Talking About… June 23, 2007

Subject: Traveling Experience
Posted by: Indah SR

Talking about traveling experience, I had once experience of the study tour that I did when I was in my last grade in college long years ago. I took part in a group consisted of five students altogether, each from different faculties, so we had never known each other before. We had been placed at Tapen Village, Wanadadi District, Banjarnegara, Central Java. During the study tour, we were all staying at the village head’s house, and we had to stay in the village for three weeks.

Tapen was a nice, small traditional village which had only a very little area. Most the villagers worked as traditional farmers. Long time ago, Tapen used to be a big village, but since the government commanded to build an enormous dam that had taken more than 80% area of the village, so only less 20% area had been left. Nevertheless, believed it or not, the village had already got a stadium! How amazing… you could imagine; a very small village with only a few villagers, enclosed a large sports ground in it?

Staying in a traditional village for a long time was really a new experience for me. I felt surprised when I first knew that villagers were all relatives (?!) Furthermore, I found out that people had specific customs and behavior. They were more sensitive and too much curious about everything. It was really different with people in big cities, who were less care and more apathetic. The situation made me was rather unconfident at the beginning, because I was supposed to speak carefully (and also behave well ;-D) every time I needed to interact with the villagers. Luckily, I had overcome with that soon.

In the other hand, they were the most cooperative and sociable people I ever knew. They respected us so much, and they also liked to greet us all the time. One of my friends had got a funny experience with that. One day while he was riding motorcycle along the street, he saw some people came out from their house just to greet him, so he must nod his head quickly over and over again, every time he passed the people. ;-D

Obviously, we had a lot of agendas we had to do for the village. For all you knew, it was very tiring, for the reason I was not excited to talk more about that. Well, of course, we did the study tour not just for working at all, more than that; we looked forward something fun and more fascinating to do.

By the way, we had a favorite activity we always did in the morning, and we had never missed it. For the purpose, we were willing to wake up early, when the sky was still dark. Then together we walked to the dam. After we reached the dam, we were just sitting in silence for a while, waiting for the sun rising. At the beginning, we could only see the dark water. Then the color of the water changed slowly, and finally we could see the sun started rising at the horizon… It looked like a great fire ball floated from the water surface and slowly moved to the sky. According to us, it was really beautiful.

Two days before the last day, companied with several youngster from the village (we had asked them to be our guides ;-D), we traveled to Dieng Plateau, where was located in Wonosobo. It just took about an hour by bus from Banjarnegara. We stayed at a villager’s house for one night, whose family had served us very well. In the second day, we continued the trip to the mountain by walking, because there was no public transportation at all. However, it was not really a problem, and we enjoyed it so far. The scenery of mountain range along the journey was amazingly beautiful, it made all of us were so satisfied at the time.

In the last day, the villagers made a farewell party for us. At the night before our leaving, almost the villagers filled in the village head’s house. The village head’s wife also served us so many delicious food and drinks. We all sat together in group, had a long talk and shared each other. The atmosphere was so close and friendly. I felt both happy and sad at same time, because I realized that I had never met such kind people like them again.

It had been happened for long years ago, but I still remembered it well. Before the students came to the village, the lectures had told us what we had to do for the villagers; we were supposed to teach them many things and counsel them well, but I considered it was not really true. The villagers had probably learned a few things from us, but in fact, we had exactly learned more from them.

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Traveling June 14, 2007

This is the kind of activity i like. Talking about traveling makes you imaginizing about a journey to a beautiful, clean, quiet place with fresh air, also meet new people and see different culture. No matter how near or far your trip is, still, you can find something exciting about it. Maybe it’s because you see something different (or maybe everything, if you travel to another country … ). Usually, when you have a plan to travel, your destination will be a place far from your city, right? You can’t say you’re traveling around Jakarta. In my opinion, it’s not traveling, but sightseeing ….

First of all, preparation. Money, of course, you’ll trip to nowhere if you leave home without it. Things you have to prepare, let’s see…. Personal things (include clothes, soap, comb) it’s very important during the trip. Although you’re in a journey, you don’t want to look dirty and smell bad. We always want to look fresh and clean…. and for girls… keep beautiful…

Wear loose, comfortable clothing and shoes or sandals, you don’t want your moves are limited by your clothes. Keeping your health is important, so don’t forget to bring some medications and vitamins you use on daily because maybe they hard to find. If you can find them in your destination, the dose can be higher or lower than your regular dose. It won’t cure you and, maybe, cause you allergic. Prepare cream for muscle to keep you away from a cramp. Just to keep safe, always bring your medication with you. Be careful of what you eat and drink, make sure it’s cooked and clean. Although with these precautions, maybe you still have stomach problems…. well, maybe it’s because your stomach hasn’t adjusted to the food.

It’s important to keep your health and stamina in a good condition. For example, sometimes you don’t know which way and how far the distance from one place to another, it’s lucky if you always on the vehicle, but if not maybe you have to prepare to walk to go there. Well, keep think positive…. you are more healthy and you can see the view nearer (not only look from the vehicle’s window) and directly get in touch with people along the way.

If you plan to travel abroad, don’t forget to bring your passport and visa with you, make copies and save it. It would be better if you know your embassy address and have a map of the place you’re visiting incase you lost. In my opinion. better be prepared than sorry. After all, you don’t want your vacation ruin by something unprepared.

When you think of traveling, for me, I always fell excited. Pack your thing and prepare a journey to see different places especially the ones with beautiful sceneries. The sea, river, mountain, valley, waterstream that very different from your homeland. Luckily if you’re traveling because of your work. Your job expect you to do traveling, such as a reporter or a writer, you have to make a article about an interesting place or holiday spot in a particular country. It’s free of charge (no need to spend money of your own), have a chance to go to another place and after that you are paid. Isn’t it wonderful ?

Farewell party of GE-8 June 14, 2007

• Farewell party of GE-8 at Pizza Hut Atrium

Dri, here’s our picture. Do you think it can be related to your article? hope so.

Adhe.

SPORTS ARE FUN AND HEALTHY! June 2, 2007

SPORTS are FUN and HEALTHY!

Everybody always wants to stay healthy all their lives. How can we achieve that?

 

Besides eating well (a healthy diet) and stay away from stress, doing sport is also a way to maintain our health. We can maintain a healthy body weight by being physically active. Do exercise regularly. Experts say that if we do the exercise 30 minutes everyday can boost our energy all day long. So no matter what sport you like, or how busy you are with your work, try to spend some times to do your favorite sport, not just watching them on TV.

 

Fun and cool…..

Get some information you need to know before choosing an appropriate sport for you. See your doctor and review your health history if necessary. In my experience, the doctor recommended my husband, who had a high cholesterol level and overweight body, to start his exercise by walking or slow running on a treadmill to strengthen the cardiovascular. I read in a health journal that walking not only will burn fat but also lower your cholesterol level and improve your mental health (I sound like an expert, hah?! Hehehe..I just read it).

Swimming is my favorite sport, I absolutely love swimming. It is a “low impact” sport (it means we are less likely to get injured) and yet it can give you the feeling of relaxation ; like Yoga. Because I love swimming so much, I’ve never bored doing it, moreover I’ve found that swimming is a really fun thing to do especially when we do it with family and friends. I swim at least three times a week and I intend to keep doing it because I’ve known and felt the benefits and advantages of swimming for the healthy of my body and my mind.

Adhe and her coach…

In my opinion, the cheapest and easiest sport is walking. Walking requires no special equipment or location, no rules, just a pair of sport shoes. Walk whenever you can, you can walk around your house or take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Experts say by doing sport regularly can increase your body to use oxygen more effectively. It’s never too late to begin an exercise program. So get up and do your favorite sport to make your life healthier. Don’t wait until you get sick. Prevention is better than cure, do you agree?

~ Ad he ~

Ps. Sorry… it took me so long to post my article. I’ve been very busy lately…

ADHE