8 yrs

irene-angela-dian-ange-lia-etta

one of them should be 8 years older than several of the others :D

UIUC

Take a tour of moi beloved campus UIUC: University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign

gregory hall: tempat i sehari2 menuntut ilmu

quad in the winter

patung almamater

daniels hall; my lifesaver-beloved dorm for 2 semesters

grainger library (deket apt, pernah sih sekali dua kali belajar di sana, abis itu udah...huehehe)

the union (was: tempat numpang tidur siang)

disappointed

what do u get when the people u think are closest to u-your so called friends-the people u assume would at least listen to what u want or dont't want-don't give a damn to anything u say??? disappontment. no explanations needed.

quote of the day

We love whom we love not so much because of the future we hope to build but because of the past we hope to reclaim-Lauren Slater

my oh my metamorphosis

early 2004: @ kota bunga
june 2004: disgustingly thin
sep 2004: starting the semester
feb 05: an incredibly warm day @ d quad aug 05: @ chicago
feb 06: look @ me now...no wonder my clothes don't fit!

I know... but thanks anyway ;)

You're Beautiful-James Blunt

My life is brilliant

My life is brilliant
My love is pure
I saw an angel
Of that I'm sure
She smiled at me on the subway
She was with another man
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful
You're beautiful, it's true
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high (Fu***in' high)
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end

You're beautiful. You're beautiful
You're beautiful, it's true
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you

You're beautiful. You're beautiful
You're beautiful, it's true
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you

Happy Anniversary

February 19th was mom & dad's 29th anniversary, which means that I'll be turning *** (censor!!!) this year. Hahaha.. Yes mom... to your dismay, I'll actually be that certain age in July. But anyway, I just wanted to wish dad & bunda a happy anniv. Muah..muah..

question of the day

why is it that things don't seem to be falling into place?

Meet me in St. Louis

Ok... sebenernya kita jalan-jalan ke St. Louisnya pas awal Januari. Tapi berhubung dapet fotonya baru sekarang dan karena for some reason icon2 buat ngeset tanggal2an di bawah menghilang, terpakasalah foto2 ini muncul pas tanggal segini.

The Arch


Eh...berhasil fotonya


At the top of the Arch with 'za







Oknum-oknum di Landry's


A taste of heaven

Finally...

susie (my roommate)-ange-mihyun

Sukwoo, Claire, Ange, Soca, and Bunda
Summer 2004, Kelapa Gading Mall
Photo by: Heather

After several failed attempts to meet up, we finally managed to have dinner together: me, Susie, Mihyun, Sukwoo, Heather & li'l Claire. Sukwoo gave me this picture (see above) of when we got together at Kelapa Gading Mal over summer. There's another picture actually, but I look like a pregnant woman in that pic, so I decided to keep it for myself ;)

Palentinan

I've never really been a big fan of Valentine's Day. I'm simply not into the mushy gushy kinda things. Since grade school, I feel sick to the stomach, everytime I have to read a love letter. By 7th grade, I learned not to open the letters at all and let them be in their orginal condition. In a sealed envelope. And, I can never decipher any abstract poems ever sent to me. I know, I'm pathetic. I'm not much for flowers either, since I'm allergic to pollen. But flowers-at least-I've learned to handle pretty well by now.

Anyway... a while ago there was a request for me to set aside last Tuesday nite for a V-day dinner. In the name of friendship, of course I made myself available. If I'm making one person extra happy, I'll be extra happy too...huahaha.

So here are our pics @ Ko-Fusion. Nice sushi. The steak was so-so. The people @ the table, insane, as usual.

makasih buat orang mabok yang semangat 45 ngambilin foto ini buat kita, meski agak2 gelap gitu

paksi-ange-ardi

lia-paksi

lia-yudi

ange-yudi (i'm not thinking what u're thinking)

semuanya semeja @ Ko Fusion

NOW take a look at these cute pics:

ardi

lia

hmmm... are you thinking what i'm thinking.....? deadline: april 14, 2006

The Tuscola Mishap

In our car (wait Yudi's car-to be exact), on our way back to Champaign. There was an air of silence. Only the sound of some classic rock, and some occasional snoring of an exhausted person in the back seat of the car. I too was dead tired, but I tried to stay awake for the sake of being a proper navigator. I was too tired to think or to speak. I relaxed my eyes, and took in the falling snow outside. This is one thing I love to do. Watch the snow in a traveling car. It feels as if you’re running into the flakes of snow without ever getting hit. You feel like you’re traveling through time – or at least that’s the way I imagine it would feel.

Anyhow…that’s not the story. The story begins when the sleeping person in the back seat wakes up with a sudden burst of energy. Disturbed by the piercing silence, he gets jumpy, and ideas start rolling in his heads. Words, words, words, scrambling in his mind. Crazy he (always) was, and crazy it was – the chosen word of the hour, for he decided to pounce on that brilliant question: “What drives you crazy?” “You guys!” I easily answer. No… no… , lets make some slight changes: “Who drives you crazy?” Well that’s a different story.

Now, for some reason these people started to get overly excited in the discussion. Maybe because, buried stories from the past rose to the surface. At least several things got to be straightened out, so that those assumptions that eventually became unverified conclusions were cleared away. Hopefully.

Approaching Champaign we were at the epitome of our happy chit-chat. So then someone decides to drive all the way to Tuscola just to keep moment. Oh well, there’ll only be a few more chances for ‘on-the-spot’ moments like this (pheeww…) since the Champaign Beyatch original member edition will disseminate soon. But on that day something was sealed among us – the fact that when we eventually sit down together at KAFE, perhaps several years from now, we’ll have this moment to embarrass ourselves with (red- one member will use this moment to embarrass the other members about).

Anyway….nice productive trip guys!

A Tribute to the Beyatch of Chicago

at Herry's place I agree, it is one of our best poses, considering my eyes are wide open-huahaha

So the queen beyatch turned 2* (fill in the number yourself) last week, and we spent our weekend in Chicago in her honor. Our trip started with heavy shopping at Chicago Premium Outlet in Aurora for me, Yudi, and Ardi. Well, maybe I should rephrase --> heavy shopping for me. Paksi still had things to do on campus so he went to Chicago by LEX. We told him we'd be there when he got to Chicago, but of course that was all a lie. What do you expect?? We managed to get to Star of Siam at around 9-ish and then headed to Air's apartment. Wait let me think... my mind is going blank. Where did we go? It's impossible we would head straight home. ... (thinking) ...(thinking harder) ... (still blank) ... Aaaah!! I remember now!

OK, so because Chi-bi had a craving to do some Indonesian karaoke that night, we headed for some karaoke (name of place witheld). Our playlist went from A to Z, from "norak" to "norak banget"
Includend in the extremely long playlist was...
-Ada Band, Chrisye, Peter Pan, sampe Panbers...huehehe
-Our regular: I'm a Barbie Girl (buat ancur2an)
-Paksi's striking solo performance: My Sharona
-Jeritan hati terdalam Ardi: Kisah Kasih di Sekolah (ciyeeh ...ciyeh...)
-Yudistira melompat-lompat (gak tahu lagi mikirin siapa...blink blink): Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name
-My all time fave: Careless Whisper (daleem)
-Ungkapan Airin untuk seseorang di sana (gak tahu yang mana juga sih..huahaha):Aku Cinta Padamunya Sheila Madjid
tapi yang gak bisa dikalahin mah suaranya Danny...nyanyi apa aja bikin merinding, abis suaranya bagus banget.

Eniwei...keesokan harinya pastinya bangun siang. And then we headed to Herry's for a surprise bday lunch for Air. He made a terrific roast chicken with ready to die for sides-dishes.



bikin ngiler gak siiih...jadi pengen lagi

Enihuuu, after that extremely delicious lunch, we were so stuffed that the most logical thing to do was fall asleep in front of the TV. Huahaha. After our nap, we headed for Virgin on Michigan Ave, continued on for dinner at New Tokyo on Broadway for some great sushi, and then some jazz at Back Room on Rush St where in alphabetical order Andre, Andreas, Eric, and Ivan joined us. We headed back with a short stop at McD. And still managed to cook up some miso soup before heading back to bed.





Sunday afternoon, we continue our dumpling ritual, this time not at Phoenix but Furama. Great time...great fun... Miss you guys chi-bi-es already?!! Kapan ke Champaign???? Happy Birthday Chi-Bi!!!!

The Indiana Incident

ok...
look carefully at the pictures below
they are the devilish angels
or maybe the angelic devils
in my current phase of life

this was the day they kidnapped me
for a 9 hour trip to indianapolis
(6 pm to 3 am)

for the full details of the agenda
and especially as to the reason of the crazy trip
please consult cattra.blogspot.com


at bucadibeppo


at rock bottom afterwards

Dedicated to My Champaign Beyatches

As the people around you start to come and go, you can’t help but wish that sometimes things could stay the same. You’ll wish that time could just stop and rewind-to a time where there were just us. Wandering in the Quad, grocery hunting at Meijer (or Walmart), trying out restos and bars in the neighborhood, chilling in the coffee shops, our ‘cultural’ visits to Borders, and our midnite bites at Evo. Taking turns to fall asleep at the movies or just cruising in that car we’d like to call our own-is all that we do.

So, what is it about us? We are people, stranded in a land of nothing, enjoying nothingness together. But it’s the comfort of having people who care about the non-essential things about you, that makes it all worthwhile. And no matter how annoying or over the top they may be, unfortunately they don’t come with a 30 day full-refund guarantee. It’s a take it or leave it deal. And that’s what you call friendship.

We’ll soon be scattered, leaving this (not-so)comfort zone of ours, but in the back of our heads we’ll always have us... and Champaign. Ciyeeeeh…. uhuk…uhuk … suuiitt… suiiit…@*$&)@$*^&!!!


at barfly on chinese new years


paksi's bday in chicago: champaign beyatches with the queen beyatch

A li'l bout luv

A friend of mine recently cut his love story short and said it was all because of their different culture and religion. Another friend asked me why I never write anything about love in my blog. Ist das richtig so? If that's the case, I guess I'll write a little about love today.

I’ll start with this one question: Is there such thing as a forbidden love? If all men and women were created equal, should there be anything wrong with an African American male pairing up with an Asian American female, a Muslim girl dating a Christian guy, or a Roman Catholic Latino marrying an Indian Hindi?



Why is it so difficult to envision these images? It’s as if a virus has suddenly invaded our processing system, and our minds have been automatically shut down or put in hibernating mode. Our minds refuse to reboot until that image has passed beyond us.

What is wrong with us? Blame it on the values and the morals and the belief system that has been bestowed upon us. Blame it on our culture, on the way were brought up, and the way we were trained to perceive. Blame it on all the “good” we have been taught to uphold.

But when you have a failed love story at hand, never blame it on religion. Never blame it on culture. The only subject to blame is you. It’s your stubborn mind at fault. Your inability to break through the imaginary walls built in your head at guilt. Your lack of love held responsible.

Don’t claim a great never-ending love, if you dare not fight for it. The simple underlying statement here is that you plainly do not have enough love, enough courage, enough gut, to defy yourself, your mind, and your society. In short: you’re just not that into him/her. For the way I see it, true love transcends all. It goes well beyond race, culture, religion, distance and boundaries .......

soca's graduation

ok.. so it was my sister's graduation a while ago. just got her pics, so i thought i'd upload them here. congrats kiddo... u did it-all on ur own. good thing i wasn't around. imagine how often u'd bug me with questions and how often we'd want to jump at each other's throat. so, i'm glad that we skipped that whole ordeal for once. u should be really proud of urself now. what's next?

the best things...

A: the best things come to those who wait
B: even patience has its limits though ;)

ehm... a hint to cattra's blog