Pre-21

Lots of things happened in my 20.

All the fortunate or unfortunate things makes me who I am now.

Lots of things happened in my 20.

I learn from my past mistakes, 

but if I make the same mistake, then that's my choice.

Bad things makes me (a little bit) mature.

Good things makes me so thankful. 

Lots of things happened in my 20.

They said, 

"Good days will come, if you bear it, and if you willingly wait for it."

and here I am, passed the bad and sorrow days.

Bad days come to the end, and if I wait and work a little longer, I'll reach the end.

Lots of things happened in my 20.

I got a chance to travel to new places.

Experienced a whole new culture.

One fine season, 

an unforgettable Summer days.

Lots of things happened in my 20.

For the people that helps me a lot in University,

For the friends that makes my summer more colorful,

For the new people that I met this Summer,

For my best friends that stays no matter what,

For my family, that loves me unconditionally.

I want to thank all of them, for become a part of my life.

Sorry for being emotional, but as I think all the things in the past, I can't do nothing but thankful and blessed for all the good or bad things that happened to me. Being 20 was a roller coaster ride.

Good bye 20.

Summer in Beijing Part 3: Qianmen - Tiananmen - Forbidden City Trip & Great Wall Trip

What I'm waiting for since before I applied for this summer camp, trip to Beijing's famous tourist attraction, but sadly, we didn't visit some place like Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park, and in the end I felt so sad because I just found out that THERE'S A YELLOW DUCK BOAT IN BEIHAI PARK HUHUHU, I want to ride those yellow fellas so bad. But of course we didn't missed China's iconic place like the-oh-so-famous Forbidden City and the super majestic Great Wall.
Let's start with the Forbidden City trip!

Wednesday, 13th July 2016
It was the super shinny and bright day so far in Beijing. As usual, we gathered in front of dormitory at 7.30 AM.
First, we arrived at Qianmen which means 'front door', it was like the super front door (maybe like a front gate?) before entering Tiananmen and the Palace, or known as Forbidden City. Qianmen more famous because of there's a lot of stores and restaurants, kinda similar to Wangfujing. We take a group photo first in here, and had a little time to eat or shop before a long walk to Tiananmen and Forbidden City, yes people, we're walking to there.

Don't try to find me bcs I can't find myself either.

Hella to the super hot-day-i-ever-felt

AND what I love the most is because Qianmen have this store that sell the most delicious matcha ice-cream, there's a similiar store in Wangfujing also, and that's one of the reason I love Wangfujing and Qianmen, matcha ice-cream reason, how mature.

After some time in Qianmen, then we all take a walk to Tiananmen. FINALLY. Here's another reason why I must go to Beijing, to visit Tiananmen, I don't know why, but it just become my reason, and a place in my wishlist bucket. Maybe because I learn Chinese history in university, read and heard so much about this historical place, but what I remember the most from the history of this place is... there's a time where so many people killed in here, it was quite a sad story, because I'm a crybaby so I consider that story as a sad one in Chinese history.

And bytheway, as I mentioned before, that day was super hot, and this place is super hugeeeeeeeeee but there's no single tree at all, so, yeah, we're so done with life.

finally me myself taking this picture, not from google :')

and here goes my mandatory picture, with si Bapak! but pardon bcs of the sunshine I can't go straight looking to the camera, and you see the sky was so clear, no clouds at all, you can only imagine the heat.

After taking some pictures in Tiananmen, we walk again, entering the door just right below si Bapak's picture there, and there's Forbidden City located, behind that wall. I AM SO EXTICED, why? this is what I wait the most, finally, since the first time I watched Karate Kid back in junior high school, I already fall in love with that place, you know the scene when Dre's school trip to Forbidden City? when the the door opened and showing what's inside the Forbidden City as they walk in? that scene still give me goosebumps, even after I visited there :') and what should I describe Forbidden City? huge? definitely. Awesome? you have no idea guys, you really have no idea until you go there and see the place by your own eyes. How can a kingdom, no, palace looks like this? and the architecture are on point, so beautiful, I couldn't explain more :') I'm walking in a history and I feels so blessed :')

But I'm a little bit disappointed, because that day is too hot, and we spent almost all our time there walking a little - and resting all on repeat, so we can't see all the place inside :( If there's another chance, amin, I want to go here again, and walk around the place until the corner and appreciate the surroundings.

Friday, 15th July 2016

When we took the bus from Gengdan Uni, as I remember the weather seems fine, but once we almost arrived in Badaling (the area where we gonna climb the Great Wall) it started raining, not a heavy rain tho', but still, the weather is pretty chilly.

I bring my umbrella of course, but well it's uncomfortable to hold an umbrella while climbing the Great Wall, and I don't wanna waste my money to buy a raincoat, so I stick with my cap and cardigan. There's 8 towers in this area, which the 8th is the highest. Besides the rain and kinda foggy, the scenery was beyond amazing, again, you'll see how amazing it is once you see it with your own eyes.

Some of my friends kinda gave up to the 3rd or 4th tower, some of them stick with us until the 6th and 7th tower, but only the four of us willingly to climb until the top!

still completed, before they gave up lol

I can't capture all the beautiful scenery, because a picture can't compared to the real one :')

and here's my 'since we're here, let's climb to the top' partner!!!!!

Up, left - right: Adenn, my mother chick, as our Wardah inspiring beauty & Kak Gadai, our Ani姐

Down, left - right: Kak Cili, the mountain girl as our leader & me, le baby chick

picture taken by my Nepal twinnies, yes, that little fella also climb to the top with her friends.

we bought this medal for,,,, 15? or 10 yuan? I forgot. But actually, without climbing until the top you can buy this, but hey, you can't compared it to our 'climb to the 8th tower' experiences, 

So I think climbing Great Wall was the most satisfying experience in Beijing, with this amazing people, so now you know my real strength right? lol, and oh guys probably we should make a team and climb in another place, to Tibet, ok?

Love, Nach.

Summer in Beijing Part 2: Classes & Home Visit!

Hi, here comes another stories from summer in Beijing.
As I want to tell you what kind of activities that I did in this summer camp, let me introduce you my amazing classmates and teachers first.

6 班

or as Taiyang laoshi (our class teacher) said

Class Six

10 Indonesian, 4 Russian, 1 Costa Rican, 1 Bulgarian, 1 from Spain and 1 from India, and of course 2 Chinese people as our teacher. At first, there are more than 10 Indonesian in this class, but as we learning things, some of them moved to another class, some of them think what we learn in this class are too easy, some of them think its too hard to cope up with us. To tell you the truth, what we learn in this class actually, not that hard, more like far away below from what we learn back in university (well of course we just passed the last battle in our Chinese Language class), and we think, we're here more like to experiencing life around Chinese people, and play hard. So, we choose not to move to higher class (there's only class 1 - 8), and since our Chinese language teacher is a really lovely, adorable and kind hearted teacher we ever got, we choose to stay in this class. Our Chinese language teacher is the one that holding a flag with our class mascot (?) named He Xinghui 何星慧, we call her He laoshi, and the one that holding "Class 6" board is Tai Xiangyang 太祥洋, we call him Taiyang laoshi, but we teased him because in Bahasa, the word 'sayang' that means 'dear, darling' often said 'tayang' too, so after we told him that, sometimes we called him Baobei laoshi, which Baobei 宝贝 means 'baby, dear, darling' in Chinese. Oh! and sometimes we call them papa and mama lol, because when we did the outing activities outside the campus, they gave us money (its actually from the campus) but since they're the one who directly give the money to us, they were like parent gave money to their children. Talking about them making me miss them btw, they really take care and help all of us, like ALL OF IT, from Monika's VISA problem, insect things and electricity problem in my room, helped us calling the owner of the apartment that we gonna staye after the summer camp ended, to Tania's clothes that stuck in an error washing machine in the laundry room.
The saddest part of this summer camp probably the fact that we should say good bye to He laoshi and Taiyang laoshi, because their kindness are too hard to express by word. Last day that they send us back to the airport, He laoshi cried really hard, and we cried too, she said that we're a good kids, that we don't cause too much trouble and she's thankful for the fact that she got a chance to teach us. Taiyang laoshi too, I think he's holding back his tears since he's man, and he didn't said too much words, but in the afternoon he posted something on WeChat's timeline, he said that he's not good at expressing words but he's also happy to know us, to did happy things with us.
I couldn't thank you guys much, but thank you and I love you two, laoshimen :")

WELL

What a long story just to describe two amazing people that I met this summer, well there's one more person that I want to thank to, but maybe on the next post?
So, moving on to class activities. Basically we learn Chinese language here of course, and some Chinese cultures, and a history class. For language class they divide us to class 1 - 8 as I said before, we learn in different classes, but for cultures or history, 2 classes learning together, or from class 1 - 8 learning together in auditorium.

Class 6 homeroom where we usually learn language

Auditorium 1 where the opening and closing ceremony held, and when we learn history, Chinese folk music, and old culture if I'm not mistaken

Paper cutting class, with Class 5

Le picture after Mask Painting class (with class 5 too), it's Beijing Opera's kind of face painting, or what we know as 京剧脸谱

Another class with class 5, Chinese Calligraphy or 书法

Sunday, 10 July 2016.

Another sunny summer day, a great day for Home Visit day! Home visit is like we're visiting Chinese family's house to experiencing a day with them. One day before, when the teacher gave us a paper that inform us with which class we will go, I felt a little bit anxious because all my moslem friends are in class 7, and I'm the only one in class 4. When I asked Taiyang laoshi about this matter, he said that I don't need to worry because it's not divided by religion, he even called my host family that night and make sure that the one I'm visiting is a moslem too.

And here we go, separated from my Indonesian friends in the group, lucky me there's Monika from my class that take the same bus as me, at least I'm not alone along the journey. Once we arrived at the meeting point, the host family one by one picked us up. Again, the divide us into small group, I'm with this Costa Rican boy which I don't know his name? again, I'm sorry for not asking people's name -_- the family that picked us up are the uncle (maybe?), grandma, grandpa, and a chubby little girl, they took us to an apartment building where they live, its in the highest floor of the building, I forgot its in 26 or 36? The mother of the little girl already waiting for us inside and greet us warmly, gave us rose tea and fruits, well since all the fruits and peanuts in Indonesia not that different with China's well yeah, but for this Costa Rican boy some of foods are pretty new for him. They also teach us to make Chinese dumplings, with vegetables filling, and while waiting for the dumplings cooked we accompanied the little girl, Jiajia, playing in the park behind their apartment building. AND the most important thing, THEY HAVE A SUPER ADORABLE LITTLE PUPPY! I wish I could take him home....................... the puppy was THAT TINY THAT CUTE oh I could die from it's cuteness. Oh, and before they send us back to our meeting point, they took us to Hutong Museum.

Little Jiajia!

The park & playground behind their apartment, which I love! because it's hardly to find a place like this in my city.

This is when she read 大学 for us

Dumplings on progress 

Dumplings cooked! We ate it with tomato sauce

AND THEIR SUPER ADORABLE FLUFFY FUR BALL! It's super tiny, like a doll, and super cute, and super adorable

The museum building from the outside, it's a Siheyuan 四合院, Beijing's traditional house

Just for your information, my other Indonesian friends which placed in class 7 ended up not doing the home visit, they said they only visited like a villagers tourist attraction (?) idk, but they're really disappointed. So let's say, me being separated from them is lucky?  lol 

I still have another stories to tell, see you in another post.

Love, Nach.

Summer in Beijing Part 1: BICC Summer Camp, Gengdan University, and Happy Eid Mubarak from Beijing!

Hello everyone!!!!!!!!!
Yes, finally I'm back from Beijing :) that was the most amazing 24 days in my life that I won't forget, ever.
Well, I'll tell you my stories here, but it'll be divided to some parts, yeah, because it will be too long if its only one post. To tell you the truth, I still can't move on from my days in Beijing :") so....................... let's go back to the day we're leaving Jakarta.

Sunday, 3 & 4 July 2016.

It was a sunny day. I was that excited for this day until I can't sleep well enough, and that day was still Ramadhan days which I still need to wake up early around 3 or 4 AM, so after that time I don't go to sleep anymore, kind of afraid that I over slept and missed my flight, but I'm that excited that I can't even sleep anyway lol. Me and some of my friend take the 12 PM flight, so we gather at the airport around 9 or 10 in the morning, and here we are, happy faces, can't wait for the awesome journey:

left to right: Tania, Adenn, Amanda, Jasmine, Fariz, Ghendis, Al, me!, and Kak Grego

We arrived at Beijing International Airport around 1 or 2 in the morning, and we should wait about 6 or more hours until the people from the summer camp program pick us up at 8 AM. Yes people, we're waiting for that frikin' long hours, and even some of my friends that taking different airlines from us are waiting more long than us. So, we decided to trashing in airport McDonald's for damn long hours. While waiting those people, I got my first dose of coffee, and ate the most delicious chicken rice ball (?) I've ever tasted.  And 4 July 2016, around 7 past 30 in the morning the people from BICC arrived, give us name tags and we go to the bus that take us to the place where we stayed and learning for the next 21 days.

And I can't find this baby in my hometown's FamilyMart :(

Once we arrived at the place where we stayed, I was like, wow, amazed, because they really gave us the best place with pretty decent facility in it. One big room for 4 people with 4 bed, 1 bathroom, mini kitchen and a balcony, and full air conditioner. I'm satisfied.

This is what it's looks like when you entering the main hall of the dormitory

The right side is my bed, the other 2 beds are in the other side.

We arrived at the dormitory around 9 or 10, arranged some things like get our uniform t-shirt, room keys, buying-things-card; yeah we got a card with 400 yuan in it to buy foods, stuffs, and laundry at the campus. At 11 AM they asked us to gather at the dorm's lobby so they can show us how use our cards in canteen and some kind of mini market inside the campus. The distance from our dorm to the canteen was like............ well..... you can't say it was close enough when you starving to death. On my way to the canteen I met this Nepal girl named............ i'm sorry but I can't hear clearly her name..... but I always greet her when we met, really! sorry for not asking your name again, I feel bad now :( she was nice anyway, my friend said that we looks alike bcs we have this tiny body, but she was like... 18? she just graduate from high school and gonna apply for uni in the US, good luck anyway!

Tuesday, 5 July 2016.

Finally, I felt the real summer, when it's not only the sun that makes you felt hot, but somehow the heat of summer (?) idk lol, finally I experienced the real summer!

After the opening ceremony, all the students and teachers took a picture together.

Let's play find me game lol

Here's team University of Indonesia in BICC Summer Camp 2016

Wednesday, 6 July 2016.

It's Eid Mubarak, but sadly also the first time in class. At first we think we can ask permission to go to Indonesia's Embassy, but then it was not easy, we need to do this and than and so much more that can't be done in one day, so we decided to ask for a bit late to attend morning class, and we arranged everything by our self.

Team Eid Mubarak 2016!

This is what we looks like after taking that day's classes, yippe.

I guess it's long enough for today.

Just wait for another happy chapter from happy Summer in Beijing!

Love, Nach.