My Journey to David Archuleta

I didn’t know exactly what day it was,when I knew about the contest on da.com. All I knew, it’s getting closer to david’s 1st coming to Indonesia. There was a lot of doubt,that I was going to make it or not. But as I always did, I would have done my best*for sure*

So, I joined the Survey Your Friends contest. I read, that the grand prize winner could bring another 5 friends to join with. I was hoping that I won it. I started it with begging a help to another ArchAngel who’ve been so nice to me a few weeks before David’s coming to Indonesia, her name’s Friski.

So here was my plan :

I asked Friski to spread the survey sheets on her Campus, with a help of Arini. Cause I thought it would make my effort to win the contest easier and more affective.

And I also did my own survey on my new campus, cause as you noticed or not that a few months ago, I graduated from my high school.  So yeah, I did my survey in each class I had. I always asked the rest of people on that class to just fill the survey and listen to the two of David’s songs, cause the room was not really big, so all the people on that class could listen to the song and also could fill the survey sheets at the same time-together-. So, it was so helping,right? Cause it was so effective, even I just needed less 30 minutes for about 30 survey sheets. I did the same thing in each class. Did it again, did it again, and did it again. And also asked a couple of strangers that I met on my campus and Friski’s campus-after I had no schedule on my campus, I would directly go to Friski’s campus- to just fill the survey sheets. And it was also quite worked out!

So every single day after asking a lot of people to just fill the survey, we-myself,Friski,and Arini- were gathered and calculated all the surveys we’ve got that day, then directly submitted it to the DA.com. We did the same thing for a few days.

After a few days doing the same thing, we thought that the amount of our survey  was enough to win the grand prize winner. That was actually the plan. We combined our survey and then submitted all the survey with just one e-mail address. Cause we thought, the chance for us to win the contest would be bigger, instead of submitted it with two e-mail address(my e-mail address and Friski’s e-mail address). So we decided to stop surveying and saw the result on DA.com.

But, luckily at the very last day,there was another help from Ira and Dewa. They did their own survey on their own campus,so there was about 3 campuses that we’ve been used for surveying. *haha*

At the end, they decided to submit their survey using my e-mail address. So, from that, I did believe that we were going to win the grand prize winner cause we’ve reached more than 100 numbers, *wasn’t that crazy?, I thought!* cause we just did it for about a week.

Oh yeah, a month before knowing the contest we-myself, Friski, Arini, Ira, Talitha+Nadia- had a plan to help another ArchAngels from Bandung who also would come to the concert with a cheap price too. Cause we knew that most of them were Students, and they wouldn’t had have their permission if they just went by their selves and needed more cost tough for the transportation. So, we made A twitter account, @DAIBandung! It would helped us to organize them and to announce the gathering before our journey to Jakarta. At first, our project was only= DAIBandung ; Goes To Jakarta for @DavidArchie, so all the ArchAngels from Bandung could go to the concert together with US-admin-.

It was Thursday, July 14th 2011, 2 days before the concert. We planned a gathering to just talk about our preparation for July 16th. BUT, on that morning, I checked my e-mail and I found an e-mail confirmation from DA.com that I won the grandprize winner. I freaked out. JUST IT. *haha*

That e-mail confirmation was made my day. I directly sent a texting to Friski,Arini,Ira and Dewa about the e-mail confirmation.  Sadly, Nadia couldn’t come-to the gathering,but she could come to the concert- and also couldn’t join us to the Meet And Greet because of some reason. So on the afternoon when we had a gathering, I announced it to the other ArchAngels who made it to the gathering.

After the gathering was over,myself and another 4 friends were still talking about our preparation for the Meet And Greet. Cause at first we had a plan to go to Jakarta on July 16th with the other ArchAngels, instead of July 15th. But after knowing that we were going to have a Meet and Greet with Dave, We changed our plan to just go to Jakarta on July 15th. But how about the other ArchAngels then? Who was gonna bring them to Jakarta? LOL There’s no worry about it, cause we had three of the DAIBandung’s member to replace for a while our position as admin.  And we-admin- agreed to go to Jakarta on July 15th,which was tomorrow.

Oh yeah, actually we predicted that we’re going to HAVE the Meet and Greet with David, so while we were talking about the preparation for July 16th with all ArchAngels from Bandung who would go to the concert with our army,we made -prepared it before- a gift for David. It was like Signatures from US(each of us-who made it to the gathering-) plus a nice words under our signature, then we framed it.

Friday, July 15th, 10 am, we went to Jakarta by a Travel without knowing when or where the Meet and Greet would be held. We Just prepared for everything. We arrived there at 1 pm *I still remember the time-haha*. So yeah, after arriving on Jakarta, our next plan was to go to Sultan Hotel. Cause as we noticed from Talitha that there would be a Meet and Greet from Ponds Contest, and Talitha won the first place of that contest. We were proud of her.

So, we just went there, hoping we could meet Talitha for the first time, cause we never met Talitha before. We just had a ‘conversation’ from texting and phone or internet.

After we arrived on Sultan Hotel, we had a new information from a security guy*thanks,sir!* that there would be also a Press Conference on that Hotel, right after our arriving on Sultan Hotel. *What a Coincidence,right?* So we just went directly to the venue. AND, you know what? THAT WAS OUR FIRST TIME  SAW DAVID IN PERSON WITH OUR-MY- TWO EYES!!! The Ponds crew told us to not yell at him because there was a lot of media that time. So we were just happy,saw david from left side of the little stage.

After the PressConference and failed to meet Talitha, we decided to go to our Hotel-not Sultan Hotel-. Cause I said to them; “It’s better for us to have a simulation, so we’ll know how long times we need to reach the venue, which is field D from our Hotel.”. But we also took a couple pics in front of Sultan Hotel.

On our way back to Hotel, I was the one who walked on very behind, cause I was busy taking some pictures for documentation(and also because that was my 1st time came to Jakarta). I heard from the distance that there’s someone played an instrument. And I just like recognized the Instrument, but at the end I just ignored it cause it wasn’t sound too clear.

We continued our ‘walking’ to Hotel. But then, Ira heard the same thing which I heard before. She recognized it very well, that it was David’s song. Then she turned her head to me and said; “It’s David’s song!Don’t you recognize it?”. Then all of us said; “YESSSSS!!!!” , and directly we went to the field D-the venue for the concert-,

and found all the personnel of David’s Band(mark,ben,dave,and Steven) were rehearsing the songs for tomorrow! I just ran to the stage and took a lot of photos.

There was only us that time plus a few arch angels from Jakarta. We were all just enjoyed the rehearsal and hoping that David would come to join his band for rehearsal.

A few minutes later, David’s car entered the field D and we could see David from a distance, he walked on the backstage.

But then, Mr. Jeff came up.

He walked on the stage and came to us. He said, “you want to meet David,right?Go backstage! Go backstage!”. Then I answered, “are you allow us?”. He said, “Of course! You want it,right?”. After that, I walked fast to backstage, and suddenly there was a bodyguard stopped my step! He didn’t allow me to go to backstage. We just waited and waited for David’s rehearsal, cause that was the thing that we could do that time. but then, there was a bodyguard (AGAIN) came to us and said : “ David won’t start the rehearsal if you guys still here!!!”.

We just thought that there’s must be something that David tried to make Us surprise, cause it was his 1st concert in Indonesia. It was also 6pm that time, then we decided to just back to our hotel. So we tried to catch a cab, that could take us to our hotel, cause for sure we didn’t know where the hotel located, even though not far away from the field D, we just didn’t know where it was. Cause as you noticed, since our arriving to Jakarta,we went directly to the press conference,right?

The one who is going to pay for our the hotel and accomodation for us when we were on Jakarta was Dewa’s father. Cause he has been working on Jakarta and on the July 15th after the gathering, Dewa contacted him for the hotel and stuffs. So, when we had to go to Hotel, all of us just blind. We didn’t really know Jakarta.  So for about 30minutes,we’re still on the sidewalk, looking for a cab,asked the driver whether he knew our Hotel location or not.

6.30pm. we were on sidewalk, still looking for a cab! And from the distance, we heard that there’s someone played David’s song! And this one was different, cause we also could hear the singer, which was David! So we canceled, our plan to go to our Hotel and directly ran to the field D. And it was right, there’s David on the stage rehearsing ‘Stomping The Roses! We just yelled and sang along from the outside of field D. cause as the Bodyguard warned us that we were not allowed to be at the field D So,some of us was taping the rehearsal and also sang along. ‘works for me’,’ALTNOY’,and ‘Love Don’t Hate’,etc

That was the first time of us(specially me) to hear /listen to that song! It was beyond my imagination, I never heard that song before. I felt another sensation to it. I JUST LOVE THAT SONG!!!!!,-I said on my heart-. I loved the beat. I love the words. I loved the instrument and also the way David transferred it to us for the very first time.

We ended up that night with Dewa’s father finally picked us up and brought us to the Hotel. We just happy that night and so excited for the next day! Even though –as you noticed that- I still didn’t know when and where the meet and greet will be held, in other words I still didn’t get the latest e-mail confirmation from the admin of DA.com or the promoters.

When we arrived at the Hotel, we split into 2 groups! The girls(friski,ira,arini,and Dewa) were on the same room, and the boy(ME) was on the same room with Dewa’s father. HAHA

On the next morning, July 16^th 2011, the day that we’ve been waiting for,finally came!!! As we noticed that david will be airing on TV(DAHSYAT), so we just prepared for that. And luckily, Dewa’s father should go to work, So he left  the room and there was only me!HAHA, *that’s good for me, so when I watched David on TV, then I reacted too much, there would be no one who saw it!HAHA*

And yeah, I definitely went crazy that time, I jumped out on the bedstead. Hehe.

Right after the DAHSYAT, I got a texting from Ira. She said, “get ready! On 10am, there’s gonna be one of the promoter will contact you by phone, to let you know about the meet and greet”. I replied to her, “Do I need to take a shower then go to your building,guys? So we can get the information together!”

Then she replied, “I’ll wait you on the lobby of our building”.

As soon as possible, I took a shower and prepared for everything! I left my room on about 9.30am,and went to the lobby of the girls building.

On 10am, I really got a phone call from the promoter. She told me about the meet and greet. She said, that she was going to meet me tonight around 8pm on Field D. so after receiving that confirmation, the girls just got ready! After we got a phonecall from the promotor, we didn’t directly go to the field D, but we waited until all of us did our daytime prayer. After the daytime prayer we checked out from the hotel and had a lunch on the same hotel before saying good bye to Dewa’s father and went to the field D.

But, at the end , the one who brought us to the Field D was Dewa’s father by his car. It was the last treatment that we had from him. And I’m personally still can’t thank enough to him. Cause hotel, transportation, and stuff were beyond my expectation. thanks,Sir!!!

Because of the traffic jam in Jakarta, we arrived at Field D about 2pm. And it was crowded there. So we waited for talitha (and her family member, Effie), cause we planned to meet and enter the gate together. Then after meeting her at around 3.30pm, we passed the gate and tried to be close to the stage.

The concert was begun with some national performers, cause David was the final performance that night. So, we just watched the concert and also met a bunch of ArchAngels from every area in Indonesia who made it to come that day!

Around 6pm, the rains felt down from the sky. It was totally messed everything up! -,- we were all dismissed, tried to find a tree. So we could cover everything that we brought that day, -including the framed-signature.- . I was the one who brought the signature from Bandung fans.

It was my duty to give it safely to david. So, instead of tried to find a tree or something to cover the framed-signnature, I used it to cover myself. HAHA!!!   It was quite wide or big to cover my body and my bag. I just went there, went here, holding the framed-signature in the middle of the rain as an umbrella. Otherwise, the framed-signature was covered with double plastic. So I thought it would be OK or fine if I just used it as an umbrella. HAHA!!

Can you imagine it? I am going to meet my idol in person on 8pm. And the rain messed everything up on 6pm. So,what will I be? Awful? You can watch it by yourself,Kathy-on the video-.

On 8pm, as the promotor told us to be close to the stage, we did! We were ready for everything. So it would be easier for her to bring us to the back stage for meet and greet.

After waiting for about 15minutes, we were all furious*for sure*. But then on 8.30pm, the promoter came to us and really brought us to the backstage-to David’s tent-. And you know what? When we walked on right side of the stage, tried to get backstage, we passed by with DAVID ARCHULETA on the red carpet zone-area- and his bunch of boduguard though. Then I yelled to him, “DAVIIIIIID!!!!!!!!!!”. And he answered directly to me, “HEY…!!”. I was shocked. Then Ira and friski grabbed my hand to get me backstage. They said, “we’re going to meet him face to face in a minute,sukmaaaaa! Just be calm, take a deep breath, and let’s Go!!”. I just answered them, “oh yeah…Ok!(with weak and low tone)”

So, we were exactly in front of David’s tent.

We were waiting for David to come. The promoters and their security didn’t allow us to enter the tent before David came.

Our hearts bumped very fast. We’re really going to meet David in PERSON in a minutes. A few seconds later, David came with his bodyguards from the red carpet zone. We excited for sure! We took out our COSes from our bags to make David easier to sign it. HAHA. Even though we’re still outside of the tent. He was getting closer to the tent, and we saw Mr. Jeff tough. Then he entered the tent and the promoters also told us to get ready to also enter the tent.

The promoters and their bodyguard allowed us to come in to the tent. There’s a row of chairs on the front side of the tent. We sat there, with also another 3 winners. So, there were about 8 fans that time. David greeted us as usually he did on his Vblog. But, it was more warm and felt so close! All I did just looked at him, and Mr Jeff. ‘Cause that was my very first time meeting my Favorite Singer. The Real One Idol. And I didn’t know when will I get another chance like that, right?

David started the Meet and Greet with signing our COSes and some stuffs that we brought. I prepared my COS and a photo from his TOSOD Fan Pack to be signed. There’s something funny happened; when David signed my COS and stood right in front of me. I spelled my name to him: “My name is S-U-K-M-A ( I pronounced it with Bahasa Indonesia ). Because I predicted that David would have written the wrong letter. So, then I also tried to spell it with English ’cause I thought that might be David didn’t understand if I had to pronounced in Bahasa. But you know what he said to me? “Yes I know, I learned Spanish”(with his low voice), He said. HAHAHA. I really wanted to laugh as loud as I could, but I didn’t. Then he signed my pic. After the signing session there was one of us who gave an artwork that she made by herself for David. So, I made that moment to also give our framed signature that we brought from Bandung. We could see that he was so impressed with it.

And that’s good! We were relieved. After giving the souvenir to him, I also gave him a doll-his cartoon character-

Then we continued it with Photo session. I was on the fourth number. But sadly my pic with him was broke. The one who took it accidentally shook his hand then my pic looked like this :

The picture was the one thing that made my days like sorrow for a week after the July 16th. Had a pic with him was like a dream for thousands fans, right? Then when I had a chance to take a pic with him, there’s someone messed that up. But after all, I was still lucky as a fan to have a moment with him, had a chit-chat with him, could see him from a very close space, and also gave a gift to him.

After that “accident”, the promoters had us gone out from the tent. And I was just like the one who felt that there’s still something left. I tried to beg to Mr Jeff  ’cause I saw him peeking from inside the tent, and I caught him. But he didn’t allow me to get in. I said, “I will wait till the concert ended and then David back to the tent. I just want to have a pic with him. That’s all!”. He said, “No..No..!! It will be crazier after this. And we can’t take that risk!”.

So, with that ‘ending’, I tried to get closer to the stage. ‘Cause David would perform just in a couple of seconds. The emcees were counting down for David to come up on stage. I was on the right side of the stage with a few IAAs. ! Everybody-fans or non fans- yelled at David’s name. The video of his announcement that he’s going to come to Indonesia was shown on the wide screen on the left and the right side of the stage.

Then the concert was ON. David started the concert with Stomping  The Roses + The Other Side of Down.

Then, at the middle of his concert he sang Gotta Get Thru This/Message In A Bottle (Mash-up) (Daniel Bedingfield) and introduced all the personnels. Mostly, the songs that he sang that night were the songs that he sang at the other countries on his The Other Side of Down : Asian Tour Edition. But he didn’t sing HEAVEN. That was the only one song that I really wanted to listen+watch when he had a concert. BUT that was alright, I was still happy after all.

At the end of his concert, he acted like he went straight to the backstage and closed the concert just like that. But of course, we were not going to be silent and take that easily. WE-all of the fans on non- yelled : “WE WANT MORE!!!WE WANT MORE!!!WE WANT MORE!!!”. Then, David came out again from backstage and sang A Thousand Miles and CRUSH. HUAAAAAAA!!!

After that final performances, it was the real farewell.

It closed with fireworks up in the air. It was great concert I ever watched. He also took the opportunity-time- to receive some souvenirs from the fans. And also wore A Traditional Hat from one of the fans, called BLANGKON.

So it was a wrap. I almost cried at the end of the concert. And I also hugged Talitha. Because she was standing next to me right when the fireworks were sparkling up in the sky.

I can’t forget those amazing trips and moments. There’s nothing can replace it. Thank you,Allah for this beautiful chance! Thanks, Dave! Thanks to all of the DAIBandung’s admin! Thanks to Dewa’s father! Thanks to all of the participants for their times filling out the Survey sheets! Thanks to Oz Radio crews-for the bus- who brought IAA Bandung to the concert! Thanks to all of my friends too! Thanks to you,kathy and @JennyG_PA, and also Faifai to make me keep believing that I always have a chance to meet David! THANKS! THANKS,guys!!!

more photos : HERE and HERE

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