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. :)