lisanalia no sekai

Wha Wha Windy Gapp!

2010-06-22T09:01:00.005-05:00

June 6-12th, 2010

Windy Gap Camp

Weaverville, North Carolina

USA

Hellooo everybody! I'm going to share a story about the best week of my Life! Windy Gap!

Apa sih Windy Gap? Windy Gap itu summer camp yang diadain oleh sebuah organisasi bernama Young Life, yg sebenernya adalah organisasi kristen. Aku kan udah pernah ke spring retreat-nya gereja tetangga aku, aku awalnya takuuuuuuut bgt windy gap bakal terlalu kristen dan ga rame. Mana host mom aku selalu bilang, disana Jesus pasti banyak banget disebut-sebut. Asalnya aku gak akan ikutan camp itu, tapi aku kan tinggal di South, di South itu ada 3 pilihan untuk mengisi summer break. Satu, Ikutan acara-acara Kristen (Orang orang South super religius, church dimana-mana dan adaaa aja kegiatan yang diadain Church). Dua, Hang Out sama temen-temen, pesta-pesta, belanja, dll. Hmm itu agak sulit untuk dilakuin, gara2 temen2 aku pada keluar kota, pada ikutan governor school, etc. Pesta sih gak aku banget. Belanja? hmm bisa bisa bangkrut belanja terus sebulaneun. Pilihan ketiga, diem di rumah gak ngapa-ngapain. Hyaah pasti bosen banget tuh. Jadinya aja aku milih ikut Windy Gap, selain karena aku udah dibayarin $400, aku akhirnya milih untuk pergi gara-gara aku udah pernah dateng ke acara Young Life yang biasanya diadain setiap senin malem, dan Young Life tuh beda bgt sama gereja. Yang kita lakuin di Young Life tuh nyanyi lagu lagu populer, main game, terus ada Skit(Role play) yang dilakuin sama Leader Young Life, baru habis itu mereka nyanyi 2-3 lagu kristen, dan habis itu ada leader yang ngasih ceramah singkat. Jadi aku yakin Windy Gap gak akan parah parah amat. Ahaha. Daaaan sampailah aku di Windy Gap! Subhanallah lokasinya baguuuus banget. Lokasi Windy Gap itu di kaki bukit-bukit, ada danau, kolam renang, lapangan voli pantai, basketball indoor dan outdoor, kabin kabin buat kita nginep, ada dining hall, dan itupun belum semuanya! Ternyata Windy Gap camp itu luasnya 2400 acre! Subhanallah! Orang orang bilang Windy Gap itu adalah minggu terbaik dalam hidupmu! Dan ternyata bener bgt! Awalnya aku khawatir bakal banyak banget kegiatan2 bertema Kristen, tapi ternyata gak banyak sama sekali! Setiap hari banyaknya waktu bebas buat kita seneng-seneng. Free time was soo much fun! Mereka punya banyak banget kegiatan2 yang bisa kita lakuin selama free time. Ada Blobbing,which is a big kinda balloon on the lake, to blob we have to jum and land on it, and then we crawl to the end of the balloon and sit, then somebody else will jump to the other end of the ballon so it will be like jungkat jungkit, you know, tapi bedanya sewaktu orang lain loncat, orang yang duduk di sisi lain bakal literally terbang terus kejebur ke danau. Rame pisan lah! Terus ada semacam Flying fox tapi bedanya kita mendarat di danau! Ada juga semacam perosotan ke danau. Dan yang paling serem tapi seru itu Swing, jadi itu kayak ayunan tapi ayunannya tuh diantara 2 phon, dan berfungsinya kayak ketapel, ayunannya ditarik sampe maksimal, terus waktu dilepas kita berayun2 di udara gtu! Susah ngedeskripsiinnya tapi ntar aku coba upload foto foto pas aku swing. Selain itu ada juga neskart, kayak bom bom car gtu tapi kita bisa nyetir sendiri kayak F1 mini gtu. Ada juga Horseback riding, Rock climbing, Ropes course (kita gelantungan di jaring2 gtu dan coba nyebrang jembatan tali, dll), pokoknya semua kegiatan bebasnya seru-seru!

Setiap malem ada yang namanya Young Life Club. Di Club kita awalnya nyanyi bareng2 lagu lagu biasa, misalnya lagu It's my Life, Don't Stop Believing, Viva La Vida, pokoknya lagu pop atau rock. Terus, ada Skit yang selalu aja bodor, semacam komedi gtu. Habis itu baru mereka nyanyi lagu lagu kristen, which of course I didn't sing at all. Dan habis itu ada Ceramah, dan Untungnya ceramah mereka kebanyakan tentang God, bukan tentang Jesus. Well, mungkin bagi mereka Jesus itu God, tapi bagi aku, klo mereka nyebutin God, aku langsung kepikiran Allah. Jadi supaya aku gak sengsara, aku ngubah pola pikir aku, klo mereka nyebutin God, aku mikirnya Allah, klo mereka nyebutin tentang Jesus dan gimana dia nyelamatin nasib manusia, aku mikirin tentang cerita cerita nabi Muhammad sebagai distraction dari cerita Jesus, hhe. hahaha. Dan waktu mereka ngasih waktu 20 menit untuk duduk sendiri dan merenung tentang pertanyaan mereka apakah kamu bersedia untuk membangun relationship dengan God, aku bener bener merenung tentang Allah swt. Aku inget bgt, 20 menit itu aku duduk di jembatan, ngedengerin gemercik air di sungai, aku menatap langit, subhanallah langitnya penuh bintang, dan aku lihat sekeliling subhanallah Gunung gunung terbentang luas di sekitar Windy Gap, 20 menit itu aku bisa merasakan Allah was reaching out to me, He wanted to tell me, He was there, with me, proved by His creation, and He will always be there, with me, anytime, anywhere. I sat there still, I couldn't deny his existence. He was everywhere, all around me. Tiba tiba aku merasakan bahwa selama aku jarang berkomunikasi sama Beliau, aku Solat, baca Qur'an, dan segala macem tapi aku gak pernah bener bener have a conversation with God. Dan di Windy Gap mereka bilang bahwa selama ini, kita selalu coba untuk menjalani hidup dan mencoba segala cara to make life works by depending on ourselves, by depending on friends, but still life doesn't work that well. We still always long for something more, we are never satisfied Why? Because deep in our heart we know that we need God,there is this space in our heart that can never be filled with earthly things, only God can fill it. Dan sehabis merenung, aku jadi sadar, aku butuh Allah, Aku butuh Allah disampingku untuk menghabiskan sisa hidupku, or else life will be meaningless and has no point. Aku jadi sadar bahwa I need Allah to depend on, dan tiba tiba aku jadi ngerasa PLONG. Serasa beban berat telah diangkat dari pundakku. Aku jadi percaya diri, aku jadi ngerasa aku bisa mengatasi masalah apapun, karena aku tau bahwa ada seseorang yang akan selalu berada di sampingku, yaitu Allah selalu akan ada di sisiku menemaniku, dan membantuku menjalani hidup. I'll never be alone anymore!

Haha i don't know how but suddenly Windy Gap has turned out to be a Pesantren Kilat yang super duper fun for me, meski sebenernya itu adalah acara kristen. Hmm, interesting isn't it how our mind can turn things differently? Anyway, I'm just thankful that I was able to be at Windy Gap, it was such a wonderful week!

Nashville Flooding 2010

2010-05-04T21:22:00.003-05:00

May 1st
Nashville, TN
USA

That day was Saturday. It had been raining so much since really early in the morning. On the rainy days I never had anything to do, so all I did was watching Gilmore Girls (I love that show so much! Once I started I can't stop!). But I finished the whole season and got bored eventually. So In the morning I texted my friend, Kira, that lends me her Gilmore Girls third season DVD that I finished watching it. She replied and said that she was sorry that her parent was still watching the fourth season so she can't lend it to me. After a while she texted me again and invited me to come over to her house to kinda hang out. But I already planned with my mom to shop cosmetics for prom make-up in the afternoon, so I said to her I would come over after I shopped. Unexpectedly, she asked me to spend the night also, and of course I accepted the offer! So I packed everything for the sleep over. When I was packing the rain got heavier and heavier, and suddenly my dad called to tell me to get my sisters and go to the basement because there was a tornado warning! I was so panicked and I rushed to get my sisters and my stuffs to the basement. We spread our blanket on the floor and I just read the whole time and the tornado never came. Thank God. Soon my mom came home and took me to Green Hills Mall to buy cosmetics.I got what I needed, and it was quite expensive so my mom helped me pay for some of them, which was very nice of her. I felt so thankful for her!After that we headed to a fabric store to get a long piece of fabric for the accessory for my head scarf. I didn't get anything because there was nothing that match.Because we were short on time (my family had to go to church that night), I asked my friend if she could pick me up at the house and she said she has to ask her dad first, and her dad said that if it's possible and the roads are clear enough he could pick me up. So we back tracked to our house, on the way home we saw a house in our neighborhood that was totally surrounded by water! And the empty lots around that house were flooded too, it looked like a big swamp! We were wondering if there were more houses that were flooded too. We arrived home, my friend picked me up there. Fortunately, the roads to my house wasn't flooded . Some of the roads were covered by water but it wasn't too high.When we were on the way to my friend's house her mom called her and told her that Interstate 24 and roads in Antioch, TN was completely flooded and now a BUILDING was on the interstate. We didn't exactly know how there was a building on an interstate, I thought the building was carried by the flow of the flood and crashed there, but we really wished it was just a building that was carried by a truck and it fell or something. Because of the really bad news we were so worried that something worse might happen if the rain didn't end. And sadly our worry became a reality, something worse did happen, but not at that time. We still didn't know what was going to happen ahead of us. All we knew was some roads were flooded, we didn't really know it was worse than that. Since we didn't know, we just had fun,we made pizza, we played the sims 2 for the most time, and we watched gilmore girls (of course). But because it had been raining for the whole day, the rain made the atmosphere kinda gloomy and it made us felt so tired and spiritless you know, so we fell asleep really early. And what happened the next morning was really the worst nightmare we could have ever imagined to ever happen here in Nashville, TN.

Time is relative

2010-04-29T13:39:00.002-05:00

Time is really relative
I'm in US government class right now, and we're supposed to make a power point presentation based on the topic that we choose. I choose Civil Rights. I chose it because it sounds interesting. But when I start to make the power point, I realized the topic is sooooo broad. So I have to look for so many sources to get what I exactly want to be presented. Now I'm tired of researching. And it feels like the class is long, like I've been in the library forever. haha. Anyway, sorry for the unimportant update. I'll update more later

Mission in progress!

2010-04-24T20:20:00.002-05:00

04/24/2010
Nashville, TN
USA

Wow, i can't believe April is almost over! My time here in the US is almost up, i only have 2 months 3 days left here. Wow. But that doesn't mean my mission here is over, though. The fact is, i'm still doing my mission! I've been doing sooooo many presentations about Indonesia lately. The latest ones were International Day and Presentation @ TSU. International Day was so much fun, I had an Indonesian booth, I had a poster about Indonesia displayed(well the making of the poster wasn't fun), I danced twice, the first dance was during the transition of 2nd and 3rd period class so not too many people were watching, but people liked my dance! When I was dancing people cheered so loud, I was so happy! I was nervous before I danced because that was the first time I danced in front of so many people. And I learned the dance just weeks before I came here to the US, so i thought I couldn't dance really well. I was so glad people liked it. And then I thought I wouldn't be asked to dance again so I changed my dance costume to my traditional clothes, which was Kebaya (a traditional shirt and a batik skirt), and people said, "Oh I love your shirt, it's so pretty!' It made me even happier! But unexpectedly, the coordinator asked me to dance again but I was already changed, I wasn't in my dance costume anymore! The coordinator said nobody will notice that so I agreed to dance again. The second one there were some part that I forgot and I wasn't in my costume, but as my coordinator said, nobody noticed! They still cheered! Even days after the international day, people still come to me and said that I was the one that danced in the international day and they told me they liked my dance, although I don't know them. Oh and people liked the food too! I shopped at International market because I was planning to cook some Indonesian food but I was too busy making my poster and my other works so I called my friend's mom who is Indonesian to cook Indonesian food. It was such a short notice so she couldn't bring the food in the morning, but she would bring the food at 11 or so. That was totally fine for me, but unfortunately, the teacher that made a kind of assignment paper for students that visit International day put a question that asks Indonesian food that was served! We were so unlucky, out of every cultural question the teacher might ask, he/she picked question about Indonesian food, which hadn't even been served yet! because i had to dance and stuffs that i couldn't stay the whole day in my booth, so I just wrote, "Food is not here yet, but the name is Sate (it's like a kabobs with peanut sauce, and it's really really good)" It was totally embarassing. Soon enough, the food came, and guess what? The food was so delicious, it was gone just 20 minutes after it arrived. And the next day in my Pre-Cal class my friend told people that and Indonesia had such a good food. I was so happy I felt like flying. I will tell you the story about my presentation @ TSU later because I have bunch of homework to catch up with.

Wow. What a busy year

2010-04-16T15:09:00.002-05:00

Wow. I can't believe it's already halfway through April. Even more than halfway! God, this year has been so fast i can't even believe it. it seems that it was just yesterday when i arrived here in the USA. And now, it's almost time for me to go home! Things have been great lately i've been enjoying here too much, i sometimes feel like i really want to stay here, but i really want to go home too. what a sick feeling. Anyway, did i tell you that i've been soooo busy lately? I have Young life(its like a club at school where we hang out, sing, play games, just a club to have fun! it's basically christian but so far it never felt like christian club at all. idk how to describe it but no worries, ok?), i've had frisbee, and so many other things. Because i've been busy that it feels like time just flies by, i decided to take some rest. Yesterday, instead of doing something after school, as I usually do, I chose to go home. Gosh, it felt so weird to be home that early. It just felt not right to be home at 2.50, u know... I didn't know what to do at home so i just watched DVD! Gilmore girls 2nd season DVD, actually. I looooove that show, so much! Lately I've been seeing that series even during school days. I sneaks out to the movie room, and watch it at night when my sisters are in bed! I like it so much i feel like i can't stop watching it! hahaha. Surprisingly I didn't get to the internet yesterday! Idk why, i tried to but after a few minutes, i got bored. Weird,huh?

And not only yesterday i chose to rest. I'm resting today too! So, this morning I went to my sister's school, Currey Ingram academy, because they had this pancake breakfast thing for a fundraising. It ended around 7.40ish and we dropped my other sisters at their school, and on our way home to grab stuffs i needed for school, i just had this crazy idea of staying at home and not going to school at all. I was already late, anyway. Waaaaay late. And more surprisingly my parents said, "Fine!" So they allowed me to stay! They said i've been a good sudent lately, just skipping school for a day won't hurt. Yippee. I was soo happy, until i figured out i didn't have anything to do at home, alone! So, instead of taking a lazy nap, I cleaned up my entire messy room, i cleaned every corner of it! even my bathroom and my balcony. It's so neat now so i feel good. it finished earlier than i expected to so i ended up watching dvd again. I enjoyed it. what a wonderful day doing literally nothing instead of doing everything. This kind of day doesn't happen a lot so I'm trying my best to relax and take a rest.

Spring Break Part 2

2010-04-04T21:04:00.002-05:00

Ok..let's continue the story about spring break
and her the 2nd part begin...

Tuesday March 16th to Saturday March 20th Morning

We left Savannah on Tuesday morning. We took a walk around the town and the town was so historic and gorgeous. I learned that Savannah was the city where Methodist church was found in US. It also has history about Revolutionary War all around the city. I wish we walked a little longer but the Smith kids started to whine "My feet hurts, I wanna go back to the car!", etc, so we hurried up and left Savannah around 10 in the morning to go to Amelia Island, Florida. We arrived there in the afternoon, we went to the beach but it was so cold and windy so we stayed there only for a little while, then we went to the neighborhood swimming pool. I never like to get wet in the cold weather so I decided not to swim, but the Smith girls wanted to swim whether it's cold or not. It was so funny when they touched the water and said, "Oh, the water is not that cold!" so Tennent jumped to the water! And guess what happened after that! She froze to death! Not literally, but the water was really cold so she ran out of the pool and we almost ran home because Tennent was really freezing. We headed to the home where we stay in Florida. it was a house of a friend of my Mom. The family was very nice to give us a place to stay, they rent some movies for us to watch, they let me use the single bed room because I needed privacy and space, they even gave us prizes like green hair and beaded necklace for St Patrick's day, and an Easter bunny stuffed animal which is sooo cute! They took us to the beach several times in the afternoons because they work in the day. It was too cold to swim or sun bathe but all I did was looking for Shark tooth. I heard it's very easy to find shark tooth there but it's not true. There were so many shells so it's hard to tell which one is the real shark tooth and which one is not. But after struggling for several days, I finally found one on Friday, my last day there! The last day there was so perfect, it was sunny but it wasn't hot. It was a little bit High Tide and I wore jeans (I think) but I didn't care that I got wet as long as I found a shark tooth. I was very happy when I found one. I wanted to look for more to give to my sisters and friends back in Indonesia as souvenir but I ran out of time.

Oh anyway beside going to beach, in Florida we went to the downtown to buy the famous fudge and Ice cream, to see the Pier, to take pictures, to buy souvenirs (I got tons of them, some my host fam paid for but some I paid by myself). And we went to Jacksonville Zoo, and it was fun. It's kinda childish but i tried to enjoy it. I think it was the best zoo so far because we can see the animals from any side and we were not too far to see the animals. And I don't remember what day, we took a little trip around Amelia Island and then had a very short ferry boat trip. It was fuuuun. we got Popsicles afterward. Mine fell,tho. haha.

Shortly, my spring break was sooo long but it was fun. We always had something to do. We kinda skip cities so we could visit many cities. That made my spring break!

Here Spring Comes!!

2010-03-21T18:07:00.002-05:00

Helloooooooooooooooooo, everybody!
I haven't written for a long time, have I?
So, I'll tell you what's been going on for this past month. Omigod,a month has passed already! time just fly by while i'm here,huh? Oh well, as time pass by, a lot of thing has been going on lately. I started to play Ultimate Frisbee (wooohoo) at school, although it's dominated by boys, and there are only 2 other girls (which don't actually play), but it's fine. It's really interesting. I thought it would be easy but it actually is not (at least for me). I'll not give up this time though. I want to continue until it ends. haha. So, that's a school news, now it's time for you to hear about my spring break story! It will be a long story, but stay tune, because i will make it sounds as interesting as possible.

Friday, March 12th
No school that day! It's the beginning of spring break! We started our spring break by going to Mimi(little sister's) school to see her school's concert. Because they are private school so the school was still opened for half day that day. The concert was really cute! I just love to see how kids sing, no matter they are out of tune, they still seemed sooo excited. I enjoyed it very much! After that we had lunch out, then we headed home to start packing and loading the car. We finally left around 2, and we arrived at Chattanooga, Tennessee around 5 or 5.30 (it's actually 4.30 but chattanooga is located in central time which is one hour later than us). We were too tired to go shopping or anything, so we decided to just stay at Aunt Laurie's house. We got to stay at her house since she and her husband was at California, so we didn't have to stay at a hotel, which is nice!

Saturday, March 13th
Today i was supposed to be in Nashville because there was a Habitat for Humanity project going on there. It's a project where we build houses for people that need it but don't have money. I wished i could do that but I was there in Chattanooga with my host family. I was kinda sad, but it didn't last long, because so many great things happened that day. I don't exactly remember the order, but i definitely remember that day, we went to Ruby falls,which is a Water Fall under the ground, and we had to go through a cave to reach there. The tour was so much fun, I always like nature stuffs. And the cave wasn't like a native, classic cave. They have put lights, floor, hand rail, sound system, elevator, even flat screens inside the Cave. I was in United States of America, afterall, no wonder why. The Fall was absolutely gorgeous because of how the lighting changed the color of the fall. It's amazing. And after that we rode an Incline train, a train that goes down an up the mountain, and the rail was really steep! We can see the view of the whole city from there! It's unbelievable. Luckily the train didn't go too fast so it wasn't scary. haha. We also went to the Chattanooga's IMAX theatre to see "African Life" or whatever the title was. We watched it instead of regular movie because that one was safe for my 3 little host sisters to see. When I stepped in, I got the 3d glasses, and it was big. I was wondering why it was big, and when I saw the IMAX screen, I understood why. The screen was gigantic! It was 4 stories tall, and it was as wide and tall as the wall itself! The sound system was great, and because the movie was 3D, so it felt like we were actually involved in the movie. It was unbelievable!

Sunday. March 14th

In the morning, we headed out to Atlanta, Georgia. We had our tickets for Atlanta Aquarium at 12, so we needed to be there that exact time. Luckily we made it on time, it was only 1-2 hours drive from Chattanooga. The Aquarium? I can't describe it by words. It was really Hi-Tech, there was a zone that we stood and the floor moved really slowly so we could stare to the aquarium above us without missing anything. I took a lot of pictures, I will upload them in my facebook because i told you, it's undescribable. haha. I think that was it for the day because we were tired. We didn't go to the Coke Museum (Did u know that Coke was first produced in Atlanta, Georgia?I didn't), which was sad, but I was tired too anyway.

Monday, March 15th
That day we went to the Atlanta Zoo. It was fine, not to exciting, not great, just fine...
It was too cold for the animals, so most of them were sleeping and just lying down, so it was kinda boring. I'm not a zoo-type person either, it was way too childish and silly. That's the consequence of traveling with 3 little kids around. But i enjoyed it a little bit. I got souvenirs(of course), I took a little bit of pictures because my camera's battery died. What was good about the zoo was, there was Orangutans and Komodo dragons there. I'm glad Indonesia is recognized by the world. Not too good though, because we're known by the destroyed forests, the critically endangered wild animals, :'-(

After the Zoo, we wnet on the road again to Savannah, Georgia. I heard it's a place where the people there celebrate St Patrick's day as a very big holiday. People wear green during the week, drink green beer(it's horrible, people drink beer day and night!), and even they turn the fountain's water into green! They would have a great festival or parade on Wednesday, but too bad I didn't get to see it since on Wednesday I would be in Florida, my main destination, eventually. As we arrived we had dinner at the Olde Pink House, the most elegant and expensive restaurant I've ever been. I heard this particular restaurant is really popular and people dressed up to come to this restaurant, which they really did! The food was supposed to be great, but since I'm a moslem that doesn't eat pork and anything with alcohol, My food was just fine because I didn't have the sauce on my fish. It was a great experience, though! We spent the night in the Hampton Inn afterwards

I'm getting tired of writing. I think this is it for today, I will continue the next part as soon as possible.

Today is a happy day

2010-03-04T15:33:00.002-06:00

Hey!

Today I'm happy! I don't know why, though. I didn't really do much, but school was just fun today! And now i just got back and I finished up my article about being an exchange student so maybe Americans will be interested in becoming one. I finished, I sent it to the editor of my school's newspaper, idk whether it will be posted or not(because it's long and the grammar is just a mess), but hopefully they will post it. It would be great! Another reason why I'm happy today is because I don't have many homework for tomorrow so I can finally relax and try to catch up with my sleep, I really need some sleep. I'm soooo tired and I'm so done with school! I want to take a rest~ Can't wait for spring break! I'm going to Chattanooga and Georgia and Florida! Isn't it exciting? I'm not going to get the free trip to San Diego, California as some of my Indonesian exchange student fellows do because I didn't report about my presentations during the International Education Week (I got confused on how to do the report and I was in the process of switching family so i gave up), but it's fine! Florida sounds great, too. And my friend said I gave other people that don't usually get out of the state chance to go to San Diego. Honestly I don't really care about giving a report, I did my presentations not because I wanted to get a present, I just did it because I'm proud to be Indonesian and I want to let the whole world know about Indonesia. And I did well! My friends got to know Indonesia better. Anyway, I'm happy! Ha ha

Shopping @ Target

2010-02-28T11:41:00.002-06:00

I love Target soo much!
Target is like a department store where we can but anything we need
It's like Walmart, but it's a little bit more expensive than walmart but still affordable and the quality of the stuffs are so much better!
I got most of my things there
Yesterday I went shopping there with my Dad and Tennent, my sister
The thing i like the most shopping with dad is because he is patient and he pays for things that I need, unlike if I'm shopping with my mom
So I used that chance to get everything that I basically needed
So I got a hard case for my Ipod, an Ipod sport armband so when I'm running I can listen to my iPod, some long sleeve tshirts that I can wear underneath my slong sleeve tees (i got 2 blacks and 2 whites), I got ink for my printer(My dad lends me a printer so i have a printer in my room! amazing!),and last but not least I got a 'Dear John' novel by nicholas sparks. It's much cheaper to buy books there than in Davis Kidd Bookstore or Barnes and Nobles store. I have been wanting to read the book since a long time ago, so I bought it! Well, technically Dad bought it for me. It's very sweet in the beginning but I knew from my friends that the ending is not quite clear and happy, so I kinda wants to continue reading it but i kinda don't want to read it too, since I don't like sad endings. That's why I haven't watched the movie yet, I know it's a good movie but I don't want to cry in the theatre. Ha ha.
Anyway, I think that's eveeything that I purchased in Target yesterday. Thank you so much dad for paying those things for me!

I'm on the Radio!

2010-02-28T11:21:00.002-06:00

Hi guys!
Listen up, I got a good news!
I'm on Radio~
How nice!
I remember I did record for a commercial
It's a commercial about how 70% of high school students don't drink alcohol
i did it just for fun as my service project with International Teen Outreach Program
Months later, I already forgot that I recorded for a commercial
But suddenly one day when i walked to my US History class, my classmate, Warren approached me and said,
"Guess what?"
"What?" I answered
"I heard you on the radio!"
"What?!? Really?"
"Yes, I heard you on the 101 radio station. I heard,"I'm Lisana I'm Exchange Student from Indonesia I go to Hillsboro Highschool" And I said wow she's my classmate! Haha"
Honestly, I didn't expect for people to hear me, I thought it was just a commercial that plays in not so popular radio station or played really early in the morning or something like that. I was surprised when Warren said 101 is the 3rd most listened radio station in Nashville
Hahahahaha. I'm so happy!
I'm proud of myself
After that my friends keep walking to me and said "I heard you on the radio!"
Yippee~

Anyway, here is the recording of it if you want to hear it
I took quite a big part in it, soo enjoy!

My commercial:NPP 3.mp3

My Awesome Trips!

2010-02-26T15:18:00.003-06:00

Last weekend, from Friday 19-21 I went to Gatlinburg with a Youth Group. If you guys don't know, Gatlinburg is located in East Tennessee, near Knoxville, and on the Smoky Mountain if I'm not mistaken. It was so much fun! The events were fun, there were Illusionist,his name is Jared Hall, comedian named Bob Smiley (he wasn't really funny to me but at least his jokes about Cheerleader were so true that they made me laughed so hard), and the others whom I don't remember the names, and last but not least is Shawn who was a participant in a TV show named 'Biggest Loser' (it's about obese people trying to lose incredible amount of weight,and it's an amazing show). I had such a good time with my friends, they were so nice and so curious about Indonesia, unlike my friends in Hillsboro(they don't even care that I'm exchange student). And the most surprising thing was I met with my mom's work friend! She was really kind and after we talked for a while she suddenly gave me $40 for me and my friends to have fun. So i think on Saturday afternoon me and 10th graders went to the top of one of the Smoky Mountains by a 'Sky Lift', the view was really snowy and pretty! I printed the picture that was taken on the Lift. And after that I did 'Alpine Slide', it was like a sleding with a sled equipment that has a stick so we can control the speed, and we sled on a track, not on the snow itself. It was great! On Sunday I left home, the journey on the Bus was fun, I chatted with my friends and slept a lot. The most interesting part was when I called my dad in Indonesia by accident the he unexpectedly called me back, so we talked through the phone in the Bus with my friends watching me speaking in Indonesian. They were so amazed, I was so happy! Ha ha.

By the way, when I arrived home I was so dead tired but I still needed to pack because the next day I was going to Kentucky for my AP Human Geo field trip. I packed until 9 and I slept until 6 and ate breakfast and took off to school! I was so excited for the field trip, because I was going to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu(He is a nobel peace prize winner because he fought against Apartheid in South Africa)'s speech! Can u believe that? So we left school around 7 and we arrived at 10. The trip wasn't bad at all. It was a very amazing trip actually! We only paid $20, but we got Lunch, Dinner, and breakfast for free in the Murray State College's cafeteria, and the food was good. We got a tour around the campus, it was freezing cold but we still had to write notes although our fingers were so numb. That wa riddiculous. But at least the tour guide who is the college student was very cute, so that refreshed me a little bit. Ha ha. I'm just joking. After that we had a session about Murray State University, a college that hosted us for the night, and they talked about how to get in, how good MSU is, etc. They talked about Study Abroad too, which was very interesting. It made me think about going abroad again for college. To Canada or Australia, probably. Well, I don't think my parents would allow me though, i think they will say they still miss me. Ha ha.

Finally it's time for us to take a rest! But, suddenly Mr. Sawyer, our teacher said Archbishop Desmond Tutu called and said that he wanted to meet us personally so we ran to the building where he was and we took a picture with him! I really respect him because when I saw him he was so down to earth, had a great sense of humor, he was so polite, he had a great personality! Last but not least his speech was the greatest speech I've ever heard. I didn't understand the whole speech because he has a very strong accent, but whenever I could catch what he was saying, what he was saying was always has great meaning, touching, smart, so full of humanity. My favorite quote was, "My humanity is bond in your humanity. We can only be human by learning how to be human from others." I've never thought about that before. Anyway, both of the trips that I got to go were awesome! I'm so lucky that I could go. Thanks God for giving me that chance! I appreciate it!

Church Youth Group

2010-02-18T12:09:00.007-06:00

February 17th, 2010

Nashville, TN

USA

Did I tell y'all that here I go to church? Yes, I'm going to church here. Oops, don't get it wrong, I'm not a Christian. Not at all. I'm pure muslim, but here I'm going to church because it's just a very new experience that i can only get here ( I don't think back in Indonesia my parents would ever let me to go to church). Beside that I stay in Nashville, which is in the Southern part of the USA and most Southerners are so religious and I don't know why but here teenagers are like soo obsessed with Youth Group thing that is a part of Church's group, so I go to church so I can get new friends.

So one day I went to 'Overflow' which is a Youth Group meeting on Sunday night, and it was real fun! We had a bonfire(kind of), we just hang out and stuff. They did a worship part afterward when they were singing some Christian songs but I just sat there, listening to the beautiful songs, I was so overwhelmed. I had never been in a Christian service but it was not as bad as i thought it would be. Haha. And they were so welcoming and friendly, they didn't care that I am a Muslim and I wear head scarf. It was a great experience. After that I started to go to church almost every Sunday with Beth and Tim Webb(They are a family that said they wanted to host me but they can't). Even after I moved to the new family I still go to their church instead of my family's church because I already got friends there. I tried to go to my family's church around twice or three times but I didn't enjoy it that much. Probably because in my family's sunday school they separate boys and girls so I can't enjoy the view of boys, you know...Hahaha. I'm kidding.. For sometimes this year I didn't go to church a lot because I was pretty tired of listening to preaches about Jesus and stuff and started to feel uncomfortable, but now i can cope with it. So, on Wednesday this week I went to the church for the youth class and it was as much fun as before because we just basically hang out together and share stories. I met new friendly friends! I love them! I really do. And I can't wait for tomorrow because starting from tomorrow to Sunday is Winterfest when teenagers from Churches gather and hangout and do fun things, and this year we're going to Gaitlinburg, East Tennessee. I heard it's close to Smoky Mountain and it's a very cool place and most of my friends are going. And I can make new friends, that's the most exciting part of the trip! It actually costs $100, but the church paid for my trip! Isn't it amazing how nice they are, to me? I wrote a thank you letter for them, it was cute! I hope they like it. I still have to pay for my food during the program but I'm fine with it. I'm sure it worth it. It's Gaitlinburg! And I get to skip school on Friday to prepare and such. Yippeeee~ Can't wait!

Hahaha. So Ironic

2010-02-09T05:44:00.002-06:00

February 9th, 2010
Nashville, TN
USA

Yesterday my mom called me! Finally! I think the last time i talked with my family was the very beginning of January. I've promised to myself that I'm going to talk with my family just once a month, because if i talk to them too much it will make me feel homesick and my English will not improve. Eventually, it works! I rarely get homesick, and my english is so much better now. But my Indonesian language get worse than ever. Now that I speak in English, try to write always in English, think in English, even dream in English, sometimes when I talk in Indonesian I feel so awkward and weird. No, no, i don't forget Indonesian at all. There's no way that I will forget Indonesian completely, it's my home language! Well, sometimes when I call my family i find ou that I forget some words in Indonesian, but not entirely. The problem is, I think my accent changed! Before I came here, I had a very strong Sundanese(ethnic language in Indonesia) accent, that whenever I meet new people they can tell where I come from(which is Bandung,obviously) because of my accent. I remember there was an Indonesian singer called Cinta Laura, she's Indonesian but she lived in foreign country for a long time so she speaks English and she doesn't talk in Indonesian so much, and when she talks in Indonesia, her accent was sooo weird! We, Indonesian people always made fun of her by pretending to talk with her accent. I used to hate her so much because of her accent. But now, i think I have that kind of accent too! Not as strong as hers, tho, but still! Ah! How ironic. Maybe it's my karma.
Another ironic thing, yesterday on the phone my mom and grandmamma asked me about the weather here in Nashville because they saw the news about the snow storm in Washington DC, that now DC is so covered by thick snow, very thick! The schools there are closed because of that. Meanwhile, I said in Nashville it doesn't snow that much. Well, on January 29 to 31 it snowed quite a lot in Nashville so the school was closed until Tuesday February 2nd, but it wasn't that much compared to the snow in up north. It was only 4-5". So I said to mom, "Oh, don't worry it doesn't snow much here. It's even rare for Nashville to get snow, because we're considered South. It snowed a little bit in the afternoon, but i think it's just a sprinkle. If it snows here, it's always only a little tiny amount of snow. So, don't worry!" And, ironically, after I hung up on the phone, I looked outside and the ground was covered with snow! There might be at least an inch of snow! So ironic to what I said just a moment before! Hahahaha.

What a small world.

2010-02-08T12:11:00.004-06:00

Before i decided to be an exchange student, i thought that what a big world earth is. And i was stuck in Indonesia, I never went anywher further than Solo, Central Java. But after I arrived here in the US, my whole perception changed. Here I meet so many people from around the world, China, Belgium, Iceland, France, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Nigeria, Ghana, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, from every corner of the world! I thought i would just met american, that was a big mistake! And the funny thing is, before I came here there was an AFS returnee in Padang that told me there is another Indonesian student in the school that I'm going to be in the US. That was so unexpected. And when i came here, the Indonesian student's mom invited me to meet Indonesian people that live here in Tennessee. There were 30 people or so, i was so happy to meet them! And what makes me think that the world is small is one day when I went grocery shopping in Nashville I bumped into 2 of the Indonesian people that I met in the Indonesian gathering. Ok, that's not a big surprise. But when I went to Washington DC I was walking toward the capitol bulding when I suddenly heard a voice that said, "Kameranya ditaro dimana ya?". That was definitely Indonesian language, so there might be Indonesian people around. And I was right! There were 2 Indonesian people that was working for VoA and I met them! I wished i took a picture with them! Beside that when i had a booth of Indonesia in the Celebration of Culture in Nashville TN, suddenly a woman approached me and said that she once lived in Indonesia for 2 years or so. Wow. And recently, i think it was 2 days ago, I went to Ravenwood's International Music Festival. I walked around and i saw booths of many countries! And guess what? I saw an Indonesian booth! And amazingly, the one that had the booth wasn't Indonesian, she was American that lived in Indonesia for 2.5 years, and she has so many Indonesian stuffs from all over Indonesia's islands. She told me on Thanksgiving day, instead of cooking turkey and other American food they cooked Soto Ayam! Hahaha. I told her i can't cook Indonesian food and she invited me to come to her house so she will teach me how to cook! It's funny that I'm pure Indonesian but I'm going to learn how to cook Indonesian food from a pure American. hahaha. What a small, weird world!

Today. Hari ini

2010-02-08T11:54:00.002-06:00

Today i woke up at 5, and then i prayed. But i fell asleep after that because i didn't have enough sleep since i coughed a lot at night. Suddenly i heard somebody tapped on my door. It was mom! She came to check on my condition, do i feel better or not? Whether i want to go to school or not? I was surprised that she woke up so early to check on my condition. Then i realized it's not that she woke up early, i woke up late. It was 6.20 when she knocked on my door. Because i still don't feel well and i woke up too late to go to school, so i didn't go to school. Now I'm relaxing at house in order to get better. and later in the afternoon I'm going to finish up the homework that i haven't done yesterday.That's another reason why i didn't want to go to school. Hahaha. So i slept until 10, drank my cough medicine, ate breakfast, then when i was trying to get my homework done, my computer was attacked by a virus, so i couldnt go to internet! I tried so many softwares but nothing worked. I'm so frustated. And i can't buy the antivirus because it's too expensive for me. So, i decided to leave my computer unprotected. I can't help it. Oh, well well. Now, I'm going to lay on my bed so i will be better. TTYL

Things that I've been through to come here (chapter 2)

2009-10-27T16:57:00.001-05:00

Finally, it was the AFS Selection test day! It was a really serious and formal test, we had to wear skirt,shirt, and formal shoes. I didn't have any skirt except school uniform's skirt, and i wasn't that rich to buy a skirt just for a selection test, so I wore my school's uniform to the test! When I arrived in the test's place (which was my high school), I was so nervous because it seemed that i was the most unprepared applicant there. The test consisted of General Knowledge test, English, and then Essay writing test. They were all written test. Everybody besides me was reading the dictionary of general knowledge or reading the grammar book, and i didn't do anything. I was just sitting there,watching other people studied.

After a while, i was assigned to a classroom to do the test. The first test was about the general knowledge. The first questions was so hard that i don't remember any of them. It is human nature to erase the bad memories from the brain to avoid us from pain to remember it. Haha. But there were some easy questions about the movie that was so popular back then, and about the author of a novel, about John Lennon, etc. There were some hard questions that i could answer too, for example about the olympic and the protest about the torch, and about myanmar (i was so glad that my mom talked about this in the car when i was on my way to the test. Thanks God). But still, the answers that i was sure would be right were only about 48 out of 100. I was so desperate, I didn't think i would be able to pass the test. But i had to move on, i couldn't be desperate for too long because i still had the next test waiting for me, which was the english test. To be honest, when i was still in Indonesia my english was the best in my class, so the test was very easy for me, i was pretty sure that i would get good score for this. And the next test was the Essay writing contest. The truth was, I had never written any essay in Indonesian. I only wrote essays in english for my english course. So I was confused in the beginning until i realized it was only 30 minutes left. I picked the topic about the reason why i would participate in this exchange student program because it was the easiest. There, i wrote about how my friends didn't want to apply because they said they love Indonesia too much that they didn't want to leave Indonesia, which was a really sad excuse. I remembered that conversation with my mom weeks before the test. We were talking about how her friends who lives abroad missed Indonesia so much. When they were in Indonesia, they took the nice weather, the delicious Indonesian foods, the nice and friendly indonesian people for granted. But after they left the country, they realized how important those things that we took for granted were. They love Indonesia even more than when they were there. Like there was a saying,"people realized how important a thing is when it's lost. it's not there anymore". So i wrote in my essay that i really wanted to become an exchange student, to be able to love indonesia more than I was. I wrote that i wanted to not only introduce about Indonesia to people in another country, i wanted to introduce another country's culture to Indonesian people too.For example, many Indonesian people hated Americans because they were mean to muslims, they attacked afghanistan, etc. But i wanted to see by myself, i didn't believe that every american is mean, i believed that there must be some americans who are nice, caring, and not as bad as we thought. This program is an intercultural exchange program afterall, so i have to exchange cultures anyway. I didn't finish my essay, there was 1 other reason that i wanted to write but the time was running out and i was the last one so i just turned that unfinished essay. I was confident about the essay because my arguments were unique and strong,although it's not finished yet.

Still i didn't think i would ever passed that test, because there were over 400 students from my city who applied, and they would take only 150 something for the next test. I waited for the announcement for about 2 weeks. On the announcement day, i had an english course after school so i couldn't come to the AFS office to see whether i passed or not, so i asked my friend to look it for me. I remember that i was watching a video in my english course class when suddenly my phone vibrated, which means there was a new text message. I was so nervous, i was afraid that i didn't pass, but i forced my self to read the message. I closed my eyes, and when i opened my eyes, i saw "146.Passed!" 146 WAS MY NUMBER! I PASSED! YAAAAAAY! I was so surprised! I was so happy! I screamed in that class! My friends asked me what happened,and i told them that i passed the test! They congratulated me, and i was so i happy, yet i still couldn't believe that i passed the test. it was just impossible for me. But the truth that i passed the test is real! My family was so happy too, eventhough they just knew that i applied for the program when i asked the for the recommendation things. They were shocked and mad at first, but then they forgave me, supported me all along, and was happy for me too. "Oh, hold on, don't be that happy! there were still other selection tests, still long way to go on!", I told myself.

-to be continued

Things That I've Been Through to Come Here (chapter 1)

2009-10-27T16:09:00.002-05:00

Hello, there! Wow, it has been months since the last time i posted a blog here. Actually i wanted to tell you all about my life here in Nashville, TN now today, but unfortunately i haven't told you about how i become an exchange student from the beginning. So i decided to flashback for a while to tell you how i come here from the veeeeery beginning.

This started when I was in 10th grade,which was more than 1 years ago. In the beginning of 2008 (i guess), I heard from my sister's friend(who was a returnee from Japan as an exchange student) that an exchange program named AFS(American Field Service) was starting to open the registration for 10th grade students who were interested to be an exchange student to apply for this program. At first, i hesitated because a year before my sister asked my parents' permission to apply for this program but my parents didn't allow her because they were afraid that my sister was not religious enough and they worried that my sister might be influenced by other religions if she were abroad. But I've been dreaming about being abroad someday so I was very interested to apply for this program, so I bought the application by myself without telling my parents first. I walked to the AFS office alone and I bought the application for only Rp 25,000 (It's about $2.50). I was really surprised because the application was thick and i had to copies of it. I had to copy my highschool and middle school and elementary school report cards and legalized them, i had to ask my teacher, my parents, my friends, and my neighbor to fill the recommendation letters, and many other required documents. And i had this funny experience, i was looking for my school's headmaster of curriculum to get his recommendation, but i didn't know who he is, what he looked like, i only knew his name, Mr.Solihin. So I looked for him in the teacher's office,and someone said he's inside, so i entered the office, and i asked again to a man who wore Pink shirt, "Sir,do you know where Mr.Solihin is?" And he answered,"Oh,he's not coming today, he's playing." I didn't believe him, he might be kidding me, so i asked another teacher,and he pointed to a man who sat in the back of the room. I asked him,"Are you Mr Solihin?" Suddenly he bursted with laughter. He was still laughing when he finally spoke to me,"No,I'm not mr Solihin, Mr.Solihin is the one who wear pink shirt whom you talked to just now,ahahahaha" I was so embarassed. I felt so silly that I asked to mr Solihin where Mr Solihin is.

Ok,after 2 weeks or so, finally my applications were finished and i turned them in. The first selection test was coming in about 1 week, but i didn't prepare anything. Well i read some newspaper and read some news in the internet but only in the morning before the test began. And finally, it was the test day!

-to be continued

I'm grounded.

2009-04-19T00:28:00.000-05:00

I'm grounded.
It's not really that 'grounded' though , but yes, I'm grounded
today, I'm not allowed to go anywhere.
And next week, my mom will check my schedule, and there must be a day for me to take a rest at home.

Well, there is some time when I feel that I'm too tired.
that I really want to spend one day at home, relaxing all day, doing meaningless things
anything that will make me feel that today is a holiday.
not as restless as the holiday that I've spent before.

Now that I'm grounded seems like a mockery of my wish, yet I still feel not satisfied.
Now that I'm spending one day at home, relaxing all day, doing meaningless things,
I feel bored. I feel that I want to spend one day with friends, hanging out, join competitions, doing all meaningful things,
anything that will make me that this holiday is used properly, not wasted.

do you often feel the same, too? I bet most humans do.

Forgetting

2009-04-13T07:29:00.000-05:00

This day, I realized about something

His eyes never meets mine.
I always wonder, why?
I always think,
Do you plan to avoid me by shutting your eyes?
I knew about it since a long time ago, but I was always denied it.
Now I realize, I didn't want to face the truth.

But, this day, I want to face the reality
This day, I decided something

I decided to forget about my crush on him.
I'll try to forget everything.
Before It's too late for me, and for him
Before my crush on him turns into a 'love' thing.
I decided, to make my crush on him will only be a memory

Forget him, act normally.
Tomorrow will be a hard day for me,
but I'll face it.
No matter how long it takes to forget him, I'll try.
Good bye...

Where is my voice?

2009-02-24T18:25:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up...

and I realized
I opened my mouth
i tried to speak
but nothing came out
My voice didn't come
I lost my voice
"where is my voice?" I thought.

God, please return my voice...
when I still can speak, I didn't realize how important my voice was
I always speak loudly, I often laugh too loud
Maybe my voice hate me
Maybe it's rebelling to me now. ahaha.

My voice, I'm sorry.
Please come back to me..

with regard, the one who need you very much.

Broken Heart is Everywhere...

2009-02-18T07:39:00.001-06:00

" I thought my heart could never break

now I know that's one big mistake"

Blue - "One Love"

Yup, that's right.
my heart is broken now. Ouuuch.
It's painful, you know.

But I won't let it affect my life.
Just keep it light. Be relaxed.
Yes, it hurts now.
Then, I believe that I'll be able to laugh at it.

If I and him are destined to be together, we'll be.
that's all.

So, don't worry. Be happy!

I'm confused...

2009-01-15T06:32:00.000-06:00

I tried to edit this blog, but now i'm confused because I accidentally changed the template into the classic template. But, I'm still trying, I won't give up! fighting! So, please stay tune and watch the revolution of my blog from now on! I'm really excited to see how my blog will be later...hhe

Heyhooo

2009-01-15T05:34:00.000-06:00

"Hello. My name is Edward Cullen. Sorry I didn't have the chance to introduce myself last week. You're Bella Swan?"

Hello!!! My name is Lisana! I have made this blog since long time ago, but I just opened it, and...there's nothing on it! Soo... i decided to introduce myself, and post my favorite quote from twilight, the introduction part! It's not necessary though, but at least there's something to be read, right? Hahaha. Enjoy this blog!