Vacation in San Francisco: Day 1

Morning world,

how are you doing?

Hufffttt  I haven't posted anything since thanks giving dinner although I promised that I would post the story of my Thanksgiving experience but I was really busy with the tests and all the preparation for the refugee's fundraiser in January which really menyita waktu LOL.

But now I have some time to write what I have been up to since last month. 

Well let's start with my vacation last week.

My best buddy, Juan and I went to San Francisco, California. 

We left on the 17th of December and we came back on the 24th, we actually spent 7 days in San Francisco.

In San Francisco I stayed at Mbak Dede's apartment at the Parkmerced Apartment and Juan, stayed in Mbak Dede's friend's apartment right in front of Mbak Dede's apartment.

We were so lucky because Mbak Dede, Mbak Nining and Mbak Dina helped us a lot by being our guides for few days before we decided to go out alone (just in case if we get lost ROFL).

The first day, we met 4 of Indonesian friends (CCIP participants) who were also traveling to SF. So, 9 of us went to visit Fisherman's Wharf which is one of the most visited tourist attraction in San Francisco. We took lot of pictures there. We also saw one big sea lion. Then after taking lot of pictures there, we decided to go to Downtown and to the Martin Luther King's Memorial garden where we could see the frame of Martin Luther King's popular words behind the 50 feet high and 20 feet wide waterfall. It was really a wonderful place. We spent about 1 hour there just for the pictures. Then we had to say Good-Bye to our friends (Haeril, Syabith, Sosi, and Indah) because they had to leave the next 3 hours.

Mahatma Gandhi Statue (The movie of My Name is Khan was taken in this place)

Perempuan Indonesia :D

at The Martin Luther King Memorial Garden and Waterfall

6 Indonesians and 1 Tico :D

Hard Rock Cafe in Fisherman;s Wharf

Since Juan and I still want to continue our tour, because we thought it was too early to go home at 5, I asked mbak Dede to take us to Indonesian Restaurant. The name of the restaurant is Borobudur Restaurant. OMG!!! I was sooo happy when I saw their menu list. God! They have everything there. From Tempe, Gado-Gado, Fried Rice, and Nasi Padang. I almost jumped because of the menu list. Finally after 6 months live in Arizona without Indonesian restaurant, I finally ate Gado-Gado, Tempe, and Nasi Goreng Seafood. As the first time to visit Indonesian Restaurant, Juan looked confuse with the menu that they have there. I suggested him to eat Gado-Gado but he said it has shrimp (He doesn't like seafood, especially shrimp LOL). But finally he chose Nasi Goreng. The price was not really that expensive for me since I have missed Indonesian food like crazy.

Juan's choice (Nasi Goreng)

My choice (I forgot what's the name LOL)

Tahu and Tempe. Yummy!

After dinner, we went to visit Union Square. Sumpah, Union Square was really wonderful with the Christmas tree. Here is one of the pictures that was taken at the Union Square:

;

Juan and the Christmas Tree 

Aren't they wonderful? 

Juan and I actually took lot of pictures there and we wanted to stay longer but Mbak Dede looked so tired, so we decided to go back home (Well, Juan and I came back to the Union Square the next two days lol). We took Muni (the transportation in San Francisco) for about 55 minutes to Mbak Dede's apartment.

That is the story of our first day in SF. I will continue with the next story InshAllah :)

So, see you with another story of our adventure in San Francisco :)

Da , , , Da , ,  

from Buffalo with Love, 

Nur

Get Ready for Thanks Giving

Good Morning World,
HAPPY THANKS GIVING everybody!!!

YAY!! It is a blessing day for everybody here in the U.S. The day where they spend their time with their families. Today I will also go out for Thanks Giving dinner wif Juan's support team member. I think we will have international thanks giving there because Juan told me that there will be people from Germany, Mexico and other countries (hope so), so excited.

For thanks giving dinner, I have prepared Nasi Kuning and Daging sapi, also the Kolak Milu LOL.
We will have all those food there together and will eat together with them. I cook the food about 3 hours ago, that's why I am free now and spend my time writing about this Haha :D

Anyway, that's the update for now because I have to get ready. They will pick us up at 5PM for the thanks giving dinner.

So, I will see you later then with the update of my first American Thanks Giving (also with picts) LOL . .

Da da . .
Nur

Volunteer with KEEN

Good Morning World,
How are you today?

Finally I get 30 minutes free now before my Human Resources class is started. Here I still want to talk about my activities last 2 weeks that I have not shared. As I told you before, CCIP students who are in Arizona have to do volunteer for at least 100 hours for a year. Until now I have done about almost 50 hours, not so much, but that;s not too bad hehe. So last two weeks, Juan and I, went for volunteer with KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now). We did the volunteer by playing with special kids. Before we started the activities (Playing activities I mean LOL), We had an orientation from Todd Byer. The goal of the orientation is to introduce how special the kids are, so when we play with game, we would have any idea what we will do with them. The orientation was about 20 to 30 minutes. There were actually about 10 of volunteers who came, including two families with 2 or 3 family members. After the orientation, Todd gave us a paper about the kids that we will play with. So, he decided to let Jorge to play with me and Juan, but before that, we had to read all the information about Jorge. He is really special. First time I read the paper information, I was worried, Will he be happy to play with us? because in the paper it said that he really loves to play or communicate with somebody who can communicate with sign language, in fact, Juan and I could not even understand about sign language, both of us were looking each othere and smiling, "We can do it" Juan says. After 30 minutes, Jorge came. They introduced us to Jorge. After that, Jorge started to run to the gymnasium. There he started to play alone, I was confused what to do at the first because it looked like he enjoys to play by himself (LOL). Then we started to throw a basketball together. just 4 minutes after that, He started to run again. Juan and I had no idea where he wanted to go. We just ran and tried to follow him. He leaded us out of the KEEN building, he wanted to have outside activities. He wants to play swinging (Haha). So I just sit beside of him and he started swinging. I was so worried to see him because he swing really high and fast, I tried to tell him to be slow, but he might did not understand me because I just use my hands to tell him (which I found was not a correct way in sign language to ask somebody to be slow down LOL). After that, we played another game, but he got bored so easily.  He ran again to the room. He wanted to play a card game which I did not have any idea bout it (LOL). Juan and I just played and tried to understand what he said. Finally we found a good game where we spent about 30 or 40 minutes to play with. I forgot the name of the game.

Juan and Jorge

YAY I am almost there, I creamed these guys  LOL)

no cheating Juan :D

Cheers LOL

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After that we go back to the gymnasium and played basketball again for few minutes and going back again outside for swinging. Too bad, while we were playing, Jorge's mom came to pick him up because he had a course or something. We really enjoyed to be with him although it was really difficult for him and for us to understand each other. Since my volunteer with Jorge, I have decided that I MUST LEARN the sign language. Thanks God, now I have learnt some basic words that will be useful later because I plan to do the volunteer again with KEEN. I really enjoyed my time with Jorge there, running and playing hehe. He made me realize that he is really special and we have to give extra care to the special kids like him. It was such a wonderful experience for me and I cannot wait for next three weeks to do the same volunteers.

Anyway, My class is gonna started in 10 minutes,
so I will see you guys on my next stories of life here in the U.S


Da da


Love,
Nur

International Education Week

Hi Guys,

How are you doing?

Hope you are always in a good shape.

Anyway, Last week, I had a very tight schedule because last week was International Education Week. From Monday till Thursday all the international students who get the CCIP scholarship participated in International Education Week. My two Indonesian friends (Ryan and Sanny) perfomed Indonesian dance, too bad Agung and I could not join them, because we both do not know how to dance LOL. Although we did not dance, we had discussion panel "International Student Panel" with the American future teachers in our college. Agung (Indonesian), Nayla (Brazilian), Juan (Costa Rica, Kiga (Kenya), Liz (Mexico) and I were the panelists. We were invited by Mr. Hansen to discuss about global issue that affect our country. Mostly we discussed about the education in our country which is totally different with the United States education system. Oh ya, I forgot, when we had the discussion, there were 2 people that asked Agung and I about the Tsunami in Aceh. They asked why there is no more news about it? what happened? as a good and innocent citizen, I explained how our government works in those kind of cases. LOL. I did not mean to make Indonesian name to be bad in American's mind, But I tried to tell the truth about it. How fast the reaction of our government is in responding those cases. Anyway, The future teachers who came to the International Student Panel were really enthusiastic to hear about our countries. They had no idea how the education system in our countries until we had the discussion. It was really interesting discussion. I felt happy to get the chance to share about Indonesian's government and Indonesian education system.

Here are some pictures when we had the panel

"Kotak, Pelan-Pelan Saja"

30 minutes before the attendees came

Therese and Mr. Hansen

Attendees "Future Teachers"

Look how serious they are :D LOL

Agung, Kiga, me, Juan, Nayla and Liza

Wif Therese and Juan

Besides that, the next day, my friends (Ryan, Nayla, Juan, Rosalia, and Moh) had a talent show. They had a wonderful and creative dance ever. For you guys who want to see how wonderful it is,  here is the link. They are awesome.

The next day, we had International Fashion Show. All 18 of us, from 7 different countries (Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia and Kenya) had short traditional dances with traditional dresses. All the students who came by to the cafeteria gave applause to us. Well, I felt nervous that time haha because I am a grogi person LOL. But that was fun.

So, that's my week activities last week.

Anyway, I have to end my posting here because I have to focus on my assignment LOL

So, I will see you on my next posting inshAllah.

Da Da,

Nur

It's All About Retreats: Girls Retreat

OMG!!! It has been 17 days since I posted something here. I really missed to write every single experience that I passed here but I could not since I had lot of assignments that takes time to finish especially ESL assignment. Let me share what I have done since last two weeks. On 15 of October, I went to the Girls Retreat with all the girls in my group (CCIP group) who are in Arizona. We went there with our best Project Coordinator, Allison and also Janelle Hoffman, one of our lecturers at Scottsdale Community College. We left on Friday, and it took about 2 hours driving. But before we went to Janelle's cabin, we did hiking near Payson. It was really fun because Tahira (Pakistani), Gamze (Turkish), Nayla (Brazilian) and I tried to catch crayfish on the small river. At the first Tahira and Gamze tried but they did not get any crayfish because they were scared of the fish. Then I cam and tried to catch it, and guess how much I got? I cought about ten crayfish :D LOL!! It reminded me about  my childhood that I spent in Pasokan when I used to catch small fish near the ocean, I really miss it (Wish I can go back to my childhood and play on the river and ocean LOL).

Spanish Course

Hello World,

Guess what?

Today Yermi and I talk about taking Indonesian and Spanish course, YAY!!!!

I am super EXCITED for this course. I actually have tried to learn Spanish from Internet since I was in Indonesia but it did not work because to learn a language, we need to practice and when I learnt on internet, I did not practice at all.

Never Put off till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today

YAY!!!

Finally now I can sit down peacefully because I am done with my English as a Second Language assignment. I had tried to do that homework since two days ago and I just finished it today. I really feel that I can breath at least now because it is just an outline for the comparison and contrast essay. Will be working on the essay next couple of days, but it is okay thou at least I can sleep earlier tonight while some of my friends are working on the assignment now LOL :D

Thanks God, I did not pend to do the assignment like most of my friends do. Last few days, some of them really had fun to do some activities, but I did not have that chance because the assignment was always on my mind whenever I wanted to do fun things :D

I am also so thankful to Juan and Yermi who mostly spent their time with me to do the assignment. Guess what we did when we were working on our assignment? we made lot of jokes at 2AM  and we laughed until tummy got hurt althoug our eyes became red because of sleepless LOL
Thank you Juan and Yermi, you both are amazing friends :)

look at Juan, he seems stressed to read all the information for the assignment LOL

So, today I learnt that I should have never put off things till tomorrow what I can do today. Never wait until the last minutes, it is gonna be late :)


Glad now I have time to see Matthew before sleeping LOL

Hope my assignment will get a good grade tomorrow, fingers crossed x

See ya later, cause Matthew is waiting for me :D

Da . . . Da . .  .

Love,
Nur

Judging People

Hello World!!

I haven’t written anything since last ten days because of lot of work to do from assignment, volunteer, cooking, talking to my bestie etc.

This week I have learnt about judging people. Well, me and my friends in our group who are from Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Pakistan and Turkey had a meeting today with our best project coordinator, Allison. We had discussion about Judging people, and stereotype.

I Hate my Day!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaa

I hate my day!!!! I am supposed to be at the meeting of Hospitality Club in campus and for the sake of my stupid slippers I missed the bus.I had to run to get another slippers because it was impossible for me to walk without it. When I got back from my apartment to get the slippers, the bus just left about 5 mins before I reached the bus stop. So, I had to wait for another bus which was supposed to arrive at 2.44, and I waited for one hour and ten minutes but it had never came. After waiting for that long, I decided to go back to my apartment because it was already 3.30 when the bus came. I did not go to attend the meeting since it would be too late to attend the meeting. But I will attend it next month. 

God . . .today is a worst day for me because since last night I have had bad times. Last night, this morning and this afternoon I have cried more than four times. I cried because I miss Welly . .  my bestfriend. . . misss you miss you . .  I wish you were here with me so we could spend time togetherr like before . .  wish we could cook our fave food, play guitar like we used to do and sing unfinished songs  . . . I miss all the time we have been through . . . last night I could not sleep well because I was thinking of you, this morning I cried on the bus because I read your post on my wall on Facebook, and in the class I cried again (but thanks God, no body noticed that. In the bed at 12.10 I cried a looootttt . . .you would never know how bad I cried today . .  and even now I am crying when I am writing this post . .  I do MISSS you so much my bestie  . . . 

I wanted to call you but it is too early in Indonesia, it is 3 AM. . . although I know that you would not mind if I call you, still I do not want to do that . .  I will wait til you are awake . . . 

I love you so much . . . 

I feel so lonely here Ly . . . 

I MISSSSSS YOUUUUUUUUU   :'( 

I promise once I get back, I will visit you . .  because it has been long time since we met . . and may be I will move to Gorontalo instead of staying in Ampana . .  

LOVE YOU Welly . . .  I do . . .  

I am so sorry for all my Mistakes  . . .

Volunteer with Welcome to America Project

hu hu  hu

guys,

This morning, I went to do volunteer for refugees. The volunteer is actually arranged byWelcome to America Project. It is a non-profit organization to help refugees to settle in their new home, in the US. here is the story how the WTAP organization started.

Volunteer at Paz de Cristo

Hola me amigos, 

How are you? 

Well here I am perfectly fine, just exhausted because had a loooong day hehe . . . 

But I love my day. Everyday I always have a great experience in here. Today I went to the Paz de Cristo. I had a volunteer there. It is actually a volunteer with my friends (as the group). One of the requirements of the scholarship that I have now is to volunteer maximum 100 hours. I actually have done about 20 hours. 

What Did I Learn Today???

hmmmm lemme think what I have learnt today . .  . 

Hello World!

Akhirnya blog ini jadi juga setelah menghabiskan beberapa menit didepan laptop (haha).

Before writing anything in here, Lemme introduce myself first.