Comfort Zone

PH | DAD & JULES

November started out busy and tiring, however both conditions I thankfully could manage. First week of November was full with the seniors’ final thesis proposal exam (which impacted on my year’s schedule very much!), and of course the university’s jazz festival where I participate as the 3D committee.

My family came to Bali and we had dinner to celebrate my birthday, where I invited some of my close friends, my boyfriend, and of course my parents’ friends. We ate at a Chinese seafood restaurant named Laota, where they serve very good chicken porridge. 

Days after the dinner, the big jazz event is on its show day, and the committee is busy running here and there. The event was great, going the way it’s supposed to be although not 100% according to plan. I was happy to be a part of a university committee, with so many benefits that I gained, my favourite was that I get to meet new people and received more knowledge from them.

I am now at the Ngurah Rai International Airport, after saying goodbyes to my family since they will be going back to homeland Jakarta, and I will still be in Bali working on my tasks as a responsible university student and as a person. Arriving at the airport felt like a feeling that hasn’t been touched in a while. Something nostalgic. 

Not that I don’t want to go back to my hometown or anything, but right now, I don’t feel like going back. Instead, I feel like going away to some place I have no local knowledge on (ex Budapest / Nepal / Bhutan / India / Vietnam / etc.) and observe. Observe the people. How they talk, how they eat, how they make money, how they bargain, how people act around others. Observe the culture. The art, the music, the architecture, the language, the traditional houses. Observe its nature. The mountains, the sea, the beaches, the forest, the desert. 

Jakarta and Bali are both in my comfort zone, and I feel like stepping out for a while. To taste new countries or even new continents. To feel other weather. To communicate other languages. To experience different cultures. To get a new perspective. To achieve a higher understanding on the world and myself.

In the mean time, with no actual money to travel with and probably not enough time to do the kind of exploring that I want, I'll probably go find secret beaches and waterfalls Bali has to offer.