Historical Holiday: A Candid Experience of One’s Ancestry - China [Part II]

After these tiring days, our large group of thirty individuals was split into two separate destinations; one heading towards Shanghai and another towards Mei Zhou, the land of the Chinese dialects of ‘Khek’. As a prerequisite note, it is known that China is a vast country filled with different dialects, (the majority of dialects known are ‘Khek’ and ‘Hokkian’) just as Indonesia has innumerable tribes, ranging from the Sundanese, Bataknese and others. My mom’s family are ‘Khek’ and we are going to the village of where her grandfather came from. It was a short flight from Beijing to Guang Zhou, there we have to walk (yes, walk) from the airport to the train station through the main road which was approximately 500 meters. In the journey, a person with very similar appearances to a friend walked across, and it was quite hilarious. Skipping to the train station, we took a bus instead and had an eight hour drive to Mei Zhou, a distant town from the main city. We eventually arrived in front of our hotel, possibly the only five star hotel in the isolated little town. Surprisingly, it was 200 yuan (converted to approximately Rp. 240,000) for a presidential suite and for such a luxurious facility. We then had a supper in the market below on the road side. The famous ‘Yam Mie’ (noodles) known as one of the authentic delicacy of the Khek, was served everywhere, even in the late night. Another surprising fact that it was really cheap in comparison to the amount of meal they served. Fifteen portions costs about 40 yuan (Rp. 48,000). This made me deduce of how low their standards of living are, and how could one possibly survive there?

The next morning, we were picked up by our long lost blood family that remained in China. To elaborate, this was the story of my family from the words of my grandmother: My great-grandparents (from my mother’s side) had just given birth to a daughter when an invasion occurred in China. They wanted to flee, but their in-laws restrict them for they assume that they won’t return if they brought their child with them. They left the child in China and bravely ventured out to Indonesia. (This moment of time, the brothers were also brought with them, all except one, who was again restricted to leave. They all went all over Indonesia, some went to Timor, and some went to Pontianak). My great-grandparents again gave birth, this time to a son, my grandfather. After several years, they also adopt some other kids. For the rest of their days, they did not return to China, not to see their daughter, but instead, moved to Jakarta and has settled there after the marriage of my grandfather.

In 1978, there was a medical crisis of grandaunt in China, my grandfather went there for the first time to aid her by bringing her to a doctor, outside the village. It was a horrible journey there, especially in 1978, no actual roads were built around the area of the village, no mechanical engineered vehicle and the largest obstacle, the mountain. And that was the first and last time they saw each other. Now, 29 years later, my grandfather forbade us to visit the village for its troublesome journey. He himself won’t even go to China. Here we are, now, 29 years later, meeting our last blood family existing in China.

The road towards the village certainly is long and the fact that there were no roads back then gave the horrible impression. There was a small long path leading to the front of the village, at the foot of the mountain on the other side. (No wonder, my grandfather said not to go). This particular blood grandaunt strokes my memories of the past of the face of my great-grandmother (her mother). We were greeted with innumerable explosions of firecrackers (a traditional method in alerting people of an occasion) Yes, some tears were shed, and I became known to cousins I never knew existed. Days were spent together in mostly talking and shopping together. Saw pictures and portraits of my grandfather in the room. Their village was particularly intriguing. It is a small land, divided into rooms of family members and the center was a place of praying and the living room. Such isolated location with such primitive lifestyle, no wonder one of the remaining brother (who was not allowed to go out of China last time) said to my mother that she was lucky her grandfather bravely went out of the country at that time. (This again reflected to me, for I might not exist if my mother did not meet my father in America).

Goodbyes were mentioned, and some promised that we would meet again and would visit us in Indonesia. Our vacation continued with another bus journey, this time for about eight hours to the place where the British once ruled, Hong Kong.

Our segregated family members from Shanghai were gathered towards the same hotel in Hong Kong. That next morning, the majority of the family members went to Hong Kong Disneyland, my own family on the other hand didn’t, my father refused for our family have been to Disney World in Florida few months ago. Thus, that following day, I wandered in the streets of Hong Kong. My mom went shopping with her friends as well as my dad followed her around, I eventually followed around with no aim within mind. I tried to find a replacement 5x5 rubik’s cube in Toys R’ Us, but they only sell 3x3; that is just sad…

It was finally time for us to go back to Jakarta. On the other hand, my father went on a different flight, back to China for business and in the Hong Kong airport, we separated. In the airport, I stumbled upon an old friend whom was once enrolled in SPH and we chatted for a while and found out that we are in the same flight back home to Jakarta. In the flight, some more movies were watched, such as ‘License to Wed’ casted Robin Williams and Mandy Moore as well as a fascinating documentary of Chelsea, the soccer team. Other than that, I taught my cousins who bought the 3x3 rubik’s cube until we arrived in Jakarta. That would probably sum up my holidays, my almost two full weeks of holiday.

Historical Holiday: A Candid Experience of One’s Ancestry - China [Part I]

As the Lebaran holiday approaches, a dinner with the big family with relatives from my father’s side was held in a usual authentic Chinese restaurant where “Big Daddy” (Grandfather) announced that he wanted his grandchildren to go witness the improvement of his village in China. One of my uncles then added the fact that in majority of the grandchildren have not been to the eminent Great Wall of China whilst giving a weird statement saying that one is not truly Chinese until they have been to the Great Wall. Thus, it was then decided that there will be a trip around China for the holidays which consists fifteen of my relatives.

We left on the tenth in the morning where the flight was delayed due to mental difficulties of the cooperation of the airport staffs in handling the immigration. Our group was the last to enter the aircraft with passengers staring at us, yet we could not care less for it was not our fault the immigration was done in such dull manners. Approximately four hours later, we landed in Hong Kong to transit for three hours before continuing to Fu Zhou, the city where my grandfather (of my father’s side) grew up.

We arrived at the airport at night when we saw that our grandfather picked us up using a huge bus. Two hours later, we arrived at a tall house isolated from the city. It was located in some rural area where not many houses were built. This is the new improved house of my grandfather. We then settled in our provided bedrooms, I shared a room with my other cousins prior to playing cards throughout the night. Towards the next few days, we were shown the construction of his deed in improving his village, the schools he established and his factory where he produce different kinds and sizes of pipes and different thickness of tires built in layers to be inserted within the pipe. Additionally, we were also told the intriguing structure of homes in surrounding areas, my grandma’s house particularly: The tall structure of the house was specifically made for the next generations. For example: the first floor is for the grandparents, the second floor has three rooms for the first son and his wife, the second son and his wife and the third son and his wife, as the third floor might have several rooms for several grandsons and their wives.

The next city to visit is Beijing, the capital city of China. As you readers may recall, it is where the World Olympics will be held in 2008, in their currently constructed stadium known as the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and the ‘Water Cube’. In a private tour, we ventured upon many historical heritages protected by the country and the world as well: The Summer Palace, the Underground Palace, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall of China. Here we inherited immense knowledge concerning many dynasties of China and how each of them fell within time, the symbolism Chinese used in objects correlating to their beliefs. These attractions were very much fascinating as much as it was very much exhausting. Walking around hundreds and hundreds of hectares everyday causes one to be physically weary and the fact that it is a Chinese tour, the history was informed with the Chinese language, thus, causing mental weariness of translating for the sake of comprehension. Additionally, we walked for five towers through the Great Wall of China which can be converted to approximately four kilometers in average (please note that it is not a walk on a flat surface such as the mall, it is a constantly changing gradient of surface). By the end of the tour, a sad moment occurred. My beloved 5x5 rubik’s cube was lost in the tour bus due to the mistake of our tour leader exchanging buses. (It was supposedly be a private tour bus, but somehow a miscommunication occurred) Now, my rubik’s cube would most likely by in the hands of a dim-witted Beijing child, never to be solved again…

News During the Break

This term break feels like the most enjoyable holiday out of all the other holiday. After suffering the painful introduction of IB, its devious assignments, we actually have a break!!! Even with the holiday homeworks, most of us just don't care it anymore for in the end most of us has managed to condensed the 2 weeks homework into a 2 days work. Several just ignore it and didn't do it. Haha

Yet, even if we have a happy time, the world is still revolving and so does the news that keeps revolving around tragedies articles such as death...

So here I was, embarking to Singapore along with my parents and other relatives. I was so bored to death in the plane because I didn't feel like reading the novel that I brought on that day. Without further thinking, I asked the stewardess for the newspapers she was distributing. I read and skipped articles and I found quite many interesting news. One news was regarding a house that is built in form of a humongous toilet bowl in the middle of a tranquil garden. The reason of this architectural model is because the owner of the house was born in a toilet! Subsequently, he is also wanted to raise the awareness of clean toilets! However, only a couple pages from this extravagant event lies the news that is filled with tragedy. The word that means "the shooting of teachers and teenagers which ended with the killer committing suicide." In other words: the 2nd Virginia Tech incident.

The unfortunate event took place in SuccessTech Academy, Cleveland, Chicago, and it was done by a 14-year-old boy Asa Coon. His intention to kill is due to his suspension 2 days before the bloodbath. At the day of the shooting, Coon suddenly entered the hallway and fired several rounds; causing (at least) 2 teachers and 2 students to be injured. These 2 teachers are the teachers who are involved in his earlier suspension regarding his in-school fight. Luckily, the principal announced a "code blue" signal immediately; alerting all people in the school to hide and to lock classes. As the result, they are saved indeed.

After roaming from floor to floor shooting, when he reached the 4th floor, Coon went into a classroom and shoot himself with his .38 and .22-calibre guns. Investigators had deduced that the reason Coon committed a suicide because he realize that the police had surrounded the building and he has no way out.

However, after all investigations police still don't know exactly what is the motive of this shooting. Asa Coon records told us that he is an infamous delinquent in his school who once was put in a juvenile delinquent center and used to be suspended for attempting to harm other student physically.

How about our perspective? Can we also deduce that this is mainly a just-for-fun activity for him because he is a brutal delinquent? Or maybe because of today's teenager problem - peer pressure? After all, a student heard that Coon bellowed "Shut up, shut up, I hate this school" while he's shooting all over the hallway.

You see guys, our world is worsening by night and tragedies' origins are beginning to vary: from adults to teenagers who just have their puberty. Children's naughtiness is not all about breaking porcelain or throwing toys anymore, it is now all about killing! It gets into my mind that the more modern and innovative our world be, our way of living becomes stupider. From my perception, in developed countries like USA, parents sometimes scold their children without thinking the proper usage of words: they slander, slap, and sometimes spit.

Moreover, our educational that constantly blossoms and gain more versatile knowledge plus the advance (and sometimes overrated) establishment of school rules equals students whose patience have reached their limit due to the stress of many factors such as the rules that sometimes nonsense, become paranoia, and cannot suppressed their devilish plan of killing and torturing people. Nonetheless, peer pressure that becomes common in every teenager's school life, plays a role as a catalyze in the breakdown of teenagers' good mind set.

I hope that teachers and counselors will detect this notorious issue and the affected students, and know the action that should be taken. They should know the nature & characteristic of those students and choose the appropriate action that the students actually want you to do but they cannot say it out loud because maybe he will be bullied or pranked if other students know about it.

The way-of-thinking development of young teenagers are mostly affected by their teachers, since they spent 2/3 of their day in school.

Good teacher or bad teacher? that is the question!

*just a fun fact: why does this shooting-and-suicide incidents always occur to schools that has the word Tech on their name?

Fridays with DaNte

Fridays with DaNte 26 - October - 2007

School! We are back to school... YAYYYY!!! I am so excited... NOT! It was a very quick holiday, and it went really fast. I wished it was longer... but I had a pretty good holiday anyway. Anyways, back to the reality! The first week of the holiday was well... quite hectic. I had to finish homeworks that were supposed to be done during the holiday. I had minimum amount of sleep, and mostly all because of HOMEWORKS!!! WHOO! And I didn't procrastinate... *smile* hey why is my nose growing longer? Anyways... let us begin then.

Erratic Picture of the Day




Auspicious Quote

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain." Anonymous

Word of the Day

Impoverished - very poor

Core Topic of the Day

Since no one wants to continue the chain story... I'll just write a topic of my own then.

Joy to Jakarta, for a path extension of its most infamous public transportation, Busway! The Busway now has a more diverse route all over Jakarta, including the West side. Soon a single lane 'CREATED' by the government will be available exclusively for the Busway. There are more ways to travel around Jakarta, at a cheaper price! This Busway will surely have positive impacts, and will completely obliterate our most aggravating problem in Jakarta, traffic jam! Traveling time will never feel more expedite than ever before, and you will enjoy your trip everywhere in Jakarta. Busway, the best public transportation in Jakarta, is committed in creating a more convenient way of traveling.

Well, anyone who actually believes such an anti-thesis of reality is basically, sorry to say this, stupid. In reality, the recent construction of Busway lanes have created myriads of traffic problems everywhere in Jakarta. The Busway lane took one lane in the road. For instance, if a the road has 3 lanes for every transportation, the Busway lane took one. Imagine this, for a 3 lane road there's almost always traffic jams. What will happen with 2?! Every single day I have to endure the pain of traffic jams during school trip departures and returns. Today, on a Saturday, trips actually take twice longer, even more. My usual 10 minutes trip to a lesson had changed into a tedious, resentful 30 minutes trip. The usual time taken for me to travel from my house to the Taman Anggrek Mall was around 30 minutes, but now it morphed into a ludicrous and useless 1 hour 20 minutes (approximately) trip. The Busway lanes are open for everyone, but its barely useful. The lane was higher than the road, hence people cannot directly go into the lane. Does Busway actually have a significant role in our society? I guess not.

The governments of Indonesia have a very myopic view of this situation. The new government, Fauzi Bowo, mentioned that "I haven't come up with an instant solution for this problem," in Kompas, last week. "Busway is created to reduce the amount of traffic," Fauzi mentioned (as far as I remember). What happened in reality was the opposite of what was planned. The traffic went rambunctious as days pass. This stipulates the first failure of Fauzi Bowo to handle a crisis in our city. Through inductive logic, we can simply jump into a conclusion; All Jakarta governments are the same, egoistic and brainless money-stealer. But, keep in mind that I might be wrong, for I am not a trustworthy primary source of political information.

In other countries, such as Singapore and England, they charge people who enters a certain zone in a rush-hour. This system reduced traffic up to 30%, so efficient that they are expanding the zone in the near future, as I heard from Eric McSylar (not the real name). I've also heard that Indonesian governments or political characters have traveled to a variety of foreign countries. Why cant the Indonesian government apply foreign country's laws and policies for the benefit of their home country? Is applying a rule so arduous that even political authorities cannot spend time to think and create a lucrative policy? The governments cannot even solve the simpler problem of Jakarta. In the toll road cashier gate, there are often traffic jams, as you all may know. Why? For %#@!'s sake it's a friggin TOLL ROAD! It's not supposed to have ANY traffic jam (sorry for the sudden burst of emotion). Malaysia, one of Indonesia's closer neighbor have applied the 'Touch 'n Go' system in their toll roads. The system works like this: you drive, you put up your card within the range of the card detector, and you leave. You don't even have to open your window to detect your card. Why can't the government create such a useful system instead of putting big ugly orange buses that takes a whole lane?

We cannot know for sure what the Indonesian government might be thinking. Maybe they have a grand plan for the Busway, or maybe they do not want to deal with us. I believe our city does not need any more public transportation, since there are throngs of public transportation. It's even better if the government substitute the public transportation with brand new ones. If the governments does not make any improvements, we will soon see the deterioration of this beloved country of ours. I do hope the brainless and inconsiderate governments somehow open this website and read what is written here. Sorry if this post is similar to that of Gary's or anyone else's! I just have to write my thoughts and ideas about this crisis somehow.

Joke of the Day

For weeks a six-year old lad kept telling his first-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister that was expected at his house. One day the mother allowed the boy to feel the movements of the unborn child. The six-year old was obviously impressed, but made no comment. Furthermore, he stopped telling his teacher about the impending event. The teacher finally sat the boy on her lap and said, "Tommy, whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at home?" Tommy burst into tears and confessed, "I think Mommy ate it!"

The Time Traveler's Wife Review

After weeks of neglecting my dutiful task to read for pleasure (note the paradox), I finally finished reading a book which I borrowed from the library. It’s called The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. It tells an unusual tale of a couple whose love endures and conquers over time as one of the partners is an involuntary time traveler. You might think, same old, same old. Many books and movies have dealt with the same theme of the “victory of love over time”, but in my opinion, none of them has made this topic as brilliant, exciting, and insightful as this book has done.

One of the most intriguing things about this book is that it leaves the readers a sense there is more to love than love itself. Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire have the most extraordinary relationship ever as Henry’s uncontrollable time traveling bars them from having a typical romance. This caused problems that challenge the strength of their love for each other, one of which being fear of the known – and the unknown, for that matter. I do not wish to spoil the story of the book, but there are many scenes which describes how Claire, as a child and teenager, already knows that Henry is her future husband due to the fact that he frequently goes time traveling to Claire’s youthful epoch. Along with many other scenes, this book demonstrates how love prevails over factors that seem to be beyond of our grasps - factors such as age, death, and time. Such idea gives readers a new perception on love which is different from that of what they normally perceive. However, as imaginative and enchanting as the story might be, I believe this book also handles love realistically. The author did not attempt to avoid conflicts that may arise from relationships; in fact, Henry and Claire’s relationship contains flaws that are far from the concept of perfect love. There is a time when one of them cheats on the other; there are times when dishonesty and hidden secrets are discovered from each other. Nonetheless, they struggle and persevere to overcome their faults, which develop their love and further emphasize the mentioned theme above.

Although this is a fictional tale (as I am sure none of you are able to time travel), the foundation regarding love remains universal for all of us. What we can relate to and learn from this book is that we should try our best to love everyone unconditionally, looking past their differences, weaknesses, and faults, and to help improve them through the means of supporting their virtues and strengths. It is hard, and sometimes it feels impossible to do so. But imagine a world without a single shred of love; can anyone survive in such a world? For those love skeptics out there that doubt the book and my opinion of it, yes, I agree that love is not as triumphant or glorious as it sounds like in most stories, but each and every one of us should strive anyway to love other people with our utmost efforts.

Thus I encourage you all to read this book, particularly girls who are usually interested in romantic novels. For those of you who are wondering the style of which the book is written in, all I can say is that it is beautifully written, with flowing, poignant words that will really set your imagination working wonderfully. Trust my words for it. =)

~Agie

Agnes' Stream of Consciousness

Note: This was something I wrote a few weeks ago in Ms. Jess’ class.

I am sitting on a chair, writing aimlessly on a piece of paper with this sleek silver pen my dad bought me when he was overseas I think this ‘Stream of Consciousness’ is a pretty fascinating idea because really, I do not have to think hard about anything whatsoever and I like the idea of writing without having to think I love how Ms. Jessica’s room smell of coffee and is really cold – it makes me feel as if I’m at a foreign country like Canada, oh, I would love to go to Canada or Europe for a vacation and road trip even though Europe will be cooler due to its longer history, oh, I love how traveling makes me feel – I feel like I’m beyond the grasp of reality – free from all the hassles that I know I must go through if I stay in Indonesia which leads me to the topic of universities; I really want to go to St. Andrews University right now – a part of the attraction is perhaps due to the fact that Prince William used to attend the university but it is also because it seems very prestigious and exclusive as it is located in Scotland, and I like to imagine that it’s a place where not many people have gone to and thus I will be able to discover hidden places that no person has ever set foot across – it also reminds me of Neverland and Peter Pan, I really love the concept of not growing up and living in an idealistic realm where I can venture out and fly, fly, fly whenever I think of happy thoughts (which will happen all the time), dashing through the cool, fluffy clouds, breathing in the fresh air above the jungles and forests of Neverland, playing with dainty fairies – I know not growing means that I’m not living at all as growing up is a vital essence of life itself and if I decide to fly to Neverland (providing that it is real in the first place) I will be forever barred from the essence of life itself and I’ll become a stone which exists in the world, but quite worthless okay so now Meta is walking around the room and James is being really loud and is causing an amok and I’m getting distracted –I’m also craving for some cheese pretzels I ate in the beginning of class- Meta said something about “faggots” and I think the word is very peculiar because it rhymes with maggots, this reminds me of the Iran president who claimed that homosexuality never existed in his country while there was a homosexual couple who were executed and condemned for being who they are and how dare did the president make such claim but I do feel sorry for him because he got invited to talk at the University of Columbia in the US, only to receive ridicules and be the target of mockery even in the introduction when he was introduced to talk in front of the students and staffs I think even though he’s an aberrant to the society people should respect him considering that they were the ones who invited him to the seminar in the initial place – talk about disrespect, I hate it when people disrespects me it’s perturbing and I’m getting sleepy now I’m tired of life, I’m tired of IB I just want to flee away from all this mess but really I would be satisfied if I just get my sleep but nooo I’m going to have math tuition this after school speaking of which got me thinking about math and I really hate math okay I do not wish to speak about it anymore I think the Starbucks tumbler in front of me is really cute I also think this other guy is really cute and no, he’s not in this class but I guess I do like him but he’s probably not going to like me in return – not that I should care anyway.

Another Note: How’s THAT for a single sentence! =D

Lindsay Lohan Broke!

I was mindlessly browsing through the internet as a result of boredom when a headline caught my attention. It claims, “Lindsay Lohan: Broke?” Typically I wouldn’t take heed of gossip news particularly towards overrated celebrities such as her, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton. However, this article managed to catch my eye as I couldn’t imagine how a Hollywood celebrity can be broke. Here’s an excerpt of the article:

“… the Hollywood it-girl is completely broke after blowing her fortune on her lavish party lifestyle!The troubled actress has apparently spent a staggering $7.75 million (yep, that's nearly 8 million dollars) over the last few months.

Now Lindsay has been forced to sell both her luxurious properties - her $1.1 million New York apartment and a $3.15 million apartment in LA.So what exactly has she been splurging her money on? Apparently a lot of stuff:

A million dollars on one hotel bill
A million dollars on clothes
Over $500,000 on partying
$500,000 on 24-hour chauffeur service
$350,000 on luxury Mercedes and BMWs
$137,000 in rehab costs
$70,000 on tanning and hair-styling

A source close to the star said that Lindsay is hoping to fix her financial problems by getting some new film work. "The only reason she's coming back to L.A is to earn some money fast.

"The trouble is, she's been criticized by important people in the film industry for being unprofessional on set, which could make it difficult to find a director willing to hire her...”

I could not believe it. It is incredulous to the extent that it is actually pretty funny. Although this might be tragic for her, I do not feel any remorse or sympathy. If she has any indication of a brain, she would have not squandered that much money (such as spending a million dollars on a SINGLE hotel bill). I think celebrities are so vulnerable to ruining their lives due to self obsession. They have forgotten that they are - like it or not – normal people whose money can disappear within a matter of days, hours, even seconds. Lindsay could have lived a life without having to work anymore; the millions of dollars which she possessed could have made her fully capable of that. Or she could have done something virtuous with her money: she could have donated it to the charity, or she could have financially support an underprivileged child. Could have, could have, could have. It is foolish of her to misuse most of her money on materialistic and perishable things such as clothes, partying, drugs, and what not. Now she must bear the consequences she reaped, and she has no one but herself to blame. Shame, shame. Hence, let that be a lesson for all of us, that even though it is fine to indulge in worldly splendors from time to time, we must not let it go over our heads, okay? :)

~Agie

Fridays with DaNte! Last Post Before Holiday (Written during the holidays actually ^^)

Fridays with DaNte! Whee!

Yay! it's the holidays! It is the time where us IB students exult after a term of torment and hardwork. However, the heartless and unmerciful teachers of IB Diploma sentenced us with homeworks during our peaceful holiday. ANYWAYS! Let us finish this *cough stupid cough* blog. *Ehm* yes... lets go.


Erratic Picture of the Day



Auspicious Quote

"Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody."

Benjamin Franklin

Word of the Day

usurp (verb) - take illegally or by force

CHAIN STORY!!!

"...ke.....p...." A distant voice vaguely resonated in my head. I faced towards the direction of the voice, but I didn't see anyone. "Wa..... u..." said the enigmatic voice. I tried to understand what he/she is trying to say, but my brain was dormant. I ran towards the direction of the voice, suddenly I see a brilliant light ahead of me. I sprinted towards the light, and suddenly the light intensified and it covered the overwhelming darkness. Then I saw a face. A big round face. It was Mr. Edward Ancient. "Wake up. You are a lazy person. You have no future! You cannot even do math, which is simple, easy and beautiful. Use your eyes!" he said in an ominous voice. I woke up from the atrocious nightmare. I screamed "Ampun Pak Edward!!!" to the top of my lungs.
"What has got into you Kwan? You are disrupting the class!" Ms. McBlonde yelled at me. She continued reading the extremely tedious book called 'The Great Gatsby'. The story consists of a young affluent man and a shallow woman. They get together, have a brief moment of romance, man died, woman ran, an epitome of nowadays' love life. Sigh... the love life... what am I going to do with 'her'? I wish I have a love life with her. I want to share my life with her... share my love... my heart... No, I'll give her all of my heart.
But why would she want to be with me? I am just an idiot who never excel in my academic or athletic life. Despite all my friend's auspicious comments, I still see myself in a dour and low image. My truly kind and magnanimous friend, Edward Hothandsomecoolsexyman, said that I am very well-rounded and I am not a failure. However, I never listen to him. He is very nice and caring to me, and to everyone he knows. I think he is the most kind and loving out of all my friends. He's also the hottest and most handsome out of all the boys in the school. Edward has a myriad of fans, and even male fans. I think I might be one of them. He is just so hot. Oh my gosh! He is sooo smoking hot... I am just soooo turned on by just looking at him. He is intellectual, handsome, hot, ssSssSssSssssSsSsSsexy... rawwRRrR, kind, versatile and wise... ughh... he is HOT! UGH!

........


I am so sorry. I was in a 'moment'. Anyhow... I don't feel like I excel in anything... I am a failure, a big failure! I should just die! ... Wait! I've heard this before, I think I've heard it from my uber pessimistic friend named Ivana George. I don't want to be like him... His nickname in a messanging service is always about him and failures such as loser, execrable grades, fail, and etc. No... I must be courageous and self-confident! I must gain kudos amongst my classmates and I must excel in school. I am not a failure... I am the ANTONYM of LOSERS! I am... KWAN MCDONNY! THE BEST STUDENT IN THE WORLD! MY STUPID FRIEND EDWARD HOTHANDSOMECOOLSEXYMAN IS THE BIGGEST AND MOST HOPELESS LOSER OF ALL TIMES!
Subconsciously, I stood up and yelled those words. Everyone was staring at me, looking at me with confused faces. I glanced at my surroundings, and then I awkwardly and slowly sat down. Edward was staring at me, and I looked at away. Few minutes later I found myself inside the principals office, waiting for the principal to come talk to me. The principal's name is Daisy Buchanan, similar to that of the girl in Great Gatsby. "You're academic performance have dropped significantly, Kwan. You used to be an eminent academic challenger, but what happened?" she asked sternly. I was silent. I know why, but I am too embarrassed to tell the reason.
"I... I think I'm in lo..." I shyly said until the dumb girl, named Nandeeta Creates barged in the room. She is the ghetto girl who always wear skirts that only cover 1/10 of her thighs. I think everyone in the school have seen her... nevermind. "Welcome Deeta, have a seat and I'll be right there with you soon," Mrs. Buchanan said.
"Ughh..." scoffed Deeta.
Mrs. Buchanan looked at me and said, "And you were saying..."

JOKE OF THE DAY!

A patient, while recovering in the hospital from a heart attack, met this over-zealous evangelist. After listening politely for more than a half hour on how thankful he should be to have been spared, and how he should repent at once, he asked if all of his sins had flashed before his eyes during the heart attack.

The patient responded, "Don't be ridiculous, the attack only lasted six hours!"

The Life of Kwan McDonny - Scene 4

I pick up my brown sling bag, hang it carelessly upon my left shoulder, and hasten my pace to walk out of the room. The topic of love confuses me and I do not wish to spend another second thinking about it. Pssh. I draw a conclusion that love is just a scientific reaction as a result of metabolism. So why does everyone think love is so magical? There is nothing magical about chemical changes in the body. I snort and strides confidently over to Ms. Jessica McBlonde’s classroom.

That is, of course, until I accidentally spot a beautiful someone amongst the bustling crowd. My heart feels like it is skipping over a jump rope at a rate of a hundred times per minute. My legs abruptly freeze to the ground and I am not able to lift it up. My hands are starting to get clammy just by looking at her, even though I am 10 meters away from her. Yes, to make it clear, it is a “she”. And boy, she definitely stands out from any other girls I’ve ever met. As we walk past each other, I discreetly breathe in the subtle, sweet, floral scent that lingers at wherever she passes by and beam over the triumph of having that wonderful opportunity. Realizing how idiotic my beam must look like, I quickly glance around to see if anybody has notice what I did. A couple of people return my panicky stare, but I don’t think they saw me whiffing and beaming ridiculously at that girl. Or did they? Oh man, this is beyond embarrassing. I decide to rush even faster toward my English classroom, but it’s kind of hard to do when 400 hundred other people are trying to reach their class destinations as well through the narrow staircase.

I finally arrive at my classroom, where it supposedly acts as my love-free haven. Plopping myself on a chair next to where my friends are sitting, I feel safe and relieved. However, as Ms. McBlonde starts off the class, my mind is led back to the topic of love and “her”. I evaluate the reactions that took place when she was around me. Is that what they call “love”? Perhaps it’s not love, but it’s definitely an infatuation. Even if the feelings are just products of a biochemical and metabolic reaction, why did it make me feel so… weird? I can hardly believe myself. Five minutes ago I was scoffing at the thought of love. Now, am I actually considering the thought of loving someone? I, Kwan McDonny, sadly admit that I am a moronic hypocrite.

Apparently Ms. McBlonde notices that I am not focusing in class as I am reflecting this enigmatic thought over my head. She says, “OK. Seems to me like not everyone is giving their full attention to what I’m saying. Fine by me, considering that I have the power to give you guys low grades and detention. Right Kwan?” My thought burst, sending me back to the reality of English class. “Right,” I muttered. First Mr. Ancient, now Ms. McBlonde. Darn it. Why am I always busted at such inconvenient times? I try to put the thought of love and “her” away from my mind so that I may concentrate on The Great Gatsby.

…But I still can’t take my mind off “her”.

Chain Story I - Act III

The minutes approaching period two seems quite commonplace taking into account previous class of math. Eleventh graders are either seen to be very depressed and solemnly quiet, or swearing wonderful vocabularies behind the back of Mr. Ancient. In the central staircase, I saw the higher level math students being perfectly calm and cheerful as usual when suddenly, Tom McMushroom appeared from behind wailing, “Fail…fail..fail!!!” As he smashes his empty plastic bottle and one of his shoe. Both of us struggle through the staircase as we finally arrived at the jade doors of J308. Tom suddenly rushed towards the back rows where Ang McBald and Jesse McDream sit to ask several complicated equations from the previous test and found out that it only requires two short lines to finish each problem. Tom was stunned and started banging his head on the hard cold table with tears sprinkling out.

The teacher, Eric McSylar, known to be the ‘Father of Humanities’, cheerfully stated that there is another topic to learn and questioned if we are ready. Gary McGay assiduously lists all the topics existent in the economy world as well as towards other humanities department in endeavor to flaunt the teacher and other student’s attention. Even so, James McAnnoy bellowed to shut Gary’s garrulous nonsense and Mr. Eric himself ignored both students.

“What is love?” Mr. Eric questioned. “Ugh…this is me…” Gary inaudibly whispered. The tediousness of the topic caused several chatting between students in class. Some say rumors is that Mr. Eric finally fell in love with a female economist. This concludes that his falling in love towards this particular lady is considered to have more benefits than other related business in his life. I could see that McDream is feeling the pleasure in rubbing McBald’s head while James and Dita quarrels in such immaturity concerning the ownership of a pink pencil they found on the carpet.

"Love...what is love?" I asked myself. I've heard countless things concerning love. My mind retracts all kinds of information from my brain’s memory, vision, judgment, logic and feeling and their distinctive characteristics about love. “Love is basically an emotion, right?” I asked in my mind, but if you were to think it through again, love is more than a basic emotion. Unlike simple emotions of anger, hate, fear, happiness, sadness, and other emotions, love, is expressed in such oblivious ways that it is sometimes expressed in weird ways. Tough love, for example, it is expressed through some pain for their own good as people mentioned. “Love…makes the world go round…” one of the songs sang by the PowerPuff Girls, rang in my head. Yes, people caring towards each other and showing love between mankind does make the world go round. Makes us feel that we are alive, don’t u think so? Other common kinds of love are expressed through and become a relationship. My mind hurts thinking about that because love relationships tend to get very intricate and complex. Sigh, if you think about it, it is true, what McDream once said, that love is more complicated than math. This is by fact due because it is not absolute. Doing particular steps into obtaining love does not necessarily guarantees that it would be successful. I tried to think of more things pertaining to love…“People do crazy things when they’re in love” is a quote from Disney’s Hercules as I recalled when the bell signaling the end of session rang loudly with announcement synchronizing within the tune.

Time relatively flies when you perceive dumb things. I did not catch much what Mr. Eric mumbles about love. McBald tries to talk in Chinese with McDream by mentioning weird Chinese sentences with grammatical error and wrong structures of sentence and naming the colors for some reason, but nonetheless, the bell signaled the beginning of our break. Third period is English with Ms. Jessica McBlonde and may something decent and virtuous happen in the day.

Chain Story I - Act II

Oh darn, and the first period of the day is mathematics. I am screwed....

[The First Period: Mathematics]

Dashing to the toilet to grab some tissues I am, just in case that my sinus excreted during lesson. I then make my way to my Standard Level math class, which is with by Mr. Ancient Edward. When I want to turn the doorknob , Mr Olwen is behind me and told me to cut my hair - Oh boy, it's not the 1st period yet and I am very screwed. Once I enter the room, I can see the peach-colored class filled with chit-chats from the girls in the back row (talking about how hot Peter Petrelli is, and how sexy Sylar is in HEROES season 2). I walk towards my seat in the front row with all the other boys, drop my folders into the ground, and take a sit. Before I could talk to my friend, Adrian McMoney, the second bell screeched harmoniously and the class suddenly became as silent as the clear blue sky outside. Mr. Ancient close his laptop, as he will start our lesson (that's what we all think). We supposed to learn into a new topic about Complex Number, but his deep and strong voice said: "Ok guys, today we are going to have a sudden test about the previous chapters. I want to check if all of you study at home."
When the echo of his last word vanished, everybody became speechless and the birds are chirping perkily outside. I then feel the deadliest aura emanating from nowhere. After taking so many seconds to realize this unfortunate reality, I turn my head to Adrian McMoney and he did the same thing. We said nothing to each other, but we know what we are trying to say: "we are dead..."

The girls are whining; hoping to extenuate the teacher's heart and will have the test postponed or even canceled. Yet, their charm became oblivious when it reaches his sturdy heart. Instead, he replied the girls coldly with stabbing meanings that are cloaked behind his phlegmatic sarcasm: "If you don't what to take the test, it's okay for me. That means you are smart and you don't need to be in my class right? Marvelous! I can be more relax since I will have less students! Splendid!"
The girls became quiet with raging fury painted on their face.

Without hesitation, he distribute the test papers quickly and we depressively working on it. The test turns out to be a calamity (Actually, all of his tests are calamities) and it gets even worse when it is a non-calculator test. Mr. Ancient is well-known to the students for his cleverness is making question; he makes difficult questions with answers that are VERY easy - it is so easy that you can bang your head to the wall when you know the answer. When he have distributed all papers he speak to us for the last time during that day: "Remember! Use your eyes, don't use your brain."
I scratched my hair relentlessly throughout the test, after reading question after question. For 20 minutes I used most of my brain cells just to recall all the things that I have learned and to organize it which formula is used in each questions - it gives me the feeling when people is constipating during their "session" with the toilet. After killing so many brain cells, I managed to answer most of the questions and I bet my luck in other questions. I finish the test 10 seconds before the bell rang. I never felt so relieved to hear the annoying bell.

Once I have submitted my paper (he took it from me when I was still writing my name down) a friend of mine, Ivana George, came to me with sheer melancholy: "I'M FAILING !!! OH NO I'M FAILING!!" I feel like slapping him right at that moment because he always says that after all tests and it turns out that he always get high scores. "Stuff you!!" I replied. He keeps defending his sarcastic melancholy, but I decided to pretend that he's not there. I packed my stationeries and I serendipitously saw my hairs scattered on the table and covered 1/8 of the table. When I have packed everything, I said goodbye to Mr.Ancient who gives a super sinister smile while looking at some of the test papers. All of us walk out the class with assortment of depressed emotions sketched on our pale faces. I walk through the emergency staircase; heading to my next class...Economy. Once I have reached the third floor, Mr Olwen saw me and shocked: "Wow McDonny, you have cut your hair ?!!? I am touched by your fast rate of responsiveness towards my warning ha-ha-ha"