mY " free" time

Things that I'm SUPPOSED to do:
1. read my textbooks or articles
2. continue to write a paper for one of my classes

But,

I am busy writing this blog.

Hahaha...

Please don't follow my bad habit.

Meet a new friend

I met this girl when I was waiting for a shuttle bus that would take us to get around the city. It was a free program from School of Social Work. I thought she is an American, but I learned that she is from Turki. I was a little bit sad at that time because my parents had left for NY that morning, and I felt lonely. In short, everything was not right, and my first thought when I saw her was I could be her friend.

She is a lovely girl, and her bachelor degree is in social work. Yes, she is a social worker in Turki. I think I am the only international student whose background is not from social work. There are two other Koreans and both of them have social work degree from a university in Korea. Isn't that nice? Am I crossing the line too far? I learned about this field when I was in the US and never planned that I would study Social Work. But, my confidence is slowly back, which means I should be all right. No need to worry...

Back to my new friend, I get a feeling that we will have a good friendship, and I'm excited. I miss my friends in Ames, miss them so bad, but I can't go back. Well,,, let's keep this for myself.

Anyway, I am glad that I meet her.

Back to SchooL

Lots of reading assignments
Lots of assignments
APA styles
Very very expensive textbooks
1 professor only has 2 scores, either 0 or 100.
Each class runs for ~2hrs
And
still
many
more
and
more

But...
I'm going to survive..
I'm not going to fail
never ever

Wajah Pengantin (Bride or Groom’s face) --> part of my summer activities

One of my childhood friends asked me if I wanted to watch the grand final of “Wajah Pengantin” and without further thinking, I said yes. The show was held in one of the hotels in Semarang, 64 contestants along with approximately eight judges were involved in this event. The judges were those who have been working in the fashion and beauty industries for years, and one of the main sponsors of this event was La Tulipe cosmetic. The committee divided contestants into two categories, casual and bridal in which each category consisted of 16 couples or 32 contestants. From my opinion, the bridal section is more prestigious than the casual section, but it is good enough to be able to move into grand final. Am I right?

Part of the show that I liked most was to see how each contestant walked on catwalk, especially for female contestants. The similarity among those female contestants was that all of them were skinny, tall, and had good looking face. I would have to say that the performance of male contestants both from two categories were not as good as the females’ performance.

In between fashion shows, we were entertained with the body builder & aerobic show, La Tulipe launching cosmetic product, and new trend hair color by Ave Salon.FYI, Ave Salon is one of the famous salons and bridal houses in Semarang. I became bored watching the shows (both from sponsors and contestants) so I left early. I didn’t regret to leave early since I’ve been watching at least ¾ of the entire show, and that was good enough for me. One thing though that I learned from this show was that every one is special. That means you have to have a confidence of yourself despite of what people say about you. Others may say that fashion models aren’t smart, but not everyone can do that job. I even can’t do that job well, but I am good in other parts that fashion models may not be able to do it. So, I advise you to seek your inner qualities and try to improve it. I believe you can do it.

My Summer Vacation

After two years away from Indonesia, I finally could go home for vacation. I felt so great!
I met my high school friends, beloved sister, parents, grandparents, and etc. Everything has been changed, like a lot of new places in my hometown, and I saw my friends were changed, too!

Following is my observation about Indonesia including my hometown:
1.Cengkareng is very crowded. It doesn’t look like an international airport. Some people have been complaining about its messiness via newspaper, but it seemed to me that no one cares.
2.The government tries to “kill” all corruptors.
3.Tax, tax, and tax. The government is strict w/ tax collection.
4.Smoke! Almost everyone is smoking.
5.Dirty, as always
6.Malls. Indonesia is not as primitive as foreigners think. We have pretty malls. My friends took me to GI (Grand Indonesia) which is one of the biggest and the most luxury malls in Indonesia. You don’t need to go to S’pore or KL for shopping. You can go to Jakarta for shopping. Tunjungan Plaza III in Surabaya offers branded products like ZARA, LV, and etc. Paragon Mall will open in Semarang, and it is under construction right now.
7.the government promotes “Visit Indonesia 2008”
8.Fancy cars. I saw a lot of nice cars like Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Toyota Harrier, and etc almost everywhere.
9.Skinny, pretty models and movie stars. Skinnier-> better :P
10.Indonesian movies are still up.
11.I hate sinetron. My mom likes to watch “Cinta Fitri” while I think that the drama series aka sinetron look ridiculous.
12.Messy road. Most of the time, I’ll become paranoid when I am inside the car. My sister said that I needed to ride a public bus or mikrolet (bajaj) so that I won’t be afraid when I go out w/ her.
13.Traffic children or a lot of children or beggars on the street.
14.Indonesian food is still delicious.

And still many more….
Last but not least…
I would like to thank my friend, "I" who is kind enough to let me visit her workplace, who wants to sit in the 1st row watching Dark Knight, and who helps me to organize place for small reunion.
I am also grateful for the little gift from E. The piggy is making an annoying sound, but I love it.
Thanks to my sister… who wants to accompany me eating a lot of good food… hahahaha