A Belated Merry Christmas to You All

Truth is, I totally forgot about this on the Christmas Day, and on the 26th I felt too lazy. Well, belated Merry Christmas anyway... or cross that 'belated' out, since it's technically still the season of Christmas.

And it is now so close to the end of the year that I feel I can grasp the year 2011 with my fingers. And I've not made any New Year Resolution at all. Well, I think my resolutions would be as simple as "I resolute to do everything I resoluted last year, but failed to do." Which was all of them. Yes - I was not able to keep even a single resolution! Failsauce. But oh well.

So since I can basically think of nothing more... I wish you all a Happy Christmas for those who celebrate, and Happy Holidays for everyone.

Tangyuan

On the 22nd of December every year, and 21st for every leap year, the Chinese celebrate Dong Zhi (冬至), or Winter Solstice, when the day is shortest and sunshine is weakest. On this day, Chinese around the world gather in families to make and eat tangyuan together. Even though there is no winter in the South-Eastern Asia countries, Chinese families there still make and eat tangyuan every year. Tangyuan are balls of glutinous rice, and they usually come in varied colors. Albeit different in colors, all these Tangyuan are made from the same flour - food coloring is added to make the balls more attractive. Tangyuan are originally eaten in the Lantern Festival (元宵节 yuan xiao jie), which is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, but they are replaced by mooncakes.

A bowl of Tangyuan

Tangyuan are made of glutinous rice flour. They are cooked in boiled ginger and/or sugar water. They are also sometimes served in red bean soup or black sesame soup. Some people prefer to eat tangyuan filled and some don't. The most common fillings for tangyuan are chopped peanuts and sugar, rock sugar, red bean paste and sesame paste. Some people even fill tangyuan with minced pork(!). Although tangyuan is most famous because it is eaten on Dongzhi, people now it all year round. In Indonesia, tangyuan is commonly known as ronde jahe or onde-onde, and in the big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya, tangyuan stalls can be easily found.

Source: Wikipedia and writer's experience

Happy December!

Oh my God, I still can't believe it's December already. I know this sounds very cliche, but I can't help saying "time flies very quickly". Well, it does feel that way - especially that now is December! I always think about how time seems to pass very quickly and that the end of year is very near... while actually, at school, I wait for the seconds which seems to pass very very slowly and I'm only waiting for the recess which is usually only 5 minutes (or less) away. How very ironic.

Anyway, that the end of year is near, I can't help but think that I really didn't achieve much this year. I was grounded much less than last year, that's true (I was (and still am) grounded once or twice this year, but I had lots of anti-computer punishments from February - August of last year, each ranging from one week to one month. Sad.). But anyway, about the achievement (or lack of), all my New Year's Resolution of this year remain unachieved. I think my next year's New Year Resolution will be something about achieving the resolutions I have made.

And lastly, I want to wish you all who might be reading this a Happy December and a Happy New Month!

Basically Everything That Was Left

Yes, so there was never an entry for the graduation day. Why, you're asking? Well, it was simply because I did not have the time to make one. Since several days before the graduation and until my departure for my vacation trip, which is exactly a week from my graduation day, I was working on a major fanfiction project. All my time was focused on that project, and even with that I still failed to get some of the contents on time. But enough of that. I am still going to tell about my graduation. It went quite well. I love the song they use on the graduates' entrance to the room; it was Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No. 1. The whole graduation ceremony was nothing special really; I commented through speeches and coughed (unintentionally) in between the speeches at times right where people would think I was snickering at the speech. But really, I was just having a cough! (self defense) I gave a very very short speech, too, and... oh! there's the most exciting part of the graduation: there was a band performance! Of course, the band consisted of students (including myself) and I had fun playing. Lots of fun, because one of my best friends is in it, too. Well, that was basically it. Oh, there's one more thing: I didn't get the first rank; only the second, but I am content with it. I did not put any effort to get any kind of rank, anyway, so the second rank's gotta be appreciated.

Well, that's basically all of the graduation that I can think of. Now, moving on to the holiday trip! It was quite an amazing vacation, save for the train we took on the departure. It was full of ants and roaches and overall not so nice looking. But the toilet is clean, so I have no real complaints. The cuisine is just perfect there and there's the fact that you get almost anything you want in my mother's hometown and mothers have almost no authority at all; one of the oldest maids is the only one who can get us to bathe and eat and basically take a break from whatever game or nap we're doing. It might not sound exciting, but it was loads and loads and loads of fun. Well, we stayed there for two weeks, and on the night of our arrival back home, I fell ill. Wasn't that nice? Which is why I didn't type an entry right away - I was practically deserted from the computer. Not that I'd be feeling up to sitting in front of the monitor right then... I was healed right at the time we had to go to Pangandaran - a beautiful beach in West Java. I did not feel 100% well yet so I did not take many photos, but I do have some beautiful ones...

Whoops, wrong photo :P

Well, what do you think? The first four are taken on a boat so I'm sorry if they don't even look straight. But I'm kind of proud of these photos because they absolutely better than the ones my brother took (for real!) But in reality, no photograph can do justice of the gorgeous scenery we saw there. Most of the amazing views can be seen while we're on the bus, and it was absolutely difficult to take photos from the bus, not only because it's moving but also because the angle is kind of difficult to take. It's not like the road was easy - it was rather scary: small, narrow and it goes up and down like a roller coaster. But it's fun. And beautiful.

I guess I have to end now since this is, I'm sure, the longest post here, but I'm not going to before sharing two jokes about two cute two-year-olds I met... One is my cousin and the other is my cousins' (the almost-brother ones) cousin.
I call them by their Chinese names, but in order to keep things easy, I'm using English names with a mix of Japanese suffixes because it's kind of difficult to translate the original ones. Consider the English-Japanese mixture equivalent of Indonesian-Chinese...

(1) Note: In this case, I was wearing a brown t-shirt, but my mother and cousin said it's almost green. But I still find this funny.

Me: Alice, what's the color of this? *pointing to my t-shirt*

Alice (my 2-year-old cousin): (in English) g-eeen~! (she means green)

Me: Is it green or brown?

Alice: Bwown! (read: brown)

Me: *still pointing to my t-shirt* What's the color?

Alice: G-eeeen~!

Me: Green or brown?

Alice: Bwown!

And it continued until my mother told me to stop *nods*

(2) Note: Ivan is my younger cousin - one of the two I consider brothers. Justin is Ivan's paternal cousin, who is not my cousin. Oh, I am also using '-nii' in substitute of big brother...in half-Chinese *nods*

Me: Justin, is Ivan-nii handsome or ugly?

Justin: *happily* Ugly...

Me: What about you?

Justin: *still happily* Equally ugly...

Justin speaks in an unbelievably soft voice, and he's very very cute. Alice is very very cute, too, but she cries a lot. I like her, anyway.

See you next time.

Days Before the Graduation #3

Okay. So graduation is only one week and one day away. But it still doesn't sound so exciting. The band practices have been chaotic. Thank God we only have to perform two songs - not that I mind if we have to play more. My English teacher (a.k.a my class teacher) orders me to memorize my speech and seek her next week and recite the whole thing - good thing, for some odd reasons I can't seem to say the word 'patience' right. Not that I do not know how to say it... It's just, it's difficult to say it. Weird, isn't it? Yes, it is.

I couldn't give myself three days off as I planned. But it doesn't mean I did not enjoy those three days I have planned to be holidays. I spent those three days being a mosquito - hanging around my newly dating friends. Well, of course, that isn't the only thing I do at school. I and one of my newly dating friends (the female) chat and listen to songs for about an hour in the morning - she's a close friend of mine - until her boyfriend comes. Then I follow them around or simply listen to their... conversations, feeling like a mosquito but not allowed to go elsewhere.

I received a packet yesterday. Okay, technically it wasn't meant for me, but there were books for me and my brother. A series of twelve music books with composer paintings on the front cover. The paintings are beautiful. Printed by Hal-Leonard company. I haven't tried all the songs, I barely flipped through them all, but I guess I'll never be bored staring at the pictures. Beethoven looks very cool. The others are just okay - there are not many handsome composers after all. I wonder if there is a music book with young Bela Bartok's face on the cover... Now that's the most handsome composer I've ever seen who is already dead.

Days Before the Graduation #2

Graduation practice is getting more and more and more boring, and I am seriously thinking to skip several days of school next week. I mean, we are supposed to have next week off from school, but the members of the band (which I am in) and other performances have to attend school just for practice. I don't think several skips from practice would hurt, I mean, other band members have skipped several times, too. And it's not like I can't play my part well or coordinate with the rest of the band... I think I am doing it pretty well, and since I need holidays, I will give myself three days off next week. Ahaha...

We nearly do not get better at all in all practices for the graduation. The students who are supposed to give speeches haven't practiced their speeches at all, and that includes me. The students still do not know how to line up properly. Hell, graduating kindergarten students can line up better than that! And I know because I have had the kindergarten graduation ceremony with all its practices! They are much more organised than we are!

Anyway, I have been terribly lazy lately. I thought I'd drown myself in fanfiction writing (and all kinds of writing) once the exams end, but I just can't seem to type anything, both out of laziness and out of the writer's block I am having now. The only thing that got out of my head in this two weeks is a not-so-long-and-not-so-short one-shot, and not more than that. I have been pretty lazy to watch anime, too, and all I have been doing is reading, both manga and fanfiction. I don't read a lot of manga, too. I have not been in the mood to continue to read Detective Conan for five days. That's weird, isn't it? How can someone actually gets tired from what she likes to do? But well, that's me... I'll probably come back to my old self in a few days, if not weeks.

That's all for now. Cheerio!

Days Before the Graduation #1

Current Song: Etude in C-sharp Minor Op 2 no 1

Hello. It has been a while since I last wrote here. How are you?

Well, just about two weeks ago, I am freed from all kinds of exams and projects. The National Exam was finished long ago, and the School Final Exam ended two weeks ago, along with all the practical exams. There are no more projects to disturb my computer time. Hooray!

Current Song: Excerpts from Hungarian Rhapsody no 2 in C-sharp Minor

So among messy 2-day-a-week school schedule and haphazard graduation practices, I am having holidays, a lot of leisure time and fun things to do. Lucky, aren't I?

Current Song: One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII)

These songs change way too quickly... Or am I the one who think too slowly? Or is it both? Well, whatever. I am going to graduate from middle school soon and high school awaits! Not that I am actually that excited about it...

Yesterday Fullmetal Alchemist chapter 107 is finally out on OneManga. It is one heck of an epic chapter, even more exciting than 105 and 106. I was browsing through LiveJournal (just browsing, I don't own any account there) and read that FMA manga is going to end in two months, which means there are only two more chapters left. Well, though it sounds short, FMA chapters are about 3 times as long as the chapters of the manga in WSJ, and if it will not sound so short when you compare the total number of pages instead of chapters. Well, whatever the ending is, I hope it will be a good one!

Bleach shows no sign of ending soon. It is growing more and more exciting with the appearances of long awaited characters. I can't say anything without spoiling too much... I can only say they're still in the Fake Karakura Town. As for Naruto, it is going more and more nonsensical that the only thing that drives me to read it is the feeling of 'it's a pity to stop reading it while I've read it for so long'.

Okay, that's all I can say for now... See you all next time!

National Exam: It's Finally Over!

Yup-up, the national exam is finally over! The last one took place today. I am now FREE, for a moment, that is. I'm free until the school exams come! And it's still quite a long while... Probably some time after the next two weeks. Well, for now I am going to enjoy my freedom very much. I've been having quite a lot of ideas for fanfiction, and I'm working on them now. I'll try to force ideas out for my on-hiatus fanfic, I feel terribly guilty for not doing it for months!

The national exam was pretty easy, I must say. I am very convinced, despite my minimum efforts of studying, that I will get at least an 8 for the average. Though that's definitely not the best I can get, but I'll still be happy to get it because I know I don't deserve anything higher. Heh-heh...

It's been a loooooong, loooong while..

Yeop, it's been a very long while. The last time I wrote something was waaaaay back in January, right? Now it's almost the end of March... Which means, I will have to face National Exams soon... Not that I'm scared or nervous about it. I must say that I'm really excited to face it! Unlike some people who are stressed about it... I am now green with envy towards my seniors in the 12th grade; they are facing their National Exams now!

Other than that... I have been quite good. I have just finished my 2nd semester final exams this morning, the last one being Art and Music. I'm mighty glad that it's ended, but I am still tortured with lots and lots of projects, major ones, and the coming School Final Exams! (I am really not troubled about the NE, am I? Hehe... Call me proud or whatever, but I and several other friends decided that NE is not worth our stress, so instead we should focus our energy to those energy-stealing projects and the school exams!)

Erm... I really am not making sense, aren't I?

Back To School >.>

Yeah, it's the first day of school in the 2nd semester. And even though I really really really really hope this'll be a good year for us all, but it doesn't seem to be a so good a start. Well, you see... There's a project, for a start, then there's still the National Exam and School Final Exam (I got pissed whenever I'm reminded of that, geez), and my (Indonesian) Physics teacher announced that students got really bad marks in the 1st semester exams... I really hope I aren't part of them, but can't be sure enough... T_T

Oh well, positive thinking is a must though XD Let's just hope it'll be a much better year than 2009.