JANGER by Mixed Chous in Spring Choral Extravaganza

Hey guys,, on may 21st is one of the best nite during my exchange year, guess what!! it's the day my choir friends and I were singing Janger song, the Balinese folksong from Indonesia! I'm so glad I could share 1 of my Indonesian culture through music, before performing that song, I delivered a lil speech about how grateful I am because of being an exchange student in Lower Dauphin High School, and then I explained a little bit about this song to the audiences and I talked a little bit about the gamelan instrument. I'm so proud to all of my choir buddies because they did really great. and big thanks to Mrs Colpo who always there to help us to learn this song. it used to be a tongue twister for y'all but guess whaaattt you nailed it guys! you don't have foreigner/ bule accent at all hehehee. thanks Mrs Colpo for always letting me to introduce every unique thing about my Indonesian culture. Love you guys! i'll definitely remember y'all forever and i'll miss you all so much!
I just helped them in pronouncing the words, and the concept of the performances and also the choreography. about singing, they all sing like a pro! so they learn sooo fast to get all the notation right, and it's just take a while for them to sing it faster and faster. I'm gonna remember this moment forever! I love lower dauphin high school choir!! some people at school want me to be still in chamber singers next year but sadly i'll go home really soon. i'll miss yaaa guyyys!

Happy Mother's Day from me

Last sunday was Mother's day here, May 3rd 2014 and I'm glad this year officially I have two mom with different nationalities! hehe. my Indonesian mom and my American mom. last sunday, my host sibling and I gave my host mom a bucket of flower and me, my self, I just made a video for her to express how much I love her! and I'm sure as I come back home, i'll miss her <3 this is the video that I made for her which you could find it on my channel on youtube, tseeeeh.. check it out!

during the day, I decided to go to state college,PA where my host sister live. and because she won't live in the condo where she used to live in state collage anymore, so my host mom and I was helping to clean up the condo, it was a pretty hard work but it's okay I use my muscle with full of strength to help my host family hehehehe. and actually before we were cleaning up the condo, my host mom took me to the barnes and noble book store to buy harry potter book for my sister in Indonesia! sadly we couldn't find the copy there, but fortunately there's way to order the book online, yeeeah anything I'd do for my sister. thanks mom for taking me there! so I still gotta find gifts for my family back home,friends and so on. yeah I need to think bout this cz I'll leave pretty soon huhuhu:"""". and yeaaah this week I'm very excited to prepare my spring concert next week!

PROM 2K14!!!!

Hey guys! I'd like to share about my prom experience in US! woohoo, I'm so glad I got to experience many cool high school experiences here, especially for those that I couldn't find back home. so my prom was on may 3rd 2014, hhee not too late to post this story rite? I went to prom with no date haha_ if Indonesian could say, I'd say for that #akurapopo. LOL, but the most important thing is,, I had fun with all of my friends. first of all we get picture of ourselves with our dress on, wooho! and then at prom which took place in hotel, we all had dinner with our group. my group was really awesome! I love them! Cassidy,Mickie,Emma, Kelsey are one of my best American buddy <3. we all had so much fun together and danced all nite! I'm gonna remember this forever guys! and I'm glad I got to know more friends, which are my friend's date that already graduated from high school, they are all so cool and apparently they all have similar interest as me and they also have learned several things about Indonesia! *always feel proud whenever my friends here know something about my home country hehe. Prom lasts for about 4 hours (pretty long) but  I feel it went fast because I had fun with all of my friends! as usual, I get tons pictures at prom hehe.and one of the memorable thing for prom was one of the song that played during the prom and it sounds like one of Indonesian song which is called "cinta satu malam" huahahahaha oh well, but too bad I still didn't figure out what song that was! anyway here is my prom look yo!

 

 

NEWSLETTER 3, 1 more month in the US :"""

Sering teringat di benak saya, seperti baru kemarin saya mengikuti rangkaian seleksi AFS/YES. Tidak terasa sudah sekitar 8 bulan saya berada di Amerika, sebuah perjalanan yang selalu saya bilang sebagai “my one year to be remembered forever”. Banyak manfaat yang saya rasakan selama menjalani exchange year ini. Lebih mandiri, bertanggung jawab, bijaksana dalam mengambil sikap dan menyelesaikan masalah, dan bersikap, berpikir positif adalah hal yang paling saya pelajari dalam 8 bulan ini. Sekarang, saya merasa bahwa Amerika sudah menjadi “ my second home”, merasa jauh lebih nyaman daripada sebelumnya begitu pula dengan host family saya, saya menganggap mereka sudah seperti keluarga saya sendiri. “ they are the one who always support me and love me unconditionally beside of my own family:)”. Pada tahun 2014 ini, saya merasa lebih semangat lagi dan sudah mulai fit in dengan komunitas, keluarga dan teman teman disini. Saya sudah mulai berpikir, apakah yang ingin saya capai dan terus mengevaluasi diri saya sendiri manfaat apa saja yang saya rasakan dan apa saja yang saya akan bawa ke home country saya, Indonesia. Saya berharap agar manfaat dari pengalaman berharga ini bisa terus saya terapkan bagi diri saya sendiri dan juga orang lain. Kegiatan volunteering atau community service adalah salah satu hal yang saya senang lakukan. “touching lives through volunteering”, memang benar banyak sekali manfaat yang saya rasakan berkat melakukan volunteering. Saya mengenal lebih banyak orang dari berbagai kalangan dari anak anak balita, elementary school, middle school, high school, hingga senior citizen people hehe, semuanya sudah pernah saya alami dan semua kegiatan volunteering tersebut menyenangkan dan bahkan sebagai my first experience ever. 

            Saya banyak melakukan volunteering service di sekolah diantaranya: Minithon (17 hours), Senior citizen breakfast (2 hours), senior citizen prom (5 hours), youth day of caring (7 hours). Minithon adalah salah satu fundraising activity untuk anak anak penderita kanker, seluruh participant di host school saya wajib menggalang dana minimal sebesar 60 dollar, saya mencari donasi ke tetangga tetangga dan uang yang berhasil saya kumpulkan, saya donasikan ke panitia Minithon. selama acara Minithon, kami harus berdiri selam 12 jam dari jam 7 malam(sabtu malam) hingga jam 7 pagi(minggu) dengan melakukan berbagai kegiatan kegiatan positif seperti line dancing, olahraga, painting, dan berbagai lomba yang diadakan panitia. Sebelum kegiatan Minithon berlangsung saya membantu mempersiapkan segala sesuatu yang dibutuhkan selama acara dan selama kegiatan minithon saya siap siaga membantu captain acara untuk menjaga kelancaran acara hingga pasca acara saya juga membantu membersihkan ruangan yang dipakai selama acara. Selain itu saya juga sempat menjadi pengisi acara dalam sebuah segmen acara di Minithon, saya menyanyikan lagu “One Moment In Time by Whitney Houston” alhamdulillah apresiasi teman teman, guru dan kepala sekolah sangat positif sampai disuruh nyanyi di depan kelas di hari senin 2 hari pasca Minithon. Sebenarnya pengalaman pertama saya tampil di depan umum di salah satu acara sekolah adalah di “Coffee House” acara yang diselenggarakan oleh music honor society di sekolah, Alhamdulilah saya lolos audisi untuk menjadi salah satu penampil di acara tersebut. Ini adalah link penampilan saya di acara tersebut(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FTV2meN73w)

            Bicara tentang bidang menyanyi, alhamdulillah dengan mengikuti choir di Lower Dauphin High School, saya dapat memperkenalkan lebih banyak tentang budaya Indonesia khususnya dalam bidang seni ke teman teman choir saya. Mulai awal bulan Maret tahun ini, saya terlibat dalam mengajarkan lagu tradisional “Janger” dari Bali, Indonesia. Kami akan menyanyikan lagu Janger di Spring choir concert pada bulan Mei 2014 ini. Mulai dari pronunciation kata kata dalam lagu, koreografi, dan saya lebih terlibat dalam membantu sopranos untuk menyanyikan lagu tersebut. Teman teman choir dan guru choir saya sangat menghargai dan pay so much attention ketika saya mencoba mengajarkan lagu tersebut kepada teman teman. Dalam piece lagu Janger, terdapat beberapa bagian yang menirukan suara gamelan, oleh karena itu saya juga memperkenalkan kepada mereka tentang instrumen gamelan, dari asal gamelan, cara memainkan nya, hingga beberapa notasi gamelan. Pada hari berikutnya, setiap pemanasan sebelum mempelajari lagu Janger, saya mengajarkan mereka untuk menyanyikan gamelan scale.Saya sangat berharap goal saya tercapai untuk menyanyikan lagu tradisional Indonesia untuk pertama kalinya dalam Choir concert di host school saya. Selain itu, pada bulan Maret saya sempat mengunjungi Indonesian Cultural Night di salah satu universitas di Pennsylvania, Penn State.Permias di Penn state mengadakan acara tersebut setiap tahun, mereka menampilkan beberapa tarian dari Indonesia seperti tari piring, tari saman dan juga tari sekar jagat. Terdapat galeri baju daerah dan beberapa senjata tradisional dari Indonesia. Akhirnya saat itu saya bertemu beberapa mahasiswa Penn state dari Indonesia dan  I had a really good meal for dinner, Satay dan nasi goreng! yay. Saya sempat berbincang bincang dengan mereka and yeah we said that Being abroad make us so proud holding our flag and say “I love my country”.

Selain memperkenalkan budaya Indonesia tentunya saya belajar banyak hal tentang budaya Amerika. Pada bulan februari 2014, saya merasakan bagaimana euforia Superbowl di Amerika.Superbowl adalah football match antara dua team football terbaik di United States.Superbowl tahun 2014 ini adalah Seahawk v.s Broncos dan pemenang nya adalah Seahawk! walaupun saya tidak tahu banyak masalah football but at least i learned about one of american sport:) Banyak masyarakat di Amerika yang mengadakan party setiap menonton superbowl, salah satunya adalah host family saya. Host family saya mengundang semua orang di neighborhood kami, dan people at church untuk menonton superbowl bersama sama. Semua orang berpartisipasi untuk membawa snack. Melalui party tersebut, i know more people in my neighborhood, yay! Pada hari yang sama dengan superbowl, 2 Februari 2014, placement organization saya mengadakan mid term orientation untuk para grant students:Saya, Jule dan Lukas.Sebelum membicarakan tentang exchange year kami,kami menonton Hockey game bersama dengan LC kami. Saat mid term orientation,kami membicarakan tentang bagaimana adjustment kami selama exchange year kami, goal kami yang ingin kami capai dalam beberapa bulan terakhir selama kami di Amerika,serta manfaat dan impact apa sajakah yang kami rasakan selama exchange year kami.Karena exchange students di placement organization saya tinggal berjauhan satu sama lain, kami jarang bertemu dan melakukan kegiatan bersama exchange students yang lain, oleh karena itulah saya berinisiatif hosting a party di rumah saya untuk seluruh CIEE exchange students di Central Pennsylvania.Dari sekitar 17 exchange students yang saya undang, 10 of them could make it to came to my house :) mereka berasal dari Italy, Ecuador, Polandia, German, South Korea, dan Spanyol. “Knowing the world by becoming an exchange student!” Saya senang bisa connecting lives among countries dengan menjadi siswa pertukaran pelajar. Saya bersyukur saya berhasil memenangkan lomba untuk mengikuti BUBW conference di Baltimore.pada akhir bulan April 2014 ini mewakili placement organization saya.

Saya bersyukur mendapat kesempatan bisa tinggal bersama host family yang selalu memberikan support kepada saya. Memang kami berbeda, tapi disini saya menemukan kasih sayang dan kehangatan yang baru dengan keluarga saya di Amerika. Saya sering terlibat dalam volunteering di acara gereja host family saya, gereja tersebut merupakan salah satu komunitas saya, tempat dimana saya berinteraksi dengan banyak orang dan juga tempat untuk saling share tentang Indonesia maupun mengenai islam. Selain menjadi representative sebagai orang indonesia, saya sering menjadi tempat bertanya orang orang yang tidak terlalu tahu mengenai islam. Di gereja host family saya, saya selain memberikan presentasi tentang Indonesia, saya juga berdiskusi dengan teman teman host parents saya mengenai christianity dan islam. Alhamdulilah saya dapat menjawab pertanyaan pertanyaan mereka, termasuk tentang cara saya beribadah. Hingga suatu saat teman host parents saya mengahampiri saya dan beliau bilang “Dwike, you’ve opened my eyes about what your religion is, I shouldn’t judge people by their religion”, Saya bersyukur setidaknya selama saya disini saya bisa bridging understanding diantara kita semua. Host family saya juga sangat menghargai saya, bahkan saat sebelum makan malam kami selalu mendapat giliran untuk memimpin doa dan mereka memberikan kesempatan kepada saya untuk membaca doa sebelum makan menurut keyakinan saya. Interfaith understanding memang sangatlah penting, banyak konflik yang terjadi di dunia dengan alasan perbedaan keyakinan. Pada saat easter, saya juga melakukan volunteering pada acara easter egghunts di gereja. Saat saya volunteering di food pantry gereja, salah satu pengurus gereja tersebut berterima kasih kepada saya semenjak saya volunteering disana, beberapa keluarga muslim yang kurang mampu mulai tidak sungkan lagi untuk datang kesana melihat saya, siswa muslim yang juga lumayan sering membantu di gereja tersebut.  Pada tanggal 23 hingga 27 April 2014 saya mendapatkan kesempatan berharga untuk mengikuti konferensi BUBW di Baltimore,Maryland. Saya mendapatkan banyak pelajaran dan pengetahuan mengenai global issues yang terjadi di berbagai negara. Banyak konflik disebabkan oleh perbedaan suku,ras dan agama. Melalui konferensi tersebut, saya mempunya sahabat dari 25 negara, mereka menginspirasi saya dan membuka mata saya untuk melihat sesuatu dengan perspektif yang berbeda. Salah satu teman saya juga berterimakasih karena saya mengajarkan dia untuk shalat untuk pertama kalinya walaupun dia seorang muslim namun di negaranya memang tidak banyak yang menjalankan ibadah. Saya sangat bersyukur mendapat kesempatan bertanya dan berdiskusi tentang christianity dan judaism, saya juga mengunjungi jewish temple untuk pertama kalinya. Pada banquet konferensi tersebut saya dan teman teman dari indonesia yang lainnya menampilkan Tari Saman dan tarian diiringi lagu cik cik periok yang pernah kami tampilkan saat Talent show sebelum kami semua berangkat ke host country masing masing. Teman kami dari Jerman, Malaysia, dan Senegal juga berpartisipasi dalam performance kami, berlatih setiap hari selama konferensi membuat kami lebih bonded dan kompak. Sebagai orang Indonesia, saya senang karena hampir semua student di konferensi tersebut belajar tari saman bersama kami. Yes! We are the one who could share all about our home countryJ

Mau dibawa kemanakah pelajaran yang saya dapat selama exchange year saya di Amerika? saya berharap mulai dari komunitas sekitar saya di Indonesia, saya bisa menjadi pioneer acara  atau organisasi yang melakukan fundraising dan kegiatan volunteering lain. karena menurut saya kesadaran mereka belum ditanamkan sejak kecil untuk melakukan kegiatan kegiatan sosial. Saya terinspirasi dengan kegiatan kegiatan volunteering yang saya lakukan di Amerika. Selain itu melalui organisasi tersebut saya bisa melakukan presentasi dimulai dari kalangan anak sekolah untuk membuka wawasan tentang interfaith understanding,intercultural understanding, serta mengenai leadership. Saya percaya jika pengetahuan dan kebiasaan baik tersebut dimulai dari skala kecil dan sejak usia yang masih muda, “better understanding for a better world will be achieved” J Semangat teman teman seperjuangan dari Indonesia maupun negara negara lain yang saat ini masih menikmati keindahan host country nya! Kita semua meninggalkan home country selama 10 bulan, dan membangun hidup baru di host country selama 10 bulan yang pasti akan kita semua ingat untuk selama lamanya. Terima kasih AFS/YES program! You have given us 1 year for a long lasting impact,1 year to be remembered forever, 1 year thousands benefit J

 

Better Understanding for A Better World Conference Baltimore 2014, 4 daysfor a long lasting impact

Hey guys! I'd like to tell my experience in a wonderful conference that I've already experienced on April 23rd-April 27th. till now, I still remember the exact moments with all of my exchange buddies in that conference, the chaperones, Imam Bashar, Kim, Ahson, Nadia, and Ray<3. I love them so much! They inspire me so much and succeeded to change our perspective to see the differences. there were 45 students from 25 countries. I'm grateful because now I have brothers and sisters from all around the world. BUBW conference gives me a huge impact, it definitely bridging understanding among us. we all from different countries, race, color, religion, and so on, but I feel like with those differences life becoming so colorful and beautiful<3 so i'll tell y'all when I first got there, big thanks to my host mom who drove me to the Sheraton hotel in Baltimore where the conference took place. it was like 1,5 hours drive from Hershey,PA.  As I got there, Kim and Imam Bashar gave me a warm welcome for me and I met several exchange students who participated in that conference. Mehriban from Azerbaijan was my first room mate that I met,, awwwh I miss her so much, then we went downstairs to find another exchange student. yep, we were going to in front of the conference area and yeah I met a lotta other exchange students there. As I got there, I saw pizza! omg! so I grab 2 slices of pizza because I was sooo hungry, then I had conversation with all of my exchange buddies. at first I found it difficult to remember their name but you know whattt now I even remember all of their names and where they are from yay! in our first day there (April 23rd) we were all introducing ourselves and gave few words about our exchange year and talking about what we really wanna be. I hope we all could reach what we dream of guys, ooh dear future leaders! Amien.

and after we all finished introducing ourselves and receive our name tag  and T-shirt, we played a game that I forgot what the name is, basically the one who hold the word has to guess what word they get and we gotta try to act based on the word that the player get. it's sso much fun guys!

This is what I mean! :p

Day 1 of our conference

On the next day (April 24th) the conference was actually started, Imam Bashar gave the presentation about what BUBW is and all about a wonderful organization CECF! we also talked about the global issues that's happening in our countries. because of that, I get to know more about what's going on in the world nowadays. and also in every session of this conference I got greater understanding about the differences among us.

Imam Bashar delivered the presentation about BUBW. So inspiring! thanks for inspiring us:) May Allah always be in your favor. I will definitely try to bridge understanding in my home country and also in the world:) So grateful being one of BUBW alumni.

 

 

Basically the point is diversity will be a problem if we look down on others! we shouldn't judge someone because of their differences, if we think again actually people all around the world are rely on each other rite? Why is this conference needed? because from this conference we could inspire others to make a difference and respect the differences, God make the differences because he want us to learn one another. So be a peacemaker guys! YES WE CAN <3And the other session that we got is the session about Leadership delivered by Sultana Ali. She also inspires us so much. I'd like to share about some important things that she said: the ingredients of leadership are: character, charisma, commitment, compassion, competence, courage, discernment, focus, generosity, initiative, listening, partnership, passion, positive attitude, problem solving, responsibility, self awareness, self discipline, servant hood, ability to teach, vision. As long as we believe on ourselves and we could overcome our fear I'm sure we could be a good leader and make a good change. but don't forget as a leader we also have to remember to "Be kind To Your Self"-Sultana Ali.

On the second day of our conference, our agenda was visiting church, mosque and also synagogue. while we were waiting for the bus to take us there, one of my Egyptian friend, his name is Omar, he had an initiative to amuse everyone by come up to sing, and he came to my table and wanted me to sing well yeaaaa I love to sing especially in the bathroom (?) lol. I sang "because you loved me" and "one moment in time". awwwh they r all so sweet appreciating me, it's a pleasure to sing in front of y'all because from the deepest of dwike's heart, dwike will always love and remember all of yaaa <3

 

                                                                                    I love you all guys!

Beside of that, my Indonesian buddies and I also singing "Laskar Pelangi" hahaaha. here we are

laskar pelangiiii

So yeah, not only us, but the other students come up to sing even also the song from their countries, I'm gonna miss y'all guys! really! and finally it was the time for us to leave from the hotel and we get on to the bus, oo yeah our excitement won't be faded, we all sang and talk and yeah we r so chatty! and I love it <3.

The first place to visit was the church and all of us were discussing and questioning all about Christianity, to be honest because of that I got to know a lot more about Christianity although I found it familiar with because some of my family back home are Christian:) I was so impressed, the church is so beautiful and also the priest, father Bill welcome us and he is so friendly :) I also get to know more about Christianity because of my host family, I visited to their church several time and also get involved in some of volunteering activities at church, it was so much fun! I want to connect lives with everyone by doing volunteering, Inshaa Allah.

 

And the second one, all of us were visiting synagogue , and it was my very first time to visit the jewish temple. and the Rabay welcome us really well and answered all of our question. while we were visiting synagogue, the guys have to wear the cap. the rabay also explained to us about the holy book. it was really great to know all the information about Judaism:)

We were at synagogue!

 

 

And after that, all of us were visiting the mosque. it's such a pleasure for me because it's been so long I haven't gone to the mosque, even though to the mosque near my hometown in America. I'm so grateful I got chance to go there and because it was on Friday, so almost all of the moslem students did the jumah /Friday prayer. before we did our prayer, all of us had lunch together. during BUBW, we ate a lotta Pakistani or indian food yummy! I love spicy stuffs. After we did our prayer, we gathered and discussed about Islam, and some issues that cause the misconception about the religion. Because of this conference, all of us have a greater understanding about the difference among us, and also basically all of the religion always want a peace among us, it's only some extremist that bring religion's name to make border between all of us. none of the religion teach us bad things, all of them always want us people around the world to keep in peace and being tolerant among each other. <3 after that, we all were playing at the playground nearby the mosque, it was great and we all had so much fun. on that day, we had a big dinner in Pakistani restaurant, omggg I was sooo happy, I really love Pakistani food. and for some reason some Indonesian kid turn on one of Indonesian dangdut's song huahahaa, it's called terra jana! oo yeah dude, it's been too long we haven't heard that song.

 

 

Imam Bashar showed us the Quran, and we all also discussed all about Islam and people's perception about Islam. Although I'm a moslem, from this conference I also get to know more knowledge about my own religion :)

oo yeaah I forgot to tell that on that day we learned Tanzanian dance from Ahson! we were planning to do that on the next day in the harbor while we were going to the Baltimore aquarium

 

 

So yeah, finally in our last day of conference, on Saturday all of us went to the Baltimore Aquarium oh my that was fantastic! I still remember all of us walked together and some people stared at us because all of us are different. yeah! we all are from 25 countries yo! it's so great taking all great pictures with my exchange buddies:3 here are some pictures while we were on Baltimore Aquarium

 

 With my Thai bestie, Nada!

 



The Baltimore Harbor

 

 

And just like what I've said, after we all had an adventure inside the aquarium, all of us gathered outside and did the Tanzanian dance :)

After that all of us headed back to the hotel and all of us prepared for the banquet on that night. all of us were dressed up with our traditional dresses, there were several performances from each country and including from my country, Indonesia! every nite during the conference all of us practiced for our performance in the banquet and you know what, not only Indonesian student that do the dance but also the students from Malaysia,senegal,and also Germany!i wanna give shout out to them because within few days they could dance saman and one of fun dance that we made up. here is our performance:

 

yaaaaayyy!!!

 

And after that all of us received the certificate from CECF because we already completed the conference and now all of us are the BUBW alumni!!! thanks for all of you who participated in this conference, the chaperones, Imam Bashar, Kim, Nadia, you guys are the best people that I ever met and thank you for giving a big impact for all of us. Just like what I said, 4 days for a long lasting impact!

 

We all love ya! thanks for holding this wonderful conference <3 



 

UNITY IN DIVERSITY <3 my brothers and sisters from all around the world! thanks BUBW!!!!



my april 15th!! officially 18th now ;p

Heey. Yesterday was my 18th birthday!!! *feel sooo old:p. This is how my apriln15th here in US. Actually people back home already say happy birthday to me when it was still april 14th hehe but thanks to all of you for the wonderful bday wishes! It's kind of sad having birthday without mama,papa, and my family back home that i usually celebrate it with.  Miss them so muchhh ♥ but it's okay this year i have my host family whoch is the one that i could celebrate my bday with. Thanks to lower dauphin kid, all of my american friend and teacher who really care about me, in my choir class all of them sing happy bday to me(literally they sing happy bday song really good with improvisation!!!) Haha lol. And of course from my bestie Olivia ♥ in that day in honor of my bday, my choir teacher decided to continue learning janger song for our spring concert. Really can't wait for our performance :3. My host family took me to texas roadhouse for dinner, omg the restaurant is quite interesting, that was really really american experience for me! We all had a big steak, free peanut for appetizer, and big friend onion ring! *yumm but yeah i feel like i gained lotta pounds after eating that haha lol. And guess what, for the birthday person, i have to ride in a fake horse and wear a big country hat and the waitress saying outloud that there is a bday girl in the restaurant and they yelled yihaaa and wooohoo rite away giving applause to me. Wow!!! Happy bday to me and my exchange sister carole!!

They gave me a birthday yee-haa

my kind of weekend♥

So, last weekend i went to the cinema wih heather, one of my american friend, she is my classmate in english class. So we went to see "divergent", uuh finally i saw that movie. And it was really good althou there r several scene that freak me out hahaha. But overall the movie was so good and it's kind of my type of movie that i like hehe. Rite away after watching movie, it was about 9.30 p.m heather's mom asked me whether i wamma join the, to visit ashley and emma 's house or nah, so they r heather's mom friend's daughter. Haha complicated. So i met them before when i was at halloween parade with heather. Ashley is 6 and emma is 2 i guess, they r having new baby brother omggg,, his name is gavin. So after watchin movie, i went to ashley and emma's house. They r sooo adorb, and they want to interact with me hahha althou they don't really know me well. You know, whenever i'm surrounded by lil kid, it's kind of my heaven!!! Hahha. And in the next day , i volunteered in my host family's church called cross point. They hold an event whichis the easter egg hunts! Yeaah the easter is coming! All the participants in the easter egg hunts are all little kid.. omg you know tht i love lil kid so much , so i enjoyed my time helping them huntin the eggs, and do all fun stuff with them together. Inside the eggs there is one chocolate, too bad i could't grab one haha lol. In that day, saturday april 12th is the global youth service day, so i'm glad i was participatin it by doing community service in my community♥

Today is Nationalsiblingday!

i've just known that here in the US, on April 10th is the national siblings day. so i want to give shout out to my older sister, Eki! i usually call her 'mbak' Eki <3 in Indonesia, we have certain words to call someone older than us so we couldn't really call people just by name hehe. it's been 8 months i haven't met my family back home. i talked to them on skype, i try to still keep in touch with them at least once a month usually i have skype with them. to make sure that every thing are okay and i usually tell them bunch of stories while i'm here in America. talking about national sibling day, it makes me really miss my sister:" she is 5 year older than me and u know what she was also the exchange student in america <3 so glad i got to experience this wonderful experience just like wht my sissy already experienced. she always get my back, she gave me some advices and she is the one who always there when ever i was up and down,, tseeehh. but indeed she is also my inspiration, she has a great leadership and personality, so many people like her! i'm way much closer to mbak eki since she got back home from U.S. yeahh she was in U.S when I was 12th and right away after she got back from  U.S , i was so much closer and tell a lotta story and she is really a good listener! i don't really know her story when ever she was down or something because probably i'm just too young to understand her problems. but here I am, i will always get your back and I loooveee you to the moon and back. i still read her letter that she gave me before i leave from indonesia, her support, quotes and everything mean the world to me! i try to do my best mbak, i hope i could make you proud as a sister, best friend and also as the ambassador of indonesia amiiiin :) here she is, my precious big sistaaahh ( not big in size :P) i send my love from here :* happy national sibling day!

sooo jealous, she is too pretty!! hehe

SENIOR CITIZEN PROM

Hey everyone! rite now I'm really in mood for blogging hhe.. so yep I've just got home from volunteering at senior citizen prom in lower dauphin high school( my host school) . beside joining choir, i also join volunteen at school. this club is so great, i get a lot of community service hours by joining this club. during my stay here i just really enjoy doing community service, i meet a lot of people and touching so many lives by being a volunteer. this morning we prepared for the decorations for the senior citizen prom, setting up everything needed for this event. i was sooo excited XD the theme for this year is  "Fabulous fifties" and all the decoration really portrays about 50's era. last month, we had a senior citizen breakfast and i also volunteered at that moment. some of the visitors of senior citizen breakfast also came today at the prom. they r all soooo cute :3 we all having so much fun. we danced and hang out with grandma grandpa :3 wkwk. some of my friend's grandparents also came to the prom. i also dressed up to be like in the fifties! i wore poodle skirt which someone make for us. here is the pics!

in love with this cute skirt! :3

there were about 130 of them coming to this prom!

DANCE DANCE DANCE!

I feel like this event kind of similar with the events that usually shown in "Batu TV",one of local channel back home. because basically the one who dance usually are the elderly people :3 hehehe. i learned a lot of dances, especially tap dances which is a lil bit complicated for me, but i tried! hehe. overall, this event was successful and soo much fun :)

Youth Day Of Caring with Lower Dauphin Kids

Yesterday , April 4th I volunteered with another 39 lower dauphin kids in the city island. it was my first time going there tho. We all just joined the 1st period at school and then around 8.20 we headed out from school and we took a school bus. it isn't too far from school to the city islands, probably it just take for about 15 minutes. all day long i spent time with heather, my volunteering buddy hehe. all of us were divided into 2 groups that will take care of two different area. in my group, basically we cleaned all the trash, pulling weeds, cleaning all the dead plants and did all of the landscaping works. it was pretty hard to pull out the weeds and we all get so muddy hehe but it was sooo fun tho all of us did a really really great job. we spent for about 7 hours volunteering there, and they also provide a good lunch for us hehe, i just picked veggie burger just in case to avoid pork hehe. so glas this week i'm gonna get around 14 hours of volunteering because the next day i'll help in the senior citizen prom :3

Lower dauphin kids who participated YDOC

Tommy and Angela was collecting trash

Good job guys!

What we did yesterday :' Watch out guys! haha

Indonesian Cultural Nite @ Penn state

on 23rd march 2013 was one of memorable experience that i ever had, sooo excited that my host family and I could come to Indonesian Cultural nite at Penn state, state college. well, approximately it was 2 hours away from my host family's house. this event was held by the association of indonesian college student in US which is called PERMIAS. so the indonesian penn stater hold that event every year, and they also get sponsored by the US department of state. it was a really really fun day tho, the event was started at 6 p.m and they showed several popular dances from different islands in Indonesia such as Tari sekar jagat, Tari piring, Tari Saman, and they also showed us angklung ansemble. there were a small gallery about the traditional sword, traditional clothes, and several pictures about Indonesia. i know some of the committee there and we spoke bahasa indonesia, but too baad it was kind of awkward at the first time because we have different dialects hehe. for dinner, i had nasi goreng( fried rice), satay, lumpia, oh myyy i love them! i miss indonesian food so bad, coming to that event made me at least ate some of the indonesian cuisine hehehe. i hope while i was here, at least i could go to one of indonesian restaurant here. while i was thousand miles away from home, lotta indonesian here said that they are all way more proud to their home country and proud holding our flag and say " I love my country", everything that related to my home country usually give me goosebumps while i heard about it. i also love when people at school or everyone in my community ask me about my country, i'd love to share to them <3 well probably i could be the first indonesian that they ever met who could share a  lot about indonesia :) some of them had a hard time to figure out where indonesia is or even to distinguish between indonesia and india hehe lol. i always glad to answer all of their question, so enjoy being an ambassador for my country:) in the indonesian cultural nite i tried one of the head band from Bali, and my host mom and host dad also try the javanese mask ( Topeng) :3 here they are

Mom, Dad wearing javanese mask (Topeng)

:)

I love to be Volunteer

In my first three months, there were a lot of exciting thing that I’ve had. My first community service is the thing that I will also remember forever. I helped in the food bank at church. Food bank is like a small pantry that stores various kind of food for the family that don’t really have a good economy condition. There are approximately 50 families that usually will come to the food bank because they are not able to buy all the food to fulfill their need. I helped in that church for about 10 hours. I helped to prepare their breakfast after they have a Sunday prayer. Food pantry or food bank usually is held every first and third week in a month. I helped to prepare their sandwich and put them in the plates. After that I helped to bag all the stuff that they take from the food bank and helped them to carry their stuff. The thing that made me very touched is, they always said thank you and smiled at me “Thanks for being a volunteer”.  They recognize me as an exchange student who always cover her hair with scarf. Everytime I went there, I always wore my CIEE shirt or YES shirt. 
That’s why I do love volunteering because I could connect lives among each other, there is no gap between the one who give and receive help. We all talked each other. They always say “May God bless you all”.


I love being in part of food pantry because of how close we are. They are all so nice to me. I’m so glad to see them happy, doing community service also makes me really grateful of the things that I’ve had. Being grateful of the things that I’ve had makes me to still stay positive. In every ups and downs that I’ve had during my exchange year will be useful as a life lesson for me. Joining this exchange year also gives me a new eyes to see the differences, being respectful to others. For me, rainbow will not beautiful if it’s just consist of one color, the various color in it even makes it more beautiful. Everytime I was hanging out with anyone, it could be my friend, family, people at church and another communities, they will ask me about how my country looks like, how do I feel staying in America, and even they could ask me about my belief. Not only being representative of my country, but I’m also being the representative of my religion. I want to bridge understanding between my home country and my host country. I shared several things about my belief and they do respect me so much just the way I respect them. At school, I am allowed to do my noon prayer every lunch time in the nurse office. I am so blessed because of surrounded by good people. Being a minority is a great challenge that I had. I still do my prayer whenever or wherever I go, people around me always respect me when I was doing my prayer. This experience even makes me more faithful and respectful to others. Before having dinner with my host family, we usually say the blessings. Sometimes I will say the blessings in Arabic, and I always listen whenever my host family say their blessing. Sometimes every Sunday I come to my host family church. I’ve experienced to come to my family church for several times, but not everytime. Usually I just stayed in the coffee shop in the church and will talk to them as they finished their prayer. People at my host family’s church are also my host community that I often meet, instead of our neighbor. I talked to them and share a lot of things about my experiences that I’ve had here. I joined some activity that is held by youth group at church. We had several fun games at church and one time I went to hockey game with them.

I love to be Volunteer