Disamperin aliran di Korea

Salah satu pengalaman yang gw dapatkan selama trip sebulan lamanya di Korea selama musim gugur ini adalah disamperin cult atau aliran tertentu. Jadi memang di Korea itu seperti jadi surga buat aliran-aliran agama baru tumbuh, mungkin udah pada pernah juga nonton dokumenter salah satu aliran gereja di Korea yang lumayan terkenal sesatnya. Gw gak tau kenapa pastinya banyak aliran-aliran baru atau aliran sesat muncul di Korea, ada beberapa hipotesis tapi ya masih hasil pemikiran gw aja. Dari jaman dulu sampe sekarang kayak masih gak berubah aja. Sebagai catatan, dulu salah satu aliran sesat sempat masuk ke lingkungan kampus tempat gw pertukaran pelajar di Korea. Di situ mereka emang nargetin mahasiswa asing. Modusnya adalah sebagai mahasiswa asing kita diajak volunteer, ada kelas bahasa, ada kunjungan ke panti jompo, dll. Nanti selama kegiatan itu kita akan pakai atribut tertentu, dan mengucapkan yel-yel terselubung yang dianggap bagian dari dokumentasi saja. Hasil dokumentasi berupa foto...
Post a Comment

My favourite part-time job everr

Let me tell you about my favorite part-time job ever, that none can beat to this day. I always tell about this to anyone who thinks about doing a part-time job actually. 

I was a student in my last year at university, stressed with my thesis, and worried about my future. The uncertainty about my graduation also brought worries about my financial condition. A lot of my friends are doing part-time jobs in restaurants, or delivery service, which I think is quite okay, but to do that kind of part-time that requires hard labor while doing my thesis? Hmm, I need to think. While talking with my friends, she mentioned that one of her friends actually do dog walking as a part-time job, and I thought that would be nice to do.

Except I’m a bit lazy, so taking care of a dog and walk them is not my thing, I prefer to stay indoors in the cold weather of The Netherlands. So I opted to take care of the cats! I never had a cat as a pet in my life,  but I have a passion for them that I played with my friend’s cat almost every day during elementary school (and somehow some obsession with taking pictures of any cats I find---I think that's what everyone's doing, right?)

Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash

So I signed up with one of the websites of pet sitting, there are tons of them, but the one that I tried was Pawshake. So, I put up my profile, tried to convince everybody that I was a loving cat sista through my picture and description, set up the price of my service, and just wait. 

Not long after, I got my first offer. It was exciting and thrilling, and I didn’t have any clue how it will be done. But basically, it went like this:

  1. The owner goes through the website to see the cat sitters that are available on the intended dates. They will initiate the conversation with the cat sitter, and ask to meet up. Usually, at this stage, the owner just wants to see if you can get along with their cat. All of my hosts actually never ‘reject’ me after the first meeting. They basically will tell everything about the cat’s habit, favorite snack, favorite toy, some special treatment that you should take care of like medicine and special diet food, and also how to take care of the ‘waste’ the cat produced. In this stage, I just try to remember the instructions carefully and take notes if needed. One owner can have multiple cats, and I need to remember them and their special treatment.
  2. After the owner satisfied (?) with the meeting they will give instructions on how to take the key, how to leave the house, etc.
  3. After that, I just need to come every day during the caring period to their house. This is my favorite part because I can play with the cats, feed them, and just sit with the cats, cuddle them, very therapeutic. The visit usually can be done quickly, because you basically just need to give their food, change the water, clean the poop, all can be done in less than 15 minutes, but, playing with them can make me forget the time, so I spent...sometimes more than hours just to play with them.
  4. After finishing the cat sitting period, I just need to leave the key in a designated place and that's it
It was very fascinating and fun to meet cats with different personalities. One cat really likes cuddling, another one likes to be stroked every second, one cat can play catch just like playing with a dog, and many more (I actually documented their name and personality, just for fun).

What I also love besides playing as much as I can with cute and adorable cats with all of their personalities, the cat owner usually is kind soul, so during the first meeting, the owners I met are all very warm people, and it's just a nice feeling there. Some of them also prepare snacks and tea packs on the table for me to eat during my visit...

What I usually did before, when doing cat sitting, was reversing my holiday. Basically to schedule my own holiday so that it does not happen at the same time as other people. This way, when the 'common' holiday comes, everyone in the town will need someone to look after their pet, and I would be available for them. Well, this was possible because I was away from home, and I didn't work, so I have the all freedom in the world to do that. So while everyone was on Christmas and new year's holiday, I was booked and busy with my part-time job. Biking around the town to visits all the cats while their owner having a joyful holiday.

It was a healing experience for me actually and definitely helped me through the stressful thesis period and after uni life (oh well that one wasn't stressful haha)...This part-time job was so special it just remained as one of my favorite memories actually.

I just hope we also have a similar service here in Indonesia, and it becomes more common to do that (well cultural differences and all that aside..), so for everyone who can't afford to have a pet because of many reasons, they can also have the benefit of the healing interaction with cats! (looking at the people who can't have a pet because of their family allergic to it)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disamperin aliran di Korea

Salah satu pengalaman yang gw dapatkan selama trip sebulan lamanya di Korea selama musim gugur ini adalah disamperin cult atau aliran tertentu. Jadi memang di Korea itu seperti jadi surga buat aliran-aliran agama baru tumbuh, mungkin udah pada pernah juga nonton dokumenter salah satu aliran gereja di Korea yang lumayan terkenal sesatnya. Gw gak tau kenapa pastinya banyak aliran-aliran baru atau aliran sesat muncul di Korea, ada beberapa hipotesis tapi ya masih hasil pemikiran gw aja. Dari jaman dulu sampe sekarang kayak masih gak berubah aja. Sebagai catatan, dulu salah satu aliran sesat sempat masuk ke lingkungan kampus tempat gw pertukaran pelajar di Korea. Di situ mereka emang nargetin mahasiswa asing. Modusnya adalah sebagai mahasiswa asing kita diajak volunteer, ada kelas bahasa, ada kunjungan ke panti jompo, dll. Nanti selama kegiatan itu kita akan pakai atribut tertentu, dan mengucapkan yel-yel terselubung yang dianggap bagian dari dokumentasi saja. Hasil dokumentasi berupa foto...
Continue reading

Melihat Brunei

Image
Beberapa bulan lalu nemu tiket murah ke Brunei, terus akhirnya langsung impulsif beli malam itu juga. Belum pernah ke Brunei sebelumnya, cuma denger sedikit aja tentang negaranya gimana jadi ini seperti tidak ada bayangan dan ekspektasi akan seperti apa.  Inget kalo dulu sempet nonton variety show ‘Battle Trip’ episodenya Roy Kim dan kawan-kawannya ke Brunei, jadi cuma itu aja yang jadi pegangan bakalan mau eksplor apa di sana.  Lucu ya padahal ni negara dekat banget sama Indonesia, tapi gw gatau banyak tentang negara ini. Cuma tahu Brunei itu kesultanan, terus negara kaya. Sejujurnya gw juga baru tahu tentang prince nya yang lagi rame karena baru saja menikah belakangan ini tuh dari adek gw (mungkin algoritmanya gak nyampe di gw aja). Jadi kepala gw kosong siap diisi sama first-hand experience di Brunei. Inilah yang gw tangkep dari Brunei dari yang gw rasain sendiri dan dari informasi yang diperoleh dengan ngobrol sama warloknya.  Petugas bandara yang detail Pas baru sam...
Continue reading

Kesan pesan setelah ikut berpartisipasi di Closed ♭eta: v6.3

Image
Untuk merayakan serangkaian acara Closed ♭eta by Xdinary Heroes yang sudah usai di bulan ini, kali ini gw mau menuliskan kesan pesan setelah ikut berpartisipasi di Closed ♭eta: v6.3 di bulan Agustus kemarin. Apaan sih Closed ♭eta? Ini tuh rangkaian dari Xperiment Project nya Xdinary Heroes, band dari agensi JYP Entertainment, juniornya DAY6 yang secara kebetulan juga gw sukai. Bisa dibilang emang selera gw itu emang banyak nyantol di JYPE, kayak mereka udah tau banget selera w. Huft. Yaudah gapapa.  Oke, jadi di Xperiment Project itu ada Closed beta dan Open beta. Intinya Closed beta itu konser, Open beta itu rilis lagu. Jadi tiap bulan dari April 2024 ini Xdinary Heroes terus aja melakukan rilis lagu dan konser di tiap bulannya. Mirip-mirip sama Every DAY6 di tahun 2017 dulu lah, konser dan rilis 2 lagu setiap bulannya, walau jaman DAY6 lebih panjang projectnya sepanjang tahun. Dulu jaman-jamannya Every DAY6 tuh gw cuma bisa meratapi aaaa pengen banget nonton langsung konsernya ti...
Continue reading