Yep. As the title above.
Sorry blogger, it's been fun with you.
I gained a new light in my blogging life though.
Dadah.
Sorry blogger, it's been fun with you.
I gained a new light in my blogging life though.
Dadah.
Sunday, 10 November 2013
INA in Less Than 1 Month
I had my very first mid-term test in England and it was... unexpected.
Starting from the question papers in here, mostly--no, all of them, are essays. It made things became harder when my teacher said "use bullet points, okay, but don't expect me to give you the perfect score for that question." Hurrrrr....
In Indonesia, in every school I encountered multiple choices seemed to be in every tiny bit of the country. When I think about it again, that could actually increase chances of student cheating. But in an essay, who'd bother to cheat when you're writing very very long answer?
As the IGCSEs finished the tests, the next day all of us got appointments with out tutors respectively. I thought I was about to party with A's.... it turned out I was partying with B's instead. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Then when my parents called, they started blaming on fencing. Oh bugger...
Hmph. The perks of being an international student/fencer.
Time flew by fast and now it's nearly in the middle of November, by December I will be back to Indonesia for 2 weeks. My lovely hostfamily is also arranging some sort of a Christmas shopping session for the students in their house and we're going to eat dinner outside together.Here I am thinking would it be like when you go shopping for Eid or something? Heheh.
Starting from the question papers in here, mostly--no, all of them, are essays. It made things became harder when my teacher said "use bullet points, okay, but don't expect me to give you the perfect score for that question." Hurrrrr....
In Indonesia, in every school I encountered multiple choices seemed to be in every tiny bit of the country. When I think about it again, that could actually increase chances of student cheating. But in an essay, who'd bother to cheat when you're writing very very long answer?
As the IGCSEs finished the tests, the next day all of us got appointments with out tutors respectively. I thought I was about to party with A's.... it turned out I was partying with B's instead. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Then when my parents called, they started blaming on fencing. Oh bugger...
Hmph. The perks of being an international student/fencer.
Time flew by fast and now it's nearly in the middle of November, by December I will be back to Indonesia for 2 weeks. My lovely hostfamily is also arranging some sort of a Christmas shopping session for the students in their house and we're going to eat dinner outside together.
Saturday, 26 October 2013
Nadi Kota
This is prove that I procrastinate a lot.
And in just two days I'll be starting my very first mid-term exam in Torquay.
Psh... the perks of being an IGCSE student.
**
And in just two days I'll be starting my very first mid-term exam in Torquay.
Psh... the perks of being an IGCSE student.
**
I've been hearing this song a lot as of recently. Well actually I just discovered it this morning, it's Malaysian though. Albeit the fact that it is in Malay I just couldn't help it but to have this image of the typical Jakarta traffic at night, the blazing sun that made the water sparkly for the Bunderan HI fountain, the classiness of Museum Fatahillah, and my typical practising routine in Senayan with the rest of my DKI Fencing comrades... good times, good times...
Instead of revising for Business or Math or even Science, I did some little Indonesian films marathon in Youtube. I discovered some amazingly undervalued Indonesian movies, they are including "Di Timur Matahari (To The East of The Sun)," "Tanah Surga... Katanya (Land of Paradise... They Said)," and... well it's just those two really. Heh.
To sum it up, all I did today was just doing the infamous art of procrastination.
SINDROM HOMESICK MENYERANG NANANANANA~
Dadah,
Monday, 2 September 2013
Merantau
So, it's been quite a tiring journey from Indonesia to the United Kingdom on September 1st. I am now officially a part of the international community in Torquay.
I got jet lag. It's now 2:26 AM here in Torquay while it's already about 8:26 AM in Indonesia, so I'm pretty much wide awake right now and couldn't sleep at all.
So glad that I am finally got acquainted with my host family. They are the Coopers, Joan and John Coopers. Both are now considered as my very own grandparents and that I'm very much grateful for them to have me here. Even though I've only been here for a day I could see that their house is filled with this peculiar warm euphoria.
I'm currently alone in my room, in my host family's house. This week they said, I'm the first one on their list to arrive in Torquay so I haven't had the chance to officially get acquainted with my international roommates. Yet.
My parents are staying in a hotel, it's still in the same road with the Coppers' house, which is the St. Marrychurch road I suppose.
Talk about parents, since my Dad couldn't barely speak English at all, I think he was a bit nervous about this journey he's taking because it's going to be his first time in an English-speaking country. But overall, I think he's also satisfied for the fact that he is also able to get acquainted with my host family.
I said to John "He's not very much speaking English" then he said, "Not speaking English? That's just even better!" And so the two men just laughed about it. From that, my Dad began to think, "Oh look, you got a great host parents I think they could really take care of you well so I need not to worry about anything now. You're in great hands Nibras."
The irony was that yesterday, when we had lunch together in McDonalds (seriously, that's the only restaurant we could think of that time) somehow, he... cried.
It's not like he was sobbing but I could see the tears that formed in his eyes. Then when he got caught by my Mum and I, he quickly wiped it away.
Oh my, now I'm crying writing this. He said that he remembered those times where he used to go overseas alone when he was about my age.
My Dad, is not originally from Jakarta. He is originally from this rather rural area in the province of South Sulawesi called Pinrang. Or I think in Indonesia, you could say that he's from a kampong.
As a child, he went to school by making money on his own for the school's tuition. Often, he would go outside of his home to travel alone when he was my age. We would call this as 'merantau' in Indonesian.
Since my Dad is a Buginese, t's a typical thing for someone so young like that to do merantau alone. Bugis people in Indonesia are very much famous for journeying around the world with their Phinisi boat. Yes, they are also a bunch of great sailors, that's what I heard. Usually, this merantau thing is done by people in order to search for better life opportunities in another place. Far from his home.
Dad's merantau process wasn't as easy as my merantau process. He went to Jakarta to enroll in the University of Indonesia with loads of limitations I suppose... Then, he met my Mum.
Sorry guys, I just... got carried away like that.
Oh and another thing, I stupidly just decided to bring this fencing bag of mine. I was just going to bring a sing;e-weapon bag one but, Dad insisted.
The sad thing is, I still haven't find any fencing club around... but I believe there is just a way to fencing here. I just know. I mean, this is England after all. Different from Indonesia, the must have loads of clubs scattered around.
I guess that's it for now. Bye, I need to be in school for my induction week in the morning.
Dadah,
I got jet lag. It's now 2:26 AM here in Torquay while it's already about 8:26 AM in Indonesia, so I'm pretty much wide awake right now and couldn't sleep at all.
So glad that I am finally got acquainted with my host family. They are the Coopers, Joan and John Coopers. Both are now considered as my very own grandparents and that I'm very much grateful for them to have me here. Even though I've only been here for a day I could see that their house is filled with this peculiar warm euphoria.
I'm currently alone in my room, in my host family's house. This week they said, I'm the first one on their list to arrive in Torquay so I haven't had the chance to officially get acquainted with my international roommates. Yet.
My parents are staying in a hotel, it's still in the same road with the Coppers' house, which is the St. Marrychurch road I suppose.
Talk about parents, since my Dad couldn't barely speak English at all, I think he was a bit nervous about this journey he's taking because it's going to be his first time in an English-speaking country. But overall, I think he's also satisfied for the fact that he is also able to get acquainted with my host family.
I said to John "He's not very much speaking English" then he said, "Not speaking English? That's just even better!" And so the two men just laughed about it. From that, my Dad began to think, "Oh look, you got a great host parents I think they could really take care of you well so I need not to worry about anything now. You're in great hands Nibras."
The irony was that yesterday, when we had lunch together in McDonalds (seriously, that's the only restaurant we could think of that time) somehow, he... cried.
It's not like he was sobbing but I could see the tears that formed in his eyes. Then when he got caught by my Mum and I, he quickly wiped it away.
Oh my, now I'm crying writing this. He said that he remembered those times where he used to go overseas alone when he was about my age.
My Dad, is not originally from Jakarta. He is originally from this rather rural area in the province of South Sulawesi called Pinrang. Or I think in Indonesia, you could say that he's from a kampong.
As a child, he went to school by making money on his own for the school's tuition. Often, he would go outside of his home to travel alone when he was my age. We would call this as 'merantau' in Indonesian.
Since my Dad is a Buginese, t's a typical thing for someone so young like that to do merantau alone. Bugis people in Indonesia are very much famous for journeying around the world with their Phinisi boat. Yes, they are also a bunch of great sailors, that's what I heard. Usually, this merantau thing is done by people in order to search for better life opportunities in another place. Far from his home.
Dad's merantau process wasn't as easy as my merantau process. He went to Jakarta to enroll in the University of Indonesia with loads of limitations I suppose... Then, he met my Mum.
Sorry guys, I just... got carried away like that.
Oh and another thing, I stupidly just decided to bring this fencing bag of mine. I was just going to bring a sing;e-weapon bag one but, Dad insisted.
The sad thing is, I still haven't find any fencing club around... but I believe there is just a way to fencing here. I just know. I mean, this is England after all. Different from Indonesia, the must have loads of clubs scattered around.
I guess that's it for now. Bye, I need to be in school for my induction week in the morning.
Dadah,
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Fasting + Practice = Makes You Hardcore
Why hello there.
Apparently this month is the fasting month for Muslims. Which means we are going to refrain ourselves in doing any act dealing with letting out desires especially refraining desires to devour foods. This way we would learn how it feels to be like our brothers and sisters out there who don't even have any penny for buying edibles.
Not devouring foods, it's fine with me, but my world evolves around fencing and I just need to go to practice.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Some people are complaining and ended up making "Lagi puasa (is currently fasting)" as the top excuse for the month. Yet, once all the hard work is done during fasting, it would feel like conquering the entire universe already.
You. Yes you. Stop right there.
In London 2012, Egypt made its first history to gain a fencing medal from the olympics. Not only Egypt was involved in this peculiar phenomenon, but the entire Africa too.
In fact, Africa gained its very first fencing medal from all the hard works done by the 22 year old, Abouelkassem.
The Egyptian student literally beat the legendary Andrea Cassara of Italy before ended up losing to China's Lei Sheng in the gold medal bout.
I recall clearly that time, around July - August 2012, it was the fasting month for Muslims.
"I'm from Africa and nobody thought I could win." Said Abouelkassem (via Bloomberg).
It turns out that no matter where you are from, what blade you are holding, how old you are or what title you are holding, nothing beats hard work and will power.
Good job Abouelkassem, you are a true inspiration.
Dadah,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)