You know, when I was in Pittsburgh, summer was my favorite weather. It's sunny, has a clear blue sky and it's holiday time! Wearing glasses, short pants, going to beach and relaxing while watching summer movies. Summer vacation in USA is the best vacation ever. You can feel what it called 'holiday' for real. Anyway, living in Indonesia for 12 years afterwards did not change my perspective at all. But, in Indonesia, most of the time the weather is hot like summer, so when it comes to June ~ July, it's just like any other day.
Living in Japan, all my perspective changed in this week. Where are those beautiful summer days? Where are those excitement about summer? Where are those relax days with some summer movies and holiday? It's BOILING here. Seriously. The weather is extremely hot and I have to walk around the campus, being under direct sun for at least 15 minutes and always made me dizzy afterwards.
I think weather in Indonesia is better, or summer in USA? Kind of shock this week, I cannot stand the heat even though I am from Indonesia. And the classes still keep going and going. I want to wish that August will come fast but it means, the weather will be way hotter and hotter and I have to do fasting in this hellish weather before going back to Indonesia. The only thing I love about this weather is I can wear dresses and girly things I like.
Hope it will be better and I can have my summertime.
Hi, blogger! How are you? This is me, Maya. Now, I already 19 years old. What I really want to do in this new age is to be better Maya. On age of 18, I learnt a lot of things. Lesson of life. How person that you believed so much could betray you so easily, how is it like to live independently, how hard to figure out who you really are, how frustrated to try to fulfill everyone's expectation on you, etc.
But, I can feel that I'm changing through this one year, in the good way. I became stronger and be more independent. I also became more considerate of others as well. And I want to be needed by people. Strange, eh? I mean, it's so strange that after one year, I could change that much. But, do not worry, I'm still the same old Maya. Really =)
By the way, focus on the main topic, I never thought people will remember my birthday. Getting used to be forgotten by some people make me do not have any expectation people will remember my birthday. But, then, I got 5 surprises! I was so shocked!
During SAS Staff Meeting, my team leader told everyone the next day is my birthday and with everyone, they sang "Happy Birthday" to me and even gave me present.
On my birthday, my friends told my Japanese Teacher that I had birthday and together with all my classmates, they sang "Happy Birthday" for me.
In my dorm, suddenly I got surprised from my floor mates until I cried. I was under a huge pressure because of the event I had to work on and I was the floor leader. Suddenly they made a board consists of their messages and they even made me Pisang Goreng with Ice Cream =')
From APU Ina, they came to my room and brought a very nice chocolate cake. So, happy.
My friend from Vietnam made me egg pudding for me.
The reason why I wrote this blog post is not showing off that a lot of people gave me surprises. I just want to say thank you from the deepest part of my heart. I never had people that remember my birthday so many before. I already got used to being left out and forgotten, so I was so happy that I cannot even describe how I appreciate it so much. I want to treasure it.
Thank you everyone, you guys cannot imagine how I really happy about it that I could cry. Thank you very much! :)
Today is my birthday. Now I am officially 19th years old. Feel strange. I almost 20. The thing is, this is my very first birthday miles away from my home, my family, my childhood and teenage-hood friends. Surrounded by new environment and culture and new people. And those people are not the same nationality with me. It feels so.. strange in someway. Haha.
Why people celebrate birthday? Why people so excited for celebrating people birthday? Why people are excited about their own birthday? Through my way to classes today, I met people who say happy birthday to me. My facebook walls, twitter and skype full with celebration words. During my part-time job and my Japanese Class, people sang Happy Birthday song to me. You know, that was very very great. I really love it.
The more people say happy birthday to me, the more I am wondering why birthday is so special? Today is no different with yesterday or the day before. There are people who are lucky enough that others remember their birthday and willing to say happy birthday and even give presents, but the other hand, there are people who does not have anybody who remember their birthday. Isn't it unfair?
Why birthday is so special still be a big mystery for me. Wow, I should majoring in philosophy or psychology back then haha.
By the way, cannot help but feel so thankful for everybody who remember my birthday. It does really mean to me. Thank you everyone! :]
Hi, blogger! How's your doing? Wherever you are, reading this post, just want to let you know that this is my last minutes of being 18. My life through this one year are cool, unexpected and a lot of drama.
I cannot explain too much because I want to post this before 00:00 and it's almost the time. I just want to be better Maya in this new age. Actually, I will not automatically changes when the clock strike to 00:00. It will take a lot of process, difficulties and painful experiences. But, I am still hanging there.
Hope I will have a better life without forgetting that the life I have up until now is awesome. The current me is the combination of all the people I met during my life. So thank you everyone.
Hi blogger! This is Maya, struggling in studying for 5 subjects for the upcoming exams :P
I went to Nagasaki last weekend for Nagasaki Peace Tour. I learnt a lot of things during this tour. Meeting new friends, listening to the real story of the atomic bomb survivor and went to the real place where the bomb was dropped (hypo center).
Never really thought about it before, but I never realize the bomb effect would be this.. great. This.. sad. I also read a book about a compilation of Nagasaki atomic bomb survivals testimonials and I almost cried. It's just so real and so painful.
What I like from Nagasaki, its city's architecture is derived from Western style's Holland. It is because of the Japanese historical aspect where during the Edo Period, Japan was under such an isolation system where Japanese cannot leaved Japan and foreigner cannot enter Japan. The only place they can enter was Nagasaki, that's why a lot of western style architecture in Nagasaki ;)
I just very surprised when the next morning, our Peace Tour Activity was reported on 3 different big-scale Japanese newspaper! Wow! Then, we had like an exchange program talking about peace and what should we do to improve peace with high school students from Nagasaki.
This one was the most interesting one. We were assigned to get as much as possible signature from people who passing by in Nagasaki Station. The program is called 10,000 signatures by high schools in Nagasaki. They always gathering signatures every week, even though it is sunny or rainy days. They have been doing this for almost 10 years if I didn't make mistake.
This Nagasaki Peace Tour were a great experience for me! I wish I can come back to Nagasaki someday. Maybe go to Sasebo which is beautiful.
Right now it's Quarter Break, but I have lots of things to do. By the way, it's already June and I love June! :D
Hi, blogger! How are you? It's me Maya. This semester I'm extremely busy that I cannot post a lot. But, when I find a free time, I'll try to post some blog post again =) Of course I'll tell you why I am so busy in my next post.
My friend took a portrait of mine yesterday and it turned out I really like it. He is my partner for World Festival Floor Leader. Cannot write a lot right now, because I still have like 9 reports to do for Health Science. I'll post more! Just wish me luck! =D
Hi, all the blogger who read my blog! How are you guys?
Since I came to APU, I don't know why but it seems that my life turned out to be a life of a dancer lol. I danced a lot here, danced not only Indonesian Dance, but also another country's dance.
I am not a dancer, I never took any dance class in my entire life. When I was in junior high school, I learnt two Indonesian Traditional Dances from my bestfriend and that's it. I never danced ever since that day. It's been almost 6 years since the last time I learnt how to dance from my bestfriend (she is a true dancer).
I wanted to take Ballet Class back then when I was in Indonesia, but I am not confident enough to tell my parents. I like seeing people dancing, they look so beautiful in my opinion. I want to learn how to dance so gracefully. I also watched Hwang Jin-Yi (Korean TV Drama) and the lead actress danced very very good. They influenced me to learn dancing.
When I came to APU, I learnt some dances: 1. Piring Dance
Piring Dance is from Sumatera, Indonesia. I used plate in this dance. First, it's kinda difficult to do this dance because I had to keep the plate stay still on my hand. It's not a rare thing that the plate keep falling from my hand during the practice.
2. Taiwanese Nature Dance
This Nature Dance is from Taiwan, it is a mix between Taiwanese Traditional Dance and Classic Ballet Dance. I like the choreography, it is so graceful. It is so nice to learnt other country's dance.
3. Saman Dance
You can also watch the performance over here:
This dance is really famous, it's from Aceh, Indonesia (remember Tsunami 2004?). It's famous for the speed. We sat for about 10 minutes and use our hands at fast speed to do the dance.
The first video was from the Entrance Ceremony for Spring New Students in APU (1st April 2011) and the second video was from the APU-Nest : Pray For Japan (Charity for Japan's Great Earthquake & Tsunami) at Beppu Station (2nd April 2011) and you can watch my performance from 3:58 in the second video.
For Saman Dance, I did some 'research'. I watched more than ten Saman's videos. And.. I learnt some lesson from that.
Saman is not about how fast the movement nor how difficult the choreography.
I saw a lot of videos that showing the dancers are smiling.. but they don't smile from inside.
I saw a lot of dancers only danced with their body, and left out their heart.
What is it being a dancer?
It's dancing with your heart.
That's what I really want to do as a dancer. I want to dance with my heart, that's why I try to smile as bright as I could when I dance. I want the audience not only enjoying my dance, but also dancing in their heart.
During the rehearsal for entrance ceremony, nobody gave me an applause; I thought my dancing was not that enjoyable anymore. But, when the day I performed, I heard more than one thousands people applause for our dance, I cannot hold back my tears. That's the honor for being a dancer.
I am not a professional dancer, but I love dancing. It's a place where I can express my feeling, through my dancing. I still have a lot of things to learn, and I think, I won't stop dancing. I am not a very good dancer, I didn't even go to dance class. I just want to dance and dance. That's all.
