21-Aug-2025: Recent Vacation

It's been a month since my last update! To recap, I've been out of town for vacation for two and a half weeks, and amidst that I was doing other sorts of things to keep myself occupied.

In retrospect, I think the breakdown I had during that last improv workshop was in part because I was having withdrawal symptoms from SSRIs. My appointment got pushed back three weeks for reasons out of my control and thus my meds were also delayed for those three weeks. Sufficed to say I was miserable but I chalked that up to other external factors instead of checking with my meds. Ha. The good news is I'm back on my meds and hopefully there will be no more funny business in getting an appointment. Now, where were we

Ah, yes, after I got my meds I headed to Surabaya for two and a half weeks, mostly as a getaway since I was feeling a bit too cooped up for my liking, y'know, NEET and all. I need to go outside often or else I fall into a depression pit. Kind of hard when you're broke and live in a capitalist society that pushes you to spend at every corner. Fortunately, there are a slew of cheap or free events that are hosted every day, you just need to be at the right place and time to learn about them.

During my first week in Surabaya I went to two cheap events with my friend, one was a young artist exhibition held at the education museum, and the other was a film archive exhibition outside of town not far from Surabaya. We took the bus there, it was cheap, but on the way back we had to stand for I think an hour or so because the seats were full.

The next week I got out by myself to a thrift event (didn't buy anything) and then hopped from bus to bus to a market pop-up at a mall. You wouldn't believe how many malls sby has, it's basically a tourism category in and of itself. I bought postcards for my friend (they love sending postcards) and got a free crochet keychain for following an account. I also was on the hunt for brochures and flyers, to turn into ransom notes once I get home!

Later in the week I joined a shrinky dink (or shrink plastic) workshop held by a local university. It was mainly geared towards highschoolers but open for all! I've always wanted to make shrinky dinks and I'm so happy I got to try it out myself! I'm planning on buying the necessary supplies once I have the funds, since it's a more hands-on experience than printing acrylics to a vendor. Speaking of which I'm test-printing some acrylics for the upcoming anime con I'll be boothing at! Fun!

After the workshop (it was really good by the way, super cheap and we got a lot of food out of it) I went to a neighboring mall for another pop-up and bought some keychain straps to hang by buttons off of, as well as complement the shrinky dinks I just made :)

Right on Sunday I went to a Medieval Japanese-inspired anime convention at a dead mall. I took the bus there (I love taking the bus!!!!!) and paid the entry fee, which I discovered was easily evaded. I'm sorry to the con organizers but you need to up your security. I told my friend to just show up and waltz in, nobody will scrutinize you. And nobody did! I bought a crochet whale keychain and a cat pin.

The next week we went to a mall on the very east of the city. They had this fake chinatown pavilion that was made up of restaurants and some smaller shops. I bought two rings from a thrift stall and a book at a small pop-up fair being held at the mall. What'd I tell ya about malls here. Anyways, I'm more than halfway through the book and I'll write up a review to post on this blog tomorrow!

That mostly sums up my vacation. I had a lot of fun meeting friends and going outside. The shrinky dink workshop was a real highlight, as well as taking the bus and taking advantage of their free transit system to get around the city cheaper. I felt like a true urban explorer. And hey! since my brother is going to college in sby, I'll have more reasons to visit the city more often!