Day 4, August 20, 2012 (Columbia icefield & Banff)

D4 (August 20, 2012)
Revelstoke -> Columbia Ice Field -> Banff

Another long journey in the bus again 😦 but, I didn’t feel it’s boring at all. Why? Because.. On the way to Columbia ice field, the scenery was beautiful! I totally love it~

In my bus, people who like photography (about 5 people including me) stayed on the back of the bus, and jumping right and left to take photo. When I remember about it again, it was funny.

Thr closer we’re to the glacier, the less trees there are, and the bluer the river and the lakes are.

When we arrived aat the place where the Columbia icefield’s buses are, we bought some things in the souvenir shops, then, we went aboard. After a few minutes, we changed the bus to a big bus with big wheels (I think its wheels diameter is about 160cm, wow)

The glacier at the top of the mountain is good. No comment. We went back to the our bus using the same transportation.

Then, we went to Peyto lake. It was very pretty *O* After that, we went to Bow lake, wide and pretty 😀

Finally, we arrived in the Banff city. The city was unique. I can’t explain it with words.

There are 2 groups from the same tour of mine. My group is the A group. So, we arrived at the restaurant faster than the group B.
We were very hungry, so we asked the restaurant to make our food first. They refused, and told us that they would serve them if the other group come. Whaatt? We waited for 2 hours with hungry stomach! The group B came with innocent face, oh my :/ And.. The one that makes me angry, the food came out together! It’s not fair for our group tour 😦 and how bad the restaurant’s management was.

We finished our late supper at 10pm, and almost all of the shops were closed already. Aarrgghh ;(

Ps: I think I haven’t mention this, I’ll put my photos in my blog later when I’ve came back to my country

D3 (August 19th, 2012) – Vancouver to Kamloops to Revelstoke

D3 (August 19th, 2012)
Vancouver -> Kamloops -> Revelstoke

A full day sitting in the bus. Okay, I’m not serious :p how can I stand sitting in a bus all day? So, we had a long journey, but, we have some stops (+ toilet stop :p)

The first one, we visited Hope Memorial Park. I found some men were carving the wood and made the wood into beautiful carved-wood statue. My tour leader said that this is happened once a year. At the other side, there were lots of dogs, but I don’t know what’s happening tthere. It might be a competition?

Then, we arrived in Kamloops. It’s a beautiful city. We ate at a Chinese restaurant there and after that went to visit ginseng shop. I just knew that there are ginseng in Canada too :O The person said that the North America’s ginseng is colder than Asian’s, it makes us healthier and can be consumed as much as you can.

After that, we went to Last Spike, where the last spike of the East-to-West Canada train is. Well, I didn’t see the end of it x.x

We went pass the 3 Valley Lake Chateau. I hope I can go in >

We did nothing in Revelstoke, only for sleeping. When we was there, my tour leader kept reminding us that there are still lots of bears in thr forest in front of the hotel we stay and gave us advice if we want to go outside it’s better to go with 6 people.

There’s a wifi in the hotel so we stayed in the hotel for the whole night. We got suite room so we also cooked the instant noodle we brought xD

The scenery from Vancouver to Revelstoke (and the hotel view) is pretty so make sure that your camera is always ready 😀

Day 2, City tour in Victoria, Canada (August 18th, 2012)

D2 (August 18th, 2012)
City tour in Victoria

I couldn’t sleep. Yah, I think it’s because of the time difference (GMT-7 here, GMT+7 for my city). I woke up at 4pm (local time) :p

My family and the tour group gathered in the bus at 7.45am and went to the Tsawwassen terminal from our hotel. We took about half hours to get there.

We arrived at the terminal earlier, so we went to the place emmmm.. Sorry I don’t know the name x.x and there are small food shops, coffee shops, and souvenir shops. We went around and bought some British Columbia souvenirs xD

Then, we went inside the ferry. The buses and the cars were in deck 1 if I’m not mistaken. We sat in deck 5. My mom sat there for the whole journey. At 9.45, my dad and I for few long minutes came to the upper deck (the one that opened) and took photos. The scenery was pretty those time 😀 (previously it was just.. Plain). There’s a wifi hotspot in the ferry so after I felt my hands freezing I used the wifi. Unfortunately, after few minutes pass, I could’t use it for both my handphones T.T

After a quite boring time, 15 minutes before the parking gate opened, we went to the bus.
We arrived in Swartz Bay terminal in Victoria! 😀

We went around Victoria, just looked Beacon Hill Park (and took a photo of a peacock), visited the Mile 0 (Mile zero), Parlement building, took a photo of the Empress (it’s an old hotel that have plants on the walls).

After that, we visited the Butchart Garden 😀 it’s a garden with beautifull arrangement of flowers and trees.

There are 5 main gardens. They are:
1. Sunken garden
The most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen! Pretty flowers there! There are also Ross fountain (like a dancing fountain) and Bog garden (I’m sorry I don’t know which one is this garden but I’m quite sure I’ve seen it)
2. Rose Garden
Various beautiful and smell-nice roses 😀 I smelled few of them hahaha xD my dad took a photo of my mom and I were smelling the white roses xDDD
3. Japanese garden
Well, it was green there, lots of trees. There are also some small ponds. To be honest I like the other gardens better.
4. Italian garden
There are flowers again here 😀 and a cross-shaped pond in the middle. It isn’t big so we spent time there not as long as in other gardens. I bought ice cream there xD (seasonal). Yumm
5. Mediterranean garden
I didn’t go there!! 😦 I don’t have enough time. The tour just gave us a very short time in the beautiful Butchart Garden, 1.5 hours 😦 I need more time! T.T in the guide, it’s written that the mediterranean garden features many drought resistant plants from various areas of the world that share similar growing conditions to Canada’s
In my opinion, Sunken garden is the best one because there are lots of flowers there. Butchart garden is one of the must-visit place in Canada!

Arrived in Vancouver ~ D1, August 17, 2012 (Part 2)

D1 (17th of August, 2012)
Surabaya -> Jakarta -> Taipei -> Vancouver

From Surabaya, my parents and I took an 1 hour flight to Jakarta. The plane delayed. The luggage came out very late (my family and I must waited for about 30 minutes, ughh). After that, we came to see the Jakarta’s tour leader, Hero, to put our luggages (I join Jakarta’s group tour and travel). We had our lunch there too.
We flew with China airline from Jakarta to Taipei first. It was A330-300 plane. It wasn’t stable on the air but I love the landing hehehe. We spent the time in plane for about 6 hours. While I was aboard, I watched the Hunger Games movie. After that, I slept (well, I couldn’t sleep, only half assleep xD)
We waited in Taipei international airport for few hours. We ate (but I don’t like the food there x.x). I feel unwell now so I can’t enjoy my time 😦
My flight from Taipei took for about 11 hours (the plane was A340-300). My parents and I sat in the business class~ it was upgraded, because the plane was very full. In the plane, I just fell asleep, only woke up for eating the late supper (I couldn’t eat the supper x.x I just ate the bread) and for eating the breakfast (porridge). Oh, it was very cold inside 😡
Something that I thought unique, 30 minutes before landing, the sun shone brightly outside. 5-25 minutes before landing, it was sunset. When landing, it was 8pm but it was still bright! :O (it’s similar to 5pm in Surabaya, Indonesia).
9pm local time here, the group tour went to the Chinese restaurant.
10.30pm, we checked in in a hotel near the airport.

Day 1 of my Holiday to Canada! – 17 August, 2012

It’s Indonesia’s independence day today!!! 😀 I’m happy as a member of Indonesia xDD

My vacation officially starts today, I will go to Canada!! ^^
But previously, I must take a flight from Surabaya to Jakarta. After that from Jakarta to Taipei, and finally to Canada ^^
Oh, I’m happyyy. I’m writing this in Surabaya’s airport lounge.. Going to update more about my holiday later if I can find wifi 😀

When will you go for the next holiday?

The Celebration of Indonesian Independence Day in My School

August 17 actually is Indonesian Independence Day.

Usually, I must go to school and have the ceremony. But, this time, I won’t need to~! *happy* Only the representative of the class (the ‘head’, the ‘vice head’, the secretary, and the treasurer of my class and other classes in my school) come to school and will have the ceremony XD

But, it doesn’t mean that we don’t celebrate it. We celebrate it. We must do it. It’s our form of pride of our country.

So, yesterday (August 11, 2012), my school held an Indonesian Independence Day celebration. To be honest, it wasn’t fun at all!

For the first thing to do, we (all of the students) did the morning were… morning aerobic. The 7th and the 8th grader of my school did it, but the 9th grader (including me) just did half of it XD

After that, there were 4 kinds of contests: poetry reading contest, speech contest, traditional dance contest, presentation of food contest, and vocal group contest. I didn’t join any of them, and my class joined the vocal group contest. There was a thing that I regret about my class. My class has lots of talented students, in every ‘sector’, such as smart students, creative students, good in music students, good in comedy, etc. There must be 5 people in the vocal group. 2 of my friends very well in guitar and 3 of my friends sing. 2 of my friends who sing are well in singing, but, the other one, I must said that she’s bad in singing, at all! (it’s the girl in my 27th of July 2012 post). And, she brought the mic alone! (my other 2 good-voiced friend used 1 mic only). OMG! Her voice was a false. Because she brought the mic, it ruined the whole performance, even the peak of the songs too!  And, the vocal group ended up lose. The opponent group was more awesome.

Until now, I keep wondering, why didn’t they choose me, who’s better?

If… If they choose me, my class might be win because I can sing in second and third voice, also, my voice is above the average..

I won’t type about the other activities there because there weren’t any fun things to tell 😛

 

When’s the independence day in your country? And how’s the usual celebration at your school / your surroundings? Have you ever feel like what I feel?

 

p.s: I’m sorry if you, the girl, or the girl’s friend, read this. This is what I feel deep inside my heart. Don’t hate me and don’t ask your friends to confront me, please.

27th and 28th of July, 2012 – My Mom’s Friend’s Daughter’s, “SA”‘s Birthday and What I Did On The Next Day

27th and 28th of July, 2012 – My Mom’s Friend’s Daughter’s, “SA”‘s Birthday and What I Did On The Next Day

July 27th, 2012

Nothing was fun on school days -.-

For the first and second lesson, my Religion teacher in class didn’t came in, so there was a teacher who replaced my religion teacher to ‘guard’ us, the students. The religion teacher gave us a task, and we must make a group, both male and female must in the group of 5. The task was to make a quite long essay about our opinion about the quite important thing in my surroundings.

I was in the group with a good writer. But the thing that I don’t like is that he always hears his friend (also in my group – a girl)’s comment and things related and unrelated to the topic, but ignored me. I don’t know, he doesn’t like me or only pay attention to his friends. Yeah, I’m outside his inner circle but please treat the other fairly 😦

The Math and Geographic were boring as usual. The Music, only sang and wrote some things, and computer, like usual.

I had a violin lesson after the school, but I forgot about it at all. My mom called me 10 minutes after the school bell rang, I was in the ‘antar jemput’ car. And I screamed, “Oh, I forgot!” and ran from the car after telling the driver that I wouldn’t go home with it.

After violin lesson, I went home, took a shower and lunch, after that I had a nap.

In the evening, I prepared for my mom’s friend’s daughter SA 😀

My mom and I arrived at the restaurant at 6PM.

The time at the invitation was 5 PM but when I arrived there only half of the room came.

So, the opening was made by SA’s friend. 7 pair of girls and boys came out to the stage. Than, they holding hands, walked in a circle, following the music. After that, they went off the stage, standing side by side on the path to the stage. They held a balon each. So, finally, at 7PM, SA came in 🙂 she was wearing a very nice pink long dress. When she walking passed the pairs of boys and girls, they released the ballons they had.

SA thanked us with 3 languages : Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian. I wonder why she wouldn’t use English, her speciality. She also sang a song. She has a nice voice 😀

After she sang, she gave pieces of cakes to her parents and grandparents. And she cut the big cake on the stage. I think she should do the cutting first :/

And, the games started 😀

The first game was sit on the chair. So, there were 6 chairs. SA’s boy friend who joined the game were 7 person. There was a song, but when the song stopped, they must sit on the chairs. It’s quite funny, because on the two last rounds of the game, they refused to sit. I don’t know why, maybe they were afraid of being punished or something. And the last round, the one who lost previously sit on the chair. He’s the winner. Weird right? :p

The boys who lost at the first game must do the second game as a punishment. So the 6 people teamed up, became 3 teams. One person in each team put a can of coke at their upper leg, and the other one must zip the coke from there. It’s somehow weird and funny x.x

The third game was for couples. So there were 3 high school couples. Their eyes were closed, and the girls must hold the long marshmallow using their mouth without touching it. Both the boys and the girls must ate it, and the fastest would be the winner. There was something funny there. When the 2 couples ate the marshmallow fast, the other couple ate the marshmallow slowly and enjoyed it. Their friends laughed at them, but it seems that they didn’t realise it. Even the MC gave more marshmallow to them than other couples but they kept eating it slowly without realised it. It was sooo funny! xDD

The 4th game: make a long line from the door until the stage and must touch SA’s feet with their body and things that the participants have. The A group was smart. They borrowed their friends’ belts. The group B couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have idea to do that. And, as predicted, group A was the winner.

After that, SA and her best friend, C, danced in front! Their moves were a bit disorganised but it was good after all. They use KPOP songs (my favorite kind of music xD)

The 5th game was weird. A boy must be tied on a chair and his shirt taken off. The other 5 boys must use lots of lipstick and kiss the tied boy’s body (disguisting!). The one who kissed the most would win. Yuck 😡 I didn’t enjoy this game.

For the last game, the girls move the pingpong ball from the boys’ trousers and make it go out from their shirt. This wasn’t fun, and one of the girl shy to do this :p (Who doesn’t? X.x)

After that last game, here were photo session. It makes me remember that it seems like the theme of this sweet seventeen is similar to a wedding party. Really.

There isn’t anything to complain about the food.The food were delicious, but I don’t remember what were they, sorry :p

After all, I love this sweet seventeen anniversary 🙂

July 28, 2012

It was an event that held on July 27th but it was on July 28th in my country. What was that? The opening ceremony of London Olympic 2012

I must woke up at 3AM to watch it. I was sooo sleepy but it went away after I reminded myself that I really want to watch it.

After a quite long wait, finally it started! :3

I really enjoyed it, but I like the first one best, the one about the history of England.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch it until the end. The car that pick me up to school came, so it means that I didn’t watch the closing firework! T.T I want to watch it later, search for it in youtube, but I don’t have time for it yet :/

Tell me about your or your friend’s sweet seventeen birthday party~ ^^ What’s your favorite game in those parties? Did you watch the London 2012 Opening Ceremony? What do you think about it? ^^