi tempat tinggal gue yang baru ini lebih jauh dari kampus, tapi gue merasa letaknya lebih strategis dan lebih comfy dibanding yang dulu. Walaupun jarak ke kampus lebih jauh, harga transportasi rumah-kampus gak bakal terlalu mencuat, karena gue bisa beli this thing called triple ticket which costs 1,000 yen each, which allows me to commute to and fro anywhere within the city for three trips. I'll spare you the details, but in short, commuting won't take up too much out of my wallet, as the price is basically the same as it used to be. Hopefully, at least.

Since it's close to the city's main train station, it also means I'm well surrounded with convenience. And no, I'm not only referring to the abundance of convenience stores around my new house, which there is, but also drugstores, supermarkets, the city library, public baths, you name it. Gak cuma itu, rumah gue yang sekarang juga cuma 10 menit dari toko ramen tempat gue kerja. Gilak men, keinget tahun lalu gue tiap abis kerja pulang jalan kaki satu setengah jam, sekarang cuma 10 menit. Kaki gue bahagia bukan main.

Kamarnya sebenernya lebih kecil dibanding kamar gue dulu, but for some reason I like it better. Letak bangunannya juga gak terlalu dekat dengan jalan besar, jadi tidak terlalu banyak kendaraan lalu-lalang. Though there are significantly more sirens every so often, since I'm nearer to the heart of the city and all, but... heyo, win some lose some, right?

There's also rooftop access, which is always a plus. I can always jump to my death take a few snazzy pics for the 'gram up there, or just go there whenever I need a bit of fresh air, ya feel me. If there is a downside to this new place, it's that the building is right across a catholic church. If there truly is an omnipotent entity up above, boy he really knows how to mock me. Tenang, I'm not about to go xenophobia mode on you. If you know me, I am a very tolerant and accepting man, in more ways than one.

The church itself is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing piece of architecture in Beppu, it has this tower with bells on top of it, and the whole Gothic-style architecture that definitely accentuates the landmark, it's just so crazy out of place in this beach-flavored, hot-spring-riddled small town. Anyhoo, what happens is this church rings its bells every 7AM, 9AM, 12PM, 6PM, and 9PM. The 7AM and 9PM are unique, because each of them play different Japanese folk songs, whereas the others are just standard "ding-dongs". It gave me a good startle alright, especially the 9PM one. The first night I moved in, lu kebayang gak sih itu gimana gak ngagetin woi, gue lagi enak-enak nyantai, abis capek pindahan, tiba-tiba ada suara lonceng merangkai lagu tradisional Jepang. It's almost equivalent to hearing the sounds of gamelan kalo di Indonesia, gue merinding ngompol oi.

Also, I now wake up at seven almost every morning. But of course, I'd say it's overall a net positive.

OH, and get this;


I have my very own personal fridge. In my room.


Gue lupa betapa indahnya hidup ini kalau lo diberkahi kulkas pribadi.

Moving on from residency issues, we now talk part-time job. I have 2 now. That's right, two. Might even be three if I count the less regular job into the equation.

Okay, so let's start with that, the "irregular" job. Jadi, di toko ramen tempat gue kerja, ada temen yang kerjanya jadi guru bahasa Inggris, a workshop session camp kinda thingy, I dunno what they're called, forgot. To partake in this English camps as one of the "leaders", as they call it, I have to attend a meeting regarding the whats and hows of being a leader. The job pays well, and all accommodations are covered by the English-teaching organization that arranges all this. Interested, I attended the training/information meeting.

As far as I know, the said organization is affiliated with my university, so all of the session's attendants are students from my uni. Di awal meeting, ada aktivitas icebreaker, to... well, to b-break the ice among the attendants. The icebreaker was in the form of a bastardized bingo. It's bingo but instead of numbers, it's a list of experiences, personality traits, et cetera et cetera you get the gist, right? Some are fill in the blanks, some are yes/no questions, and more. We had to go around the room, ask people one of the things in the bingo boxes and hope they can provide you the answer. And then do that four more times to achieve "bingo".

TL;DR, it's bingo with a dash of social anxiety.

The exchange usually go two ways, so for example I ask someone a thing from the box that I need filled and vice versa. I was one box shy of bingo, the prompt within it being "A special ability that I'm proud of". Mulailah gue mencari orang yang belum gue tanyain dan juga tidak sedang sibuk meladeni orang lain, but everyone at that time was pretty much preoccupied. And then this girl came up to me. Vietnamese, a pair of glasses, ponytail, pink flannel shirt, ridiculously short pants, dan udelnya ke mana-mana. Tanpa basa-basi, dia langsung berkata,





"Hey, you look like someone who's stalked an ex before"

hello?????????????????

Baru pertama kali gue ditodong kayak gini.

"I... wh... sorry, I don't... well, I mean I... but, h-hang on, listen... first, okay, w-wait, first of all... okay well you're not wrong, b-but... ??????"

"Okay great, so can I put your name in the box?", timpalnya, flat and emotionless.



The audacity of this woman.



"... no, I—but y-yeah, sure I don't... yeah, whatever, sure, yeah, go right ahead", jawab gue, pasrah. Mencoba untuk membuat suasana tidak canggung, gue tanyalah dia prompt yang gue butuh.

"How about you, you have any special ability you're proud of?", lontar gue seramah mungkin.

"Well, I can do this"

She put her hands together, all ten fingers flat straight against one another, and then just started wiggling them.

Gue diem.

Dia diem. Sembari menggoyangkan jari jemarinya.



Skenario aneh macam apa lagi ini, ya Gusti.



"... errrrkaayy, soooo I guess I'll write 'finger wiggling'?"

"Yeah, that works"

"Right... and your name please?"

She's acting like this is just another day at the office, karena reaksinya selama ngomong bener-bener cuma datar, datar sedatar-datarnya. Absurd bukan main. With that, I finally got my bingo. But at what cost?

Setelah sesi icebreaking selesai, sang pemandu meeting, a really cool and funny guy from Africa, tentu saja nanyain kami soal apa aja yang terjadi, and he asked, "anything you found interesting?"

And guess who decided to speak up.

"I learned that Roy stalked his ex"



THE ABSOLUTE AUDACITY OF THIS FFFFFIDDLING YOUNG LASS.



Satu ruangan tertawa menggelegar. Sang pemandu juga puas tertawa.

"Hahahah, Roy, ey where's Roy? You need to stop dat and move on wit life ah", he said, with a rather thick African accent.

I laughed along. Awkwardly. I didn't answer his call, why the hell would I? Thanks to her Vietnamese accent, saying Rory out loud is a bit of a chore, so the bullet grazed my head, but I am still alive.

Setelah meeting-nya berakhir, I went up to talk to her about that whole shambles. It didn't really irk me too badly, thick skin and all, but I mean being this straightforward, no sugarcoating, kicking right in the nuts? I've known people who are frank, but this?

"Hey, y'know, you didn't have to answer him when he asked about the icebreaker thing right? Hahah", ujar gue, seiring kami menuruni anak tangga.

"Oh, hi, hahaha I mean I don't think it was a big deal. Pretty sure everyone's stalked their ex before, right? I just thought it's funny because you actually admitted. People would normally say no or avoid the question, but you pretty much said 'yes'."

"Well yeah, I guess that much is true. And I mean, you caught me well off guard, so I didn't have much time to think, you do realize that right?"

"True true. Well, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable"

"No no, not at all. Like you said, not a big deal. Gone through much worse. Besides, they didn't even know who I am so you good"

We talked more about minuscule stuff regarding school and whatnot, and to our surprise, when we arrived at the lobby, ternyata di luar hujan cukup deras. Kami berdua tidak bawa payung.

"Whoa, this is gonna be a problem, I didn't anticipate this at all", ujar gue.

"Oh no, yeah me neither. Did you walk here?", sahut si cewek Vietnam.

"Yeah, I did, my house is actually just around the corner, but still... I'm not really in the mood to get wet", I replied, only realizing afterwards how unintentionally sexual that sentence sounded.

"My house is pretty close too, actually, but yeah, same"

"I guess we have no choice but to wait, then?"

"Or... we can run together in the rain, like the couples in romantic movies do", she said, again, with a flat, nonchalant expression.

"Ahhahahahaha yeah I guess, well I don't, I mean yeah, I-I don't, I'm not errr exactly the biggest fan of romantic movies b-but yeah, that's an option we can take... I guess??", jawab daku terbata-bata, agak tersipu malu karena daku sudah kian lama tidak bercakap dengan wanita dan tidak tahu apa yang sebenarnya sedang terjadi.

But we didn't do that, because not long after that, the rain kinda slowed down, and we decided to go before it started pouring again. I haven't seen her again ever since.

Wow, that took way longer than I thought it would.

Anyhow, the actual second job that I got was a pool guard job at a hotel resort. Separate post in the making, be sure to catch that one in the near future heyooooooo.

Oh, and of course, last but definitely not least.

This summer,




























I got a girlfriend.










































SIKEEE. Hahaaa get prank'd guys haha did I getcha? Haha that was a good prank right? Hahahaha I'm funny right? I got you good, right guys? Haha right? Epic prank haha.