Seattle...

A beautiful city by the sea surrounded by water and green. It's covered by clouds and drizzles most part of year. Yet, the gloom doesn't stop people from being nice.

Pike Place, a bustling market by the sea where tourists watch the locals and the locals do their thing. A congregation of a hectic mass of people, sights, tastes, smells, and noises that form an oddly wonderful harmony.

Pioneer Square, an old part of downtown where art galleries and souvenir shops hide in basements and tunnels underground, waiting to be discovered.

Even windows can look nice in the old part of downtown.

                  

Some parts of Pioneer Square distinctively look like they're from a different era, in contrast to the more modern buildings.

The Space Needle, a symbol of Seattle that can be seen from far away. Pay an overpriced meal at the restaurant on top or a ticket to the viewing deck and you get a 360 view of the Seattle area + Puget Sound.

        

The view's not so bad on sunny days. Especially during sunset.

So this will be my very first post

I don’t normally keep dairies or journals and whenever I do attempt to start one, my commitment just drops halfway through and I stop writing entries and forget about it completely. Thus, I wonder. Why am I even starting a blog? Why would I want to post my thoughts on the internet and let the entire world see it? I’m not exactly the talkative type either… heck… I think I’m more of a listener than anything else. But even listeners need some way to express their opinions freely and uninterrupted, dammit! So the internet was the solution. If you even bother reading my posts, thank you for your interests and I hope we can have open and civilized discussions in the future. If not… well then just let me be. I started this for my own sake to begin with. I just had thoughts I needed to get off of my mind.

I, my, me, myself…. Where to begin? I’m an Indonesian student currently studying in Seattle, a city I’m falling in love with. I’m more into sciences and math instead of advance literatures and memorization, thus I ended up majoring in Engineering. I don’t know if I’m any good at it, but I enjoy it and that’s what matters apparently. I’m a female… and legally you can say I’m an adult but I think people will forever have a part that is a child inside of them no matter how old they grow. I’m proud to be Indonesian; it’s a diverse country with rich cultural heritage and blessed by mother nature with its beauty that it actually earned the nickname “zamrud khatulistiwa” or “the emerald of the equator” (although I have no idea where the name came from). Despite all it’s beauty… there are moments when my fellow Indonesians do something so ridiculous or infuriating that I feel like banging my head and don’t want to be associated with them in any way (this deserves its own blog entry so I’ll save it for another day). However, jerks and assholes can be found anywhere in the world… and so can decent, wonderful and inspiring human beings. Thus, it is unfair to associate one person to an entire country and consider everyone there to be the same as them.

I question a lot. You can say I’m a cynic or skeptic but I don’t think I’m pessimistic. I like staying positive. I just happen to be slightly critical and want answers that satisfy me. If you order me around or present me with a fact without a satisfying reason or explanation, I simply won’t agree with you. That doesn’t mean I want to start a fight. I like open discussions. So if we have differing opinions on a matter, I’d like to listen and try to understand why you have that opinion. On the other hand, please let me openly state my opinions and don’t massacre me without listening to my reasons (cuz it’s my blog, dammit! Hahaha). Therefore, this blog is an opportunity for me to express my thoughts on issues I'm currently pondering on.