OKAY! I know that this is ULTRA long overdue, and I didn’t have the time writing this down but I was featured by INSTAGRAM in September 2017 and got a chance to introduce Indonesian food to the world! Yas, and saying that I was happy is definitely a serious understatement!
I am going to make this post brief, but I’ll cover about the frequently asked questions by my fellow instagrammers!
How?
Yes, seriously How??
I can only say that I DON’T FREAKING KNOW!
It was quick and I received an email in Mid August by one of the Instagram’s producers (name is hidden because I think it’s not appropriate for me to reveal such information. But please know, I’m just so thankful to all the amazing team involved!). To sum up, I was told that I might have had the opportunity to be featured on Instagram. What did I do? Freak out? Well yeah, but true story, I was kinda worried that it was a spam email because that happens in cyber world, right?
I then made a quick research for the individual that reached me and about to search the entire search engine about HOW IT’S POSSIBLE FOR SUCH AN AMAZING THING TO HAPPEN TO SOMEONE AS TRIVIAL AS ME! WHO AM I KIDDING, right?
Ps. Yes, my ultimate excitement can be represented by the CAPS LOCK ON LETTERS ABOVE.
Eventually, I made a reply and we communicated via email about schedule to meet. Oh did I forget to mention that I was told a team from Instagram Community was coming to Indonesia and I was about to meet them to physically converse with them, and be recorded while introducing the Indonesian cuisine?
To shorten up, we actually met and ventured to some places that I loved such as 1/15 Coffee, Sari Bundo, Nasi Uduk Gondangdia, Soto Jakarta Gondangdia and a dessert-house!
It was real fun and to be honest, at first I wasn’t all that comfortable in being the centre of the video-shooting, but the team was so amazingly-nice, they eased my worry with their kind words. I was really glad to be able to know them personally and witness a few of the amazing team behind INSTAGRAM!
On 15th September 2017, I woke up at 8, and found my account drowned with endless notifications and DM from people around the world!
That moment was vividly overwhelming to me as I didn’t know what to feel and to receive such a huge response (the biggest in my entire life to date) made me clueless of what to think! My followers sharply increased from an estimated 23k to about 27k by that time. I was also featured on Instagram’s page and followed by Instagram’s official account.
The best think is I got to receive lots of private messages and comments about how some people loved Indonesia and its food while some others were eager to visit Indonesia some day. That thing means the absolute best to me, being able to (slightly) increase the awareness of Indonesian cuisine (and also Indonesia itself) to people around the world.
THANK YOU INSTAGRAM.
This will definitely stay in my memory for a long time (if not forever) and it’s such an honour to be able to represent Indonesia in this platform.
To see a blog post about my feature on Instagram, you can head here.
http://blog.instagram.com/post/165339033262/170914-foodventurer