Reinhard Gouw's Journal

Hi. I've just had a month of a rollercoaster ride, just like Samantha said.

First, LM Tour.
After Jakarta TangCity Asian Battleground, I went back to Jakarta on September 23-26, to conduct a workshop there as a part of LM Tour. It was a challenge for me. Teaching dance class was quite a new thing for me. I started teaching Thursday hip hop class regularly at G-Center on June, plus BDC every Wednesday since September. Having a chance to teach in Jakarta felt like a fast forward. There, I met extraordinary kids and also aspiring adult dancers. It was fun, and awesome. A milestone I didn't expect to unlock this year. Thank you to Red White Project, Feby, Ce Erine for having me! And also Tara and Inez for the neverending hospitality in Jakarta.

Here's the class:



Other than that, I met some of my psychology friends in Jakarta. Holla! And also getting kalap with the cheap sushi in Aeon. Here are some of the pics and snips:

Psychology Squad! with Zefanya, Iting, and Apologia

With Iting

Hi Levi!

Kalap

So that's about my trip in Jakarta.
I feel like my dance life is escalating its way up. So many milestones unlocked this year. Thank God. :)

Personally, I think that Jakarta people is a lot more open minded than here in Surabaya; and also a lot more swift and assertive. They don't do slow-mo and speak right to the point. Hoping to work with this kind of people. Jakarta is honestly my back up plan in next year if the original plan (still a secret) doesn't happen.

More posts to come since its a rollercoaster month. haha. Stay tuned!

I'm home from a long trip! Cirebon - Jakarta - Bandung - Jogjakarta. It's 9 days and my dad drove all the way from Surabaya and to Surabaya again. My dad used to do that when I was a kid, and it's been a long time until this time. My dad's not too young anymore, but he's strong! And I'm proud of him. I helped being a navigator, I'm a newbie in driving, still just about a month so I sat beside him and learned more to drive out of city. I accidentally slept a lot. hahaha but it's better than sleeping along the way like what I always did when I was a kid.

So it was a great family trip that we spent everyday and hours together, not like in Surabaya where we have our own business, and spend less time. Yeah, holiday with family always brings us closer. I get closer with my dad. Since I was a kid my relationship with my dad isn't the best dad-son relationship, so we get in quarrels a lot. But in this trip, I really really really really feel different. I realize my parents are getting older as the time flies. I don't know how much time left in this world I have with them (I sure hope it's a long long time!), and having this time with them around, I want every moment to be nice, and I want to make them proud of me always. I want them to be happy. I know I gotta throw away my ego since I'm getting older too. When we were kids, parents are always the one who try to understand us. Now that we're older, it's our turn to be the one who try to understand them. What I get now is I still need my parents more than I need anyone, even though I walked out sometimes and spend more time outside.

I planned to be neat on money in the trip, because I already spent a lot in the last Bali trip and there will be another trip coming. When I go to Mangga Dua, I wasn't really interested in anything. I used to be so wild in Mangga Dua because they have nice clothings with cheap price! But I wasn't, at all. I only eat sweet cup corns a lot. Then on the 2 out of 3 days, I searched for a shop I know, it's a shop there with GREAT sense of style.  It's hard to search for it though, it's kinda on the further back side. The owner picks the clothing from H&M, Levi's, Nudie, Topman, and he seems to be supplying the goods from Bangkok and Singapore. I don't really know if it's fake or discounted authentic items, they have moderate and fixed price but the shop really sells awesome things. Also there is always a Bangkok fashion magazine there that inspires. Just like Lookbook. There I got a Levi's denim shirt. And then I got a random denim shirt too around the building. When I went to Grand Indonesia, I saw a huge "1/2 PRICE SALE" poster and I can't help but to get in. There I saw an amazing shoes with aztec prints and I really wanted that shoes!! But it's not half-priced and  kinda tagged with a price not suitable with my wallet! haha. So I browsed in the half price things, and there were awesome shorts, chinos, 3/4 chinos! Just like what's in Lookbook. Also there was an aztec tank but the price is crazy and it's not manusiawi, at all. I was kinda galau about buying anything or not. Then I didn't buy anything for the time. But eventually, I bought a skinny chino in Paris Van Java's Topman in Bandung. And that's all I got from the trip. I started to have this new mind "Better few items with higher quality than more items with decent one"? Still, brand is not everything for me.

The Topman shoes that gave me eyegasm.

In Bandung, I stayed in my cousin's house like I always did since I was a kid and I got the chance to meet my nephews! :) Yeah, my big brother and his family lives in Bandung. My nephews are 2 boys, Marshiello Venuandra General and Maximillian Venualvaro General. The big brother, Marshiello is big enough now to call me uncle! hahaha. Shiello the loud and active one, and Maxim the silent and cool type. I played with them and I started to feel family love! I hope they come to Surabaya soon so I can play with them more, it should be a good uncle-nephew relationship.

Marshiello Venuandra General

Maximillian Venualvaro General

Then I went to TransStudio with my cousin, my sister and her friend along with her little sisters. I wasn't interested in the beginning, but then it really rocked my last day in Bandung! TransStudio is a great amusement, a marvelous indoor theme park! I enjoyed all the thrill rides and I took a lot of photos there.

Crazy mimegirl!

My favorite ride, the Giant Swing!

The bravest girl ever, Karin. She enjoyed the scariest rides!

Really an experience I will never forget. TransStudio is the bomb!
A long and tiring road to Jogjakarta, and back home the next day. And sure, I'm getting a lot fatter from this trip!  Arggh should start exercising again.

How I eat in Bandung. For real.

From this trip I also know more about my cousin's personal life problem, and as a psychologist soon to be, I tell myself I will help them someday. Adds more to my life mission. Healing my own family, first of first. :)

Back home to Surabaya, I'm super busy with practices for competition, it's tomorrow at Gramedia Expo. I only practice for 3 days with GPS but I hope for the best! Other than dance competition, there is also MR. SiMPLE business, school documents, O4 dance at my teacher's wedding, and other smaller things. SG trip is getting closer along with O-Week so I hope I can manage time well with both! Also I need to make bucks fast!! I have no money at all in hands. =_=

Let's get straight to a fast update!

My Jakarta trip (11-15 February) was a great shopping trip. Even the first day was very promising for the next days. I targeted some things in Mangga Dua and made a list of my hunted items. Obviously, I'm getting back to this fashion life. Been a long time since I neglected my fashion for dance passion. All this time I enjoyed wearing simple tees and shorts, basketball shorts, high top shoes. Here goes! In 2 days, I cleared my hunted items list 'till 3 left. And I started to love vintage there since I saw this shop named "Backstage" where they have so much fashion references for men on the wall and in a magazine. There's this khaki that looks so vintage-ish so I bought it and it started the vintage mind on my head. My sis told me that the khaki is a harem for men. The cuffs are to be rolled upward. And I saw a reference of the sets for this khaki. Wowie, the khaki really boosts my shopping targets. I got a vintage vest, a wood colored sneakers (I actually wanted to buy DC high top shoes other than this, but I wanted this Jakarta trip to be a fashion trip so I took this one) in Size?; it was the standing picasa web shop where I almost bought a shoe online there. A lot of shirts were attracting me. I used to hate shirts but I tried some and I love it! 3 shirts and 1 tee. Oh, I got punk'd to this one shirt, a really nice shirt I bought on the 2nd day cost me IDR 200.000, then when I came to Ko Aliong (He owns me and my mom's favorite shop, we always come here and got nice prices, we even can drop our shop bags here to walk freely :p) I saw the shirt with different color, and guess what, it cost only IDR 95.000! Dang! I lost IDR 105.000! For the only 1 tee? So not me. But really, I tried many tees and they didn't really fit me. I should really do some workouts and shape my body. :/

Saying workout, I mean I should really really do it. 'Cause the portion of foods I ate in Jakarta wasn't proper! Almost every time we ate, the others gave me their meals they're unable to finish. And on the third day, I planned not to eat 'cause my stomach hurted so much. haha.. As usual, we ate nasi uduk "Kota Intan", my first heaven of food in Jakarta. Then there's this one reason I couldn't really eat on the 2nd day, nasi goreng randang! It was Padang, and it's not good in your tummy! I could almost vomit if I think of it. haha.. Then what I love as well is bakmi "A boen" at Gang Kelinci. The last time I went there I was still a kid. The bakmi tastes great, despite the fact that I don't really like mie. And in Mangga Dua, the depot Medan we always used to eat. Wowie, so dang lots of food I love there. The snacks were delighting as well, the sweet corns all over Mangga Dua that's always been my target, and Takoku Takoyaki in front of Ko Aliong's MEN Shop that I love. Melted beef and cheese. Hmm.

I visited my dad's family near Jakarta. My grandma's feet were getting sore so we came. There's not so many people here like the usual condition if we visit. This little family gathering is delightful for me, despite the conditions there. I kinda started to feel the value of family. I started to smile along the conversations. Even when me and the girls were going to leave for the mall (my dad stayed there), I thought "Huh? Leaving already? Isn't this too fast?". Really, I learned and felt some valuable resolutions here. When you're older, you start to understand the value of family. You cannot hate one of your family members. Even if you say you do, deep inside you can't. There's just a strong bloodline. It's not about wealth, different race/ethnic, or the conditions. Family is family. Then that day, in the mall I held my mom all along, valuing her, and when the night came I hugged both my parents. I wanted to give them love I could rarely show. I love them even if I get lost in my own business most of the time. I want to make the time I have with them valuable.

That's about trip to Jakarta. The last 2 days were raining heavily. Maybe the capital city felt hard to let me go? haha.. See you later, busy city.