Lampung, Lampung, Lampung….Debating, Debating, Debating

I’ve been thinking that my debating career is already over the moment I decided to resign from ALSA UI months ago. It was until one of my debate fellows invited me to join e-Fest in Lampung University at May 30th -31st. I was not sure, I just said hell let’s go there. I mean I never before put debate as my main consideration of joining the competition. I just thought about going across the sea to Lampung; yeah…TRAVELING (one of my big dreams); one of those things I couldn’t resist.

It was my first trip to go outside the island (Java). And I was as excited and worried as hell over my first fairly long trip. It takes practically 10 hours or so (just like when you go to Yogyakarta by bus) since we made our trip as cheap as we could. Thus we have to take two different buses and one ferryboat to bridge us there. And as the reward for that, we had to duel with three rounds of the debate the morning we arrived. Okay no problem, our excitement conquered all.

One impression I got was that whoa whoa…why people are shouting at each other, they’re gonna be like swallowing each other. But then it’s not that of I saw my friend told me, it’s how people communicate, yeah kinda chatting. Well, apparently we have different ways of showing our manner of, okay, talking and our bond relationship. And Lampung is also as hot as my place, I kept sweating like a pig (it doesn’t mean that I keep sweating like a pig in my place, but I keep sweating here…like a pig, but I don’t sweat like that in my place, though I sweat, whatever) yet I could help it.

There were not so many places to visit in Bandar Lampung, I just went around the downtown at night; seeing some monuments; visiting a boulevard near to Lampung Museum (the place where most of young people of Lampung hang out) and; having dinner at wayside, which reminded me to Yogyakarta, really. Oh yeah, another place I visited was the centre manufacturer of banana chips, it is more like home industries near the downtown at the day I left the city. The banana chips are good.

Well, okay let’s talk about the debate. Damn! I never thought we could go this far. We practically passed through those first three preliminary rounds just fine. Then we put ourselves to the semifinal, then final. And we made it. For the first time in my (maybe our) debating career I (we obviously) stood up on the stage holding our first winner trophy, God! You must be kidding me. We came home with our head held high, hahahahahaha.

OK then I begin to reconsider about ending up my debating career, for I think I saw a few bunch of hope in it since then hehehehehe.