#we’re weirdly ocd that people will get the idea we’ve moved interests already which is already in of itself a stupid fear and just

[lovetogether]

Made a list of all our current illustration wips nd it was like eight multifandom things nd one twin peaks thing. We like how it seems we will be giving the audience a false idea of multifandom when in reality our mind it set on one topic atm.

[likeliterally-blog1]

Oslove pt. 1 (Oslo, Norway)

“Å være midt i smørøyet.”

- To be right in the best possible spot

One annoying reality about where I come from is that it is not exactly strategic to travel to different countries and get your passport some new stamps in a short period of time. Especially when I live in Java, can you imagine hopping on a bus which travels to Malaysia from Java? It’ll take multiple broken bones due to the roads condition and the whole years of my law school to get there (okay I exaggerated but you get the point.) It took us two days to travel from Indonesia to Norway, and I do count the five hours of layover in Kuala Lumpur and nine hours in Dubai. We were practically stranded a lot in the airports.

My mom and I arrived earlier in the airport than two of my friends. My mom even came to Jogja for this special occasion, which brought us to these questions: where the hell are we going that we’re already in the airport at 6 am in the morning with my mom? And why? Welp, looking at my huge suitcase and bags, people would easily assume that I have been disowned by my family and now need a new place to stay. But no, me and my friends are going toooooo *drum rolls* NORWAY! YAAAAY!

(yeah I edited my name a little bit in there e_e)

It is not for mere holiday that we were going there. We were participating in this annual competition for law students which is called the International Negotiation Competition, my friends being the negotiators, and me being the team manager/observer/national representative (ikr, I’m still confused about my role there but never mind.) Mind you, that was our very first time of going to Europe and it’s supposed to be a very fun journey. Like heck, that was the furthest I’ve ever been from home (6,795 miles! I googled.) This competition is held in different countries every year, and after previously being held in Switzerland, it was held in Norway this year. It’s basically where you as lawyers negotiate your client’s interest with other lawyers from different countries regarding certain matter given to you in the cases. It’s super cool, and I’m calling out to law students out there who would want to join; JUST JOIN!

We flew to Malaysia without any problem, however problems found us right when we were about to check in for our flight to Dubai in KLIA. This check-in lady (in very thick accent it was painful to try to understand) told us that we couldn’t fly since our Schengen visa was applicable from the 24th of June, and that we would arrive in Dubai on 23rd at 11.30 pm. We had to pay more so that we could catch another flight which will get us to arrive there at 24th. Now what the actual fuck, IT’S NOT EVEN VISA FOR DUBAI??? IT’S SCHENGEN VISA FOR FUCKS SAKE. We would arrive in Norway on 24th, so like.. whaaaat?

But then it was all solved and we were allowed to go on the last minutes. Seriously I was real pissed.

We arrived in Dubai at midnight, still having to wait for nine hours to fly again to Norway. At that point, none of us really wanted to go around because we’ve been batshit tired even though Emirates was very pleasant (food and everything was perfect, even the flight attendants ;-;) We found some lounge with long chairs and slept there, woke up every few minutes to check our things. I made a new friend though, some guy that I forgot from where, and I didn’t even ask for his name. Does that count as a friend? I have no idea. But finally, it was boarding time and I could not contain my excitement (said the girl who got so hyper in the first two hours but then spent the rest of the flight snoring like an old dog.)

The plane landed smoothly and I could feel as the wheels touched the ground, with a little of vibration, that we were finally in Norway. NOR-FUCKING-WAY! Everything felt surreal to me, like I was dreaming and I got so scared to being woken up. Two days ago I was in a small city of Yogyakarta with very persistent (and often smelly) taxi drivers surrounding me, but then I was in Gardermoen, where Uber is allowed to pick up passengers (it doesn’t work that way in Indonesia.) Fyi, I’ve been wanting to go to Europe REALLY bad that it was one of the things I put on my bucket list, and that me finally being there was a dream come true. Call me tacky, but it was a real dream coming true, I couldn’t be any happier than that, you have no idea. It held even more emotional values since as a manager, I was the one who worked so hard gathering over 70 million rupiahs to fly all of our asses to Norway all the way from Indonesia. Dream. Really. Do. Come. True. I love the fact that my first time going there has deeper meaning than the usual holidays, I worked real hard to get all of us there, and it felt sweeter than anything I’ve ever had in my life. *cries*

We went through the immigration with no problem at all. Some people from the Indonesian embassy in Norway picked us up in the front gate, and after some hugs and kisses on the cheeks, we dragged all of our belongings outside and walked into the sun shine (not even kidding, the sun was real bright.) I refused to wear jacket, I just wanted to feel it, how the air felt like as it touched my skin, reminding myself that ‘AY, BITCH! THIS AIN’T A DREAM, YOU ARE IN NORWAY, AND YOU DESERVE IT!’ Just hold up, let me just.. oh my God.. I can’t even explain… This is me being real tacky here..

The cold wind hit my face, despite the fact that the sun was shining so bright that you couldn’t look around without squinting. I’m not sure what’s so special with that, or how I got overly excited that I knocked off my own luggage, or why I felt like crying in front of people, but when I felt the coldness in the air, it legit made me feel like it was heaven. YES, CALL ME OVER TACKY, WEIRD, OVERDRAMATIC ALL YOU FUCKING WANT, CAN’T A GIRL ENJOY HERSELF?! So there we were, looking not very fashionable but still gorgeous.

This job as a team manager has been the source of literally all of my stress for the past six months because I was expected to get so much money on my fucking own. Not often that I worked in bitterness, felt like strangling some people very often, but hell it was all worth it.

After dragging my big ass suitcase and putting it into the car, we finally drove to the Sentrum to buy sim card and exchange money. The road itself was pretty, full of green fields with lots of lavender on the sides. The houses looked like something you’d only see in fairy tales, small, alone, and aesthetically pleasing. I took pictures as much as I could as we drove past beautiful scenery, trying to contain everything. Norway never ceased to amaze me from then on, that wherever I went, it was never disappointing. Call me weird, but I couldn’t help but notice that Norway has its own smell. Does that make me a weird person for saying it? Everywhere I went in Norway, somehow it smelled the same, and it surely was different than Indonesia. I can’t quite explain it, it smelled like soap and ocean at the same time. I am weird.

The Sentrum itself was full of people speaking in languages that I’ve never heard before. Dilla, which is one of the people from the embassy, led us to the sim card shops and exchange thingy in the area called Brugata 8. Everything was new to me and that was the first time I’ve ever been surrounded by white people (is this racist?) Literally everything fascinated me, from the people who dressed up weirdly, the buildings surrounding us, people in suits who rode bicycle, etc. I couldn’t help but to look around so fast like an owl. I didn’t even realize how heavy my bags were. The wind was still cold even though it’s supposed to be summer already.

After everything was set, we went to Frogner which is where our apartment was located. We booked the apartment on Airbnb and it was 20 minutes away from the UiO’s Faculty of Law (which was where our competition mostly held.) Dilla bought us hamburgers and took us to a place we were about to call home for the next week. After giving us salmons, bread, jams, fruits and others, she left us and we started to explore the apartment. This is the surroundings, though.

The apartment was cozy to begin with. There’s a fireplace next to the sofa, kitchen was well-equipped (even though they weren’t very clean), there are approximately five mirrors in there in which I don’t understand why, and there are lots of electricity plugs (I really like it because the three of us wouldn’t have to battle against each other to charge our phones.) There are one bed and one sofa bed. I took the sofa bed since I move a lot in my sleep and I’m really not good at sleeping next to people (personal space duhh.) The sofa was actually comfortable and I placed a blanket over it due to my mild OCD. There are electricity plugs next to the sofa which is very useful for the next seven days, and the fridge had some things inside which we didn’t dare to touch. Moreover, there are some inappropriate pictures being put on the fridge, one of them was a picture which I thought was of glazed donuts, but then I realized it was a picture of  tanned butt, another picture of a granma surrounded with half naked guys with the caption “too busy to write” on it, other pictures of men flexing their muscles with their pee pee hidden under some leaves, and other weird pictures I’ve never seen in my entire life. Why did I give you this bit of information? I’m not really sure myself.

The heater worked marvellously (we set it to 35 degree Celcius. The epitome of Indon.) and everything was great. I slept on that sofa wearing my mom’s huge sweater and another blanket, and it was so nice and warm I wanted to melt. It was certainly one of the very best moments I’ve had in my life, knowing that me, Ceciliong, was currently in Norway, the land of Vikings, and trolls, and everything else awesome, a country rich with history and legends. I slept very early that night, couldn’t really believe that we were there. I’m not sure if I can call it jetlagged since the time difference between Indonesia and Norway was only five hours, but whatever it was, I slept peacefully that night, thinking life couldn’t get any better. I woke up at two am, looked over to the bar table, seeing one of my friend standing there. But then I looked up beyond my sofa and saw two butts on the bed. Confused, I looked back at the kitchen table and there was no one there. It was probably my imagination because I was really tired, but anyways, I fell asleep again and woke up happily.

yes, I was holding a banana.