i just need to sing
Dua hari ini gue agak ngerasa nggak di dunia ini. Ngerasa nggak lagi di Nanyang Technological University, pinggiran Singapura. Kayak nggak conect gitu. Nggak niat sama sekali untuk melakukan hal-hal yang seharusnya gue lakukan. Dan nggak ngerasa bahagia. I mean, seharusnya gue belajar, tapi gue nonton plus facebook. Biasanya gue bakal seneng, yah guilty pleasure lah.
Tapi yang kemaren ini gue kayak nggak tau semestinya ngapain. Nonton dan facebook-an biasanya bisa bikin gue seneng lagi, tapi kali ini nggak. Rada putus asa jadinya. Gue udah mengorbankan sesuatu yang harusnya gue lakukan untuk sesuatu yang seharusnya menyenangkan, tapi ternyata nggak. Jadi gue harus ngapain donk?
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Ini terjawab saat gue lagi denger “Everlasting Love” yang dinyanyiin Jamie Cullum dan gue mulai bergumam ‘Hearts gone astray…’ makin lama makin keras sampe ‘Open up your eyes, then you’re realize, here I stand with my everlasting love…’
And suddenly gue tahu apa yang gue butuhkan. I just need to sing!
Setelah dipikir-pikir, iya juga ya, gue belom karokean sejak sebulan yang lalu. Sejak gue pulang ke Indo. Disana kan nggak mungkin gue karaokean. Tapi sih disana tampaknya banyak kebahagiaan, ketemu temen-temen lama dan keluarga. Disini gue pertama-tama rada sakit tenggorokan jadi ngomong aja rada dihemat. Tapi lama-lama ya, gue memang perlu melepas dahaga jiwa…dengan menyanyi. Saatnya memanfaatkan Lance dan single room gue untuk karaoke sampe puas 
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~lalalala…~
welcome, jason!
Akhirnya salah satu wish gue kesampean, yakni: beli mp3 player! 
So it is a Sony Walkman NWZ-S739F. Namanya Jason. Yah at least -son di belakangnya mirip lah sama Sony. Sekarang lagi proses pemenuhan otak. Tadinya sih gue mau garis keras untuk Jason, tapi seperti biasa…yah begitulah. Akhirnya sekian giga musik tidak-terlalu-legal mengalir dengan lancar masuk ke otak Jason.
Yah semoga suatu hari nanti gue bisa menjadikannya garis keras. Semoga 
satu jam di ihub
Hari ini gue ada kosong 2 jam diantara lectures. Niatnya sih mau coba liat tutorial (sampe uda bawa mapnya dan kalkulator), tapi alhasil malah nongkrong di EEE i-hub dan ngeriset tentang ethnomusicology.
Grove dictionary ga bisa dibuka online ternyata…harus ada passwordnya gitu dan NTU ternyata bukan partner. Yauda deh puas aja dengan JSTOR. Ternyata Society for Ethnomusicology punya journal gitu. Terbit setaon tiga kali tapi terakhir yang ada di JSTOR tuh tahun 2004. Sempet baca beberapa artikel, soalnya banyak gitu yang menyoroti musik tradisional Indo, mulai dari Gamelan (Jawa dan Bali), Wayang, trus ada juga disinggung musik Islamik dan musik tradisional suku-suku lainnya. Seru!
Nggak kerasa uda lewat hampir sejam, dan gue sama sekali nggak menemukan yang gue cari (secara ini sekolah Singapur, belajarnya musik singapur juga dong). Ketemunya malah musik Filipino/Chinese mainland/Taiwan gitu-gitu. Tugas maha berat nih mendefinisikan musik Singapur.
Moral of this story, gue belajar untuk makin menghargai musik tradisional Indo (kangen gamelan Bali!!). Meskipun gue mungkin nggak tahan untuk nggak tidur kalo nonton wayang 
. Sudah seharusnya kita respect sama budaya kita. Dari tadi artikel-artikel itu yang nulis orang angmoh semua (baru nemu satu yang namanya Indo). Betapa dunia terpesona dengan musik Indonesia dan kita malah nggak pernah mendengarnya. Sayang banget.
Dan sayang banget ini ethnomusicology-nya Singapur. Coba aja kalo Indo…wew, seru banget deh pasti
a thursday
When I was planning my schedule for this sem, I found out that I could make it a 4-days/week schedule, as in, I will have a day off every week. Sounds interesting to me, because as an engineering student who always have >20AUs per semester, I never got mid-week vacation, unlike my NBS friends.
And so I got 17 AUs from my remaining 2nd year cores and one 3rd year core (overload), plus a day off on Thursdays. But come on, 17 AUs?? That will make this sem ‘wasted’. I need at least one more 3AUs subject, or maybe even two.
I’ve finished my Prescribed Electives (yey! ) and I only have Unrestricted Elective left. Then I remember about Minor in Music. I’ve considered it since my first semester, and maybe I could try one module this sem. My choice is Musical Practice II (I have no idea what is it, and the title doesn’t say much either) since the other subjects offered got prerequisites or auditions (according to Content of Courses).
This subject’s session is on every Thursday, so goodbye my mid-week short vacation
But anyway I was very shocked when I received the email saying that there will be an audition on Thursday, 8th January, which is today.
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This morning I woke up quite late, cleaned my cupboard, rearranged my bags, and had oatmeal for breakfast (yes, I’m living a healthy life! 
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After a little 2002 textbook reading and a lot of slacking around (and found out that Jason Mraz will come to Singapore this March!!!!), I went to lunch with friends, slacked again (this time with them), and finally went to NIE for the audition.
I wasn’t really sure when I reached the room. It was dark, and there were only a few people waiting outside. After a while, one of them entered the room, turned on the lights, and sat on a chair. The others followed, including me (I don’t want to be left out, for sure).
Soon, I found that there were no auditions. Oh yeah. Great. And I extremely not ready to start a lesson, since I didn’t bring notes and even a pencilcase. But, what the heck, just listening and pretend that I understand. Usually that’s enough.
The teacher asked us to introduce ourselves (the NTU students, since the others are NIE music students, and this subject is their core. Ohnoes) and what we expect from the course.
Oh damn. I don’t even know what is this course all about. Luckily the first to speak wasn’t me. So basically I just told him about my course and music background, and just say that I want to learn music more formally, in different ways from what I have learned. Luckily (again), he was already quite impressed with my course (turns out that he was in EEE also but found his passion in music. Wew. History does repeat ) and the fact that I played gamelan before.
Little by little, I realized that this subject is very challenging (that’s a politically correct word, as my bff said). In other word, this is very difficult. From what I’ve heard in the class, this subject will mainly about ethnomusicology (never heard of it? So did I ) which we have to define it as an assignment.
Because the subject is non-examinable, the class attendance is compulsory, and we will be given some assessments. The first is an essay, which worth 60%. SIXTY PERCENT? I cannot believe my ears. What? Sixty percent for an essay is like…dieeeeeeeee
The second one is a project with presentation. This is a group project, which require us to go to an event then make a report (related to ethnomusicology, of course). I thought the event will be like a concert, but the teacher gave an example: a chinese funeral. What? This is getting worse…
And from what I’ve heard, I think there will be debates about some topics…
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On the other hand, I think the programmes make sense, because this module is intended for music-teachers-to-be, and yes they really need to understand it perfectly, unlike us, NTU students who were looking for an elective (or maybe, a minor).
Honestly, I feel unsure about taking this subject. Although I’m a kind of student who don’t really care about grades (I take subjects which I like and enjoy, not the easy-to-score ones), I don’t think I can handle all those. So for now I will contemplate, pray for it, and tomorrow I’ll go to NIE library and try to define that ethnomusicology. If that is too complex for my simple-and-not-so-fast brain, maybe I will drop it.
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After the first session, I went to IMM with Steffanie. Stephen said The Body Shop is having a sale until 11th Jan. So we went to the store, but it didn’t look like there’s a sale going on. Inside we found out that there were some quite good offerings, like a free 250ml shower gel for a purchase of $50. We made our purchases $100, so each has the shower gel.
Later on we saw the real Body Shop sale, in the other side of the mall. Oh great. But the items’ price which we bought before are the same, so we’re quite relieved. After all, the sale area is crowded. Shopping in the store is much more comfortable. However, we managed to bought some things also.
So here are the items I’ve bought today:
- Vitamin E Lip Balm (SPF 15)
[do you know that the lip damages caused mainly by UV ray?] - Tea Tree Facial wash
[I'm getting pissed by these acnes] - Mini hairbrush
[I don't really need it actually, it's just to make our purchase $100 so we can get the shower gels] - Strawberry Shower gel
[for free! ] - Camomile eye make up remover
[to practice how to use eye shadows ] - White Musk body lotion
[a small bottle for only $2...hehe ] - 2 nail polishers
[for $10. nice neutral colour] - plus a body butter and a body scrub promotions
All for S$41.10. Oh great. Now who said that she will keep her money for Jason Mraz’s concert?
first day almost never the best
Iya nggak sih? Rasanya tiap kali hari pertama tuh selalu aja ada hal-hal yang nggak berjalan sesuai rencana. Jadi hari pertama gue di semester ini (Selasa, soalnya kan Senin gue baru nyampe) ada dua kelas, 2010 dan 2007. Kelas 2010 tuh jam 11.30. Siang banget kan, tapi gue terkena kompilasi nggak enak badan dari jakarta + kecapekan beres2 kamar + masuk angin jadi gue meskipun gue bangun jam setengah sembilan trus mandi etc, gue tidur lagi sekitar sejam. Jadi waktunya pas banget buat ke sekolah, setor duit ke bank, trus dateng lecture.
Nah sialnya, gue lupa itu awal semester, which is semua anak internasional juga baru pada dateng dan mau setor duit. Belom lagi ada anak-anak yang baru masuk semester ini jadi mau bikin account etc etc. Plus mesin cash-in lagi rusak (kok sering banget rusak sih tu mesin??). Jadilah gue ngantri panjang dan udah telat buat lecture (serem banget kan kalo duit satu semester dibawa-bawa begitu jadi ya harus disetor).
Ini salah satu masalah hidup gue: gue nggak mau telat lecture/tutorial. Daripada telat mending nggak dateng trus baru dateng ke jadwal yang lain (hal ini dimungkinkan oleh banyaknya komunitas EEE jadi jadwalnya juga banyak). Kalo ditanya kenapa, hmm gimana ya…gue nggak suka ketika orang lain udah duduk dan gue masih berdiri. Rasanya nggak nyaman aja.
Dan sudah bisa ditebak, akhirnya gue nggak dateng lecture 2010, yang menyebabkan gue kehilangan seminggu lecture karena hari Seninnya gue juga bolos. Yah nasib dah. Abis itu gue beli lecture notes ($20.50 dan itu belon semua karena nggak semua dijual) dan textbook buat 2002 ($41.60 dan itu tebelnya 2x Alkitab. buset). Gara-gara kata semua orang tu subject susah nan mematikan, yauda deh gue beli aja biar bisa bantu-bantu.
Lecture berikutnya, 2007, juga nggak gue hadiri. Kali ini alesannya nggak banget. Jadi kan gue daftar untuk suatu subject AAI185 (Musical Practice II) untuk memulai Minor of Music (semoga jadi!!). Nah subject ini ternyata ada audisinya, yang gue nggak sangka soalnya di Content of Courses ga ditulis ada audisinya. Hari Senin itu gue baru dapet email yang bilang kalo ada audisi di NIE3-2-14 THURSDAY jam 14.30. Gebleknya gue, gue salah liat dan mengira itu adalah hari SELASA alias TUESDAY (duh what happened to my English??) jadi gue dengan polosnya pergi ke NIE sampe ke depan tu ruangan hanya untuk menyadari bahwa gue salah liat dan telat lecture 2007 yang jam 14.30 (yang seperti biasa, gue nggak dateng akhirnya).
Malemnya gue rapat MDInya NTU-ISCF. Udah lama banget ga ketemu dan nggak ngomongin kerjaan, jadi seru juga apalagi ada kerjaan yang lumayan gede semester ini. It’s nice to work with you again, guys!
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Hari kedua, yaitu hari ini, lebih mending lah. Gue udah rada baikkan setelah tidur belasan jam plus bombardir panadol kemaren. Bisa bangun lebih pagi, jalan ke kampus, beli lecture notes sisa, bahkan sempet sarapan. Yoi banget dah tadi pagi. Lanjut 3 lecture berurutan: 2005, 2002, 3002. And looks like emang 2002 tuh seserem yang diberitakan.
Sehabis itu pulang untuk makan di hall (di kantin kampus rame bgt) dan mendapati bahwa tumpukan surat-surat gue uda setebel hampir setengah jengkal, termasuk 5 tagihan SingTel yang tampaknya harus segera dibayar. Pulang ke kamar, ternyata jack Lance yang ke subwoofer rusak. Salah satu pin-nya bengkok dan nyatu sama yang lain (kayaknya gara-gara dipake camp ada yang nggak ngerti terus maksa colok aja). Jadilah gue berusaha ngelurusin pake obeng kecil dan apapun yang ada di kotak manicure gue. Thanks God berhasil dan Lance sudah berfungsi optimal lagi . Sorenya pergi ke JP yang baru untuk pertama kalinya (telat abis ga sih), berhasil dapet CD The Corrs – Home yang 2nd tapi masih bagus, trus belanja Jacob’s, Oatmeal, yoghurt dan teh ijo buat resolusi hidup sehat
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Besok ada audisi (duh!) dan rencananya sih mau ngota (akhirnya) buat beli sony mp3 player yang gue idam2kan. Yey! Tinggal bingung nyari nama nih. Maunya sih nama cewek. Depannya S for Sony. Dari tadi ngeliatin babynames.com tapi belon ada yang pas.
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Moral of the story, gue harus banyak beradaptasi dengan hidup di NTU dan Singapura lagi. Dan lebih banyak menulis, soalnya ni post aneh banget menurut gue…haha 
