Swinging in the air in a freezin' cold day

Hi there!

ooh...it's been so long since the last time I updated my blog. Last week was so hectic. I've got lots and lots of homework so I didn't have any chance to write my experience from the previous week. Too bad...cuz I've got a ton to tell from the week before.

I actually have a draft of my post when I couldn't finish to write it up, so now I'm gonna finish it.

hwaaah...I'm so happy right now. Last week was awesome. First, I improved in my ski lesson ^^. Second, there was a mid-term meeting from my exchange agency. It was sooo much fun.

I was kinda dissapointed when I had to leave the ski resort earlier. I had a ride for Dolores (my area liaison) in Concord at 4 pm to Peterborough (the meeting venue), so I gotta leave. I was just going to go up to the mountain when my hostmom came and dragged me to the car.

anyway...

We spent the first night of the meeting with eating dinner, having discussion about family issues, and playing card. We played bias,, it was funny.

O yeah, there were two new students that just arrived. They are Fiona from Malaysia (my neighbor!!) and Hugo from Brazil. There were more people that I've never met before. I was excited.

The next day was freeeeezing cold! Unfortunately, that day we had outdoor activity all morning and afternoon. Bwah! In the morning after breakfast, we had some game to warm up. We even played tag ON the POND. Haahaha....technically on the ice that covered with snow, lol. We had some other game, like blindfold dodgeball, lobster baseball (??), etc.

After we had lunch and a bit of warmth, we went outside (again), headed to a lodge in the woods. We were going to do High Ropes Course. Yeahh..I was pumped! lol

Without any doubt, I followed the line to climb the high ropes. Some of my girl friends got freaked out in the middle of the ropes they were walking on. They were like shaking in the air. I was wondering, is it that hard?

After hours and hours of waiting (exaggerating, sorry), then I'ts my turn! Woo...it's harder that I thought it would be! I was shaking like hell on the ropes. I went really slow. But it was worth it... after I reached the third tree, I got a chance to try pendulum.

So, I hold on the rope, then I jumped down, and I started to swing back and forth like a pendulum. Whoooaaa..that was awesooome!

I love the sensation when I jumped down from 10 meters or more high tree. So gooood!

During the course, I was kinda anxious because It's getting dark and I didn't have a chance to pray ashar. It's kinda hard to wash for praying because I was so bundled up in winter jacket and bunch of security equipment. When I'm done with the course (although many of my friends were still not done yet), the sun was like 5 inches from the horizon. So, I decided to run and find a place to pray. The lodge where we were last time was far away, and I didn't have that much time left. So, I just picked a random lodge (it was in the middle of the woods). I did tayammum and started to pray. It was freaking creepy. The woods was dark and I was by myself, and I kept imagining myself hearing strange noises. I imagined that I saw a bearded midget approaches me with an axe in his hand... (wth??)

I could not concentrate in my prayer...but, what could I do?

yeah...it was one of my prayer experience that I will not forget ;p

Actually, I've got many more to write...but I have to finish my Adv. Bio lab about human evolution...

So...

later, people!

The Hope Continues...

Hi there!

I should have written this post yesterday because the topic's gonna be fresher. But I got too much homework yesterday... Homework sucks -_-

Last Tuesday (Jan 20th) was a historical day. After we celebrated Martin Luther King's day on Monday, we recorded another history. Yeah...it's Obama's inauguration. It was a blast. All students and staffs in my school gathered in school's studio to watch the inauguration. I could see that everyone in the room were into it. We 'boo'ed when Bush showed up (but after that our teacher got mad, lol), we cheered when Obama came out, and we applaud everytime Obama said something astonishing. When everyone in DC sang the national anthem, we stood up and sang (not including me...I don't know the lyrics, hahaha).

There were soooooooo many people watching the inauguration in DC. It's like millions of people. One of my friend that went to DC that day said, "There are many more people that couldn't get in to the mall. There are many more people than you saw on TV"

Wow!!

Anyway, I like the part when Obama staggered when he sworn in. Hahahaha... I thought he was very nervous or something. But my teacher said that the priest (or whoever it was) messed up the oath, so Obama got confused and staggered. The oath is written in the Constitution and I bet Obama remember all the words in his head, so when the priest messed up, he hesitated. The next morning (or maybe later that day, don't remember), they repeated the oath. It was pretty funny...

The amazing part is when my teachers cried after the sworn in. They hugged each other and sobbed. Wow...it must be something they really really want. It must be a great deal for them.

It's just so wonderful to see people happy that day. Hopefully they'll be that happy for the rest of the time.

I noticed in Obama's speech, he mentioned about Moslem world, and how he wants to have a better relationship based on mutual interests and respects. He's pretty brave to say it directly as if one of America's biggest problem is the relationship with Moslem world. Well, it is actually.

I really appreciate his willingness to fix this relationship.

Note: I will not say Islamic World, and I'll use Moslem world instead. Because the whole problem is about Moslems (the people), not the religion (Islam).

But, the thing that I can't understand is the response of some people in Moslem world. I saw in the news that some people in Iran burn the pictures of Obama. Where are their respect?

Well, I say this probably because I don't know how it feels to suffer and trapped in a war like the mid-eastern people feel.

But, anyway, I do hope that Obama will bring a change to the world. And I do hope that the changes will show the world that Americans are not evil, because they are not.

Changes are all we need

Changes are all we're going to work on

The World is a Beautiful Place

Today in English class we read a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I really like that poem. Unlike other poems that have too much metaphores and makes me think too much like "What's the relationship between dusk and monkey?", this poem is simple but has a deep meaning. It is about life which sometimes doesn't seem as nice as you expected but it's always been a beautiful place to live in.

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind happiness

not always beingso very much fun

if you don't mind a touch of hell

now and then

just when everything is fine

because even in heaven

they don't sing all the time

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind some people dying

all the time

or maybe only starving

some of the time

which isn't half bad

if it isn't you

Oh the world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't much mind

a few dead minds

in the higher places

or a bomb or two

now and then

in your upturned faces

or such other improprieties

as our Name Brand society

is prey to

with its men of distinction

and its men of extinction

and its priests

and other patrolmen

and its various segregations

and congressional investigations

and other constipations

that our fool flesh

is heir to

Yes the world is the best place of all

for a lot of such things

as making the fun scene

and making the love scene

and making the sad scene

and singing low songs and having inspirations

and walking around

looking at everything

and smelling flowers

and goosing statues

and even thinking

and kissing people and

making babies and wearing pants

and waving hats and

dancing

and going swimming in rivers

on picnics

in the middle of the summer

and just generally

'living it up'

Yes

but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling

mortician

Can't Wait to Witness the History Takes Place

Hi There!

Oooh my God, I am soo excited for Obama's inauguration today. All students and staffs in my school are gonna watch it together at 11.30 in the studio. What could be better??

Now it's 9.45... I have double free period today. Actually I have something else to do in my free period other than writing in my blog. I have to read 4 more chapters of The Scarlet Letter for English class today. The last time I read it, I got completely lost, so now I don't even bothered to get lost one more time. So here I am, killing the time.

Yesterday, I watched CNN and it was all about Obama all day long. They reported live from DC. Many people gathered in the National Mall and cheered. In this point, I am a lil bit envious to my friend, Fitra, who lives in DC. She'd BETTER be there to watch the inauguration now!

But that's allright... I'm gonna watch it from tv anyway...

By the way... from my observation yesterday, people think that Obama is an answer for Martin Luther King's dream. The first black president! Well, it doesn't mean that he is gonna bring so much changes (Although I really hope he does and he will). There are so many things that he has to overcome: Iraq invasion, the falling economy, Guantanamo, and many things else. The huge expectation from everybody may give him a pressure. However, seeing him as an extraordinary person, all of these could be a piece of cake for him. Let's just pray for the best for him. GO OBAMA!

Subhanallah: How Perfect is Allah and Far Above any flaw and association.

Hi there!!

Soo... it's 10.11 pm now and I'm totally stinky. Pato and I went to Jacquie's birthday party today. Well, it's not like a real party, we were just hanging out, going sledding, having some pizzas, and watching a confusing movie. The best part was sledding. I Love sledding, it was really fun and needs less effort comparing to ice skating and skiing, lol. The trail was really long and pretty steep. We went wicked fast >,<

I wish we had snow in Indonesia T,T

Snow is the coolest thing ever! Maybe for someone who had lived with snow for their entire life, it is not that stunning for them. But, for someone who only have a tiny chance to play with snow like me, it is awesome!

When a light fell on the snow, it will glitters. Sooo beautiful! I can't stop staring at it. However, the best part about snow is the snowflakes.

So, one day after I went ice skating with Zhanar, we had to wait in the parking lot for Greg to pick us. It was slighly snowing. I killed the time by taking random pictures. When I was going to take Zhanar's picture, I saw it. Something on Zhanar's hair...snowflakes!! Oohh...I've never seen snowflakes that big before. They were not huge, but they were big enough for me to see the details. None of them were similar. Well, scientists say that no two snowflakes are alike. Yeah, it's true.

Then, I started to take a picture of Zhanar's hair (the snowflakes, lol). I must have looked so retarded...taking pictures of someone else's hair. People might think that I was observing Zhanar's head lice, LOL.

And here's my shots:

Isn't it cool??

Well, you might not be able to see it clearly from these pictures. But, yeah...it was wicked awesome.

These things that can make you say "wow" sometimes remind you to The One that created this fascinating world. "Thank you" is the one we should say to Him because He gave us two eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth, and four limbs to enjoy what He had created.

All I could say is "SUBHANALLAH!!!"

PS: if you wanna see more great pictures of snowflakes, you can visit http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1869394,00.html?iid=perma_share

time, the pictures are taken by pro, not an amateurish like me ;)

Learning by Falling

Hi there!!

In this time I will write in Indonesian, so I'm sorry for my non-Indonesian speaking friends if you got annoyed because you can't read this post. Nothing so important, actually, lol.

Hahaha...kangen nulis pake bahasa Indonesia nih. Niatnya sih pengen nulis blog pake English non-stop, buat ngelatih Bahasa Inggrisku yang setelah tinggal di US selama 6 bulan tapi nggak bgitu berkembang ini. Tapi apa daya... gara2 habis ngebaca blognya Raditya Dika yang nggak lucu tapi bikin ngakak itu, aku jadi tergelitik buat nulis pake bahasa pemersatu bangsa ini.

Yup, hari ini adalah hari selasa yang cukup pendek untuk anak ekuator macam aku ini. Matahari terbit jam 7.16 dan tenggelam jam 4.33 sore. So, aku memutuskan untuk puasa!! hahaha \^,^/

Emang sih hari ini bukan hari terpendek of the year (fyi. hari terpendek jatuh pada tgl 21 atau 20 Desember,, lupa! Sunsetnya jam 4.12), tapi lumayan juga kan buat puasa, hehehe

Apalagi utang puasa Ramadanku nyampe 8 hari : 7 hari karena natural reason, yang sehari gara2 kesiangan, lol.

Jadi, aku bangun jam 4 walaupun sebenernya agak kepagian trus tiptoed to the kitchen. Nggambil makanan apa adanya dari kulkas sama segelas susu coklat. Aku berusaha untuk nggak bikin suara apapun, soalnya kuping hostmomku rada tajem. Bisa2, aku ngejatuhin garpu dikit aja ntar dikirain maling. Yah, akhir-akhir ini hostmomku rada cemas-cemas gitu. Dua tetangga habis disatronin maling waktu mereka lagi tidur. Udah gitu, minggu lalu alarm pintu rumah bunyi padahal kita semua lagi pada di kamar en gak ada yang buka pintu. Yah, jangan kaget kalo aku bilang alarm pintu. Di sini emang setiap pintu dan jendela yang punya akses keluar rumah dipasangin alarm. Jadi tiap kali kita buka pintu, ada mbak-mbak yang bilang "bip bip bip... **** garage door" Yang dibintangin tuh bukan kata kotor, cuma aku nggak tau aja si mbak itu ngomong apa. So, cuma ada dua kemungkinan kenapa alarmnya bunyi tengah malem itu: maling chicken yang begitu alarmnya bunyi langsung ngacir atau super-squirrel bertenaga kuda yang bisa ngebuka pintu (??). Well, di sekitar rumah emang banyak tupai sih.

So, balik lagi ke puasa... habis sahur aku langsung roboh ke tempat tidur. Trus bangun dan mandi tepat waktu sehingga nggak ketinggalan bus sekolah.

Kegiatan di sekolah nggak terlalu menguras energi en nggak bikin keringetan. Secara, suhunya aja dibawah 0 derajat. Jadilah, puasa sama sekali nggak terasa.

Setelah sempet ngiler sewaktu bikin pita bread (smoga bener tulisannya) di kelasnya Debbie, akhirnya tiba saatnya pulang sekolah. Perjalanan satu jam dari sekolah ke rumah dihabiskan dengan : sholat ashar en tidur!

Begitu nyampe rumah,, ehh..udah jam setengah lima! Buka kulkas en langsung buka puasa deh. Senangnyaa.... Jadi inget gimana perjuangan waktu puasa Ramadan kemaren. Buka puasanya jam setengah delapan bok! Mantab abis!

Bedewe, hari ini aku dapet kabar dari sekolah kalau ski club hari jumat minggu ini bakal di-cancel due to a freezing cold temperature yang katanya sampe -10 F. Kecewa berat deh...padahal aku lagi semangat2nya belajar ski T,T. Klub ski minggu lalu bener2 memalukan. Jadi, aku sekelompok sama Elliot, Jade (seumuran), Ila, en Toby (yang anak TK). Ceritanya, kita ini masuk kelompok beginner. Nah, setelah diajari trik2 dasar, kita disuruh nyoba nyeluncur dari bukit yang sama sekali nggak curam. Pertama, Elliot: sukses! Kedua, Ila: dapet pujian bertubi2 dari coachnya. Ketiga, Toby: nyeluncurnya masih nyandet2 tapi lumayan lah. Keempat, eh Jade belom dateng. So, kelima, aku: hwaaa....gak bisa ngerem...gubrak! jatoh deh...susah banget berdirinya...

Bahkan buat jalan pake ski boardnya aja aku kesusahan. Bolak-balik aku tergelincir. Tapi untungnya lama-kalamaan aku jadi kebiasa. Hasilnya: aku bisa jalan pake ski-board yang notabene keliatan kayak orang kena polio.

Step 1: succeed

Step 2: disuruh bikin belokan

Karena aku bukan fast-learner, sampe lessonnya selesai (1 jam) aku belom bisa juga. Setelah coachnya pergi, aku melanjutkan perjuangan. Naek magic mat ke ujung bukitnya barengan anak2 TK, trus nyobain nyeluncur. Lagi, lagi, dan lagi.

30 menit kemudian...

Yay!! bisa belok kanan!

Entah kenapa, buat belok kiri aja susah banget -_-!

Hal yang sama terjadi waktu aku nyobain ice skating. Pertama kalinya aku ice skating, aku pergi bareng Kunzang. Nggak gagal2 amat, soalnya sejam kemudian, aku uda bisa nyeluncur tanpa pegangan (walaupun gak cepet- cepet amat). Tapi tetep....falling down on my butt is a part of it. Kalo nggak salah aku jatuh sampe 6 kali. Sampe diliatin sama anak2 kecil. It's not that bad, tho... mungkin mereka ngira aku ini foreigner dari penampilanku..jadi semoga aja mreka maklum, hehehe

Kedua kalinya ice skating, aku pergi berdua sama Zhanar di ice rink yang berbeda. Jreeeng...aku balik lagi jadi dumb-dumb. Es-nya kerasa beda en lebih keset, jadinya agak susah buat nyeluncur. jadilah Zhanar ngajarin aja mulai dari zero. Ditengah2 private lessonku sama Zhanar, dia bilang, "Hey, look at the guy in the middle! He always here every time I come. And I've been here 10 times. "

She referred to a guy who was spinning like a ballerina in the middle of the rink. Keren banget sih muter2nya...tapi gay banget deh jadinya. Jadi ilfil...

Btw, balik lagi ke ice skating. Selama sejam aku skating, aku nggak berkembang juga. Emang sih, aku udah gak pegangan tembok (tapi pegangan tangannya Zhanar, hehehe)...tapi aku belom bisa ngeluncur dengan mulus gitu. Ujung2nya pasti jatoh lagi. In the end, I found out what my problem was: I'm too scared of falling down. Karena aku takut jatoh, aku cuma ngambil langkah pendek pendek yang menurut Zhanar malah bikin aku kehilangan keseimbangan. Jadinya, my fear of falling down made me fell down.

oke...lain kali aku nyoba lagi deh...

So, my lesson today is: jangan takut jatuh kalo kamu pengen berhasil.

nggak cuma dalam hal ice skating dan skiing aja, dalam kehidupan sehari-hari kita juga menerapkan prinsip itu. Ibaratnya, jangan takut remidi kalo kamu pengen dapet ranking (lho?)

Happy Very Late New Year!! LOL

Hi there! I'm back...

I didn't have much time and interest to write something in my blog since new year's eve, so here I'm to write what had happened since then...

I was planning to go to Kunzang's house on new year's eve and go to Porstmouth, NH to see fireworks and stuff. But, in the afternoon that day, there was a blizzard so kunzang's mom couldn't pick me up T,T. So here I was, got stuck in the house with nothing more than watching iCarly and Southpark until it's time to see ball dropping in NYC to do. I was expecting something more special, but, well, my hostparents even went to bed early on new year's eve.

However, the important thing about new year is not fireworks, barbeque, or even getting otoushidama (money in Japanese, lol). It's about our new spirit to face the day that getting rougher when we're growing up. I'm not being classical or what, but yeah, it's true, isn't it?

Well, 2008 is an AMAZING year for me!! the most amazing so far. So much unforgettable

things going on. Hopefully this year is gonna be better.

Well, there are things that I gotta do this year (hopefully I WILL do it, hahaha)

*Be Grateful! = a simple thing that will make you feel miserable and really gloomy if you are not.

(sorry bout my awful grammar, I wish you get my message, lol).

*Be Positive! = lately, I've been seeing things in the dark side. I didn't even bother to turn my head and think what's the good side. That made me feel really sad and ungrateful.

*Be more gregarious! I feel a need to be so...

*Think about the future! where do I want to go to college and what do I want to study, and stuff

*Enjoy the day before I come back home and start the most exhausting year of Indonesian High School.

*Be better in ice skating and skiing. My first time doing ice skating and skiing was so embarrasing.

*Play with snow more and more before I come back to the country that has no daylight saving time because it doesn't need one.

*Learn how to cook!

*and...try to run the snowblower. What a usefull skill for me! lol