a look inside the obama campaign

i know it’s about America votes, and not about Indonesia votes. but still, this campaign has really taught me many things, esp. from communication perspective. all those pr (public relations) campaigns, tricks, dirty, clean, etc … this season has really been a wonderful spectacle to watch.

anyway … i dont have too much time to write something on, as my final dissertation deadline is looming. but, i want to put the following link on, a look inside the obama campaign. hope you have a minute or two, or perhaps three to read it. great story!

vions.

barcelona wrap up

well … finally we came to an end of the barcelona ‘08 coverage. we got free train tickets again that day * thanks to marketing people wherever u are * but once we arrived at the airport, it turned out that the flight was delayed for an hour or so .. so, we were in time. funny enough *but luckily* we did realize that we were at the wrong hall. the flight was at the C hall, while we were at the B. that’s why we didnt see the check-in counter for transavia. pfff …

nice holiday it was. i simply fell in love with the city at once and eagerly wanted to move in to barcelona, and perhaps work there can’t wait to go there again hehehehe …

nighty nite everyone. it’s been one long moody day for me.

barcelona – day 4 shopping & sunbathing

last day too bad. i really didnt want to leave barcelona when waking up in the morning that day. but yea, the vacation was ”almost” over. we had to check out before 10. lucky enough, we could leave our luggage in the hotel head office. and that marked the start of our last exploration in the city of barcelona.

the last day was all about shopping *particularly for jen*. i was more interested in getting myself as tan as possible , instead.

we began by walking down la rambla toward barcelona cathedral (barri gotic district). along the way, we saw so many shops selling souvenirs, t-shirts, gaudi’s replicas, and of course, barcelona merchandise. the latter brought me to understanding that ronaldinho and messi seemed to be the most famous players there. i simply could find replicas of their football shirt in every corner of the city. i wonder what’d happen once ronaldinho completes his move somewhere else, most likely milan.

k, back to the main story. so here comes the next tip. barcelona barri gothic is a nice district to shop. make sure you allocate one day alone here, just to make sure that you won’t miss anything. you may choose to walk down la rambla and then turn to barcelona cathedral, and end up at port vell or the other way around. that’s all up to you

so we chose the first route. we went from one shop to another. jen and arif succesfully spent some money on souvenirs :p hehehe … i only bought some postcards for my mom and some gifts for my friends back in amsterdam.

we just walked from one shop to another, spent 15 minutes in a internet cafe just to check email *and tribal wars for me :p*, and finally arrived at barcelona cathedral. that day happened to be the day when people of barcelona celebrated the victory against france *if im not mistaken*. so yea .. it was quite busy, almost as busy as on the first day.

anyway … we then went on to barceloneta. on our way, jen realized that she forgot the souvenirs bought for her boyfriend. boy o boy … in barceloneta, you can find restaurants, yachts, and of course mediterranean beach i spent about half an hour sunbathing on the beach. it was  just great oh yeah, the beach was semi-nude, for your information, as people were eager to get themselves tanned hehehhe …

finally, we went back to the hotel office to pick up our stuff and head to the airport … well, the story will be posted on my next entry. stay tuned

barcelona – day 3 – font magica – port vell

finally … got the time again to write a new entry to this blog.

as you may have read, we visited font magica on the second day of our vacation. we were quite unfortunate at that time, as there was no show in the evening. but, one of the shopkeepers told us that there’d be one the day after. so that’s why we came to visit the fountain after visiting parc guell.

we came on time for the show. we arrived around 8.00 pm, not so long the show began (it started around 8.30 pm) … it was simply marvelous. the spectacle was amazing. the background music, the lighting, the weather. everything fit together to create a wonderful entertainment for all people there. enjoy the following videos

and …

some more pics will be added later.

anyway, after enjoying that show, we then went to port vell (old port). we arrived there already a bit late in the evening. there were still many people doing many things *skateboarding, wandering, or having late dinner*, nonetheless.

somewhere along the way *cant really remember before or after going to port vell*, we found a small shop selling asian food. so we were rushing in to buy some stuff. that was the first time we saw that kind of shop in barcelona. it was indeed so rare to see asian shops like that. we didnt even see a chinatown *which can usually be found anywhere on this planet*.

while they were shopping, i bought a postcard for my mom. i thought it’d be nice to send her some postcard from barcelona. so later in the evening, once we got back home, i wrote her a nice message from barcelona on it. hehehe …

well, that’s the story till now … i’ll come back with an entry of day 4. our last day in barcelona. hope you have enjoyed the stories hitherto.

barcelona – day 3 – part 2 parc guell

back to wordpress … it seems my schedule has been overwhelming me in the last couple of days, has cost me two or three days without blogging.

anyway, im back now. so here comes the second part of day 3. having stayed in montserrat for about three hours, we decided to go back to the city to visit parc guell. we took a train back to barcelona (with a delay in one of the stations as the train somehow stopped, and we had to step in to another train). once we were at plaça de espanya, we took metro line 3 and stopped at lessepss.

parc guell is another gaudi’s masterpiece. when we were there, it was as if we were in a wonderland. all those curvy and colorful buildings. these pics i believe will say more than i can write in thousand words …

if you are looking for typical gaudi souvenir, there are some shops around the location. you simply can find many interesting stuff that won’t be found anywhere else but here. sounds perfect to give to your beloved ones, right?

ok then, this is for now … soon to be posted, the marvelous spectacle of font magiça. stay tune

p.s.: just added couple videos:

1. barcelona – day 2 – part 1
2. barcelona – day 2 – part 2

barcelona – day 3 – part 1 montserrat

the third day of our vacation in barcelona.

we started the day with an hour trip to montserrat. montserrat is located about an hour by train (R5 from plaça d espanya). it’s where the benedictine monk retreat situated. the scenery was just spectacular. friends of mine even likened the view to grand canyon. i simply couldnt agree more on that. look at the beautiful scenery on these pics. you’d see why we said so.

this place was just beautiful, comforting, and peaceful. i still dont know why i had that feeling, but it was true. it felt as if we were disconnected from the outside world and enjoyed every breath we had without any worries. that makes montserrat as the most-must-visit place in barcelona if you were looking for some time alone for yourself and to recharge your energy. speaking of which may have happened to me.

the vacation in barcelona seems to have brought back the inspiration i lost earlier for finishing my final dissertation. the ideas are now flowing easily, and the mistakes in earlier drafts can be seen clearly. i must therefore admit that the vacation has recharged my almost-empty battery.

anyway .. back to this story again … we were there for two or three hours with a thought of visiting font magiça once again in the evening in mind. btw … if you were in montserrat or happened to be in a spanish café, please dont forget to try bikini jen tried and found it wonderful

okie … that was the first activity we did that day. the next destination was parc guell, another master piece of art by gaudi. story about it and our later activities would be told in the following post.

stay tune