A Chilling Day with A Stories

Hello readers. Today is May 18th 2016. Today, my day is so chilling. Like literally I almost did nothing in school. Because school almost over and we just do our assignments but I did all of them so mostly I have a free time in school. So our teacher usually told us to be quiet by playing on the phone which is what we always do. So this entire day is full of chilling and internet day with full of thoughts and stories that I really want to share. And also, in this point, I rewrite this entire post because I didn't save it. Darn it.

Starts from my first period. We watched a movie called Stand and Deliver. It's basically talk about AP Calculus teacher in Garfield High School which is a small school. They tell us about the struggles that he tried to do his best for his students. And it's a really good movie with a good value in it. And I'm not gonna spoiler it! But you guys really need to watch it. If they, students from rural area with no phone, then we all with technologies and more sources should be more productive and be wiser with 24 hours that we have. Pain is temporary but GPA is forever.

Then in my second period, mostly we all need to turned it in our assignments and complete some of them. But I finish all of them and I turned it in, so back again with chilling time. So this time I really want to know what happened back home. Okay first of all since I'm an exchange student and some of you might subscribe my blog and I have no idea who you are guys. But I really want to tell you the truth of an exchange student. We, as an exchange student, we ain't get home sick because of seeing the news from back home, eating our homey food or meet someone from back home. Please, please, please, if you say this, please look at yourselves in the mirror, have you ever been in another country for at least a year as an exchange student as a high schoolers with technologies nowadays?

For me I can get homesick, but I never do. I got sad if someone being so mean to me, talk me behind and tell everybody a lies about the things that I didn't do. Then got a bad report about the things that I didn't do? Poor me. That's what make us upset. And maybe home sick. But I don't think so.

Sometimes I might cry for something, I am so melancholic, but then I realized, that those things are not worth to cry, then I cry even harder. So if you are not messing around with us, we are gonna be so okay and we are gonna give you a great respond. me I can get homesick, but I never do. I got sad if someone being so mean to me in here, talk me behind and tell everybody a lies about the things that I didn't do. That's what make us upset. And maybe home sick. So if you are not messing around with us, we are gonna be so okay and we are gonna give you a great respond. And please understand and support us nicely and don't trick us. We can stay for these long because we are not stop loving, we try to do our best even with these sweat and tears. So please. And in this case I might change we to me.

Thank you to Mia as my best exchange student buddy ❤

Okay back to my second period. I checked what happened back home and a lot of things going on in my school. I can't stop proud to my school back home; SMA Negeri 1 Sidoarjo and my home country; Indonesia. 

I know, in here my school is a lot nicer, bigger and cleaner. Especially I'm in one of the best high school in United States. Dawson High School is really great and I do like it here. But there is something missing. Okay, it's not like missing which one is the best or not for me. But the Student Council back home is super duper awesome. And the students too. We really do everything by ourselves, school give facilities and teacher help us to do those things. What things?

First, my Student Council back home is really awesome. We always have school parties every the end of the semester. And they have their last party for this school year last Saturday, yes we have school on Saturday. And it turned out to be super awesome. Our parties is not like drink and dance, but our parties is more like concert and pop show. And it's super cool not like that boring events. I used to be a part of Student Council. We always have a guest star but these past five years, we can't invite an Indonesian popular band because of the city regulation. But I have no idea how can my juniors do that. I can't lie my juniors are super cool, they did Gelar Semi Smanisda super great and I really appreciate what they all did. They  Here's a peek of their super cool GSS.

Second, I have really awesome fellas that make our dream come true. We, as seniors always get our own yearbook. With our complete full name, address, phone number, email and instagram. Not like in here, all of the grades are in year book and we need to pay for the same price with a really small photo and with those touching stories. But I don't want to pay that little photo with only seniors stories and not me in it. Okay, so my fellas back home, they really spent their sweat and tears for our yearbook. They spent their time in their senior years which is the hardest year ever for us in Indonesia, not like in here senior year can be so chill and they even have a period off which is so cool. This year they want to have something different. They don't want school design their yearbook, they want them design their yearbook. They want to use another company and another photographer. Okay I have no idea am I supposed to write 'they' or 'we' since I'm still counted as a student in their year and I'm in yearbook, also want a change but I wasn't there because of this exchange year. Anyway, the yearbook that they all fighting for it turns out so great even though it's more expensive. But guys, see it's a lot worth it. So this is the yearbook looks like and these people — thank you for working on it!

Last, I don't know about this. Am I supposed to put it in this topic or not. But I don't want to lose this memories. So, I have a best friend. Her name is Calista. And she is really awesome for me and I really don't want her to read this. Because you know, we never talk this sweet. But I do think that she is really cool. She can manage her time to do her work, then she also can get a good grades, she was active in Student Council as a treasurer and now she can make her parents proud of her. She get in the first place as the best student in social class. And she went on the stage. And I really hope she will never ever know I wrote this down.

Best Squad! CHYN
Yanuar - Calista - Nelva
I should be there :')

Bell rang, move to third period. We watched movie and I don't know the name. It's about kind of an old guy who live in an apartment. He always sit near by the window and watched the other people activity what they do daily. He's not like that creepy guy whose gonna haunt them down. I don't really understand the stories because we still have 30 minutes left. But I learned how people cheated, slander and lie about the truth. This is one of my pet peeves, why there are more people on earth lie about the truth and just be okay with that. You cut the trust and leave the burst. That's not cool man.

Skip fourth period because I really have a work to get done. But I got a time to have a little chit chat with my friend. I don't know why they tell me about the gang sign but that's a cool and new thing for me. Oh okay I know why, because I can bend my fingers all the way back and they said "but can you do this?". I thought it was like a tak ada manusia yang terlahir sempurna jokes (which is so uncool). So I don't wanna do that. But then my friends told me it was a gang sign and you can look it up in the Google.

So I didn't skip the fourth period then. Move to my fifth period. I got a text from someone and it says "Hey! You missed your blood drive appointment this morning, you can still come any time until 1 pm". Oh shoot I forgot about that. But I really need to read Into The Wild book. It's a good book that we are reading now and we gotta have a test soon. So I decided to wait until fifth period done.

We are in sixteenth chapter now. Today we listen to the recorder of the speaker for twelfth and thirteenth, we skipped fourteenth and fifteenth, then we read sixteenth out loud. There was a deep meaning. After these whole details that Krakauer gave to us, today it was the most important chapters to understand why. Family is the most possible way to influence our behavior. Found the wound of the family, might gave us a heart attack and a deep pain. But saving it and keep it for ourselves and never want to tell and ask the truth to one of family member? That's not even a choice.

We had tenth minutes left before our teacher let us go out from the class. Drrt drrt... I got a text from unknown number. It says "Hey! You missed your blood drive appointment this morning, you can still come any time until 1 pm". Oh shoot! I forgot that I need to go to the gym to donate my blood. Then I went there and I told them that I didn't eat, so they let me have a lunch first since I'm in C lunch and I'm so starving. And I'm kinda sick that day but I really want to donate so I bought a kind of healthy lunch. Then I went to the gym. And I wait for 10 minutes with my friends to get a health scanner. I told him that my blood type is AB- but I'm not sure because my mother and my father have rhesus positive. So the Indian scanner checked my blood type again and it mine is AB+ and I'm happy about that. So he asked me if I want to donate plasma, so he said it's a different kind of donation. Instead of helping 3 people, I can help 6 people in once. But it takes longer, about 25 minutes. And I really don't mind because it's going to be my first donation and I really want to donate. Then I answered a lot of question about health, sex and travel in their laptop. It's all a yes and no questions. I finished it but i waited for them for so long, then a lady came to me. She checked all of my answers and actually I passed all of those but there is one thing that they don't want to get my blood because I'm from Indonesia. They said we have malaria and they didn't want to take it. But I never have one. So, fine. I can't donate today. But at least I have a result of my health and he said it's good and I have no problem.

Then I went back to my sixth period, five minutes before the period ends. So I told her that I wasn't there because of the donate thing, then she said she didn't mark me as an absence. Aw! Then I went to my seventh period and do my work. Actually it's a group work. I have a partner but she wasn't in school so I finish it by myself. So we are going to present Andrew Carnegie tomorrow. I choose him because we learned about him in US History because his work that help economy in America. He is a Scotish. After moving to the United States, he worked a series of railroad jobs. By 1889 he owned Carnegie Steel Corporation. In 1901 he sold his business and dedicated his time to be a philanthropic and give away her wealth. This is one of my dream, to own my own business that I built from zero to hero. Then become a real philanthropic. Make everybody happy and found the true meaning of life.

Then I walked home as usual and found my host sister was in the car with her friend. They asked me if I want a ride but actually they asked me if I want to eat outside. So I said no because I wanted walk home. But if I knew they asked me out to eat, I would say yes because they went to Mexican Restaurant! Then I'm home and as always have a chit chat with my host mom. She cooked fried rice, I'm full, but I still ate some, haha. Then I did gardening. I'm kind of interested in it but I think I prefer to have garden with roof because I can't stand with sunlight, it hurts my eyes like for real. Help me by tell me why. And I found something cool if we have a garden. It teaches patience and carefully watchfulness, it makes me believe in tomorrow for the best and the other thing is, I'm enjoying see them grow nicely.

Siswa AFS dan YES berbeda kualitas?

Dulu Saya bermimpi untuk menjadi siswa pertukaran pelajar. Sama seperti siswa Indonesia lainnya. Banyak sekali program pertukaran pelajar untuk SMA seperti Sister School di beberapa SMA, Rotary dan AFS - YES. Tetapi Saya sadar, kemampuan Saya tidak sehebat siswa SMA Negeri 1 Sidoarjo lainnya. Bahkan siswa seluruh Indonesia yang hebat dan berbakat.

Sebelum Saya teruskan, tujuan Saya menulis artikel ini sebenarnya didasari oleh pertanyaan di sosial masa kini anak remaja yaitu ask fm. Banyak yang menanyakan pertanyaan yang kurang baik dan menyakiti beberapa pihak. Banyak yang tiba-tiba membuat kesimpulan anak AFS tidak sebaik anak YES. Tapi hal tersebut salah. Malah banyak sekali siswa Indonesia yang tidak mengikuti program ini atau gagal dalam tes untuk mengikuti program ini, jauh lebih baik dan sukses baik di pendidikan maupun karir. Dan Saya juga mau kasih beberapa info seputar pertukaran pelajar yang mungkin membantu teman-teman untuk menentukan pilihan.

Yang pertama yaitu sister school, setahu Saya sister school itu pertukaran pelajar antara sekolah Indonesia dengan sekolah di luar negeri untuk beberapa minggu. Contohnya tahun kemarin teman Saya dari SMA Negeri 5 Surabaya ke Australia dan sekolah Saya SMA Negeri 1 Sidoarjo pergi ke Jepang. Meskipun mereka diharuskan membayar sekitar sepuluh juta dan saya tidak tahu itu termasuk apa saja, tidak semua orang dipilih. Jadi misal kalian ambil bahasa jepang di sekolah kalian, belajar sungguh-sungguh dan mungkin saja guru akan menawarkan program tersebut ke kalian.

Lalu Rotary, banyak sekali siswa Indonesia yang mencoba Rotary. Nah program Ini harganya selangit. Saat itu Saya pernah melihat posternya, setiap tahap tes kita diharuskan membayar dan untuk program kita juga pastinya membayar dan itu belum termasuk biaya penerbangan dan uang saku yang juga tak kalah pentingnya. Nah Saya setelah baca-baca biasanya pendaftaran September sampai November. Daftar tahun Ini, berangkat tahun depan. Dan katanya ketika kita sampai di tujuan belum ada pembimbing yang jelas, itu hanya berita simpang siur. Banyak yang sudah mencoba dan selamat sampai tujuan dan rumah kok, jadi jangan khawatir.

Untuk sister school dan rotary Saya tidak berpengalaman dengan program itu, Saya mendapat secuplik gambaran biasanya dari hasil baca dan pengalaman teman-teman. Nah untuk program yang terakhir Ini Saya lebih familiar karena saya sedang menjalaninya sekarang, AFS namanya.

Banyak yang bingung antara AFS sama YES bedanya apa. Nah AFS ini nama organisasi besarnya dan hampir di seluruh dunia. Kalau di Indonesia namanya Bina AntarBudaya, itu seperti anaknya AFS gitu.

Nah biasanya kami bilang program AFS atau YES. Program AFS Ini Partial Scholarship, sedangkan YES Ini Full Scholarship. Partial Scholarship tentunya ada beberapa biaya yang perlu kita bayarkan, menurut pengalaman teman-teman, mereka membayar $10000an untuk tahun ini. Mahal? Memang sih. Tapi 10 bulan kawan. Pengalaman 10 bulan berharga sekali untuk dibandingkan dengan harganya. Katanya sih, kalau kita Isi full pledge, kemungkinan besar kita bisa lebih mudah mendapatkan programnya. Tetapi sekali lagi, program Ini bukan hanya berdasarkan besar uang yang bisa dibayarkan, tetapi kualitas siswa juga. Sedangkan program yang saya jalani ini program YES namanya. Untuk program ini gratis mulai penerbangan dan biaya program. Program ini disponsori oleh Kennedy Lugar Foundation. Setiap 1 bulan kami diberi $125 untuk keperluan sehari-hari. Tapi ada beberapa organisasi yang kasih $250 untuk 2 bulan dan ini nih yang bikin boros di bulan pertama. Kelihatan banyak ya, tapi keperluan kami disini banyak banget lo. Apalagi untuk Saya yang suka banget coba makanan baru, hihi.

AFS bisa mendapatkan penempatan di Asia, Eropa maupun Amerika. Sedangkan YES penempatan hanya di Amerika Karena visi YES yang sedikit berbeda. Program YES diadakan setelah peristiwa 9/11 di Amerika yang membuat orang disini lebih sensitif ketika mendengar ada orang Muslim. Tapi program ini bukan untuk orang beragama Islam saja. Program ini untuk sides yang berasal dari negara bermayoritas Muslim untuk datang me Amerika dan membantu membangun jembatan perdamaian.

Dan sedikit lagi secuplik informasi. Dulu pertama kali Saya mendaftar, ada dua pilihan program yang diberikan. Yaitu AFS dan YES. Dan jujur saja dulu Saya juga berfikir seperti yang teman-teman tanyakan. Saya dulu takut mendaftar program YES karena seperti yang sudah dijelaskan sebelumnya program YES merupakan Full Scholarship dan penempatan hanya di Amerika. Dulu Saya sangat pesimis dengan kemampuan Saya sehingga Saya memilih AFS. Tapi ternyata setelah beberapa tes Saya jalani saya diundang untuk mengikuti tes YES di Jakarta selama tiga hari dan viola, setelah satu setengah tahun Saya tes tahap 1, Saya diterima sebagai siswa YES dan Saya mendapatkan penempatan di Texas!

Kualitas siswa program AFS dan YES berbeda? Kami semua sama. Kami anak AFS. Sebelum keberangkatan kami semua menjalani hal yang sama yaitu Orientasi. Dan kami semua dibimbing oleh kakak-kakak senior Bina Antarbudaya AFS yang baik-baik dengan perilaku yang sama. Kami dibimbing dari hal terkecil tentang pemakaian beberapa alat mandi sampai hal terpenting tentang cara beradaptasi dan keyakinan. Kami semua sama-sama menjalani susah senangnya program pertukaran pelajar ini dengan warna langit yang berbeda. Baik siswa AFS dan YES sudah banyak yang mencetak prestasi di negeri orang. Jadi sudah dong para anon ask fm tanya yang asik-asik aja ya ❤

ask.fm/nelvakirana

Mother's Day Gift Idea For the Last Minute!

Tomorrow is a mother's day in America. On this day, most people pray in churches in honor of mothers, while some give them presents on this day to express their love. Some may have dinner at home with the family.

Some of us might be too busy to prepare a gifts for Mother's Day or we still can't drive but we want to give something but we don't know what to do. So here's what you can do for your Mom!

1. Cards
There are a lot of types of cards that you can buy for Mother's Day. Starts from $.50 - $7 depends on how cute your card is. You can get $.5 - $1 cards in Dollar Tree and actually there are a lot of cute and pretty cards. And then I also found some cards in Kroger $3 - $5 and some of them can sing! And then I also found some cards in Target $5 - $7. You can find a lot of cards in any stores like Walmart or Randall's. So choose any cards that shows who you are and you also can show how's your relationship with your Mother. And then if you are type of person who likes jokes, or like formality, elegance, or anything. Choose what you like and see how much money do you have! 😂

2. Balloons
Buy some balloons, it can be any balloons. You can choose the plain balloons and buy five of them. Or there are some balloons that you can buy in the store starts from $3 - $9 and there are some patterns and Happy Mother's Day-y words

3. Chocolates
Buy a medium or big box of chocolates. It cost like $10 - $35 or it depends what kind of chocolates and if you buy Godiva? Don't expect it will be cheap enough. Make sure your mother likes chocolates and don't make mother's day as an excuse so you can buy a lot of chocolates! 😂

4. Expensive Gifts or DIY?
It's all up to you!

5. Wishes Cards
Give wishes cards to our mother when it's a big day for her is a sweet gifts for her! You can make those cards by yourself. Cut hard paper (size A4) into 8 pieces and then write some things that you want to give to her. Like massage day, cleaning day, free time for mother day or anything you would like to give to her

6. Flowers
Buy five bucks of flowers and surprise her with flowers also a sweet things that you can do!

Anything you give to your mother is always sweet and meaningful to her. Having you is a gift that your mother always wanted. So give by your heart and give her a pride ❤

Helpless in Seashore

        If I would like to say about my exchange year, it is sucks. Maybe every exchange student's parents only think that we spent money to go to shopping and our friends think that we just went to some parties, our host families think that we just sleeping all day long and our classmates here think that we never do any homework because we are here just for the experiences and what we really do, it just, do everything what everybody thought about us! Hah. Not really actually, I still do my homework.

Credit

        I know right it sounds fun. It is fun actually. But sometimes it is sucks. I thought I will just see rainbow and butterfly, no flood or hurricane. But I really enjoy it. This is what we all learn, adjustment to life. That's where happiness come from. Isn't it good to realize that we can beat the rock like the paper do.

Credit

        Almost everyday, there is always something new, something that make us learn and sometimes we even can't retell and ask someone to understand us. It feels like I always want to write a letter and throw it in the middle of the sea and let the waves bring the bottle into the seashore and let the people read it but whenever I want to do that many dove's letter come to my window. Whenever I feel sad, dove's letter said surround yourself with love and they always said that I should never give up and tomorrow will be better. And this is what it is. In five minutes everything can be so different from uptown to downtown emotional area. And thank you dove's letter you always make my life brighter.

Keberangkatan dari Indonesia ke Washington

Berikut video yang saya buat sebagai siswa pertukaran pelajar AFS YES Bina AntarBudaya ke Texas.

Link video

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