Summer Fling

Uuu yeah, akhirnya liburan juga. Segala ujian sudah kelar, beberapa pekerjaan tertunda, dan saya siap berpetualang kembali!

Kali ini destinasi gue adalah Bali dan Lombok selama 8 hari. Gue dari Jakarta ke Bali-nya sendirian, tapi di sana sudah ada kawan lama menanti. Kangeeenn.... Nggak sabar ketemu mereka. Terus ke Lomboknya juga sendiri dan di sana sudah ada Try yang bakal menampung gue selama 2 malam. Pokoknya gue udah excited parah, udah packing nih, udah ready banget. Everything is gonna be all right and fun!

Ngomong-ngomong soal random nih; gue baru sadar, hal yang paling bikin gue bahagia dulu tuh buku komik. Tapi sekarang udah nggak lagi. Sekarang jalan-jalan yang bikin gue bahagia banget. Ngurusin jadwal perjalanan, ngebayangin jalan-jalannya, ngebayangin gue tersesat atau ada kejadian lucu... So exciting! Dulu pas gue ke Jepang ada kejadian lucu yang agak terlupakan dan baru-baru ini gue inget.

Ceritanya gue lagi nunggu bus datang, cuman gue takut gue nunggu di tempat yang salah. Maka gue nanya ke seorang cowok apakah dia menunggu bus yang sama dengan gue. Eh, ujung-ujungnya kita malah ngobrol. Hahaha... Dia nanya nama gua, muji-muji gua, terus cerita soal kampung halaman dia (yang sayangnya gua agak nggak paham karena kosakata Jepang gue sedikit), terus dia ngasih gue kipasnya dengan tanda tangan plus email. LOL Geli banget! Terus udah deh kami berpisah saat bus telah datang. Kemarin gue habis nemuin kipas itu lagi, makanya jadi inget.

What's the best advice for moving on?

Find a new love.

That's what people had been telling me over the past months, and I should thank my pals for making it happen—I guess. Last weekend, I went to Bali with them; they came up with this crazy idea: setting me up with a total stranger. Crazy enough, right?

FYI, here's what you need to have a blind date in the digital era:

• A smartphone

• A Tinder app

Voila! You are ready to find a new love—hopefully.

But in my case, I didn't have a smartphone. Well, yeah, my Blackberry was smart, but not smart enough to have Tinder. So my friend had to lend me his iPad, and they worked together to set up my profile on Tinder. They picked the best photos from my Facebook, arranged them, did everything—even choosing guys. I almost screamed when they passed on someone I was really interested in, "Hey, guys! It should be my preferences!!!" But they ignored me. LOL, my pals.

The funny thing was, I got matched with almost 60 guys in town, and only about 15 of them messaged me back. I thought, "What happened to the rest?" But never mind. In the end, I had really good conversations with only two people since some guys turned out to be escorts (and they mentioned it proudly!) while some were uninteresting. Amazing experience, I thought (FYI, gue baru pertama kali pakai Tinder di tahun 2014 itu).

While I chatted with these guys, my pals kept track of me and sometimes did the chatting instead of me. (I guess I was that lame at chatting.) One time, a guy sent me an emoticon like this "XD" and my friend freaked out, "Dammit, he's as Japanese as you!" But I actually liked it. I guess using "XD" won't harm you, will it? After all, he asked me to meet him, and I said, "Why not?" So was he the one? XD

The Preparation

My friends were all happy about it. It was as if their mission to Bali was successful. They helped me with advice and picking the right outfit for that night. It was hilarious because I didn't bring too many clothes and most of them were not really pretty. So we had to go shopping. Shopping with two guys who knew fashion way better than me was an epic experience. They were really helpful (and yes, they were the ones who did the chatting and stuff for the past few days).

We went to this cute little shop called Somewhere at Jalan Seminyak. I really loooveeeed this shop and I wished I had more money because all the clothes were damn pretty and expensive! But I did buy a dress and shoes, which cost me around 60 bucks in USD—and somehow I didn't regret spending that much. :3 I tried on three dresses, and it was funny when I had to go out of the changing room to show my friends. They asked me to turn around and the clerk was looking at me. Hahaha... That sensation felt exactly like in a movie. Seriously, ma vie est un film (my life is a movie).

Uh oh, time was ticking.

It was almost time to meet that guy and I felt nervous. We went to that place by car and I had to calm myself with Two Door Cinema Club's song "Next Year" before we really arrived. All of my friends said they would keep an eye on me in case this guy was harmful or something. Hahaha... I just hoped he would not be.

The Blind Date

"YEAH! YOU'RE SO GONNA GET LAID TONIGHT!!!" screamed my friend with joy, scaring the hell outta me. Please, I'm not ready for anything like this. I just wanted to have a nice conversation. I am so not ready. Should I just open the door and run away? For real, I was that nervous and wished I had canceled the date, but... I didn't.

"Look, there he is!" my friend pointed to a tall guy in a black polo shirt, not far from us. Oh, so it was him. He didn't really look like his photo, but uh, okay, I should say hi to him. Uh oh, I was so nervous... That guy, let's just call him L, waved his hands, looked surprised, and smiled. Probably because of the dress I bought, which made me look like a whore. (I asked my friends several times about that dress and they were really sure it was okay.) But I guess it was not. A lot of people stared at me. I don't know if it was the dress or the guy I was with. Hmmm... I guess next time I go on a date, I shouldn't ask my friends for suggestions again. It was a trap!

Anyway, the date turned out alright. We had a really nice conversation, jokes, and surprisingly attracted more strangers to join us. (I guess he really had that charisma to attract people effortlessly.) We had conversations with the waiter, the bar owner, a random man, aanndd it was fun. Hahaha... First time in my life!

Next time I came back from the toilet, he already had a sexy woman sitting beside him, and I was like, "WTF?" I stepped back because I was shocked. But then I decided to walk towards him, raised my eyebrow, and asked, "What the hell?"

He just smiled, actually laughing a bit, "No, please sit down here. I don't know that woman!" and I was like, "Uh, okay... Maybe he was right?" Then he took several minutes to explain what was really happening. He said, "That woman just came here and said, 'Can I sit here?' and she sat without even waiting for my answer! Then she tried to get closer, I guess she wanted something from me. I'm really sure of it."

Simply put, that woman had to be a hooker.

Well, no wonder she was around the town since it was already her time to rise. I was so surprised this man would experience that. Maybe he was that hot, or maybe it was only because he was a foreigner. I don't really care. Anyway, we ended the date nicely and...

Love ends as the changing of the seasons start.

Maybe someday

You'll be somewhere

Talking to me

As if you knew me

Fast forward to 2018, L and I meet again in Berlin, as friends.