Strolling Around : Lombok

Weren't you visited Lombok for campus social service, vik?

Yep I was there for social service for 40 days. I only add 2 extra days to get myself explore some parts of Lombok (which is not enough hahaha) but I hope this post will help you if you want to take peak of that one beauty island!

Jadi selepas KKN Januari - Februari lalu, aku dan beberapa orang teman menyempatkan buat keliling di beberapa kabupaten lainnya selain Lombok Utara. Dalam satu setengah hari kami mampir ke beberapa tempat di kabupaten Lombok Tengah dan Lombok Timur.

Kenapa nggak Lombok Barat atau Kota Mataram?

Selama KKN, kami sempat bolak-balik ke Mataram, juga Senggigi, untuk mencari keperluan yang adanya di wilayah perkotaan. Desa Malaka, tempat program KKN kami kebetulan berbatasan langsung dengan Kabupaten Lombok Barat, karena Lombok Utara merupakan pemekaran dari Lombok Barat tahun 2008. And believe me meskipun wilayah pemekaran, kabupaten-kabupaten ini luasnya ngga nanggung-nanggung dan jalanan nya nyaman banget buat dipakai berkendara.

And here are some places that we managed to visit in the rest one and a half day...

1) Desa Adat Sasak Sade

If you're one of those kain Indonesia lovers, you surely have to come here! Warga di Desa Sade emang pekerjaan utamanya bikin kerajinan kain tenun dengan motif-motif khas Lombok.

Di sini ada macam-macam motif dan ukuran kain yang bisa kamu pilih mulai dari tenun ikat, tenun songket, batik, sampai kain sarung. Di Lombok, terutama di daerah-daerah yang masih menjunjung adat, baik laki-laki maupun perempuan kebanyakan beraktivitas sehari-hari mengenakan sarung.

Kain-kain khas Lombok juga banyak dijual di pusat oleh-oleh atau tempat wisata sih, but one thing for sure if you came here kamu nggak cuma bisa jalan-jalan atau beli oleh-oleh aja, you can ask about the making process and even try to weave it by yourself! Di Desa Adat Sade, benang yang dipakai ini dipintal dari kapas and they made it by themselves. Finally I can see real traditional yarn spinner wheel like the one Aurora has in Sleeping Beauty movie hahaha. By the way, pewarnaan dari kain-kain ini juga menggunakan bahan alami, yaitu menggunakan bahan dari berbagai macam tanaman, tapi warna yang dihasilkan sangat kaya.

Sasak women are not allowed to married before they're expertising this skill.
Can you imagine how many kain tenun she have made her whole life? A lot.
This one was beautifully captured by Fatikha (go check @tikaasteria on Instagram)

Sesuai namanya, Desa Adat pasti punya rules tertentu buat warganya, nah lucky us karena di Desa Sade ini selalu ada guide yang mendampingi kita mengelilingi desa dan juga menjelaskan adat yang ada di sana. Misalnya, nggak semua bangunan di sana itu adalah rumah tinggal, ada juga yang digunakan untuk kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan adat yang berlaku.

Kamu juga bakalan diajak masuk ke bale atau rumah khas suku Sasak. Fun fact that have been told since long ago; mengepel rumah dengan kotoran kerbau is real and the genious thing is nggak ada baunya sama sekali! And the nice thing to see is semua orang pasti kenal satu sama lain dan kalau saling ngobrol they're looking like having family bond to each other. Di sini, penduduk bicara menggunakan bahasa daerah yaitu bahasa Sasak, kalau kamu pengen tau, guide di desa Sasak nggak akan segan buat ngajarin kita ngomong pakai bahasa Sasak loh.

Desa Adat Sasak Sade ini juga mudah dijangkau, karena letaknya di pinggir jalan utama. Kalau kamu menggunakan transportasi pesawat menuju Lombok, perjalanan dari Praya (Lombok International Airport) menuju desa Sade bisa dibilang nggak memakan waktu lama, it's only 30-40 minutes away! Kalau kamu menuju ke arah tempat wisata lainnya di daerah Lombok Tengah, kamu bakalan ngelewatin desa adat ini, juga Desa Adat Sasak Ende. If you have time, do visit both of these cultural places. So the route (if you're coming from the airport in Praya) will be Desa Adat Sasak Ende at the right side, and not too far from there Desa Adat Sasak Sade will be on the left side of the road.

Oh ya, sebetulnya Sade adalah dusun, yang terletak di desa Rembitan, jadi nggak akan butuh waktu yang lama kok untuk mengeliling nya.

Bale (rumah adat suku Sasak), atapnya terbuat dari alang-alang atau jerami, dan dindingnya dari anyaman bambu.
Wrapped up in Sasak traditional culture, believe me, this village is super pretty!

#sometravelnotes you might want to use:

- Trying out to wear Lambung & Pegon (Sasak traditional clothes for women and men)? Yes youc surely can do! Kamu  bisa berfoto dengan memakai pakaian suku Sasak beserta atributnya, di desa Sade, it costs only IDR 10.000

- Kain prices are variative, it depends on the types of the fabric and it size. I think it's around IDR 40.000 up to IDR 400.000. Kalau kalian suka koleksi neck scarf, kalian bisa tawar dari IDR 45.000 per kain, jadi IDR 100.000 untuk 3 lembar kain.

- Looking for other pretty things? Di sini ada banyak pilihan kreasi kain yang lain, kayak pouch atau macam-macam tas. But one thing that caught my eyes are bracelets! Gelang-gelang di Desa Sade dibikin dari benang kapas sisa kain tenun and they're all freakin cute! Untuk pouch / tasnya berkisar dari IDR 30.000 - IDR 60.000, sementara gelangnya IDR 5.000 - IDR 20.000. Oh ya, ada gelang akar bahar juga loh, all things handmade :))

- Di sekitar desa Sade nggak ada terlalu banyak pilihan ATM, make sure you bring enough cash kalau emang mau belanja kain atau oleh-oleh lainnya

- Don't forget to give your travel guide some money tip yaa, for they've been really helpful along your cultural trip at Desa Sade.

Wake Up, and Drive Again

Have you ever feel like you're lost in mind, but you're going nowhere?

Well lately I am feeling that way. I feel like I think too much, but those things are not going to drive me anywhere. At some point, I know I have to start the search again.

Anyway, I am entering my (supposed to be) last semester in college this month. Wow. I can't count how many times I started a post talking about how time flies super fast and how I keep myself blown away by that fact.

It also happened just a few days ago when I realize less than 2 weeks my Kuliah Kerja Nyata (campus social project) is finished and I just got to be ready to hang out with thesis, Thesis, brada, no more papers. Senior year alarm's getting real.

On the proccess of myself realizing that any clock's ticking as fast as The Rabbit's, I stop for a while. Have you read my latest post before this one? Well that's part of this thing, too. Looking back at my journal kind of reminds me of how myself used to have a full fuel to go on anything that I've been through. Pernah nggak sih, ngerasa santai ngelakuin sesuatu, tapi kosong aja di depan. No lights, but you feel okay. No direction, but you believe there shall be some new ways.

Mungkin, karena aku tipikal manusia yang somehow stick with plans, jadi kepikiran selama ini hal apa aja sih yang mengantar aku ke pintu-pintu opportunity? Hal apa aja sih yang bikin aku excited on doing things? It's not that I can't cope with improvisation, but seeing my other self directing from the front is feel a lot more soothing.

I have been looking, but end up lost again.

Sampai ketika Kuliah Kerja Nyata ini berjalan, dan aku bertemu dengan banyak sekali hal baru. New team mates, whole new place with new people, adjusting on new habits. So many new things. Which is good, for my brain need to be refreshed by surprises. And I already washed the tought about 'my driver', sampai akhirnya tiba saat program pemutaran film anak di salah satu sekolah dasar.

Ada salah satu anak yang berani bercerita ke depan, and we gave him a mini notebook. Sewaktu pemutaran sudah selesai, dia tinggal di ruang menonton dan asyik mencoret-coret notebook  barunya. I asked him what he's doing, turned out, he draws a graffiti. His name is Arya.

"Arya, kamu suka menggambar?", Arya senyum malu-malu, sambil menutupi notebooknya.

"Arya suka bikin apa?"
"Graffitti."

FYI, program Kuliah Kerja Nyata ini dilakukan di desa-desa berkembang di seluruh Indonesia. Lokasi program ku di Desa Malaka, Kabupaten Lombok Utara. Sepanjang pesisir, sisi kanan kiri jalan dihiasi pantai dan pohon kelapa, ada beberapa pos pengisian bahan bakar eceran dan warung nasi. Yang jelas, tembok dengan graffitti bukanlah salah satu hal yang sering kami lihat di sepanjang jalan utama. I wonder where this kid see one.

"Arya lihat graffitti di mana?"

"Saya lihat waktu jalan-jalan di sana itu."

"Di Mataram?"

"Bukan, di Mentigi sana."

Mentigi merupakan salah satu dusun di Desa Malaka, yang berjarak cukup jauh dari lokasi program kami. Mungkin Arya melihatnya saat sedang main, atau tanpa sengaja melewati gambar graffitti tersebut. But the most important part was when I asked him what he want to do when he grew up...

"Cita-cita saya jadi pelukis kak."

And drawing graffitti is his training. Seeing one graffitti inspires him to achieve that. How if he see graffitti walls all over Yogyakarta, let's say?

I think again, in the next few weeks I might be home already.

What I am going to do, with myself? Furthermore, with my life. After finishing things that I just have to finished, then what?

I remember having this fuel to drive me when I was in high school, dreaming of being this, dreaming of doing that. I can easily pictured myself in near future. Or when I really want to be part of something, I strive, and I did. I can Imagine those stuffs. I always found my 'why' to find my 'way'. Why lately everything has been really blurry?

I think I missed my graffitti walls somehow. Like Arya, I need one dream to pursue. So I can easily picture myself living that dream.

When I have days off, my mom always said that I sleep too much. Maybe she was right. I need to get up, looking for some new reasons to stay awake, and dream again.

Don't you think dream was such thing in that keeps your heart alive?

While you reading this, I might have not found it again just yet, but I know what is the fuel for my next drive.

xx.

Av.

Why I love Journaling

Coming back with New Year spirit!

Been hanging out a lot around Instagram and seeing people sharing New Year energies are quite energizing me as well.

Eventually, dragging back yourself to what you've been doing past years will make you realize something that might have been missing. In my case, why I love journaling and how it helps me go through life, before.

Tiga bulan terakhir semester kemarin sangat padat dan dihiasi dengan ke kampus buat kuliah, ke lapangan buat eksekusi tugas, ke kantor (I am managed to do a freelance job as copywriter somehow), dan diam berhari-hari di rumah ketika temperatur tubuh naik jadi 39˚C.

Having many activities have always been in my dictionary, what haven't been listed is how to keep not only my activity balanced, but my body balanced as well. So my #notetoself to start a new year is to keep myself in balance, what I do and how I am doing it.

Kemarin, aku menemukan jurnal yang aku pakai untuk mencatat semua kegiatan selama tahun 2014. I think 2014 was one of my busiest year. I was starting my 2nd semester, sedang senang-senangnya punya banyak aktivitas di kampus. Kegiatan di kampus mulai intens dan semua notes tentang kegiatan, juga keperluan kuliah ada di satu jurnal itu. That's kind of saver when I forgot to bring my loose leaf in class.

Sewaktu baca-baca lagi catatan yang aku tulis di dalam jurnal itu, sempat amazed sendiri, "how I managed to do all of these stuffs together in a time?". Aku suka membuat monthly calendar di dalam jurnal dan mencatat kegiatan yang akan aku lakukan selama bulan tersebut, and there are months where I seemed never laid. Ikutan jadi panitia OSPEK, aktif di dua UKM kampus yang lagi banyak big project, sampai ngerjain project film bareng temen-temen, Seingatku, dengan kegiatan yang padat itu, aku jarang sakit. Well I feel stressed in some points but reading my journal back is kind of reminding me that I was once super organized.

Journaling make me tend to details, pengingat hal-hal penting yang mungkin bisa kelupaan. I even wrote my note in a question mode supaya inget kalo poin itu harus ditanyakan. Believe me my journaling style is not even readable 😂, sama sekali nggak rapi. But there's no one rule in journaling, some people make it really tidy, some people draw their notes, some people not even have a journal instead they record things that is important. We can do journaling in so many other ways!

Tahun 2015 lalu, aku jadi peserta di salah satu konferensi mahasiswa, in every end of the day, our moderator ask us to do a journaling. Kami diminta mencatat apa yang telah kami pelajari hari itu, for those who wanted to, can share it in front of the forum of 200 delegates. I'd like to keep it for myself but it's good to listen to other people's journal, kita jadi tau hal-hal penting yang jadi highlight of the day itu berbeda-beda bagi setiap orang, sekalipun kita melewati kegiatan yang sama.

Journaling can always be fun. Aku suka mencatat dengan tinta warna-warni atau bikin tanda tanggal dengan bentuk yang berbeda-beda. Jurnal juga nggak selalu berisi hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan aktivitas kita, it's good to have some separated journal for different notes, misalnya jurnal resep, jurnal untuk lettering, jurnal untuk menulis ide, jurnal untuk menggambar, and many more. Even so, I have tried to divide my journal based on my activites back in 2015, tapi seringkali malah nggak terbawa karena lupa, so I like to keep it all in one book.

I tried to see what is the different thing that I might have done in my 2016 journal, I lost the deets in some parts of my activities. Kenapa akhirnya banyak hal jadi missed, rasanya. Ternyata journaling membantu aku jadi 'timeline police' buat diriku sendiri, funny, it's kind of way to help myself jadi lebih disiplin. Tanpa disadari, having a personalized journal juga bikin aku gampang memahami sesuatu karena directly ditulis saat meeting. I also spill every  ideas in my mind by making doodles or decorating my journal.

Have you experience the same thing? Found thee good side of yourself in an old journal? Guess this year I will journaling more journey, then.

Oh and happy new year!

xx,

Avi

The Intern Journal : How It Starts

3rd weekend being home after internship yeay!

Sadly, I came back with a whole new spirit but still happened to be the latest person to arrived in some classes. Surely have to work on that thing!

Di beberapa post sebelumnya, aku bilang bakalan nulis tentang internship thing. So this post will be about how I get there. #longpostalert

Aku termasuk anak yang picky, well I am sure my friends are, too. Ketika mulai memilih dan apply for internship, banyak banget pertimbangan yang dipikirin. Setiap hari sejak akhir semester lima, yang diomongin nggak jauh-jauh dari 'mau magang jadi apa' dan 'pengen magang di mana'. Setiap bulan nya, at least I applied to more 3-4 different companies. Sometimes I got a reply, most of times I didn't get any.

Ada satu tempat di mana aku  pengen magang, dan setiap bulan nya, aku selalu kirim lamaran dan resume dengan template yang sama, ke Gogirl! Magazine. There are many reasons why I want to have an internship there, kayak aku pengen tau gimana sebenernya creative industry operates,but one thing for sure is I am one of a tribe, I've been inspired by this magazine. What I meant by inspired is not that I make it my bible, or being fanatic, I really am open for other source too. Tapi aku ngerasa konten dari majalah ini relate banget sama aku, the thing that I get is that 'sense of belonging', padahal aku 'cuma' reader aja. And knowing there's an opportunity to spend a few months there just make me keep going. I want to a part of that source-of-inspirations too. But after I applied and applied, still I never got a reply.

Aku mulai baca-baca artikel tentang kenapa lamaran kita kadang nggak dibalas sama bagian HR di perusahaan-perusahaan. Ada banyak banget kemungkinan, kayak banyaknya applicant yang bikin email kita nggak terbaca, atau posisi yang kita pengenin udah banyak banget dilamar sama orang lain. At some point, aku akhirnya ngerasa "Maybe I wasn't belong there". So I stop sending email to Gogirl! Magazine.

And there I was, giving up on the thing I really wanted. The pressure is actually came in again when eventually most of my friends have settled on their internship thing. Degdegan dong, udah semakin akhir semester 6 dan belum juga dapat tempat magang yang pasti. I actually have an interview call from another place but at some points the acceptance got cancelled for they considering to not take an intern at that time. See? Banyak banget kemungkinan yang bisa terjadi di tengah jalan.

Sampai akhirnya ada satu waktu, dipertengahan bulan Juni, Mba Nina Moran, CEO Gogirl! Magazine, post a picture on instagram, saying Gogirl! is open a lot of opportunities open for several positions. Kebetulan dua posisi yang aku pengen, disebutkan juga, Copywriter & Reporter. I left a comment there, asking if those positions are available for interns. She said, "buat intern yang butuh banyak itu copywriter & desain grafis. untuk posisi lain dicoba aja kali ya.", that is enough to recharge me.

The next morning, I applied again. I don't know what drives me tapi akhirnya aku nggak pake lagi template lamaran kayak yang sebelumnya. Instead, I tell about myself a lot more, just like sending a letter to a friend. And later on that day, I got a reply telling that Gogirl! will call for an interview the next day. Aku inget, saat itu lagi take video wawancara narasumber untuk keperluan tugas film dokumenter. Kesenengan banget bacanya sampai temen-temen ikut kegirangan juga. Padahal baru dikabarin kalo bakalan di interview aja.

The story doesn't stop there, ternyata ada beberapa step tes yang harus dilaluin buat bisa internship di Gogirl!. The time is running, makin jiper ngeliat temen-temen ngelakuin preparation buat magang, makin jiper karena waktu nunggu test result adalah libur lebaran yang lumayan lama. Then here comes the higher tides, people surround me starts to tell me to turn around. It's a not safe beach for swim, they say. Sempet mikir, "should I have back ups?", beberapa temen constantly checking on me if I already got an internship place. Kepikiran banget sama omongan-omongan yang nyemangatin sekaligus kasih saran buat apply ke tempat lain aja, and yes I did it too, apply ke tempat lain lagi. Simply to feel safer.

In my parents sight, I am way too idealist. But I think who else will believe me if it's not myself? Long story short, I finally got an internship position as a Copywriter at Gogirl! Magazine. The feeling when I came to the office for the first time; nervous yet proud.

My lunch buddies, bunch of Gogirl! interns.
Thing that I saw in each of these girls is they really good at what they're doing.
Kenapa sih mereka bisa 'that good'? The key is there, they're loving what they do.

Buat anak-anak jurusan Advertising, saat-saat paling nyeremin adalah pitching ke klien. Suatu hari aku diminta buat assist Marketing Team untuk present ide ke klien. Feel lucky karena bisa liat prosesnya langsung, tapi degdegan kalo tiba-tiba diminta present ide dan jadi gagu. Dan hari itu, aku pergi ke tempat klien barengan sama Mba Nina. She prepared the materials well to be presented in front of our clients; making the mock ups. checking the presentations. Kebetulan tempat meeting kedua lumayan jauh, di jalan, aku tanya-tanya tentang working in a print media, ke Mba Nina. Apparently she said, "susah kan, masuk Gogirl!?", and the stories flows. And the thing she said that needs to be underlined is, "To keep up with this kinda industry life, kita harus siap buat terus adjust. Sekarang kita dituntut buat doing nearly anything, bisa ini, bisa itu. If you don't the persistency, yaudah, segitu aja. Dan satu lagi, yang paling penting, kamu harus suka sama apa yang kamu kerjain. Kalo engga, ya ngga ada yang drive you to stay."

Aku inget, salah satu Editor's Letter di Gogirl! edisi ulang tahun yang ke 10, Mba Anita Moran nulis kalo proses adalah her greatest lesson for life. She adds, "To get to one place, you have to get through the road. Semakin jauh, semakin melelahkan, tapi semakin 'nggak biasa' pemandangan yang akan kita lihat nantinya. And on your journey, just remember to persist longer and stronger." And I am keeping that in mind. You can achieve anything you want for life if you have that persistence shield in yourself. And sometimes I thought kalo ungkapan "do what you love" itu buat nyemangatin diri kita aja. But no, love did gave you that spirit to keep going. I think that's the reason why I keep applying, why I believe in myself, because that magazine have been with me since then, because the writings, the designs, have shaped me to become who I am today. Like, Gogirl! already taught me that kind of things even before I became an intern there. It starts from the love, kesukaan ku sama majalah ini.

And I think this is no more a blog post, but a letter, to Gogirl! Crew.

Some of Gogirl! Crew yang dipaksa-paksa foto bersama :p

Feel lucky to swim in that kinda sea.

xx,

Avi.

Thrift Shop Hacks : After Senen

Hey there it's actually still a post about Strolling Around : Jakarta.

The stories continues to my thrift shop hunt with my friend Asta Pramesti. Actually I have told that me and Asta have that thing with second stuff here in our strolls in Semarang last year. Tapi tiap kali kita thrift shopping, pasti ada aja orang di sekitar kita yang heran sama kesukaan kita yang satu ini. Beyond words, there is an unexplained excitement tiap kali liat thrift galore hahaha

We actually heard a lot about thrift shop myths. Banyak banget pendapat yang bilang kalo belanja di thrift shop itu nggak safety karena barang nya  udah downgrading, atau bahkan sampe tanya "Emang nggak takut kena penyakit kulit, kalau pake barang bekas orang lain?". Inget kan, beberapa waktu lalu juga sempet ada desas-desus kalau barang bekas impor dilarang diperjualbelikan di Indonesia. We were so shock back then, because, why? Thrift shop cycle in another country still went super well. Melbourne dan Tokyo deh, these ex-harbour cities have a great thrift shops kalo baca-baca di site nya travel bloggers.

But after a year, ternyata masih banyak juga thrift shop yang bisa kita datengin buat hunting barang secondhand, terutama pakaian. Nah, during our internship time, ada satu tempat yang udah ada on the top of our list to satisfy that hobby. Yash! Pasar Senen. Kesenengan banget pas masuk Senen, pokoknya. But before we grumbling about our (cool) findings there, we want to share our thought about why people should consider buying things from thrift shops:

1) Good News for Earth

We do think that by applying 3R (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse). It's more complicated than plastic bag dilema ngga sih? Proses clothing supaya beneran jadi cloth takes a lot of nature's effort too.

2) Good News for Us

Tau dong pasti yah kalo harga barang-barang di thrift shop itu lebih miring daripada barang di toko. For you who likes to do mix-matching, thrift shopping is a hack to have a crossover trends from the oldest to the newest.

Nah, biar kekhawatiran yang banyak muncul itu nggak kejadian, aku sama Asta biasanya ngelakuin beberapa hacks yang mungkin bisa kamu terapin kalo pengen nyobain thrift shopping:

1) First timer, dateng kalo bisa sama temen yang udah pernah belanja secondhand stuff. Supaya tau barang yang dicari ada di mana, dan nggak keliatan bingung. Because the trader know if we 're confused, salah-salah bisa kena harga tertinggi even if we think it's already cheap.
2) Asal nya barang-barang di thrift shop kan beda-beda, ada yang dropship, ada yang personal, pelan-pelan aja milihnya. Liat barang yang kamu mau beli masing bener-bener well, atau emang kamu amazed by the cuts or the price aja. But sometimes hal kayak gitu bisa jadi alesan buat bargain the price, misalnya ada kancing yang warna nya beda atau terlepas, atau ada sablon yang nggak pada tempatnya.
3) Clean is the must. We both never judge that barang thrift shop itu nggak bersih, tapi kadang mungkin karena disimpen kelamaan, ada noda kuning yang biasanya paling susah dicuci, biasanya di kemeja bahan katun yang paling keliatan. Make sure kalo udah kebeli tu barang, cuci bersih dulu baru dipake, yah. Biar keliatan baru rapih.
4) Bring your bargainer friend! Aku anaknya agak awkward kalo nawar-nawar, lucky me I got Asta on my back. Skill nawar ini biasanya dipake buat barang yang menurut kita agak pricey, like parka / denim jacket. Kalo udah murah banget, you can consider to buy it directly sih. Liat juga kondisi thrift shop yang kamu datengin, intinya jangan nguntungin diri sendiri but do think about the trader too.
5) Choose wisely. If you think you don't really need it, then go find for other thing. Emang sih, ga nahan banget barang lucu dengan harga terjangkau (dibandingkan barang baru). But if you'll stay in tropical country, why buy a furry coat? Investment? Bisa jadi consideration sih. But again, this is a hacks so shop wisely.

Nah kemarin di Senen aku dan Asta ngabisin 2 jam buat muter-muter. Which is kurang yah buat Senen yang banyak banget orang dagang barang second :')
But here are some items that we found!

Denim Jacket (with patches on it!)
Price offered : IDR 125k
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well, jahitannya kuat dan warna nya nggak shabby sama sekali.
Lack : Ada noda kuning di kerah yang ngga ilang pas di laundry, I think it needs more special treatment.

Actually this is not my love at first sight clothes pas jalan ke Senen kemarin. Ada yellow parachute jacket yang aku suka banget but eventually I ended up leaving that for some reason. Abis itu aku dan Asta nemu lapak yang barangnya denim jacket semua. And I fell for this one. Denim warna ini menurut aku bisa dipake di bright colors karena kebetulan aku nggak terlalu punya banyak pakaian dengan warna basic. And besides I am crazy over patches dan ini satu-satunya denim jacket yang ada patches nya so this is so far one of my best thrift shop found!

Nah, here's the deets. Warna jaket denim ini agak washed but like I said, nggak shabby.
Sebenernya baby pink hem (hem ternyata Dutch version of shirt loh!), yang aku pakai di dalam jaket juga dapet di Senen kemarin. So that's the second finding!

Baby Pink Shirt (UNIQLO short sleeve clothes)
Price offered : IDR 35K
Price after bargain : IDR 20K
Quality : 90% well, bahannya adem dan tebel. And the color is so Japanese street style tone :')
Lack : So far nggak ada sih, tapi karena agak kaku, jadi setelah dipake gampang lecek.

Kebetulan aku dan Asta masing-masing beli 2 item di tempat yang sama, dan baju ini tandeman dari boyfriend shirt nya Asta. Lucu aja awalnya si pedagang bilang harga pas banget meskipun si Asta nawarnya udah kayak sama-sama dagang. Di kios William Collection's ini awalnya aku cuma lewat, and somehow di Senen tu banyak cara berdagang yang lucu. Si abang penjaga toko pake pantun yang lol abis but we left karena awalnya ngga nemu yang kita suka. And after we go back, and pick 2 clothes, we met the boss yang eyel-eyelan harganya nggak bisa dikurangin. But after a minute of silent there's a song and he suddenly -randomly- asked who's the singer, the song was Counting Stars. I answered, "One Republic, kan ya?" and he accept our offer! Yeay thank you so much abang bos William Collection's.

Forest Green Boyfriend Shirt (worn as outer)
Price offered : IDR 65k
Price after bargain : IDR 50K
Quality : 90% well. Warna nya nggak shabby, warna ijo tuh rawan banget jadi shabby apalagi bahan nya tebal (mirip American Drill but I am not sure hehe).
Lack : Nothing much. Lack ini personal sih and since it's Asta's pick aku nggak terlalu liat ada kekurangan.

Dilema is one thing that usually came up during thrift shopping. Waktu ke Senen kemarin nemu jaket denim dengan warna Olive Green dengan harga IDR 50K pas, nggak boleh ditawar. But, that jacket was too shabby jadi keliatan kayak over washed a.k.a buluk. So, Asta memutuskan buat nggak beli dan akhirnya nemu denim yang doi banget, dan boyfriend shirt yang bahannya tebel gini. Meskipun pas pulang kebayang-bayang juga tuh jaket denim olive hahaha.

Denim Jacket #2
Price offered : IDR 125K
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well. Jahitannya kuat, jenis denim lebih berat daripada foto denim pertama.
Lack : Pocket button sebelah kiri atas ternyata udah bukan yang asli hahaha we missed checkin' this.

I am saying this one a lot more 'country' than mine soalnya warna nya lebih muda. The thing is nyari jaket denim buat Asta kemarin agak susah karena nyari yang ada kantong dalem dan cut nya sesuai yang dia pengen, which is not too short, for she likes the oversized one. Anyway meskipun nawar, better kalau temen yang dateng sama kamu juga mau beli barang yang sama. Kita dapet harga segitu karena pake embel-embel "kan, kita ambilnya dua pak...". Oiya, kadang ada hal yang bikin kita mikir banget misalnya kayak kantong dalem jaket ini yang kena jahitan kantong luar, jadi sempit buat masukin barang. Do ask the trader kalo ada hack yang bisa dipake buat ngakalin kekurangan itu, ya!

Despite all of the clothes we've got, the feeling of accomplishing thrift shopping mission di iconic place nya seconhand stuff is a feeling we can't barely tell!

We hope you'd try thrift shopping too, if you haven't :)

xx

Avi

P.S. All picture captured by Asta Pramesti