I can't believe that its my 3rd week in France

I started my french class already. I have a great experience here as i've never gone abroad before. I have so many friends from all over the world. There's students from America, China and Korea. It's a bit "wow" to know that i' m the youngest in class. Almost all students are over 20 and even married (pfff!). Anyway, i'm so thankful that finally my professor accept me for studying in B2 preparation class (now i'm in B1 class). He didn't agree for the first time. He said i have a great score for my level, but not for jumping to next level. After i told him that i'm pursuing my target to be accepted in university of Paris this year for studying economic, and after he read my essay about politic and economic issues in my country, he said "you can start your class in B2 on next monday, j'espere que ca sera un plaisir pour toi", bien sure! Merci, Professeur!
My senior, Dutti, invite me to spend the night in her house with all my friends but thanks to my dad who called me to remind me for studying for my next B2 class, because it will be very difficult. So, after thinking again and again i take an instant decision that i will studying this night. He's right. I have to studying for the sake of Paris! There will be so many students who wants to study in Paris, precisely in the university that i want to study in. There must be a very thight competiotion, ladies and gentlemen.
There's another lesson that i've got as i'm here. Living economically. It, honestly, is really hard for me. I can't believe that i spent 880 Euro for my first 15 days in France. Gosh! I really have to organise my self more.
To get refreshed, tomorrow i'll get my self lost. I will take the bus from Hérouville Saint Clair and la la la until the terminal. I dont know where i'll be but i believe it would be fun!!! And i will write every detail of my journey.
Next project:
- Take the bus and getting lost in Caen. (Awesome!)

Its Snowy Today!

Actually my waker's ringing at 8 o'clock, and also my cellphones. But i'm too lazy to wake up. Its cold today, -1 celcius. So, i'm back to sleep again 'til 11 o'clock. I wake up again and i decide to roll up my draperies and open up the window lazely. How surprised i am that its snowy outside. Franchement, its my first time seeing snow lol. Too bad i'm not watching it down. Anyway, i love the view from my window, its calming. Suddenly this question's just pop up in  my mind "where does these snows come from?". I've been googling and some site said that The water vapor in the air begins to crystallines into its solid form which is ice and this makes what we call snow. Hmmm, makes sense.
Then, i wake up and take a bath. Some of my friends are not taking a bath everyday on winter but i dont know whether there's some physchological abnormalities in me but i cant going out without taking a bath. I always get a great inspirations when i took a bath by the way. After, i'm going out to centre ville (downtown) de Caen (i live in a small city called Caen in France) with my new friend from Korea, Min Jeong, to buy a bag. I didnt bring any bag from my home except my luggage, my big backpack and my small bag which can only be filled in by my passport, my cellphones and my wallet. What will i use for going to school??! Then i found a cool Roxy backpack, i bought it. After, we have a dinner in vietnamesse restaurant. This woman, she takes care of everything, welcoming the customers, cook, was the dishes, everything. She's from Vietnam and living in Caen for 9 years. Eventhough its vietnamesse restaurant, she makes a chinesse noodle. Its really spicy. I eat Dandan au beuf today (Dandan with beef).
After seeing another cool backpack with cheaper price in another shopes, i decide to change it. Thats what i like from shops in France. You can change what you bought within 7 days. And i change it with a fancy handbag multifunction, hehehe. Its cool ,though. Its cheaper. So i save 7 Euro in that shop.
Then i'm going to Carrefour to buy some foods for Sunday. Nah, thats what i dont really like from France. All shops are closed on Sunday. Pfff! So i have to cook by my self. Anyway, talking about cook, i try my dad's recipes yesterday but the result's not what i was expecting. 180 degrees different. Just because i was missing 1 cooking item which only available in Indonesia, not in France.
Well, still learning how to survive in France. All cooler things still await :)

THE BIG STEP OF MY LIFE ( from Jakarta to Paris)

I feel so grateful having a democratic dad. He allowed me to go overseas for studying and always support me for every activity that i wanna involve in as long as its in the right way. I really feel lucky remember how hard it is for  my friends who's strictly forbidden going out from their country. Well, there's plus and minus anyhow. I'll never forget January 16th 2010. It was my big day. I've never been out from my country before, even for a holiday (sad!). And that day, i feel like i' m gonna be free and moving forward. Eventhough i've been living without my parents since i' m 9th years old, but its different. Its about living completely alone and extremely independent (and extremely far!). Well, not extremely independent, i'm exagerate, my dad still gives me money for living anyway, but its just awesome.

As i arrive, i just think that i have to be stronger and thougher than before. Indonesia, where's religion is taking a big part of the country and the gouvernement, is a completely different country with France, where's everything is set to be free, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Many people are Atheist in France, although they do celebrate chirstmas every year. They dont believe in God and they consider religion as an old-fashioned thing. Well, these differences makes me think over and over again about my self and my own life. Since i was born, i do what i have to do because someone's told me that i have to do so. And now, i have to find out by my self all that i gotta do. Why, why and why?!

By the way, there's something that makes me a little bit confuse. There's this guy, he's a moeslem and really strict about what he eat. Pork, no pork, vin, champagne, cognac, etc. Which is haram and which is halal. BUT, he's having sex, which is extremely forbidden in Islam, he's drunk, which is completely forbidden in Islam, and he hit the club so often, which is bad in Islam. I don't understand. Well, thats his life anyway. But its just, bizzare.

There's just so many things that i have to adapt and i'm trying to integrate with my new environment. But one thing that i'm impressed by the frenchs, they do appreciate the people who dont drink, or smoke, and stick to their principe and religion. 10 from 10 for them.
Anyway, i have a great room here in my dormitory university. With a nice neighborhood. And got some nice friends from Romania, Korea, Malaysia, America, etc. This is a really priceless experience of my life.

Lets Save The Cutest Creature From Extinction

Someone invite me to join the cause of saving whales and dolphins through Facebook and i saw this video (i was crying when i watched this video). I just cant understand how come they can do such a brutal and unacceptable things. They almost kill this species from existance. I have no idea what kind of person that willing to kill such a creature. In additon, its only for the advantage and the importance of particular company, its really selfish. Super duper selfish. Its really a heart-breaking video. After googling about the dolphins and whales, i was shocked by the amount of dolphin which are being killed until now days. And you have to know that:

"About 3,000 dolphins are still being killed each year by tuna fishing fleets in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico and Central America, a government report says. The report estimates about 6 million dolphins were killed in this fashion in the eastern tropical Pacific since the 1950s, and that while the annual death toll has dropped significantly in recent years, the dolphin's recovery remains in doubt." (www.eurocbc.org)

"23,000 Dolphins are slaughtered each year in a hidden cove in Taiji, Japan. The Japanese government covers it up. No one could get in. Until now. The Cove exposes an atrocity of unimaginable brutality. The dolphin slaughter depicted here is committed yearly and without knowledge of the general Japanese public, even though they could be buying highly-toxic mercury-laden dolphin meat disguised as fish from their local supermarkets." (planetsave.com)

"Prepared by scientists in the Bush Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the report reveals that thousands of dolphins, especially baby dolphins, are still dying in tuna nets in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), largely in tuna fleets owned by tuna millionaires in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and other nations. Earth Island believes the Bush Administration is hiding this damning report because it undermines its attempt to falsely label dolphin-deadly tuna as “Dolphin Safe.” (www.worldwidewhale.com)

"Thousands of dolphins and small whales throughout the world continue to be hunted for food, oil, fertilizer and other products. In Chile, some of the world's most endangered dolphins, the black dolphins, are hunted to provide bait for crab pots for the king crab industry. Catches of several thousand have been reported in recent years. Turkey has greatly reduced dolphin populations in the Black Sea to produce oil and chicken feed. In the Faroe Islands and parts of Asia, a type of fishing known as "drive fishing" has been practiced for centuries by fishermen who view the fish-eating marine mammals as competition for their catch. The fishermen use boats and large nets to "drive" schools of dolphins into shallow bays and harbors where they are killed, OFTEN BRUTALLY. The meat is often sold for human or animal consumption, or made into fertilizer. Japan is believed to be the largest consumer of dolphin.

In addition, several countries continue to allowing hunting of dolphins for aboriginal or subsistence purposes. Subsistence hunting takes place in the Solomon Islands of the Pacific, in Greenland and in Arctic parts of Canada and the United States. The dolphins killed are to be used for food, oil or other traditional uses and cannot legally be sold. Unfortunately, this has proven difficult to regulate and many subsistence hunters have bowed to commercial incentives. Some of the species involved in subsistence hunting are among those most endangered such as the narwhal, beluga whale and harbor porpoise.

Ancient Hawaiians occasionally harvested dolphins by herding them to the beach. They were apparently used as a food source as they were one of the foods listed forbidden to women under the kapu system." (earthtrust.org)

See?? Its really enervant and unacceptable. Well, we should prevent this as soon as possible before the whales and dolphins loses their existance. By education for example. As i read on the same site:

"Each year thousands of people around the world are introduced to dolphins and the problems they currently face through their visits to aquariums, zoos and marine parks. Education can be a very powerful tool as learning about a particular animal is often the first step towards becoming active in its conservation. As noted dolphin researcher Ken Norris states, "Our knowledge of these dolphins is their protection. You cannot kill what you come to love."

Public education is proving effective in some places where dolphins had traditionally been considered to be undesirable predators or competition to fishermen. Changes in public sentiment towards dolphins and other marine mammals have occurred as a result of people learning more about them. Once public sentiment changes, political sentiment is often soon to follow, bringing about the establishment new laws and regulations needed to protect species." (earthtrust.org)

So, its definitely so true that you cannot kill what you come to love. And dolphins and whales are such a cute, beautiful and lovely creatures that too precious to be killed for a selfish affaires. So, i say "i'm in" for whales and dolphins protection =)

Pictures Resources:

paxarcana.wordpress.com

piecesofohn.com

www.hip2b2.com

thundafunda.com

Video Resources:

youtube.com

OOH, I Can't Imagine How I Can Survive in This City

I live in Jakarta now, the capital city of Indonesia. Everyday from 8 am - 3 pm (sometimes 'till 5 pm), i'm studying french in a small class with 12 other students from all over indonesia which placed in an office building. I'm in 7th floor and my class is the greatest class from others, hehehe... Yeah, when i look out of window, i can see the panorama of a busy city and look in an awefull traffic jam everyday. Others?? They cant see nothing and their windows is dark anyway. I like to memorise everything in a picture. So i always capture everything that interessed me. I capture this picture on 4 pm, when i just finish class. Its in Sudirman Road where so many company and offices are here. Its the time where everybody finish their activity and this is such a crazy road. And I have no idea what the polices are doing there!! Well, you can see in this picture its really a messed up.

The polices have to make one way to be empty because of The President will passed. But they dont give attention to the others way which is really really messed up because of what they did. They suppose to conditionalised the whole way. Other times, its more messed up. I'm feeling regret that i cant captured it. The whole vehicle are mixing in a centre of a crossroads. Bajaj, cars, motorcycles and the people who cross (eventhough there's a bridge for people who wanna cross, they dont use it.). The cars are really stuck. En plus, there must be a lot of gas emission and pollution that effect our body. Oh my god, its only a merci that makes me can survive in this city.

Grenades and Roses in Kashmir

One night i have a nice conversation on Yahoo with my best friend from Kashmir. He told me about the condition in kashmir nowdays and he gave me a link to the website where he wrote his story. He's a very smart journalist. And i realize how easy we live these days, we live borderless. Its really different with years ago (of course). Communication and Technology were growing so fast and it cause a digital divide. Here, in this story, we can see the difference between now and the past, particularly about love, in Kashmir. From this story i also can understand how complicated is life in Kashmir. A crush between those who are moderate and militan. Well, I hope you guys enjoy the story and thanks for Sulthan to share it with me =)

"Muzamil Ahmad was never consulted; he was just informed whom he was getting engaged to. And there was a minor point he was unable to bring up: he was in love with a girl from the neighbourhood.

It was the year 1988. Muzamil was 19.

"Such was the fear of the parents and neighbours that I never met my girlfriend during daytime. It was only during night that I would meet her," he said.

A year later, it became even worse. Kashmir collapsed in the rage of the separatist insurgency.

"Nobody dared leave home after sunset," he said. "Sometimes (she) and I couldn't meet for months together."

They could not get married. Now 42, the father of two children, Ahmad said he did not protest even once when his parents his marriage to a female relative, without once asking him. "I could not bring myself to tell them about (his girlfriend)," he confessed.

Two decades on, love is witnessing better days in Kashmir.

The arrival of cable television in the Valley in the late 1990s brought wider social changes as well. Young people took their cue from the protagonists in the soaps they saw. Suddenly most urban youngsters knew all about Valentine's Day, which their parents' generation knew little about.

The mobile phone, which reached the Kashmir valley only in 2003 due to long-held concerns over security, further helped them get around social restrictions.

"Cell phones have helped lovebirds a lot," said 30-year-old Mohammed Ather, who runs a school in Srinagar.

"When we were young, we had only landlines and our parents could watch and even eavesdrop when we used them," he said. "But the cell phone allows today's youngsters to talk to their lovers all the time without parents getting to know."

That was because it was not the militants whom Mohammed Ather feared each time he arranged to meet his girlfriend at Srinagar's epicentre of Lal Chowk in the late 1990s. It was the family and neighbours.

As the years of militancy wore on, the fundamentalist streak in some militant groups revealed itself. Certain groups tried to force women to wear burqas outside their homes. They threw acid on the faces of some who defied their diktat. Beauty parlours were attacked.

But Kashmiris drew the line at such coercion.

"Even the top hard line separatist leaders publicly disapproved of such actions," said Mohammed Sultan, 50, a retired businessman. "Most of our women continued to go out without burqas ignoring the threats."

Since 2006, there was a new threat to lovers. An army of burqa-clad women called Dukhtaran-e-Milllat, headed by the mercurial Asiya Andrabi, began barging into gift shops along with her activists, tearing up and burning Valentine's Day cards, calling them un-Islamic.

But she only succeeded in popularizing Valentine's Day. "I had girlfriends all right, but February 14 was just another day for me until the Dukhtaran-e-Millat campaign began," said Ishfaq Ahmed, a Kashmir University student.

"We Kashmiris were conservative, but never orthodox," said local resident Masood Ahmad. "Our society is now changing, but it will not change too much. We Kashmiris have always believed in moderation." (Ibn Sulthan)

Started My First Experience in Blogging =)

Fiuh, finally i make a blog! Well, why i wanna make a blog? Everyday, i saw so many precious things that amaze me, many things that made me angry, problems that annoyes me and i write all these things in my diary. And then i just think, it could be better if all people know about this, they will be fascinated as i am, they will be angry as i am, and maybe they have a better solution than i do. And its delightful to share what did my eyes see. There's enough happiness, pain and madness in my eyes for me to share =). I know there's so many people who's blogging already but i've never thought to split my experience in a blog, really. Besides, i love writting. So, i believe that my writting skill will be ameliorated. And i'd like to change my mind with other bloggers so that i will be more open-minded, and more understand that all people dont think the same. Of course you dont have to make a blog to understand that all people dont think the same, but its more specific. So i'm so appreciating you guys who leave your comment on my post because i wonder to know what you think. So, lets conquer the world...