Never Exist

       Dua bulan sudah saya berada di Texas. Rasa senang, sedih, bahagia, kecewa, sudah saya lalui. Begitu pula dengan duta cilik lainnya. Meskipun kami sudah berada di titik ini, dimana orang lain mengira menjadi siswa pertukaran pelajar itu hanya bermain, pergi ke pesta, belanja, santai, travel dan kesenangan lainnya. Mungkin ekspektasi kami sebelum berangkat seperti itu. Tapi setelah kami dididik dan diberi pengertian lebih makna program pertukaran pelajar susungguhnya serta diberi nama kecil Young Ambassador. Kami mulai paham, merepresentasikan Indonesia, bangsa kita, itu tidak mudah. Sekecil apapun hal yang kita lakukan, perkataan yang kita ucapkan, berbagai ide yang kita ungkapkan, semuanya merepresentasikan bangsa kita.

       Bagiku, hal itu tidaklah mudah. Aku baru sadar, selama di Indonesia, dimana-mana dekat, setiap minggu mau ke mall, mau nonton film, mau makan di restaurant, langsung jalan tanpa rencana. Sedangkan disini, pergi ke mallpun direncanakan seminggu sebelumnya. Selama ini aku terbiasa menjadi anak semata wayang yang kurang mengerti arti berbagi, aku juga terbiasa dengan tatak, sedangkan disini semuanya terencana, baik dari hari ini makan apa sampai mau liburan kemana, terbiasa dengan telat tiga puluh menit yang tidak pernah menjadi masalah dan sekarang telat lima menitpun menjadi tanda tanya, dari yang dulu berangkat ke sekolah tergantung mau berangkat jam berapa sedangkan sekarang harus berada di tempat bis sekolah menunggu tepat waktu, yang dulu sarapan sudah siap sekarang setiap pagi harus kreatif untuk membuat sarapan, tidak hanya sarapan, makan siangpun juga aku siapkan sedari pagi, karena seperti yang kita tahu, rupiah kalah jauh dengan dollar.

       Teringat kata bapak aku, kalau hal baik tidak dimulai sedari sekarang, susahnya akan terasa, kebiasaan tidak mudah untuk diubah. Meskipun hal ini terlihat simple, tapi tetap aku merasakan ini bukan zona nyamanku. Aku kira, selama di Indonesia, mengikuti berbagai aktivitas, menyibukkan diri dengan berbagai hal, merupakan salah satu cara keluar dari zona nyaman dan lebih produktif. Ternyata setelah aku berada disini, aku sadar itu bukanlah apa-apa, mungkin itu masih tiga persen aku jauh dari zona nyamanku. Dan mungkin apa yang aku hadapi sekarang, berarti nothing suatu saat nanti. Tapi dari sini aku belajar, kebiasaan yang kita sepelekan, kebiasaan yang kita pikir bisa berubah dengan bimsalabim selama sekejap, is never exist. 

School Life in American High School

              You must be doing well in American School, it must be so much fun to study there, you must be really popular there, it's easy isn't it?

              People thought that being an exchange student is all about culinary, travel and party. No, it's not. Being an exchange student is just being the normal kids like another kids do. The difference is I'm an alien here. 

              The first time I got here, it was really stressful. You know why. But then, some of my friends asked me to go to hangout somewhere. Now I know that being an exchange student to America and to Indonesia it's different. I knew some exchange student who went to Indonesia they could get friends easily because they are the real alien, they are knowable. But for the exchange student to America, it's so much different. Yes, we are aliens. But we were unknowable, people just didn't care who we are. Because in here, there are a lot of ethnics, from ginger to black hair, from light skin to dark skin or from gold hair to grey hair. People didn't really recognize that we are an exchange student until we introduce ourselves to them. Now I know why we can't compare between my exchange year and another exchange student's exchange year. Even though we are in the same place or the same school, we can't just make ourselves feel bad about what we face on. All we can do is just share our stories, learn how another student can get some friends and ask for help to our friends. There must be a way out.

              We are here for 10 months only, all of us want to have a great exchange year. Great exchange year starts form ourselves, are we gonna survive from these, or we just wanna stay in our comfort zone. It is our choice. Only think and do nothing really wasting our time. If we want to have a good experience by our own we need to use our time wisely and focus. I know it's hard, guys. Let's work hard together and try our best. This is our year, stop wishing and start doing because your future will thank you for what you doing today.

              And now, I want to let you guys sneak peek on my American School, you can easily click on this video below.

Thank you!

Thanks AFS/KL YES - AYUSA - BINA ANTARBUDAYA

School Supplies

              Almost every teacher in my American school asked their students to buy some school supplies. In Indonesia, we can use any school supplies that we want. But here, the teachers has a school supplies for students already. And, if we buy as what the teachers want, we can get a free pass homework or extra credit points. I thought, we must buy all of them, so I bought everything as what they ask. Well, then.  

              Now, for you who planned to study to America as high school students or you just want to buy some school supplies or you just want to read this post or gundam enthusiast. Here we go I write a little review about some school supplies that I bought in Target so you can choose wisely. These are the simple things that sometimes we might don't really care but if we realize that we choose the wrong choice, ugh, it's annoying.

1. Binder

Left $2.47 - Right $3.50

Ring Binder 1

Ring Binder 2

              As we can see the second binder have more some dividers, folder and ruler. But the folder doesn't work really good for me, because it's too thin so its only 10 papers. So, before we choose which binder, besides its color, we also should see what's inside. They are really big and in my first week of school I bought two backpacks because I didn't have a big backpack.

2. Composition Book 

3. Filler Paper

Filler Paper $0.99 - Composition Book $2.29

              They are really important so you don't need to worry are you going to use it or no. But, usually the teachers tell you what they want. Is it binder or composition book, so keep an eye on the list so you don't waste your money and there is no school supplies leftovers.

4. Colored Pencils

5. Dry Erase Marker

6. Mechanic Pencils

Colored Pencils $0.97
Dry Erase Markers $5.89
Mechanic Pencil $1.17

              Again, these stuffs aren't the stationary that I want. I collected all of these to my teachers already. Mine? I didn't buy some pens or pencils for me. I'm an exchange students and I bought some pens from Indonesia. I don't know why I brought a pack of pens. But it's really helpful tho. It's been a month but I still have some. Because in here, we don't write as much as we do in my home country. And sometimes the teachers gives the fun assignment with coloring or gluing the task and they already have some school supplies from students so we don't need to buy anymore. Or when grading, of course we need pen with different color or highlighter, they have some already. So, just bring two pens for school, it's a lazy simple tricks. What about pencil? I'm not a pencil person.

7. Maped Binder

              Well, another binder. But these binders fit better for me. Because this side of binder is thinner than the first binder that I told you. So those two binders fits well in my backpack. I bought two of them with different sizes. The white binder has large enough pocket as we can see in the photos and some colorful dividers. And the black binder has some cool dividers, each divider has its pocket. But, it doesn;t fit well with my filler paper because it's too small. So it just broke my paper.

8. Notebook

9. Blank Journal

Cambridge Notebook $9.99 - Blank Journal $5.49

              I like this big notebook because its cover and we can tear them off easily because it has perforated and we can put them in our binder because it has perforation. And the blank journal actually it's for my planner. It has no date because planner didn't really work with me. Because they already have their own box for date and list to do and description and I just don't like it. So I prefer to use this blank journal because it has small size, it has the book tag and again, its cover. So, I usually write any tasks, assignment, reminder for quizzes or tests and homework that I have or what the teachers gives in one day and usually I use one page for each day and it's pretty simple for me. 

10. Folder Two Pockets

11. Folder with Prong

Folder Two Pocket $ 1.25 - Folder Pocket and Prong $ 1.25

              These are my real binder, now I never bring my binder because they just too big and I still have a big text book to bring. So I just bring these two binders. Folder two pockets has thinner shape but has a bigger pocket and my stuffs easily feel out. And the second one, folder with prong, of course it's thicker because it has prong inside. But I only use this folder for AP Stats because my teacher told us to put our homework in one folder.

              The next stuffs aren't what my teachers ask for. Girls are more emotional than the boys, so pretty things will boost your mood and girls need this.

12. Wall Calendar

13. Scrapbook Sticker

Wall Calendar $9.99 - Scrapbook Sticker $ 2.99

              Sometimes we have fear of missing on something. So cute wall calendar is a good thing to hang on our walls. Scrapbook stickers also a great decoration for our books or you just want to stick them on your stuffs.

14. Scrapbook Embellishment Fabric Flower

Scrapbook Embellishment Fabric Flower $ 6.99

              I like to stick these flowers on my room's door and on the top of my perfume bottle.

15. Glitter Papers

Glitter Papers $5.99

              Easy to cut and wrap. Make any patterns what you want as easy as origami. But of course you don't want to waste your glitter paper easily. You can make a decoration for your composition book or scrapbook.

16. Scotch Craft Tape

17. Scrapbook Paper

Pink Scotch Craft Tape $5.99 - Scrapbook Paper $9.99

              I decorated my composition book by wrap it with scotch craft tape. It has pink color with glitter and it's really sticky. If you like to take a picture and need cute background scrapbook paper can be a good idea. I took some photos with it and it looks pwetty.
              Actually my teachers also ask for tissue and hand sanitizer, but y'all already know lah ya. Semoga jadi pandangan ya untuk kalian yang mau studi ke Amerika.

              Massive thank you 07something.wordpress.com for this precious gundam. Gundam enthusiast? Stay on his blog, he'll do reviews and share his WIPs about this gundam.

Sweet Seventeen?

3 de Septiembre 2015

Sweet seventeen,

Sweet seventeen is a coming age party celebrating a female birthday in Indonesia. Why only a girl? Generally men don't care about birthday. In another country it might be different. In America they have sweet sixteen, Spanish has sweet fifteen and Indonesia has sweet seventeen.

Why sweet seventeen? I'm not really sure why, but guess what, your day of birth is the same with your sweet seventeen day. And well, it's happen to me. My born day is Thursday and my sweet seventeen day also Thursday.

Bitter sweet comes!

Penampakan 17 tahun

Now, me and another people in this world turning seventeen. It means that we should be better than last year. We will make a ton decision that can make us wiser and wiser. We will have more responsibility and so on.

Bitter,

I wonder why time go so fast. People said, time flies when you are having fun. Yes it is. But, some peeps said, The older you get, the faster time seems to go. Yea, as we age, time flies whether we are having fun or not. And now it's our choice whether we use our time wisely or not.

Have a sweet seventeen in the different country feels so different. In here, they have sweet sixteen, it means that I missed it. I just imagine if I still in Indonesia and have a sweet seventeen in Indonesia. I'll start to make Indonesian Identity Card and Drive License and do silly things like my friends did. Show off to the police that we have a driver license. I miss them.

Sweet,

I'm blessed. I already get a chance to study in America. I have a good host family here. I have a great family in Indonesia who always support me and I have a bunch of good friends who stay in touch with me even the time differences is twelve hours.

They also gave me some birthday gifts which is so sweet. Here they are.

Gift from gurls clique

Gift from buddies

Gift from best friends

My host dad made this

Gift Card of Victoria Secret from Host Parent

Muchas Gracias, Ina!

Gift from Dentang

Gift from best buddy; Calista (left) and from CHYN; Calista, Hafidh. Yayan and Nelva (right)



Gift from Hafedh

Thank you so much, guys.


It's A Secret, Please Tell Nobody #Friends

I thought making friends in another country is easy

I thought it will be the same

I thought they will recognize me that I'm a foreign exchange student

Exactly none of these is true.

Yes it is hard

Yes it is so different

Yes they just don't care at all

Okay, please tell nobody.

So, being a foreign exchange student is hard. Being everybody is hard. Nothing's easy if we are not get used to doing what we never do. We have our own problem because we are special. So, what should we do if we have these problems? Just give up. No, we must rise and shine.

Before those things happen in our life, we should remember to maintain our expectation. My seniors told us about expectation, expectation and expectation. Something that we think is impossible, they might be possible. And something that we think is possible, it might be impossible at all.

And I thought there will be no problem in my exchange year. Everything will be alright. It will be so easy to make a bunch of friends and I just need to go with the flow. I know it looks like the simple thing and unimportant thing. But, it is not.

It matters so much whether we have friends or being lonely.

Friends are the special person besides our family. They also can make our day. They are the only peeps that we can talk to if we can't reach our family.

Then, how to make friends if we know nobody in the school? Find any strangers at school.

Whoever they are, just talk to them, introduce yourself, tell to them that you are an exchange student or a new student or a freshman. The only way to have a bunch of friends is talking to a stranger. As long as you got some friends, you will feel more confidence and it will make your day. And a good day will boost your mood. Then you can do everything as good as you can do. And it will be easier for you to study at school.

If you are an exchange student we need more effort because the language might be so different and your new school has moving class system which is so different. So the first thing to do is just be brave to introduce yourself, tell them that you are an exchange student and maybe you need help just tell them. We can get some friends from every class that we attend. Sometimes they just don't understand what we say. It is okay, it's normal. As time as goes by, we will be more fluently than before.

Don't forget to tell every teacher that you are an exchange student, especially if your new school has moving class system so they will help you a lot. They can be interesting with your home country and so on.

Dawson High School Cafeteria

Then, I want to tell you what should we do if we are a new student, know nobody, our grade is junior which is in the middle, we need some friends in the same age and we need friends at cafeteria.

Ask their help.

Because everybody have their own spot with their besties. You know what, on my first and second day of school, I just choose random seat which is taken already and they were so quiet or talked a lot to their besties and didn't say a word to me. Pukpuk.

But finally, on the third day of school, I already know some friends in the each class. I have an English class before lunch time. Then I asked my friend to help me because I don't know where should I sit in the cafeteria. And finally, she let me to sit with them. And they are so good. Really good and I'm so happy. Finally.

Please tell nobody.

The point is, ask their help, if you already meet another junior which is click with you, ask their help, ask their spot, ask what time they have lunch and you are not lonely anymore.

Suerte!

Tag: How to make friends as an exchange student

Second Day of High School

I woke up earlier today and finally I got my bus. I was so sleepy so I just keep quite in the bus and it was dark outside. And the bus was late, she came at 6.33. But that was okay, I still have a couple of minutes to hangout in my school.


But, I went in the wrong class. I didn't know if I should go to the homeroom first. I thought the schedule is normal already so I went to the Statistics Class which is on the second floor. After my teacher gave the blue schedule to my friends and I just realize that I must go to the home run first and get my new schedule. But then I forgot what was the number of my home run class number. So I went back to the first floor and asked about that.




Tired. Yea of course. My home run is on the third floor and it was in the corner like really corner. And my teacher wrote "Absence" in my schedule but lucky me I got the young teacher so she didn't gave me a tardy.

And almost the teachers only told their stories but in Statistics AP, we got our homework already.

And for my Personal Fitness class, because we still bring no sports wear and any needed stuffs, so we have some time to hangout in the locker room and which is only for GYM.


Some of the class in the first level have a requirement like we should pay some money. As I knew they starts from $10 to $100. As I knew. I think it's for the costume or any other stuffs needed. But not all of them need money.

But still, the teacher told us to buy some school supplies. It is like a box of tissue, a pack of marker, a pack of color pencil, a pack of mechanic pencil, a 3 ring binder, fish food and any other stuff. I'll tell you later in my next post because I already bought some of my school supplies. Yay.

Ohya, today, it was rainy. And Texan said that it was a great weather. And I didn't bring any umbrella so yea, I was wet. But that's okay. I went in the right bus. Finally.

How Did I Survive: First Day of School

First of all, let me tell you that today is my first day of school. I woke up at 4.30 a.m. It was too early. I know that. That's why I went to sleep again. And then my next alarm rang, it was 5.00 a.m. And I don't know why I woke up at 6.04. I thought I already wake up.


Dang! Then I was in hurry. I took a shower and ate a banana and ran to the bust stop, it was 6.33 a.m. And the bus should be there at 6.28. And yea. I was late for my first school day. Lucky me my host dad wanna pick me up. And the school started at 7.15.

At school.

It was so hectic. There were a lot of people there. I can't breath. My first class is on the third floor. Actually it just my home run. And it was on the corner like really corner. Phew. And then my next class is outside the building and on the first floor. And then my next class is on the third floor again and second floor and so on.



So, it was really hectic. Because it was the first time I got the moving class stuffs. And I know nothing about Dawson HS. You can imagine it.

If you can.

So, everyday I have 7 classes and all of the teacher ask us to buy special school supplies. It's like there is a teacher wanna a binder with the big size and plain color, tissue, spiral book and any others book. Lucky me I still have some money to spend because I got some stipend for this exchange year. And the teachers gave us some papers, they are the class rules and something like agreement and need our parent's signature.

But the good thing is, even I have 7 classes everyday. I felt like my class wasn't boring because they only took 40 until 47 minutes each class but well I have 5 minutes to move from each class. We should be in hurry. Or maybe it just me because it was my first time to do this.

And then, lunch time in the fifth period! Finally. It took 31 minutes. And I bought kebab, small rice, cookies and chocolate milk. It was a big lunch. I know that, I'm starving. I only had banana and water in the morning. And so hectic. I got two more classes.

#TheGoodNewsIs
Almost all of the classes have no test. But they have weekly quiz and it is online, at least we can looking up the answers. And for the test, there is test in the end of the semester but it's only for Statistics  AP and US History classes.

And then, again, next mistake, I took the wrong bus. Thank you Ms Holley (Bus Driver).

The end.