"Kim" by Rudyard Kipling

Happy New Year! 

I'd like to start the first blog post of 2026 with my expeirence of reading "Kim" By Rudyard Kipling, in hopes that I'll read more books this year. This blog was planned on December to be posted on New Year, but we're past January so... 😆This isn't a proper book review though, with critical assessments here and there. I'd just like to tell you about my experience with the book, so don't have your hopes up!

"Kim" has sat on my bookshelf long before I became a teenager, but it never took my interest until a few years ago. The blurb looked interesting; it talked about a British boy who becomes a Tibetan monk while training for the British spy. Two worlds which I wouldn't expect to cross paths. I opened the first page with enthusiasm...only to shut it after a page or two. The English was (and still is) really difficult for me to understand, so I immediately lost interest. Last September though, I suddenly had the call to conquer "Kim" and decided to finish reading it no matter what. I went in headfirst without any preparations or guide: rereading the blurb didn't cross my mind, I didn't do any background research on the book to avoid spoilers, and decided to search things up after I finish the book. The results? Well, I didn't understand each and every sentence, but at least I understand the overall story! I consider that an accomplishment, especially when I haven't read a novel in such a long long time. 

"Kim" is about an orphaned Irish boy's adventures as he accompanies a Tibetan lama on his journey to find the "River of Arrow" while secretly working for the British as a spy. The "River of Arrow" is a river that emerged from a place in which Buddha's arrow fell and is said to wash away the sins of those who bathe in it. My limited knowledge on Buddhism makes the "River of the Arrow" fascinating. I've never heard of it in the few Buddhism tales I've read and there aren't any rivers known for that aspect (like how the Jordan River is known to be where Jesus was baptized). So, like the impatient reader I am, I skipped to the last pages of the book to know what the "River of the Arrow" is like and where it's located. I'd also like to know how the lama ended up finding it. With other books, this method would usually work well for me; I could get the whole story with a little backtracking. However, the ending of "Kim" made things even more confusing. There are no descriptions or names of locations of the river. In addition to that, two of the characters I didn't expect to get along well are having a chat! Backtracking didn't help either as there are too many unfamiliar characters and places in the middle of the story. Well, this meant I should read the whole thing.

I read the first few chapters with enthusiasm, thinking that the whole story will be the journey of Kim and his lama in finding their river. Yes, enthusiasm, even though I often nodded off to sleep after several pages due to difficulty in understanding it (I'll talk more about this later). However, something unexpected happened in the middle of the story. Kim was caught by his late father's regiment and was sent to an expensive, private school for western boys, which was supported and even paid for by the lama. Thus, I thought, this was the end of their journey in finding their river and that the rest of the story will be about Kim's other adventures. Extremely disappointed that I won't be getting any further information on the river, I stopped reading the book for about two weeks. 

During that time, I went back and forth on whether I should continue to read the book or return it to its shelf. Should I finish the book? Or should I not? The determination to finish the book has waned in me. However, I came to realize that the title of the book is "Kim", not "Kim and the Lama" or "The Search for the River" so obviously this book wouldn't revolve entirely on finding the river. 😭This made me pick up the book again. I even got curious on how Kim, a boy who is more familiar with the ways of a low-caste Indian life, would survive in a school with a western lifestyle. 

At times, I found the story boring. As a picaresque novel (I didn't even know these existed) which oftentimes have little to no plot, "Kim" isn't your typical beginning, middle, and end story. "Kim" barely seems to have a middle at all. The story is like a series of episodes: Kim and the lama met, travelled around, met various people, experienced different cultures, got seperated by Kim's schooling, then travelled some more. A big part of the story is made up of conversations that showcased people of various backgrounds and their views of British India. While this gives readers an immersive experience on the era, this leads to another complication.

"Kim" is difficult to understand. The conversations are in English, yes, and I understand each word when read independently, but I barely understood anything when put together into sentences. Rereading each sentence also didn't help. What did help though, was forcing myself to read through the whole paragraph. In this way, I somehow got the general idea of what Kipling is trying to say. Perhaps the English is difficult because it was written more than a century ago. Perhaps though, it's due to my unfamiliarity with Indian culture and more importantly with something central to the novel: The Great Game. 

At first, I genuinely thought that The Great Game was another piece of Kipling's imagination before going on to the internet 😂 In reality, it was a time when Britain and Russia fought over influence in Central Asia, but didn't go into a full-scale war. Kim's side-quest while accompanying the lama is "playing The Great Game", or helping the British secret service with spying and relaying cryptic messages. Through this, "Kim" gives an immersive experience on what being 'The Great Game' player is like as we watch Kim and other characters lie, spy, fool, sneak, and smooth-talk in order to obtain, protect, and relay information. Now that I've read up on The Great Game, I realized that a lot of the conversations are cryptic and full or hidden meanings. They would make a lot of sense if I knew what was going on from the start (or maybe not, I had to ask ChatGPT what several messages meant even after knowing The Great Game)😂 I did notice somwhere in the middle that the characters were speaking with secret meanings but I couldn't make head or tail about what they're on. 

Another difficulty comes from the way how the characters communicate. They speak English with their own cultural habits rather than using the standard grammar or sentence structure. There are lots of proverbs, slangs from that era (this is most confusing), and words spelled to reflect heavy accents. This does give a sense on what British India might have sounded like, but this makes the story harder to understand.

Rudyard Kipling wanted to immerse readers with life and culture in British India, which I think he did really well with his many diverse characters and their conversations. The complex language and lack of clear plot requires a little grit to get through though. However, those interested in Eastern cultures, has a background knowledge of The Great Game, and loves decoding messages might find the book fascinating. I've grown to love "Kim" and would like to read it again with the background knowledge I have now, but I don't think I'm a huge fan of picaresque novels. 

Hopefully another book review will follow this!

Nyamuk Dimakan Pisang

Hii! It has been a long time since I updated my life on this blog, hasn't it? Well, if you bother to count my age (which I have stated a few times in previous years), I'm currently at the age when teens prepare and take their university entrance exams, which is called SBMPTN in Indonesia. Thus, I didn't really have a lot of  activities other than studying and watching lots of videos for my study breaks. I took the test in April and the SBMPTN results were released last week! I'm extremely glad to say that I  got accepted into one of my dream universities but.... I won't give you any details as that's a story for another day :) This week, I only want to share a GIF I made for fun when I was tired with all the SBMPTN preparations.

If you dear readers didn't know, I have a special needs older sister. She likes to talk about her favourite songs and words that she heard over the years, but due to her disability, some words get jumbled up. In the last few weeks, my sister kept on saying "nyamuk dimakan pisang", which confused us immensely. If we translate the phrase to English, it means that a mosquito (nyamuk) is eaten by (dimakan) a banana (pisang). Now we all know that bananas are producers in the food chain, so where could she have heard this illogical yet funny phrase?  After some thinking, my family figured out that she actually wanted to say "nyamuk dimakan cicak", which means that a mosquito is eaten by a gecko (cicak). However, I think she misheard the words "cicak" and "pisang" as they sound similar. This phrase still sticks to my mind to this day and this results in: 

In an alternate reality: Mr. Banana here is a type of carnivorous fruit which acts very much like a carnivorous plant. Unlike the plants, Mr. Banana only eats mosquitos and doesn't produce scents to attract them. Instead, he just sits and waits with his mouth open with the hopes that a stray mosquito will land on his mouth. Once a mosquito is at his vermilion border, he will snap his mouth shut and gobble it up! His love for mosquito and lack of scent makes him the perfect choice as a home decoration and mosquitocide! (Is there even a word like that)?

I'm really sorry for jumping around from one topic to another in this post as this is just a really quick and fun post. Next week, I will talk about my SBMPTN preparations and results which will be a much more serious post. 

Who Do I Turn To In My Most Difficult Times?

It is said that teenagers are awkward and I’m living proof of that. As I enter the dreaded teenage year, I suddenly discovered many situations that made me feel self-conscious and at loss about what to do. The person who I turn to to help me deal with difficult social situations is my mom. One of the most frequent and unavoidable tricky situations was walking my dogs in my neighborhood. It’s always full of people, like a park! There are kids and teens playing, adults out to talk with their neighbors, people exercising, vehicles, and other dog walkers. When walking my dogs, I just want to have a quiet me time with them. However, my all-white dogs are a constant attraction to passersby, and we often get disturbed by both positive or negative reactions. With people who like dogs, they would stop us and some would pet or play with my dogs. Some would even follow us. I only have a limited time to walk my dogs and I don’t appreciate being stopped every 5 minutes or so. People who don’t like dogs give us askew looks, a wide breadth, and I’ve even heard mean comments as they pass by. This results in me turning away from people I know to avoid having to stop and chit chat with them. I may appear rude and unneighborly, supporting the stigma that teenagers are difficult. As I often feel drained and agitated after taking my dogs for their walk, I usually talk to my mom.

My mom isn’t a counselor or a psychologist; in fact, she graduated from civil engineering. But being a middle-aged mother of a special needs child, my mother has an abundant of good and bad experiences. From her experience, she discovered that keeping bad feelings only made her feel worse. Instead, she sought out alternative ways to deal with them. A method which worked best for her was to release her negative emotions by breathing in and out. While breathing out, she imagined that her negative emotions went out with her breath. In other words: “pushing” them out mentally. She then would analyze what just happened and found out that she could learn some lessons from the experience.

My mom also taught that method to me. When I’m in one of my tempers, my mom always asked me to calm down first by “pushing” them away, as thinking with heavy emotions often lead to stupid decisions. When I was younger, she helped analyze the situation with paper and pen. It usually ended with her telling me the reasons of why people acted that way, and how I could react to them in a better way than what I did before. The reasons and factors sometimes surprised me. Sometimes, it’s just their habit to lose their tempers. Sometimes, it’s just because of the environment that they live in. I was also taught that my energy could be put into a better use for the greater good to help change the world into a better place. :)

Now that I’m older, I could analyze the difficult situations on my own and think of ways to handle them in a better way. Still, with an occasional help from my mom. As the person who raises me and helps me deal with my problems, she knows every little details about me. When retelling my bad experiences, I don’t have to explain myself, why I did what I did, because she already knows why. She would also know just the right words to say to me. I don’t think I would ever find someone else more perfect than her to guide me and help me through difficult situations.

A Tale of Discipline

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I updated about myself, hasn't it?

With all my recent book analysis posts, I hoped that you all didn’t think that my blog has become a book review and analysis blog. It hasn’t. It’s still just a platform for me to share my life-views and activities with you all. I am an avid reader. So I have recently been busy reading and analysing different books, which I found to be quite interesting and educating. But, I get that if you get the same type of posts every few weeks, it would tend to get boring. So I will try to insert other types of writing in between.

To be honest, I only posted my study analyses because I had difficulties in thinking up topics to write in my personal entries. I didn’t participate in too many events recently. I didn't want to add more activities to my schedule, as there's this voice behind my head saying that I still have lots of things to do. During the holidays, I also couldn't hang out with friends because I had to catch up with my studies. I have an allotted study time of seven hours a day. However, I don’t seem to be getting any studying done. What a mystery! I even used to think that one of the reasons I'm unable to get things done was because of my extracurricular activities; and was about to cut them all down. After examining every possible clue, I finally discovered the culprit! D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N-S. Objects of crime: mobile phone, books, pets, daydreams, computer, and Internet access. Perhaps no further explanation is needed. :)

Thinking back, this culprit has been my constant companion for as long as I can remember; ever since my parents decided to trust me to study on my own. This culprit always succeeded in persuading me to trick my parents, and this obviously bore rotten fruits. The academic deadlines I set for myself always seemed to run away from me and I had to constantly chase them. Unfortunately, I acted like a snail and when I finally reached the finished line, I have another or actually many other races to complete. I seemed to be stuck in never-ending races.

In order to persuade myself to change, I had to find motivations. Unexpectedly, I found my motivations in my friends. I have a friend who goes to a prestigious school known for its rigorous and challenging activities. I wanted to experience similar challenges, but as you know, I have many incomplete lessons. Therefore, I felt the urgency to finish my studies so that I can pursue more challenging and exciting activities.

A competitor can also be a great motivator. A few months ago, I joined an academic course, where periodically, there’s an academic assessment. The results would be shown to the whole class. For the first assessment, I ranked 1st in my class. Recently, a new classmate joined the course. He is a diligent and dedicated student. He studied tirelessly, even during break time! I’m very much motivated to maintain my 1st position and he has become a serious challenger. Therefore, I need to work more seriously and harder on my studies.

I discovered that when I have more motivations, I have more drive to make changes, such as studying more and working hard. But motivations can only push me forward; it cannot help me to manage my time. So, I use a study method called Pomodoro Tomato. A pomodoro is to work with full concentration for 25 minutes then break for 5 minutes. Every 3rd pomodoro, I break for a longer time; usually for 15 minutes.

With these to help me catch up my studies, I'm starting to get back on track. I managed to find time to explore my coordinating skills. I became the coordinator of a homeschool event. Coordinating the event is quite time consuming as I need to spend a lot of time managing people. Therefore, I’m still hesitant in trying a new hobby, as it also takes up time to practise the skills. I still have subjects to catch up with, even though they're not as many as my previous years. I hope that these methods will help me for a long time. I’m very sure that at some point in my life in the future, I will be distracted again. Hopefully, I will find new motivations to help me get back on track!

About Jobs

In our life, I’m sure that everyone wants a job that they love, but at the same time, get well paid for it. Unfortunately though, that is just a dream to a lot of people. We often meet people who have a really high position in their workplace and a really high salary, but at the same time are stressed and unhappy. There are also people who have a job that they really enjoy, but do not earn much. As our time on earth is precious, I would prefer to have a job that I enjoy so that I could have a good life.
As most people will tell you, time is precious. We need to make good use of our time. Why spend so much of our limited time on things that do not make us happy and gives us so much pressure. A lot of us work every day except on Sundays, which shows just how much we work for the sake of earning money. Then on Sundays, we might be too tired to do anything except for resting. Why should we spend a lot of our time on things that do not satisfy or make us happy?

If we’re not happy at work, often times we will bring the unhappiness back home. When we are tired, our mind won’t be able to think well. We will lash out at every little thing. The atmosphere will be unpleasant. This may make our family members or anyone living with us wary. Our relationship with family members will also deteriorate.

If we are stress or unhappy for a long time, it may give us health problems. It has been discovered that stress can lead to sicknesses such as cancer. Instead of having a lot of money from our high income, we waste a lot of money on medical bills. Is this all really worth it just for the sake of earning money for our living?

There will always be obstacles and hardships in any job that we take. When we have a passion for somethingthat we love, we have the motivation to always try our best when facing obstacles, no matter how hard it is. We will always try to improve ourselves and our jobs too. Thus, we will be able to grow in our career faster. On the other hand, when we encounter a setback while doing a task that we dislike, it will be harder for us to solve it because we lack enthusiasm.

Why should we pressure ourselves with earning a lot of money? It’s not worth it. As long as we are able to earn enough for our living and some extras. Money isn’t everything, and we cannot buy happiness. Those who chose the jobs that they like will have a much happier life. Even if they don’t make much money, they will at least be able to earn enough for their lives. Those who don’t like their jobs might earn much more but in reality they dislike their repetitive tiring lives.

Music (Bimtek Part 2)

Following my last blog’s entry about my participation in Bimtek, we now focused on the main event of creating and performing music. If you haven’t read the first part yet, read it here before you continue.

So basically, the first day of Bimtek Event was mostly about getting settled and getting to know the other participants and mentors. On the second day, all the musicians were regrouped into groups of five. We were instructed to come up with a positive theme, especially about Indonesia and unity, for each group. We were given time to discuss for a while and then we must announce our chosen theme out loud. The mentors will write each group’s theme down on a whiteboard. As the mentors wanted unique theme for each group, the groups with the same themes must compete with each other for the theme or find a new theme. Some popular themes are about diversity, unity, and tolerance in Indonesia. In the end, I forgot what theme my group decided on, but it was something about "friendship."

I like my new group better than my previous group (I didn't think I really fit in). My new group made up of five people, three boys and two girls, including me. All of the boys can play guitars. They came from Pekanbaru, Kudus, and Jakarta.The girl was from Papua and she could play the trumpet. We chatted about a lot of things. It was fun talking to her. I think I like and feel more comfortable with the members in my second group because of their personalities. I'm not sure, maybe I think they're more mature?

Next is making the song! We were uncertain on whether we should compose the melody or lyrics first. In the end we decided on the lyrics. The lyrics were mostly composed by me and I have to admit, it was hard :). There were even some parts that my group's mentor deemed inappropriate, so my group had to edit and revise them lots of times. Lyric writing went on until past lunchtime. Then, we had to work on the melody.

We wanted a mix of pop and traditional Indonesian style melody and we wanted it to be fun. In our group, the different instruments our members could play were guitars, jimbe, kendang, and flute so we composed our melody with those instruments in mind. 2 mentors helped us revise the music.

At first, each of us hummed out melodies we felt that is suitable with the lyrics. The guitarist then strummed out some matching chords. We were halfway through the song when a mentor came and listened to our progress. He commented that the song was a bit plain and suggested for us to maximize the use of other instruments and not just focused on guitar.

I played out some traditional melodies with my flute and tried to match to the guitars’ chords. However, the mentor thought that the flute’s sound would be overpowered by the guitars and it would actually sound very sweet on its own. Therefore for the introduction, we decided to start with a flute solo.For the chorus we added a traditional drum and guitar parts for a more upbeat and modern melody.We had to change the structures of some parts of the lyrics so it would fit with the melodies. Finally, our song was finished close to dinnertime.

We still had some time to spare before dinner and my roommate, Ike, said that she'd like to see the storytelling group’s activities. So we went to the second floor where the storytellers are. Ike and I brought our musical instruments, flute and violin. When we arrived there, the storytelling participants had finished their assignment and were just relaxing and chatting with each other. They asked us to play our instruments for them. I didn't prepare for the impromptu performance, but at that time I was a fan of the Swan Lake theme, so I played a part of it as I didn't memorize it all.

A boy chirped out “Waa... a Barbie song!". That was unexpected! I found that a bit amusing and embarrassing at the same time as I came to the realisation that there was indeed a Barbie movie,“Barbie of the Swan Lake”, which used the Swan Lake theme song. I remembered watching the movie when I was younger. After a good laugh, the storytelling participants asked me to continue playing. It was nice and pleasant meeting them.

We were scheduled to perform the songs that we just composed in front of all the music groups after dinner. Since Ike and I went to the ballroom earlier than the scheduled time, we had some time to spare. I showed her how to play my flute and I tried her violin. Ike showed me how to hold the violin and where to position my fingers. She taught me to play the note “D” and “G”. At first I thought that the fingering’s not as hard as the flute as there were only 3 strings on the violin. It’s easy to position my fingers. However, when I actually played the notes, I realized that it’s hard to make the sound stable. Sometimes the notes sounded on pitch and sometimes it’s off pitch.

Soon afterwards everybody gathered in the ballroom and it’s performing time! The atmosphere changed and everyone was tense. The mentors randomly picked the order of the groups’ performance. There were 8 groups in total and our group was the 8^thgroup. Perhaps, the mentors felt sorry for us for being the last group, so they decided to change our position from the last group to the first group, by choosing us to perform first! Lucky us!

I was so nervous! Our song started with my flute solo as the intro. This gave me a lot of pressure as not only our group was the 1^st one to perform, but I was also the first one to perform alone. I'm glad that there was a mic and camera test first, so I could calm down on stage for a while. We were asked to play a part of our song for the testing, which calmed me down a lot. Finally, the official performance started.

As the performance started, I put all my focus on my notes which I put on the floor because there was no music stand. So I wasn’t too affected by the cameras and the audiences. I’m happy to report that our performance went on smoothly without any mistakes. You can watch it here.

After everyone had finished their performances and the event was closed by the music mentors; there was a huge celebration. Most of the participants became hyper and danced around; I guessed they were letting their steam off. There were also a lot of photos or selfies sessions. After a while, everybody dispersed. Some went back to their rooms, while some continued to hangout.  Now that I think about it, I just went walking around in groups visiting other contestants’rooms. I think we were a bit rowdy and disturbed some other hotel guests. The security even came out to control the situation and some of the boys ran off. Eventually, I went back to my room. We had a mini party in my room with my roommates, Ike and Kak Ulfi. We had hamburgers and chatted until late night.The next day we packed up, took selfies of the three of us together, and it’s time to say goodbye.

This event forced me to step out of my comfort zone. I had to interact with different people from different cities and backgrounds. I felt that with so many participants, I couldn’t get along with everybody, but I did find a few good friends.This was the first time I was asked to compose a song in group with several musicians right there and then. It was challenging but fun. I also got to know some traditional Indonesian music instruments. It was truly a crazy experience.

All the participants.

Me and my roommates.

Ike, me, and Kak Rosince.

Music (Bimtek Part 1)

I haven’t been an active blogger last year due to my laziness (I'll admit it), but starting from April 2018 I suddenly had an aspiration to post weekly (I hope it will last!). I couldn't do it on April though, as I had to prepare for my national examinations which would take place on early May. I finally had more time to blog in June, during the holidays.There were many events that I hadn’t blogged about and so, for the next couple of blogs it will be a trip back to the past.

I participated in 3 big music events during November – December 2017. The first one was from October 30th to November the 1st. It was called "Bimbingan Teknis Akutalisasi Potensi Anak Melalui Media Musik Dan Dongeng" which is shortened to "Bimtek." The second event was my music school’s year-end performance and the third event was a music competition.

Bimtek was held by kemendikbud (Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan), Indonesia's ministry of education. They picked teenagers under the age of 18 from each province of Indonesia who have interest in music and storytelling to create positive music and stories for other kids and teenagers. This year, there were around 87 participants from 47 provinces. I was the representative from Banten for the music part.

It was supposed to be interesting meeting teenagers from almost all over Indonesia, but I found that it's not exactly easy to make new acquaintances. On my first day there in the morning, after registering myself, I was asked to wait with the others in the dining area. As I entered the area, I saw some of the other participants sitting in small groups. I didn't know which group to join as I don’t know anybody so I sat on an empty table.

I took out my math exercises to work on, hoping that no one will come up to me and talk; but at the same time I'd like to make friends with the others. Half an hour later 2 older girls came up to me and asked if the seat in front of me is empty. I said yes. After introducing ourselves, the two girls talked to each other while I continued with my maths. They went to the same college and chatted about people they know, their college, common interests, etc. I tried to join in the conversation, but I didn't find anything that I can relate to, so I just stayed quiet. Now that I think about it, I think I didn't put enough effort into trying to make a decent conversation.

Long before this event, one of the event organiser put the participants and mentors into a Whatsapp group. My mom informed that she was to be put into the group in my place because there's something wrong with my Whatsapp. Neither my Mom nor I checked the group frequently, so I thought that the other participants weren't talking much.

2 tables on my left one of the small groups became bigger as more participants arrived. At a glance, they were talking and laughing as if they already knew each other. I thought that the participants made another Whatsapp group without the adults, just for themselves. As my mom already informed the group the event organisers made that she was representing me, I thought that they didn't invite me into the group because of that. This made me think that the group 2 tables on my left already knew each other and were talking like close friends. This made me felt left out.

I paid more attention when more participants arrived to the 2 tables on my left. That table is the most crowded one now. They introduced themselves and get to know each other as if they never met before. This made me doubt my theory before about how they looked so friendly to each other.

I wanted to get to know them, but isn't it weird when the girl who's been sitting 2 tables away from you since before suddenly come up and introduce herself at that time? Why didn't she make friends since before. So I decided not to do it. 

As it got closer to lunch some of the people from other groups (including that group 2 tables away from me) came to my table to introduce themselves. It was nice meeting them.

After lunch the participants were asked to meet up in a ballroom. The MCs there asked where we came from. "Who's from Kalimantan? Who's from Sumatra?" When they asked which participant came from Jawa Barat and which came from Banten I was confused. So I just raised my hand when they asked the participants from Jawa Barat :p. I come from Banten anyway.

They then asked all of use to stand up and introduce ourselves to each other. I just stayed next to my seat while I introduce myself to any random person that would shake my hand. The Mcs encouraged us not to just introduce ourselves near our seats, but to move further into the crowd. I'm afraid I didn't get too far :p.

The MCs then called those who think they can remember at least 15 people to come up to the front and say their names. Well, I definitely didn't remember anyone that I met in that room. 4 people went up though. I recognized them from the place where we waited before and I guessed that they remember at least 14 because they already get to know at least 14 people there. There are more than 14 people in that 2 tables on my left.

When we were dismissed we were offered refreshments. We were asked to meet up again later in the evening. The music section were to meet up in that same ballroom, while the storytelling section are to meetup somewhere else. With that much amount of spare time, I decided to take my card to my room and take a rest there. 

I shared a room with 2 other girls. One of them is Kak Ulfi, the girl who shared the table with me before in the dining area, and another one is a year younger than me. They both said that it took a long time for them to get their cards, because the queue was crazy. That made me realise that I wasn't supposed to take the card before the mentors tell us too, but anyway....

When evening came, we met up in the ballroom as scheduled. Somehow, I felt that the atmosphere was tense. It could be because I feel pressured around new people. I sat next to Ike, one of my roomates, who's a year younger than me, and some friends that I made during dinnertime. I found out that Ike and me liked several similar things, and we had fun talking about them.

The mentors broke the ice by singing us a fun song. They then asked us to sing along. At first everyone's singing was rather quiet and shy, but then it got louder, and those with guitars played along (we were allowed to bring our portable instruments, and I brought my flute). The atmosphere became more fun and friendly. 

We were then put into groups, and were asked to make a yell-yell for our group. They asked us to agree on a time and place tomorrow to make the yell-yell. Tonight will be useless to make one, as everyone were definitely tired. After introducing ourselves to each other and asked for contacts, we decided on 7.30 a.m. at the canteen to make our yell-yell.

The next morning, I woke up the latest out of the three . My consequence was: everyone bathed before me. While waiting, I prepared all my things so that after I bath, all I have to do is pick them up and go. I wanted to be on time because I'm afraid that my teammates would find me irresponsible. As I bathed the last, I had less time than the others to bathe if I want to meet up on time. 

My bath was really rushed as my roomates bathed longer than I expected. I still reached the canteen on time though. However, I was disappointed when I reached the canteen. I tried to find my teammates who I thought were already sitting somewhere in a group, as it's 7:30 already. I was even about to skip my breakfast as my consequence for waking up late, but I couldn't find my group anywhere.

I then saw one of my teammates still eating and chatting with her friends. I was surprised, and rather hurt. Her actions showed that she was irresponsible; she didn't respect the other group members who might had met up and were waiting for her. I found out later though, that others did the same like her. I didn't dare speak to her because I didn't really know her. I thought I still had time while waiting for them to finish theirs, so I followed Ike to take my breakfast and sit with her and some friends. I didn't eat much as I was afraid that my teammates will soon call me to gather up; my table is next to one of them. I had a little chat with my table mates and one of them asked me the languages that I could speak. She then asked me to say some English words while she recorded me. What should I say? As I had no idea of what to say, I just answered some of their questions in English. I felt I had done a poor job in showing my English, but anyway. That was one of the most awkward breakfast time in my life.

After I finished breakfast, I tried to find another of my teammate, as my next table teammate seemed busy chatting. I tried to find the one whom I thought was pretty friendly. I did met her, and we found a table for our discussion later. Our other teammates came after a while, and so the meeting started.

In my opinion, the meeting didn't go well. First, we forgot that we had to make a yell-yell, and instead made a song that kind of introduces our group. Not all of us are active in making the song; most of us just looked confused but they tried to get involved.

As most of us were late when starting the meeting, when we reached the ballroom at a scheduled time our song wasn't finished. Luckily we got a fifteen or 20 minute extra to finish it.

To break the ice (again) among us, the mentors had organised a game. We were to stand in a circle, and a person in the middle of the circle was to say a particular thing that some of us had. Those who had it were to move to any space in front of that person. The last one who didn't get any space was to replace the person in the middle. It was fun.

After each group performed their song (unfortunately, the others also made my group's mistake) and the mentor pointing out our mistake, we were asked to sit in a circle. One of our mentors performed a song that she composed when she was younger. Our mentors also asked one of the participants to perform a song that he made in his native language. All the songs performed had meaningful meanings behind them. 

We were then regrouped and this was where the fun starts! We were going to make a song.

I'm going to continue next week as this took so long to write. 

Cheryl is Snowy After All: A Roller Coaster Day

Since I first got Cheryl, I really wanted to know her original name, her real age, and her birth date (so I can celebrate it :D). I thought it was impossible to know it, but I did get to know.... in a roller coaster way.

My Mom posted my last blog post in a dog lover Facebook group right after I published it on my blog. It got plenty of reactions from the members; some were touched, and lots of them gave likes. But one reaction caught me on surprise. Someone messaged my Mom, asking if she could see Cheryl. My mom read it 2 days after the message was sent though.

Kak Natalie (who sent the message) said that she lost one of her white poodles on December 2016. Her lost poodle was named Snowy (Owi), and was spayed when she was 1.5 years old. She also included the last photos she had of Snowy before she was lost.

Cheryl isn't an all-white poodle, she has brown fur on her paws, around her mouth, and around her butt. The photo is exactly like Cheryl, but there could be other poodles with brown fur around those parts. There were 2 facts that that person wrote that matched Cheryl. She was adopted by my neighbour around December 2016, and according to my neighbour, even though a lot of dogs had mated with Cheryl, she never got pregnant. Kak Natalie also lives in the same housing as I do, although in a different block, a bit far from my house.

My mom checked Kak Nat's FB, and from her posts, she looks like a real dog lover. My mom also asked several questions about Cheryl to Kak Nat, and the answers she gave matched with Cheryl's character and behaviour Although to make sure that she is the first owner of Cheryl, we must meet her in person. Kak Nat said she will come to our house after work, at 6 o'clock. The conversation in FB hadn't finished when she said that she's on her way now to our house. It's not even 6 o'clock yet, only around 4 o'clock. :D

I won't go into details about Kak Nat reuniting with Cheryl, as it was an emotional reunion :).

We invited her inside, and she told us the story starting from Cheryl's parents.

Cheryl's mom is white poodle named Kerry, and her dad a black poodle named Bon Bon. They had 5 puppies, Snowy, Vodka, Paris, Charlie, and Chirochuka, born on April 1st, 2007. I couldn't believe that Cheryl is actually 10 years old! She still acts like a puppy (except the chewing habits puppies have). She doesn't seem like a grandma :D.

 Kerry died from cancer, while Bon Bon died from heatstroke. It's possible that all of Kerry's kids may have inherited Kerry's cancer genetics, as Vodka and Paris died of the same disease.

Snowy escaped when Vodka was still sick. Kak Nat just came home from work and let all her dogs out into the front porch so that they won't disturb her preparing the medicine for Vodka. When she finished and called all her dogs in, Cheryl was gone. Later on she found out that Cheryl escaped from the hole at the side of the sliding gate.

Kak Nat didn't ask for Snowy back, but we decided to give her back. Although we felt sad, it was the right thing to do. We didn't give Cheryl back though, we said that we must tell my neighbour (that found and kept Cheryl) first, because I already promised my neighbour that I will take care of Cheryl until the end. Giving her back may seem that I just left Cheryl.

At first my neighbour didn't agree on giving Cheryl back, as she's bothered about my feelings. But before our neighbour called Kak Nat, Kak Nat decided to give Cheryl to us (all communication was through phone, as my neighbour was away), as she doesn't want to break the bond Snowy already has for us. In her honour we renamed Cheryl into Snowy, aka Owi.

Knowing Kak Nat was such a blessing, as we got lots of dog knowledge from her. She's the only dog lover that I'm friends with around here. I also got a book of touching dog stories.

Last Sunday we visited Kak Nat's house. Her house's actually just opposite my relative's house from which I adopted Chiko! I also ever walked Snowy close Kak Nat's house! Kak Nat also often heard Chiko's barks when she comes home from work. It's just......

Well, I think everything has a connection to each other....

Chiro, Snowy and Charlie

My Best Furry Friends

It's been a month since I last updated my blog, due to some busy schedules and 2 newcomers in my family :). I'd like to start from the early days of September, when I got my first newcomer in my family.

Let me introduce you to my first four-legged member, Cheryl:

She's my little sweet mini poodle and only barks when necessary. This sweet girl was rescued from the streets by my neighbour, which possibly means that she was abandoned  away by her previous owner. But my neighbour needs space for her business, so she's been looking for someone to adopt her dogs (she's only got 2 left now).

These cases of abandoned dogs are very common, sometimes with unreasonable reasons. I couldn't imagine anyone abandoning Cheryl . She's such a darling and is very smart (although she's a picky eater).

There are a lot of reasons for people to abandon their dogs:

- People buy only because they want it. They see the cute puppy on the windows of the pet shop then buying it, before even learning about the dog breed or considering whether they'll be able to raise it. Will they be able to keep their dogs for their whole life? Will they move to somewhere where dogs aren't welcomed? etc. Pets are for a lifetime, it's really cruel to just abandon them.

- They breed their dogs, then abandon them when they're deemed "undesirable" for them. You're the one who decide to bring them to this world in the first place.

- People only buy them according to the trending breed, then abandon them once it's not trending anymore. Like the Siberian Husky, we can find lots of them in shelters, due to them being the trend in previous years.This year I've seen a lot of red toy poodles, they seem to be the trend this year.

- They were bought just for fame and glory. Their owners bought and raised them without love (although it's not always the case) and enrolled them into dog competitions just for prize or money. But once the dog becomes too old, or doesn't win many competitions they will just abandon or sell them, where it's unsure whether the one who buys it will treat the dog well.

- They are gifts/presents. Never give a dog as a present, as the one who gets it might not always be ready for the responsibility of taking the dog until it dies, especially a child.

- They were given without the one who receives' consent.

- There are many more reasons that I might not know.

Who could ever abandon this sweet girl?

I first saw her roaming the streets, and I immediately felt a connection with her. She's very sweet and quiet, just like a doll, and was a rare sight to see. The dogs that roam my neighbourhood are usually mongrels, and none of them are mostly white like Cheryl.

I had been following her for several days around the neighbourhood when I finally met her owner on one late afternoon. She was a friendly woman and was considering to give Cheryl to me as she needs space for her business. At first I refused as I thought she was just being nice to me, but she kept on offering Cheryl whenever I met her. Once I knew the reason, I decided to adopt Cheryl. After getting agreement from my dad, Cheryl was brought to my house to adapt to it first. Although my neighbour wants to give Cheryl away, she's sad to part with Cheryl. But finally she feels relieved when she saw that I take care of Cheryl well.

I didn't immediately keep Cheryl, I just brought and introduced her to my house first. I let her go back to my neighbour in the evening to sleep there. I did this for several days, to let her gradually adapt to my house. All she did in our house was roam the front porch and laid down on her new bed my neighbour gave to me inside. And once I think she's ready to settle down in her new home, I take her permanently.

The first few days were a bit hard as I still don't have a leash for Cheryl. Whenever I took her out to walk, she would always run to my neighbour's house. She would just dash there without caring about the vehicles on the road, which makes it dangerous. Once she got to my neighbour's house, she didn't want to go back, so I had to carry her home.

When the leash arrived, the problem above was solved, although it was still hard to bring Cheryl home. Gradually, though, she came to know that my house is her home. Even without leash, Cheryl will always stick with me.

Since I adopted Cheryl, I've been immersed into the dog world. I wanted to save one of my relative's dog which was given to them; not as a present, but because they wanted to move house and cannot bring their dog to their new house.

First my relative's dog was really spoiled. It was bathed in warm water, was bought clothes, and was taught tricks. But after some time, as my relatives were often on the go, there was rarely anyone to play with the dog (it's a lapdog). Slowly the lapdog was just kept in the backyard and only given limited food once a day. This resulted the dog to be malnourished that even minor wounds couldn't recover and became infected. His fur became matted as he was rarely given a bath. He also never went out so he lacks social skills. 

Then there was a Chihuahua not far from my house which I saw was always locked up in its cage. I wanted to take him out for a walk but I didn't know the owner so I still don't dare to ask. Although my mom has met him once or twice and said that he was kind. However, I was unsure whether I'll be able to take the Chihuahua for a walk. Because usually I was exhausted after just walking Cheryl.

To get some experience in walking more than 1 dog, I decided to take my relative's dog out for a walk. Then my mom asked my relative if I can take their dog out, they asked if I would like to adopt the dog instead. That results in:

Meet Chiko!

 All those wounds and infections were due to malnutrition.

He's a cheerful, playful, and energetic bichon frise with an alpha behaviour. Alpha behaviour means that he was born with a leader attitude.

We guessed that he was an alpha because he acts dominant. When we just got him, he insisted on sleeping on the sofa, unlike Cheryl who went down immediately when we asked her to. It is said that alphas like to sleep in a higher position so they can keep an eye over their territory.

There are many more examples but it will be too long to tell all of them here.

After we picked him up, we immediately brought him to the vet to be vaccinated. The vet said to put him in a cage for 1 week so he can rest. Once we got home, we put him into the cage. It was a big cage and we didn't have any space for the cage inside. He started crying and barking as he didn't want to be left outside but we had no choice.

A week has passed and we decided to castrate him, so he won't have the desire to mate with any dog. I disagree on breeding more dogs as there are already a lot of dogs with sad fates like him waiting in shelters to be taken home. After the castration, we allowed him to stay inside but he wasn't allowed to move around too much during his process of healing, which was hard as he was a very active dog.

This was Chiko "playing" the piano.

How could anyone ignore/abandon these 2 dogs?

Unlike Cheryl who just smiles politely, Chiko expresses his feelings really clearly on his face. He's very expressive.

In the beginning it was hard settling down with these two, even though we settled down with them one by one. First we had to get used to their new behaviours, then there's their vaccination, new rules for them, etc.

From adopting these two, I learned a lot of things about caring for dogs. Once you get a dog, you are responsible for it for the rest of the dog's life. So consider carefully before getting one. Even if there is a sudden change in your life, you must be able to fit your dog into the change, not abandon or leave it.

It's not easy to keep a dog ( if you really want to keep them properly).They must be vaccinated, brought to vet when sick (which isn't cheap), potty trained, manner trained, etc. I also suggest castrating them so there will be no more dogs that might end up with sad fates.

If you'd like to own a dog, I suggest you go to a shelter and give them a chance for a forever home.  Of course you must pass their terms and conditions before you can bring them home. One of the shelter that I know is Shelter Melati in Tangerang. You can check their instagram .

My 3-Days Holiday

A day before Friday, 23rd of June (the day that Pak Jokowi made into a holiday), my family and I went and stayed in Gunung Mas, Puncak. The journey took 2 hours, which is pretty short, and we reached there around 1:30. When we reached there it was drizzling, so I took India my tortoise on a walk after lunch around the concrete path (which the rain couldn't reach), then, around the field once the rain stopped. It rained again a few minutes later though, and it got a little bit heavy so I have to put India back. I found these from my nature walk with India:

Here comes India:

Awesome scenery.

He looks quite happy! Free from his cage!

Between my father's feet where he shaded himself from the soft sunlight.

After the rain stopped my mom and I played badminton until my arm hurts :p. After my Dad came back from taking my sister on a walk, he snapped some photos of me doing gymnastics. 

The legs weren't straight.

Copying my friend with her Wushu pose. Not swords, just rackets. :D

After that I played badminton with my father until it got dark ( my arm hurt more ). I closed my day by dinner & practising my flute with only 5% of energy left....

Waking up in the cold but fresh air, we ate Indomie for an early breakfast to warm ourselves, then set out on a hike (tea walk) while it's still early and quiet:

Warrior pose!

Usually after our hike me and my sister ride horses but my sister refused, so we had brunch and I took India out for a walk. While India was taking his walk, a cat became curious with India for his bright pattern which is unusual around that area, and came creeping up to him, although it was scared of humans. After India was warmed up, I put him back and it's time to pack up!

Playing flute after hiking. With a much better air than the city and with much more energy.

In the middle of loading the luggages, I did something silly while coming back to the hotel to fetch my things. There were short steps towards the hotel hallway, and there was a metal, rectangular "archway" at the sides of the stairs. Well, I didn't pay attention to the rectangular archway, so I jumped at the top of those steps, hit my head on the archway, lost my balance, fell on my tailbone and slid down to my back at the bottom of the stairs. My glasses and shoes all fell off (stupid, stupid). This is the third time I fell on my back in my life :p.

We continued our journey to Bandung. 

Our last journey from Puncak to Bandung took 5 hours, but this time it took 7 hours! There was a heavy traffic from Ciranjang to Padalarang. I brought bubble plastics to pop when I'm bored, but as the traffic was so long, I haven't finished popping all and I got bored soon after. 

After we reached where we stayed in, we dropped India, then visited a friend.

The next day, we went to register for my UN Paket B which I will take next year. I registered in this Homeschool community in Bandung because I don't have to attend the many drillings like the ones in Jakarta. Once everything is sorted out, I packed up my things, then, it's time to go home!

The next day, my aunt and cousins from Bandung came to visit and they found baby fishes in my pond. A month ago my Mom bought fishes for my turtles to eat, and one survived until now. A week ago there was another one but that one was eaten up, so I don't know whose baby fishes do they belong to.

This is one of the baby fishes.

If those baby fishes are still alive until they grow up, we don't have to buy any fishes anymore :p.

My First Time Baking (Almost All) By Myself

I went to the Big Bad Wolf book sale and bought several books. It's not as much as the last one, because I came there on the last day and only try to find the "gem among the dirt". One of the books I bought was "Baking". At that time it was past lunchtime and I passed the food category, so I stopped by and saw that book, so I felt that I really have to buy that book. I promised one of my friends that I'll bake something and bring it to her, so I baked these cookies yesterday morning.

They are originally called "Jumbo Chocolate Fudge Cookies" by the book, but I renamed them as "Cashew Choco Cookies", as I changed the white chocolate into cashew nuts. 

This is their original recipe:

I baked half of the ingredients first so that if I fail, I won't waste that much. From that half amount of the recipe, I still reduced the amount of the chocolate and sugar so that it won't be too sweet, 

My mom helped me with the preparations. It took almost 2 hours, and baking took almost half of the day :D. 

Hopefully my friend like it!

 

OasEksplorasi (Day 1&2)

So far my posts have been about challenges starting from knowing my strengths to traditional food. It's all practices and exercises for this one exploration that I just had starting from last Monday (December 12th, 2016) to the really early hours of Tuesday (December 20th, 2016).

First, let me give you a picture of what OasEksplorasi is. It was a Pramuka event made in Klub Oase (a homeschooler group), created by Kak Shanty, Kaysan's mother. There were 17 people in total, and they were divided into two groups which each of us can choose from. There were Tim Jahe (they went earlier in late November, you can read about it here), and Tim Kunyit. I joined the latter.

The participants of Tim Kunyit were divided into 3 groups:

Group Marimas Rasa Soto: Andro, Kaysan, Adinda
Group Nasi Uduk: Yudhis, Fattah, Yla
Group Rawon Ayam: Zaky, Ceca, Donna

In this journey, we explored about the local foods of Indonesia in Jogja (specifically in Magelang and Bantul). Together, the 8 of us (there are 9 participants in total for this exploration, one lives in Jogja) started from Stasiun Pasar Senen and rode the 10:30 p.m. Progo economic train. We printed our tickets ourselves before. We were to have no connection with the internet or smartphones at all, just 3 old style (Nokia) phones divided among us.

My stereotype of an economic train were: uncomfortable, dirty, and narrow. Looks like all of my stereotypes are wrong. Yes, the aisle is narrower than the executive one, but it's still ok. I sat together with everyone except Yla and Zaky, because their seat was at the other side of my seat. We joked around and had fun, and most of us slept really late, 'till other passengers scolded us motionally because we're too noisy. Everyone fell asleep in the end.

I woke up several times, so I hadn't much sleep, but when I reached Stasiun Lempuyangan, I felt fresh. We walked to the wrong gate, (West Gate), while we should have went to the East Gate. and met our mentors, where they gave us a guidebook filled with a map of the village where we're going to stay in, the homestays we're going to stay in, a mini Javanese dictionary filled with simple words to help us talk with the locals, our schedule, and ways to get to our villages. But first, we had breakfast. My group guarded the bags while the other groups ate lunch, then it'll be my group to have lunch. I had Indomie Goreng (-5k).

After the lunch we walked to SMP 7 Transjogja bus stop and rode the 2A bus to the Borobudur bus stop. I paid using the flazzcard. In Jakarta, the bus stops are quite wide, while the bus stop in SMA 7 is small and narrow. We waited for quite a long time for the bus, and when we rode the bus, we all stood. As I've never rode a Trans Jogja before, I didn't know that the bus sways extremely, so when I stood we kept on nearly falling against the direction the bus was moving, unlike in Jakarta. I think my friends got the same experience too.

We rode a public bus to the Borobudur bus stop after that, but we paid 20k for it, while actually the real fee was 15k. 20k is the price for tourists. From what I heard from my friends, the person at the front of the bus took out his/her wallet when he/she was about to pay, making the kenek (driver's assistant) raise up the cost to 20k. So next time we were to just take out 15k and say that that's the only money we have if the kenek asks for more.

After reaching the Borobudur bus station, my friends had lunch in a food court. Not the type that you'll find in malls, but more like a food court made up of simple food stalls (warung). I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry. While waiting for my friends eating, I ate one of my snacks and wrote my logbook.

Yudhis talked with a woman selling food while buying his food, and the woman said that an andong (horse cart) costs 30-40 k. We were planning to ride 2 andongs to reach Dusun Maitan, where we'll be staying. It was writen in our guidebooks too that 30-40 k is the average coast of an andong. Meanwhile, after my friends finished eating, an andong driver offered his andong for 100k. What!? Even though I didn't know about Yudhis's conversation with the woman, I still feel that it's to expensive. Their reason was because it's a long way to Dusun Maitan, bla bla bla. Yudhis tried too barter for a lower price, and so they reduced it to a lower price but not as low as 50k.  They said that the journey is 5 km. We all said "Ahhh, that's easy", making us sound like we were used to walking long distances, that we'd practiced before our trip. As we set off to leave, the andong driver called us and lowered the price to 40 k :D.

I stayed in the homestay "Antasena" together with all the girls. I didn't immeadiately unpack, but I read the book that I brought "The Mountain of Adventure" by Enid Blyton. We were told to meet up with the others in Gatotkoco homestay where the mentors were staying. We discussed about our upcoming assignments and after that each group did an exploration around the village to achieve each group's goal. My group was to find for home industries around the village and observe them. We interviewed two of what we found (the Tempe Home Industry and Peyek)

Towards the evening, the local kids played football right outside Gatotkoco homestay. At first we only watched, then one by one everyone started to join except Adinda. Nobody counted the goals each group made, so we didn't know who won ^_^.

Once we all bathed, we discussed our assignments in Gatotkoco again then sleep. That's the ending for the first day. I felt really happy on this day. :)