End of 2013. What a Wonderful Year!!! (Part 2)

It does not end yet guys! There is still one more post to end my past year, 2013. It was so wonderful year for me. So that is why I break down my post into two parts. Let's enjoy my post and I hope you like it. :)

December 2013

December 14^th, 2013. It was right before the culminating activity week a.k.a final test week at my school, there was event that was held by my school’s student council. This event was called by the snowball dance. I was so excited to come to this dance because I wanted really know how the American high school dance looked like. In this dance too, all Topeka West student (The school where I go now) would know who the snowball king and queen were. The voting for the snowball king and queen had already done in the previous week. I came with my friend to this dance. We were having fun there. Dancing, chatting, laughing, and singing. It was so wonderful night. And for the result, for this year we had two queens and a king. It happened because the voting for this two queens was tide. It was so interesting.

December 25^th, 2013. Santa was coming to our house. There were so many gifts around the Christmas tree. We started to share our gifts around 9 o’clock in the morning. It was my first Christmas day ever. I was so happy to be there. I got many gifts too in that day. Mostly I got winter clothes such as jacket, gloves, hat, and long sleeve warm t-shirt. I got some chocolate bars too. I had a picture of all my gifts. It was my first time to get any Christmas gifts in my life. Then, we took picture together as the family picture.

“….let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….” That was that happening in my city on December until the first week on January. I was so excited to go out and played with the snow. I also did something crazy. When the temperature was so low and all places around my house were covered by the snow, I tried to go outside just wearing shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flop. What a crazy I was to do that. This condition made my host parents gave me an idea for my next topic in my blog. They said to me that the best topic was “what does cold mean to me?” It was a fit topic for me because my host parents thought that I had already adapted with this temperature.

I think, that is all from my experiences and activities that I have done in 2013. I hope in 2014, we always get more happiness, so we can get more experiences to live in this world. Regards, Andre. :)

End of 2013. What a Wonderful Year!!! (Part 1)

YES!!! It was a wonderful year. :) There were so many things that I have done in that year. It started from in the middle of 2013 (On August), I received the announcement that finally I could go to the U.S. and also I got a host family, Lawson's family. Thanks Beth, Keith, Andy that have already be my super wonderful and great host family since I arrived in Topeka, Kansas. Thanks to Jaime that have already be my cool brother from another mother, another father, and another country. :) Last but not least thanks to Max and Ruby to be my funny and cute host pet that I have ever had. Thanks to my family back home (Aji, ibu, and Agung), all peoples in chapter Surabaya, my friends in Indonesia or in Topeka, Kansas, and my L.C. (Anita). I love you all and thanks to be a great part of my family and my life.  

To close close my 2013, I will post some stories that I have done until the end of 2013. Let's enjoy that guys and I hope you like it. :)

November, 2013 

November 19th, 2013. It was a nice day to go out. In that day, Discovery club went to winter wonderland in the Lake Shawnee. We went there to check some light in the winter wonderland. Winter wonderland was a place where the festival of Christmas light was held. It was so nice could help to check the light because this festival was held by a independent organization which only few people that set all that lights. We were having fun too in the small playground near that place. It was so fun. In the next week of that day, we went there again to have a tour to go around see all the light in the night. It was so beautiful night. Before that we went to Chucke Cheese. That place is a good place to have fun. We were so happy to play some games in that place. Here the link of the video during our visit in Chucke Cheese : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWs-3fEbQWA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUtX5ENW-4ytmN27ycIPq7eg. Thanks Cadence for the video. :)

November 22nd, 2013. International Education Week!!! As a exchange student in my school, I got a chance to present my presentation about Indonesia. It was a cool day for me. I was so proud to share about my culture and also information about my country. Mostly all the audience were enjoying my presentation and so excited to hear until I finished all my presentation. Thanks for all of you guys! :)

November 28th, 2013. Thanksgiving day!!! It was my first time to have it in my life. Before I arrived in the U.S., my perspective about Thanksgiving is where we can eat a big roasted Turkey. That was true. We ate that big turkey. Also there were another food which are delicious. I liked that day so much. A good day to eat many foods. We celebrated that day in Pam's house. She is my host mother's sister. In this day, I met another member of my big host family. It was so nice could meet and talk with them. What a nice day was. :)

November 30th, 2013. Even though the Christmas day still in the next month but, I felt that it was getting closer. There were so many Christmas events that have already held to celebrate that day. One of the earliest was the Christmas parade in capitol. It was one of the biggest event that was held in my city, Topeka. I was not just an audience of that parade, but I was being a part of that parade. Why could I do that? It was because YMCA borrowed my host father's piano (Actually it is not a piano, but it is like piano and I forget what is the real name of it). So, because of that, Keith (my host father) and me could be a part of parade with YMCA. It was so cool. I met another exchange student too. Gaia from Italy and Cecilia from Germany. Nice to meet you and having fun with you during the parade. It was a cool night. :) 

 

October? What did I do?

October 2013. It had been long long time ago. But, I still have a little bit story in that month. Not much, actually. And this post will the shortest post I have ever made. hehehehe. So, let's enjoy a short story from me on October. :)

October 22nd, 2013. It was my long day until I got home. Discovery club which a club that I joined went to Kansas Museum of History. FYI, Discovery club is a club which member of club can visit to another club or activity in my school to have an experience getting involve in another club. Beside that, in this club we can sharing culture between foreign exchange student with local student. And the last one, we can go outside campus to visit an interesting and educational place around my city, Topeka. It is a cool club dude!!! :)

Unfortunately, only 4 students including me that could go. But, it was still fun. It is a big museum though. I have just realized that Kansas had a lot of histories that had effected to the history of United States of America. It started with the Santa Fe Trail which was an international trade route between the United States and Mexico. The trail crossed between Independence (Missouri) and Santa Fe (then in Mexico). This route also crossed Kansas. Wow, that's cool. Beside that there was Oregon-California Trail which a route that connected between East of United States and West of United States. It also crossed Kansas. Both of this route was used in the 18's. The civil war also happened in Kansas in the 18's. Kansas territory quickly became the center of the nation 's attention as people battled over whether it would enter the Union as a free or slave state.

Actually, there were so many things and interesting stories that I found in that museum. But, if tell all what I found there, this post will be longer than what I expect. Hehehe. For more information about this museum, please visit this site : http://www.kshs.org/museum. I hope all of us can enjoy that. :)

In the of our tour, we went to Red Robin that is not far away from museum. It is a restaurant that serve a delicious burger with many kind of variations. They serve a big burger and I thought, it would be enough for me. Also, this restaurant is well-known as the restaurant that serve a delicious french fries in the town. I do agree with that statement. It was delicious and big. hehehehe.

Halloween day!!! It was so much fun in that day. Right before the Halloween day, Discovery club visited the GSA club to craft a pumpkin. It was my first experience to do that. I was so excited to do that. And here some pictures from the process I crafted that pumpkin until it was done.

D-day of Halloween day! I went to school with a clown costume. It was so fun to wear that costume. Some student that I met in the hallway were so scared to see my costume. Many of my friends did not realize me too. But, it was still cool because some of my friend said that I wore a good costume. Thanks guys!!! After school I put my pumpkin that I crafted the day before in front of my house. I did not go outside to do the treat or trick. I stayed at home and watched movie together with my host family. It was so fun to stay at home because I could see many kids came to our house to do the treat or trick. All of them were so cute with the Halloween costume. hehehe. What a day. :)

Late post. Next Step. More Fun. Second Month!!!

Hahahaha. LOL! :) I don't know what I want to do now. This post should be published on November. But, because I had too many activities since my last post, so this post was postpone. Fortunately, I had a long holiday since last week. So, now I can post the newest one. Enjoy this new late post. I hope you are like it!

First Week.

It was my busy week because I did a lot things and I was being crazy to do all of that. It started on Wednesday, September 25th, 2013. My host parents and me went to the marching band competition in the Hummer Sport Stadium. Actually, that wasn't the big one because this competition was held to warming up all the band's participant before the real competition. Only 5 marching bands that joined this competition. But, it was still cool because they tried to do their best.

The next thing that I did was in the night of September 28th, 2013. My host parents and me went to the pop concert in my school. It was a student's show. I thought, almost all the elements, clubs, and activities in my school been a part of this concert. I liked it so much. They made this concert with a lot of jokes and simple scenes. So, I never got bored with this concert which took 2 hours and 30 minutes. Good jobs guys!!! :)

And the big event came. Chiefs a.k.a. Kansas City football team game! In the first time in my life, I went to watch a real and professional football game, lived in the big, very big, HUGE stadium!!! WOW! This year is a good year for Chiefs because from 17 games, they win in the 11 games, lose in the 5 games, and bye in the 1 game. This is based on this week (Week 17 or in the last week on December). This is great because in the past year, Chiefs always lost in the most of their games. Btw, I went to the 4th game that held on September 29th, 2013. It was a great game. Kansas City Chiefs won against New York Giants. I saw a lot things before game until the game was end. Before the game, we should wait in the long line to go to the parking lot because there were a lot people that wanted to watch that game. And FYI, the price for the parking lot was 27 dollars. What an expensive parking lot that was. Next, there was a tailgate culture. So, a lot of fans made a small picnic with their families or relatives. The menu of the tailgate was some food that could be roasted or grilled. Let says like sausage. Then, got picture with the Chiefs cheerleader. #ups. Just realized that Arrowhead Stadium is a big stadium. After games? Got picture together with Andy (my host brother) and Jaime (another exchange student that stay in the same house with me). One more time, I saw how big and beautiful the Arrowhead Stadium are. FYI: Arrowhead Stadium is the loudest stadium in the NFL (National Football League) and it just brake the record as the loudest stadium in the NFL (again) during the 6th or 7th Chiefs game. I forget about that. Hahaha.

Second Week.

Community service week! It was my first time to join the community service in the U.S. I knew this community service from Alaina, my friend in my history class. So, this community service was helping some parents who live in the Hopes Center to take care their children while their went work in the night. That was why this community service held around 6 P.M. Alaina told me that this community service would be fun because we only played with the kids. I did this with another students that be a member of the youth group. This group is one of the First Southern Baptist Church' group. So, before we went to the Hopes Center, we gathered in the peak which the place where the youth group do their activity. After that, together we went to the Hopes Center. It was so fun, especially for me because I should learn how communicate with kid. Many kids said to me that I have a weird accent. Haha. As long they understood what I said, why not? This activity was end at 8 P.M. What a good experience it was.

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013. It was my first time to present my presentation about Indonesia to my friend. I did that after school during the discovery club. Discovery club is one of the club in my school. Even though only 4 students and 1 teacher that could come in that day, but they were very excited to hear my presentation. They were so excited when the quiz section came. They wanted get the prize that I brought from Indonesia. It was a key chain with "Batik" motif. Batik is one of the traditional motif from Indonesia. 

October 5th, 2013. I went to Kansas City with my host parents, Jaime and Niko (Another exchange student that go to the same school with me and Jaime). We went there to meet my host sister, Marissa. We met her in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. That was a super big museum. There were a lot of rooms here. Almost all the world were covered here. One of the interesting thing here. There were some big shuttlecock sculpture here. WOW! It was so cool. Unfortunately, because the time was so limited, so I could not go to all the rooms there. And I could not go to the Southeast Asian room. I was so sad because I could not show to my host parents how historic Indonesia is. 

Third Week.

Cadet day!!! Cadet? What is that? Cadet is a police officer's young cops that practice to be the real police officer. Mostly, people that be a cadet are high school students. I went to one of their practice day. I could go there because my friend, Amy, invited me to come. Amy is one one of Cadet that come from my school (Topeka West High School). I had a lot of new experience there. First, I could pass to the U.S. police officer room. It was like what I saw in the movie. It was so cool. Second, I could see Cadet practice. They practiced about what they will do to the criminals. They also practiced how to come inside to the criminals house. I learned many things here and I understood how a police work in the real situation. I could take many pictures while they were practicing. Thanks, Amy and all the Cadet for let me came to your practice.

October 12th, 2013. It was so much fun day. Jaime and me together with another YMCA's kids went to the Haunted House in the Kansas City. We met another exchange student too. They were Cecilia from Germany and Julie from Denmark. There were 3 main Haunted House's building that we should pass. It was not too scary and I thought it was fun because there were a lot of variation of ghosts, effects, settings, and make ups that made this haunted house become real. We spent our night until 1 o'clock in the morning to finish all the building. Unfortunately, I could not bring my camera there, so I don't have any documentation about this.

Forth Week.

Early Halloween party. Saturday, September 19th, 2013. It was a pretty day to go outside. My local coordinator, Anita invited the scholarship exchange student to come to her home town. There would be a Maple Leaf Festival near her house. It was like carnival because, beside there were many people that selling something, there were some games too. It was not too crowded but there were still a lot of people in that festival. And also, she asked us to bring our Halloween costume because in the night of that day, we would have Halloween party. Baldwin City is her hometown. It is about 1 hour drive from my city, Topeka. I came to this event with Jaime. Actually, Jaime should not come because this activity was for scholarship exchange student only. But, because in that group mostly girls and only me that boy, so Jaime came for accompany me. In this group there are 7 scholarship exchange students. I will explain to you who are in this group. There are Indah from Indonesia, Anna from Russia, Niki from Serbia, Nouren from Egypt, Lovetee from Liberia, and the girl that come from Lebanon. Unfortunately, the girl from Lebanon could not come because she had another activity in that day. Talk about Halloween party, it was so much fun there. We were dancing together. Laughing, and talking with another student that came to that party. One interesting thing there. Some students were very scared when they looked at my costume (I wore scary clown costume). We were being crazy too, because we took many random pictures there. In the end of the party, we rode a farmer’s truck to go around the haunted farm. But, it was not scary at all. Hahaha. After that, we went back to Anita’s house and spent a night together there.