Humanity Problem

          Nowadays, in this world we have a lot of crisis problem. Not only about loss of natural resources, but also about another God's creature, human. Yes, we have a crisis problem about humanity. Bomb, terror, judging, killing, bullying and so on make us afraid of people, distrust, anger without knowing the real facts. The facts what is true and what is not. And choose to isolate themselves and and saying I'm the right one and their mind said I do not want to tolerate any other opinion because of judgement.

          Why? Why it should be happen? I thought Albert Einstein quote that says remember your humanity and forget the rest still does exist. Being selfish and arguing to whom we should stand, won't fix anything. We just makes it worse.

          Many students try to study abroad or adults who works in different taste of the sea salt try to bridging the gap, try to telling the truth and try to be patient about what they say and do to us. But, it just come back and say hello to zero when human have no more tolerance, no more trust and forget the humanity.

          I'm Muslim, and do I stand for terrorist? Of course no. Who starts the bomb in this world, not us. Everyone can say Allahu Akbar. Everyone can say everything in social media and say it's Muslim who said that. And you just believe that? I don't understand when people say that people who believe in God are brainwashed with their book (such as Al-Qur'an or bible) but many people brainwashed by media.

          Now, whatever our religion is, our races or ethnic is, let's stand for humanity, stand for peace and don't let the media fool you.

          I'm Muslim but ISIS? #NotInMyName

Exchange Year as an Exchange Student

Exchange is change rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. 

         

          Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything. Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.
Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.

          Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that boy is going to react when you see her again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.

          Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore. And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.

          Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.

          Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world. Exchange is falling in love with this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.

          Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…

Exchange is understanding.

Exchange is unbelievable.

Exchange is not a year in your life.

It’s a life in one year. 

Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be

          Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt. Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.
       

          Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year. And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.

          Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason

Crying without a reason

Laughing at the same time

It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible

Exchange is everything

And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it!

#LangkahAnakBangsa

credit: someone who type the text

Is there anyone have change for 5?

            It's like everyday my friends ask everybody this question. Literally it's not this question but these are questions. It's not a bad thing, it just funny.

            We always feel starving because we only have one lunch time for each student. But generally we have three lunch times and I'm in the C Lunch. Which is the last one, with no fresh food and full of starving people in line to get lunch.

            In Indonesia, my home sweet home country, for school we have two lunch times, at 10 and 12 and it's always open even though is not a lunch time. So whenever we are hungry, we can just buy snacks and drinks for a couple minutes before another class start.

            But in my American High School, the cafeteria just open in the lunch time so that's why I heard those questions every time I go to the class.

            Ask for the change and the cafeteria close? How come? Vending machine is our treasure with a secret key called one dollar.

            In here one dollar means only one snack. And if we convert it to my Indonesian money or we call it as IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), one dollar is fourteen thousand and nine hundred rupiahs. And I can just buy seven snacks with the exact brand, taste and size as the snacks that I bought here.

            And that's a piece story of my school year as an exchange student here and i hope you guys can feel more grateful to live in Wonderful Indonesia because you live in the heaven of the world and you have everything and it's cheap!

Don't Let the Label Limit Who You Are

           Kalian pernah merasa sakit hati dengan perkataan orang sekitar? Sakit hati hingga hanya merasa ingin sendiri? Terkucilkan merasa terasingkan dari yang lain?

           

           Label, label mengurung seseorang sehingga diri terpaku dalam label. Bayangkan perkataan buruk yang orang katakan kita anggap sebagai kertas label yang biasanya kita tempel saat kita duduk di bangku sekolah saat ujian sebagai tanda dimana seharusnya kita berada. 

           Ketika label yang sudah kita tidak butuhkan lagi, apakah akan kita biarkan hingga perekat label meninggalkan noda lebih banyak? Itu pilihan. Terkadang label membuat kita menjadi orang yang lebih baik. Tapi terkadang label juga mengurung kita dalam depresi. Disitulah kita harus mengelola label. 

           Untuk apa terjebak dalam ilusi label yang orang lain berikan tanpa benar adanya dalam diri kita? Kita bisa saja kita mencabut label dan menggantinya yang baru dengan yang lebih baik. Atau menambahkan label positif lainnya dalam diri kita. Yuk, semangat! Jangan biarkan label yang orang lain berikan mengurungmu dalam malu.

American High School Education Tools #1

         Study in America as a High School-er is more than I expected. I'm Nelva, I am an exchange student from Indonesia. I thought American school is more like a lot of drama like in mean girls film. But, no. We found drama in any place. And I thought the differences is only the languages and stuffs, but I found that there are a lot of things that I think is way cooler than I thought.

         My opinion is, American School have everything for teaching tools. Starts from reminder for homework, quiz and test until grade book that always update everyday. And now, I let you know about any media that American School use.

         1. Skyward
         
         Skyward is a software that school can use to manage and give information to students, staffs and parents. It's not only showing the grade book that always make me dag dig dug because any score even it's zero, teacher always put it down in the skyward grade book. And also if we late to go to school, we late to go to class, we are not in dress code, we break the rules and so on. It's also shows us the latest information such as football game, volley game, campus visit, home coming, prom, year book and so on. So, I enlist this software because it's a good software that every school should have so it is one of a good motivation to study everyday.

Penampakan

         Nah, this is what skyward look like. I forgot to tell you this skyward also show us some calendar that some teachers put on, like due for homework, quiz, test and some volunteering information.

         2. Remind 101
         
         Like the tittle of this application, remind, yes this application use to remind people to do something. Everyone here use text only for communication. It's not like Asian who use Line, Whatsapp, Path, BBM, Twitter, facebook, Talk, G+, Skype, Facetime, viber, vine and snapchat in the same time and another old school social media that we might forget like plurk, friendster and yahoo koprool. Okay, back to the topic. Because Americans use text for daily communication, this remind 101 send any remind by text.

           
         Usually teacher sent us remind about due homework, quiz, test, warm up key or tutoring schedule. And not only teacher who can use it. Some communities and school activities also use remind 101 to text anybody who register in the class to remind them what to bring or when to meet. Remind 101 not only can send text, but it also can send the pictures that attached in a link so we can save it.