Snow day!!

Wednesday, 7:15 I opened my eyes and saw my lil' clock laying on my bed beside me. "Oh, arrgh...!" I got up and walked sleepily through the hallway towards the bathroom.
"Nadhila..."
"uh..huh.."
"School is on a two hour delay because of the snow. So instead of 8, it will start at 10."
"Yess!!!"
"But make sure you listen to the radio, in case it closes. It's freezing rain out there."

So I went to the bathroom to pee and to the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal.

7:30 "There is a rapid change of school closings now, let's see...Closed schools are Canton Central,..."
"Yeeeaaaaayyy!!! Moshi!! School's closed!!!!" I shouted to Mohsina's room as soon as I hear the news.
Yes, everything is informed by the TV stations and radio stations, here. I remember the day when there was a huge flood in Jakarta and none of us knew that the school was closed until my friends arrived there and had to move all the things in the classroom and there was some kind of electrical charge that ran through the water inside my classroom. Why weren't we well informed???

Before my host mum leave the house, she warned us not to go outside because the ice freezes on top, which makes it really slippery and dangerous to walk on. Dr Atkins (The Atkins diet) died because he slipped and hit his head on ice.

Until now, 8:40, it's still snowing outside and I feel like I wanna go out there and play on the snow!! Well, I did play on the snow and made a snowman yesterday evening with Pasca and Sussanah. Plan for today is; making snow white cookies, read novels and watch movies!!

The Joy of being Together

Making cookies!!

Traditionally, thanksgiving is the time when farmers get their profit from their crops and share it with their loved ones. Last thanksgiving, I celebrated it with my host family and Xiang, a girl from China whoa was an AFS student here 3 years ago, she goes to Alfred College now. We made 2 apple pies and 1 banana cream pie, chewy chocolate chip cookies, and a huge turkey!
I loved the food!!
They were all good and I think I gained another 2 pounds. Haha..

The "get together" wasn't as huge as my family's tradition. You know, so many cousins, uncles, nephews, and everything else that when we get together for a family reunion, the house, whichever it is, is always full. Unfortunately, the get together here, wasn't that merry. I just, you know, kinda think, the importance of it. And I kinda missed it. Even though, at times, when I was back home, I kinda got busy with me, myself and I, that I didn't get the chance to attend every get together. In here, I feel like I can have time for everything!! The homework are easy, school is pretty close to the house, no traffic jams, the world seems so peaceful and quiet and everything could be done. I just have to have the guts to do what I want to do, and the desire.
I know now, family is everything. Your friends can come and go ( yeah...like what I have been experiencing...first in Jakarta, made friends, moved to Australia, made friends, move back to Jakarta, meet new friends and old ones, move again to America, made friends, blaa...bla...you know what I mean) but the family is always there. No matter where and how far you go. I probably knew about that since ages ago, but I never actually "experience" it. lol. Yeah, by being here, I realized a lot of things that I had got and be thankful for them.
I guess thanksgiving is supposed to be the day when we can really give feel that feeling of gratefulness, of being loved and have people to love.

In New York City though, I heard that thanksgiving is the beginning of the holiday season, when everybody prepares for Christmas (duh! still a month away).
An interesting thing, especially for a shooper, like me, is black Friday. It's the end of thanksgiving, which I think is always on Friday, where a lot of stores give huge discounts!!
I didn't get the chance to go on Friday, but I went on Saturday, to the Carousell Mall in Syracuse. That was because we had to drive Xiang back to her friend's house to be able to go back to Alfred.
Carousell Mall is pretty big. I guess it's as big as Cilandak Town Square and it's the biggest mall I've ever been to since I stay here. A lot of stores still give discounts, and I ended up spending, um...like...around $50 on clothes! haha...Don't ask why!! You won't even want to know!
Thanksgiving is about family and shopping. But it should be more about family, not the SHOPPING!

Anyway, apart from all the food and get together, I also finished this pretty interesting book called To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I had to read that book for my English Class. It's one of those books that made me went to sleep at the beginning and made me never want to stop reading at the end. It discussed about racism and justice on earth. As I read the book, I kinda flashed back to my innocent childhood and what I remember from them.
It was also one of the book that was banned during its time, back to the 1960s and got a Pulitzer price later on.

A Week that I tried hard to manage..

17th - 21st November was the International Education Week when we were supposed to give out presentations about our country. The International Club in my school has finally been established and the first meeting was not all bad, though did not meet my expectation. Around 15 kids came and Max from Ukraine and I gave our presentations for a whole hour to the High Schoolers. I might have to say that it went well but there was not a single interesting thing that happened. NONE! No silly questions asked, or anything. I tried my best to make my presentation as interesting as possible; showed a bunch of photos, video with music, I explained it in the most 'inviting' was as I could; but nothing happened. Though none of them looked sleepy which was good.
The next day, I gave out a presentation to a bunch of 3rd graders and 7th graders. I had to arrange it myself! Other AFS kids said that their AFS volunteers arranged the events for them, but in my case I HAD TO MAKE THE MOVE! God! I WAS ANNOYED!!! My guidance counselor was, fortunately, very easy on me and helped me out so that I could do what I had to do.
The 3rd graders were the bunch I liked the most. They were very eager, asked questions, put their hands up whenever I asked them questions. The 35 minute presentation turned out to be very successful. I was glad. I walked slowly to the bathroom, locked the door and cried. "WHAT THE HELL!! What are those people on the government doing?! They are up there, taking as much money as they can while me and the others are trying to convince everyone in this strange country to think that our country is a great country!! What the..?!!!"

A little guy asked me, "Is there any hurricanes and tsunamis?"
"Well, yeah..disasters like that happen very often in my country. See, we are surrounded by oceans."
"What about the people? Are they being swept out from the waves?"
"Some were, but those who have two storey houses usually got up and to the second floor to avoid being swept out. But after that, people put up tents, refugee camp for those who lost their houses. You see, when you're having problems, everyone will help you there.."
"Sounds like a very nice place," said a little girl as she zipped close her bag.
"It is," I said softly, almost a whisper.

Okay, I was probably annoyed, mad and glad at once. Annoyed that no one seemed to CARE that it was the week that we all should be giving out presentations. None of the other AFS kids in my school give out presentations apart from Max , and he was unprepared! Mad at MY COUNTRY's STUPID government. What the hell do they think THEY ARE!! RATS!!!! Glad that the presentation that I worked hard on was a success.

THOSE were the things that made me cry!!

Call me pathetic, but there's NOTHING WORSE than being LOST in an ignorant environment and still trying to stand up in the crowd and stand up to what you believe in.

I BELIEVE that my country is a GREAT country with LOTS of BEAUTIFUL things, if those BASTARDS take their feet off their position!!
I BELIEVE that a presentation should be given that week even though NO ONE CARED!!! I managed it myself!!!

Next, I got in trouble because my lab teacher marked me as SKIPPING CLASS!!! What the hell! I explained to her that I was giving a presentation and she won't believe me until the 7th grade teacher talk to her!!
My GOD!!!!!!

This is getting on my nerves! I feel like I want to shout in her ears and tell her to stop being a PAIN in my ...!!!

Bottom line, I managed to give my best effort and managed 4 meetings with the school kids to talk about my country.

THAT'S IT!!

School that people say Rules

Well...You know..this is kinda awkward. I decided to join the girls basketball team and within 1 week, I successfully sprained both of my ankles!! Here's the thing, Americans are really serious and professional and competitive too, I should say, in practicing whatever they are learning. Gosh! Didn't that drive me crazy!!
The practice is 2 hours everyday, 6 days a week!! Cool or too cool?
The first practice, I felt like I wanted to faint!
And yeah, after a week of practicing, my ankles hurt so bad that I have to drag my feet when I walk and I was the cause of a pretty long traffic in the stair case. lol. I wasn't able to attend practice for a couple of days. To tell you the truth,they still hurt! hah! Better, I guess though..

Last night, I watched the school's play, "The Mousetrap", adapted from Agatha Christie's novel. To be honest, I didn't expect the play to be good, but it turned out to be EXCELLENT! Oh my god, those people acted as if they're real actresses!!The setting was amazing and the 2.5 play was just perfect! There are a couple of shots that I managed to take.

It really amazes me, how those Americans work! Oh, my god! Get a life! I mean, they're really serious (good thing), always serious (can be bad. well, yeah...my opinion).

THE Election

Interestingly and unsurprisingly (in my opinion), Obama won!! yuhuu!!
My American History teacher, today, began a conversation that made me excited!
Mr K: Did you see that Indonesia was on TV last night?
Me: No, I didn't. But my friend told me about it (The night before, Ibel called me and told me the news. He has TVs in his house)
Mr K: Yeah, they were reporting Obama's school when he lived in Indonesia
Brittany: Oh, is that the school you went to?
Me: (smiling so big) No, but it's still in the same city I lived in. But my friends' dad actually went to the same school as him!
Mr K: (smiling and laughing)
Tiffany: This might be a stupid question, but what language do you speak there?
Me: Indonesian. Haha... It's not a stupid question!
Mr K: Yeah.. There are a lot of languages being spoken there!
Brittany: Oh really? How many?
Me: Three hundred. (I remembered from one of the article I read. I hope I didn't give the wrong info).
Brittany: Wow!! That's a lot.
Others: bla..bla..

The bell rang.

Haha..it was interesting to be able to talk about your country in a different perspective.

Anyway,I actually VOTED at school! Well, it was just a "pretend" vote, but using the real machine!! I must admit the machine is REALLY cool!
Obama beated McCain by... I don't know. A lot! Most of the blue states (those states supported the democrats) are the northern states. Racism is still the issue, especially in the south which are mostly the red states (supported Republicans). As I study the American History, it became clear to me why that's still the status quo right now. The story has to go back to the Civil War!

I received a request that asked for an explanation on how this cool voting machine works. So, first, people signup in their local voting booth and attend the place which opens from 6 a.m to 9 p.m
Then, they line up in front of the machine, waiting for their turns. They must sign their name before entering the machine and vote, that way, no one will vote twice.
As soon as you enter the booth, you turn the handle in front of you sideways, and the curtain closes. Pull down the lever that says the candidate you're supporting for. Turn the handle again, and the curtain opens. Your vote counts.

That's it. Pretty simple. It's an electric voting machine and it's really cool.lol

Trick or Treat!!

Halloween! Well, I guess it's only America that celebrates Halloween. That night, me, Mosh, Pasca, Cartoon, Elizabet, Rita and Natalie dressed up randomly (I dressed up as a princess) and went trick or treating! It was my first trick or treat!
When I was a little, I read a story about Halloween and trick or treat, but I never thought I could actually do that!
I gained quite a lot of chocolate bars and candies for me to eat in my room when I am bored!
Those are witches fingers! Haha...They are actually soft pretzels with dyed almonds for the nails! They taste good! Eliz's mum made them. She's such a nice mum.


Beside the witch's fingers is a photo of the little kids in my school who joined in the Halloween parade at school! They dress up as cartoon characters, witches or animals and show off their costumes in front of everyone in the entire school. What I found out was that, sometimes they don't buy the costumes but their mums made them! For mums, it's a pride to be able to make a Halloween costume for their kids! Interesting!

First Day of SNOW!!

Just watch the video..
Haha (^_^)

.dhila is excited and is waiting for the snow day when snow is really thick and she doesn't have to go to school!.

Transcendentalism

This is the piece the I wrote for my creative writing class; on transcendentalism. I just wanna share and don't hesitate to criticize!

The rocky hills, broken twigs and shattered autumn leaves. The cold, chilly mountain breeze. Dark white clouds hanging over the sky. As I reach the top, I stood at the edge of the mountain, on a big rock, look over what’s surrounding me. Lakes that run through the hills, colored hills and mountains, green, red, orange and brown. The sun didn’t dare to shine. Memories poured into my consciousness as I open my violet book and write…

Quiet…
Leaves crackled
As the wind whispered
The trees wrapped me up
Taking me deep..deep..inside them

Thousands of years has these trees lives
Guarding the soil
Of our land
Alive, they are!
And so am I

Dear Millie
I’m here to let you know
That I’m safe and sound
Here I am
After our last hike together
Five years ago

God is looking after you, I believe…
After all of us
Never thought you’d get to see him first
Though in every sway of the trees
I could feel you

Here…
On the mountain side

I'm a Mountain Climber!

Mt Arab sounded very....middle eastern type of mountain, though it doesn't have anything to do with Arab. Why did they name it Mt Arab??
Mt Arab is located in Adirondack. It's one of those mountains that are popular for its views. In the Northern Country, there are still a wide range of trees and forest that are seriously beautiful. Just amazing. We then climbed up the mountain. It was a half hour hike. Well, for me probably more than half hour. lol. I'm kinda bad at hiking. I felt like I just wanted to fly to the top of the mountain! I was so tired. My creative writing class and Mrs Moreau's English class went there for a field trip. What we did was pretty interesting, in my opinion. Tiring too.
We'd been talking and working on transcendental writing, such as Terry Tempest Williams. It's a piece of writing, can be a poem or a story, that is based on nature and philosophy. Like the one Terry wrote, "The Country of Grasses", a beautiful piece. Transcendentalism is usually a "deep" kind of writing. People who can see themselves in nature and connects that with the existence of god.

So, in the effort of getting that "deep" feeling and thoughts, we had to hike this mountain, which I did with my fullest effort, and describe what we see on a piece of paper to turn it into a masterpiece. Tell you what? It was worth a hike! I have never seen such a beautiful scenery! The weather was chilly at the top, but everything else was just perfect!

Olivia writing her piece at the top of the mountain.

I didn't get the chance to write there, I was too busy taking pictures and eating. haha...But I'm working on it. In fact, I'm halfway through.
I just love it when I do descriptive writing!

After that, we climbed down the mountain, hopped on the bus and went to The Wild Centre! it's basically a museum on the wildlife creatures. It was fun. not very much to see, it's a small museum, but just enough to learn about the creatures in the northern country. I saw sea otters, different kinds of turtles (cute ones) and fish and bears and birds. I watched a movie on the global warming, how a long time ago, Adirondack was covered with ice. Thick ice like those in the Arctic. Now, it's still a beautiful place, so I don't think it's something to be regretted. lol. What a beutiful day!!

It was a whole day field trip. I really had fun. But I was really tired! No kidding!
But obviously, field trip is something I'm always looking forward to. This one is my first one since I've been here. I'm really thankful that I', living in a country right now. These things are rare back where I live!

Powder Puff Girls and Homecoming dance

Powder Puff Girls are not those green, orange and yellow little flying girls that save the planet, lol! They are the Juniors VS Seniors Girls Football Game last friday! Haha! It was kinda awkward, I think. But fun too. I don't like the name, though..Too girly. Well, despite the fact that a football injured me in Gym class, not that I am good at it either (Like I will ever be!) I wasn't in it. So, I just watched, which turned out to be really boring.
In this video, the girls who are in yellows are juniors, and hose in blacks are seniors. And that funny looking bear is our school mascot. The Golden Bear! Yeah!
Guess who won? The Seniors! (Not that I care.)

Anyway, after the game, we all went home. End of story.

The next day, Saturday, we prepared for the homecoming dance. Now, this is another American culture. I would say very American. After the last game of football is over, end of season, they have this dance at school. Which is called the homecoming dance. When I think about it, the name doesn't make any sense at all.
So, my friend, Lindsey, invited me and other exchange students in our area to come over to her house for the dance preparation and spend the night. And we did.
There were Lindsey, Kate, Spencer, Pat, Me, Cartoon, Pasca and Mohsina. And of course Lindsey's mum and her 3 little sister (they are very cute).
We had dinner together. Us, the foreigners cooked the dishes from our countries, and also them, the American. haha...pretty interesting. Kate made a dessert, death by chocolate! Oh, it was my favourite!
We then prepared dressing up. Lindsey lent me her dress, which I loved very much because it was blue, my favorite color, well apart from any others, and her shoes which matched the dress. Guess who did my hair?! Trudy, Lindsey's mum! She was very nice, I wasn't going to do anything with my hair, because I never do anything to it. She was great. With all these hair pins, combs, curler, hairspray, in almost half an hour or less, ta daa...! voila!
I was impressed, myself. haha..

So, we took lots of pictures and off we go to the dance. Pat drove the car (the guy in the green shirt) and we danced, basically. And that's it!! Loud musics, dresses, guys and girls and friends, whatever. We had fun. My feet hurts from all the dancing and jumping around and the high heels! aaghh! Although, I took my high heels off when I dance, but still. Apart from meeting friends and having fun with them, homecoming dance is basically just a place where you can go crazy!!
We got back almost midnight and I was exhausted! We all slept in the living room. I slept on the sofa. I didn't sleep until about 2 in the morning. We watched the Bee Movie and James Bond. I was totally dead that I wasn't really watching them.
That's it. Now I know what homecoming is. And there's gonna be a lot more dances to come! They have around 7 different dance each year. But basically, I get the idea. They really do work hard and party hard here!

Tomorrow, is field trip day!! Yeeaaayy!! We're gonna go hiking for our Nature Writing! What can be more fun than that?! Enjoy the nature and write! We're gonna spend the whole day! So, I won't study tomorrow at school. I just hope it won't be a long, high gike. My legs still hurt. I don't care. Who cares? haha..

AFS Orientation-Camp Wabasso, NY

the cute cartoon character.

Moi, et Pauline. Elle est Francaise!

Everybody's waiting for a day in the sun!! Everybody's working hard to have some fun!



The 4th and 5th of October were the best time I had since I've been here! For the second time, I met my AFS friends from other Asian countries and European. There were 18 exchange students that cheered me up. It was really fun. We all stayed for a night, playing, cooking, cleaning, taking pictures, had bonfire. I didn't want to come home. Basically, our activities were nothing special, but I just felt that it's special because I got be together with people that are in the same phase of adaptation as me, so we all feel like a family..
One of the thing that I found out was that, I was not the only one having problems here. They all do. Want to know one of my problem? Making good friends.
It's hard. Because ; first, I've been immersed in an environment where everybody have known everybody else for ages. I always felt like a stranger in the middle of nowhere. Second, this "moving class" thing really drove me crazy. I never get to know my friends that well. Just imagine that, every 45 minutes, I have to change friends! Deal with different people. Luckily, at lunch I always sit with Lindsey, her boyfriend, and the others, so I was not alone.
Seeing that as one of my biggest problem, you might and might not believe it, but it's happening. One may think it's no big deal, wait til you got immersed in a situation like mine! Fortunately, at the camp, where we really exchange experiences and stories, I was not the only one that finds it hard to make good friends! They all have the same problem. Even worse, problems with their host family!
I know I really am experiencing something kinda weird and funny, but also serious. Haha...This is a year where I have to make my own decision, handle my problems and balance my life while I am also being the minority in a small village environment, but never too small. Yeah...I know that. I feel weird, at times when I realize I am alone. That's why the orientation really helped and I just loved it! I love my friends!
Pauline, Kate, Kaja, Irene, Catherine, Pablo, Rex, Dea, Cartoon, Pasca, Gabrielle, everyone of them. I miss them soo much!!

Crisis Vs Food

The Wall Street's bailout news was everywhere! It was the headlines on newspaper and the radio kept going on about it. I don't really understand the whole thing of what's going on, but what I know is that US needs money. $700 billion, I think. (Wow!!)
Today at dinner, as usual we always have discussions on whatever felt like being discussed, so we talked about the US government (oh no! there's a test coming up this Friday!) and the role of women in Islam. Pretty hard stuff. I did my best to explain to them what Islam really is (though I know little about it) and that they don't have to be scared of Muslim. My host dad made a good point of wearing burqa, hijab, jilbab, head scarf, whatever you wanna call it. The Amish also wear those. What's the point of fussing around about what the Muslim women wears when the Amish, who aren't Muslim also covers their head?
Well, I guess I got another new perspective now.

Anyway, at school the student representatives had been talking about forming an International Club which I think is really great. I attended the meeting today and we brainstormed the ideas that could be used. I really wish this will work. One of the ideas that was mentioned was international food (which I totally agreed on! haha..) What can be more fun than eating food from other countries?! We have 5 exchange students here in Canton district; Thailand, Phillipines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Ukraine. So if there's gonna be international food as well in the club; guess how many food we're gonna eat?!

Talking about food, we're gonna make pretzels tomorrow in my cooking class! By the way, my stomach is getting fatter (which is a bad thing. I don't want a fat stomach!) and right now, it really hurts because I ate too much today. I was kinda bored of the homework, so I went downtown to McD with my friends. I had an apple pie, a choc chip cookie and a cup of hot chocolate. As soon as I got home, my host parent were cooking steak!! I then ate the steak as well, of course. Not forgetting the salads and baked potatoes!

Nature...western life.

Nature. Brings solace to all troubles


Cute western library

Okay, let's see... It's been 50 days since I smelled the fume of Jakarta, felt the sweat running down my thighs, saw the gigantic sky scrapers, the smiles and laughter of my classmates and family, heard their advices and talks... It's amazing how time went really fast as if running after life! No, it's life that's running after time! No, it's us that's running out of time! What?! I'm confused.
Anyway, today is Sunday, I'm staying at home. Bored.
Yesterday was pretty interesting, tiring too. Me, Mohsina and my host parents went to Lake Placid, Adirondack. A very beautiful place. It's the beginning of autumn here and I could see the leaves starting to change color. Red, yellow, orange. Though, the evergreens are always green. I saw an amazingly beautiful scenery. Little houses and cottages along the lake with mountains that are colored. I then thought I was inside a photograph that I once saw in my Biology textbook. Nature. Anne Frank was right, nature brings solace in all troubles...

We then went to the Asian Buffet. My favourite restaurant!! I ate a lot!! haha..tell you what? I think I'm getting fatter here. But the food are just so yummy and tempting, I couldn't help it. I am soo gonna be good at both cooking and eating!!

By the way, talking about food, reminds me of the school nurse. Haha... A few days ago, the nurse did a general check up on me. She then found out that my right eye is not working properly. I was kind of surprised. I realized I kept squinting in class to be able to see the white board. Back in Jakarta, I even had to sit on the floor, exactly in front of the board to be able to see what was written on it! But I never thought that it was my eye having problems. Unfortunately, it's not insured. So I have to wait 'til next year to see the doctor.

Oh! Guess what? Last Friday, I suddenly have this really weird courage to wear my beloved batik to school!! Haha... I woke up in the morning, found out that it was almost 50 F outside and decided to wear my favourite Indonesian-Casual outfit. A dark brown batik dress with a light brown plain skirt + my brown butterfly flip flop + my brown bear earings + my brown school bag. (I looked so brownie and chocolatey. Yum..yum..) Because the batik is short sleeved, I wore my black cardigan over it and I tied my hair in a "konde"-like way. A soon as I entered school, I kind of realized lots of eyes were on me. Sure enough, i got sooo many compliments on my outfit! hehe...I was really proud of wearing that batik and to be an Indonesian, of course!

Right now, I just wish I can take a day off to celebrate eid. I miss my Mum's "Gulai Kambing"...