This was My Very First Time Skiing

Last Thursday-Friday, I went to a county in Illinois called Andalusia with some of my classmates (we were 23 people). Andalusia is 4 hours driving from Urbana-Champaign. One of my friend created this event a couple weeks ago and invited me. Without further ado, I directly responded “Yes” to it. And so did my friends. We were so excited about this as for most of us this was our first time skiing/snowboarding. We prepared everything needed a week prior to the day. We went to TJ Max to get the coat and pants that are appropriate for ski activity (the waterproof ones). Then, we were all set to go!!

So, we left Champaign on Thursday evening around 6 pm after all of us finished our classes. We were divided into 5 cars. I was in Stacy’s (my friend’s girlfriend) car. We were all girls inside the car. We had a stop for a while in a restaurant, 2 hours after we left. Then, the trip resumed. Finally, we touched down Andalusia at around 11 pm. We were tired. For me, Thursday is kind of a long day. I start my day from 8 am in the morning. So, I directly went to bed once I’d been checked into the hotel.

The next day (Friday), we agreed to meet at 8.15 and went to the Ski Resort together. The Ski Resort, called Snow Star, was about 20 minutes from our hotel, pretty close. So, there we were, ready to start the new kind of activity. This is me, ready for skiing.

For us who have never played skiing/snowboarding before, we are advised to take skiing first, instead of snowboarding. Skiing is a lot easier because our legs are not tied to each other so we can move more flexibly. That’s what they said. So, I did as instructed. We paid $34 for all the things for skiing, including the lesson. We started out by learning how to move our body using the boots and boards. Then, we learned how to slide and stop in the practice arena (a lot less steeper).  At the end, we are ready to play in the skiing arena. There were several arenas with different level of steepness. I just managed to conquer the intermediate 1 level (I just make it up). I tried the advance 1 level but I fell down so badly. So, I supposed that that wasn’t the arena for me. I went back to the intermediate 1 arena then. Skiing is fun, trust me. But, I feel that this is not my thing. If there is a thing that I just want to try once for the entire of my life span, skiing is one of it. haha.. One more, I keep saying this to myself: “Don’t ever try to take the risk by going to very hard level arena, if I’m not too sure I can make it”. There are two reasons for this. First, I will hurt myself. Second, and the most ultimate reason, my mom won’t ever let me or my brother and sister do ski again later. Yes, my mom is this kind of person, I don’t know what the exact name. If one of us ever got hurt of something, she will try to make a conclusion that that thing is bad and will remove that thing from the list of thing we can do. So, NO! It’s better to make a good image of skiing for her before we all have tried it, for at least once.

That’s that. That’s a little about my skiing experience. Now, I have so many assignments waiting for me. So, this weekend is for them. No more playing, I guess

See you later and Have a great time!!

 

 

First Friday This Semester

Today is our first Friday of this semester. Just as last semester, we had a day off every Friday. In other words, we start our weekend on Friday, or, we had 3 days of weekend. Sounds a good idea? Actually, it’s not that good. As the semester goes by, we will feel that Friday is just a day provided for us to finish our assignments. At least, that’s what I’ve experienced from last semester. Since we’ve just passed one week of this semester, we practically haven’t got any assignment yet. And, we definitely didn’t want to give away this good opportunity to do some fun things. This afternoon we (Min-min, Monica, Nicolas, Member, and I) went to have lunch together in a restaurant at downtown Champaign. It’s called Irish Pub or something, I can’t exactly remember the name (actually, I didn’t really pay attention to that). It’s a good restaurant. I ordered Fish and Chips while they ordered something with meat and sandwiches. The price was quite expensive, for us. So, no more eating outside for next couple of days. hehe.. But that’s OK. For once in a while, we should enjoy something different. I’m getting bored with all restaurants around campus. Please, somebody open new restaurant. Indonesian Restaurant would be good (I wish).

It does look like I gain more weight on this picture. OK, I need to work out now. I’m off to the gym (seriously).

See you later people! have a great day!!:)

That’s How The New Semester Starts Off

Today, my Taiwanese friend, Chih-chi invited us over dinner at her house. We used to be teammate in our Investment class. There were 10 of us there. The food was really delicious. She made us authentic Taiwanese food, which I have never found in any Chinese restaurant around campus. My favorite goes to stinky egg and sweet squid (OK, I broke my food ban, again). And, the more important thing is that I finally met my best friends after the break. It’s so good to see them again and share our own holiday story.

Thank you, Chih-chi for your hospitality. I (and everyone there) enjoyed the dinner so much. I guess it’s a really good start for our new semester, which will start off tomorrow.(Gosh, I have an 8 am class tomorrow). Wish me luck for this semester, people! I promise I’ll do better than last Fall Semester.

I Miss My Friends Soo Much!!

Today, I woke up really early. I woke up at 3 am in the morning. I guess I still have the so-called “jetlag”. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference between “jetlag” and insomnia. Just take the bright side, it is “jetlag”, not insomnia. For the record, I went to bed at 7 pm last night. Umm..so, in that case it should be a normal sleep then. OK, whatever it is, I’m now wide awake when people here are still sleeping. What I did when I first opened my eyes was text Enriko, reporting how my sleep went (he’s such a good comforter for my anxiety about my sleep). And then, I read a magazine with a hope that I could go back asleep, which I couldn’t. Ok, enough I think. I said to myself, “if you don’t want to go to sleep, ok, just go with that.” I directly got up and prayed. Then, I opened my laptop, checking facebook, twitter, and other stuffs. The interesting part is when I opened my facebook, I opened old pictures of me and my college friends back when we had our yearbook photo shoot in Bandung. When I went through all the pictures, I could’t help but smiled. I remembered that it was a very silly photo shoot. At first, we had a scenario for each scene but later on we ended up with some random shots.

This picture above wants to tell a story about a pregnant lady asking for the man’s responsibility over the pregnancy. She (or I?) showed miserable face while he showed insensitive face. What do you think about our play here? haha.

Cast : Edo, Yoga, Me

Meanwhile, 2 pictures above have subsequent story. The first picture shows a lady (again, me?) was receiving a letter from a postman (the actor is the same, but different role, though). Then the next picture shows she was sad because it’s written in the letter, her husband had died in a battlefield. I don’t know why my friend standing next to me (Desty) had already prepared tissue for me crying. How could she know what’s going to happen?

Cast : Edo, Desty, Me

And the last picture I want to present here is our full-team picture.

I have no idea what this picture wants to tell. I think it’s just like an all cast picture. Ahh..how I miss my friends. It’s always fun spending time with them. They are so funny and sometimes silly. There are some times that I wish I could go back to that time, doesn’t mean that I’m not happy now. But, you know, there’s really a period of time to which you want to rewind.

That’s that. I’m going to prepare for my breakfast now. Have a great day!!

Let It Snow!

Hey, I’m back. I’ve come back to Urbana-Champaign. After 33 hour long flight plus approximately 6 additional hours from Chicago to this city, I’m here at last. And, you know what, I was welcomed by very thick snow. It hadn’t snowed at all when I left home. I was pretty surprised to see all white from above, before my plane landed. Also, when I arrived at my home, I was a little troubled by the thick snow in front of my house. I guess all my neighbors weren’t home because snow in front of our place seemed to be very thick and untouched. However, it’s “still” fun to see different face of this city. I don’t want to waste possible activities we can do with the snow. Like I did this afternoon with my classmates. We played “snowfight” and frisbee.

So far, everybody’s OK with the snow. We all still can stand it. I know, sooner or later we’ll get sick of this white matter. But, for the time being, let’s just have some fun with it!:)

Look, what I found..again on Youtube!

This is a video from Ruche online shop. I love it so much! The models, the music, the ambiance, and especially the girl’s hair-do. They are just perfect, to me. Ok, next thing to do is: try to find out how to have that kind of hair-do.

Last Post in 2011

Year 2011 is coming to an end very soon. It’s approximately 2 hours left for this year. I can’t figure out how time flies. How can it be this quick. It still feels like a couple of months ago I was drowned into the festivities of NYE of 2010 to 2011, and now I already have it again for 2011 to 2012. To be honest, this year (2011) is really not a productive year for me. I feel that I didn’t do many things. First half of the year was filled with insignificant things. I still remembered that in those period, January to April, I was busied with my school application. My life was a little bit boring. It was only spent with things like going out to mall, watching Grey’s Anatomy, playing tennis, swimming, trying out new restaurant, and so on. Seem like fun activities? But, I think they are not. I don’t really enjoy that kind of life, honestly. My “life” began on May when I left Jakarta to continue my study in US. I started a new life there with everything new all around. At first, I was worried. But, thankfully, my life is pretty fine there. I thank God for that.

Many things happened this year. For the first time of my life, I started to have insomnia this year, the most horrible disease someone might have. I hate insomnia so much. And I have it very often this year. Also, I started to have allergic this year. The saddest thing that happened this year is that I lost my Grandpa on September this year. Truth be told, 2011 is not quite a good year for me. But, no matter what, I still thank God for this year because there are also good things happened in 2011. I’ve made more friends. I learned a lot throughout this year.

By the way, I’ve come up with my resolutions for the upcoming year 2012 :

1. be a more grateful person

2. be a more patient person

3. be more humble

4. keep a healthy life

5. repair my sleep order. I want to sleep better next year!

6. lastly, I want to be a blessing to others.

I don’t have any particular resolution. I just want to live my life as it is now. The more important thing for me is I want to be a better person inside and out. I want to maintain good relationship with others.

I also have a wish for this year. My deepest wish is that I wish health for my parents and all my beloved people. I want to celebrate NYE next year altogether again with the whole family. I put all my prayers in God’s hand.

Happy new year friends!!May God bless you all

Christmas Break (3) : Meeting Up with Some Friends

I really had a great time with my friends this week.

By the way, today is the last day of this year. What are you up to? My family and I  will go to church tonight and plan a new year’s eve dinner. But, we haven’t arranged anything about the dinner. We’ll see how it would turn out to be. Based on our track record, many times we planned something but didn’t do something about it, many times the plans remained as plans. haha.. But, I’m sure whatever it is gonna be tonight, it will still be a joyful time since we’ll spend time together with the whole family.

Also, I’m thinking about my resolutions for year 2012. Like I did last year. I guess, I haven’t managed to accomplish all things there, especially the no. 1 on the list. Should I make a new list, or, should I just carry over those things on list to next year? Hmm.. I think I’d be better making new one.OK,  I’ll share it with you when I’ve already had it. Just keep an eye.:)

Have a great time in the last day of this year to you all!!

Who’s That Girl?~~It’s Jess

For those of you who are familiar with this title, you may have guessed it right. Yes, you’re right, it’s a phrase from “New Girl” serial. This TV show is sort of new. There are still 9 episodes for 1st season aired on TV (a fair number for those of you who are just about to start). What I like about this show is its simplicity (in terms of topic), short duration per episode, and ultimately its very beautiful main actress, Zooey Deschanel.

The story begins when Jess (Zooey Deschanel) found out that her boyfriend, Spencer cheated on her in their apartment. She directly decided to move out of the apartment and look for the new one. Later on, she ended up in an apartment that is lived by 3 men. They interviewed Jess before finally coming to a decision to let her stay in their apartment. It’s funny to see that Jess has a weird personality. But, those men still understand and always try to protect her. There is a scene where Jess is trying to date a new guy. This guy invited her for a romantic dinner. Jess was so excited and dressed up really well. Unexpectedly, this guy didn’t show up. Those men ran into this guy in a party at the same night as the dinner time and asked why he was there. This guy just said that he didn’t like Jess so he didn’t go to the dinner. Knowing this situation, those 3 guys directly ran to the restaurant to meet Jess. They accompanied her and took her home. They missed their own party to help her. Oh, this is so sweet (Oh my God, am I a teenager or what?). Actually, this show is very entertaining because each cast has their own weird personality. Beside the well-written story, you can also enjoy Jess appearance. She always dresses up very well and gives inspiration about fashion. Her dresses are really cute.

At some point of this show, I tend to associate Zooey Deschanel with Tina Fey. Her funny character here is quite similar to Tina Fey’s in 30 Rock. They have the same way to be funny. Don’t you think so? So, let’s wait for the 10th episode of this show.

PS : just in case you are wondering where to find this movie, you can go to this link. You can find almost every movie you are looking for here.

Christmas Break (2) : Daily Routines

I just can’t believe how fast time has passed. I don’t realize that I’ve spent my time here for almost 2 weeks now. I feel that it was really quick. Maybe, a bunch of different activities I did everyday account for this. Indeed, there are many things I did in last 2 weeks, such as my sister’s wedding preparation, routine dermatologist visit, cousins’ staying over our house, dating time with boyfriend, Christmas family visit, and other unpredictable things that needed to be done. So, let me tell you about my daily routines in these 2 weeks, one-by-one.

First, my sister’s wedding preparation. Yes, my sister is getting married within 2 weeks, and it is exactly at my birthday, January 8,2012. Seems like a plain coincidence? But, I think it is not. I believe that God has planned it for us. Who’s ever thought before that my sister is going to get married “next” year? (hmm, well may be she and her boyfriend have.hehe) But, even so, who decided that it’s going to be January 8? (hmm, well,again, maybe they did,too). Finally, who knows that for year 2012, January 8 will fall on Sunday? For this, I know that God has written this for us. I have a sweet imagination now in mind that starting next year, we’ll both consider January 8 as our day. FYI, my mom and dad also share the same thing. Their wedding anniversary is January 17, which is also my mom’s birthday. So, from now on, January would increasingly be a lovely month for us. Let’s see if there’s another lovely event in January for us in the future. Anyway, about my sister’s wedding, it seems like all essential stuffs needed for the D-day have been covered. Actually, I didn’t give much contribution. My sister, my sister’s soon-to-be-husband, and parents are the ones who put so much efforts on preparing the event. When I arrived home, they said that the last yet very complicated thing left is sending out the invitations. They say that it seems a simple thing, but it is as complicated as the other much bigger things. They have to ensure that everyone they want to invite is on the list. No one is missed. Even until now, we are still working on some additional invitations. And, my favorite contribution in this part is….attaching label to the invitations, putting them into the envelopes, and sealing the envelopes. I enjoy these activities a lot. haha.. So far, I think everything is already prepared. We just hope and pray that everything goes on well until the wedding day.

Next thing on the list, routine dermatologist visit. Yes, as I’ve mentioned for a couple of times, I’m doing my treatment for my reddish cheeks. I went to the doctor here several times a week. I feel that it shows a good progress but still I can see the redness. I have a really high hope that it would be much better in my sister’s wedding day. The thing that I’m thinking about is what if my red cheeks will be clearly captured in the pictures. I hope not. *crossing fingers*

Another thing that made these days seem to be very quick was my 2 little cousins’ (Michael and Naomi) staying over for a couple of days at our home. So, our small home felt so crowded by their loud voices and also their fight. haha.. We spent most of the time going to mall, mostly Pondok Indah Mall. There’s a skate arena there, which Naomi really loves to spend her time on. We occasionally watched movies, which I’d  been longing for prior to my home-coming. hehe.. Now, they are back to their home. We feel that our home now is much more quite and a little boring.

The other good thing that happened last 2 weeks was more time dating with boyfriend. Yayy! We spent some times eating out, trying new places to eat. We also celebrated Christmas Day together with his family. It is literally our first time spending Christmas time together. It was fun.

The last but not least thing we did was Christmas family visit. We did it yesterday. We visited some of our relatives to celebrate Christmas. I went to my dad’s brother’s house and my mom’s brother’s house. Christmas is really a good time to celebrate together with people. Did you do that too on your Christmas day?

Over all, these 2 weeks have been really good. I just hope that it would remain this way (or even better) for the following weeks.

See you later..:)