Friday, 4th May 2012

Clouds

Today was our last day together on ESP. I had so much fun that I just didn't really want to go home. Today basically all we did was travel. We were allowed to wake up whenever we wanted and we also had a chance to go swimming, but I didn't feel like swimming. I'm not sure whether I really didn't want to swim or I just didn't want get my swimsuit on and wet. I would have to bring it home wet and I wasn't in the mood of that. And by the way, there wash;t much time left to swim anyway, because we were only allowed to swim from 9-10 o'clock. And we were only eating breakfast at 9. On our flight back we had TV entertainment, but I was more interested in taking pictures of the clouds. We got to JIS at around 7:15. Even though we were supposed to get back at 7. My dad came to pick me up. When we got home my dog was going all crazy again, because she was so happy that I was back. I felt so welcome. This was a really fun ESP. It just went by so fast. I wish it would last much longer.

Thursday, 3rd May 2012

Lake Maninjau

Today we packed our things early in the morning again and loaded onto the bus. Firstly we went to see the Japanese Tunnels. They were built by the Japanese during the 2nd world war. After seeing the actually tunnels we went to a museum, where all of the weapons that were found in the tunnels were kept.

Once we were done looking around the small museum, we headed the road again. This time we wanted to go see some big bats. So we did a rice paid walk and saw the big fruits back from a big distance though. We had to use binoculars to get a better view. After our very short walk through the rice paddies, we went to some silver shops. One of them showed us how to make the silver, and the other one sold very pretty things, like for example some traditional houses made out of silver.

After we were all loaded on the bus, we went to see Lake Maninjau. There we also had a picnic lunch. Then we headed further on our way back to Padang. The drive took around 3.5 hours. I was completely exhausted, and when we finally got there, I was so relieved. We went into our rooms and then had to come bak down again to go for dinner. We ate some traditional Padang food. I thought that it was really delicious. Slightly spicy for my taste, but otherwise really good.

Wednesday, 2nd May 2012

Rafflesia

Today we packed up and gathered our bags. Then we prepared to leave after breakfast. We made some echoes in the valley and then left. Today was the day that we would go on our hike to see the Rafflesia Arnoldii. It was an around 2 hour hike through the rain forest. We went through rivers, and some mud, climbed up rocks and personally I had lots of fun. The Rafflesia was very beautiful and I took as many pictures as I could until my camera went out of batteries again, for the millionth time. I found this a very beautiful hike.

When we got back to the bus we went to our new hotel in Bukittinggi. We then got some free time. During this free time we all went swimming and I lost my bracelet in the water. We also made a whirlpool. After our wonderful swim, we went for dinner. Just for some variety we went to Pizza Hut this time. After our dinner we went to see a traditional music and dance performance by the Sakato group. I made a bunch of videos, but the pictures ended up horrible. It was around 11 o'clock when we went to bed, because the performance took so long.

Tuesday, 1st May 2012

Waterfall

After we ate our breakfast we went to do our Community Service Project, which was going and spending some time with children from a school for the disabled. We divided into 4 groups. There was Sports, Mural Painting, Games and Arts and Crafts. I was in the Arts and Crafts group. We were making things out of Origami paper, making 3-D animals, drawing, making things out of play-doh and iClay, and also bracelets. To me this was very fun, because the children were so eager to learn and focused on their task for 2 hours, or more. Those children were really sweet.

After we have spent some time with the children and gave the school some balls, badminton rackets and birdies, pencils, and other things, we left for a waterfall. We ate our lunch there, which this time was chicken and rice. Then some of us went swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. I was one of the people who made their way into the freezing cold water. To me that water was even colder than the water at our lodge. A couple of other people came in too, but no more girls only the boys. The ones that were in the water went under the waterfall which was trickling down at the side of the pool. On our way back we stopped at another waterfall nearby. Some of us walked to it through the forest and the others walked through the street, where there were shops that you could buy things from. I wanted to buy something in the shops, but I couldn't find anything interesting.

Back at the Lodge we got some free time. After our free time we had to meet up again to come up with interview questions, for our Social Studies project. Once all the questions were made and written down, we went to play some games. My personal favorite was the deer and wolf game. One person was the deer and the rest were the wolves. The deer had blindfolds on so that he couldn't see anything. The wolves had to try and sneak up on the deer. Whenever the deer heard someone approaching it had to point in their direction and that person would then be out. The first person to touch the deer was going to be the next deer.

Once our game session was done we went to eat dinner. After dinner we all went back to our lodge for a quick shower. This time I tried to use the other foist and I realized that there was warm water at this lodge after all. The exact same thing happened to Julia. When we wanted to go back to the dining room to meet up for the actual interview, it was raining. Luckily we had three umbrellas. Adriana and Alisha took the first one which seemed to work well. Jae Yun and I wanted to take the second one, but it was broken. So we tried the other one, but that one didn't have the stick to hold it on. So I just held it in a weird way above my head.

Monday, 30th April 2012

It was the week of ESP (Extended Study Program). To sum it all up, in 6th grade we all went to Bogor. Then in 7th grade we got to all go to Bali. And now in 8th grade we split up into 7 different groups. I was in the Environments group to Padang, Sumatra. Including the teachers there were about 30 of on the trip. And believe it or not, only 8 of them were girls (plus 2 teachers, but I didn't count them). I was glad that they were all nice and most of them were actually my friends. And those who weren't became my friends. So any way, my trip was leaving school at 7:45 am. I was glad that I didn't have to wake up early, I could just take the regular school bus.

Then we took a 1.5 hour flight to Padang. Personally I found it OK, since I got to sit at the window and take a bunch of pictures. In Padang we met our guides and then took the bus to a traditional Minangkabau house. We had our picnic lunch there and then we headed for the Harau Valley Echo Lodge, where we would spend the first 2 nights. It was already dark when we got there, so we got showed straight to our rooms. The girls were all in one house, which had 4 separate rooms in it. We divided into pairs of 2. I was with my friend Julia.

The rock wall of the valley

Then we went to dinner where we got fish with rice and vegetables for dinner. After our wonderful meal, we had a campfire. At the campfire we all introduced ourselves to each other. This activity was mainly for the guides and teachers to get to know our names. Most of us students knew each others names already. Our first day was spent with traveling only but that didn't matter, because it meant that we were all very tired and fell straight to bed. Or at least some of us did. I first wanted to take a shower. So in the shower I saw that there were 2 foists. I thought that there was only cold water, so I switched one on. And as I expected cold water came out. In fact it was freezing.

Wednesday, 4th January

We went to eat lunch at a pizzeria at “Stephansplatz”. Then we had to go to “Donau Zentrum” which is a shopping mall. We bought some clothing for next winter and I’m not really sure what else. We spent the most time in an electro shop. My brother only wants to that type of shops. We had to go home at around 4 o’clock because my mom was expecting visitors. They were both friends of my mom. They didn’t come at once, but both of them ended up staying longer than planned. They said they would stay for 5 minutes, but ended up staying 30 minutes. Tomorrow would be the day that we will leave for Jakarta again. I wasn’t really looking forward to that. I love Vienna. It’s the place where I feel home. I knew that would take ages to fall asleep in Jakarta. I feel pretty uncomfortable there.

Tuesday, 3rd January

Today we headed back to Vienna. My dad had to leave to Jakarta today. My mom, brother and I stayed in Vienna. We got there in the afternoon. After I helped my dad load things into the car, I went to buy some things with my mom and brother.

Sunday – Monday, 1st -2nd January

Us and the friends + the Eimie

I slept over at my great aunts house from Sunday to Monday. I used this time to spend some time with my great aunt alone. If my brother is there too, he usually takes over and I’m just left alone. All I can then do to entertain myself is play with the wooden blocks or cars. On the 2^nd we went to some friends. We haven’t met them for about 4 years. They have a daughter who is about my age. We didn’t talk for basically the whole time. I played with the golden Retriever Eimie most of time. We lunch at their house as well. At the end we played Monopoly City. The dog loves to run after snowballs, I realized. When it was time to leave, I made snowballs with my bare hands and threw the snowball to my left and then to my right. The dog was crazy for them.

Saturday, 31st December

Sunset in Vienna

Today is the last day of 2011.We didn’t go anywhere and did barely anything during this day. I was bored so I read and read and read. I finished a book and immediately started a new one. After reading about 5 chapters I was getting so bored of this reading. I am not really capable of reading more than 3 hours. And this was probably even 4 hours. If I was a Koala, I would have wasted my whole day reading. At around 3:30 my great aunt came over. My dad showed some pictures from Australia, summer, winter, and Sulawesi. Once my great aunt has left, my grandmother and I went to the city to check out how they have set things up for New Year. They had a huge living Christmas tree set up. It was blinking and had huge decorations. When we got back home we watched a New Years Eve show on TV. They have these people singing and performing other things. There was a group who sang the “Meet the Flintstones” song. I think that that was the best performance. I liked the dancing that they did, because they threw things in the air and did other silly things. 5 minutes before 12 all channels changed to a ticking clock. It was doing “tick, tick, tick, tick” which was getting pretty annoying after a while. 5 minutes of plain ticking is not really interesting. At exactly 12 it went “ding, dong, ding, dong” for a while. That is when the fireworks started shooting into the air and lighting up the whole sky. My brother missed it because he was sleeping. He tried his best to stay up, but he got so tired that he decided to go to bed in the end. In order to see the fireworks better, we went up onto the balcony and watched. There were fireworks shooting up from every direction. No matter where you looked all you saw was fireworks and fireworks. Some were bright and loud while others were a complete fail. Even the people 3 houses down were shooting fireworks. They landed right inside our neighbor’s yard. We drank and drank. I took a juice while the adults took some alcohol. Welcome year 2012.

Friday, 30th December

There was barely any snow this morning. In fact, I think there might have been none. I promised Benny that I would play with him today. So I did. I threw some food bits in the air and the white Labrador would catch them in mid air and crunch them up greedily. He usually is only in the garden to get some fresh air and do his business, but today I wanted to go for a real walk through the streets with him. My grandmother wanted to come too. I had to tell her everything about how school and stuff was going. I hated that topic but I still told her everything that came to my mind about school.

Benny in Summer w/ favorite toy

Thursday, 29th December

My brother and I unpacking presents

We left the Czech Republic at around 9 in the morning. The ride to Slovakia took us around 3 hours. There was food waiting for us when we arrived. My grandmother always cooks my favorite meal on the first day that we arrive. Then we wanted to go and visit our great aunt. We always visit my great aunt no matter what. My parents, grandmother and great aunt talked and talked as always. My brother and I were both individually playing. I was bored so I just played with wooden blocks. I tried to build a tower, but it always fell. Once back at my grandmother’s house, we went to open the presents that we got from her. I got a calendar, socks, and pajamas. 

Monday - Wednesday, 26th – 28th December

Today we headed towards the Czech Republic to where my grandmother from my dad’s side lives. The ride is about 3 hours long, but since we were driving so fast, it only took us 2 ½ hours. We now got the presents that my grandparents gave us. My brother and I both got a puzzle ball and another puzzle. I also got some shoes. My brother got sick during this time, and that’s how we both got an addiction to the game Pocket Frog. It’s a game on the Itouch, which my brother used to hate, but I always liked it. Now I like it more, and I also got my brother addicted.

Sunday, 25th December

Me on the lift

Today is the day that we would leave. We still had a chance to go skiing up on the mountain for 2 hours before lunch, and we took that chance. My brother had his lessons again, while I was with my parents. It was another beautiful day, without much snowfall.  We went snowboarding on an intermediate slope. We liked it so much that we went up and down about 5 or even 7 times. After we ate lunch we just went down once more and we were home again. My brother and I had to go return our snowboards, boots and helmets in the rental place. After we were packed up, we left for the train station. Before we left completely, we booked the apartment for next year as well. But then we headed towards Vienna with the train again.

Saturday, 24th December

Timo and I at dinner

Presents underneath the wooden Christmas tree

It’s CHRISTMAS!!! I barely noticed that it was already the 24^th. For me the time went by much too fast. It was another snowboarding day for me. Except that this time, there were no instructors. That was perfect for me, but my brother was going crazy about it. He kept on saying that he needed an instructor or else he would get killed, and blablabla. Up to lunchtime both my brother and I were just on the small lifts. My mom and dad took turns supervising us. It was pretty boring for me. I wanted to do something much more exciting. This part of the mountain was meant for beginners and I wasn’t in the mood of staying. At the end my mom and I wanted to go all the way down to the gondola. But only on the next round. First we wanted to go up the anchor lift once more and then down. But I was so excited about going all the way down that I missed the entrance to the anchor lift and I was too far down to walk up there. Then I spotted my dad coming down, so I went down in record speed to catch up with him. But since he was on ski and I was on snowboard, it didn’t work that well. My family is much better at skiing than snowboarding, which means that I stood no chance against my dad. I didn’t catch him, but I still went up with the gondola.. I was worried about my mom, because I thought that she might worry about me. SO I tried to make it as fast as possible. I caught up with her on the beginners track. I was so happy to not have made her too worried. We decided to still go all the way down together. It was a much calmer ride, because I didn’t have to rush that much. After lunch my brother got an instructor and I could snowboard with my parents. It was fun, but very tiring. Once we got home it was time for the real Christmas. First we went to watch children and some adults play Christmas songs. Then we went for the family dinner part of Christmas. We went to the hotel’s restaurant to eat. We always go there. The last part of our Christmas tradition is opening the presents. My mom got an IPad, which she really wished, and a cookbook. My dad got a book about professional fitness, and my brother got his beloved Beats. He was happy for once. He also got a bunch of clothing. I got a book about horses and horseback riding, and a book from my favorite series. Well, one of my favorite. I got the WII game and some more clothing as well. So that’s how our Christmas went. Not much different from all the other ones, but in some way, it still felt very unique.

Friday, 23rd December

I was getting even more excited, when I saw the blue sky this morning. It was beautiful. Snow wasn’t falling from the sky for once. This would be a very nice day. Finally we would be able to take some pictures. On the previous days picture taking was basically impossible. There was snow everywhere. Anyway, remember when I was talking about me and my brother having snowboarding lessons at different times? Well today something like that has happened. We both had different teachers this time. I got the guy from before and my brother got some other random girl that I didn’t know. It was a fine day. My mom took this picture of my brother and I after lunch because she thought that the weather was perfect for a picture of us both as siblings. My brother was getting really impatient, because tomorrow would finally be Christmas, which is a time where we can finally open our presents. I wasn’t all that excited, but my brother couldn’t wait until he would get his beloved Beats. All I wanted was a bunch of books and a WII game. As for snowboarding, I was actually getting the hang of it again. This wasn’t my first time. I have already been snowboarding for a week before this. It was a fun day.

Thursday, 22nd December

My brother and I planned to ski the first 3 days and then snowboard the next 3. So today was our first snowboarding day. My brother and I had the same instructor, but after a while we realized that that wasn’t the best idea. My brother didn’t have as much training as I did. The runs we spent most of the time on were too simple for me. I could already do the curves, while my brother couldn’t. That was fine though. We would now have separate lessons. When I looked around, it was still snowing. It had snowed since I woke up. When I went to bed it was still snowing. But before it was bedtime, my mom and I went to look for some ski pants again. This time we found some. They are black, but at least they went pretty good together with my blue and grey jacket, unlike the orange ones that I wore earlier today. They are much too thin; I was so cold in them today. They get soaking wet really easily, especially when you’re snowboarding, because with the snowboard you are on the ground a lot. On our way back home we saw a car on the street that was trying to stop, but since the road was slippery, it slid down for about 5 meters. A car behind it tried to stop as well and so did the one behind that one. The third car ended up crashing slightly into the second. The second car’s right backlight was broken then. It still lit up, but the plastic was broken. After seeing this, my mom and I spent a while waiting for the cars to pass before we crossed the road. We were scared that the car might not be able to stop in time when it saw us. It would hit the brakes on time, but the slippery road would still keep it moving. Because we were too busy talking about this car thing, we forgot to order milk and bread at the hotel reception for the next day. So he did that while the others were preparing to go to bed.

Wednesday, 21st December

My brother and I at the bus station

They have opened the Skiing place we usually ski in!!! I was so excited. This would be so great. Finally good food again, which was a really good sign for my starving stomach after the 2 hour skiing session. It was snowing in the morning just like every other day up to now. All of the trees were covered in snow. Instead of green leafs they now had a beautiful white coat. They looked so magical. It was like in a child’s story book. We went to spend some time in Mayrhofen after the skiing. I really needed some new ski pants, because mine were too short for me now. Unfortunately none of them would fit. The ones that had the appropriate length were all too wide around the waste, and all the others were either too big or too small. But we did buy a ski jacket for my brother and some shoes for him too. I got some new pants, and my dad go new gloves. My mom didn’t seem to need anything. After buying a couple of things we went back home by bus.

Tuesday, 20th December

We had to ski on the glacier again today. It wasn’t that bad. Better than yesterday at least. Up there it’s about  −18° Celsius. My father and I stayed in the afternoon to ski while my brother and mother went down to the busses. It was so brilliant. There was this one run that we especially loved. We kept on saying that we’ll go completely down during our next run, but it took about 6 tries until we actually managed to get down there. Once back at home, I couldn’t wait until the next day, because they would finally open the place we usually went skiing in. They have much better food there and the restaurant is also much warmer, which is really good after spending some time in the cold freezing snow.

Monday, 19th December

My brother, dad, and I

Today we had to go all the way up to the glacier, because the skiing place we usually went to was still closed due to the lack of snow. The people said that it had already snowed in August! But now the snow had only started a week ago. The glacier was fine I guess. The good thing was that we weren’t beginners in skiing anymore, because the slopes up here are too steep for beginners. It went fine. I just didn’t like the fact that we had to take off our skis to go on the gondola. I don’t really like gondolas. My brother and I went to the playground, which was right next to the restaurant. I know I’m slightly too old for playgrounds, but the slide was just too awesome. With our wet clothing, we were sliding down so fast that at the bottom we actually flew for about another meter away from the slide. We had to go again and again. It was so much fun that we just didn’t want to stop. It was slightly hard to climb up there, because we had ski boots on. It’s not easy to walk in those. And scrambling up ladder is even harder. My parents went to “Spar” without us kids to buy the groceries this time.

Sunday, 18th December

Me Sledding

We left for the Train Station at 6 in the morning. The ride took 5 hours to Jenbach with the OBB. Then we had to take a smaller train which would bring us to Mayrhofen. There we took a taxi to get to Finkenberg. We stayed in “Hotel Neuwirt”. We have stayed there many times before. Even last year we slept in that hotel. The hotel owns an apartment that we stayed in. I like it, because since we wake up at 4 in the morning and go to bed at 6, we won’t have to wait for breakfast and dinner. We wanted to go to “Spar” to buy some groceries, but it was closed. Instead we went onto a sort of hike. My brother and I took our sleds with us to slide down on. Our actual goal was to get to a restaurant up there but it was closed. On our way down, my brother and I slid down on our sleds. The snow was blowing into our face, making it feel completely numb. It felt like paradise to see the snow again. Everything felt so home. I could not understand how I could feel comfortable in the cold, but that’s just the way it was. Once at the bottom, my brother and I had to go borrow some skis so we could go skiing the next day.

Friday, 16th & 17th December

Our Christmas Tree in Jakarta

We headed towards the airport right after Madness. This time we flew with Turkish Airlines again. Once we have arrived in Vienna, I felt home again. It was cold, but y family and I survived. It wasn’t that cold actually. We just didn’t have the proper clothing on. We wanted to go eat lunch with our neighbors, who actually live under us, but that didn’t really work out. Then we wanted to go to “Christkindlmarkt” with another of our friends, which didn’t really work either. So we then just visited our neighbors and chatted about how life in general went. The parents then got into the topic “School”, so my parents showed them the VPA Video. The sound wasn’t that great actually. We never got to meet our other friends, but we still went to the “Christkindlmark”. It was nice there. I haven’t been to one for ages. The last time I went, I was about 6 or so. There were so many people there though, tourists mainly. We all bought a drink, but I was the only one who wanted to keep the mug. My brother especially, just wanted to have the money. If you returned a mug, you got back 2 Euros. I wasn’t really bothered about the money. After we were done at the market, we had to go to “Spar” to buy some cereal, milk, bread and other things to eat in the morning, before we would head for Finkenberg in Tirol to go skiing. It’s the same place as last year, the same hotel even.