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.

First Month, First Step, First Experience.

WOOOOWWW!!! I have already passed the first month at my host city, Topeka, Kansas. It was a nice, hard, amazing, wonderful, and unforgettable month. Haha. I said so because in this month there were a lot of new things or new experiences that I never had before. Okay, it is gonna be long post because I want to share what I did each week in the my first month.

First Week-First day at school.
August 23^rd, 2013 was my first day at Topeka, Kansas. In that day I had several things to do. First, my host father, Keith and I went to my host school. Topeka West High School is my host school. I went there to decide what subject that I wanted to learn during this year. I chose Function, English 11, Digital Photography 1, Nutrition and Meals 1, History 2, Chemistry, AP Music Theory, and Design. In this school I am Junior. My host school decided that and I could not change that. Second, Keith, Beth (My host mother), Jaime (My roommate and he is an exchange student too), and I went to the Mexican restaurant to have dinner. We have dinner with Beth’s friends too. I forgot what I ate on that time but it was a delicious food. Even though the food’s taste was strange because of the seasoning but I still liked that food. It was my first time to eat Mexican food. Fortunately, I got the picture of it :

Monday, August 26th, 2013 would be my first time to go to Americans school. Actually my host school has already began since 2 weeks before I arrived here. I thought it would be hard for me because I should do a lot of task or test that were given in 2 weeks before. I went to school with Beth and Jaime. Beth is one of Spanish teachers in my school so she would ride for me every day. Jaime go to the same school with me. He is senior even though he have same age with me. First day at school was confusing me. I should move from one building to another building to get my other class. Fortunately, I did not come to the wrong class. It was because Beth had already give me a map and direction to get my class. What I thought before I went to school was wrong. All my teacher said to me that I should not to do all that things and my grade started from this week, not 2 weeks ago. I was glad to hear that because I should not worry about my grade.

Here, the photo of my school map : (Can you imagine how big my school?)

FYI : On Monday, I have all my subjects. On Tuesday and Thursday, I have my even schedule (English 11, Nutrition and Meals 1, Chemistry, and Design). On Wednesday and Friday, I have my odd schedule (Function, Digital Photography 1, History 2, AP Music Theory)

September 1^st, 2013 was my crazy day. Why? We had tubing in that day. Tubing was a water sport. So we laid down in the tube and the tube was pulled by the boat. It was my and Jaime’s first time to do that. It was special because we did in lake. It was so cool. We got blast too. So, we felt down to the lake. We did that twice. The lake that we went was a private lake. It was my host family relative’s lake. The name of that lake is Jivaro. After that, we had a big dinner. We had 2 super big pizzas. That was delicious. 

Here, 2 slices of pizza that I had :

Second Week.
Friday, September 6th, 2013 was a special day for me. It was because we went to balloon festival at Shawnee Lake. There were a lot of people there. It was showed by a lot of cars that parked there. I took many picture there. The sky was still light and there were some balloon that already took off. Fortunately, there were some balloon that still blew up. So, I could see the way to make a balloon could fly. That was a beautiful moments for me. The sky was getting dark. The balloons could not take off anymore because it was too dangerous to fly in the night. But, we still could see the balloon. Why? It was because the show will start when the night came. The balloons that blew up by fire would make it had beautiful color. We called it illumination show. That was so cool.

Here some pictures that I took in that day :

Third Week.

September 13^th, 2013, my school football team (Topeka West football team) had a game against a school from Kansas City. I forgot what the name of that school. It was my first time to see football game lived. It was very cool there. I was freezing because the temperature was low enough and I did not bring any sweater or jacket with me there. But, I still could enjoy the game. In the first time before the game started and after the second quarter end, there was a performance from the Topeka West Charger Band (It was a marching band).  That was a nice performance. I liked that.

Here some moments that I captured in that day :

On Saturday night, September 14, 2013, I went to sports center to play goony or putter golf. It was like mini golf. I went there with Andi (My host brother) and Jaime. That was so cool because it was my first time to play that. It was very hard for me. In most of hole, I need more time to make the ball in to the hole. But, I still enjoy that. Fortunately, I could make hole in one in the last hole. It was the hardest one but only me that did it. Because of that, I got discount ticket for play the mini golf in the next time. I was proud of myself because I could do it. 

Forth Week.

THANKS Keith and Beth!!! Thanks for bought me a bass guitar. I could not predict that. It was a beautiful present for me. I could not say anything more now. That day happened on Monday, September 16th, 2013. It was an unforgettable day in my life.  Since I have bass, I always play that in office room in my host home. I always play jazz standard song like fly me to the moon and the girl from ipanema. My host parents like that.

First edition

August 20th, 2013. My journey started. It was a long journey from Jakarta to Washington D.C. From Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, me and 8 other friends which in the second batch of departure to U.S.A flew to Hong Kong International Airport with Cathay Pacific (CX 776). It took 7 hours fly to get o Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong at 20.30 (Hong Kong's time). We had only short time to enjoy the airport. Fortunately, I could see some good architecture's view of the airport.

At 23.00, our plane took off from Hong Kong to London Heathrow International Airport. We flew with British Airways (BA 028). 12 hours fly was so long fly. That was the time that we took to get to London. I spent my time during my flight to sleep. Hahaha. I did't want to feel the long journey. It was so tired. 5 o'clock in the morning (London's time) finally we arrived at London Heathrow Airport. That was a huge airport and there were a lot of good architecture's view there. In the London, I should pass the U.K. border because I had a problem with my baggage. So, I had 24 hours visa in the U.K. Hahahaha. But, I didn't use it because I should go to the Terminal 1 which was far away from my place. Actually, It had just take 1-2 minutes to get terminal 1 because there was a subway to go there. Hahaha. So sad, I couldn't use my opportunity to visit London.

At 12, we took off to Washington D.C. We flew with United Airlines (UA 919). It took 4 hours fly to get to our destination. After spent time to watch TV on the plane, finally we arrived at Washington D.C. It was at 3 P.M. (Washington's time). Then we stayed at Washington Dulles Hilton Hotel for 2 nights. We had an arrival orientation there. There was something special during the orientation. We went to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. That was cool. There were a lot of different kind of planes. From the old one until the new one. I was so excited there.

And here some photos in the orientation.

August 23rd, 2013. It was my last flight to get to Topeka, Kansas which was the city where I would stay for this year. My flight was UA 3730 with the final destination Kansas City International Airport. It was only took 2 hours fly. I was enjoy my last flight because I flew with a small plane. It was like a private plane. It was my first experience to fly with small plane. Hehehehe. I arrived around 9 A.M. (Kansas City's time). My host father, Keith, picked me up. And the story wasn't end. It was because I should take 1 hour drive from Kansas City to Topeka. Finally, my dream came true. I arrived at my host house. It was a beautiful moment for me. I could not forget it.