I thought it would be warmer… BEcause in Yogya, the temperatures were like around 25, and even 37 at the noon… But here, wow… every time I breath, I could see it…!! White…!
Soo… After not updating so looong, I’m back. I supposed to report about all my trips around Indonesia lately, but still have no time to it.. And I’ll also report the trip in Japan… But not today… Need some sleep…
Euh, a quick news from me… I’m still here..! Only, couldn’t manage my time well, due to a lot of things to do: doing my green project for DYLA, practice for tWo debate competition, preparing new student orientation (I’m old already…!)…
So many stories, so many things to share… Just wait…
Now I’m in SUrabaya, having the debate… A nice city..!
Geez… It was terrible… I’ve sacrificed many things for this, only to find that they didn’t really have the guts to also do it.. Or maybe they do, it’s only the matter of time… Wish it will be better next time…!!
Unnecessary post, sorry… A little bit upset about punctuality… Who can stand waiting for 5 hours???? Why not everyone believe it’s really important to be punctual?!
Duh.
Btw. RIP for the king of pop… Really. One more proof that life is unexpected. Reminded me on the WCYF days, in the quiz night, there was a question, “What is the best selling album in the world??”. The committee giving clues, ‘it’s a he’, ‘he is still alive’, etc… Still, I couldn’t answer it… “Thriller”.
…
Now the clue would not be the same…
And we sang “We are the World” after the concert, together! A good memory…
Until I was in high school, I never know that Seven Wonders of the World are always changed every year. I mean, we used to memorize it in the elementary school, on the social science class: that The Sphinx and Pisa Tower and Borobudur and everything are an unchangeably Seven Wonders. They even ask about them in the test. So, it was kind of a general knowledge, just like, Rafflesia is the biggest flower in the world, and Yen is currency of Japan. It’s hardly to change.
But here I found that the Unesco committee actually always update this seven wonders thing. Which, if we thought it deeper, maybe fair. There are so many beautiful and unique places in the world, how come we can only appreciate seven of it? But still, it will make the student confuse then, the question on their quiz will might be like, ‘name the place of blahblah that became one of The Seven Wonders in 2000’, and the student could mistaken it with the one listed on 2001, or something like that.
Now the important thing is, who decide that? People from all over the world, indeed. At least, that’s the mechanism in this time. Only, the one who can vote is those who have access toward internet… After the committee select the nominee, then we, the citizen of the world, can give a voice. I don’t know about the old 7 wonders, how people vote, through letter?
However. Now I came to my point. On the voting about new 7 wonders, Indonesia nominate some of it’s places, and the one who last until now is Komodo National Park. An Island of Indonesia, where Komodo life.
Who never heard about Komodo? A living fossil of dinosaur, or you can call it as dragon, that only live in that Island?
Even Aiba Masaki –The funny guy from Arashi– have already seen them, the Komodo, on his Shimura Doubutsuen variety Show, right here in Indonesia (When he did funny things with the dragon.. Massaging them so they can get well from heat attack on the summer, and feed them..). Well, not in the Komodo Island but in Yogyakarta’s zoo, back then in 2006. But you get my point. And the people watching the movie was like, “oooh..!”.. Because they are so big and look powerful…
So, in the end, I’d like to encourage you to vote for Komodo National Park as one of the Seven Wonders in National Park category.. BEcause, only in this place you can see the living fossil. Not to mention that the Park itself is located in the beautiful Island of Indonesia. It’s a complete set..!
Here the links:
Got the lovely banner from this creative guy , thank you so much! Too bad I’m not really good in wordpress setting so I couldn’t put the banner on the sidebar.. BUt at least.. ^^
There’s a proverb said, a donkey will never fall into the same hole twice. Well. I’m not a donkey. So maybe it’s actually natural for us, as a human, to again and again doing same mistake things? It become a habit after all…
Now I’m surrounded by many tasks and responsibilities: Study for the final exam, ton of assignments for every subjects, practicing debate and deal with the administration thingy, writing for the special edition in journalist club, working on the lecturer’s research project, and many small private projects that should be finished.
The thing is, that kind of situation always happen on me occasionally. I remember posting ‘Oh-I’m-So-Busy’ writing (which was, euh) in my Indonesian blog several times. So, there is time when I have nothing to do except attending classes and go home and reading (books, manga, someone’s blog) as much as possible. But then, there are also times when I sleep less than 4 hours a day because too many things to do. I usually blame myself, saying that it’s my fault to keep postponing the assignments so in the end I should do it all in one time. But now I’m wondering whether it’s completely my fault. I mean, okay, postponing the assignments was my mistake. But, when it comes to the situational things, such as the research project, the competition, the newspaper… I can’t really expect it will happen in the same time right? Or should I anticipate it from the first place? That June-July should be the busy month? Hmm… Whatever. Now I lost my point why I’m writing about this.
This hectic also being one of my consideration to not continuing my effort in joining a leadership program held in Praha. I’ve got the information about the event from Mr. Google. I was excited knowing there will be another interesting international event, and signing immediately, writing passionate essays for it. But after it, I realize that the date of the event is nearly coincide with the debate competition that I’ve already assigned. Although I can still manage to go, still, preparing for both event (debate and the conference) will consume a lot of time and energy, not to mention the other things I should do in this month.
So, when the committee informed me that they accept me and need confirmation, I was really confused… But then, I should choose. And I decided to focus on the debate. Because this is my responsibility to perform as best as possible, shouldn’t be distracted by other. I shouldn’t violate my teammates that also want to win the competition. Based on the experience of preparing for WCYF, it’s sure that going to Praha will need a lot of preparation, not to mention the fundraising will be more difficult. In normal condition, I’m sure can handle it, but with the current condition… I really need to prioritize…
So, not now, Praha.. I wish I could make it, the beautiful place, the useful event… Moreover I can also see some of WCYF friends there.. But I won’t regret this decision after all..! Hope there will be another chance to get there… >_< However, I believe this decision making is also part of practicing about leadership, isn’t it..?
life is indeed unpredictable…
I was spending my Tuesday morning as usual (Having Industrial Psychology class), when the shocking news spread on the campus: Our beloved lecturer, Mr. Mustaq Firin, got a heart attack. We were shocked and pray for his health, but several minutes after that, the more shocking news came: He has already left us.
…
Everyone was shock. He was still young, died in the age of 40… His children are still young.. And he was the most funny lecturer in the campus… As for me, he is my academic advisor, and has helped me a lot in the matter of college stuff…
On my first year, we barely know each other since I still get general class about psychology. But after I got into 2nd year, I need to chose my class depend on my interest, I should consult more with the academic advisor, which was him. He give me proper information and funny suggestion… I also get his class last semester, Group Pyschology, and it was interesting…
More importantly, he also help me in the scholarship application procedure… Giving letter of recommendations and stuff like that. Although I didn’t get those scholarship, I still thank him a lot for it…
What make me feel like, “Whaaat..?” was, because it’s too sudden… Several days before it, I met him coincidentally in the Post Office. He smile and guessed that I sent a scholarship application again (which was quite true but not really…), and wish for me to get it… >_<
Still can’t believe it but it’s true. His room now are empty… I still want to cry when passing the room…
But we should release him.. Rest in Peace, Mr Firin…
One more thing, his account on Facebook now is still accepting a lot of comments, saying farewell to him… Which make it more sad… It’s as if he is still there in the internet world, his face smiling on the profile picture…
Culinary report from Korea part 2! So, after leaving half of my heart in WCYF, we went to Seoul and rent a very nice hostel there… They provide kitchen and we can cook anything there (brings our own ingredients), but of course we decided to eat in Korean restaurants. Thanks a lot to Mbak Ossa and Mas Richo that have guided us so we can enjoy nice places and delicious foods..!
Our first dinner was in a small shop near Nandaemun Market . this shop provided many kind of noodle but there were also other menus. I’m not sure, because in the end most of us ate various kind of noodle, only Davina who ate Bibimbap, rice and vegetables and eggs and spices mixed in one bowl…
I picked the most usual dishes in the menu, Ramen, because it was the cheapest one and I was curious, will it different with Japanese ramen? And they gave me a huge bowl of noodle, with small pieces of carrot… But mostly it only noodles, without naruto or nori or everything. It taste good for me, salty and spicy, but the others said it was like double portion of Indomie, instant noodle in Indonesia, and I can’t disagree with them. However for me, the flavor was ok, better than Japanese ramen that rather plain (not the real one though, taste the J-one from J-resto in Yogyakarta)…
Then Assed had Ramen Topokgi, kind of Fried-Noodle with Topokgi as the topping. Topokgi is spicy rice cake. Then his ramen was very very spicy, it was like all the other flavor beside the spiciness has been beaten so what we can taste is only the chilis. My ramen was better.
This is my lunch in a small shop near our hostel. I forget the name, hard to spells, but looks like curry-rice..? The brown liquid was sweet, consisted of chicken and leek (in which, leek has greater proportion). I like it but I prefer Davina’s Fried Rice because it was more spicy (But Davi said she like mine better.. ^^ )…
Oh by the way, in every single shop we visit, they always serve a set of side dishes, consist of Kimchi and other pickles. Every shop have different variation of kimchi and pickles anyway. Some of them was good, some of them not… I like the side dish on the right side, the grey one, it was a fish-pasta and the taste was good. But the yellow radish on the picture? It just weird…
This is Chirashi sushi from Japan booth in Seoul Friendship Festival.. Too plain, unrecognizable ingredients (except the nori).. I actually wanted Takoyaki but the queue was sooo long while I’ve been hungry already, so…
This is Bakso and Chicken Satay from Indonesian booth.
The satay was delicious, though it was the most expensive Sate I’ve ever eaten.. 1000 Won per-piece? In Indonesia you could get 10 or more pieces..! But it worthed, because the pieces were big and the nut-spices was ok. I was happy and proud, seeing Korean and other foreigner buying and enjoying those food… What made it funny was, the chefs that create those dishes were actually diplomats.. So, for those who want to be a diplomat, the requirement is not only to be smart in diplomatic thingy, but also, cooking ability! Haha…
In shop near Ewha women Univ, we order one menu to be eaten together by everyone. And I always forget to write the foods name. Sorry! However, the uniqueness of the food was, there were two stages in eating this food. The first one, they serve the food like this:
On top of the vegetables was seasoned octopus, chicken, and tokpogi. You (yes you may cook it by yourself) heat it in mixed all the season, then eat the food along with the soup-like-egg they provided beside the stove… It was good, although I like the egg better…
When the food on the frying pan (or wok?) has almost left, the shop owner come and provide the ingredients for second stage of the food: rices, cheese, and nori…
She put the chopped cheese (I assumed it was mozzarella, for the effect made by it later), mixed with the residue of octopus-chicken-topokgi-veggie combination, then add the rice and nori later, mixing it again, then she flatten the food on the frying pan so it was like a rice pizza or something…
We wait until the side of this thing being crunchy, then ate it.. And it was delicious..! Better than the first stage, in my humble opinion. Never though the combination of cheese and nori and rice will be that good!
Speaking about pizza.. We also ate something more pizza like in the shops near Kyung Hee Seoul Campus. It was also delicious, so many octopus inside the flour.. But it was also the second stage of the food, the first one is kind of boiled vegetable & seafood (more octopus, but they also give shells and shrimps there).. While all of us thing the pizza one was better, we have full already so it was really hard to finish the pizza…
It was interesting that all shops we visited never serve any beverage except mineral water. In Indonesia, every shop always give at least two kind of beverage, ice tea or orange juice, in other shops you can also find juices and others.
Seems that they have special stores for the beverages … Me & Davi once have opportunity to eat the desert, Ice Tower treated by our new friends. We ate it in the dormitory cafeteria of Kyung Hee Univ. The left one is ice cream with strawberry and banana, the right one is ice cream with more fruit like kiwi, banana, even beans.. I like both of them! But when I have to chose, I prefer the first one, because I like the sweet-sour sensation from it.
Fruit Ice, which literally mean it. Kiwi juice frozen by nitrogen (Assed & Mas Richo’s hypothesis), the taste was somehow similar with banana juice..?
Last.. This is the front side from one of the shops.. Very cute, isn’t it…?
Intermezzo before continuing the culinary report from Korea…
I’m now listening to them, group named Kalafina…
Soundtrack specialist..?
They are group singer created by Yuki Kajiura, a great composer that has created many anime & game soundtrack. Kalafina was formed for that purposed also, their first single is soundtrack for kara no Kyokai anime (if I’m not mistaken. Haven’t watch it).
I also know them from one of my most favorite anime, Kuroshitsuji (Now I feel useless, only linking the things to Wikipedia.. Duh, everyone can search by themselves, if it’s only in wiki..). They sang for 2nd ending of this anime, the title is Lacrimosa… While the first ending was somehow cheerful, the second one feel so dark and sad… Very suitable with the flow of the anime, that become darker and darker (not literally, you know what I mean lah)… Listening the song made me want to cry (because I’m reminded to the ending of the anime, which was good but sad… T_T)… The song have gothic nuance in it, church-songlike but darker (can I just use other term than dark?? No, limited vocab problem >_<), very rich of orchestra or electronic musical instrument which make the song feel quite mysterious… The voices are strong, and beautiful… I like both the falsetto and the alto..
Then I googling and found their other songs and they also good..! They have their own characteristic… It’s quite different with FictionJunction, another Yuki Kajiura’s project that also song anime soundtrack (Which also have nice songs)… Their PV is fairy-world like, or gothic-ish..
I don’t know whether I’ll be able to write my whole travel stories, because so many things to do here, more over I’ve already written a travel journal while I was in Korea, so it will be tiring for me to re-write the same things.. So I’ll just write some random stuff about it, now and maybe later if I suddenly got inspiration. For this post, I want to talk about the food things.
Before I came to Korea, I’ve expected that Korean food would be spicy and everything, thus, I shouldn’t be worry with food things. Many Indonesian food are spicy and I love them (especially Rendang! Meat boiled with special ingredients for hours that make it dark and spicy). The reality was, some of their food indeed spicy, but somehow in different way with our food here. I suppose it because they use different chili or spices.
So my first food in Korea was… Californian Roll sold in Airport Convenience Store (Named Mini Stop). It was delicious (and later on I found it was quite cheap, only 1000 Won, compared with usual food which is 3000-6000 Won), enough to fulfill your hunger. They have several flavor, and the worker in Mini Stop was kindly told me what is the flavor for each product. My favorite one is Tuna+Kimchi. Safe to be eaten, and a little spicy.
tuna kimchi rocks
Then, lunch and dinner provided by the hotel was seafood, kind of Cap-chai in Chinese food. It was quite okay, though some people getting bored with seafood. I bet the committee has though a lot about the food, they asked the participant whether they have food allergies or prohibition on the email.
the soup was also good
Then the breakfast provided by hotel was consist of two different style, western and korean. Mostly people combine it, eating bread with kimchi and soup, or rice with salad and scramble egg, or anything. I also create perfect combination of bread + nori (seaweed, which Stefani said were tastier than Japanese nori) + scrambled egg + kimchi + salad + cereal as desert… It was good…!!
amazing combination ever!
On the event days, the lunch were usually provided in lunch box.. My first bento! It was delicious, they have so many side dish there..
My first crabstick
And the dinner was held in the campus cafetaria. It was buffet style, more variation but still a lot of seafood there. Not a problem for me. Moreover it was very nice for them to provide a writing explanation about what the food is, so I don’t have to ask people again and again, to avoid eating pork… So I usually take fish or octopus (fried one or other). But on the last day, they provide Beef as the choice! Bulgogi! And it was the best dish from the cafeteria, IMHO… Just why it appear very late…
octopus and octopus...
But the first dinner on the campus was quite different, it was kind of buffet with various cakes, modern and traditional. I forget to take the picture of it afterall.. What I like most (beside the modern little fruit pie) was green cake with nut pasta inside it… This the closest picture about the cake party (which I thought as welcoming party but then not). Oh and one of the girl ask me to drink their traditional beverage, made from rice.. BUt not sake! It was strangely sweet, but after you finish drink the water, there were wet rices left and they said it also could be eaten (!).
we ate a lot LOL
Next part is the real korean food, which we ate when we were wandering around Seoul on the last 2 days… Wait for it…!! Bibimbap and tokpogi and everythings…!! And even Sate..! Indonesian Sate in Korea.. How could it be there?
Sweet food for sweet girls...!
Trying Ice Tower with Moram and In Soo… Very nice new friends..! Come to Yogyakarta and I’ll take you to eat Ice Dawet here…! Ehehe…
