Good news: d e b a t e

I have been devoting a lot of August and a few of September to debate. After school Ina and I practice with Mr Wawan, getting new knowledge on role-fulfilling and thinking critically. And then when the days became closer, we took half of our studying time at school to practice. When we found out that we made it to the semifinals, we could not help but freak out (because we had lost hope, we did pretty badly at the end of the preliminary rounds). And jumping jacks dominated my stomach when I found out we made it to the finals. And then here we are, as the 2nd runner up of this year's Universitas Mulawarman's English Week English Debate (that's a mouthful, isn't it?). A photo is pretty appropriate, so...

Credit

And now I'd like to thank God for arranging everything... for the achievement, the place, the time, and the people involved.

(PS: I broke my Spiderman glasses. My face is back to bald.)

Langit Luas

Jarum jam hampir menunjuk ke angka lima. Buka puasa sebentar lagi. Papah yang baru dibelikan helikopter RC oleh Mamah mengajak aku dan Dinda untuk menemaninya memainkannya, "Kita ngabuburit," katanya. Seharian 'terperangkap' di dalam rumah membuatku senang ketika mendengar kata-kata itu darinya, dan, setelah beberapa persiapan, kami berangkat ke sebuah lapangan luas yang memadai untuk memainkan helikopter itu. Aku mengajak Alul untuk ikut bersama kami, karena aku tau, ia pasti suka melihatnya terbang.

Namun, kenyataan tak semanis harapan. Helikopter itu tidak terbang dengan lancar. Sambil meniup balon sabun di pinggir lapangan luas itu kami memperhatikan Papah yang kewalahan mengendalikan helikopternya. Tidak jarang helikopter itu jatuh terhantup di atas tanah. Takut helikopter itu rusak pada percobaan pertama, Papah memanggil kami untuk mengikutinya ke lapangan bola yang tak jauh dari tempat kita duduk.

Memasuki area lapangan bola itu, aku merasa aku sedang melihat sebuah pertunjukkan yang indah. Pohon-pohon kelapa di sekitar lapangan bola itu melambai, ditiup oleh angin sore hari. "Ta, awannya bagus!" Panggil Alul, sambil menunjuk ke arah langit. Aku setuju, namun tak sepenuhnya setuju. Sebab menurutku, tidak hanya awannya saja yang bagus. Semua tentang langit pada waktu itu bagus. Area lapangan bola yang luas membuat langit di atas terlihat sangat luas, terbentang. Aku seperti seorang manusia prasejarah yang baru pergi ke bioskop untuk pertama kalinya.

Kemudian Alul melanjutkan, "Ita, awan yang itu bentuknya kaya' kereta api kecelakaan." Ia menunjuk kepada awan tipis yang (menurutku) bentuknya seperti telur orak-arik yang masih berada di penggorengan.

Seraya Papah masih mencoba mengendalikan helikopternya, aku dan Alul bermain di area gawang. Dengan tubuh kecilnya Alul berusaha untuk meraih jaring-jaring gawang yang dibiarkan menggantung di bagian atas gawang; sementara Dinda meniup balon sabun yang aku bawa dari rumah. Balon-balon yang ia tiup kecil ukurannya, sebab hanya tangkai balon tiup saja yang kita punya di rumah sebagai media peniup balon sabun.

Ketika Dinda duduk di atas rerumputan, aku ingin melakukannya pula. Maka aku pun duduk di sebelahnya. Kontan Alul mengomentari perbuatanku, "Ta, itu abis dibeolin sama burung, lho." Aku mengiyakan kata-katanya, namun aku tak peduli akan kotoran apapun yang aku duduki.

Tak lama kemudian, Dinda membaringkan badannya. Sebenarnya, dari awal kami sampai pada lapangan bola ini, itulah hal pertama yang terpikir olehku ketika aku melihat rumput di bawah kakiku. Aku ingin membaringkan tubuhku di sini. Hal ini terinspirasi oleh sebuah adegan di drama Korea To The Beautiful You, di mana pemeran utamanya dan temannya terbaring di atas lapangan bola sekolahnya (mungkin?) setelah kecapekan main sepakbola malam-malam. Setelah itu, aku mengikuti apa yang Dinda lakukan. Aku menunjukkan segala bahagiaku, dan komentar Dinda hanyalah, "Kaya gak pernah aja."

Pernah sih, tapi tidak di bawah langit seluas dan seindah ini.

Pengalaman Tes AFS Tahap 2

Beberapa waktu yang lalu, aku menulis tentang pengalamanku mendaftar di AFS dan mengikuti tes tahap 1 di sini. Kurang lebih dua minggu yang lalu, aku berpartisipasi kembali dalam tes AFS tahap 2.

Jika tes AFS tahap 1 meminta kita untuk mengerjakan tes dan menulis essay, di tes AFS tahap 2, kita diwawancarai dengan dua bahasa--bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris--dalam dua segmen yang berbeda.

Sekitar 2-3 hari sebelum tes tahap 2, kita diminta untuk melakukan pendaftaran ulang kembali di chapter. Di pendaftaran ulang ini, ada banyak berkas yang harus dikumpulkan untuk registrasi ulang; namun untuk mempersingkat, aku hanya akan mengatakan bahwa berkas-berkas tersebut adalah perwakilan dari identitas kita. Namun, berkas yang paling "berkesan" di sini adalah surat rekomendasi, sebuah dokumen yang terbagi menjadi tiga jenis: lingkungan sekolah, lingkungan rumah, dan teman dekat. Surat rekomendasi tersebut adalah semacam kuisioner tentang diri kita yang diisi oleh ketiga orang dari tiga kategori tersebut.

Untuk tes AFS tahap 2 ini, tidak banyak yang harus kamu pelajari. Tapi untuk persiapan, mungkin kamu bisa latihan dengan lebih sering berbicara dan mengekspresikan dirimu di depan orang lain. Tak usah orang banyak, cukup orang lain saja. Yang penting adalah, jawabanmu dari apa yang dipertanyakan oleh yang mewawancaraimu nanti mencerminkan perasaan dan pikiranmu. Itu saja.

Tentang pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang akan ditanyakan, sepertinya itu semua tergantung dengan siapa yang mewawancarai kita nanti. Seperti yang aku katakan tadi, yang penting jawabanmu mencerminkan perasaan dan pikiranmu terhadap pertanyaan yang diberikan.

Selain itu, tampillah sebagai yang terbaik. Jangan gugup, lagian yang mewawancarai kamu juga manusia seperti kamu. Jangan pikirkan kegagalan, pikirkan keberhasilan yang bisa kamu lewati jika kamu bisa mencerminkan dirimu dengan baik di wawancara itu.

Sate

Beberapa hari yang lalu, Mamahku berkata kalau ia sangat menginginkan sate. Akhirnya, sepulang dari menjemputku di acara Lomba Fashion Sarung Samarinda, kita membeli sate di tempat langganannya.

Begitu mobil kami mendekati tempat langganan itu, asap dari proses pembakaran sate telah menyebar di jalan raya. Hal itu adalah pertanda yang sangat bagus.

Di depan gerobak sate itu, Mamah memberhentikan mobil. Ia lalu menyuruhku untuk keluar dan berkata langsung kepada ibu-ibu yang menjaga gerobak bahwa "saya ingin membeli sate". Ia memberikanku uang sebanyak Rp 86.000, dan berkata bahwa ia sudah hapal berapa harga 50 tusuk sate ayam biasa. Aku pun keluar.

Begitu keluar, bau sate yang sangat mengundang kurasakan di dalam hidungku. Ada dua orang yang sedang sibuk dengan sate yang dibakar. Mereka berdua memegang kipas untuk mengipas-ngipasi tempat pembakaran agar apinya tetap menyala.

Aku menghampiri ibu-ibu yang menjaga gerobak dan mengatakan apa yang harus kukatakan. Mereka mengiyakan kata-kataku, dan menyuruhku untuk duduk. Walau awalnya aku enggan untuk duduk (karena beberapa alasan), akhirnya aku duduk juga di atas sebuah kursi plastik berwarna hijau.

Ketika aku duduk, aku memperhatikan orang-orang yang berada di sekelilingku. Semuanya sangat berbeda. Mulai dari aku, aku yang baru keluar dari mobilku dan berkata bahwa aku ingin membeli sate. Lalu ke bapak-bapak yang duduk di meja lain, yang sedang dengan sabar menunggu sate yang ia pesan. Terakhir, ibu-ibu yang datang dengan anaknya yang masih kecil, yang keduaanya terlihat tidak membawa kendaraan apapun, hanya diri mereka, ke gerobak sate ini.

Kita semua sangat berbeda, namun, di gerobak sate itu, tujuan kita sama: membeli sate yang enak. Sate yang memenuhi kebutuhan kita, rasa lapar yang pasti datang kepada kita dan keinginan untuk merasakan sate yang enak itu. Hal itu membuatku berpikir, bahwa seberapa berbedanya kita, pasti ada suatu hal yang bisa menjadikan kita satu.

Pengalaman Tes AFS Tahap 1

Seperti yang sudah aku umumkan di postku yang ini, aku berpartisipasi dalam seleksi AFS (Bina Antarbudaya), yaitu program pertukaran pelajar yang sudah lama dikenal oleh banyak orang di seluruh dunia. Bagaimana tidak? Program ini sudah berjalan selama kurang lebih satu abad.

Singkat cerita, aku mengunjungi chapter (cabang) AFS di Samarinda dan membeli sebuah pin yang nantinya di-input ke dalam website seleksi Bina Antarbudaya. Setelah meng-input pin yang sudah aku beli di website itu, aku membuat akun dan mengisi formulir yang mencakupi data pribadi (nama, tempat tanggal lahir, dst), data sekolah (nama sekolah, rata-rata nilai semester satu, dst), data orang tua, kepribadian ("Menurut Adik, kepribadian Adik itu bagaimana?, dst), prestasi dan hobi (kesenian, olahraga, dst), pengalaman keluar negeri, pilihan negara (kami diberi banyak pilihan negara dari tiap benua, dan diminta untuk memprioritaskan negara-negara dari tiap benua itu sesuai dengan kemauan kami), dan... sepertinya itu saja. Nanti kalau ada yang kelupaan, akan aku tambahkan lagi.

Pokoknya, setelah semua itu diisi, aku melakukan "finalisasi", di mana formulir itu akan menjadi sebuah dokumen yang tidak akan bisa kuubah lagi. Aku juga diminta untuk mengunduh "Surat Pernyataan Orang Tua" yang setelah itu diprint dan diisi oleh orang tua, dan "Kartu Tanda Peserta" yang diunduh lalu diprint dan menjadi "tiket masuk" untuk mengikuti tes. Sebelum mengikuti tes, aku melakukan pendaftaran ulang ke chapter dengan membawa Surat Pernyataan Orang Tua yang telah diisi dan Kartu Tanda Peserta-ku. Semua itu lalu diphotocopy dan photocopiannya disimpan sebagai arsip di sana.

Waktu berlalu, dan akhirnya tiba waktunya untuk mengikuti Seleksi AFS Tahap 1. Seleksi ini diselenggarakan di MAN 2 Samarinda (pada tahun ini). Pada tahap seleksi ini, kita hanya diminta untuk melalui tiga jenis tes tertulis: tes pengetahuan umum, tes bahasa Inggris, dan menulis essay.

Supaya bisa menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan itu dengan baik, aku sarankan kamu harus tenang dan yakin kalau kamu bisa. Jangan ragu dengan jawabanmu. Dari 100% pertanyaan yang diberikan, rasa-rasaku  60% itu Geografi, 20% itu kebudayaan Indonesia, 15% tentang berita-berita terkini, dan 5% tentang pop culture. Jadi, prioritaskan Geografi, setelah itu jangan lupa perluas wawasanmu tentang kebudayaan Indonesia, jangan remehkan berita-berita yang sedang heboh-hebohnya dibicarakan oleh orang-orang, dan jangan lupa untuk tetap update tentang berita-berita artis. Terus, ikutin aja kata hatimu, dan jangan takut buat memutar otak untuk mendapatkan jawabannya.

Kalau tes bahasa Inggrisnya mudah-mudah saja. Semuanya sudah dipelajari di SMP. Sekarang tinggal masalah penggunaan pengetahuan SMP pada tes itu. Untuk tes bahasa Inggris, aku sarankan agar lebih teliti dan berhati-hati dalam menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaannya. Ada 4 aspek dari tes bahasa Inggris ini, yaitu reading, terus ada bagian yang dikasih gambar terus harus ditafsirkan jadi kalimat bahasa Inggris, vocabulary, dan grammar. Buat latihan, aku sarankan buat buka-buka buku UN SMP-mu yang lama dan latihan soal dari bagian bahasa Inggris di sana.

Untuk menulis essay, tahun ini diberikan tiga topik yang berbeda. Topik yang pertama adalah, "Jika kamu adalah orang tuamu sendiri, apakah tiga nasihat utama yang akan kamu berikan kepada dirimu?", yang kedua adalah, "Jika seluruh peraturan di seluruh dunia dihapuskan, dan kamu memiliki wewenang untuk membuat tiga peraturan utama, apakah peraturan-peraturan itu?", dan yang ketiga adalah, "Mengetahui pemimpin-pemimpin jaman sekarang, apakah tiga hal yang akan kamu lakukan untuk menjadikan dirimu pemimpin yang baik di masa depan?". Ya, aku rasa sih hal terbaik yang bisa kamu lakukan di sini adalah, ikuti saja kata hatimu. Jangan berbohong pada dirimu sendiri. Jika memang kamu "sreg" sama topik 2, pilih saja topik 2. Apapun yang terjadi, biarkan hal-hal yang ada di dalam dirimu yang berkaitan dengan topik itu tercermin melalui essay yang kamu tulis.

Saran lain yang bisa aku berikan buat tes AFS ini adalah, bawa makanan dari rumah. Karena AFS ini adalah sesuatu yang bersifat sukarela, maka kecil kemungkinan mereka menyediakan makan siang untuk peserta. Supaya kamu tidak kelaparan ketika mengikuti tes, bawa makanan sendiri dari rumah.

Aku rasa sejauh ini itu saja yang bisa aku sampaikan. Alhamdulillah, aku lolos ke tahap kedua, dan aku akan mengikuti tes itu hari Minggu ini. Semoga hasil dari tes itu tidak mengecewakanku, dan aku bisa melewati tes itu dengan baik. Dan semoga, aku bisa berbagi tentang tes itu agar kalian yang berminat untuk mengikutinya bisa bersiap-siap dengan baik. :)

Long time no see, blog!

Well, hello. It has been  a good two months since I last posted on this here blog. I know, I'm such an inconsistent and lazy person, not to mention a procrastinator too, but I since I really hate that side of me, I'm trying my best to penetrate it.

Anyway, here are some important things that happened while I was gone:

The 2014 AEO

Okay, so, I joined this huge competition called "Asian English Olympics" (which was held by Bina Nusantara on February 18-22), where high school and college students from all around Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Hong Kong compete in five different competitions of their choice (and I participated at speech). Apart from all the awesome guys that I saw through it (what? There aren't many boys that I can see at school), it really was an eye-opening experience.

The sense of growing up was really there as I went through every single thing (the whole flying outside town thing, the fact that we stayed on the "dorms" for 5 days 4 nights, the new and unfamiliar kinds of people that we meet), and even though it looked like an adventure and some fun through the brochure, I can't help but feel pressured and filled with nerve as I had to perform well for the judge (and as a representative of my school).

Even though I didn't win, or got through the preliminary rounds, even (and that got me down in the dumps for a good 28 hours or so), I know that I definitely grew from the experience, and I know that if I give my all next time (yes, I'll have to admit that I didn't on that competition), I can nail something.

Argh, sorry for the picture that's too lazy to stand up. But anyways, it's me and Ina at Binus.

AFS

AFS is not something unfamiliar in my ears. I've heard of this program from lots of sources before; and all I knew is that you'll get to go abroad through it and experience the culture there, and at the same time, youu'll also get the people there to know about your culture. 

The only thing that sucks about this program is the fact that we'd have to do another year of school if we leave. We leave at the second year of high school, and come back when our friends are graduating. So the next thing you know when you get back to your country, is that your friends are going to college and you'll be doing the last year of high school with your juniors. Well, at least that's how it goes in my country.

Despite of the sucky part of this program, I decided to join. The only reason why I participated is, because there's only one chance to it. You can only apply when you're in your first year of high school, after that, you can't. If you don't pass the test, you can't try it again. No retries.

But the thing that really motivated me to join is seeing the real exchange students from aboard when they got the chance to visit my school for the AFS promotion a while ago. One was a girl from France, and the other one is a guy from Thailand. It was really cool, and I when Miss Cindy expressed her regrets when she didn't participate when she was our age because she didn't know that there is such a thing (as AFS), I was moved.

Thus, I decide to give a shot at it. If I don't get through, well, it's OK, I can look for other experiences. But if I do pass, I won't let the golden opportunity flee. Of course I'd take it.

But, I don't know. I have just finished the application today. There were lots of stuff that I needed to fill and there are a couple of people that had to be involved for it to finish, but thank God I did finish it.

I still don't know what I will exactly face, yet, but I'll be ready... just you wait and see.

***

So, there you go. There are some stuff that I didn't include here, though, but I think that it's best not to write them up here.

Oh yeah, I also got through the mid-semesters test this March, and to tell you the truth, I'm not really happy with the results. I realize, that I have been messing around lately at school. And, just to be blunt with whoever is reading this right now, I didn't put school into priority for a few months, and I always fantasize of doing other things while I should be paying attention.

But this mid-semesters really moved me. Seeing the results, I was really tired of getting the same grades... over, and over again. It's high time for some improvement. And I, I'm trying to improve right now.

I want to make my parents proud, I want to represent my kind well. And above all, I want to be closer and know my God more, and through learning about his creations (at school), I feel closer already.

Phys-Math Showdown (PMS) 2014

Poster.

PMS. Maybe when you hear those three letters the little voice inside your head goes like: "Post Menstrual Syndrome?..." if it says that, well I have news for you. Good news and bad news. Bad news first, okay? Bad news: you got it wrong!; good news: it has nothing to do with a woman's emotion before she has her monthly menstruation. It's far from that, OK? 

It was Mr. Aidil's idea to make the sound of the competition a bit catchy, and he made up the name. At first I thought about how weird and negative it sounds, but now I think that the competition's name is the highlight of the competition itself.

You see, my school is not the most crowded school ever. In fact, it is far from crowded. If your school consists of 200-500 students, mine consists of 18. *and the crickets start doing their job when everything goes silent*

But that is no matter, for we have found a way to fix this uncrowded-ness of this school which I know has a bright future in front of it! My father has long said to me that we could do a bunch of fantastic stuff with what the school building's got to offer. Then, an idea of making a cerdas cermat (Indonesian term for a competition which consists of teams competing in who's the smartest and the fastest button-presser) was born. I don't really know the details and whatnot, but eventually I got to be the time-keeper of the competition (that sounded really special but I promise you that it's not).

The last day of the competition was today, and I am really grateful of how the competition turned out. Even though- as we are all human- it had some flaws, everything ran smoothly. I hope we will do better in the events that are to come.

(There will be a line of crappy photos after this sentence. Sorry.)

Kana does not like getting her picture, but apparently Icha does.

I guess also Amel does.

A big smile from my new friend, Riski. :)

The banner and places for the competitors at the Serbaguna room.

I got my box of snacks so, what's your problem?

Adji

Rani was the MC of where I did my job.

Competitors!

Mita had a headache so Ina decided to give her a pat-pat-pat.

Look, it's Ms. Time-keeper! (Who has a messed up hijab)

It felt like a huge responsibility to keep everything fair and square with the timing, I thought I did a pretty good job. I messed up a bit, but while I was handling the time I was also pitching in to make things run better.

Seeing those junior high school students competing also brought flashbacks on me. I remember the times when I was in their position, in my junior high school uniform, trying to answer questions that sounded so challenging yet so frustrating, not to mention the little amount of time that were given. But man, those were the times. I am one of those girls who like adventures, so venturing outside of ordinary routines- getting out of school because of a competition- is very special to me.

But now, I am one of those high school girls who were a part of the committee, like the ones that I saw when I was participating in the competitions of when I was still in junior high. Level up? No?

Making this competition a reality could be shortly described as getting through a long twisted maze. We cheered Mr. Aidil from when he announced about the concept until the end. We supported his ideas, and we tried our best to help out on the promotion (because our school is not widely-known for the moment, we needed extra extra efforts to promote about this amazing competition), and yeah, I'm very grateful with how everything turned out. Even though it's not exactly as planned, we ended up rounding 6 schools, each sending 2 teams. Words cannot describe how that felt like a miracle to us.

This photo is so cute! (credits: Cita)

Today was a very nice day. Another day, another thing to be grateful for!

I would also like to congratulate the winners of this competition, who won a flattering amount of money and swimming vouchers to Hotel Mesra. I hope the rewards are to be a good use, and I hope that this history will be repeated... with better planning and better results, of course!

Phew.

Guys, guess what? Guess what? Guess whaaaat?

We won! Yes, we won our first ever competition in high school, the Battle of Brain competition of the 2013 English Week which is held by Universitas Mulawarman (the #1 university here in Samarinda). Well... even though it's a very "modest" competition and we didn't win first place (we got third place), I was so happy and yeah, I put pretty much a lot of my efforts on it and man, I guess it was worth it.

I was in a team with my friends Cita and Husna, and we didn't attend a few of our classes just so we could practice for the competition. When I first saw how my competitors were, I gotta be honest, I felt scared. I'm like, the youngest between all of them. Most of them are seniors, 11th graders, and I'm a 10th (a piece of information: here in Indonesia, we start high school as 10th graders; so yeah, I'm a "freshman"). 

A lot did happen in this competition. I learned a lot by competing; making strategies, scanning your opponent, figuring out what choices are best and what are worse... a lot. I tried and I prayed, and I know that next time we could do SO much more better. 

There are four segments of each round. The regular(?) (I don't really know what segment it is called) round, the bounce round, the choice round, the takeover round, and last but not least, the "yes or no" round.

In the first segment--which is the regular round--the MC asks each of the teams questions, and we are given 5 minutes to answer 10. When we give wrong answers, there are no point subtractions. We could also pass if we don't know. Whether we get it wrong or we pass it, the questions swirl back again, unless if we get it right.

Next up is the bounce round. So the MC reads each teams a question in turns, but this time, if we don't know, we can "bounce" it to another team. If we don't and we answer wrongly, our points will be subtracted by 50 (each right questions is worth a 100); but, if we bounce it to another team and they get it wrong, no points will be subtracted. If a team that gets a bounced question gets it right, they obtain a hundred points.

After the bounce round, there's this round called the "choice round". We are given choices of questions in envelope, categorized as "Regular" and "Jackpot". Each of the regular ones are worth a hundred points, while the jackpot ones are worth two-hundred. But, when we get a regular one wrong, we'll lose a hundred points, and the same goes to the jackpot ones... we'll lose two hundred. Me and my friends screwed. We were so big-headed by our victory in the first and second segment, we decided to go for the "Jackpot". We got a question about Michael Jackson's deaths's exact date, and... well, none of us remember so... we bid farewell to our lovely 200 points... (*le cries in the backgroud*)

Takeover round. This is the most intense to me, because the fastest hand that raises the flag that is given by the committee, will have a chance to answer a question and their team will be rewarded again, a hundred points. So far I didn't screw up in this round, so I was happy with it.

Lastly, the "yes or no" round. As intense as the takeover round may seem, but to me, this round is the "make it or break it" determination so... yep. Here, the MC reads statements to each teams and we will decide whether the statement is true or not. If we think that it's true, we say "yes"; but, if we think that it's false. We say... no.

I didn't regret participating in this competition at all, because well, even though we didn't win first place and got our names on #1 and all, we learned a lot of things from here and to me that's all that matters. Learning something is priceless, you know.

(Btw I would like to say HEAPS of thanks to Miss Diana & Miss Novi who has trained us from unready to seemingly ready[?] and giving us encouragements tee-hee!!!)

Yay!