3 Dec: 30 Facts?!

30 facts? Good and bad?

Another weird post. Facts are some information which its truth can't be denied. So, I am confused. Hahahaha. 

My facts should be my full name, my birthday and birth place, etc. But, let's make it fun for the writing challenge!

30 Facts about me:

Let's start with the cheesy one

1. My full name is Dzikra Handika

2. Nationality: Indonesia

3. Birthday: November 29, 1998

4. I love to read, but my homeworks don't let me to read as much as that I want *eh?

5. Sometimes so quite, but for the party? I want to be in front of the DJ (in case it was EDM Concert or other rave party)

6. Can cry over the movies and songs hahah

7. I love beauty pageants! Haha

8. I express my feelings mostly through writing

9.  Love to play and watch Drama

10. Love kids!

11. Have been single for a long time, *eh?

12. Love the tropical weather cause it makes your skin looks stunning naturally 

13. I don't like exaggeration, I mean who does?

14. If I get sick, mostly because I am not happy at that time

15. Love the pure water (going natural, yeah!)

16. Drugs and other addictive stuffs are such a big NO for me

17. It is hard to get peer pressure. I don't really follow what is trendy. 

Ex: If I and my friends hang out, I could be the only person who drink water while all my friends order soda or alcohol.

A lot more example for this, honestly :3

18. I prefer have higher EQ than higher IQ

19. I love to travel, but I just don't get that freedom yet, cause I am still in high school. 

20. I love to study about culture, language, personal development, management, economics, and geography, and technology. 

21. Love the universe!

22. I only watch TV less than 2 hours per week. 

23. My favorite color is green

24. Love to eat various kind of food but food is not my mood booster at all. 

25. Speak Indonesian and English.

26. My words were pure, but several months ago some bad words started to appear

27. Hard to get angry, but once I get it, hmmm

28. Kinda lazy to do homework, but really love to lead, manage, and do a project 

29. A lot of my friends said that I am really huggable

30. Soon, will graduate from high school Class of 2017!

2 Dec: Weird

What should I write? -____-

Thinking about something that is unforgottable which was told by someone took long time. But, I found it:

Weird

Yes, weird!

Weird is something that always said by a lot of people to me. Somehow I love it. Because, the weird stuffs that they meant are:

I speak to myself. Yes, cause if I keep it, then it will drive me crazy, I should be expressive!

I love to tease people, haha. What the heck? -_- 

A lot of stuffs tho. But, yeaah, this is what I could think of. There should be more.

At least I finished my writing challenge! Haha

1 Dec: Why Not?

Gonna make the date in day-month form! :P

ENGLISH:

I got this #31DaysWritingChallenge from one of my friend, Hana. It will give you 31 different themes to write everyday.

I found out that this is so interesting because I would love to write. For me, writing is an activity to be creative and expressive. By jotting down some thoughts, I could think clearly and know what is going on in my mind. So, writing gets me to be in the condition of full awareness. 

This challenge makes me have more discipline to write. It helps me being productive and gives me benefits to my language ability. I am going to write the post of this challenge into two languages, English and Indonesian. I already putted a translate gadget on my blog but it will not translate perfectly because the form of the grammar of these two languages are pretty much different, and there are some cultural circumstances. 

So, wanna join this too?

Why Not?!

INDONESIAN:

Saya mendapatkan #TantanganMenulis31Hari ini dari salah satu teman saya, Hana. Tantangan ini memberikan Anda tema yang berbeda untuk menulis setiap harinya.

Saya tahu bahwa ini sangat menarik karena saya cinta menulis. Bagi saya, menulis adalah sebuah aktivitas untuk menjadi kreatif dan ekspresif. Dengan mencatatkan beberapa pemikiran, saya dapat berpikir dengan jernih dan tahu apa yang sedang tenjadi di benak saya. Jadi, menulis membuat saya menjadi berada dalam kondisi kesadaran penuh. 

Tantangan ini membuat saya memiliki disiplin yang lebih untuk menulis. Itu membuat saya menjadi produktif dan memberikan manfaat untuk kemampuan berbahasa saya. Saya akan menulis post tantanngan ini dalam dua bahasa, Bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Indonesia. Saya telah menempatkan alat penerjemah di blog saya tapi itu tak akan menerjemahkannya dengan sempurna karena bentuk tata bahasanya cukup berbeda, dan ada beberapa seluk-beluk tatanan budaya dalam bahasanya. 

KAMU! (YOU!)

VERSI BAHASA INDONESIA:
Scroll down for English version

Hei Kamu!
Kamu penuh dengan aib.
Ups, itu terlalu intens.
Hmm... Kau tahu bahwa kau penuh dengan kebohongan, benar?

Tapi, ada satu hal...
Apakah aku mencintaimu sebesar itu?
Apakah aku peduli padamu sebesar itu?
Tentu, Iya! Aku cinta kamu!

Aku terlahir dengan cinta,
Kamu tidak, haha!
Jadi, izinkan aku memberikanmu sebuah cinta
Aku mengira bahwa kamu akan menolaknya
Tapi tak apa, kamu tak bisa menolak fakta bahwa...
Aku memberikanmu sebuah cinta di setiap detik hidupku.

Kenapa kamu hanya berpikir tentang dirimu?
Kenapa kamu tidak baik?
Kenapa kamu tidak sensitif sama sekali?
Kenapa aku mencintai seorang setan sepertimu?

Lihatlah dirimu! Sangat tidak merasa aman!
Kamu pikir bahwa kamu akan terlihat tolol ketika kamu peduli
Kamu pikir bahwa kamu akan terlihat bodoh untuk menjadi baik

Jadi, siapa sih kamu?
Sebuah kekuatan yang membuatku menghakimi sesuatu?
Bahkan, mengapa saya membuat sebuah puisi tentangmu?
Biarkan aku berpikir

Hmm...
Aku kira karena kamu tidak nyata
Maafkan aku, kamu tidak nyata
Kamu adalah ilusi dan tipuan
Mungkin kamu setan yang tak mau membaca tulisanku
Mungkin kamu penyesalan di masa depanku,
Kuikhlaskan dirimu, kubiarkan kau pergi
Aku harus kembali ke kehidupan nyata, selamat tinggal!

ENGLISH VERSION:
Hey, you!

You are full of mortification.

Ups, that is too intense

Hmm... You know that you are full of lies, right?

But, here is the thing...

Do I love you that much?

Do I care about you that much?

Of course, yes! I love you!

I was born with love,

You were not! Haha!

So, let me give you a love

I assume that you will reject it

But that's okay, you can't reject the fact that...

I am giving you a love in every second of my life

Why you only think about yourself?

Why you are not kind?

Why you are not sensitive at all?

Why do I love a devil like you?

Just look at you! Super insecure!

You think that you'll look silly when you care

You think that you'll look stupid to be nice

So, who the heck are you?
A force that makes me judge something?

Why do I even make a poetry about you?
Let me think

Hmm...

I guess because you are not real

I am sorry, you are not real
You are an illusion and deception
Maybe you are a demon who will not read my writing
Maybe you are the regret in my future,
I genuinely let you go, I let you go.

I need to go back to the real life, bye!

The Lie We Live

Weird

It's been 9 days for me being here, in Indonesia. I spent the first three days in Jakarta for having reorientation. I feel like there is nothing really change; there is no major changes at all. But, somehow I feel like there is a change. I think again and now I know the answer that: I change.
That's the reason why that weird feeling still stay in my soul even though there is no major changes at all in the outside. The biggest change is the change of myself.

1) I am very tall to live in Indonesia but just having an average body height to live in the U.S.
2) I say "Thank you" a lot more than before
3) I act more
One day, I came to the mosque and saw some bad words written on the wall. I reported it to a kid whose father is a comittee that maintain the well-being of that mosque.
Honestly,
many more... more...more...more...more....

I am so happy to be back again in Indonesia. But, I don't know sometimes I feel sad to be far away from the U.S.. Hmmm... Re-adjusting is harder than culture shock but I've been through the hardest challenges on my exchange year so readjusting just feel okay.

#AsikinAja Haha!

Connected

Both United States and Indonesia are big country in terms of area and population. From hundreds of countries in this world, the U.S. is a nation with the third biggest population and the fourth biggest in the area. Indonesia has the fourth biggest population and a fourteenth biggest area.

Spending a year in the U.S. makes me dream about the more connected Indonesia. Even though Americans is not like European who are the majority of them have traveled abroad, the majority of Americans do ever travel to another state. It is common to see Americans have visited more than three states. How about Indonesia? Hmm...

Indonesia is the biggest archipelago country which consists more than 17,000 islands. Yes! 17,000 islands.  It is considered as an obstacle for Indonesians to be connected and being united. Some people have never been in the other province. It is not really common to know some Indonesian have traveled to more than three provinces. I don't have exact numbers for this, but I think commonly Indonesians have traveled to one other province. People need to afford an airplane ticket to go to another island which costs a lot of money. People can drive, but of course they need to go to the ship once they arrive at the harbor to cross the sea. Indonesia has a higher population density than the U.S., so we can find more traffic jam along the way. It does take a lot of time for Indonesian to travel to another province.

Medan to Malang: 2824 km or 1754.7 miles
It takes approximately 56 hours driving from Medan to Malang (includes taking ferry)

Chicago to Los Angeles: 3242.8 km or 2015 miles
It takes approximately 29 hours driving from Chicago to Los Angeles

From the pictures above, you can see that travel from Medan to Malang takes more time, even though the distance is closer than Chicago to Los Angeles.

Indonesia is so diverse, I want to see the other sides of Indonesia. There are more than 300 ethnic groups and 700 local languages in Indonesia. From the demographic we can see that:

Even though the majority of Indonesians are Muslim, there are some parts of Indonesia where Islam is not dominant.

How about the ethnic groups in Indonesia? Hmm...

Source: Wikipedia

- Generally, western Indonesia is more industrialized (All of the 5 biggest cities in Indonesia are in the western part)

I live in Medan, fourth biggest city in Indonesia. I have been to four other provinces Aceh, Jakarta (The capital of Indonesia), East Java, and Bali. All of them are different! I didn't only discover new place, but new cultures and customs. The differences are always fascinating me, the differences make me learn to be more tolerant and open-minded. I am wondering if Indonesia is more connected, people must be more tolerant and appreciate differences. As Indonesia's motto says : Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Old Javanese)/ Berbeda-beda namun tetap satu (Indonesia)/ Unity in Diversity (English). Tolerance in Indonesia is good, but it's not wrong to improve it, right? How can you be tolerant with the foreigners if you can't be tolerant to the others who have the same nationality? We should value Individualism by not forgetting the connection with others.


Here are some destinations in Indonesia that are not really popular yet, because one of these reasons:
- It is hard to access
- Very far from the airport
- Very far from big city
- Local residents can't speak English well

Parai Beach, Bangka Belitung
source: katadia.com

Lake Toba, North Sumatra
source: royaltravelo.com

Wae Raebo Village, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara
source: visitkomodotours.com

Tana Toraja Regency, South Sulawesi
source: amazing-indonesia.com

Of course, there are many more!

Notes:
- Some numbers are not in the exact numbers.
- The rest information are gotten from Wikipedia and Google Maps

Energi dan Harapan

     Menulis membutuhkan energi, pikiran, dan perasaan. Dengan seimbangnya ketiga unsur itu, maka proses menulis dapat dilakukan dengan mudah, malah dapat menghidupkan imajinasi dan menyalurkan perasaan atau pemikiran sang penulis.

     Aku rindu saat dimana aku dapat mengontrol emosiku dan dengan bebas mengekspresikan diriku melalui rangkaian kata. Di usia remaja ini, ada banyak pikiran dan perasaan liar yang muncul ketika kita tidak menginginkannya untuk pernah ada. Melawan rasa kegelisahan hanya bisa membesarkannya. Lebih baik memproduksi perasaan baru yang positif.

     Kadang, aku dihantui dengan bukuku. Bukuku yang hilang, bukuku yang malang, bukuku yang tak sempat diproduksi karena aku kehilangan naskahnya. Naskahnya berada di USB Flash Drive dan sayangnya benda mungil itu hilang. Memang isi naskah itu tidak terlalu bagus, tapi seorang penulis dianjurkan untuk tidak lalai menghilangkan naskahnya.

     Kesedihan akan kehilangan naskah membuatku lelah untuk menulis, kehilangan harapan, imajinasi sedang terpuruk dan konsistensi mulai menipis. Aah! Ini semua adalah ujian untuk membuatku keluar dari zona nyaman, untuk menulis yang terbaik dan memberikan yang terbaik pada dunia. Dengan menulis, ide kita bisa abadi dan dipelajari oleh orang-orang di masa depan. Aku butuh energi dan harapan! Kedua hal itu sebenarnya sudah ada di dalam diriku, tapi pernah terkubur dan sedang dalam proses kebangkitan yang mega. 

3rd Newsletter INA YES to U.S. YP15-16 (Dzikra Handika)

"Leave A Life For Life"

This newsletter has been posted on May 17, 2016 on 
LINK: Leave A Life For Life - Bina Antarbudaya on Medium

2nd Newsletter INA YES to U.S. YP15-16 (Dzikra Handika)

This newsletter has been posted on February 16, 2016 on Newsletter INA YES to U.S - Mid West YP 15-16 (2nd Edition)

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1st Newsletter INA YES to U.S. YP15-16 (Dzikra Handika)

This newsletter has been posted on November 16, 2015 on Newsletter INA YES to U.S - Mid West YP 15-16 (1st Edition)

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Kehidupan di Batavia, Illinois, Amerika Serikat

    Batavia adalah suburban kota Chicago. Suburban adalah suatu pemukiman yang terbentuk karena pertumbuhan jumlah penduduk di kota besar yang melaju cepat. Kalau diibaratkan nih ya: andaikata Chicago itu adalah Medan, maka Binjai adalah Batavianya. Andaikata Jakarta adalah Chicago, maka Bogor adalah Batavianya.

Ehh, tunggu dulu! Chicago itu kota besar yang menjadi tempat syuting beberapa film ternama di Amerika Serikat, bukan? IYA, BENAR.

Cek disini: Movies filmed in Chicago

Chicago

INFORMASI UMUM

Kota: Batavia

County (kabupaten): Kane

State (negara bagian/provinsi): Illinois

Luas Area: 25km2 atau 9.64 sq mi

Jumlah Penduduk: 26,318 Jiwa (perkiraan 2012)

Kepadatan: 1019 jiwa/km2

LOKASI

    Batavia terletak sekitar 41 miles (66 km) dari pusat kota Chicago. Batavia adalah bagian dari Tri-City area, yang merupakan area vernakular bersama kota Geneva dan St. Charles. Jika ketiga kota ini digabung, maka akan terlihat seperti sebuah kota independen karena ketiga kota ini memiliki iklim, keadaan lingkungan dan kondisi perekonomian yang hampir sama. Sudah hal yang lazim jika penduduk Batavia suka berbelanja ke Geneva, atau penduduk Geneva suka mendatangi restoran di St. Charles, atau penduduk St Charles yang berwisata ke Batavia.

LANDMARKS

Sekilas suasana parade Homecoming di Batavia, bersama anggota International Club:

Pusat Kota Batavia
Sumber: classicrealtyhome.com

Pusat Kota Batavia
Sumber: altamanu.com

Salah satu penampakan kota Batavia saat sore

Dari Jembatan Fox River

Batavia High School's Football Field

Near by: Harold Hall Quarry Beach

Dari parkiran Restoran Chilli

Lingkungan perumahan:

KONDISI EKONOMI

    Ini nih bagian favorit saya. Teman-teman pasti tahu bahwa New York City (NYC) adalah kota para milyader di dunia. Tapi, kesenjangan sosial di NYC terbilang tinggi. NYC juga memiliki banyak pengangguran. Sehingga, Batavia memiliki nilai rata-rata pendapatan rumah tangga yang jauh lebih tinggi dari New York City ataupun rata-rata nasional (Amerika Serikat) karena umumnya kondisi perekonomian penduduk Batavia cukup merata. Saya sudah tinggal lebih dari enam bulan di Batavia tetapi saya tidak pernah sekalipun menemukan tuna wismawan.

BATAVIA

Median (nilai tengah) pendapatan rumah tangga per tahun:	$90,228
Pendapatan rumah tangga (rata-rata) per tahun:	$113,923

Sumber: Housing in Batavia

NEW YORK CITY Median (nilai tengah) pendapatan rumah tangga per tahun: $50,711

Median Income in NYC

AMERIKA SERIKAT

Median (nilai tengah) pendapatan rumah tangga per tahun: $51,939

Pendapatan rumah tangga (rata-rata) per tahun: $72,641

Sumber: Household Income in the US

Tapi, jangan salah sangka. Kehidupan di Batavia tidak dipenuhi dengan materialistis dan hedonisme. Saya malah sangat terinspirasi dengan gaya hidup masyarakat Batavia.

Hal yang saya pelajari, adalah:

INDEPENDEN

    Secara keseluruhan, Amerika Serikat mempunyai persentase penduduk sebagai wirausahawan yang lebih tinggi dari Indonesia. Begitu pula dengan Batavia. Banyak penduduk Batavia yang memiliki bisnisnya tersendiri meskipun mereka sudah menyandang status profesi yang lain. Contoh terdekat adalah kedua orang tua angkat saya. Mereka berprofesi sebagai dokter hewan, tetapi mereka juga berprofesi sebagai pemilik klinik hewan tersebut - bahkan mereka punya dua klinik dan memperkerjakan orang lain.

PEKERJA MUDA

    Umumnya anak remaja di Amerika Serikat bekerja paruh waktu untuk perencanaan finansial yang akan digunakan saat memasuki Perguruan Tinggi. Tapi, jumlah pekerja muda di Batavia sangat signifikan.

Hampir di seluruh restoran atau toko di kota Batavia, ada anak SMA sebagai pelayan paruh waktu di dalamnya. Mereka diajarkan mandiri mencari nafkah sejak muda. Terlebih lagi, banyaknya orang dewasa yang memiliki toko atau restoran, sehingga membutuhkan banyak pekerja muda. Mereka tidak malu bekerja, meskipun orang tua mereka terbilang sejahtera secara materi.

RELAWAN

    Di Batavia, banyak sekali tempat untuk mengayomi orang yang kurang mampu. Di sekolah saya, juga banyak sekali klub relawan yang mengumpulkan kebutuhan sandang untuk mereka. Saya pernah menjadi relawan di Batavia Food Pantry. Itu adalah tempat dimana para toko grosir menyumbangkan kebutuhuhan pangan. Yang paling saya kagumi ketika menjadi relawan disana adalah ketika orang-orang yang mendapat bantuan tersebut mengambil kebutuhan secukupnya.

Contoh: A (orang yang mendapat bantuan) berhak mendapatkan 3 botol shampo, 3 bar sabun, 3 buah kotak sereal, 3 kaleng daging. Namun, karena A tahu diri dan hanya mengambil kebutuhan secukupnya, A hanya mengambil 2 botol shampo, 3 bar sabun, 1 kotak sereal dan 3 kaleng daging. Biasanya, orang yang kurang mampu akan mengambil sebanyak-banyaknya, tapi tidak dengan penduduk di sini.

Bangkitlah Pemuda Indonesia — Good News from Indonesia

24 Hours per Day to Accomplish

    When I was in 8th grade, I complained once about the time that I have in my life which is 24 hours per day. I really wanted to make a novel, I was very passionate about writing. But, feels like I didn't have enough time. I had to do hours of doing homework and getting good grades at school. I wished that I had 26 hours per day, which is impossible.

    As I am getting older, I feel that 24 hours per day is enough. Complaining takes time, right? We complain because we think about the future and assume that there will be no time to do the next tasks. But, do we realize that when we are complaining and not focusing on the present moment, we are actually wasting our time. Probably, the time that we have wasted for complaining is the same amount with the time that we can use for getting done another task.

    It feels crazy to know what I wanted at that time. I wanted to make a novel, get the top 10 highest grade in my middle school, be active on Twitter and Blog, and wanted to watch movie in cinema twice in a week. Do you want to know what was the result? I did not get anything of those!  But, it was totally okay. It gave me a lesson that I have to prioritize my goals.

     When I just started my 9th grade, I told myself that I just wanted to focus on my academic life and finally I got good grade and continue my study in top high school in an excellent class. (In Indonesia, student start the high school at 10th grade and it is not moving class. You have to stay in the same classroom everyday because the teacher moves from one class to another class. In my school, they have a placement test. The top 36 students will be placed in an 'excellent class' and will get more homework and more challenging classes).

     Approximately a year ago, I started to think about the importance of accomplishing another dream. "What is the benefit? Why I have to do that? Do I really want to accomplish that? Does it make me happy? Does it have any impacts to the society?" I have seen a lot of articles tell that we have to be careful about what we want to accomplish. Some people want to accomplish a dream to proof his/her haters that he/she can. Some people want to achieve something for getting people's approval. But of course, some people still want to achieve something to give positive impacts to the society. So, whenever we start a plan to achieve something, make sure that we are in pure mind and calm condition.

The biggest dream of the human is to be happy

   Two days ago, I read an article written by the founder of PrepScholar who attended Harvard University. The article is How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, by a Harvard Alum. I have read a lot of article about tips to get good grades, get high score of SAT/ACT, and how to get into top university. But, this one is the longest and my favorite! It enlightened me to plan better about my study. That article told me that instead of being a well-rounded student, we have to be a 'big spike' or in another name: We have to be a world-class student who masters something that we really love and passionate about.

    If Bill Gates can't plays Football, who cares? He owns Microsoft, dude!. If J.K. Rowling is very bad in Biology, who cares? Hundreds million copies of her novel have been sold! We don't have to be good in science, sport, and art at the same time, right?
Anyway, that article drove me to start doing what I really love. I am happy to do what I love. I could be a master of anything, but not everything. Everyone could be a master of what they love. I love to study Humanities and Social Studies. So, what about you?