Year in Review: ありがとう 2015

Wazzup, dreamers! New year is coming, so as usual I'm gonna make a Year in Review post just like 2011, 2012, 2013, and last year 2014. This is the 5th year I update my blog on the last day of the year, while I started to make a year in review post on 2013. I will make sure to always make one in the future.

This year has been awesome, I gained a lot of experiences and opportunities for myself and this blog. I also met some new friends, although I'm still that socially-awkward girl who loves to spend time alone. Basically these are some highlights of 2015:

1. I passed my final trial or the so-called sidang akhir

I passed the biggest concern of my university life: Final Project; Thesis; you name it. After spent a few months, I finally made it. 

2. Stayed in Bandung around 2 months for internship

After my final project, internship is my last condition to graduate. I actually could find one in Jakarta but I wanted to have my internship in another city, which is Bandung. I want to experience new things and explore new places, that's why. Although I couldn't go to many places as I thought (like Tangkuban Perahu or Bukit Moko because I was all alone), I'm glad I could go to cute places that I can share with you. You can read them in Bandung Diary series ;)

Morning run in Bandung

Three Bears Cafe

3. Got my first paid collaboration offer for this blog. It's finally happened!

I start blogging as a hobby and addicted. Of course there are some stories behind this blog, I'll talk about it later, in one post...hopefully. Years later, I began to think about getting income from this blog, to the point I was so stressed out about many things. Thankfully, I could calm myself down and enjoy blogging again. Work hard and passion will never betray you ;)

4. Start making travel videos
Watching travel video has always been my favorite things to do. There are some things you can't show just in still images. Missed my chance to make one when I went to Jogjakarta and I regret it so much. I'm motivated to travel more next year!



5. Popcon Asia 2015

My first art event: Popcon Asia 2015. It was tiring but fun days, and I will be there next year (I wish). I plan to sell various products, from stationary to fashion items. Wish me luck!

6. Featured on CosmoGirl! September issue

I didn't see this coming x) It's my 2nd time to be featured on local magazine, hehe.

7. Being a Star Clozetter, featured on some fashion Instagram accounts

 

I'm offered to be one of the Star Clozetter and for more about my feature on fashion instagram accounts, you can check my achievements page ;)

8. Graduation

The most important moment this year: I'm officially graduated. Good bye university life! It's been tough and long journey but I don't regret anything. I found what my true passion is during those 4 years. Met some close friends, crazy sleepless nights, bunch of assignments, sweat and tears, and too many to mention.

Here are some outfits I post this year, gonna make more style post next year!

I just realized that I wore a lot of black and blue/denim this year. Chopped my bangs because without it I'm not Mei, lol. My grandma protests a lot but I'm more confident with my bangs, so gomen ne. My bangs also have been my trademark hairstyle, to be honest when I grew out my bangs, it's always because of these things: Me in the elementary school thought that girls with no bangs is pretty; I was too lazy to cut le bangs because I had to prepare for high school national exam; the last one was because (again) I was too lazy to cut it because of Final Project.

Yap, that's it! I learned to be more faithful and thankful this year. Wish you a better year ahead ;)

Blogger Illustration: Kanaho's Show

http://kanaho-bo.blogspot.com/

I'm finally back with #bloggerillustration! I haven't touched my sketch book or pentab for around two months and I felt so bad. I love drawing but somehow I was too lazy to do anything about it. I'm glad I can finally back on track.

Kanaho's Show is a blog by a creative Japanese girl. I've read her blog since a long time and I decided to draw her for this latest #bloggerillustration. I love her unique and colorful outfits, most of them are handmade by her or vintage items. Beside her outfits, I also love the photographs on her blog, it's so artistic in my opinion. Check out her blog here :)

Wanderlust: Jogjakarta Pt. II // Night Tour

Hello, dreamers! Merry Christmas! Tonight I'm gonna post about my trip to Jogjakarta again. You can read part one here. After left the beach, we still wandered here and there because...we haven't got place to stay. We actually already booked a room but we were late to respond their text so they gave the room to other people. It's difficult to find empty room because it's holiday season (long weekend) and a lot of hotels were already full.

When we finally found one, it's sooo far from the city and kinda scary so we cancelled it. Thank God we found one near the infamous Jalan Malioboro, it's a small hotel but comfortable named Hotel Mawar Asri. I didn't take any photos of the hotel's interior, gomen ne. ㅠ ㅠ

We rested and took a bath then walked to Jalan Malioboro to look for something to eat. It's pretty crowded but unfortunately I didn't have chance to explore this place to the fullest. We left by car to go to another location to eat Angkringan.

They played music along Malioboro Street

This is called delman.

Angkringan Gareng Petruk

Angkringan is one of the iconic culinary in Jogjakarta. It's actually a cheap food stall with various rice in small portion (nasi kucing) and satay (sate). It's a self-service; we just take all the food we want, order drink, and pay then we can eat along the sidewalk.

Various type of rice

Various satay

I ate two kinds of rice, it's nasi goreng sambal ijo (green chili fried rice) and nasi suwir ayam pedas (spicy shredded chicken rice) with three kinds of satay: quail eggs, meatball, and sausage. Yessss I ate two portions because I was deadly hungry and the portion was just so small, hahaha. I love the rice so much while the satay were just tasted so-so. I forgot the price but it's so cheap, trust me. I think it's around IDR 20.000.

This is another must-try drink at Angkringan: kopi joss. It's a cup of black coffee with hot charcoal. I didn't order this because I didn't want to stay awake all night long ㅠ ㅠ.

How we ate at Angkringan Gareng Petruk

Tugu Yogyakarta

We were full and took a quick visit to Tugu Yogyakarta, snapped some photos and left, lol.

Alun- Alun Kidul

We continued our night tour to Alun-Alun Kidul. This alun-alun is a King Palace's (Istana Keraton) backyard and also a famous destination in Jogjakarta, especially for its Pohon Beringin. There is local tradition known as Meringin, which is to pass between those two trees with your eyes closed, and if you can walk straight trough it, your wish will be granted. I didn't manage to try it but I heard most of people failed to walk straight. Again, I didn't take any photos of it because it's so dark :( I will make sure to write more about it when I visit Jogjakarta again!

Another attraction at Alun- Alun Kidul is these cars with pedals. We decided to try it although it's already so crowded. I forgot how much money we paid for this, but it's quite pricey. Why? Because we literally trapped in "traffic jam" lol. It's too crowded and we couldn't move the cars.

House of Raminten

The last destination is an iconic restaurant in Jogjakarta: House of Raminten. Raminten is actually the name of a woman character in TV show Pengkolan (TVRI) played by Hamzah Sulaeman; the owner. This restaurant's concept is traditional and Javanese, with unique and fun twist. It's already around midnight when we arrived there but there were still a lot of people waiting outside. We waited for a while and finally they called our name.

Entrance of the restaurant

We sat on the lesehan (sit on the floor) area and ordered some snacks. Unfortunately, a lot of menu have already sold out, included the interesting milk menu served in a cup with boob shape. My friend ordered the chocolate flavor one and it's too sweet for my taste.

 House of Raminten also sell some souvenirs for tourists:

Okay, that's all for my short Jogjakarta trip! I wish I could visit Jogjakarta again and explore more beautiful places so I can share with you guys. I hope you're having fun reading this post, じゃあね!

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Wanderlust: Jogjakarta pt. I // Pantai Drini

Hi! Holiday is around the corner, so I want to post about my short trip to Jogjakarta few months ago. I want to apologize for the super late update but I also think that this is the perfect time to post this because of Christmas and New Year holiday! FYI, Indonesia is always hot so going to the beach is a nice choice for vacation.

This trip was actually kinda spontaneous, I went to Jogjakarta (Yogyakarta) with fellow colleagues from the studio I've had my internship. I showed my manager a photo of some locations in Jogjakarta one day and she suggested to go there when we had a few days off. We didn't go to that location in the end tho. To be honest, this was my first trip with friends, without my parents or family #preciousdaughter lol.

We departed from Bandung and it took around 12 hours to Jogjakarta. We didn't know it'd be that long to go there by bus!! It's around 6 A.M. when we arrived Jogjakarta and we continued our trip (another car ride!) to the beach. And guess what, we didn't even take a bath and my bang was just...ugh. Unfortunately, we got a sotoy driver and it was annoying. He didn't know the route well but he pretended to know very very well and we got lost in the end -_-

Thankfully, all of the bad feelings were gone once I arrived at this beach named Pantai Drini. The beach is sooo beautiful. You may think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. There are a lot of beautiful places in Indonesia and Pantai Drini is one of them. I hadn't gone to such a beautiful beach since 2009 in Bali. My family rarely go on vacation, so I really want to work hard and go traveling together someday.

Pantai Drini is located at Desa Banjarejo, Kecamatan Tanjungsari, Gunung Kidul, Jogjakarta. It took around 2-3 hours from Jogjakarta, or around 60 km. It's also near from another beaches, which is 1 km to the east from Pantai Sepanjang and on the east of Pantai Baron.

When we arrived, sky was dark and the rain was pouring just a few moments later. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the weather turned out so nice.

This beach was separated by a coral island so the characteristic of its west and east is different. There were a lot of sea creatures like the photo above, it's cute and scary at the same time, lol. I tried really hard not to step on this when I walked. There were also little fishes and fyi I'm scared of fish. I love to see it but I'm afraid to touch. I actually really want to try snorkeling someday but this phobia is one of my concern *sob*.

We also climbed up the coral island to see Pantai Drini from above. You need to pay IDR 2000 to enjoy this scenery and it's totally worth it (with such a cheap price). I want to go to another destinations in Indonesia a.s.a.p!!!

Ah I should've taken a photo sitting here #regret

Take me back!

They're much more prettier when the sky is clear, obviously. I didn't even care when the sun was so strong and I would be tanned.

After lunch, we took a further tour below the coral island. I never expected there would be fishes swimming among the corals. I've mentioned that I'm scared of fishes but the corals are so beautiful so it kinda won my fear. I stopped to take photos of them but can't catch the photos of the fish properly. Thought about getting a gopro but I already decided to invest on a mirrorless camera so...yeah...I don't know, hahaha. Wish I got lucky next year ;p

Can you spot the tiny fish?

Sooo beautiful!

So, that's it. If you travel to Jogjakarta, I suggest you to go to at least one of the beaches at Gunung Kidul area because they're so beautiful. I wish I could go to more than one beach, tho. Okay, I hope this post can help you when you visit Jogjakarta. I will post the part two soon, so stay tuned!

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