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.