Eliminating the Limits   change yourself: change the world

Reading time: < 1 minute

Hi – just a quick post, some people have been wondering on how to apply to study abroad. I am not the right person to ask because I am studying in Jakarta myself, but I found a very interesting (and useful) website that might be able to help you to conduct your research if you plan to study abroad. Please go to HotCourses, www.hotcourses.co.id, and help yourself! For more information, you can contact my friend Nooraini Indrana (nooraini.indrana@hotcourses.com), she works at HotCourses in London. Good luck for your studies!

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

*) Ayo ke Bali!

Liburan!

Suddenly want to go to Bali again. Ada tawaran buat jalan-jalan ke Green Canyon besok, tapi belum tau juga, karena lagi nabung buat beli a Macbook :) I am so lost without it and I just can’t be attached to the computer 24/7. I need to have a portable one.

Jadi, liburan tahun lalu gue ke Bali bareng temen-temen. Sama sekolah sih sebenernya, sebelumnya mampir di Bandung sama Jogja dulu. Pas di Bali, tiap malem deh diabisin buat hura-hura di Kuta. Yaaaah, namanya juga anak SMA :p Setelah temen-temen gue balik, gue stay sama beberapa teman. Kita nginep di Wantilan, resort punya tantenya Nadia. Enak banget tempatnya, bikin nggak mau pulang :) Tapi lama-lama gue sama Nadia kebosenan juga gara-gara nggak bawa laptop buat internetan, dulu belum jaman handphone ber-WiFi, tiap hari isinya cuma berenang. Back to my roots!

Bali emang sempurna banget deh buat liburan! Costnya emang lebih mahal dari Jakarta sih, but I don’t really care, it’s all worth it. It was my first time in Bali, tapi seruuu banget! Gue mau ngomongin makanan aaah…

Malem pertama di Kuta, kita makan di Kuta Food Festival (atau apalah namanya, sederetan Hard Rock dan Circle K Kuta Beach). Ada counter seafood gitu. Puas banget makannya! Berlima makan puas-puasin “cuma” abis 200 ribu! Jadi satu orang sekitar 40 ribu, itu udah termasuk segala macem seafood, dari ikan, cumi, kepiting, udang… Sampe sayurannya sekalian! Minumnya juga pake nambah. Abis makan di sana, anak-anak pada beli rokok di Circle K terus stargazing aja kita di Pantai Kuta dan foto-foto.

Yang bikin gue agak bingung, udah sampe Bali masih aja pada seneng makan McDonald’s, hihihi. Mungkin itu yang paling “jelas” kali yah, soalnya di Bali banyak sajian ‘ber’-darah, babi dan anjing, dan kita yang Muslim nggak mungkin mengkonsumsi itu. As you guessed, McD’s-nya lebih mahal dari McD’s Jakarta. Tapi yah… McD’s is a guilty pleasure for almost all of us right?

Apalagi ya makanan yang gue nikmati di Bali? Kita nggak pergi ke banyak tempat, soalnya di Wantilan disediain makanan yang sedap-sedap banget. Patungan beli bahan, dan dimasakin pasta, mi goreng (plus sayuran… mantap!), sampai opor ayam.

Di malam sebelum hari terakhir kita di Bali, gue misah dari “roommates” gue untuk pergi sama salah satu temen gue yang juga tinggal di Sanur, beberapa ratus meter dari tempat gue tidur. Kita ditemenin tantenya ke Dreamland. Sunset di sana! Oke banget deh! :D Abis liat sunset, kita makan seafood di Pantai Jimbaran. Seru banget, soalnya bisa stargazing, liat pesawat take off karena deket banget sama Ngurah Rai, menghadap ke laut juga, sambil ngiri liat orang-orang pacaran yang ditemenin “pengamen” nyanyi lagu I’m Yours! Aaaaah gilaaa… Mau lagi gue.

Tapi, penemuan yang paling oke, adalah waktu kita main-main ke Pasar Sukowati. Gara-gara ada banyak banget yang nitip oleh-oleh, kita pun bolak-balik Pasar Sukowati. Gue nggak belanja banyak-banyak banget, akhirnya gue jalan-jalan keliling-keliling. Di satu sudut Pasar Sukowati, deket ATM BRI, ada bau-bau sedap gitu. Langsung aja deh gue ikuti… Ternyata ada yang jualan sate!

Pas gue tanya sate apakah itu, rupanya itu adalah sate ikan. Kayak otak-otak gitu rasanya, tapi dijadiin sate, dan itu super enak! Sepiring cuma 7 ribu, bisa pake kecap doang, bisa ditambahin nasi. Di sekitar situ emang banyak yang jualan nasi goreng, dan temen-temen gue beli makanan lain, gue nggak mempan sama makanan lain! Tiap ke Sukowati, gue makan sate ikan itu, Halal loh :)

And you know what, on our last day, kita bela-belain ke Sukowati buat beli 50 tusuk sate ikan untuk dibawa pulang ke Jakarta! Bayangin aja sekotak ikan ditaro di kolong kursi pesawat kecil milik penerbangan AirAsia! Yang di Jakarta juga pada “tersihir” sama keenakan satenya :D

Can’t wait to taste it again!

Apa makanan favorit lo yang cuma ada di tempat liburan? Care to share? :)

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Another round of traveling to London with the Global Changemakers! I am so grateful that I got the chance to have a go again, and terribly sorry if there are some people who think that I am showing off by posting this. No, I’m not. I just want to share the experience to you folks… therefore people will be reminded with what Walt Disney said, If you can dream it – then you can do it. Just Google about something that you really want to do, you’ll find something great, and go for it. Nothing is impossible, trust me.

Learning the hard way!

There were 21 of us, 20 people from the G20 countries + 1 from Thailand as ASEAN’s representative. This event is related to the G20 Leaders Summit, maybe you had watched about it on TV. I met some of the same people from the last event in Guildford including the British Council team (both from UK and Switzerland, plus 2 new members: Paola and Fran), Scott (UK) and Sofia (Canada). I also met new people of course, and all of them were wonderful.

This is what we did in London:

• Working, working, working… We had to decide what we think the world leaders have to do to tackle the global financial crisis. We thought about it from every aspects, including environmental and social. We also worked with UK Youth to exchange knowledge about what is really happening in our countries. I could proudly say that Indonesia is holding up relatively well, the inflation pressure was reduced, and our economic growth still recorded a surplus. Most of the working sessions took place in InnovationArts, a very innovative place to work!
• Roundtable discussion with Katherine Garrett-Cox, Simon Taylor, and Diana Wais at The Economist with Matthew Bishop as the moderator!
• Some of us met the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP at Downing Street No. 11. Too bad I wasn’t one of them. :(
• Met UK Prime Minister, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, and President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of Mexico at Downing Street No. 10. It was a real quick meeting, but I was still speechless.
• Conversation with Cherie Booth, or famously known as Cherie Blair. Yes, she was UK’s ‘first lady’ but she prefers to be called with her maiden name. She’s a leading specialist in human rights law issues.
• Went to The Bank of England. Yes, it’s pretty much the same with other museums in the UK. Real fun, free, and you don’t want to get out of there.
• Reception at the House of Lords, hosted by the Lord Speaker, Rt Hon Baroness Hayman. We met David Miliband to give our version of communique. FYI, the G20 always produces communiques, you can read all of them here.
• Plenary session with Rt Hon John McFall MP, Chair of UK Treasury Committee.
• Went to Zuhal Amadeus Sultan’s recital. She is a Global Changemaker from Iraq and she’s organizing the first orchestra in Iraq, called National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. Check out Zuhal’s page to know more about it. She was really an inspiration.

Copyright © 2009 Chris Tribble/www.ctribble.co.uk.

I couldn’t even believe I was there! The main idea of this event was actually to let us meet our leaders. Unfortunately, only Leticia (Mexico) and Scott (UK) who got the chance to meet their leaders. I don’t want to miss the chance, really. So, I contacted Mr Herry who works in KBRI - I met him on January – and told him that I’d like to meet Mr President. He said that Mr President had a very tight schedule and well, I understood. But he offered another thing, which was having lunch with The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hassan Wirajuda; Indonesian Ambassador for UK, Mr Yuri Thamrin; and also my idol… Mr Dino Patti Djalal! I said yes.

And guess what, I really got the chance to meet Mr President! I shook hands with him. It was thrilling, and exciting, at the same time! I didn’t regret running around the underground stations, walking near the demonstrators, waiting for hours at the hotel corridors… I finally met him. Other people said that it was impossible to meet him in London, but this is an evidence that,

Impossible is something
that’s impossible.

It’s never too late to pursue your dreams. Write what you want on a piece of paper, or in your mind. And, go for it.

PS: Pay attention to my outfit. Yes, I am, Indonesian. And lovin’ it!

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

Most of you have probably heard that I went to the UK. Not to meet Thom Yorke (although I’d be smiling like Joker all the time if I had the chance to bump into him around Trafalgar Square), I attended the Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009 instead. I might say that I was so lucky to get that opportunity. I’d like to thank my mum and dad, my family & friends, The British Council UK and Indonesia–especially Mr Fajar Anugerah who took a good care of me during my stay in London & Manchester, Astrid Wulandari (who let me know about this event), The Gibbons, The Pettits, The Nugrohos (who let me slept over at their place). It was a lifechanging experience.

I was there for two weeks. So how was London? It was real cold. Around 1 to 7 Celcius degrees. It was killing me on the first days, but it got better.

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Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

DAY 1

Faculty of Pharmacy, Padjadjaran Uni
First destination, got here at 11 AM. Not much. We only took some look at the campus’ facilities and got insights about the faculty itself. We prayed here and had our lunch in the bus. The trip to Jogja took quite long. We arrived in Jogja on 11.30 PM and stayed in Brongto Hotel.

DAY 2

Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada Uni

After having breakfast in the hotel by the morning, we departed to UGM and got there on 10 AM. Same with went we went to UNPAD, we took a look at the campus’ facilities and curriculum. We took some photos together too.

Prambanan Temple

I’ve never been to Borobudur and Prambanan, so this is a new experience for me. I was very happy to witness such heritage, with that gigantic size. Indonesia is really, really wonderful. I didn’t get the chance to take in-depth looks to every parts of the temple but I’m still happy I went there. Come visit Prambanan, people! The entrance ticket is very cheap :D

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