MATSWAPATI!!!

On saturday, september 27 2014, SMAN 3 Bandung held  an event called MATSWAPATI. It was an art and culture festival. It concentrated on West Java's culture. The organizers for this event include 10,11,12 graders and teachers as well. I am one of the organizers so I needed to be at the venue at 5 am but because I was sloppy and I was tired, I woke up late and arrived at Lapangan Bali (where Matswapati was held) at 6:30. It was embarrassing because I walked to the venue alone while everyone was staring at me. Thank God my friends picked me up at the gate.

I was in the division of decoration so I worked before the D-day but that day, I got in to logistic. What I worked in the division of decoration was basically making the venue looks pretty. I and my friends made many ornaments to be put all over the place. I personally think we did a great job. The job costed my skirts to be colorful because of all the paint, I felt like an artist already. But anyway, At 7 am, when my 10 grader friends were going to the parade, I carried heavy music instruments and stuff like those. That's basically what I did mostly in Matswapati. But because I'm a girl and the logistic people didn't expect me to be muscular and carry all the equipments, I got many chances to watch the performances on stage.

I watched many Sundanese cultures such as traditional dance, music, puppet show, and martial arts. When the gate officially opened, there were speeches from the school principal, the head of the organizers, and the mayor. It went on with Jaipong Dance, and was continued with sundanese martial art which I forgot what the name is. And then I did the mob dancing with my teacher and my friends. We were recorded but I decided not to care.

 Every class must have a stand. My class, X IPA 3 had a game stand. The game was called pepeletokan. Pepeletokan is basically a bamboo shotgun and the bullets are substituted by wet newspaper. We had to shoot on the target and get points and win prizes. It was sticky but still fun. The prizes we prepared were traditional candies, puppets, T-shirts, and a handmade matswapati crown. Back to carrying equipments, my energy was drained really quickly so I bought lunch from the food section. The food festival was consisted mainly by sundanese food but there was a kebab stand and since I wasn't in the mood to eat rice, I ate kebab. I bought milo too. I can tell I bought like 4 glasses milo during matswapati due to lack of energy and sunny weather. Also a glass of lemon tea, and two bottles of mineral water.

They announced the winner of the parade and it was my class! Yay! We won 1 million rupiahs. We are rich now.

The following performance was from Musik Klasik 3, an extracurricular for those who likes and is able to play classical music. The performance was a mix of classical and traditional music. I watched them from backstage. There was Tiloe's Theater (T'st)  too. You can already tell what this extracurricular is. The play was funny for sure. They never fail to make me laugh. And then many performances followed, such as SambaSunda, I really liked their performance because the singer's voice is good and the music is really cool too. I mean traditional music is always grande. When it was time for SambaSunda to perform, they complained that they lost their Rebana (a traditional drum kind of thing) and the logistic people ran to SMA 3 and to the venue back and forth only to look for the replacement but it turned out that their Rebana was still in their car. Okay. Then followed by Saung Angklung Udjo, and a puppet show. We call it wayang here. I didn't get the chance to watch the wayang because I was eating baso tahu with my friend Iffa, at the food section. After I ate, I hurried back to the backstage and helped the logistic people. Finally it was time for Barsena. I saw him backstage but I decided to watch him in front of the stage. He was really cute and he has such an amazing voice. I've been crushing on Barsena since like a year ago and finally got the chance to see him live. I sang along with my friends and jumped and danced and just had the time of my life. Then it was finally the highlight of the show, Glenn Fredly. Most of his songs were about love, either heartbreak or cheesy songs but since I am a hopeless romantic I enjoyed the show. He also gave speeches about our former president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on how Glenn was disappointed by SBY and his decisions. We danced dangdut style with Glenn Fredly and I think I kinda gave all my moves out with my friends because dancing is fun and there's just no time to be embarrassed.

After Glenn Fredly, there was a fire attraction and it was really pretty with all the fire and stuff. The fire attraction was some guys blowing fire out of their mouths. I have no idea how they did that. Maybe their ancestors were dragons. Black sky and fiery orange really was a nice combination of colors. I wish I could freeze Matswapati and be in it for God knows when, but like all great things, it must come to an end. When it ended, I went out to buy fresh milk with a touch of mocca and it was goooooood. And then I came back to the venue, grabbed my bag, and went home.

Thank you SMA N 3 Bandung for this event, I am happy that I am part of this. XXX

Something Unforgettable In My Life

Hello there! So apparently miss wiwin asked us students to write something that is unforgettable. And out of all moments that I experienced in life, I chose this story cause I think it's the only one that's worth telling. Ha ha ha.

It happened when I was in 7th grade at 5 Junior High School. I went to Malaysia and Singapore to perform traditional arts. I traveled with my Dazzling Indonesia team. It was a team, created by my violin teacher. The team was consisted of musicians and dancers.  I think there were at least 50 people, coming from Bandung, Jakarta, and Padang. Now  I'm about to tell you the details.

Months before we actually go, there was always a rehearsal every weekend. We learned to dance and play traditional music. At the first rehearsal, my legs hurt so badly with all the dancing, especially saman. But no regrets, it was fun. No kidding though I think you should take your time to learn how to dance something traditional because in the end, who will?  Anyway, i concentrated on dancing rather than playing violin, because  I was given the chance to show my country off and  I wanted to ace it. The rehearsal was always tiring but also fun. The problem was that we had to sacrifice our weekend to rehearse, but trust me it was worth it.

After months of rehearsal, we  finally flew to Malaysia. I went to the airport at like 6 am? And then shared a cupcake for breakfast with my friend. The cupcake was vanilla flavored with fondant on top, covering the cupcake. As you can imagine, too much fondant means too sweet therefor, not so good. After the cupcake, we took pictures while we were waiting for the flight. I mostly slept during the flight. Even though half of the passengers were my  friends and it was really noisy like we owned it. I honestly dont like flying, it gives me headache and earache. But I love airports though,  we can find bookstores and food there. Basically the things I need in life. Anyway, i forgot how long we flew. I think it was like 3 hours or something.  After we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, we had lunch and traveled all over Kuala Lumpur. Due to my inability to remember everything, I only remember that we went to the petronas tower and took pictures. Then, we took an 8 hour bus ride to Kuala Terengganu. I got plenty of time to sleep and eat.

I arrived in Kuala Terengganu at night and slept in a dorm. In the morning I had nasi lemak for breakfast. I'm honestly not a fan of nasi lemak. Well I lost 3 kgs while in Malaysia, I guess my tounge doesn't really fit to their taste. And back to topic, after I had breakfast I and my team drove to the town square. We were there to meet our hostparents. My hostparents were nice. I was driven to their house and saw an enormous hamster cage. Yes, I saw like 30 hamsters. After taking a rest I went back to rehearsal until midnight.

The next day, my hostfamily and i went to the supermarket. We bought food supplies. Oh I forgot to tell you. My breakfast was always toast with sarikaya jam, and boiled eggs with pepper. Anyway, after going to the supermarket, I went to the public hall to rehearse and to perform. I really had a great time when performing. Like, the audience, the lightings, the vibe.... And the pride to show Indonesia off is just something you can't simply forget. The show ended at midnight.

In the morning I went to school. The school was a boarding school named SMK Ibrahim Fikri. I was the only one who didn't wear hijab there so I felt awkward. I made friends with plenty of people but the one I remember the most is Anies. She's mute but she's beautiful and also very nice. We had a hard time talking to each other because I needed a translator for the sign language, and I also don't really understand the translator because I can't speak Malaysian. At night, I perform at the school.

I went to the beach and traveled around Kuala Terengganu the next day. It was fun going with my team. We played our instruments all the time. I like it when my friend plays his saxophone. After hanging out, we said goodbye to our host-family and headed off to Johor Baharu. Another long bus ride... We stayed in a sport dorm. We played games, music, and talked all night but finally gave up and sleep. In the morning we went to a chocolate factory. I wanted to be dramatic and cry because all these chocolates but decided not to. But really though I bought this tiramisu chocolate and i didn't regret it. So this tiramisu chocolate is this milk chocolate covered almond with a dash of heavenly tiramisu powder. So when you eat it, it'll be bitter at first and sweet at last. Must. Eat. It. Again. Well, after we traveled around Johor, we headed off to Singapore. We traveled, shopped (and bought chocolates) and performed there. It was just a 2-days trip. We went back to Malaysia again and in the afternoon we took our flight to Jakarta. It was a silent flight, maybe because everyone was tired. When we arrived at the airport, we took Prima Jasa bus to go to Bandung. I got home at 1 am, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, it was a very interesting experience that's slightly impossible to forget. There are a lot of stories that are unforgettable. This is my story. What's yours?