Marriage Life: Wedding Proposal

On February 17th, boyfriend (now husband) proposed to me. It was sweet and cute in the same time. He thought that I didn't know what he is planning to do. I was nervous. Because I have been hinting so many things to him about my ideal proposal. I was hoping he could pull it off the way I want it to be. I am very perfectionist when it comes to romance. I have several scenarios in mind;

Scenario 1

I have watched a scene in Indian movie called Dostana where John Abraham cooked dinner for the Priyanka and watch Kuch-Kuch Hota Hai in a big screen while sitting in a mat then they dance the same time Shahrukh asks Kajol to dance with him under the rain. I was hoping it would be like that. That was one of my scenario.

What I had in mind, scenario number 1

Scenario 2

He would invite my close friends, have some people ready to take picture and video of him proposing to me in the fanciest restaurant while it plays my favorite song from Brian McKnight 'Rest of My Life' while wearing his best outfit.

Here is actually what happened when he proposed to me that day.

17th February, we had dinner in a restaurant in Grand Indonesia East Mall, Ninety Nine Resto,
Before dinner, husband took me to Apple store in the same floor. He knew I have been wanting to buy Macbook for a long time since my old computer is getting to old. He bought me Macbook Air and I was super happy. At this point, it is already clear he was bribing me so I would say yes. hihihi

After we finished our meal, he took my hand and asked me to look around in the restaurant. When we were inside a room, he suddenly sang 'Tujhe Dekha to yeh janaa sanam" from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge soundtrack. The bartender stop shaking the drink and kept watching us. The other waiter has joined him. Fortunately the restaurant was empty. I could feel my cheek turned red and hot when he asked me to sing my line which i remember with my heart. But hell no, I would not sing bollywood song in front of stranger. So, he gave up forcing me to sing. He kneeled down and asked me to marry him 'Suci Fitriany, will you marry me!?' he said in his trembling voice. Never before I have seen him trembling and so nervous like this. He should know that I wanted to marry him yet he is still nervous and worried. My heart beats faster and with giggly smile I said yes. I was really really shy from all the bartender, waiter, bush boy watching us singing to bollywood song. We headed out from the restaurant and took this picture in front of the apartment instead.

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge will remind my most favorite movie of all time. Now for another different reason, I will always remember this movie. He memorized the line from the song for weeks with the help of his work mate in India.

Fyi, this movie was played in a cinema in India for 1000 weeks since 1995 till 2014. Probably still running in cinema till now. The everlasting and one of the best romance movie ever made. I have watched this movie countless time.
If you have never watch this movie, I really recommended this one. If you ever like Kuch-Kuch Hota Hai, it is the more reason to watch this one.

Traveling Thirst or Wanderlust

source: 99traveltips.com

Have you ever have this urge? What is your life focus and aim? What is it that you want to do and what is it that you want from life?

Is it stable income, a nice properties, nice car, secure job, security, comfort zone? If that's what you want, traveling hobby might not be for you or even if it is, you have to have the time, big income to spend, secure job with flexible time and so on.

For some people or most people, those are not easy to have or get. 

source: Pinterest

Currently I am facing the same dilemma. I have a secure comfortable job with a good income (for Indonesian who lives in Jakarta), currently saving to move to US and get a house there. But somehow, I was unhappy. Despite the fact that I am working in possibly in one of the best company ever. There is that jittery feeling that keeps wanting to be recognized. It was Traveling Thirst or many people called it Wanderlust.

On the other side, I am in super comfort position right now. Job is fun, boss is great (also my friend), teammates are the best (they are my adorable sisters), salary is pretty good, office is great (free food and stuffs), I have friends over here, family too. But again, I want to experience more. I don't want to live in a cocoon. I wanna see more of the world.

What would I do if I quit the job?

source: Pinterest

I might learn or join a language course of the country that we will visit. Also I want to focus learning programming language as I want to shift my career from Linguist to Computational Linguist.

But, Where to go?

source: 99traveltips.com

I would love to travel around Europe. But budget wise, Asia is a better option for now. Since I will have to quit my job. Also, husband will need to be sure of the internet in places where we are going because he has to work remotely. This is one of the advantage of traveling with him because he can work while travel as long as we are sure the internet connection is good.

We have been back and forth on our decision to pick a place to stay or travel (if we are gonna do it). At first we were so firm on our decision to travel to Seoul, Korea. Since I know the language, i have some friends there, and we both love the foods. But these days, my decision has been shaken by the fact that I have been there 3 times already. I want to try to go to other places. I was thinking Europe before finding out the budget was sky rocket price. Recently today, I was thinking Australia or New Zealand, but then again stuck in budget. India? We were too scared to go there despite India has always been in my heart. Plus I heard internet is not great there and we kinda need fast internet for my husband's work.

Just today, I told my boss that I would quit working to travel. I gave the office one month notice starting from today. I haven't told my teammates nor my friends. They might find out if they read my blogpost soon.

Here is my Pinterest Tab on Travel related stuffs: Wanderlust

Up till now, I still haven't reach my decision on where to go. If you have any suggestion please leave a comment bellow. We are planning to rent a room or cheap studio apartment in places that we visit since we are planning to stay 2-3 months there. A place with good internet and great foods.

Life Before 30

source: Pinterest

I will be soon 30, next year. And I am really scared. I have live for almost 3 decades now. I feel like I have mount to nothing yet.

I remember when I was younger, 17-20, I always thought that when I am 30 I would have my own apartment, my own car, my own kid (single with kid, I used to want to adopt kid while still single..was not really into marriage then). So many other things that I thought I would have achieved before 30.

And now, a year before I reach 30. I got no car, no apartment, no kid, and still not a manager of a company or something.

Have I regret everything? Should I started thinking what is gone wrong that I am still not where I should be?

But I am not. I don't regret a thing. Sure, I still want those things I mentioned above. But it was no longer my priority. I want to travel more, I want to have more adventure, I want to learn more, I might want to go back to school.

Definitely I didn't regret where I am and what I have accomplished so far. I am here after I jumped through hoops and barriers with a few scratches here and there.

I am now married to a very nice man, working in a prestigious company with decent salary, has traveled to several countries several times, have a freedom to do pretty much what I want within boundaries, constantly learning one or two new things, lose some friend and get some more friends.

When it comes the time that I reach 30. I would gracefully welcome it with a smile. Shivering with excitement and fear. But I am ready to go out of my comfort zone.

Married Life: 6 Months

I can't believe I am married for 6 months now. There are so many things already happened but there is a feeling that things is not changing as much as I expect it to be.

Family picture on our wedding day

Living arrangement

We still live in small room, we lived in tiny studio apartment before and now moving to a kosan (room renting). We paid almost 7 million rupiah per month (including utilities) for the tiny studio apartment and by moving to a kosan, we save 3 million each month.

My role has been rapidly develop in this marriage. 

Once I was a farting champion, due to melodic farting and I did fart a lot. Rest assure, my fart is loud but not smelly. However his was silent but deadly. I am also fully function tracking device. Husband often repeatedly asking where his things are (boxer, remote, black pants, chips, usb, phone, etc). Recently, I am also calendar and alarm clock.

Have we had fight during this 6 months period? 

Sure, we had some. However, the weird thing is that ever since we got married, I could never seem to be upset or mad at him for more than a day..let alone a day, I couldn't even be upset or mad for an hour. Honeymoon stage still maybe?

I remember the last time I was upset with him was last night because he keep playing with his phone when I accidentally hurt my feet (rubbing towel too hard on it). It was minor paint, but I like the attention. I did get his attention, however, when I said 'Fine, I will just amputate my leg!' obviously a little bit dramatic. He spat his gut laughing at what I said. Sigh. I got his attention alright.

We develop similar hobby or activity together. 

We joined free zumba class every Tuesday 7pm in GBK gate 12. Do join us if you have time. He looks kinda funny when he is shaking his booty. I look sexy obviously..lol

Future Planning

As some of my friends and relatives already know. Currently we are waiting for my green card as I am planning to move to the US following my husband. It has been 4 months since we sent the application. We haven't heard a thing from the embassy. Starting to get nervous. We decided it might be good to spend some time traveling in Asia or stay in other country just to experience some more adventure while waiting for green card. I have Korea in mind and has been googling the cost of living there for several months. However, I haven't really taking any decisions.

Babies vs Reality

We both love babies. We think they are cute and adorable. Of course, we would like to have our own baby someday. But not now. Not when we are unprepared. We still moving around. I am still waiting for my green card. We barely have a stable life for that. I am getting tired of people asking if I am already pregnant or when will I be pregnant or If I use any sorts of pills to postpone it. Back off!!! It is highly annoying. I wanna rip my guts every time people ask me that question. I realized Indonesian (or most of them) has no sense of personal boundary. I have try to be nice and answer nicely. But at this point, I just ignore the question or stare coldly at whoever throw the question. The worst, when some people ask question while rubbing my tummy. Today, I am not in such a good mood for a belly rub.

Korea: Beauty Hauls

June 2015

Husband and I went to Seoul for Honeymoon early this June. Korea which known as the land of the Morning Calm was also known for their minyeo or beauty. I have been using Korean make up for a while now. Mostly using Faceshop or Etude House for my face regiment and Nature Republic for hand lotion. Thought it is time to try on some other products, I decided to splurge myself on some of these products.

I went to 3 different stores. My original reason was to buy CC cream only. Hahaha Who am I kidding right? Of course I would buy more than just CC Cream. Too hard to resist not buying things in Myeongdong, the center of Korean beauty products. It is like heaven for make up junkies like me.

1. Too Old for School

1. Pumpkin Sleeping Pack sample
2. Jean George Llong (sample)
3. Rules (sample)
4. CC Cream
5. Lipstick
6. BB Foundation

2. Etude House

1. Wonder Pore Black Mask Sheet (3 sets)
2. Cherry Lip Gel Patch (2 sets)
3. Baking Powder (2 Samples)
4. Collagen Eye Patch (1 set)
5. Cranberry Body Wash (2 Samples)
6. Argan Seed Hair Mask (2 set)
7. Jojoba Seed Hair Mask (1 set)
8. Lip Liner (2 pencils)
9. Spoon Sleeping Pack (2 sets)
10. Cherry Lip mask (2 sets)
11. Etude Sponge (1 set)

3. Nature Republic

1. Acai Berry Face Mask (10 sets)
2. Avocado Face Mask (10 sets)
3. CC Cream (Sample)
4. Acacia Body Cream (2 Samples)
5. Aqua Combination Watery Cream

I spent around $80 in Myeongdong for all of this. Not to bad as I bought so many of them especially the face mask, I bought like 20 or more of it for gifts. I have been using the CC Cream from Too Cool For School for a while now. I would probably write a review for this one soon. That is if I am not too lazy.

Korea: Itinerary in Seoul

Honeymoon in Seoul

I have been posting a lot about our last trip to Korea. But, I have never posted the entire trip story or our itinerary.

In case any of you are planning to visit Seoul and wondering what to do or where to visit, you can use my itinerary as a start or just to give you a general ideas for your trip.

Here is our itinerary

The red color represented our time on the flight or the delay that happened to us.

The blue one was the non-flexible schedule. Mostly because we really wanted to do it on that day for some reason which now I already forgot. hehe

We usually started our day around 8am and started going out around 9-10am. We were such a lazy tourist. I also put the budget or the money that we spent on those places. This will give you guys general ideas on your budget plan. We were pretty lucky because my friend and my boss paid for some of our meal and I got present from another friend. Definitely a nice saving to our budget hihihi

Oh, I would suggest you to create a sheet of addresses you would like to visit. It will be too much problem to keep googling for place's addresses. Better have it ready for you. This is an example for ours.

We always took subway for all our trips to those places on our list. It is cheaper to have T-Money Card handy with you instead of buying ticket for each trip which could cost you more. Or you could get Seoul City Pass instead if you want to visit major tourist attraction because it has advantages for that and also with it you can try to ride on Seoul Tour Bus.

Here is comparison that I made between Seoul City Pass and T-Money, I prefer T-Money tho. Mostly because I know we will be back to Korea again someday soon and it is rechargeable as for Seoul City Pass, once you used up all the credit, you need to get another card. Since we stayed for more than 3 days, it is better to get T-Money instead.