Don't Get Stressed Out

As what I've told you on my previous post, me and my fellow 12th graders are currently suffering in this crazy schedule, you know, due to the upcoming national exam.

Actually, the UAS has already passed and I've done it pretty well, and we still got US and UAN to come. Anyone could easily get stressed in this kind of situation, but in my case, I don't want to. I want to still be happy and enjoy my life even with this hectic schedule, and so far I've been doing fine living my life happily. 

Here are some things I do to keep my days awesome:

Eat!

The existence of food is one thing I most treasure of. In my busy schedule, I often use food as my study goal. So it usually went like; if I don't finish this subject then I can't eat. This has succeeded motivating me to study hard because I'm weak without my food and I need them so I would try hard to study in order to get my food. 

K-Dramas to the rescue

Aah... This. This one works like food, I use it as my motivation. But sometimes this works better than food. Since the beginning of the semester, I've finished 2 dramas and currently going on watching another 2 dramas. Other than using it as my motivation, this is also very refreshing, this heals your scribbled brain, so this would do good after every exam, after your brain getting all screwed out, this would do. But I need to hold myself to keep my study as my priority over this, but all is well.

Do other things that possibly  make you stressed out

But of course, don't get stressed out. The thing is that you don't have to always get stressed out every time you do stuffs that possibly stress you out. With doing other stuffs that keeps you busy, you won't feel very burdened with those study stuffs. I did this EO thing which was very stressful but guess what? Myself is better off with it!

Go to God!

If you have test tomorrow in a Monday and you haven't went to church yet, go to church. Your relationship with God helps you went through everything fine.

It's Around the Corner!

So it's less than two more months before school life ends for us 12th graders. Pretty unbelievable that we've passed through the first 6 hell weeks for all the teachers seemed to rushed on finishing the subjects and getting us all stressed out. To be honest, it's not as hectic now as how it was before at the very beginning of the semester, because now we're getting better in shape, focusing on the very final exam. 

When we first review the materials from the tenth and eleventh grade, honestly, I felt very horrendous. Because I wasn't really prepared to study this many things, recall everything, while I actually have a short term memory.

This is hard but this is not impossible. In order to get used with the questions and problems on the tests, we have to spend time reading the materials over and over and over again, and also doing some tryouts many many many times.

Other than my own notes, these are some references I have to prepare the national exams.

Honestly I haven't used this much since I wan't to save some to do for before the national exam. But so far, this book is very nice because they have the answer discussed after every tryouts.

These are the books I most rely on, because it summarizes all the materials very nicely so I wouldn't need to study from many references but only from here. These books also have some tryouts.

This small book is very funny yet very useful. I can literally bring this anywhere and study anywhere. The materials summarized pretty well too. 

Other than these, I still have many that would help me prepare my national exam. Those are just a few of that. I'm getting all stressed but I know as long as I work hard, everything is going to be just fine. 

Remarkable Rinjani!

perjalanan ke puncak

plawangan sembalun

view from plawangan sembalun

sunset at plawangan sembalun

summit sunrise

summit

finally reach the top!

with the best trekking companion!

trio trupala

sanur pos x sanur bsd

sanurians!

clouds from above

3rd night camp

snack time

on the way down

with mang awal! best guide ever

senaru waterfall

senaru waterfall

GILI!

sunset at gili

A Sweet Birthday on The Sweetest Place

I turned 17 this year. Turning seventeen is a very big deal for me because this is the year when you legally be considered as a grown up. So people would really expect you to act like one, therefore you would feel obligated to become more responsible in your action.

Because being 17 is very crucial for most people in Indonesia, they tend to celebrate this specific birthday bigger than the birthdays they've ever had before. And so I also wanted to celebrate my 17th birthday.

My birthday is on March 16th. That day this year, my dear friends threw a little surprise for me in Pizza Hut. And later in April, I took them to Papandayan to have a little birthday getaway. And I like to share our experience, here.

Sunday, April 13th

We gathered somewhere near school very early in the morning, like at 6. While I waited for all of my friends to come, I ate some food that my friends brought, and listen to the parent's conversation. After everyone was already there, we finally started our ride to Garut with the bus.

On the way to Garut, the bus got troubled and we all had to get off the bus and wait for about half an hour at the toll. Thankfully the weather was nice, so spending time outside the bus turned out the be better than when we were inside the bus. When the bus was finally working, we continued our journey to Garut which was such a very long ride.

At last, we've arrived at Garut. We stopped at a gas station and switch vehicles, which were trucks. The ride from the gas station to the base post didn't take too much time. When we got to the starting place, we ate lunch and prepare our hike at Papandayan Mountain. Unfortunately, when we were just about to start our hike, the rain started pouring. Therefore we needed to take our raincoat first, and after that we started the journey.

The journey started off very silent since it's kinda devastating to hike in the rain. The path was rocky, and the sulfur crater made this weird smell, but personally I still could enjoy the stunning view it offered. After the rain stopped, we took a small break and took some photos. But our guide told us to hurry because it was getting late and the later it was, the thicker the fog would be, and it would need much effort to walk inside the thick fog. So we hurried up, and got to this spot which were a part of the dead forest i think. Some of my friends were still behind, so we, again, took a break and of course some pictures. We continued the journey and the fog were literally getting very thick. The trouble wasn't that we couldn't see clearly, but that it was getting very cold. Right before we got to the camp site, Pondok Saladah, we first needed to cross the bog. I remembered going to Papandayan for the first time and having to cross that same bog... I... don't like it. 

special thanks to that group with the pink beanies!

Wina Damaswara

Naomi Sunggono

Kanintha Cresentia

Marcella Regina

Francisca Rossy

Nicola Christie

Brigita Jessica

Vienesha

Eleonora Stella

Chenny Wongkar

Marosta Widigarka

Anastasia Nathania

Anggia Salim

Fabiola Cathleen

Tania Callista

Tiffany Elsa

Laurencia Isabel

Angela Audrey

Kimberly Pramana

Michael Cashton

FX Damar

Danzel Aryo

Alvin Putra

UNEXPECTEDLY CRAZY ABOUT KOREA!

FIRST OF ALL, I kindly please you guys not to judge me... Before this thing happened, I always thought I'd hate myself if I ever like KPOP. BUT IT TURNED OUT THAT I LOVE MYSELF EVEN MORE HAHAHA! So it was surprising for me just as well!

I WAS an ultimate kpop hater. Actually, I was being too quick to judge towards kpop. I had never given a try to listen to any of the songs, watch any of the dramas, the variety shows, even when LITERALLY ALMOST EVERYBODY AROUND ME talks about korea so intently. It's not that I haven't heard or watched any korean, but every time people make me to do so, I already had this negative thoughts about them, so basically nothing had succeeded to get me into korean.

One of my closest friend (just call her K) was also a hater of korean stuffs. She was one of the hippiest girl I've ever know, so you would never imagined what happened to her next.

Here's what happened...

SHE BECAME A BIG FAN OF KOREA! She literally did! She was exactly like how I was back then, saying bad stuffs about korean, saying that the guys are so girly and everything. Now? She likes korean dramas, have watched a lot of them, variety shows, make a lot of korean songs her favorites, LEARN HANGUL, and WATCHED A FREAKING KOREAN CONCERT! She got all crazy about Korea so I attacked her with mocks because it's just so funny how things turned out for her.

But that was what happened to me too... When she found out that I liked KPOP, she seemed so glad to finally be able to do a bit of a revenge and mock me all day.

It all started out like this.

I once accidentally found this Korean Channel, Channel ONE, on my tv. Long story short, me and my youngest brother ended up watching an episode of Running Man, and we were pretty pleased because it was so funny and entertaining.

A while later, my family went on a Bandung Trip. One night at the hotel, when we were looking for something to watch, we found that Running Man is currently airing at Channel ONE! So we got excited and watch it. It was Running Man vs BIG BANG. I heard about big bang a lot, and seeing them there, I can't help not to brag about their colorful hair HAHAHAHA. But the episode was so funny, and all the big bang members seemed so nice and have such good sense of humor... I started to notice their names and I started to think that the Taeyang one is very cute, and that the one called Daesung is such a funny man. So I pretty much enjoyed the episode.

Then, one day when I had nothing to do, I decided to watch the second part of the big bang vs running man episode on youtube. AND IT WAS ANOTHER ENTERTAINING EPISODE! I laughed so hard throughout the episode, and I started to grow interest to big bang!!!

After I watched that episode, I went very curious, so I searched Big Bang on youtube and watch some of their videos. My reaction was that they looked so different in those videos!! Looking so cool and all, such a contrast to their personality when they were at Running Man.

The next day, I told my friend Chenny that I watched Big Bang and told her that they were good. Apparently, she told me that they were just having a come back from two years! And they were currently in the process of finishing their newest album. She then told me a lot about Big Bang, write me Big Bang songs to listen, and when I got home that day, I immediately listen to all the song she told me to check out, and within a week... I became a very HUGE fan of Big Bang!

some of their songs

It's lucky for me they still got one EP unreleased, its the 'E' EP. I remember looking forward for the day it came out, and when I watched the videos the minute it got out, I CAN'T HELP BUT CRYING MYSELF TO DEATH BECAUSE THE VIDEO WERE JUST SO GOOD and I was literally filled with excitement!! There I learned how big of an affection I grew towards them.

Time passes by and I started to watch some variety shows too. I keep watching more and more Running Man because not one episode did they fail to make me laugh. I also started to watch the Return of Superman. It started with a video suggestion on YouTube titled Taeyang of Big Bang Visits! Taeyang is apparently close to Tablo, Haru's father and I thought how pretty Haru is. The next time, I found myself have watched almost all of Haru's episodes on Return of Superman. Now, I also watched a lot of other kids' episode on the Return of Superman, but Haru is still my favorite girl.

About my progress towards K-Pop, I have watched like a bunch lot of live videos and behind the scenes about Big Bang. I really-really love Big Bang now. I'm trying to memorized their songs (which is hard) so I can enjoy their music better. But now I also start to listen to other bands, such as EXO and BTS. BTS are nice, but nothing has yet got me feeling as crazy as when I listen to Big Bang.

now i'm studying korean!

So... Yeah... Life could be very surprising, right? Never have I thought of myself watching korean stuff on YouTube all day. But hey, they unexpectedly make me happy! I say you should try and be open about new things, and there you could feel new emotions you never thought you would feel! All is well.

PTX Jakarta 2015!

I was just scrolling through the photos in my phone, and see some pictures that bring back some memories.

It was the first concert I've ever been to, the PENTATONIX concert at Tennis Indoor Senayan, Jakarta, last 4th June.

Me and my friend Danelle often talked about how much we want to watch PTX and how we thought that it was impossible for PTX to notice Indo and go here. We were like: "IF THEY EVER COME HERE, WE DEFINITELY MUST WATCH THEM! IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT IF THEY DO COME HERE ONE DAY...WE. MUST. GO. SEE. THEM."

And then one late night, at about 2 AM in the morning, I was having trouble sleeping so I browse the internet and found something that made me very speechless.

It was a facebook event of the pentatonix tour in Jakarta!!! I couldn't believe what I saw so I immediately checked their official website to see the tour dates. And you know what I saw? It's real. They're going to Jakarta. THEY ARE GOING TO JAKARTA! JUNE 3rd! BALAI KARTINI! I burst to find my ipod and line danelle right away. I informed her about the seat plan, the dates, and after we talked, we decided that we were after the festival tickets.

But things didn't work out that well. I kinda got busy with school that week, and I thought that it was fine to postpone buying the ticket for just one week. But the next time I checked the web, the tickets were completely sold out. Damn, right? I literally cried knowing my chance to meet the gang has gone. I tried to look for calo tickets but I'm afraid my mom wouldn't allow me to buy tickets from them.

But God loves me so He gave me a miracle. Apparently, I was going to have my final test until June 4th. Yes. So if I bought the ticket already, I was going to study biology in the middle of the concert. What a coincidence I failed to buy the tickets, right? The best thing is when I heard rumors that PTX was gonna have their second show on Jakarta the day after their first show! HOW PERFECT! The finals would have ended, it was in a bigger venue, and June 4th is their anniversary.

I finally bought the presale tickets for the 2nd show, feeling so happy and all, especially because I got 25% off discount. And I couldn't wait till the day arrives.

June 4th had finally came!

I have passed the biology test, and all the other tests. Me and Danelle went with busway to my house, went to McD, and pick up my brother then go right away to tennis indoor senayan. We met a view Sanurians there. It was not super crowded when we arrived 4 hours before it started. We spent our time chatting and playing crosswords, eating siomay, and at about 6, they started checking us in. We got the bracelet and all, and we wait for another hour to finally be able to get into the venue.

The worst part of waiting is the wait inside the venue. I luckily got a front barrier position. But still, it was crowded, filled with annoying preteens who forced themselves to sit in such a fully packed place. We have to wait for more than one hour there, with lack of oxygen, and my little brother kept complaining about how tired he was, and I was getting mad with all of the situation. I was already not in the mood.

But as soon as the gang came out to the stage, I got very excited in an instant! I forgot about all the bad mood I had in the last hour, and I was already losing my voice when they haven't even started any song yet.

Avi, Kirstin, Scott, Mitch, Kevin. They were there. They were there just about 5 meters away from me. THEY WERE SO CLOSE TO ME AND THEY WERE SO REAL!!!

The concert went on very well. I really had the time of my life by singing along to everything they sang. I listened to their songs a lot that I've memorized every lyrics. It's a good feeling to sing alone while everybody just made no voice because they don't know the lyrics. And it's a better feeling when someone not annoying finally managed to break through the crowd and got behind me, and she happened to know the lyrics too so we two were like singing our heart out together.

I was very amazed because they were so real. They are acapella group so when you really hear them sing live, see with your own eyes that they literally sing that good without any musical instruments whatsoever...you just can't help but adore them. Like, really. They were so good.

They sang my favorites! Their medley such as the Beyonce Evolution and the Evolution of Music. Their Rather Be cover, Problem, Papaoutai, and La La Latch! Jeez they slaaaaaaaayyyyy it. Mitch were also killin it on Aha! Kevin's solo, oh my God that boy is SUPER talented. Their originals such as Love You a Long Time, Seeing Through, so good. Oh, and Avi's lead on Standing By. I could watch the video over and over again and still having tears coming out of my eyes. They also did an encore where they sang That's Christmas to Me, without LITERALLY no mic at all. And they sounded just the same as when you heard them on the recording. They. Were. So. Real. They ended the concert with Daft Punk medley, and it was AWESOME. Awesome awesome awesome. Oh how I'm so in love with them.

It really was a good way to start my summer holiday. I kept repeating the videos and recall the wonderful feeling of that night. I am very pleased to have many great shots of pictures and videos since I got the barrier position. Even though it was the first concert I've ever been to, I could tell that it was a great successfull concert. They are the slay gang and I hope to meet them again next year!!!

Special Thanks to The Best Gang in The World

Scott Hyoing

Mitch Grassi

Kirstin Taylor

Avi Kaplan

Kevin Asulosa