Peace, Is It the Answer?

Source: www.cfri.org

What is peace? Maybe people are questioning about this now, as the current worldwide-booming issues are about war, terrorism or stuffs like that. Peace, in my opinion, is when people are supporting each other with no hatred and suspicion between them. Peace is the thing that will bring us happiness and joy. Peace is the answer, the solution of all the issues I mentioned before.

But the question is, perhaps, how to make peace? Sceptical people would probably deny the probability of this world being peaceful enough, so that there would not be any problem anymore. The reason could be because of the war and problems has been occurring for a really long time; so long until to stop them feels impossible.

Me? I can state for sure that I’m not one of those people. I believe that there’s a way to start peace; the first step is by opening our mind to understand each other. I like this quote from Albert Einstein, “Peace cannot be kept by force – it can only be achieved by understanding.” It’s true, isn’t it? But the first step in everything is always the trickiest part. I don’t say hard, it’s not easy to change our way of thinking but I believe it is not hard too; it’s tricky. In doing this step, we need to know when to change our mind, but we also can’t forget when not to. To keep these things in balance is perhaps the key; not only the key to peace, but also the key to a better condition that can support peace in the future. By holding our principle tight, I believe there will be a diversity of thought that could always maintain our head to be open-minded.

The next step is a lot easier. With our mind being more open to what others think, it will be easy for us to solve our problems. Like I’ve pointed before, peace is the answer for all of them. Last but not least, we need to maintain peace we have after we solve all the things. This, in my opinion, is the hardest part. To achieve something is hard, but to keep what we achieve is harder. Right?

Even so, what we need to focus right now is to start peace. There is a really nice quote from Mother Theresa that could perhaps sum up all my writing:

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

And I believe now is the right time to realize our bond with each other; now is the right time for peace.

A Good Leader

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. - John Maxwell

In order to have an organisation works, there must be a person who leads it. The right person, of course. In high school, the organisation that gain much attention from the students is the Organisasi Siswa Intra Sekolah (OSIS) or if translated, the student council. It supervises the extracurricular held in school and holds events for the whole school. To do the tasks, I believe it needs to have the right person to have the leader position. He/she needs to be good at communication skill, charismatic, wise and creative, while of course goal-minded.

Firstly, communication is important as it is what the leader has to do every day. He/she needs to communicate with his/her team, the teachers, etc. In order to do this nicely, the leader has to have the charisma. He/she needs to be able to persuade people that his/her way of thinking is right, but at the same time, also be open-minded enough to what people thinks. This is what I mean by wise, beside deciding not for one's benefit.

Secondly, creativity. The main task of the council is to hold events, as I have written here before. To make an event succeed, of course it has to have a good theme and concept. Beside, the leader will also need creativity when he/she deals with people, as each people has different characters and thought.

Lastly, the goals are important to make the works of the council purposeful. Without goals, there won't be any parameter of success, which I believe is determined with the goals made before. In order to work, we need to know what we are going to do, right?

As for many criteria listed, being a leader seems to be hard. It is, but once someone is able to fulfill all the criteria, he/she will be remembered forever as a leader with great communication skill and charisma, wise in choosing, creative and succeed at fulfilling his/her goals (vision) he/she made before. In other words, a good leader.

City Tour: Don Woori, Be Happy

The place I last visited in Bandung was Don Woori, a Korean restaurant which is located in Jln. Lombok no. 53, behind KFC Riau. Bellin held her 15th birthday party there, with our class and her junior high friends as the guests.

The interior's really good; I instantly fell in love with the combination of pastel colours, with blue as the dominant colour. With "Don Woori, Be Happy" as its slogan, it is a shabu and suki restaurant. To eat, we can order or easily take some food from the food rack and boil it in the pan put on each table. There are two types of soup in the pan; miso and tom yam.

In my opinion, the restaurant's food is really delicious. I ate some sushis which I took from the rack I mentioned before. I didn't ask for their names, I just took it directly as they looked really delicious hehe :)

I ordered white grape juice as drink, but what I suggest you to try is kiwi juice. It was my friend's drink, and really, it tasted great. It was somehow sweet, but not really sweet... just right.

Don't forget to also try the sauce given in a small, round plate. I'm really sorry for not knowing many details, but it was dark red in colour. The taste is undescribable... it's not only me who think like this, but also my friends. Even they were the ones who offered me.

Okay, readers, are you interested enough? Remember, to be satisfied you need this thing; the last but the most important thing, you've got to enjoy your time there. Because don woori, be happy!

Prepare you stomach for delicious food and drinks!

What OSN Medalists Said about Dreams and Competitions: Interview

Recently, I and chosen students from all over Indonesia joined Olimpiade Sains Nasional (OSN, or if translated National Science Olympiad) SMA 2015 in Yogyakarta. There are nine subjects competed every year; Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer/Information Technology, Biology, Astronomy, Economy, Earth Science and Geography. The participants of each subject range from 72 to 80 students, which is the number of Biology branch participants, the subject I competed in.

The students must do some tests; in Biology, there are two types, practical and theory tests. The practical test is divided into four sub-subjects, this year they were Plant Anatomy and Physiology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Animal Anatomy and Physiology and Microbiology and Molecular Biology. Each practical test took 90-100 minutes, in which the participants had to complete worksheets about the practice and solve some analytical problems. The theory test has two sessions every year, Theory A and Theory B, with the time given to finish each is 3 hours.

There are 30 medals given to the participants with highest points; 5 golds, 10 silvers and 15 bronzes. The medalists will then be called to join a selection for representing Indonesia in International Science Olympiad in the following year.

The OSN bronze medalists of some subjects; one of them is Biology.

I can say, winning the OSN is what many people dream of. For that, people do a lot of things; like study harder, pray more often, etc. They -we- also sacrifice things like their time in school, which in my opinion is a big sacrifice as in Olympiad we only learn one subject but in school, we need to be good at many. The time used to prepare and compete in the OSN may lead to inability in doing school tasks and tests, which may result to lower grades and ranks. Many Olympiad participants still tops their class, though, as they work hard just as soon as they got back from the competition. To me, OSN is the place to work hard, to be mature despite the consequences and the chance of losing, to be brave enough to dream, and the most important thing: to know Allah more. Because of that, I choose this topic for my English interview task.

In this post, I am going to write about my interview with two of the Biology participants. They are Kak Muhammad Iqbal Pratama, an SMAN 5 Surabaya 11-grader and Salsabiilaa Roihanah, a student of SMP Semesta Bilingual Boarding School Semarang. Yes, she's still a junior high school student. The rule of OSN SMA allows 9th grade students to join to competition, beside of course, 10th and 11th grader. I know them from trainings I joined. They both, alhamdulillaah, won bronze medals.

I interviewed them in different occasion, and here's what I asked them along with their answers.

How did you know about your passing to the OSN for the first time? How was your feeling?

Kak Iqbal:  I know my passing to the OSN from one of my senior, and then I checked it on the Internet. I felt surprised and thankful to Allah.

Salsa:  I was so thankful and grateful. It was rather unexpected. The announcement was on the same week with my school examination (I WAS a ninth grader, which had been facing various examination to graduate). But I was a little bit sad, knowing some of my seniors couldn't make it to the nationals.

What did you do to prepare for the Olympiad? For how long did you do that?

Kak Iqbal: I studied theories, practiced the questions of previous OSN with my seniors and Biology lecturers, and joined TOBI's pre-OSN training, which included theory and practice. I do the preparations for around 1 month.

Salsa:  I was surrounded by senior who had been an Olympiad student just like me. She helped me a lot. Well, she was Kak Hana (Fauzyyah Hanifin), last year IBO participant who is struggling to be part of Indonesian Team again this year. My province, Middle Java, also held a training center for a month. We were trained by some alumni and lecturer. I read books, I tried to solve problems, but the hardest part was the experiment section. Because I didn't really have much time to practice it.

What was your motivation of joining the competition?

Kak Iqbal: My motivation to join OSN is to get a medal to ease my way in SNMPTN (a way to apply to universities), and also to give something to my school. Joining OSN is also my dream since childhood.

Salsa:  I wrote about my experience on my blog. Surprisingly, I've got some positive feedbacks from people. They say my writings have inspired them. I wanted to inspire more and more. And getting achievement was a way to do that. Besides, I wanted to make my parents and my school proud. After all, I enjoyed biology, with or without OSN ;)

What did you want to achieve in the competition?

Kak Iqbal: I just wanted to achieve the best, and get a medal, any medal will do :)

Salsa:  I didn't push myself to get medal. I wanted to get experience as much as possible. But the atmosphere of competition finally reached me, affected me, and at the end, I dreamed to get a medal.

You won the bronze medal. When the event's MC called your name, what did you feel? Was bronze your target?

Kak Iqbal: I felt very surprised, since I screwed up in the Plants (Anatomy and Physiology) practical test :) My target is to get any medal, so it is a fulfillment to my target.

Salsa:  It was amazing. After all those tests, I was very very hopeless. I did many stupid mistakes during the experiment. I was on my lowest point. And hearing my name felt so great, I am so thankful to Allah.

What things did you get in the competition, beside medal?

Kak Iqbal: First, I get so many precious experience, such as to read instructions carefully. Secondly, I met many wonderful friends from all over Indonesia.

Salsa:  I knew where were my mistakes, and I promised to myself to fix them in the future. I met new friends, I reunited with old friends, those experiences are more important than medal.

What do you think about the OSN before and after joining the competition itself?

Kak Iqbal: Before, I thought the OSN is wonderful. After I joined OSN, it's more than that.

Salsa:  I think OSN nowadays is getting more and more popular. It has become a business field for some people, for example making a paid olympiad training. But I think the real purpose of OSN has been accomplished A HALF. Indonesian students become more aware about science. The other half, we must wait until we are all grown up. Can we make a difference in this country we live in? That one is our challenge.

What is you dream now that you've won the OSN? Is it joining the International Biology Olympiad (IBO)?

Kak Iqbal: Well, I dreamed to use the medal for SNMPTN, I'm aiming for FK UI (Medical Faculty of Universitas Indonesia). And yes, I also dreamed to join IBO.

Salsa: My next target? Well, I'd like to keep my dreams to myself and people that are close to me only. But after all, I will do my best in every chance I get ;)

Could you please give an advice to people who would like to join the competition you've just joined and also for all people who are having dreams they would like to achieve?

Kak Iqbal: My advice, focus on your dream, and pursue it. While in the pursuit for that dream, put other matters second in the priority list. Never be afraid to make sacrifices, you have to make that sacrifice, and believe that in the end that it will worth it. Never forget to pray to Allah all the time.

Salsa: Competition isn't just about winning a medal or trophy. The real winner, is one who has courage to dream high, and really put an effort to make it come true. One who can bring goodness to his surroundings, one who can inspire and bring smiles to people, one who can make this world a better place; that's the true winner. Just remember, when you lose all your hope, when you think you are failing and never gonna reach the top, go back to the Owner of all Power; Allah. Because everything can come true in His blessing. Just remember, when you lose all your hope, when you think you are failing and never gonna reach the top, the Owner of all Power; Allah, will never leave you alone. So be close to Him, in your ups and downs :)

I asked an additional question to Salsa, as the fact that she's still an SMP student interests me. The question was, "You are still a junior high school student, but the competition you joined was for SMA, How was your feeling?". She answered, "It was a lot depressing. We had to face national examination in the middle of training center! The lesson in high school olympiad was a lot harder compared to middle school. But I was also proud of myself, because I could compete with my seniors equally."

As the closing, I would like to quote Eleanor Roosevelt, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Kak Iqbal and Salsa had a dream to win the OSN, and after working hard, they were able to achieve it. I believe that what we dream, what I and you, fellow readers, dream, is not meant just to live inside our thought. When we believe our dream would come true, that's the time when it really is going to be. Because, by believing, we will do and sacrifice things to achieve that. We won't give up even though we fail and fail again, instead, we will see the failure as another step forward. Positive thinking is the key of success, isn't it?

SMAN 3 Bandung's Event: Paman Gober

Paman Gober is an annual event held by SMAN 3 Bandung as the closing of its Sports Olympic event, Dewa Athena. The name itself stands for Penanaman dan dan Gowes Bersama, if translated, Planting and Cycling Together, quite much explaining the event's spirit and what people do on the events. What's great is, it is not only the students of SMAN 3 who join Paman Gober, but also the teachers and school's staffs.

This year, the event was held on Saturday morning, 9 May 2015. I was really excited with the event, as I'd just finished my olympiad preparation... which means not going to school for some time so that I missed my friends a lot. By joining the event, I was able to meet my friends, making me happy just before another preparation made me away from school again :)

The unfortunate thing is, just as the cycling event started, I got problem with my bicycle so that I got separated with my class-__- that was okay, though, as there were some of my friends from another class who got separated too that we cycled way back to school together. Yeap, the cycling route was from our school's sports field, Lapangan Bali, to Tegalega, to then go back to our start point after going to the planting site. We didn't go to Tegalega though, as the road was closed.

I didn't join the planting part of the event as my cycling group was faar from the first groups; which represented the others. Instead, my group directly cycled back to Lapangan Bali. After that, I went to school to meet my olympiad teacher; we spent like one hour chatting, so I didn't know what happened after the cycling event. I went back to the field at noon to watch my class' finals of tarik tambang and dodgeball. We won both of them!

Some days after that, we knew that our class is the second champion of Dewa Athena, by winning three branches; beside tarik tambang and dodgeball, we also won table tennis, represented by Riansyah Widisaputra. Our class, Akselerasi 1 and Akselerasi 2, also won the best supporters title. The commitee wrote that we were the class which often went to the event to give our class' team support. So proud of you, guys!

Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth's Song: See You Again

Okay, guys, so today I'd like to write about one of my favourite songs, it's titled as See You Again. Being sung by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth, the song is a soundtrack of a 2015 action movie, Furious 7. The song, like the movie, is said to be a tribute for Paul Walker. He played the Furious series' main role, Brian O'Connor, until a car accident which caused his death in late 2013. Here I cite from Wikipedia about the song's writing background.

"Charlie Puth was approached by his publishing company, Artist Publishing Group, to come up with a melody that could pay tribute to the late Paul Walker in Furious 7 during his short stay in Los Angeles. Walking into the studio to see DJ Frank E for the first time—a session the president of Artist Publishing Group, Ben Maddahi, set up—Puth didn’t know what to expect."It just seemed to occur from out of nowhere. And basically 10 minutes later Justin and I wrote it, we sent it off, and I thought we'd never hear about it again." After receiving overwhelming positive reception from the filmmakers, Universal Pictures and the soundtrack label Atlantic Records, the unfinished song which was titled "See You Again" was further commissioned by Puth and Wiz Khalifa to include verses about family around Puth's vocals and piano. The song then went through an extensive note-giving and production process.

In writing the song, Puth said he was thinking of a friend who also died abruptly. Although reluctant to reveal too many details, he said that the tragedy also involved a car accident and that he felt his late friend's presence in the studio that day as he held the belief they could one day communicate again. Puth, who was skeptical about whether Atlantic Records would ask him to sing on the track, thought that they chose his voice because he wrote the song for a friend of his, so he brings a more genuine feel to its words. In the film, the song is played at the end of the film, during which Furious 7 characters, Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto drive their cars on a mountain road and eventually part ways when they reach a fork, giving Brian a poignant retirement send-off in which he'd be living with his wife and raising a family."

The song directly becomes a trend after its release. It tops many charts all over the world, including Billboard Hot 100 and iTunes all-genre single sales chart, with 168,000 digital copies sold the issue dated April 18, 2015 claiming the "Digital Gainer" award.

The reason of why I love this song is perhaps the theme, other than the fact that it has a really catchy melody. It describes friendship in such a lovely way. Quoting a rap part of the lyrics:

"First you both go out your way

And the vibe is feeling strong and what's

Small turn to a friendship a friendship

Turn into a bond and that bond will never

Be broke and the love will never get lost

And when brotherhood come first then the line 

Will never be crossed established it on our own

When that line had to be drawn and that line is what

We reach so remember me when I'm gone"

I include the song's music video here. The video contains some clips from the movies, making it be like a series of flashback of the friendship between Paul Walker as Brian O'Connor and his team, especially Dominic Toretto (portrayed by Vin Diesel).

Natural Phenomenon: The Beautiful Aurora

source: icestories.exploratorium.edu

According to Wikipedia, an aurora is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. The name Aurora derives from the Latin word aurora, meaning "sunrise". It is also Roman goddess of dawn.

Auroras are caused by charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, entering the atmosphere from above causing ionisation and excitation of atmospheric constituents, and consequent optical emissions. Incident protons can also produce emissions as hydrogen atoms after gaining an electron from the atmosphere.

source: apod.nasa.gov

Most auroras occur in a band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3° to 6° wide in latitude and between 10° and 20° from the geomagnetic poles at all local times (or longitudes), most clearly seen at night against a dark sky. There are two types of auroras: aurora borealis and aurora australis. The division is based on their existance place. Aurora borealis can be seen at northern latitudes, so it is also called as the Northern Lights. The opposite, the Southern Lights, is the other name for aurora australis.

I always love seeing the aurora. No, I don't see it by myself as I don't live near the poles, but what I can see from the photos is enough to introduce me its beauty. I hope someday I'll be able to see it by my own eyes, though, aamiin.

source: id.wikipedia.org

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A Different Start (6-end): Really, Goodbye?

The holiday has over. Oh, no, it's still holiday, but tomorrow I'll be going to school not for training again, but for studying regularly.

The holiday's good, really. I got sooo many new experiences. Oh, I haven't told you this: I spend my last week of holiday by attending olympiad training, having a meeting and doing homework. Seems boring, doesn't it? Trust me, it was not boring at all. I'm so glad that I was given those opportunities as I could explore myself even more from it.

From the preparation, other than the lesson, I got many new friends. They are really fun! The same thing goes for the meeting. Homeworks? Well, the teamwork ones are the one I love the most. Even though they're hard and sometimes complicated to do, I learnt a lot from it. I was also able to meet my friends often because of it... oh, really, I miss my friends so much.

Goodbye, holiday. For me, as an acceleration student, it'll be counting days for another final exam. I hope I and my friends will all be ready to it, so that we can do well there and satisfy ourselves. Bismillaah!

Thank you, anyway, for reading my blog posts. See you in my next ones!

P. S.: The picture above was the view of the sky on my house after a quite heavy rain. At first, I couldn't believe what I saw. There were two rainbows! But like Kartini wrote to her friend, after the dark, light is born, right?

P. P. S.: I'll insert photos to other posts soon!

end of the series

A Different Start (5): Come On, Sing!

My father, other than being an ITB lecturer, works as a businessman. A company he currently runs is Commtech. He told me that the company holds a lot of trainings. I came to one of them, its opening. I was asked by my father to be a cameraman (mmm, is there a word like "camerawoman"?).

The company held a gathering on 5th until 6th of January, but as my sisters and mom have to go back to their school and hospital already, we only joined the gathering in the night of the 5th.

The company rented a villa in Lembang, Bandung. It is near Kampung Gajah, the other company members (and families) did go there in the morning. The villa was nice... especially because the view was very beautiful and the sky was really clear that I could see a full moon brightened the night.

We had a dinner. The food was really good; most of them grilled. In the middle of it, we had a karaoke competition. My family had to try first... my father then asked my sister Farah and my mom (and me, actually, but I was just too shy :)) to pick a song and sing. But then my mom's microphone wasn't able to be turned on, so Farah sang alone. It was great, the others were impressed. The karaoke program gave her the score 85.

The others then got their chance to sing. My father then asked Farah to sing again, but in the middle, Farah got confused as she remembered the song so little. It was then when people started to convinced my father, "Come on, Mr. Ian, sing!". At first he didn't want to sing, saying "I can't!" to my mother. But not long after it... a voice came out from the speaker. He sang! We laughed a lot, and we had fun. Surprisingly, his score is 84. He laughed so much, as he, with his voice's quality, was only beaten by one by his child. "Wah, the program must be broken!"

At last, Farah won the third place. The others then went to sleep. We slept after trying to play billiard (my father taught us, but I just couldn't do it, hehe).

On the 6th in the morning, we went back to our home. It was still dawn, about 5 or 5.30, but my family had to prepare to go to school/work. I myself had to go too, there was a Biology olympiad preparation in my school.

end of part five

A Different Start (3): Another Books (and stores)!

I am getting addicted with Brady's Chemistry, but at Pasar Senen I only bought the first volume out of two... so I and my father had another hunt, this time in Palasari, Bandung. This time, my sisters accompanied us.

Before we went to Palasari, we went to ITB (I think I've written that my father is an ITB lecturer in my biography). We'd just got ready to go when it started to rain, so we waited by visiting ITB's very own library.

The library is reaaaallyyyy big and full of books. I love it so much! It has four floors, if I'm not mistaken, but we didn't go to the 4th floor because the rain had over. We really enjoy being there, my father took me to see the TPB books. I don't know what TPB stands for, but at the first semester, every ITB student has to join it. The materials are similar to the ones studied in high school, but they are slightly deepened. The books used are so many; each of lesson has three of four reference books. For example, in Physics, ITB uses Giancoli, Halliday... and another one, but unfortunately I forgot who's the writer :) most of the books are the translated ones, but some are the originals, the English version. I like the original ones so much; the language used is easier to be understood, each book isn't divided into some parts and the pages are made from the same kind of paper used in magazines. When I read it, I felt like I was reading something fun.

The books in the library vary in ages. I and my youngest sister Kiki competed to hunt for the oldest book in the library. My father got worried because of it, hahaha. One time, we were inspecting an old book when a really big sneeze was heard. I and Kiki was really shocked that my other sister, Farah, laughed so much. She said, "So both of you thought that was book ghost's sneeze?" and the three of us laughed a lot, without caring that we were in library (the laugh wasn't too noisy, of course).

It was fun, really. We then went to Palasari after praying first in LAPI ITB, about two minutes from the campus.

Palasari is waaay more organized than Pasar Senen, I and my sisters felt really comfortable in there. We bought some comics. After visiting ITB's library, I realized that I wanted the Brady's English version more so we didn't search for the second volume, instead, we searched for the English one. The book is expensive, though, so we didn't buy it.

My holiday is really full of books, isn't it? :))

A Different Start (2): Happy New Year!

Time flies away so fast... it still feels that yesterday was the New Year. Anyway, here's my story about what I did in it.

In the New Year's Eve, my grandpa's youngest brother had his 60th birthday. His family held a birthday party in Sheraton Hotel, Dago, Bandung. I and my sister was really excited as we rarely go out to celebrate New Year; sometimes we don't even wake up on the 12 o'clock. We didn't plan to stay there until the New Year, though.

The party was really nice. There were lots of lecturers (my grandpa is a planology lecturer). My family members were the youngest guests, I guess. We all had fun.

Unfortunately, my grandpa's youngest child was unable to come. My grandpa has two children; both living in the USA. The oldest is Aunt Yoda Patta. She is really beautiful and smart; she is a PhD from Massachussets Institute of Technology in Material Engineering. She has a/some patent(s), you can search in the Internet if you'd like to know about them. The party was the first time I and my sisters met her, she spends most of her life abroad. She was accompanied by her husband, Uncle Angel, an American that also got his engineer title from MIT.

That day, my grandpa, grandma, and Aunt Yoda convinced me to study abroad. My father agreed with them, but my mother didn't. She's really worried about me, I understand. :)

It was when we'd like to go home when my grandpa asked us not to, and to wait until the midnight. The clock showed 11 o'clock, so we decided to wait. The Sheraton was then full of music; there was a female DJ (I love her remixes). We were also given New Year trumpets. Some attractions were also shown; fire dance and beer mixing (but there wasn't any beer in the bottle, I hope you understand what I meant by this). What's interesting is that the lecturers danced along the music with all their strength. My grandpa and grandma even asked our family to join them, saying "You're still young, don't be too serious."

When it was only ten seconds to the New Year, the MCs asked us to count down with them (and a video showed with a projector). "Ten...nine..eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one! Happy new year everyone!" Fireworks started to be launched, the trumpets were blown and people were so happy. My grandpa, grandma and aunt hugged each other and my family, too.

Shortly after that, we asked to go home. Thank you, grandpa, grandma, aunt and uncle!

end of part two

A Different Start (1): Books, Anyone?

There are lots of difference between this year-end break and the ones before. I got new experiences every day, each of them is a nice one. I'm planning to divide the story into some posts, and this is the first. So... enjoy!

It all started when I visited my grandpa that celebrates Christmas every year. Almost all of my relatives live in Jakarta, so I went to that metropolitan city (it is actually a province, though, but I like calling it "city" better). Not like the past years, there wasn't any family gathering in my aunt's house, where my grandpa lives. Usually his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and their children come to visit as he is the oldest in his family.

Because of that, we went to Mall Kelapa Gading.

But that's not the story I'd like to tell you.

The next day, I, my father and my cousin went to Pasar Senen. It's a traditional market located in Jakarta Pusat (Central Jakarta). No, no, I didn't go there to buy some food or stuff, but Senen is famous for its cheap but still complete bookshops. I and my father had been planning to go there since the year's Idul Fitri, so I was really excited when he asked me to prepare. "We're going to Senen." It was just three of us; my mom accompanied my sisters and my other cousin (and nephew, if I'm not mistaken), they really wanted to swim.

It was really awesome, either the stores, the books... or the trip. Yeap, I went there not by car, but by a public transportation: bus! Okay, okay, you may think I'm over-reacting but... really, I've never been in a bus before as I usually go anywhere with car, or sometimes angkot (angkutan kota, it's like a car that is modified into a public transportation). I've been in Transjakarta, though, it's Jakarta's busway.

The bus' name is Kopaja P-20. Kopaja stands for Koperasi Angkutan Jakarta or if translated, Jakarta Transportation Cooperation (you can search what "Cooperation" here means, hehe). We got into it in Pondok Indah, Jakarta Selatan (West Jakarta), my cousin lives there with my aunt and grandpa I mentioned before. It was full, so we had to stand up for at least half the trip. (Good to be a girl, though, when there's an empty seat, I was offered to sit first)

I love what I saw there. I go to Jakarta often, but it is usually Jakarta Selatan. So... I looked at the buildings of other part of Jakarta curiously.

Central Jakarta is a crowded city. Traffic always occurs there, even when West Jakarta is not (this rarely happens, but in Christmas it did! The city was really empty that I guess I could even play football at its roads). It was an approximately-one-hour trip.

We were like explorers that time. My father relied on his memories of the city, but the last time he came there was... about twenty years ago. Many parts of the city has changed, for example there was a way to directly walk from the bus station to Pasar Senen, but now there isn't. The bookstores was also evicted, their place was actually in Kwitang, beside Toko Gunung Agung near the Pasar.

At last (after got lost for many times, hahaha), we found the place; the highest floor of Pasar Senen. It was really full of books and I was so happy, really, really, happy. The sellers directly call me like "mbak, sini mbak, cari apa" ("mbak, come here mbak, what (book) are you looking for?"). I was confused on how to reject their offerings, so I just said "later, okay, I'm still looking (at all this stuff)".

What I wanted was actually some Chemistry and Physics college books; Raymond Chang's and Giancoli's, respectively. I and my father also searched for a high school exercise book that was used in late 1960s, made by a Dutch pastor that lived in Indonesia, Peperzak. But I just wanted to feel how it was to arrive there, the place I've wanted to visit since a long time ago.

At last... I bought four books; three Physics books written by Halliday et al. and a Chemistry book made by Brady and his colleagues (yeah it was so unfortunate that the sellers didn't know Peperzak's book). Three of the four are really thick, each of them contains almost a thousand pages. The other book is quite thin, but it is the hand-written solution for the problems in the other book,

The great thing about the bookstores in Pasar Senen is that we can bargain so that they sell their books cheaply; I bought the four for only Rp 175.000! The sellers are very friendly too, my father even joked with them.

These are what I bought from Pasar Senen.

My cousin also bought some old novels, the ones published by Balai Pustaka (1920s).

When we got back to the station, we found out that... there are also bookstores there. My father, out of curiosity, asked for Peperzak's book. A seller went inside right after hearing the request, asking us to wait. After waiting for some time... the seller went back with the book in his hand! I was so excited. The price was originally... mmm, I forgot, about Rp 75.000 up, but my father successfully bargained it that we only had to pay for Rp 25.000.

We then directly searched for the P-20 bus. It was already 4 p.m. We arrived at Pondok Indah at 5 and waited for some time in Poins Square (my father bought Doraemon's Stand By Me DVD here for my sisters) before my cousin's driver picked us up.

P. S.: When we arrived home, my grandpa told us that "I and Peperzak were friends, we sometimes argue with each other." The world is really small, isn't it?

end of part one

Leaving 2014: A Quick Flashback

Okay, my class was asked to write about interesting things happening in our year-end break from school. I would like to permit that what I will be writing here isn't exactly one of those; it'll be about how I spend most of my holiday time, but I promise that the next posts will be about them.

Another year has just ended. What do people usually do on year-ends? I guess the answer is thinking about what they, what we just did the whole year; our choices, our mistakes and faults... our ups and downs. We learnt a lot from them, to then plan our next year so that we won't do wrong things again, or choose incorrectly anymore... we are planning to be better than before.

Some of us make a new resolution every year, while the rest even list many. No, no one makes none, even the unluckiest ones get another hope every new year. Either a hope to get their fate changed, or to live with it and turn it into something good.

I ended the year by thinking, like I've told you, what have I done all the year? Did I make so much mistake? Did I accomplish much? The answers to the last two questions is yes and no, respectively.

I must say, I failed at accomplishing my last new year resolutions. I've got plenty of them, but I think I achieved none. I won't tell what they are, but the reason why I didn't succeed is perhaps... I didn't work hard to get them. I relied on my luck, hoping that it could bring me what I'd like to have... and yes, it almost did bring me to them, but as Ariana Grande's song is titled, almost is never enough.

I can't say the year was bad, though. It was good, though not as good as the year before. But I learnt a lot of things from 2014; it made me realize that hard work is probably not everything, but it is a key to success. I also learnt that, sometimes what we never dreamed for could be the best for us.

You see, 2014 was a really lucky year for me. I finished fourth in a competition held for high school student while I was still in junior high, making me a representative for the regional competition held about two months after. I also got good rank in it, my friends said, but I didn't make it to the national round. Why I say lucky is because I guessed a lot during the competition; on more than a half of the questions. I only reviewed the materials in D-1. Unbelievable, right? I never thought my scores and ranks would be that good. But I also regret things because of it; if I studied harder and more seriously, maybe I would make it to the national round.

I was also good at school; well, despite the relative definition of 'good', I was really satisfied with it. But a thing I know is, I also haven't done my best there. I didn't study hard, I was too careless about it.

So here it is. Welcome, 2015! I've got a lot of "achievements" I need to keep this year, but not like last year, I won't depend on my "luckiness". Not anymore.

...But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.

Q. S. Al-Baqarah 2:216

...Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves...

Q. S. Ar-Ra'd 13:11

In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim.