Where did all that time go?

It's finals week this week. Where did my whole quarter go? Was Pi day (March 14, a.k.a. 3.14 in American notation) really an entire year ago, when John Sillcox demonstrated his Mathematical prowess by reciting Pi to a HUNDRED decimal places unprepared in front of a captive Chi Alpha audience? Has it really been more than an entire month since my last blog post? Am I really 2/3 way through my SECOND (!!) year of college?

Geez. This is nuts. This quarter didn't feel like a quarter at all. Didn't really enjoy my classes, don't feel like the quarter peaked, don't feel like it's ending. Guess it hasn't been a great quarter. Like most things, it's had its good sides, but that doesn't mean it was good.

Took Indonesian this quarter, I can form decent sentences now and understand basic written stuff; still can't understand spoken Indonesian very well just 'cos Indonesians speak really fast and with a pretty thick accent. But I've made a good amount of progress that I'm happy with. Yesterday we had to take a 45-minute final (which wasn't really critical 'cos I'm only taking the class for pass/fail, not for a letter grade) and then give a short 10-minute presentation on anything we wanted. Took some photos with my computer's webcam. Photos are always a nice addition to the blog. Unless you're Gong Gong who prints out my blog pages without the photos to read. Sorry Gong Gong, but you can still come online to see the pictures!

Guru kami (our teacher), Anita:


Charmaine, setting up her presentation on her past and upcoming service trips to Sekayu, a village in Indonesia. Charmaine's also a Sophomore (i.e. 2nd year) from Singapore.


Anita, manning the video camera. She wanted to record all of our presentations for her own keepsake. Clearly Charmaine had just said something really bad by mistake...

I'm just kidding Charmaine saying something bad. Her presentation went great.


Charmaine presenting. "Musim panas tahun lalu" = (lit.) season hot year last = last summer:


Alejandro, presenting on his family:


Alejandro again:


Tidak ada foto lagi (that's all the photos I have).


If I've anticipated your thoughts well, here are my responses:

1. Yup, no pictures of me, 'cos I was the one taking the photos, using my own computer. Besides the fact that I can't click the camera button while doing a presentation (let alone in Indonesian!), I was also using my laptop for the presentation so obviously I couldn't use it to take pictures at the same time. In case you're curious, my presentation was entitled "Kenapa Saya Mau Belajar Bahasa Indonesia" which means "Why I want(ed) to study Indonesian".

2. Yes, that's all the students in the class (besides me). There're only 3 of us, not including the teacher. Actually there were 4, but one of them, Shannon, is a Anthropology Ph.D student who flew off midway through the quarter to Indonesia for intensive Bahasa Indonesia courses and on-site field work. Intense stuff. Wonder how she's doing there.

My last final's coming up this Thursday, and then I fly off until March 31st to tour the East Coast with the Mendicants. I wonder if I'll have the time/motivation to update the blog with photos during the trip. We'll be flying to D.C. (yay), then going to New York City, then East Hampton (I think that's on Long Island, which is also in New York state), then Boston (yay again). And apparently we're doing all of it without renting a single car. This should be interesting. :P