:)

I am trying.

Health

Oh well. Another new experience. Got hospitalized for dengue fever and typhus all at once.

Still recovering from the disease(s) and the shock of, oh hey, I'm not as tough as I thought -_-

Someday

I'll go there and witness it with my very own eyes.

1. Hidden Beach on Marieta Islands, off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
2. Heaven's Trail, Ireland (must not forget to check the date!)
3. Loy Krathong Festival, Thailand
4. The Avenue of Baobabs, Menabe, Madagascar
5. Santorini, Greece
6. La Tomatina Festival, Spain
7. Mardi Gras, New Orleans
8. Devil's Den of Arkansas
9. Raja Ampat, Papua, Indonesia
10.Barcelona, Spain

More on Life

It's June already!

Wow. It's been a year since I got back home from my amazing, life-changing exchange year in the U.S. A lot of things have changed in my life ever since. Just thought I'd put some updates of my current life on here :)

1. Graduated high school.

Finally! I'm done with high school, forever. It was dull and not too appealing at first-considering the fact I just came back from an adventure and all my friends have gone to college- but it turned out just as good as how I picture my senior year would be like. I made new friends, we had fun, I got some pretty okay grades, but the bottom line is I had fun! Graduation was okay because my mood swung back and forth (thanks to hormones) but I loved my hairdo and I am now tied to the salon I reserved for my graduation hairdo because  the place is just so cute and comfy and everything. My new favorite place to go on weekend :)

2. Yay future!

Alhamdulillah, Praise Allah, I got accepted to University of Indonesia for Communication Science major. I am very excited to finally get to college. Some of my friends from AFS/YES are also in UI and I am just so happy to get to see them again, now on regular basis since we go to the same campus! Now I have more or less than two months of do-nothing since academic year will be started on late August. Gonna make it big, I swear.

3. Driving, oh yeah.
It's probably nothing for some people, but it's not for me. Finally my parents let me drive on my own! I have my license since 2 years ago, but they never actually let me drive by myself. But finally yes,yes,yes and I love it. I love my me-time when I drive and put shuffle on my iPod (the only bummer is that I can't seem to connect my iPod to my car's speaker! But I'm grateful though that I can charge my phone and iPod on my car just because I can't on the other car, and for a lousy and a professional procrastinator like me it is really useful and handy because I can just charge my phone on my way to wherever I'm heading!). There's so many crazy adventures I had already, can't wait for what's coming next!

I think those are all the pretty major updates in my life for now. I'd love to write some books and/or movies review I've seen lately sometimes soon. Catch ya later!

Cheers,

Nadia

Poet

April is National Poetry Month in the United States and last April, as I took English class for my first block, we did poetry for a whole month. From reading, interpreting, until writing. It was a lot of fun, I should say. I read a lot of interesting poems in such a broad variety of topic, writing style, diction, imagery, even shape. And here, today, I will post some of my original poem that I made myself. Pardon my English, it's just for fun :)

(P.S : it's a series)

A Human’s Life

A series of poem about things and days

under the roof;

The Brush’s Tale

Ah, here she awake.

I know in a second she will be gone to the bathroom

she’ll rinse her lovely oval face

And unsoiled her small little mouth

she’ll put on her usual piece; denim and tee

and here she comes; she’ll come to grab me.

her marbly soft palm grips me tight

lifts me up to meet those my friends; who

nap and live on her top.

Hello good friends, let me untangled you

With my thin fingers and legs

Let me straighten through your jungle

That would adjoin charm and shine

to the lovely facade of yours

Breakfast Diary

Warm spicy air breathing in the air,waking

up sleepers from their temporary sweet doze

dancing utensils are all ready

those loved ones sit sweet and tight

Can we start eating yet?

Morning Conversation

“darling what’s your plan today”

“daddy I want more cereal”

“would you please hand me the butter?”

“this orange juice is so good!”

“…about last night….,”

“I love you baby.”

“I have to leave.”

“don’t forget your lunch sweety.”

“we need to talk.”

“will you marry me?”

Kiss and slaps, hugs and tears, together and apart

All comes in harmony with the clinks from the dancing utensils

Eulogy at the Door

" I love you"

An universal saying that epitomize every hidden fondness and showed off hatred

because it all roots to one whisper in their prayer : I care.

to be continued

Cheers,

Nadia

Foodies Doodies

Hi guys!

Well it's 00:33 am in the morning but I don't quite feel like sleeping, probably because I literally slept all day today. Yes it's holiday time already! I received my report card and I'm quite satisfied with my score, alhamdulillah :) I'll have days off until 9th of January so I have plenty of time! Don't have any plan yet so feel free to hit me up!

So what I'm going to write on my page today (tonight?) is......food! Lol yeah I'm going to write all-about the food that I miss in America and how I overcome that in my lovely homeland.

It's always been one of the common question in my exchange-student's life; either people in my host community ask about what do I eat in Indonesia or people in Indonesia ask how I eat in America. For the first question mostly I would just say Indonesian eat a lot of rice. My host family happened to love trying new food so yeah I cooked them some Indonesian food. Of course, with adjusted taste and recipe. So in a year, I managed to cook 'em soto ayam, nasi goreng, bihun goreng, gado-gado, tempe mendoan, perkedel jagung, kerupuk udang, kerupuk bawang aaand kerupuk ikan :D

My host family they love to cook and to eat (well we all most do right) but it's true that we have tons of food at home because my host mom likes to stock on stuff...so we never run out of anything. well, rarely :p but yeah the food is quite different from us. My host mom always cooks for dinner, we usually would have whether Italian (pasta of many different kind; ravioli, spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, farfalle mostly with tomato based sauce or pesto) Mexican (burritos(!!), quesadilla, chili) Asian (noodle with peanut sauce, thai curry, stir-fry, tofu, spring roll, couscous) American (home made burger, grilled cheese, omelettes, grilled chicken, pizza(?)) Indian (curry, lentils with lots and lots of condiments) always accompanied by a yummy bowl of fresh garden salad (we had a chef salad for dinner one day it was daaamn good) with vinegar/ranch/russian/goddess dressing, my mom's famous homemade bread (or sometimes replaced with challah, jewish bread for shabbat night). And sometimes Jewish food during holiday times like charoset, challah, gilte fish, latkes, matzos, hamantashen, kugel(!!), etc etc. 

Because my mom cooks a lot, we always have leftover for the next day that my host sisters would usually bring as lunch to school (me sometimes :p) but besides we always have something to eat. like, always :) love you mom :* (reminds me of how often she went grocery shopping)

I've been missing some american food since I came back home! This is a list of food I miss the most (but I manage to fulfill it, thank God I live in Jakarta) :

1. Granola!

For God's sake I miss granola sooo bad! At first I really dislike it; I thought its texture was weird and way way too sweet. But the fact is...I love granola. I haven't found any decent granola anywhere so far but I did find granola bars :') exactly the one I always ate in the US. Nature Valley crunchy granola bar (still looking for the chewy ones!) Got it at Food Hall for about $6 for 6.

2. PB&J sandwich

I was pretty disappointed when I bought Jif peanut butter at Carrefour (it wasn't cheap!) it didn't taste like the one I used to eat. Then I saw the ingredients...that's why. The peanut butter that I love is the one that only has peanut and oil in the ingredients..so yummy. For the jelly, naah just used regular fruit jam, they're just as good :)

3. Salad!

Uh-oh. Salad! I found perfect salad at Food Hall (again!) with a lot of dressing choices (honey mustard until vinaigrette). Tamani has decent caesar salad, too. I miss light vinegar dressing so bad so when I found Hellmann's light vinaigrette dressing I instantly bought it. I ate only apple, cucumber, and lettuce salad for a while. Recipe : take half an apple, cut into cubes. a cup of lettuce (but lately I don't use it again, dislike Indonesian lettuce), shredded. Half a cucumber, cubed. 2 tablespoons of dressing (14 calories!), mix well. then add cheddar cheese, either grated or cubed. mix well. (raisins and/or wonton strips goes well with them too). Refrigerate for 10 mins before serving. Enjoy :)

4. Apple pie!!

I am extremely fond of pies. Apple, pumpkin, pecan, name it. But mostly is apple! Love it love it. I made it once (with help, of course) and it turned so yummy! Apple pie and vanilla ice cream is sooo American. I haven't found any ready-to-use pie crust (I'm sure Jakarta has it somewhere) so I just baked some apples instead! Taste just like the filling. Recipe : take an apple, remove the core then cut into thin slices. Put in a bowl. Pour some cinnamon powder (around a teaspoon) mix well until apple slices well-coated. sprinkle some sugar. place alumunium foil on the pan. preheat oven to 170-ish. put it in for about 15-20 mins. enjoy your warm juicy baked apple!

5. Frozen bananas and grapes.

One of my favorite snack. Just peeled the bananas, cut into two. put into freezer. grapes; just put into freezer.

6. Cookies

I baked chocolate chip cookies and it tasted just yumm :) for christmas I baked gingerbread cookies and oatmeal raisin along with American YES students in Indonesia; Amy Andrew and Nathan. Was a lot of fun :) :) find the recipe online!

7. Grilled cheese sandwich

Obviously one of the easiest lunch choice. I miss grilled cheese with tomato soup! I made some grilled cheese lately. Sooo easy. Just take two slices of bread, smear it with butter. every side. then put a slice of cheddar cheese (or any cheese) in the middle. put in an oven 170 for about 15 minutes.

8. Pretzels :(

So pretzel is officially my favorite snack of all time. The small baked one not the hot pretzel in NYC's side street (well they are also good actually). Haven't found it anywhere, but I just bought Snyder's of Hanover pretzel pieces honey mustard and onion flavor..was so good. Can't recall where to find Auntie Anne's besides Taman Anggrek. Anyone?

Pheww!

Well, yeah, in short, I miss American food :( but well I guess I just have to be more creative to find any way to taste it again! :)

P.S : If anyone ever wonder how big is the portion of food in typical American restaurant, please try Chili's (Sarinah building). Enjoy! :D

bye for now, hope I didn't make you hungry reading this!

Cheers,

Nadia

Moving On

it takes courage
it takes strength
it takes true will
and it takes............time.

It's been a long four years since I met you.
I've never been in love before.
Yet, I might. But not the same like what I had with you.

You actually gave me butterflies.

You gave me pink blushes on my cheeks.

You made me secretly smile behind my book.

You made me doodling your name in every little spot in my notes.

You made me giggle like a little girl.

You made me spend more time in front of the mirror making sure my hair looks right.

You made me smile more than anyone ever did.

You made me whisper your name in my prayer.

You made me check my phone every few seconds, hoping for some updates :)

You made me feel so........alive.

Don't forget on how you made me cry.

How you made me shedding tears.

How you made me hate you.

How you made me feel so miserable.

How you trapped me to love you.

How you made me realize, none of those

was ever your fault.

We never had anything really.

We didn't talk. We didn't text. We didn't hang. We did nothing. We had nothing.

If we ever had anything....that probably only exists in my head.

But there is something that I keep from days to days.
From years to years.
Something special that always makes a smile drawn in my face.

I miss you.
I don't miss you everyday. Honestly, not even every weeks.
I admit that when I'm busy I don't remember you.
I don't actually think about you all the time.
I don't actually dream of you every night.
Just from time to time I knoe it's still there.

Yet I know you never think of me either.
Which is fine, since we never had anything, right? :)
We were just friends.
We were just classmates.
We were just acquaintance.

But you're more than that inside my heart.

You were special.

............And you still are :)

I've been trying to remove you.
I don't know why is it so hard.

Is it possible to love you when we're not even close?

It's been a long four years. And in three years, we haven't seen each other.

I have enough. I have waited too long. I've been crying too much. I've been wondering so much things that never gonna happen. I gotta move on.

It's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be hard.
It's gonna be painful.
But I assume, it'll be worth it.

:)

Remember me, will you?

Just a girl. Not even pretty. Not even attractive in any way.

Remember me as a friend of yours, will you?

Who used to love you. Who still has love for you. Who used to doodle your name in her wrist. Who used to whisper your name in her prayer.

"Sekarang aku tersadar,
Cinta yang kutunggu tak kunjung datang
Apalah arti aku menunggu bila kamu tak cinta lagi...."
- Raisa