More complaints about school

I don’t understand why school is constantly trying to torture students.

It’s almost been a month since I kept getting sleep deprived. Heck, I didn’t think I’d actually pass out during class. I could barely open my eyelids. My stock of peppermint candies just ran out a few days ago so I didn’t really have anything to keep my eyes from closing.

My mom decided that I have to immediately start my IELTS course. I’m free to come whenever I can but I must attend the first class next Monday from 6 to 9 PM. I thought it’s fine because I only had civics test to deal with the next day, but who would’ve known that someone would actually schedule a surprising maths test on Tuesday. Man, that news was something like having the teacher pop up in front of your face and say ‘Surprise, ~~bitch~~ kids!’ 😕

Aside from that, loads of tests have been scheduled for next week. So again, another week of sleepless nights. Not a day without tests. I’d actually relax if I could understand what the teacher was explaining during class, but sadly, I couldn’t. I never could. I’m not some genius who’s born to understand every single word and thing that the teacher explains. Yet, teachers always expect us to.

So yeah, gotta learn for biology test, yay.

Field Trip 2015

This week was another tiring one.

Those three days field trip was totally exhausting despite having most of our time wasted on the way to the places. The first day trip to the universities were quite okay, but I didn’t find them exciting as I don’t plan on enrolling to the local universities in my country.

We visited the insemination site on day two. Students spent most of their times writing down what the speaker had to say about cows and horses and goats and lambs. (I intentionally abused ‘and’ to stress how boring it was). We got free flavored milk in the end of the session, though.

Those were the photos that I took for our upcoming report about this insemination trip. No photos of the cows, though, since we’re not allowed to get close to them.

We went to the geology museum directly after that. There was nothing new since I’ve been there four years ago during junior high. So I just went around the halls, watched a video, and then went back to the bus. We stopped on a place with lots of factory outlets and played cards in a cafe in one of the outlets instead of shopping around like everyone else did. (I didn’t really play since I suck at cards, seriously). There were actually many who played cards aside from us. 😛

Everyone had their dinner in Paskal (not pascal), Pasir Kaliki. It’s a foodcourt with loads of traditional food and snacks from Indonesia. It has a beautiful scenery and lightings. A fountain was located in the centre of the foodcourt. There was a sign that read ‘Throw the coin trough the ring for good luck’ near the statue on the fountain. Felicia and I decided to toss our coins. Both of it went through!

We spent the third day visiting Saung Udjo, a place where people make and play Angklung.

I’ve also been to this place during junior high. So there was nothing new there either. But it was still an exciting show to watch.

Our buses then stopped at Kilometer 97 (or was it 79?) for lunch. I ordered a not-so-spicy fried rice in Solaria but got a super chili (perhaps jalapeno) flavored friend rice, so I didn’t get to eat it at all. I don’t want diarrhea. I was pissed off so I tore a paper out of my notebook, wrote something equivalent to ‘Eat shit!’ on it, and then put it nicely atop of the fried rice. Then I left the restaurant to get myself a cup of frapuccino from Starbucks and a box of Yakiniku from KFC which my friend bought for me. (Thanks a lot dude).

Screw you Solaria, you made my last day of field trip ruined.

My weeks are consisted of tiring days

I barely had my break last week.

It was a hectic week with loads of tests everywhere. Physics and chemistry on Thursday, history and religion on Friday. Sure, we had a day off on Wednesday but that doesn’t ease the load off our shoulders. I’m pretty sure I flunked my latest physics test, though. They’re so damn difficult to solve, or maybe it’s just me panicking and sweating a lot and unable to concentrate on anything.

I also went to Beiby’s sweet seventeen party at Friday evening. Got home approximately at ten and slept right away. I then spent the whole Saturday staring at my old mathematics notes (while playing online games) to prepare for a scholarship test the next day. Unfortunately, Sunday was a big disappointment (long story).

That aside, we’re having a three days and two nights field trip which is going to start this Wednesday. I haven’t packed my things, yet, but I’ve made a list of things on what I should bring. It’s supposed to be an educational trip, though, so I doubt we’ll have that much fun. Nevertheless, a trip with friends is always something you can look forward to.

I don’t think I’ll have any time to rest right after we finish our trip, though. Now that we have supplementary class every Saturday, the only day left for me to rest is Sunday. However, my class has a maths test scheduled next Monday and I barely understand what the teacher is trying to teach us. I’m just desperately trying to memorise trigonometry formulas but I guess it won’t really help much since our teacher makes amazingly difficult tests in his own way.

Hurray to my never ending study session.

Finally, some books

I asked my friend who went on a study tour to Singapore to buy me a Japanese manga. I’m glad he didn’t make a mistake this time. (Hey, I know you’re reading this). I’ve always wanted to have either a novel or manga in Japanese to practice my reading skills. I thought that novel was a little too hard since it lacks furigana, so I decided that manga would be a better choice.

I admit it was pretty hard to properly translate Japanese since they have different phrases that didn’t even existed in English. They have various kind of speeches, too. But reading this had it’s own kind of fun.

Finally, I’ve got my hands on the newest novel of Rick Riordan’s norse mythology series! I’d always loved fantasy myth themed novels. This book, The Sword of Summer, especially, has a really sarcastic dude for a protagonist named Magnus (duh).

The prologue that starts the story is really similar to Rick’s Greek series. The plot line was also similar too Greek’s. I think it’s more of a clone of PJO series, only Norse themed. The story plot was also the same, to prevent the doomsday, in other words, Ragnarok. Well, I was kinda surprised to find Rick to, cough, kill, cough, one of his characters in the book since I don’t really remember anyone dying so early in the Greek series. It was a sad death, but a nice one that spiced the story a bit. Just a bit.

I still think it’s a nice read to kill time. I finished the book in a day. Kinda regretted it because I’m craving for the sequel now. 🙄 I’ll have to wait another year patiently for this …

Shopping spree!

I just set up my own new bank account today at the local office near my house. It felt like it took forever for my turn to come and to end the process. I didn’t actually finish the process, though, since the entire block suddenly had a blackout. I was unable to get a picture of myself and my signature taken. So the staff told me to come back tomorrow around the morning or the afternoon. Oh well, at least I don’t have to wait in line again.

Me and my mom then went to the mall. My brother decided not go join since the electricity was back on again. We went to Aranzi Cafe because I’d always wanted to go there before it went under renovation. The stall has been renewed now. And they have added several more items to their menu.

Mom decided to try a new type of cake she haven’t tried before. We decided to share the cake so mom told me to order another item from their new menu. I was really captivated by their kakigori (lit. shaved ice), so I asked the staff which kakigori was famous among the customers. She pointed out the Panda Milky Crunch which consists of shaved oreo, vanilla ice, mini brownies, and marshmallows.

The shaved ice was enjoyable, they’re actually pretty nice when half-melt. However we didn’t have a nice time devouring the cake since the fruits they used were really sour. My mom chocked on her first bite, and she immediately told me to get rid of the fruits. I tried to taste them first, though. It certainly was sour I can’t stand it. 😦 Too bad. I guess their green tea and chocolate mouse cakes are still far way better than this one. 😛

We went to the SOGO department store just to check whether they’re having clearance sale discounts or not. I then spotted that Elle handbag that was being discounted for fifty percent. I took the bag and showed it to my mom. I guess she fell in love on the first sight and purchased that bag for herself. Boo. If I had some money I would’ve bought that bag for myself, too. Well, it doesn’t really matter though. I could just borrow the bag from her when I need it.

I was actually looking for a medium sized backpack since my old one which was made from leather was having a breaking down process. The leather are getting peeled off little by little and it’s only a matter of time before it finally got broken. I’ve asked my mom several times before to look for a cheap backpack but neither I or her had the time to. So when she spotted a simple parachute-material backpack (again discounted for forty percent), she immediately bought it for me.

It was a really simple backpack. It has four different colours available; red, navy blue, black, and fuchsia. I chose the red one because it’s the brightest of them all. Lol. Aside from having a big space inside, it’s also waterproof! 😀 I think it’s pretty durable, too. I’m planning to use that backpack for my school field trip on the 21st of October. Yay for flashy backpacks!

We ended up spending around $70 for the handbag and $42 for the backpack. It’s a pretty nice deal!

The Salmon Gyoza which tasted like Chicken Gyoza

We had ramen and gyozas at Sushi Tei for lunch. It was the first time for us to eat at that restaurant. Mom had always wanted to eat there but never had the chance to do so since it’s always crowded during dinner. It was not so crowded when we came so mom said why not.

When we asked for the bill, my mom was quite shocked when she saw that the one registered was salmon gyoza instead of the chicken one. The salmon costs two times the price of the chicken, which explains the expensive bill. Mom then complained to the waitress. However she said that she didn’t misheard our order and insisted that we ordered salmon from the very start. I was pretty confused as I was pretty sure what I ate tasted like chicken, not salmon. And let me stress that it was definitely chicken. The waitress kept insisted otherwise. I could only roll my eyes. I’m never going back to that restaurant.

We had homemade potato wedges as our dinner. My mom tried to make a replica of potato wedges in the restaurants that I loved using the remaining potatoes we had at home.

With only salt, pepper, parsley, and rice flour, mom made potato wedges that — in my opinion— surpassed the ones in the restaurants! She then fried them for several minutes, and it was done.

Well, aside from the Sushi Tei incident, I have to say that we really had a good time today!

Midterm break

I wouldn’t actually call it a ‘break’, seeing as we students still have shitloads of work to do that were given by teachers.

I’m also still thinking about the inevitable red mark on my midterm report.

Nevertheless, having three days off (excluding Saturday and Sunday) is till something that I really have to appreciate, since school rarely gave us holidays. I mean, getting a room to breathe was already hard as it is, let alone holidays.

So I planned to make use of that holiday to it’s fullest extent (read: procrastinating). I’ve just finished reading Paper Towns yesterday. It took me around six hours to finish it. I think it’s an interesting book, though it has several loose ends. Then I caught up with Rokka no Yuusha‘s novel right after I finished watching the anime. I’m also planning to read Hyouka‘s novel, but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to finish that in my remaining break time.

Respective covers of Paper Towns, Rokka no Yuusha, and Hyouka

As for the fall season of anime, there are three titles that I will absolutely be following! These three are sequels to their respective first seasons that I have been waiting for a long time! They’re finally here! 😀

Anime (from left to right): K - Return of Kings, Noragami Aragoto, Haikyuu!! Second Season — Anime (from left to right): K – Return of Kings, Noragami Aragoto, Haikyuu!! Second Season

Well, anime and books aside, I’m currently trying to brainstorm for slogan ideas about multiculturalism for my homework. I do hope I’ll get a nice tag line for it! Time to sketch for designs!

How school and teachers made their way around

Getting good scores for my midterm tests are pretty normal for me. Failing those tests were not.

A few days ago a word came out that we’re going to have a civics retest. Well I had a feeling that I’d just probably made it pass the passing grades. So I came and checked with the teacher yesterday, Eli, and found out that I didn’t pass the test. I was kind of surprised and then failed to calm down when she said the retest was canceled. I totally raged.

Some said that the retest was canceled because Eli modified some of the students score that barely passed, like those who got 74 or 73 was modified to 75. Lucky them, they passed the test. Yay. I got a score of 71 though, which totally won’t be modified since it has a 4 points difference from the passing grade. I couldn’t even understand how I made 17 mistakes in my test when I thought I only made 10. I definitely crosschecked my answers with my friend and only found those differences. An addition of 7 mistakes were totally incomprehensible. And you know what? My friend got a 92,5 for her civics score. And that’s shit.

This retest system in my school has a rule where the retest has to be done when the passing rates are under 25%, calculated from each class. There were many times that we should’ve gotten retests on subjects like civics, maths, and chemistry, but teachers always end up modifying those scores so it would be canceled. I guess it must’ve been because of their pride as a teacher that made them do that. But there’s another rumour going on that they would’ve gotten fired if it hadn’t been for those modifications.

Well, I think it’s pretty ironic if the students were accused of conspiracy to fail the tests and forced the teachers to do retests when it’s actually the other way around. I mean, who’s mind is stupid enough to even think of that. By modifying those test results, it’s literally the same as revoking student’s rights and I don’t like that at all.

As good as nothing

I had always thought that my dad was a ~~jerk~~ not so nice guy.

No offense, but that’s what my mom thought about him, too.

Today he made the four of us went to a seminar held by Adam Khoo’s company of I Am Gifted camp. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to this. I’d thought I’d really get bored since seminars were all about talking useless things until your mouth dried up. My dad had always wanted for me to attend this seminar like years ago. I did manage not to attend, but this time he forcefully signed us up.

The public speaker had an unpleasant voice, much to my surprise. It’s too high pitched and it kind of irritated me throughout the whole session. The speaker switched to a male in the middle of it, though. We were then asked to memorize 30 random words in five minutes. I think it was pretty easy if you knew the trick to it, and I’ve already learned memorizing tricks several years ago. So yeah, the speaker gave me two notepads. Yay for new sketch papers.

In the end of the seminar, the speaker promoted the youth camp that’s gonna be held in the middle of December this year. It’ll last for four days in a pretty normal hotel. The camp costs 10,8 million rupiah. That’s $749.48 in US, I guess. It was so expensive that I really felt like I’d totally waste my money for nothing. My brother made a disapproving face, but my dad signed the both of us up anyway. My brother then immediately spewed curses when my dad wasn’t there. My mom didn’t even say a thing but sigh.

I know this camp is his investment for my future. So I guess he’s somewhat thoughtful and nice. But I just don’t like that bossy side of him. In several posts earlier I stated that I’ve decided to take programming as a major in the university next year. The sole reason for me to take that major was because dad made me to. Now he said he wanted me to study all the way for the sake of getting a scholarship to Japan and take business as a major. Well, seriously, I don’t know what’s in his mind.

We then went for dinner at Tony Roma’s. There I decided to talk to dad about my passion in design and that I wanted to transfer into Design and Communication majors. My mom supported me a little in persuading my dad but it doesn’t work out. I got totally lectured by him till he decided it’s time for us to go home.

I don’t know why but I guess I’m so sick of him ruling over my life. I wish he’d just talk to me in a better way, but he decided not to do so. I feel that I’d never win against him so I guess I’ll just do what he wants right now.

I’m just too tired to fight back already.

Food bomb

I went to an area called PIK last weekend to eat at TimHoWan. It’s a brand new chinese restaurant in the area and it’s pretty famous. We decided to go there early but it was already crowded by the time we arrived.

Their menu is rather unique since they don’t use books like usual restaurants would. They also have a limited variety of food, so the whole menu fits in just a piece of A4 paper. Pretty neat. I didn’t take any pictures of it since the main dishes were pretty normal looking. The meat buns were really delicious, though, but my brother and my dad ate all of it before I could take a picture. Sigh.

We then went to the dessert shop next door named Sumoobu. It sells a wide variety of Japanese desserts.

I ordered a dessert named Nutella Bomb. It tasted like bombs of chocolate exploded in mouth. Too chocolaty. I had to order a drink immediately because it dries my throat really fast. Nevertheless, it was quite delicious.

Then this week my school had an annual games event, Escalades. There were many activities and bazaars. I think I spent too much on it since the food they sell looked really interesting.

My mom asked me to buy one so she could have a taste. Normally, burgers here use ketchups instead of mustard, but the Hobo burger uses mustard instead. I think it wasn’t that bad, though. It’s just that our tongues were used to ketchups … Oh well.

My mom and I went straight to the mall after the opening of the school festival. We spotted an unusual amount of crowd lining up to buy the famous Pot Ice Cream. So my mom and I also joined the line. The ice cream has a very unique presentation. Using flower pots, the owner recreated a mini plant using the ice cream and grated oreos as the soil, a leaf (is that barley or parsley? I can’t differentiate. lol), and gummy worms. It looks really cute!

The last one was steamed buns. It has different fillings for each animal characters. All of them were quite delicious! I think I’d buy another box next time.

“Problem children are coming from a different world?” vol. 11

This other day my friend Kevin bought me a Japanese light novel titled Mondaiji. He bought it while he was on a two day trip at Singapore.

I was really excited so I started to open the book. The illustrations were really nice inside. It also has the fresh new book scent.

Then the only thing that I did not expect was that the whole book was not in Japanese, but Chinese.

I asked him whether the only available version was the Chinese translated ones. But then he said he had mistaken Chinese for Japanese, so …

I asked my mom whether she could read those text and she said yes, but she couldn’t translate it as she didn’t know most of the meanings for the characters. Sigh.

I’m just upset that this book is going to waste. It costs S$12.20 !