Almost everyone around me will notice that I just love love love love to curse. I find it fun, and it is an actually a great release of stress / anger.
Anyway, i’m just dropping in to let you all know my new favorite curse word (see title) I found it being used in one of my favorite blogs. It’s genius, don’t you think? I am so going to spread the tapdancin’ love now.
As many of you probably have noticed, I currently am residing in Dublin, Ireland. I’m here basically to do my exchange program for a semester (late September - mid December, yeah that’s an amazingly short one).
Since the school in Dublin does not provide accommodation for its students, the initial plan was that I would have to start searching for a room/apartment immediately after my arrival. And that I would be staying in a youth hostel near the school while I was still ’searching’.
Due to my general laziness and lack of motivation, of course all this went out of the window. I did bring myself to check out some property websites a few times, but that was it.
Anyhow, here’s what I’ve learnt about renting a room in Dublin:
- It’s expensive. Go figure
- I might have to share the room
- I might have to share the room and it would still be expensive
- Most of the available rooms are far from school
- Most of the rooms are let at least quarterly, short term is hard to find (just like a decent guy for a boyfriend! what coincidence!)
All that and the fact that my hostel is situated 4 minutes from the university, 3 minutes from my gym, and that continental breakfast is provided, and no cleaning is necessary made me decide to just stay in the hostel until the end of the semester. Convenient, to say the least.
Staying in a hostel is not cheap, mind you. It’s actually more expensive renting a room. And to make things even worse, I stay in a shared room.
With how many people you ask? You’ll never guess: with 25 other people. Yeah, no kidding. It’s just like a big omnivorous orgy every night. Or just like a disaster evacuation tent, only much less somber.
But it’s not bad actually. At least not as bad as you would think it would be. Sure some people snore, some would come in in the middle of the night and talk loudly, some would have sex (I’ve never actually witnessed this - GRR!), and that you just don’t get no privacy AT ALL - but I found it completely fine.
A positive thing that I can take from all this is that I now know that I am a pretty adaptable person. Heck, fuck that, from this experience I can proudly say that I am a very adaptable person.
More posts about my experience in this city that I’ve grown to sorta like will come soon (maybe, hopefully, eventually).
Here’s another brief conversation, but this time, it’s face to face. This was with a random guy in the elevator of the hostel I’m living in (yeah, I’ve been living full-time in a hostel for a month or so. I’ll write a story on this soon, hopefully). For some reason, this very brief conversation lightened up my day, as I was in a bit of a mad mood.
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him: hi
JZ: hiya
JZ: hmm
JZ: are you new in this hostel?
him: me? oh no
him: I uh, am here since, um, yesterday
JZ: ehh… OK.
him: where are you from?
JZ: I’m from Indonesia
JZ: How about you
JZ: Where do you come from?
him: I am an Italian boy!
JZ: … [grins widely]
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Maybe it was just because his English wasn’t very perfect, or maybe he does refer himself as a boy to everyone, I don’t know. But I find men who refer/consider themselves as boys to be very very appealing. For me it just seemed very innocent and harmless, but not immature at all. It was as if deep down inside he is still a young boy who bounces hyper-actively upon the sight of sport cars or other boyish interest. Very cute.
Oh I love it when the muscles of my body are all sore after a good, long, hard workout in the gym. Unlike those days when you wake up the day after a gym session with no apparent muscle fatigue. I feel like I’ve accomplished something, and that the workout is going to actually result in something, and fast. Hmm… I can feel it burn.
Here’s an excerpt of instant messaging conversation I had a few days ago with my friends hundreds of miles away. I didn’t save the conversation, so yeah this is about as accurate as I can remember (with a bit of salt and pepper of course). And yeah, it’s in Indonesian:
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JZ: eh eh
JZ: gila muka ni orang bikin gue eneg banget
JZ: orangnya sih emang agak annoying dikit, tp mukanya
JZ: coba liat deh
JZ: nih http://www.friendster.com/XXXXXXXXXX
JZ: menurut lo gimana?
JZ: ya kan?
her: hahaha
her: agak tua sih mukanya
her: dia 2 tahun dibawah kita kan?
JZ: iya
JZ: nggak tau kenapa gue males aja liat muka tu orang
JZ: huhuhu
JZ: jahat ya gue, haha
her: ah ini biasa kalo buat lo sih
JZ: …
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I am sooo evil. Hahah, I love it.
The temperature’s starting to drop already. I noticed that today was rather very chilly, and that my legs were really freezing. To no one’s surprise, I just checked my Yahoo! weather Widget, and there it states:
1 degree Celsius.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. No wonder. I suppose winter is coming. I’m not a big fan of winter because, well, obviously it’s cold and my body cannot withstand cold weather that well.
Ah well. Here’s to pale potato-like skin and leg warmers!
Just got back from one of the gay places here in Dublin. We were supposed to see this Samhain Parade (Halloween Parade) and fireworks after that, but we just didn’t see any commotion. We read about it in a newspaper, in a magazine, and in a website, but when we got to the site, there was nothing happening. Nada. We asked around and no one seemed to be sure. We also stumbled some people who were looking for the parade as well, oh well, at least we weren’t the only one.
So we gave up trying to find it (we blamed it on the Irish unreliability, or so we like to call it), and opted to go have a drink instead. One of my friend was also gay and he advised us to go tho The Front Lounge, this rather posh gay, well, for lack of a better word, lounge. I’ve actually been there before and thought that it was an alright place. Great ambiance, but just not that fun or special. Ho hum.
Once inside, of course naturally some people were wearing costumes, which was fun (there was this one very fit lad wearing a cop outfit. Ooh, pin me down and bring me to yer cell already, haha).
Anyway, they were actually having open karaoke night! Woo! Of course I didn’t sing, because y’know, I’m just awfully shy that way, hahah. But it turned out that they have karaoke night every Tuesday, not just because tonight is Halloween. So I made a promise to my friend that the next time were there (which is like, next week), we’re so going on the stage and will sing our hearts out! Yeahhh!
Oh the thought of getting called on to the stage is already making me nervous. I’m so making a fool of myself. The embarrassment! This is gonna be wild! Woo!
Dear manufacturers of headphones,
I am loyal user of your end product, especially the light-weight ones. I must add that in my humble opinion, headphones beat earphones by a mile. Here’s a comparison:
- it does not fall off of my ear like most earphones do
- it creates better, crisper sound than earphones do
- it does not hurt my eardrum any more than earphones do
But I have a simple request for you good guys: can you please make them more durable and strong? Maybe make them out of steel or aluminium, while still maintaining the lightness and comfort?
This is because today, my headphones just broke. Again. I am not sure, but I think that was my third headphones in this year alone. You heard that right, the third. I just do not think I want to cash in another 30 to 40 Euros for headphones that will only last me less than 6 months. Yep, less than 6 months.
So, I hope my letter is going to inspire you and will result in improvements in future design. Thank you for your time and attention.
Regards,
A. Zulkarnain
A Rather Semi-Disgruntled Customer
Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) – A Review
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Pan’s Labyrinth begins as a young girl, Ofelia, travels with
her pregnant mother to the rural mountain area of Spain. They are to meet her new
stepfather, a rather cold and sadistic captain in charge of a military post
fighting off the remaining guerilla rebels from the civil war hiding up in the
mountains.
Ofelia is a very imaginative little girl, she spends her
time reading books; fairy tale books to be exact. She has always believed in
the fair and the magical, and on the first night, a fairy comes to her and asks
her to come with her to the nearby ancient labyrinth.
At the bottom of a well inside the labyrinth, she is greeted
by a fawn. He tells her that she is the spirit of the underworld’s king’s daughter,
and that the whole kingdom has been waiting for her return for a very long
time.
However, things are not as easy as they seem to be. To make
sure that she has not completely changed into a mortal, she has to pass three
tasks before the full moon comes.
At this point on, you will probably have realized that Pan’s
Labyrinth is a fairy tale. But don’t get it wrong, it is not a fairy tale for
the kids, oh no. Not with the amount of violence involved in it.
The story then continues with Ofelia’s adventure in
completing the tasks. But that’s not the only thing this movie offers. One of
the maids in the military post is actually an informer helping the guerilla
rebels. Also, Ofelia’s mother is getting more and more ill by the minute, and
things are not looking good for her and the baby. Moreover, the rebels are
getting more reinforcements and are readying themselves to attack the military
post.
Ofelia’s journey story is intertwined beautifully with the
drama and violence surrounding her. Will she be able to complete the entire
tasks she’s been assigned to do? Or does she even want to return to her magical
kingdom, if it even existed?
Pan’s Labyrinth is a very beautiful movie. The setting is
very imaginative, and captures the sense of fairy tale without appearing as if
it was made for a children movie. Moreover it also succeeds in making the whole
look rather gloomy at the same time. For a non Hollywood movie,
the special effect and sound are also seamless. Freaky creatures are abound,
and so is gore. Expect to see torture, headshots, and many death in this
colorful epic. The soundtrack/score is also astounding, and you will find
yourself humming the lullaby even after you have left the theatre (assuming you
watch it in one - stop downloading!).
Ofelia is played well as this endearing Alice in Wonderland-esque little girl. Other
notable performance is Mercedes the maid, she basically steals every scene she
is in. The captain is believably sadistic and cold, but not with a reasonable
background.
This is a pretty long movie (almost 2 hours), but you can
barely feel the length because of the editing. Scenes are often not very long,
with many jumps to the different storylines, to keep the audiences’ interest.
This makes the movie unfolds in a constant flow, rolling out the suspense and
the magic little by little, keeping you waiting whatever things that will
happen next.
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Verdict:
It’s a beautiful, touching, bloody fairy tale for the grown ups. Do I need to say more? 8.5/10.
Here’s what I repeat over and over again in my head when I hit another low:
You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fine. It’s all going to be alright. You’re fucking fine. And by grace of God, it’d better be alright soon.
Sigh. I really wish I could truly believe that. 
