Friday, March 9, 2012

Cough Syrup

Silly title, but it has deep meaning :)

Young The Giant - Cough Syrup

Life’s too short to even care at all, oh
I’m losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control
These fishes in the sea, they’re staring at me, Oh oh
A wet world aches for a beat of a drum, Oh

If I could find a way to see this straight

I’d run away
To some fortune that I,
I should have found by now

I'm waiting for this cough syrup

to come down, come down

Life’s too short to even care at all, oh

I’m coming up now, coming up now
out of the blue, oh
These zombies in the park,
they’re looking for my heart, oh oh
A dark world aches for a splash of the sun, oh oh

If I could find a way to see this straight

I’d run away
To some fortune that I,
I should have found by now

And so I run now to the things

they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be

I'm waiting for this cough syrup

to come down

Life’s too short to even care at all, oh

I’m losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control

If I could find a way to see this straight

I’d run away
To some fortune that I,
I should have found by now

And so I'd run now to the things

they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be

I'm waiting for this cough syrup

to come down

One more spoon of cough syrup now, whoa (x2)
 

Monday, March 5, 2012

My Life in KL

I got a chance to be an internship at a business consultant in Kuala Lumpur. I started to live in KL on January 11, 2012, departed by the earliest flight from Jakarta (6 o'clock in the morning). The company's driver picked me up at 3.30 am in the dawn.

By the time I arrived in LCCT airport, I texted a staff of the company, who will pick me up in the airport (I never met her before). It charged me Rp4,700 per SMS (about RM1.5) because I used Indonesian number (I didn't have any Malaysian number yet). Waited for a while, the kind lady came with her husband. We had lunch in Kajang (border area between KL and Selangor), before we go to the office. Lucky, I was in my work costume, because the lady sent me directly to the office and brought my luggage to the guesthouse.
 What a lovely office ^^

The company rent a house for the interns and they said that the rent cost is about RM3,000 per month (wow!). The house is located behind Bangsar Village shopping mall. It's one of elite housings in KL. The house consists of 4 rooms, but only 2 rooms can be occupied. Other rooms are used for painting studios (some painting artists used to come to the house). I live only with a friend in the house. We got an air conditioner in each bedroom, it's nice, but the house looks spooky because no one lived there before and many art sculptures around.
 The house where I lived

The kitchen with human-shaped wooden sculptures outside

In my first days, I usually depart from the house at 8.30 am (the office hour is 9 am - 5.30 pm). I took taxi to go and back to/from the office. It costs RM4-7. Even I tried to walk to the office, but it's hard and scary to cross the road. Two weeks after, I found the bus which has the route: U87. The cost is only RM1, but the bus is rarely come. I had to depart from the house at 8 am, or I will miss the bus. Once I missed the bus, I had to wait for about 45 minutes. The trip to the office usually takes 15 minutes, depends on the traffic jams.

The office is in 26th floor with beautiful scenery from the windows (unless there were thunderstorms >.<). Sometimes I can see helicopters pass. The lifts are very fast and it makes me dizzy to go up & down 6 times everyday. My jobs in the office are alerting news, translating & summarizing news, writing event notes & reports, and also the ads catalog project. The people in the office are nice, but some of them are a little bit rude. Some of the staffs took me to go around KL and Selangor. It was nice :) I also attended several international events and met VIP people, like Hatta Rajasa, Andi Malarangeng, Rizal Ramli, and Emirsyah Satar. I feel so honored.
 Magnificent view from the 26th floor

A picture with Emirsyah Satar, Garuda Indonesia CEO

Both analysts are male and I work with them. They are from rich families, UK graduates. They are smart guys, but one of them is spoiled, although he is very kind and funny. It made me reluctant to talk to him. Also, some people talked to me rudely, like the have no patience (I don't know, I'm from Jogjakarta with the slow and polite accent, maybe that's how I feel like that). The thing that made me upset is when they blamed me for something, although it wasn't my fault. They scolded me in front of everyone and they didn't give me any chance to talk and explain that it wasn't my fault. Also, someday I experienced dishonesty. A staff told me some information, but when I talked to the manager about it and she was unhappy about the information, that staff denied it. I was a scape goat that time. One uncomfortable thing was in the house, when I was forced to get in a room with a stranger for more than a week and she will know everything I did.
 Keith, Gerald, Me, and Wallace :)

I usually leave the office at 7 pm. Then, I have to wait the bus for 15 minutes - 1,5 hours, depends on "luck." The bus passes Mid Valley, the largest shopping mall in KL.


The living cost in KL is expensive. Cheap meals in "mamak" will cost RM5-10, include the drink. Public transportation cost (exclude taxi) ranged between RM1-3 one-way. Be careful if you ride the car/bus, people drive poorly in KL :( Cell phones usually cost RM5 for 5 days or RM10 for 10 days, per reload. Average BlackBerry service costs RM1/day.
 "Mamak" in front of my office


It's quite easy to get out of KL. If I want to get a train, I just go to KL Sentral, one LRT station after Bangsar. If I want the bus to the north, I go to Puduraya (by bus from KL Sentral, or LRT to Pasar Seni). If I want the bus to the south (for example to Melaka), I go to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), with the shuttle bus from Puduraya (costs RM2). But, be extra careful if you go at night -_- Well, I think enough for today, I'll write again next time.

Terminal Bersepadu Selatan: this is a bus terminal, not an airport!