I had a very wonderful moment to finish my year of 2011.
On the 21st-23rd of December, i and 10 of my friends in Master of Professional Psychology got the chance to be participants of 2nd International Conference of Indigenous Cultural Psychology in Bali. We've done many things, but our main purpose was to present our research, which were our bachelor thesis research.
It was really amazing experience. We -11 of us- were all women and you can imagine how chatty it was to be near us on the bus. For this kind of event, Mas hakim was the only one witness of this (not so) surprised conditions.
We started this experience, waaaayyyyy long ago, about 3 months ago when our head of Clinical Department in Master of Professional Psychology, Bu Bo, offered us to send our research's abstract to the committee of 2nd ICICP. So there we were, bunch of innocent people tried to deal with the luck and we made it. We got the letter of acceptance. Because of the "storm" called Psychodiagnostics Block came to our way, we ignored this LOA and we indulged ourselves into the beauty of PSD.
So, about a month before the conference, we realized that it was the time for us to made our mind, whether we were still going or not. Done with the thinking and we said "what the hell,, let's give us a chance". Then, we hurried things up, did the payment, coordinated with few people about the accomodation, transportation and stuff and finally we ended up with the result that:
1) we're gonna take the bus for the round trip
2) we booked rooms at the very affordable price hotel, near Udayana
3) we were gonna rent the motorcycle while we were there
As it was fixed, we were pretty much settle. a week before the conference, we started to be anxious because we hadn't done any preparation about the presentation. Especially me. i was gonna take this presentation as nothing to lose presentation. this kind of thinking stucked in my head for few days UNTIL i read the presentation schedule and found out that i was in the same session with MANY EXPERIENCED SPEAKER. Aaaahh,,, i felt like i wanted to roll over the floor and cried -No Kidding!!!-.
Long put short, we finally came to the day of departure. With the psychosomatic symptom in me, i convinced myself that i was gonna be OK, no matter what. So off we went to Bali with Safari Dharma Jaya Bus. It took us about 22 hours to arrive at the Bus Station in Bali. We continued our journey with Angkot to reach Udayana and the Hotel. Mind you, this angkot was full with bunch of travel bags and 12 people. Imagine how crowded it was :))
The Bus |
Sunrise from the ferry to Gilimanuk Bali |
The Angkot |
We checked in and went to our rooms. my roommate this time was Anggi. our first room was .... Ummm,,, i dont know how to put it into words. Umm,,, well. I and Anggi were the type of person who think that Bathroom is the most important thing of the room, which it should be clean and comfy. ours were not. Thank God, we changed room and the bathroom was better, not much, but enough.
The room |
after got ourselves registered, i, anggi, maya, uki, devi and salma walked around the hotel, catched the angkot and tried to find the motorcylce rental. It wasn't easy move though. We -who used to ride the motorcycle everywhere in Jogja- had to struggle with the heat of Bali by walking. We gave up and catched another angkot which then brought us the new adventure of wondering the gangs of Bali. It was really something that you couldnt think of.
The Angkot which brought us inside the gangs of Bali |
Later at evening, we had this wonderful opening ceremony in GWK. we had a fine dining in one of the best view restaurant in Bali and be presented very beautiful Bali dancing. i was amazed by the dance named Bali Mini. it was about the relationship between man and man, man and nature, also man and God. The dance was Epic! Very beautiful coreography and lighting. WELL DONE!
Before the dinner |
The next two days were days of presentation. Mine was on the last day of conference. I was nervous like hell. i didnt prepare myself much, because of the black out happened the night before my schedule. i was sleep deprived because Anggi was afraid to Dark and couldnt sleep. So i tried to accompany her but when it was 3 am, i couldnt help myself but falling asleep. In the morning, when i wanted to rehearse my presentation, i found out that the file was missing.
Presentation time |
Fortunately i saved my -almost- done presentation in Anggi's lappy so i didnt have to start over. By the time my time came, i was still nervous. So i said to the audience
my lecturer once said by being honest about your condition at the moment of stress, you're going to unleash your stress. So i'm going to admit that i'm now having cold hands and very nervous.what happened next?
the audience clapped their hands and all of the sudden i got all the confidence in me to start talking and did the presentation well (i guess).
Because it was the last day of conference, we had the closing ceremony which was also wonderful. The rest of the night were spent with little bit of shopping. It was such a long tiring day, so we went home right away and rested our body and be prepared for the sunrise seeing in Sanur.
At 5 am, we left Hotel by motorcycle and rode to Sanur. Before we arrived in Sanur, we stopped at Circle K to buy drinks. Mbak Ima said that there was something wrong with her motorcycle, it couldnt be startered. we all tried our best to startered but none worked. Mbak Ima was sure it wasn't the fuel, because it was full. i and anggi rode our bike ahead to find the mechanic, but none were already opened, so we headed back.
2 guys helped us to check the machine. no troubles were found. 1 of the guy then opened the fuel tank and he shouted
no fuel..we were just starring each other and bursted into great laugh. My God, we spent almost 15 mins, checked on the machine and only found out the only problem was no fuel? You gotta be kidding me. And guess what? The fuel station was right in front of the CK. Felt like God already showed us the answer, it was just us who couldnt understand what He was trying to say in the first place.
This problem sorted out, we went to Sanur only to find that it was full and it wasnt as good as we thought. I, who asked budi to be our tour guide that day, called Budi and she asked us to go to Mertasari Beach, near her house. So off we went. we met Budi in the halfway and Mertasari was such a beauty. With the sun started to go up, we took bunch of pictures. I also had the chance to catch up with Budi, updated few gossips then Budi invited the 9 of us to her home.
She showed us what the Balinese's house like. Her house was lovely. i wanted the house like hers. It felt like you have your own art gallery and garden in your house. Soooooo relaxing. If i had the chance to sleep over, i would use my time only to enjoy the atmosphere of the house and SLEEP!!
After had our mini brekky, we were off to Mangrove forest. It took us about 20 minutes of riding thru By Pass, but it was worth it. The forest was awesome, with lots of spot to take pictures.
The Closing ceremony |
Sanur |
Mertasari |
Budi |
mangrove forest |
At 9.30 am, we all went back to Denpasar, had Brunch then got ourselves back to hotel. all washed up and ready to check out. By 2 pm, we were already in the bus station, ready to go back to Jogja.
That was pretty much what happened in Bali.
Too many details unwritten, but those would always be remembered.
I had soo much Fun and im sure my friends too.
It was my first time to present my research in the front of distinguished speakers from all over the world. Even tough i have to suffer another psychosomatic, i dare to take the challenge to be involved in the next conferences.
In the front of the venue |
2nd ICICP |