Panoramic Corners of Waverly

 My ART 208 Photography I class is just getting more interesting. Day to day we got to learn different techniques in photography and also Photoshop. Starting from last week, we have exploring landscape photography which includes panoramic picture. Hello, we don't use the old panoramic camera anymore. But that is not a problem! Photoshop did a really good job of merging a sequence of pictures.

My job is just to take the photographs and Photoshop will do it all. All the places above are pretty panoramic, who believes that the hometown of my college, Waverly,  is pretty amazing!

Kiss and Love, 

Rut

Downtown Waverly always interest me.
 In Jakarta we don't quite have the sense of "downtown" of each town.
 I mean Jakarta is a city and in its own town. I know it's complicated....

Look how gorgeous the arch is!

I just want to name this photograph"Bridge over troubled-water"

The distortion of the building just reminds me of the Colosseum in Rome

The World is Here (Iclub Celebrates DIVERSITY)

I am so happy to share my final project for my CA 210 TV and Broadcasting Practicum. We did a PSA to promote an organisation on campus. I did it on Iclub,

I am in a really happy state right now. I am done with final, going to Texas on Friday and the most important thing: I know what I want to do in life and so sure about my future!

x
Rut

Drag Show

I used my phone to take the picture, so the quality was bad

There was a drag show in my school. It was sponsored by the Alliance (LGBT) Group. It was nice, entertaining. But at the same time, I think it was ironic, the fact that if we are all human and we are equal, why should we use people to make us feel happy and laugh at them? Can we still being entertained and laugh no matter our sexual orientation are? Think about it again.

Saturday Brunch

I had an early day today since I had to go to Campus Employment Training at 10 in the morning. Honestly, I usually wake up at around 11 on Saturdays. The training finished at 12am, obviously I missed Mensa. But, I was actually happy because I could make my own Satruday brunch. Since I did grocery yesterday, I had enough "college food". I also bought pork skin. In Indonesia, people eat it a lot with noodles. Here what I did:

What you need:
1. One packet of Maruchan Beef Teriyaki Noodles (or other brand)
2. Pork Skin Chips
3. A slice of chicken breaded stripes.

Happy Saturday!
x
Rut

Golden Cage

Before, it looked so devastated

This is so me. I cannot let a white wall being empty.

Friday (3/23/12) was the most decisive day of the month.
1. I decided and declared my major and minors: Communication Arts Double Emphasis in Multimedia Communication and Organizational & Public Relations; minoring in International Relations and French - I will be going to Paris in May 2013, since it is part of my major!

2. I have been cleared for registration, which means all my courses' schedule works well. And I am done keeping my account below one thousand (darn, I hate the fact the school does not accept debit card, today I had to take out cash in a really big amount!! )

3. The most decided one: my room! I finally made it like what I always wanted: colorful, stylish, retro - just like me. Moving out with Zee is the best decision I made. I have lived with her for almost a month. I become myself again. In a way I feel "safe, secure and comfortable" to be in the room. I started to do my habits which my ex-roomates in Italy know so well, such as singing, making artwork, even just sitting on my bed with only quilted in towel after showering. It feels so good when I feel I own the room and especially when you get really along with your roomate, and your roomate is your friend. And I started to study in the room - which the thing I never did in my old room.

For the last three years, I had lived in five different rooms! Last year in around March too, I moved out from my first assigned room, but it is always for the best. The thing is that I am a kind of person who always build a strong emotional relationship with my room. I think it is most important to feel "nested" when I am in my room. It is my cage after all when I am done with college activities. I just realized, I will live in three different rooms for the next three years! I will be experiencing living in lots of cages.


x
Rut

Pekan Budaya

Pekan Budaya is the Indonesian phrase to say Culture Week (pekan: week, culture: budaya). This year is my first year to contribute in the Wartburg College Culture Week 2012. The week was pretty joyful. There were so many activities to raise awareness about culture or diversity. I participated in numbers of it. During culture fair, since apparently I am the only Indonesian, I had to prepare the Indonesian stand, but that was no a big deal, my third year left some Indonesian decorations. I was good to go.

The most challenging one was everything for the Culture Show. I was in seven, down to four and leaded three skits, which the three of them are new; the Grand Opening, Fashion Show and a Norwegian song. It was a hard time,l The exec almost cancelled the Grand Opening, and some people just did not get how to walk for the Fashion Show and for the Norwegian song, I barely could remember the second verse for the first two weeks of practicing. It was really hard just to make the song stick on my memory; it is not English but Norwegian, and the words are so tongue-twisting. But I made it. It felt good!

Culture week was a blast. I am glad people told me I sang really well, if only they knew I was shaking on the stage and trying to keep going because the show must go on. Also people said they loved the fashion show.

Now I am missing the practices already!
I will see you again next year!

x
Rut

Happy Thanksgiving

This is my first Thanksgiving post out of four ( I still have three other years to be here at Wartburg College, the plan of going to a grad school and working here are not yet included). I woke up today at 11.30, it was pretty late for a Thanksgiving lunch at 12. But I made it tho.

The weather was really nice too. It was breezy but sunny. Heidi and Lee picked us up to the Peace United Church, somewhere in Waverly, ten minutes from the campus. When everybody had arrived, Heidi's husband, Jonathan, said a grace and his father said prayer. Jonathan said he is thankful of getting to know us, the international students and having us here. I can't remember the last time when I prayed communally before eating with my family, probably my last farewell before heading to the America.

Lee said Thanksgiving is an American culture when family always gets together. His son who is in marine in North Carolina wished that he could be home, but he is on duty.

As an Indonesian, I know Thanksgiving from American movies or TV series. Everybody wants to be home for Thanksgiving, just like Christmas and New Year's Eve. I watched in Eat, Pray and Love that before the dinner, they usually say what they are thankful for. from the Gossip Girl, it is a moment when the busiest New Yorkers get together, even just to eat french fries together around the table.

After the lunch, we headed by to the campus. It was already 3pm, still sunny. I decided to enjoy the sun and had a bike-riding around Waverly. At the back of the Nestle factory, there is a long bike rail. Something that I always wished we had a kind of one in Jakarta. To the right and to the left, there are trees, empty green field. Once, I saw a beautiful small red bird. The rail's length is 7 miles. I touched down until Prairie Run, I had to go back because it started to get dark. I took a lot of picture of myself. Since it's Thanksgiving, my first Thanksgiving, I want to make it memorable.

So, let me saying grace what I have been thankful for.
I am thankful for my my beautiful famliy, my mother, my father, my brother and my grandparents.
I am thankful for making it this year to the United States, my parents were really worried I would just be in the waiting list of all the colleges that I applied to.
I am thankful for getting B+ in Math class, what an improvement!
I am thankful for today when I called my relative in Chicago, she offered us a place to stay for the rest of the three weeks and Sherika's uncle would drive us to Chicago!
I am thankful for my first article in In My Opinion Blog The Jakarta post received really good responses from many people. Thirteen people liked and share it on Facebook.
I am thankful for my new life I am twenty now, and my birthday party was a blast.
I am thankful for every breathe I take, for all friends I have, for Mother Earth.

No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is fighting to survive. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

The first tunnel of Waverly Rail Trail

Those bikes were hanging

Catching up with the self-timer

My body hurts since I laid on an asphalt.

I was so glad that I saw a deer very close to me. Something I wont see in Jakarta

I am thankful for the beautiful view that I see that afternoon

I am thankful for the lunch-box from the Thanksgiving Feast

Knight Smile: Happy Thanksgiving again!!!

Here I Go Again

I finally really find a free time when I feel that'd be enough time for me to post a story about my first one month in the USA. I have been pretty busy with exam this week. It's official, I have been here at Wartburg for one month and four days! College has been busy, as usual. I have had one quiz, one essay and two exams until today. I got an article to submit for the school newspaper, but the good news is I finished it last night, and I already wrote all the questions for the guest speaker that we have tomorrow for the CA 100 class. I just need to go to work tonight from 9-10.

Today is really windy, compare to the first days when I arrived here, it was sunny. It was raining two days ago and has been pretty cold in the morning, sometimes it gets warmer at noon.

I have funny stories about my identity. Yesterday night, I told one of my roomates, Amber that I am jonning ASA.
" I am joinning ASA"
"What is that?"
"It's Asian Student Association,"
"Really? Are you Asian?"
"What do you think I am?"
"Indonesian!?"
We were laughing. I told her that Indonesian is also Asian, since we belong to the same continent and share similar culture. My roomate is really sweet and kind, but she might not be really good at Geography (sorry, Amber!). Once she thought Indonesia is somewhere near France. It was just hilarious.

Today at Mensa, one of the international students that I know really well, Patience, from Nigeria thought I was from South Korea. At the beginning of my arrival, some students from African countries thought I were Asian-American or European-like. It's nice to hear about that.

This week has been so fast. I can't believe tomorrow is Friday (again). Weekends here is really simple, not so many things to do; going to Goat on Fridays, watching football game or to Goat on Saturdays or you can just stay at your room watching movies, or napping. That has been my favorite activity so far. Oh, we are planning to go for pizza this Sunday with all the girls on our floor, it is arranged by the RA.

Life here at Wartburg has been going alright. The campus is really beautiful, it is in good-sized. And it's so green and pretty.

The cheeleaders and dancing team during football match. Keep in mind football is football and soccer is umm, football? The building on the left side is my resident.

The required book for all freshmen for IS 101 Class: Asking Question, Making Decision

My first Graphic Novel book, it is not comic.