I wrote the beginning of this entry during my train trip to Depok, where I go for college. As usual, my parents had driven me to the train station. And just as usual, I dreaded the moment when I had to say good-bye. But I said good-bye, entered the train, and knew that it would be another six months before I could see my family again.
But I wrote this blog post not to tell you about my train trip to Depok, which hadn't even begun yet when I wrote this post. I am here to tell you about how my May and June went.
To be honest, May felt like it's already so long time ago. I didn't quite remember what I had done in May. The most memorable thing in May is when I moved out from my previous rent house to the house I am currently living with my other three friends. I have talked about that in March-April highlight, because I spent quite a long time preparing for the moving out. After that, May was full of exams and final assignments.
June, on the other hand, gave me a lot of memorable experiences. I spent the whole month of June with my family, so it was really a healing time after the stressing May. I came back from Depok by airplane and that itself was a memorable experience. That was the first time I took a flight anywhere alone. The last time I used airplane was during high school and I had more than fifteen classmates going with me.
My family also went to several short trips together in June. The biggest trip was when we went to Parangtritis Beach and Becici Peak in Yogyakarta. It was actually a trip with all of our neighbours, even with our head village. I never liked beach that much, so I didn't do much in Parangtritis. But I enjoyed Becici Peak. My parents couldn't take a look around when they're in Becici because they needed to take care of my baby sister, but I and my little sister walked around and took some photos together.
In June too, I finally cut my hair short. It's been years since the last time I had short hair, so it was refreshing but also kind of terrifying. My hair is really difficult to control (like I really need to iron it or else my hair's left side and right side will curl into different direction), and the wildness shows more when it is cut short.
So yeah, that's how my May and June mainly went. Next, let's talk about my book recommendations.
//BOOK
I read
The Belles and
The Everlasting Roses in May. It was really fun. The book tells the story of a country which was obsessed about beauty. They had belles—considered as beauty god's descendant—which worked in several salons in big cities where people can pay to make themselves more beautiful.
The belles use their magic to change people's appearance, be it hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, the shape of their face, and even the clothes they wear.
It's honestly horrifying, because there are scenes where some people want to change their appearance so much that they died because they couldn't handle the belles' strong magic.
But it turned out that the belles' magic was not only capable to change outer appearance—they can also be used for things more dangerous.
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| The Belles |
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| The Everlasting Rose |
In June, I read
Daisy Jones & The Six and
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Both books were written by the same author, and both talked about the dark side of celebrity lives but in a very different way.
Daisy Jones & The Six is very memorable for me. It was written in a kind of interview style, almost like a documentary script, so the book was really fun to read. I almost believed that Daisy Jones and The Six were real people, because the author included so many details. She even made every character sounds really distinct. It's like I was listening to their interview records instead of just reading dialogues.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, on the other hand, was written alternating between two points of view, the main character and the main subject of the story. It tells about the story of Evelyn Hugo, a famous Hollywood actress, since the very beginning of her career to the very end of her acting journey—the secret behind why she married and divorced seven husbands and the surprising connection of her and the main character of the novel.
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| The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo |
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| Daisy Jones & The Six |
I finished all four books each in one day. I just couldn't put them away.
Daisy Jones & The Six, especially, has become one of my favourites now. It's just that engaging for me. I would love to read more books from the same author next time.
//MUSIC
The list is pretty long since it's for two months, so as to make this post shorter, I'll include only songs that new to me (despite the year they are released).
- BTS - Boy with luv; I personally didn't like this song at first listen, but it grows on me and the performance is pretty fun to watch. I'm too used to BTS's strong and dark songs (which have always been my favourites), so Boy with luv is definitely a new taste for me. It's light and fun.
- Lauv ft. Troye Sivan - i'm so tired... ; This song is definitely the proof that live performance makes a singer. I totally love the live version of this song. I'm a fan of Troye Sivan and have been liking his discography forever, but this song introduces me to Lauv's voice, which is really cool.
- IZ*ONE - Gokigen Sayonara; I could only find the Korean version on Spotify, which is sad because I love the Japanese version more. This song is really cute and bubbly--not exactly my cup of tea, but it's been stuck in my head since the first time I listened to it. It's also the first song from IZ*ONE that I keep on my Spotify playlist.
- WINNER - AH YEAH; Everyone I know enjoyed Winner's title tracks, but I've never paid attention to them... until I saw a video of TREASURE13 dancing to this. The chorus is really addictive.
- Suda Masaki - Machigai Sagashi; I knew Suda Masaki as an actor, so when I discovered that he is also a singer I was thrilled. And his voice is the kind I love too. I also love the music video for this song--it's simple but very mesmerizing.
- GOT7 - I Am Me; It's the song that my mind always sings but I never remember what. I caught myself singing to its chorus pretty often, but was confused because I didn't remember what song it was. So now I decided to include it on my playlist. A gem like this should not be wasted.
- Stray Kids - Side Effects; Of course I'm going to include this—there's no way I wouldn't. Some people might wonder why someone who suffers from anxiety listens to this kind of song, but to be honest, this song really helps me to drown out the "monster's noises" inside my head. And the lyrics are really relatable.
- BTS - Make It Right; Just like I Am Me, this song keeps playing inside my head without me knowing. I love how calming this song feels, almost like an encouragement. I definitely love it more than Boy with luv.
- Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello - Señorita; Truthfully, I don't listen to Western music much. Of course I know who Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello are, but unless my favorite singers or idols are covering their song, I don't listen to their discography. This, thought, is very delicious treat. If I have to choose one song to conclude May and June, Señorita will be my first choice.
//CINEMA
Guilty as charged, I watched too many movies and TV shows I should have done in May, but who cares? Half the things I watched in May were part of Drama class final assignment anyway.
- Tokyo Sonata - This movie is a Japanese classic. It tells a story about a man who has just got cut from his company due to monetary crisis in Japan. He doesn't tell his family about it and secretly goes out every day to find new job. But since he is already too old and doesn't have much soft skill or necessary education background, it is hard for him to find a suitable profession. This movie portrays how toxic masculinity can ruin someone's life.
- Hit the Top - Okay, it's definitely not part of my final assignment, but... well. It's a Korean drama, telling a famous idol in 1993 who got transported to 2013 and realized that he was dead in 1994. More surprisingly, it turned out that in 1994 he had been dating someone and then had a kid whom he was never able to meet.
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Tokyo Sonata
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| Hit the Top/The Best Hit |
- Nobody Knows - I watched this for my final paper and ended up loving it, maybe too much. It was based on real events, where a single mother abandoned her four children in an apartment in Tokyo, thus making them have to survive entirely on their own. It's a very sobering movie, I'd say. Definitely my favourite movie so far.
- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - I watched both movies (it was in two parts) with my little sister, who can be very persuasive at times. To be honest I prefer the book than the movie, but my little sister doesn't want to read such a thick book and she was scared to watch it alone. One time I fell asleep while accompanying her to watch it and she said she ended up not being able to sleep after that.
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Nobody Knows
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- The Battleship Island - My younger sister also wanted us to watch is together. It's a good movie, based on Korean history during Japanese occupation. The story about an island where Korean people were sent forcefully to do coal mining there. I'm not honestly sure I should allow my sister to watch this movie because there were so many people died in the movie (and not a nice death, of course), but she closed her eyes and ears every time I told her there would be terrible scenes coming up, so I'll just let it go.
- I'm Not A Robot - My sister loves this series. I, on the other hand, not so much. Or I'm just bitter because they didn't show more of my favourite couple (they basically had only four or five scenes together). The series is about a young chief director of a large company who is allergic to humans. He is able to overcome his allergy with the help of a girl who pretends to be a robot.
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| The Battleship Island |
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| I'm Not A Robot |
- Charlotte - I had been interested in this anime because of it has the same writer as Angel Beats, which is one of my favourite animes ever. I felt a bit disappointed though because in my opinion the plot was a bit messy, which made it hard for me to truly engage with the characters. It's a story about a group of teenagers with supernatural powers. They try to find other teenagers with similar power to save them from being a subject experiment of adult scientists.
- GOT7's Real Thai - GOT7 is one of my favourite kpop group. I had not been sure whether to watch it or not because instead of seven members, this reality show only features four members. But I ended up having fun watching it and learning a lot of information about Thai culture.
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| Charlotte |
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| GOT7's Real Thai |
- He is Psychometric - If Nobody Knows is the highlight of May, He is Psychometric is the highlight of June. I really love this series and felt sad when it's over. I still feel the hangover from watching it. It's the first lead role GOT7's member, Jinyoung, has ever gotten, so I didn't actually expect the plot to be interesting. But it is very interesting. I love most of the characters there, and I totally adore Prosecutor Kang (played by Kim Kwon). It's a mystery mixed with supernatural drama, and you definitely will not regret watching it.
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| He Is Psychometric |
//HELLO, JULY
So that's my highlights for the month of May and June 2019. June has been my favourite month so far. Maybe because it's the holiday month, but also because it's the first time I feel so accomplished after a month is over. I feel grateful that I was able to complete June happily. June is very great indeed.
Now it's already the second week of July. I have completed one of my goals for July, which is taking JLPT N3 test. I'm not sure whether the result will be good or not because I feel my Japanese is a bit rusty after long period of not using it, but I definitely feel the difference of my skill level compared to last year—so I guess it's enough.
My other goal for July is to complete an online class on Coursera. College will not start again before September and August's packed schedule hasn't hit yet, so I thought it will be great if I use some spare time to finish an online class in July. I even include it in my night routine so that I don't get lazy and abandon it after a while.
I also want to finish "Perseverance" blogging series. There are still three to four posts left in the series, so I probably will not be able to complete them by the end of July, but when August and September come around, I assure that I will already be back with new series. Please look forward to it. Thank you for reading my posts! Leave some comments and please be sure to follow my social media accounts. I am Eta Wardana on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time!
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