Reminiscing KKN

Well, I know that I am not such a good blogger: most of the time, I just feel too lazy to write. However, lately, it's always been really busy for me with school, work and social life, so give me the chance to make it as my excuse this time. LOL
It's been more than a month since my KKN ended (um, if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, you may read the previous posts :P). However, tonight while preparing a little present to send to the kids in the village where I did my KKN, I started to miss them so much. I have never really thought of myself to be someone who dote much on little children. I never really got along with little children, so the fact that I actually got along with these kids during my KKN, I even surprised myself.
To be honest, the members of my KKN unit in Krajan did not get along very well with each other at first. It was hard for all of us. For most of us, we barely knew each other. And yet, we were faced with the hardship of living in some remote village, without anyone to take care of us. It was quite a mess. At that time, I even really doubted myself to be able to make it to five weeks. Things started to heat up, and ended up breaking out in a hot discussion among us, I really wasn't comfortable with how things were that time. And suddenly, these little kids were in front of our house, with their loud yet shy voice, asking us to teach them. For me, they were like angels. They basically saved us from having a big fight.
After that day, they came to our house basically almost everyday to study and play with us. And after that day, the members in my unit started to get along really well. Everything started to fall into places, nicely. At some points, we got tired of teaching and playing with them, including me. However, for me especially, it was a precious experience. Among all of the things that I've done in my life, it was one of the most precious.
It might look to other people as we teaching them. Well, yeaaaahh it was we teaching them. But, somehow, these kids were actually teaching something too to me. They taught me about simplicity, and about being humble. All these times, I have lived with a great family, went to good schools, knew great people, and traveled to beautiful places. However, then, only with these kids that I really thought deeply about my life, and the meaning of life. What is my purpose in this short life of mine?
Days passed, they still came to our house after school almost everyday. I met them at school too sometimes, to teach them. Even though they were really shy at first, every time I passed in front of their school, they started to wave and called out for my name cheerfully. Every time it was my turn to teach in their class, they started to scream out my name happily. I was also really, really happy.
Without much realizing it, five weeks had passed, and it was time for us to say goodbye. It was really sad for me. I said my goodbyes with tears starting to welling up, and while giving my best effort to hold myself from crying in front of the kids, my voice started to tremble. In my head I was totally cursing myself to be so weak and sentimental. And these little kids in front of me, who just had these strange visitors from somewhere --namely us-- five weeks ago, and had just started to get along together, they also started to tear up, even the little boys who were usually just picking on me. How emotional I must have been that day, I couldn't really say it with words. I could only hoped for them to have dreams, to have goals in their lives. I hoped for them to spread their wings, because it hurt me so much that these kids have so much potential and yet they are trapped in this situation where they aren't even aware that there is this big world waiting for them out there. I hoped for them to have meaningful lives, happy ones.
Now, I am back to my usual school life, for my final year. However, while before, I really had no idea what I wanna do with my life later in the future, now, I at least know one thing. I have this dream of having a good job that can earn me a lot of money (well, I still need to live LOL), and at the same time, building a free school for kids, or anything, so I can teach and learn with kids in special situations just like these little kids in my KKN. I know, its a big one, but its a dream worth fighting for, nonetheless, dont you think? :)

The Next Challenging Vacation #KKN Edition

So, after having my Europe trip til the beginning of this year, I'm now having another 'vacation', umm, not too far from my house actually. It is still in the same town as where I live, in Blitar. However, the life I'm having in here... you can say, it's pretty different!
Well, talking about this 'vacation', its not exactly a vacation. I'm having a 5-week-community service program right now, which is one of the prerequisites to graduate in my school. But calling it a vacation is not too wrong either. In fact, I just went to one of the beaches that surround us here.
The beach is called Jebring. This beach is actually not too far from our place, but the thing is it just takes out all of your adventurous side. The road is rough. Describing it with 'rough' is not enough I think though. Besides broken asphalt roads, its basically just pointy rocks being put together as one extremely rough road. And the fact that it is all about going up and down hills just adds up to the whole situation. It just scared the heck out of me, I kept holding on with both of my hands tightly on our entire way there. And prayed to God to keep me alive. :P

However, once we got there, I instantly forget how rough the road was. The beach was really beautiful, even though the big and ferocious waves were kinda scary.

However, this beach seems to be overly exploited for its ironsand. Ironsand itself is 'a type of sand with heavy concentrations of the metal iron' (Wikipedia). The government (or the company??) seems to be doing some beach reclamation efforts now. However, it just seems really sad to me, this is one beautiful beach, but they just ruined it like that. 

It was just such a great feeling for me to be there, it was gorgeous. I just hope that this ironsand mining will be in some appropriate control, so the beach wont be ruined. And then, on my way back home... oops, I forgot: gotta go through the rough road again! -____________-''


Ps: sorry for the bad quality of the pictures. I took them with my ipod, since my camera just got broken. Well, this will do for now! ;)

Two Friends, A Miracle, Five Countries, and More Dreams -- Prague

After being on the bus for more than twelve hours, we arrived at our next destination: Prague. A lot of people asked me, where is Prague. Well, Prague is the capital and the largest city of the Czech Republic, its in the Eastern Europe. It may not be as famous as Paris or Barcelona as a tourism destination, but it has been noted that Prague itself has become one of the most visited cities, in Europe and in the world.

We arrived at Prague at about four o'clock in the morning, one hour earlier than the scheduled time. We were kind of startled when we arrived at the bus station, because we were still sleeping, and it was still really early. Half asleep, half awake, and felt really cold, we walked into the station. Because it was still really early, everything was still closed, including the money changer. We had to wait for about one hour until we could exchange our euros to korunas, Czech's currency. After we got our korunas, the hostel's direction said that we had to get on the metro to head on to the hostel we were to stay at. Unluckily, it didnt say anything about the hostel's address, or where should we go after we get off the metro. Good news in the morning for us! Not.

Being lost in the Prague, with people and the street directions speaking in Czech language, and barely anyone speaking in English, feeling sleepy, cold, hungry, tired, with our heavy luggage is exactly how we were like that morning if you guys want some picturing. After walking and asking around, the thing that finally saved us was my iPod, NOT that I'm advertising it right now. Thanks to the free WiFi in the nearby KFC (not advertising either!!), I finally managed to get the directions to our hostel. And thanks God, we could do early check in even though the check-in time was at 12 noon. Feeling really tired but grateful, we passed out right away after we got our beds. haha..

Prague Castle

After spoiling ourselves a bit for one day just lazying around, we got out to sight see Prague late in the afternoon. Our first destination in mind was the Prague castle. Things just didnt go as smoothly as we thought it would be, cause we almost barged in to the building of the Czech's Ministry of Defense that we originally thought to be the castle we were going to go to. And without knowing that it was the Ministry of Defense building, I even said hi to the surveillance camera!! They could have arrested me for some scary charges!! It was kind of scary and funny in the same time! hahaha..

Finally, we managed to find the Prague castle. It was gorgeous!! After this eurotrip, I googled this Prague Castle and amazed to find out that according to Wikipedia: "Prague Castle is the biggest castle in the world (according to Guinness Book of Records the biggest ancient castle) at about 570 metres in length and an average of about 130 metres wide." Woww... 

Old Town Square
According to the Prague's tourism website: "The Old Town Square is the oldest and most important square of the historical Prague. It is surrounded with historical buildings such as the Old Town City Hall with the famous Astronomical Clock, the imposing St. Nicholas Church and Church of Our Lady before Tyn, and many houses and palaces of various architectural styles and colourful history. It has been a centre of Prague Old Town since the middle ages, when it was a market place at the crossing of European merchants´ roads."

in front of the Astronomical Clock

Strawberry crepes in the middle of Prague's Old Town Square's Christmas market? Awesome!!  :D

Ziskov Tower
The Žižkov Television Tower is a unique transmitter tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992. Designed by architect Václav Aulický and structural engineer Jiří Kozák, it stands high above the city's traditional skyline from its position on top of a hill in the district of Žižkov, from which it takes its name. The tower is an example of high-tech architecture. (Wikipedia)

a nearby church, it was gorgeous!

Zizkov Tower

What really caught my attention was the strange crawling baby figures. Apparently, they were called Miminka Babies, which after doing a little bit of research, were the creation of David Cerny, a local artist. The meaning of those babies? Still a mystery to me!

Wenceslas Square
" ... is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town of Prague, Czech Republic. Many historical events occurred there, and it is a traditional setting for demonstrations, celebrations, and other public gatherings. The square is named afterSaint Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia. It is part of the historic centre of Prague, a World Heritage Site." (Wikipedia)


We were coming at the "right" moment though, because Vaclav Havel, the ex-president of the Czech Rep. just passed away, and in this square there were people mourning over his death. Which was really touching, for someone to be loved this much by the people. I wish there would be a president in Indonesia that are truly a good president, that deserves to be loved as much as Czech people loved him. 

Getting around Prague!!

in front of the Prague's congress building

in one of Prague's metro station. 

Charles Bridge

Sorry to seem to be quoting a lot from Wikipedia, I just dont want to seem to know it all but ended up misinforming. Hope you understand! :)

"The Charles Bridge is a famous historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. As the only means of crossing the river Vltava (Moldau) until 1841, the Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castleand the city's Old Town and adjacent areas. This "solid-land" connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe. The bridge was originally called the Stone Bridge (Kamenný most) or the Prague Bridge (Pražský most) but has been the "Charles Bridge" since 1870.

The bridge is 516 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, resting on 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers, two of them on the Lesser Quarter side and the third one on the Old Town side. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, originally erected around 1700 but now all replaced by replicas." (wikipedia)

From my personal opinion, the view of the Charles Bridge couldn't be described by nothing else but gorgeous, and breathtaking.
PS: If you by any chance had watched the Japanese Drama, Nodame Cantabille, it also took setting in this very Charles Bridge. :P

See? Wasn't it beautiful? If people asked me, which one is more beautiful, Prague or Paris, um, I dont think I would be able to find a right answer to say. Each European cities that I've visited has their own beauty. Prague itself was ancient, but really beautiful in its ancientness. If i would have to say, Prague is like an "old lady" : beautiful and elegant! :)


But, wait til my next post, about our last destination in this first Eurotrip of ours: Budapest! Brace up for more cool stories from Budapest! See you soon! :D