went on my first conference. actually it wasn't really a conference, just a graduate workshop. it was held in bandung and it was... pretty interesting an experience. note, i didn't actually say that the workshop was interesting. it won't be unfair to say it was extremely boring at times. the scope covered was too wide and it was difficult for people to understand what was going on. but that just gave us all the excuse to skip the seminars we weren't interested in and make our own day outside. basically you only need to turn up at two occasions. the registration: to collect your goodie bag with the proceedings, and your name tag which is essentially your free lunch pass. the other occasion is the session at which you are presenting. that is absolutely necessary since it's all you're there for, basically. and really... although it wasn't my plan, that was all i was present for. i wish i had gotten a few more free meals, but the choices wasn't mine to make in the end. there were three of us from the same school, and i contacted the other two so that i'd KNOW some people before going there. it's easier that way, cos you'd also tend to stick together, rather than just trying to know people there who couldn't care less if you'd disappeared. so the three of us met at the airport here and when we arrived there, we took a cab together to the hotel. until here i was still happily pretending i only spoke english and chinese. i would then be able to wash my hands off all matters. upon arrival, i dragged them out to shop with me cos, after all, bandung is famed for its factory outlets, second to its reputation as the venue for the famous asian african conference. fortunately one of them was quite the shopping buff too, so at least i had a little pressure taken off me. all was well until they were looking at a menu and wondering what those things were. that was when i let slip a bit, cos i was explaining each dish to them. but the truth until spilled over actual dinner. the menu was entirely in indonesian, and they had absolutely no clue what those were. it was a little obvious by then that i understood a little of the language. but when the waitress came to take orders, it was all out of the bag. after i finished talking to the waitress in local language, they practically dropped their jaws. and thus began my accidental duties... the good thing about being the few who spoke local language was that people remembered you and notice if you, say, lagged behind. the bad thing... or rather, things... is that you end up doing everything. they wanted to go out sightseeing, so i had to ask the hotel front desk what there was. rent a car, i had to ask. how much, what time, etc. and when you actually go out, yes, you still have to talk to the driver and make decisions as well. it's good that i get to make some decisions, but i don't really want to make all either. anyway, after the registration, we left to go to the volcano. it's called tangkuban perahu, and there are 3 craters there. we only went to one that was dead but still gassing, but honestly it was nothing interesting. lunch was fine though. we only escaped padang cuisine. i cannot imagine eating those small little dishes that were potentially left over from someone else's meal. i think that is one experience i can do without. i wish i'd taken a picture though, it'd have been interesting. we eventually settled for lunch at a traditional indonesian flavoured eatery. sat outdoors in a little pavilion, shoes off, little tap by the entrance, in the soft cool breeze of bandung weather. it was a nice feeling, and they really enjoyed it. maybe not so much the food, but they really liked the environment, that i was sure of. but hey, at least they got to try local cuisine. many of the other people who went on the trip didn't get to experience that. now i finally realise why the tsinghua guy was so grateful to me. it wasn't just the conversing with the driver or the planning, it was the chance to experience the city in a more local way, and taste the food with the most local flavour. you are very welcomed. =) day 1 of the workshop was hence spent on the volcano trip and factory outlet hopping. i didn't buy anything, but it was fun nevertheless. at night the guys were tired and also wanted to prepare for their presentation, so they didn't want to go to any more factory outlets. instead they opted for a quick dinner nearby before going back to the hotel. me, on the other hand, had a date with my shopping buddy. our little "date", unfortunately, was crashed by people who overheard us. you are going shopping? factory outlet? good! i want to go! haha.. oh, can i join? sure...... what else can i say? the more the merrier... then more and more people heard our conversation in the lobby, and asked to join. in no time, we had a group of 10 people who eventually didn't really know if we were going shopping or eating dinner. oh well... shopping buddy and i gave each other the look, and decided we should eat first, then get the people who don't wanna shop out of the way, so that the ones who want to shop can go comfortably. big group looking for a dinner place, eventually made a poor decision to go to an expensive and lousy food place. it looked fancy and comfy (i never fell for this kind of deco though) and an enthusiastic english speaking waiter (i wouldn't fall for his fake enthusiasm either). if they knew i could speak bahasa they may not have decided on this, but nevermind. so eventually we ate there, had to wait very long to order, even longer for the food, and AGES for the bill and change. grrr... let me try and recall who was in the group.. me and shopping buddy, the funny vietnam guy who joined us the first night, a thai girl, korean guy, bangladeshi guy, girl from ntu, 3 guys from ntu who got along a little too well haha... after dinner, the vietnam guy was clearly still traumatised from the shopping on the previous day, and would rather go back to the hotel alone. the rest decided to join us shopping, cos they wanted to see the factory outlets. and so we went... skipped those we went to, and naturally when there was nothing to see, we would gather at the exit. happened for a few places until one where the guys found something suitable. he announced to me, let's spend more time here, this one is good! so be it... i was very bored there though, and my nose was starting to run away... that's where i started talking to the korean guy, and realised his english is fantastic. american english. nice. but he didn't talk much, seemed to talk in mimes. wth, i can deal with that. but i think he was quite thankful to find someone who could really speak english. haha... next day i went for my presentation. my goodness, the sessions are really so unprofessional. i went to the session before mine to get a better idea how things worked. that session was presented by only local students, but we sure weren't local. halfway through a presentation, the girl decided to just switch to bahasa and carried out the rest of her presentation in that. omg. i have never imagined that would happen. my friend was stunned beyond words and i was just trying not to giggle. i understood quite some of the content, and that made it funnier that my friend was alone in not knowing what was going on cos we were the only two foreigners in that session. haha.. my presentation itself was pretty easy, finished in 12 minutes flat cos the moderator started late (waited for the first presenter who didn't come) and didn't stop the questions early enough for the second presenter. well no worries! i won't hold people back for lunch, i don't wanna get bashed, not even verbally. hehe. i thought my presentation was pretty good, simple and clear in layman terms. people were actually listening. it was over in no time. we toured the campus a bit before going for lunch, and i was glad i got to eat lunch there. i earned those free meals, ok?! saw the korean guy there again. he didn't want to go to the volcano with the others so came to the campus instead. i asked if he came to listen to some presentations, and he replied with "i came for lunch." haha... oh well, not surprising.. the poor kid was alone there, the other person from his school didn't come and that was the person who was supposed to present at my session. where was he to go for his meals alone? he didn't talk to others much too. he asked me what plans i had for the rest of the day, and i invited him to join me and my shopping buddy for, well, shopping. surprisingly he was ok with that. i thought he must have been bored to his guts already to agree to that haha.. but when we went back, it turned out my shopping buddy was not around. =( fortunately, korean guy was still on for shopping, so i didn't have to go alone! (in which case i wouldn't have gone. it's not safe you know...) we turned the other way at jalan dago and went to the other outlets that we hadn't been to yet. along the way we tried, i mean I tried, finding a card for him to make calls back to korea. but eventually he decided he could do without one (what a waste of my effort.. it wasn't easy talking about those things in bahasa) cos no vendor knew how much value could last for how long. he was quite an ok shopping companion, alert when you want to leave, but not stressing you out while you shop cos he'd be looking around as well and not standing impatient at the exit. i managed to buy a blouse for mom. hope she likes it and fits. we passed by a pretty looking hotel too, but just as i whipped out my camera, the security stopped me from taking it. sob. it was the only interesting building i saw. but nevermind, we can go to the opposite side of the road! which we did haha.. bite me. we wound up in a little mall too, where the korean guy alerted me to the almond cookies. then i remembered, kartika sari is well known in bandung. yay, i have something to buy back. bought one box, cos it wasn't cheap. he bought two. after we left, it suddenly struck me that i may need more. so we went back and i bought another two packs, which were cheaper without the box, and had more content too. then we made our way back to the hotel where i promised to open one pack for everyone to try. it was nice! i offered him some, he was in the room next to mine. but that's it. it was weird for me when he asked if i wanna go in. how bored do you have to be... but i guess it was also a courtesy thing. i politely declined, and went back to my room to rest. i was busy charging my phone haha.. then came the city tour! highlight of it must be the split second in the bus when i realised i was sitting in the same row as the tsinghua guy down with flu, and he had a dustbin at his seat. hehehe.... 垃圾生产国不处理垃圾.. hahaha... we went to the geological museum, quite boring... then circled around the city, little paris street (which was NOTHING like paris, hello) and the asia-afrika convention museum. also passed by gedung sate, which i think looks cute haha. finally dropped us at the factory outlet again haha... shopping buddy and i were delighted. he promptly went off to buy his shoes. while i.. managed to buy 2 tee shirts at the outlet! not before arranging the transport for the taiwan girl to get to jakarta the next day... her flight was around noon, while the korean guy's was almost midnight, though from jakarta too. oh well, eventually he agreed to accompany her to jakarta earlier even though he had nothing to do, but i promised to find him some places he could go to in jakarta to kill time. wrote it on a piece of paper for him, hope it worked out haha. night was the banquet and we got introduced to angklung. cute and fun! they didn't seem to know que sara sara or edelweiss... haha.. there wasn't that much nice food for dinner, but the atmosphere was fun when the japanese participants decided to sing and dance. they really can play.. haha.. after we went back to the hotel, everybody felt a little sad that it was the last night together there, and decided to spend more time chatting and hanging out at the lobby. i hung out with the taiwan girl, she was quite fun to be with and very likeable. brought the snacks down to share too. the china guys played poker while we watched on the side. had a fleeting image of the korean guy passing by the lobby but didn't see him after that. after a while he appeared again, apparently he went to the convenience store to get chips and sprite. haha, and he didn't want to hang out with us at the lobby cos he didn't have enough to share. funny... anyway, we wanted to invite him to have breakfast with us but the taiwan girl said that she asked him already and he declined. "i don't eat breakfast", something like that. but turned out the next morning, he was sitting alone downstairs with his luggage, i spoke to him and found out he merely thought there was no breakfast at the hotel. poor kid... he had gone without breakfast for 2 days already! haha.. no wonder he had to go to the workshop for the food... anyway, the bus that was supposed to fetch the two of them to jakarta never came. after half an hour, it was time to take solid action. after a long brainstorm with the reception, i decided to let them take one of our blue bird cabs to go to the local agency and catch the 9am bus, while the ones going to bandung airport could take the other cabs. me, and my kakis, would wait for another cab to come, which didn't take long. the hotel isn't far from the airport anyway. phew... at least the taiwan girl caught her flight. nevermind the korean guy, he seems to be surviving pretty good on his own. anyway we arrived at bandung airport WAY TOO EARLY. bored to death. and i was starting to have cramps. such misery. oh and i found more kartika sari at the boarding gate! hehe... but 10k more expensive. -.- air asia air con was bloody cold. nearly froze to death. but the trip was on the whole a good one. i am so thankful my flu wasn't full blown yet then. =) posted by Yee 10:04 PM . . .
