Summer Report

When you're home alone and you've got nothing interesting to do, you know the best thing to do: blogging!

Hehehe.... Gw udah nyaris 2 hari stuck di rumah karena flu dan meriang2, anak2 juga pada lagi sibuk semua jadi ga bisa nemenin gw (plus, it's better to stay away from me for a while to avoid being caught in the same sickness) dan ketika makan + denger lagu + browsing sejumlah website di World Wide Web - bahkan nonton TV sekalipun, yg notabene baru gw pasang di apartemen gw :D - nggak menolong gw menghindari rasa bosan ini, kayaknya cuman ngeblog satu2nya jalan. Udah lama juga kan gw nggak nulis, mencurahkan seluruh isi sanubari gw lewat tulisan2 gw yg... hmmm.. menarik? :p

So, what can I tell you now?
Aside from the cloudy/rainy weather in the midst of Besançon summer, which is FYI super-inducing to go back to bed and snuggle behind the blanket, I have actually got A LOT to tell...

Well, I've just had a wonderful summer vacation last month bareng temen2 gw. Really a great one, di mana gw punya kesempatan buat jalan2 ngiterin Perancis! To be honest, muterin satu Perancis berasa kayak muterin satu Pulau Jawa kalo di Indonesia dulu, well, secara Perancis juga gedenya kira2 segede Pulau Jawa (ato Pulau Jawa itu baru 1/4nya Perancis ya? lali aku. well you get my point lah) bedanya, kalo di Jawa dulu gw sistem roadtrip dgn naek mobil, di Perancis gw naek kereta TGV yg terkenal cepat itu! perjalanan jauh pun berasa pendek banget, muahahahha.

Dan gw liburannya termasuk lama banget loh! Dari tgl 30 mei sampe 4 juli, yg artinya gw liburan 34 hari! Dan itu gw jalan2nya ke Paris, Pau, Lourdes, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Lille dan Arras. Di bbrp kota gw stay sampe berminggu2 tp bbrp ada yg cuma pulang hari doang, but it was marvelous.
There are lots of highlights as well:

• My suitcase. There was a lot of drama with my freaking suitcase, bahkan semenjak day 1. Jadi gw ceritanya spesial beli koper, secara gw ga punya koper kecil buat liburan gtu, dan ga mungkin banget gw bawa2 koper yg gede padahal isi baju gw sebenernya dikit. Jadi gw beli satu suitcase jinjing, dan pada hari pertama liburan, Saudara-saudara, tas koper gw jebol di tali pegangannya! Alhasil ada robekan nganga gtu di bagian pegangannya. Sialan banget, padahal baru beli... singkat cerita, ketika gw ada di Pau, tas itu dengan senang hati gw kirim pake pos balik ke Besançon, dan apa yg terjadi dengan baju2 gw semuanya? Kebetulan Taby beli satu kereta belanja dari kakak kelas yg mau balik ke Indonesia for good dan kereta itu dititipin di Paris, so I ended up using that shopping bag for the rest of my trip. Embarrassing.
• Paris: amazing! Gw akhirnya dapet kesempatan buat liat2 site2 turistik yang sebelumnya cuma gw liat di film2... liat pyramides des Louvres, Arc de Triomphe dan Champs-Elysees-nya yg terkenal, pergi ke Notre-Dame de Paris, berdiri di bawah menara Eiffel yang tinggiiiiiiiiiiii banget, jalan2 di kuburan orang2 terkenal di Pere Lachaise, liat la grande arche de La Defense, tempat Mr. Bean kesasar di film Mr. Bean's Holiday; liat Moulin Rouge (and was tempted to créole Lady Marmalade in front of it! hehe) and of course... pergi ke Disneyland Paris! It brought back the little girl in me. hahaha.
• Pau dan 'misteri anak hilang'-nya *horror theme music* inget makan sushi sampe mabok... hmmm, jadi pengen makan sushi lagi. sayang sekarang lagi ga punya duit :( trus ke Lourdes dan akhirnya dapet kesempatan juga buat ziarah ke Gua Maria. I just wished my parents n sister could be there too...
• Akhirnya merasakan juga pantai setelah sekian lama tinggal di gunung! hehehe.... Marseille, kota kedua terbesar di Perancis, sekaligus kota termodern di Perancis. Everything just screamed 'megapolitan' to me, unlike in Paris, yg kelihatan masih bersejarah dan kuno. Pemandangan lautnya juga cakeeeppp banget! The only problem with it was that it was so freaking hot and sunny that it burned to the skin! Hasilnya, kulit gw menghitam. hahaha! It was said that the temperature reached 40 degrees Celcius. James Blunt pun akan megap2 di tengah suhu kayak gitu.
• and the highest highlight of this holiday is definitely COLDPLAY!! Di Arras, dari tgl 1-3 Juli, ada festival musik namanya Main Square Festival, dan Coldplay adalah salah satu band highlight di festival itu tanggal 3nya. Mengingat ini adalah satu2nya tanggal konser Coldplay di Perancis tahun 2011 (and remembering how MUCH i love my favorite 4 British blokes), gw kejar mereka! :D tanggal 3 pagi jam 10, gw jalan dari Lille (kota tempat gw nginep) ke Arras... 2 jam dan satu cup Ben and Jerry's gratis kemudian, gw udah ada di Main Square Festival, dan tempat itu udah crowded banget sama orang2 yang mau nonton! Mana bule2 yg tinggi2 gitu lagi.... I could already spot some Coldplayers that noon, despite Coldplay's 23:30 concert hahaha! pas sampe di venue, gw pun menukar tube top bunga2 gw dengan kaos T-shirt Coldplay yg udah gw bawa sejak pagi and the festival commenced! Btw, yang manggung di sana hari itu ada Rival Sons (metal2 gitu... sumpah mereka berisik banget gw sampe2 harus beli sumpelan kuping biar nggak budek!), Charles Bradley (soul music.. très cool), Bruno Mars (Kenjiiiii! gw cinta pada pandangan pertama sama gitarisnya hehheehe), Elbow (mereka keren juga, kayak Sigur Ros musicnya), PJ Harvey (yg ini gw ga ngikutin, tp musicnya kayak folk2 gitu) dan Portishead (music OK, vokalis blehhh.... masa ngga ada interaksi sama audience dan selama ga ada nyanyi2nya, dy munggungin penonton trus asik godek2 sendiri??)...... and finally, at 23:30, it was Coldplay's turn! let me tell you that gw ngebet banget bisa ngeliat Chris Martin dkk dari deket, jadi pas sejak Portishead gw udah sodok2an biar bisa di depan, yaaah minimal 10 baris lah dari depan... I ended up being around 30m from the band, which is a great achievement FYI, soalnya semakin ke depan semakin desak2an, I had no more room to breathe! But when the band played, it was like... WOW. Coldplay, gila, di depan mata gw, maen live! A technical problem in In My Place but that made me enjoy it more! Just search on YouTube the video and you'll see what I mean.... And for the next one-and-a-half-hour, I jumped, screamed, sang, lifted my hands.... the stuffs you'd do when you meet your favourite rock band. We arrived home at around 3 in the morning. It was a great experience, definitely THE highlight of my holiday, if not the highlight of my 2011 experience. Accompanying me to the festival was Kak Dhiara, Kak Aldy and Juls, to whom I give my thanks! It was fun all in all!

There, the highlights of my summer holiday. I especially enjoyed the concert and I just wanna go back to that moment over and over again... Dear Coldplay, please finish your album real quick so that you have a reason to tour again and come back to France! I'll definitely watch you guys again :)

Gw bakal kangen banget sama liburan summer gila2an gw. Tapi yang jelas, gw udah bener2 make the most of my summer holiday soalnya abis ini, no more holidays! University life is gonna give you a hard time to go on a holiday. hahaha.

Yep, I guess that's the key: make the most of it.
Even though you're stuck in your apartment, there must be something you can make the most of, Gret.
Like, cleaning up your apartment, perhaps? That'll do for a great start. :p