Book hauls!

Hello everybody...

On one of my earlier post, I stated that I'm a nerd. Yes, yes I am. I love to read, I wear glasses, I love everything nerdy. And one of the thing I really love as a nerd is... I love reading books. Not like any other teenager my age, I love to read books. I have 3 medium-size book shelves full with thick novels, thin novels, comics, cooking books, etc. Well, I started reading when I was 5 year old. I mean, I could read before that, but I started to buy books and read it at the age of 5 (that was when I was entered elementary). I remembered my first novel was Totto Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. I still have it now and I have read it bazillion times.

Enough with that, and let's proceed to the haul. I have huge collection of books, and I'm going to pick my faves and I'm going to share it with you. Hope you enjoy!

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I bought this book not so long before the movie came out. I was so excited because I've heard about this book for so long and People said it is a good book. So, when I found it, I ran to the cashier, payed it, and opened it straight away. I remembered I read that book for 2 days only and I cried really hard when Augustus died. So, the story of this book (as you guys may know from the movie or the book itself) is about 2 teens with cancer who fall in love with each other. Well, it's a classic love story where the girl likes guy, the guy loves the girl, they spend their life together and go to Holland and make love and then Gus died. The end. It's pretty tragic, huh? Well, yes it is. I really recommend this book.

2. Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin

I remembered buying this in a second hand store in a local mall. I read the synopsis and fell in love with it. Well, the fact that this book was a second hand book and it was so so so cheap (about 45.000 rupiah or 4 bucks) convinced me to buy it. I read that book right away after I left the mall. It is about a guy's, Mark Pfetzer (search for his name, he's famous), journey climbing mountains all around the world. He was 13 when he started his career by joining a local climbing course. He always had this dream of climbing Mt. Everest. And it finally came true. He was 16 at that time when he finally climbed Mt. Everest and became the youngest to climb it. This book is so heart-melting and inspiring because it has so many moral lessons and life goals (I am NOT going to talk about that hahaa)

3. Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen Degeneres

Sorry, I didn't own this picture. I forgot to take a picture of this book.

Actually, I haven't finish this book yet, but, so far this book is hilarious. This book has no particular plot or story, but I really enjoy it. This book is divided into several chapters. Each chapter has its own story about Ellen's life. Like for examples, she talked about magazines polling, or about her marriage with Portia, etc. I have read half of it, and I really really love this book, and I recommend this book for you.

4. Totto-Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

I remembered my mum bought this book for me when I was 5 or 6 year old, and this was my first novel. As a child, I really enjoy reading books and when my mum came home and gave this book to me, I was so happy and excited to read this book. This book is about a Japanese girl called Totto-Chan. She, as the narrator, wrote about her childhood and especially about her elementary school, Tomoe Gakuen. So, basucally, Totto-Chan is a girl with high curiosity that makes her teacher mad. So, her mum transfered her into a different school, Tomoe Gakuen. There was something unique about this school. It has no class rooms, instead the school uses old train carriages with blackboards in it. As a child, she was amaze by her new school and very excited for it. She found out the uniqueness about this school like she has to bring one kind of food from the sea (fishes, seaweeds, etc) and another kind of food from the land (beefs, vegies, etc). She love her school until an aircraft bombed her school one night. She has to move abroad to avoid the war. And then the book ends with her story when she grow up and became an activist and she got to travel around the world. I really love this book because it really inspired me to become a better person and to help humanity .

5. Famous Five: "Minggat" by Enid Blyton

My mum told me about the existence of this book when I was 7 year old. This book was out when my mom was still a little girl. This book has the total of 21 series, and this one that I chose is the third one. This book is about 4 teenagers and 1 dog: Julian, Dick, George (Georgia), Anne, and Tim/Timmy (George's dog). In every books, they always have an interesting adventure. Here's the story. So, George's mother hired a new cook. George has this bad feelings about Mrs. Stick, the new cook, her son Edgar and his dog Abu. Mrs Stick is a grumpy, very grumpy woman. One day, George and the other want to go to Kirrin Island to avoid Mrs Stick, so they did. But then, they found out that Mrs Stick and her family are there. They bring some suitcases full with cutlery. Then, one day in the middle of the night, they heard what sounded like a girl screaming. They later find out that the Stick and some other guy kidnapped a girl from a rich family. They went home and report to the police and they saved the girl. This book is really interesting to read because it is a thin book, and I think they have the English version of this book because mine is in Indonesian version.

6. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Same like "Seriously... I'm Kidding" book, I haven't finish this book. I've read probably... the first 50-60 pages. As far as I can tell, this book is about 2 siblings, Jem and Scout Finch, who live in North Alabama in the 1930s, when the Great Depression happened, and that's all I know. I am excited to read the rest of the book, and also I got to study about this book for my EFL Novel Study. I will tell you the rest of this book when I finish this book next time.

So, these are my current favorite books. I really hope this books will be your references and ideas for new books. 

Nisa

Bubble milk tea

Hello everyone...

As you may know from the "My Faves List" post, I LOVE Bubble milk tea. So, I want to share with you guys the recipe so you can try it by yourself. It is indeed a very simple recipe and I'm sure you're going to love it!

Recipe (1 serving)

- +2 cups of water
- 300 ml Nu Milk Tea, or if you don't have one of those or you don't like 'em, you can make it by yourself by mixing tea and milk. I don't have the measuring, but you can adjust it as you prefer.
- 3-5 tbsp of instant bubble. You can find it in baking shops or maybe in groceries stores.
- other toppings like jellies, red beans, puddings, etc. But in this one, I only use instant bubble.
- big straws

Steps
- In a pan or a pot, heat water and instant bubbles. Bring it to boil and keep on stirring so it won't stick together or stick to the pan because once these bubbles touches water, it will become sticky. But, if some bubbles stick together and hard to separate, leave it be. Once it boils and the bubbles are soft, strain it. It pretty much looks like this.

- Take the other toppings (if you use any of it) and start slicing it. On this one, I didn't use any other toppings than bubble.
- Pick your favorite glass (I chose a mason jar) Pour the milk tea, bubbles, and toppings into the glass. Mix well. Serve it with a big straw.

Well, that's it for today's post. Hope you like it and if you try this recipe, make sure you post the picture on Twitter or Instagram with #narisenomilktea

I'll see you guys very very soon!

Nisa

p.s. make sure you have the right straw size before you serve it. I accidentally chose the small one. Well, the bubble fits in with the straw, but it got stuck in the middle so I have to push it out with a chopstick and it accidentally hurts my lips and mouth. Poor me :p

Pesantren Ramadhan 2014

Me (on the left) with Icha (middle) and Nada (right)

Hello everyone...

So. 2 days ago. Pesantren Ramadhan. Yeay.

Yeap. Last monday, I joined Pesantren Ramadhan. It's basically a 2-days-1-night event that took place in school. So, the event started at 3 pm, but we had to be there at 7 am because we have lessons and stuffs. Anyway, we brought our stuffs like sleeping bag/mattress/bed, clothes, bathing kit, etc. The teachers divided us into 2 big teams, boys and girls. Then, they divided all of us into 8 smaller groups according to our rooms arrangement. We pray Ashar together to start the event. Then, we were (again) divided into 4 groups (boys and girls) and we played like a quiz about Islam. My group ended up winning (because of me winning the Jilbab challenge. Lol just kidding) with 1490 points. Then, a speaker came and started to talk and discuss about the beginning of the world and humanity and the story of Adam and Eve.

About one hour later, Maghrib finally came. We were sent to a room and the first thing I saw and made me drool: FOOD. There were chocolate-banana roll, smoked beef, cheese and egg mantau, and tea. After that, we gathered back to the hall and we pray Maghrib together. After a while, we went to the canteen to eat dinner. I ate a plate of rice, pan fried vegies, beef stroganoff, chicken kung pao, and water. That dinner was soooo good. With full stomach, we went back to the hall and we pray Isya and Tarawih for 30 mins.

I was ready to change my clothes, brush my teeth, wash my face and slip in my sleeping bag, but the teachers planned something else. We played this kind team work games. The first one called "Shirotol Mustakim" or "A Straight Path". We were given 10 pieces of paper where we formed a team with 12 members and we have to cross this square-shaped path with those papers without touching the ground. We were given 10 minutes to finish it. We eventually finished it, but we didn't know that we have to make 2 groups. So, we lost.

Next one, It's called "the Labyrinth". So, there was this big box-shaped strofoam with little ropes tied to it's sides. Inside the styrofoam, there was this obstacles and holes. We have to put a ball on one side and we have to move the ball with the ropes to the other side, but we have to avoid the obstacles. We finished the first task, but we have to move the SECOND ball with the first ball waiting on the other side. So we have to balance those balls. It was hard, but at least we tried, am I right?

Third one, this game was some sort of an outbound activity. It... has no name. So, there was this "spider web obstacles". We have to cooperate with each other to get through it. But the thing is, we can't go through the same hole the other used. Well, because I'm "the Photographer", I didn't join the game. It was so fun and challenging.

Last one, It (once again) has no name. We were divided into 2 group, boys and girls. So there was this big cloth. On top of it, there were a bottle-full of water and a table tennis ball on top of it. We have to transport the bottle and the bottle, but don't let the water spills or the ball fall. I didn't join :D because I'm "the Photographer" remember? haha

After that, we were ready to go upstairs and sleep, but they got something else. It was a treasure hunting activity. So we were given a clue and we have to find the treasure. We searched ll over the canteen, and we eventually found the treasure, but we didn't finish it. It was already dark and cold. So, I ran back upstairs and slipped inside my sleeping bag and ignore everything around me.

Then, about 3 in the morning, someone (I think my religion teacher) shouted (what I heard) "STAR WARS" really loud, then turned on the light. It kinda pissed my off because I was just dreaming about pink fluffy clouds, rainbows, pizzas, candy rains, and strawberry milkshake ponds (lol I was soo childish), then I shouted "urgghh, who shouted star wars? So annoying" in front of my teacher. Then, later that morning, I found out that my teacher didn't shout Star Wars, but "Sahur" (it was 3 in the morning, okay)

My school at night

I woke up, dressed up, took my camera and went down to the canteen to eat sahur. I ate a plate of rice, fried chicken, stir fried kale and mushroom, and a cup of water.

After 30 mins and couple of photos, I went upstairs with my friends. I really want to go back to sleep, but we actually have to go to the hall and pray. I was so sleepy, but the cold weather and pastel blue clouds woke me up. While waiting for people to gather, I packed my bag and folded my sleeping bag.

After praying, we went to the basketball court to do simple exercises. I (again) didn't join the exercises because I'm the photographer, right? (What an excuse). I took loads of pictures and laugh on every one of it. 

The sun was up. I wanted to take a bath, but there was no showers or buckets of water or anything for us to take a bath, so I just brushed my teeth and washed my face. After that, we went to the hall to listen to a speaker talking about inspirational quotes and stuffs. 

Finally, It was already 8 pm. We continued our packing and we headed down and waited for our drivers. I was sooooo sad because that precise moment was the last time I'm going to see my best friend because she's going to move to Oman.

This year's pesantren ramadhan was so fun because It was going to be my last pesantren I guess. I'm sorry I didn't take photos from the beginning because my camera arrived at night. Well, I guess this is it for today, Hope you enjoy!

Nisa

Bromo 2010

Hello everybody...

My family and I love traveling so much. We have to go on a long vacation at least once every year. This time, I want to talk about my trip to Bromo in 2010, and I was about 9 year old at that time. It was a very magical place. The air was so fresh and the view was incredible. Now, I will show you as we go back in time.

We drove for hours from Solo to Malang, our first stop. We stayed at Santika Hotel Malang for 3 days. We did nothing, actually on the first day. We started our journey on the second day. We woke up early and quickly rushed to our car so we could watch sunrise on Bromo, but we woke up late, so we enjoy sunrise from our car. We arrived there at approx. 8 am.

The view

 I expected it to be cold, but actually, It was warm enough for me to open my jacket and tied it around my waist. We parked our car on (what the local people called) The Dessert. It wasn't like a normal dessert with yellow sand and camels everywhere, it was a wide-opened space with grey sands. 

Me with my cousins. Look at those clouds!

We hire a 4-wheeler Jeep and a driver to take us up. The road was so bumpy and there were 5 members of my family + a driver + low ceiling. Well, we bumped our heads over and over until we arrived at the landings. There were hundreds of Jeep with various color parked neatly in front of me.  The driver said if we want to climb to the top of the mountain, we have to walk or rent a horse. Well, as a true backpacker, I chose to walk, even though from our Jeep to the mountain was sooooo far away. I left my bag and begun to walk. Half way to the mountain, I spotted a big temple with high grey walls and steel fences surrounding it. 

After a long walk and shoes stuffed with cold sands, we finally arrived. But, we have to climb 350+ stairs to go up to the peak. As I said, I was 9 year old at that time and it was so crowded, but I was so excited to see the famous Bromo peak.

 From the distance, I could smell the sulfur and saw the white smoke rising up to the sky. After... well, 30 minutes climbing those forsaken stairs and tired legs, we did it. *I'm on top the world, yeah* I finally saw the famous peak with white, sulfuric smoke. I was so happy I just... love that place. 

The view from the peak

 The mountain got so crowded, so we decided to head down and continue our journey. The driver recommended us to go to the savanna, so we did. It was (once again) a very bumpy ride because of sand dunes and high grasses. In the middle of the ride, we saw a rock, a very big rock (bigger than the Jeep) that looked like a lion. We stopped there and took loads of pictures.

After approx. 20 pictures (My dad deleted half of it), we continued our journey. And in seconds, voila! The savannah was right in front of us, with (what the local people called) the Teletubbies's hill. It actually looked like one, but bigger... and it has no secret doors or NuNu roaming around. Just us, and an Ice cream seller. All of us bought one and stay there for so long I wanted to live there forever. 

Taking pictures with "The Teletubbies" hahaa

We continued our journey and the driver took us to the most popular photo-taking spot. It was so beautiful. I could see Bromo, Pangrango, the Teletubbies's hill, Savannah, all of it. We took loads of pictures (again) and my father had to deleted half of it (AGAIN). 

It was already 1 o'clock and we decided to go back to our car and headed Malang

to go find some lunch. And we spent our last day eating Ice creams, fried ducks, listening to old songs, and swimming.

It was a hell-a fun adventure and I can't wait to go to Malang once again and explore the rest of it. I'm afraid I have to stop right here, but I'll see you soon.

Nisa
p.s I took ALL of those pictures.

Childhood nostalgia

Hello everyone!

Few days ago, I was looking for my cat's photos when I came across a folder with pictures in it, and I saw folders with loads of my old pictures in it. And I thought, I have to show it to you guys (well, some of them are pretty embarrassing). Here are some of my personal favorites.

Me as a backpacker hahaa

This was me when I was in 3rd grade. I joined a painting team and we were attending a painting competition, and we won 1st place!

I honestly didn't know I have this picture until now. This was taken when I was 8 year old with one of my best friend. 

This was me and my best friend when I was 9 year old

What a poser

Guys, I have to end this post here because most of the pictures are sooo embarrassing, but I hope you enjoy it.

Nisa

Osa

Hello everyone...

You guys might know Osa from my first blog post, but I never really introduced him to you. Okay, first of all, his (full) name is Zorossa Leonardo DiCatrio. Well, here's the background story. When I bought him in 2010, I fell in love with him because he was so active and cute. Also, he has this kind of pattern around his eyes and nose and my father said that he looked like the masked hero, Batman and Zorro. At first, I was about to named him Batman because of the pattern, but it sounded so cheesy and too long for such a lil' cuttie (naw), so I named him Zorro. But I needed something catchier, something unique. Then, I decided to called him Zorossa, stands for Nisa's Zorro (or in Indonesia, ZorrOnya niSA. See? ). Because at that time, (I think) my mom was a fan of Leonardo Dicaprio, so she added Leonardo DiCaprio, but I changed it into Leonardo DiCatrio (because he's a cat. Get it? haha).

I remembered after I bought Osa, my cousin and I (she bought a cat too. Her cat's a female cat named Mimi) went to the groceries store to buy our cats's needs. I remembered clearly when we give our cats, inside their baskets, to this place where we put our stuffs in lockers while we went shopping (in Indonesia, we called it tempat penitipan barang), the lady there screamed because she was afraid of cats. I tried to hold my laugh when we saw her expression.

I think that's all. Hope you enjoy and know a little more about Osa. I'll see you on my next post.

Nisa

My upcoming adventure

Hello everybody!

I have some announcements. First of all, I'm sorry this post is going to be a short and boring post. I am going to update my travel agendas. If you're an impatient reader, you may skip this post and you may:

1) close this tab and continue whatever you were doing before, or
2) proceed to the next post, or
3) do whatever you want

So, as you guys may know (or may not know), I am celebrating lebaran with my big family in my hometown, Solo. I spend approx. 2 weeks there and because of the unstable internet there, probably I'm not going to post anything for the next couple of days but I will try my best to keep posting. Also, I'm going to spend some times with my "main" family and my cousin in Malang, East Java and I'm going to write something about it because I'm sure it will be fun. 

And also, as a grade 9 student, we (9th grader) are going to face one of the most terrifying exam that all of us, grade 6, 9, and 12 students, are most afraid of. Yes, that's right. UN (it stands for Ujian Nasional or National Examination. It's pretty much like an IGCSE test), on either April or May next year. For the last 2 years, we went for our CSW on April when our seniors were battling for good scores. So, this time, WE are the one that will be battling for our scores. Because of it, the school arranged the schedule for our CSW on November 3-8 (sadly, it's not on my birthday, Nov 28). Well, it's about 3-4 months of preparation while last year we had 8 months of preparation. The bad news is, I am not going to post anything about that trip until about 2 days - 1 week after that trip, because we are not allowing us to bring any gadgets except for our cellphones but I promise I will post something about that.

That's all the time I have for today. As I said, it's a relatively short post. I'm sorry. I have to go now because I'm wearing shoes and my feet are sweating and I need to change my clothes because I just got home from school. But, I'll see you very very soon!

Nisa

Explanations, Pram and The Girl From The Coast

Hello everyone...

First thing first, I want to apologize for not posting anything since Thursday because I have been so busy with my new schedule, after school activities, works, and and my studies. I've been preparing for my IGCSE music's audition (sort of). Well, not really an audition, it's more like a graded individual performance, which I'm not really confidence about it. Also, I've been preparing for my lebaran break for I have to go to my parents' hometown Solo (which is in Central Java near Jogja) for 2 weeks and I have to pack (not really. My mom did it for me hahaa), fitting clothes for lebaran, fasting, etc etc.

ANYWAY, you guys know that I started my school year last week, which was on Thursday. I have to adapt to my new "conditions" and I have to prepare for UN (ujian nasional, or national examinations) soon as possible. So basically this school year will be the busiest and quite possibly my last. Also, I have a new novel study for the subject Bahasa Indonesia, which I'm going to talk about in this post, and the book is called "Gadis Pantai" or in Indonesia means "The Girl from The Coast" by Pramoedya Ananta Toer or Pram. He's well known for his books like "Bumi Manusia" (This Earth of Mankind, 1980), "Anak Semua Bangsa" (Child of All Nations, 1985) and "Bukan Pasar Malam" (It's not an All Night Fair, 1951). I have read and finished the Gadis Pantai (let's call it... GP. It's like the initials, you know) before anyone else started to read it.

So basically (spoiler alert! Guys from MISB grade 9, please shut down your computer/laptop/phone/anything you use to read this and back off. Don't read this post until the end of grade 9. I've warned you), this book is about a girl from a poor village near the east coast in Java, who was forced to marry a noble from the town when she was 14. At that time, marrying a noble was an honor for the family, even though the age gap was kinda... disturbing. So, the girl, at first, hated that idea but she has no power to reject it. Then, 2 years later, she found out that she was not the noble's wife, but she was like an "exercising-wife" thing (I don't even know if that's a word or not) before he marry his "real wife" from the same "level". She had a baby, he divorced her because she gave birth already (men -__-), she ran away, end of story. (the story is a lot more complicated than this one)

The things about this book are it is so heavy to read because it contains such a strong... meaning. It gives you some sort of "great experience" and what I described as an "excellent literature". By reading this book, I got to know more about what was like living in the early 20th century.

I hope this helps you and hope you enjoy. I know it's a little bit different but I want to give it a try. So, thank's for reading. I'll see you on my next post. Bye!

Nisa

p.s. Sorry I don't have any picture of it

First day of school!

Hello everybody!

Yeaayy! Finally the day has come! Today is my first day of school in Grade 9. One of my friend spoiled me the class list, and... I'm not happy with it .__. Well, I'm not going to tell you why because I'm afraid I'll offend someone's feelings. But, I tried to enjoy my day by looking at its bright side. 

The school changed some of the rules like:

1. we have to come to school at 7 am, while last year we had to go to school at 7.30 am 

2. we have to go home at 2.20 pm, while last year we got to go home at 2.45 pm. 

3. we can't stay after 4 pm. 

4. we have to stay in the lobby while we wait for our driver to pick us up.

5. etc etc

These rules kinda sucks because we got to wake up super early and go to school just to avoid traffic. It's hard for us who live far from school. One of my friend got to wake up at 4 am. 

Haha, now stop talking about the rules and how lame it is. Let's talk about my activities today. So, first thing in the morning, We gathered in the canteen and look at our class list. While I was walking to the canteen, I notice loads of new students, especially grade 7 students. Then, we go to our respected homeroom and we finally met our homeroom teacher, who's a new teacher. Her name is Ms. Mae Bonifacio. She was so lovely and kind, not like my last year's teacher who was really annoying and bossy and... GAAAHHHH we all hate her. We spent our first hours introducing ourselves and arranging our seats. I noticed first that we only have one new friend, and he didn't show up. Well, he missed out a lot. I'm so excited to him and actually I want to befriend with him (even though I never see him and now nothing about his personalities), but because the gender-difference between us (yeah, it means a lot to us, Mentarian), It's hard for me to get to know him. ANYWAY, we introduced ourselves, discussing about the terms and conditions, blah blah blah... And I made new friends! (well, not really new, though. But before, we weren't close) Guy friends! *winks* hahaa just kidding! We gave our homeroom teacher a nickname: Ma'e, which means mother or an elder female in Javanese (Ms Mae, if you're reading this, we're sorry we love you :D)

Well, Today was fun! It kinda hard for me because I am fasting and I talked too much and it makes me thirsty. Here, my lips' started to crack and swell and it hurts so much! Well, I think this is it. I have to shower because I have a tutor class this evening. I'm sorry this one is short and kinda boring and I didn't take pictures.

Nisa

My Faves list

Hello everyone!

I want to create something new, something that came out of my brain, and I came up with this idea. I don't think anyone has ever done this before (maybe), so I'm going to do it! 

p.s. if you don't want to find out more about me or you're not interested or you're not a patient reader, I suggest you leave now.

Here are some of my most random favorites:
1. Fave food & drink: salad and bubble milk tea (search for it. It's the best thing EVER!)
2. Fave actress: Helen Mirren
3. Fave actor: Neil Patrick Harris
4. Fave movie: Red and Red 2
5. Fave animation movie: either Mulan 2, Lion King, Brave, or How To Train Your Dragon 2
6. Fave TV series: Bones and How I Met Your Mother
7. Fave singer (male & female): m) Sam Smith, Macklemore or Michael Buble, f) Taylor Swift and Lana del Rey
8. Fave band: Fall Out Boy
9. Fave album: either Ultraviolence or Taylor's 5th album or TRXYE
10. Fave Macklemore song: Same Love or White Walls
11. Fave Sam Smith song: Stay With Me (duh)
12. Fave Taylor Swift's song: Everything Has Changed
13. Fave Lana del Rey song: West Coast or Young and Beautiful
14. Fave Fall Out Boy song: Phoenix or Save Rock and Roll
15. Fave Celebrity Chef: Jamie Oliver and Tom and Henry Herbert (The Fabulous Baker Brothers)
16. Fave Youtubers (more than 1): Pewdiepie, Cutiepiemarzia, Zoella (280390), Pointlessblog, ThatcherJoe, Jim Chapman, Tanya Burr, Marcus Butler, Niomi Smart, Tyler Oakley-anya, Joey Graceffa, Troye Sivan, Connor Franta.
17. Fave OTP: ZALFIE <3
18. Fave book and the author: (current) The Abundance of Katherines by John Green
19. Fave family member (lol): my parents (mum especially. Dad, If you're reading this, please don't get offended) and my elder cousins.
20. Best Friend: ALL OF YOU!!

Thanks for reading. The fact that now it's already 11:29 PM now in Jakarta and it's raining makes me want to cuddle with my pillows and blanket and curl up on my bed listening to the ra.... ZZZzzzZZzzzZzzzz *half dreaming, half conscious*

Nisa

My Youtube Obsession #1: PewDiePie and Cutiepie

Hello everybody!

I confess that I am a youtube addict. I can't stand not watching youtube videos. I have to at least once a week. Well, I now nothing about youtube, especially youtubers, AT ALL, until about 2,5 years ago. One of my best friends at that time, told me about this gamer/youtuber PewDiePie (his real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and he's Swedish). I knew who PewDiePie is that time, but I wasn't interested on youtube and gaming and videos and things like that. Until I finally started to watch his videos and I found it extremely freakishly funny. I remembered watching the "Funny Montage 1" and I can't stop laughing for hours until my throat and stomach hurts. And then, I started to subscribe and "stalk" him and watch every single of his video everyday. He makes gaming/comedy type of videos. He has this segment every friday called "Fridays with Pewdiepie" where he makes non-gaming videos. Sometimes, he collaborates with his girlfriend Marzia, or do what we called "the Fabulizer" aka Photoshop (where he photoshop famous people and makes them looks funny), or creates creative videos such as "Pewds does everything" and opening fan mails and packages. He called his fans/viewers "bros".

After spending days stalking him, collecting as many information as possible and watching his videos over and over and over and over again, I found out about his girlfriend Marzia. A first, I thought she was his friend, but then I found out that they are couples and I support them. And also she has a youtube channel, "Cutiepiemarzia" and started to subscribe and watched every videos (her real name is Marzia Bisognin and she's Italian). She is so sweet and funny and pretty, and she has a very distinguishable and recognizable voice. She has this very low, very soft, very childish-in-a-good-way type of voice and that's what I love about her. She also has this very long hair and very fashionable outfits and accessories and make ups that she successfully combined. She makes a fashion/beauty/make up videos, diy/cooking videos, animation/stop motion videos, etc. She enjoys watching and reading horror stories and movies. She called her fans/viewers Marzipans, refering to her name "Marzia".

Here are some "couples background stories". They first met online in 2010 (if I'm not mistaken). One of Marzia's friend introduced her to Pewdiepie. She thought he's sweet and funny, so she started to message him through Facebook. He responded and they started talking everyday. Well, on the other hand, Pewds thought that she is stunningly beautiful. So, they decided to become a couple. A few months later (Iguess), Pewds came to visit Marzia in Italy. They decided to live in Italy for a while so they get to know each other more. Pewds continued his gaming videos, while Marzia started to make a youtube channel. Later on, they decided to move to Sweden, but because Marzia doesn't speak Swedish that time, she had a hard time finding job. And they stay together and keep on doing their youtube career. Few months later, Pewds' channel, up to now, has over 26 million bros, while Marzia's has over 3 million Marzipans. Also, they have two dogs: Maya the white female dog, and Edgar the black male dog (lol I don't mean to be racist but that's the truth haha)

I love them so much. They are my inspiration and... quite possibly my hero during my hard times (cheesy convos begin) because they "convince myself to keep my candle lit when I'm sure I was going to blow and throw it away", because they "rebuild my towers when I knocked it off over and over". Well, they never really do that, though. I'm sure I am nothing and they are something, but I keep my faith on them. That's enough of the cheesiness haha. Oh yeah, I'll leave links of their youtube channel below.

I hope you guys enjoy my post. This time is slightly (okay, very) different from my other posts. See you in my next post! Ooh, by the way, tomorrow will be my first day in 9th grade, and in less than a year, I'm going to face the "National Examination" for grade 9. From now on, I would like to say "Good luck for me!"

Nisa

*brofist*

PewDiePie: www.youtube.com/user/pewdiepie

Cutiepiemarzia: www.youtube.com/user/cutiepiemarzia

Photography fun!

Hello, everyone!

I love photography as much as I love cooking (and cats). I started learning photography about 2-3 years ago when my parents decided to learn photography. So, they bought our first ever DSLR camera. Well, we all know nothing about photography at that time, so my dad took a private photography lesson (I guess) and started "buying and collecting all tiny bits for my new hobby", he said. From filters, lenses, cleaning tools, accessories, etc. We all become addicted to photography at that time. 

After he masters basics photography skills, I became interested and asked my dad to teach me. Ever since that day, I started to study and practice every single day. I remember I woke up early every morning at like, 5 am and spend at least 30 minutes wandering around the house looking for "beautiful and special" objects I could snap. Fortunately, I have my lovely "assistant", my cat, who patiently posed for me. And also I would take my bike with me and started to explore the household, looking for pretty flowers. 

But now, my parents never really use it, so it kinda belongs to me. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my DSLR camera is a Nikon D3100) I got the chance to bring that camera to Trawas last April. I took loads of pictures. One time when I went hiking, I brought my camera with me (big mistake). Because My bag is full with stuffs I don't remember, I put it around my neck. Then, when I tried to hike a steep path (and at that time it was kinda raining) and there was no rope to hold on or something, I slipped and fell and unfortunately, I dropped my camera into a pool of mud. Luckily, It only stained the lens and nothing else.  

And here are some of the pictures I snapped during my Trawas trip:

So that is it for today's post. Hope you like it!

Nisa

p.s. I own and took all of that pictures 

Trawas: land right below the clouds

Hello everyone, 

You guys might never heard of this place I'm going to talk about. It is one of the most magical and beautiful place I have ever been to. This place is called Trawas, a land right below the clouds. It offers us a life we can't find in the city. I got the chance to visit it last April with my friends (It was a Community Study Week). We did some traditional stuffs, we learned about old Javanese cultures, and we also got the chance to live RIGHT in the middle of nowhere, like seriously, nowhere. We encountered some troubles like no signals (we couldn't communicate with our parents in Jakarta, which made them kinda worried and mad), no water heater, bugs and insects everywhere (even in the bathroom), minimum amount of bathroom stalls, cold and rainy weather, etc etc, but most of us enjoyed it! It gave us cool experiences and moral lessons (which I'm obviously not going to talk about it). 

Now, I'm going to talk about all the fun stuffs we did. First up, exploring! We were splits into 5 groups consisting of 10-11 members each. The facilitator gave us a piece of paper with a clue on it, so it's basically like a treasure hunt or something like that, and they told us to find the other clues. And one thing for sure, no supervision! (for your information, that place was freaking big). They gave us 30 minutes to explore. It was such a fun orientation day, but that's not the only fun we had!

Another thing we did was hiking and rain forest exploration. And by hiking, I mean "mud-and-water-soaked-shoes-and-wet-bags-because-of-rain-and-losing-our-balance-while-we-crossed-a-river" type of hiking. It was such a fun hike until the path we're crossing started to drove us crazy. Here are the comparison. This is how it looks like when we started:

And this is how it looks like when we finished:

and

Yeap. We came out wet and dirty and made our bus's seat wet, but we enjoyed it.

Next up, we did a CnS (Community 'n Service), where we pretty much serves people in need. This time, we went to a local elementary school near our "base camp". My group choose to serves 2nd grade students by teaching them simple English vocabularies through story telling and how to make origami frog. But before that, I represented my group to go shopping for our CnS materials. Me and several other group members got the chance to spend the whole evening wandering around the city, but it was freaking hot, which kinda bothered us. 

Last thing, we got to do some traditional Javanese thing like cooking traditional food in traditional way (which i accidentally cut my finger and bleed pretty badly), learned how to play Javanese musical instruments, dressed in a traditional peasants outfit and reenact a scene where there was a conflict between two villages in an ancient kingdom and stay up late eating instant noodles and wandered around. 

I learned so much from this Trawas trip (which, again, I'm not going to talk about) and I miss that freaking place so much I could probably cry out loud and shit my pants off at the same time when I think about it (which happened to me, but i didn't shit my pants off). To me, Trawas is like a place I would never dare to forget. That place is full of sweet memories, friendship, and togetherness. I totally recommend this place. If you get a chance to go there, make sure:

1. You stay in UTC (Ubaya Training Centre), but you have to come in big groups of at least 20 people.
2. You go hiking and explore the rain forest (with experts guides, of course)
3. You visit the Majapahit museum and candi Bojong Ratu.

I hope you guys find this post interesting and useful for you. I'll see you very very soon!

Nisa