Having a Coke With You (a poem by Frank O’Hara)

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

—Frank O’Hara

——————————————

“Visa Oh Visa….” (Lika-Liku Apply Visa Di Kedutaan Italia)

Tanggal 7 November 2012 adalah tanggal yang bersejarah buat gue, karena di tanggal ini,hari ini gue dapet visa Schengen! Biar hari itu Jakarta mendung, hujan dan becek, tapi hati gue bahagia..hehehehe….

Buat yang belum tahu apa sih Visa Schengen itu? Visa Schengen adalah ijin masuk ke negara-negara Uni Eropa seperti Austria, Belgia, Ceko, Denmark, Estonia, Finlandia, Perancis, Jerman, Yunani, Hungaria, Islandia, Italia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Belanda, Norwegia, Polandia, Portugis, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spanyol, Swedia, dan salah satu yang terakhir bergabung Swiss. Total ada 25 negara yang tergabung dalam visa Schengen.Dengan visa jenis ini elu bisa masuk ke beberapa negara yang elu mau tanpa perlu repot ngajuin visa ke beberapa kedutaan secara terpisah.

Udah setahun belakangan ini gue bekerja keras,banting tulang (a/n: ini lebay) buat bisa jalan-jalan ke Eropa. Bukan seluruh Eropa sih secara cuti dari kantor cuma 18 hari aja, makanya gue memutuskan perginya ke daerah Eropa Selatan atau yang kata orang namanya daerah Mediterania. Kenapa gue pilih negara-negara Eropa Selatan ini, it’s simple karena gue pernah dapet beasiswa jaman SMA dulu ke Italia.Nah,sekarang gue pengen balik lagi setelah bertahun-tahun lamanya…hihihihihi…(a/n: menandakan yang nulis udah bukan anak ABG)

Ternyata ya ternyata perjuangan untuk dapet Visa Schengen itu nggak segampang yang gue kira. Setelah baca-baca banyak blog travelling plus buku-buku travelling, gue sadar Visa Schengen itu susah didapet. Tapi gue nggak mau nyerah. Gue tetep usaha sampai gue dapet keputusan visa gue di-approve atau ditolak.

Perjalanan bikin visa gue dimulai dari nentuin negara mana yang paling lama gue tinggal. Kebetulan itinerary gue itu Jakarta-Milan-Venezia-Madrid-Barcelona-Paris-Jakarta, so kalo diliat Italia adalah negara yang paling lama gue singgahi. Mulailah gue cari tahu gimana bikin visa di kedutaan Italia yang ternyata sekarang semua harus via agent, namanya VFS Global.Nah mulailah gue liatin satu-satu dokumen apa aja yang gue harus punya buat bikin visa and yes,it took times to prepare all the documents needed, People!