Britzone Goes to Singapore 2012

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.  ~Ray Bradbury


For the first time since Britzone established, this year, Brizone, had an outing program in overseas. This program was an breakthrough idea of the Presiden Britzone in order to strengthen the  friendship among britzoners and practice their English in daily basis.


The idea of having an outing in Singapore was risky since we didnt have any experience before and we needed a lot of preparation. Therefore, we decided to form a team to prepare all of the things. Considering the experiences that they had, we, finally, formed the Britzone Goes to Singapore team which included: Pras, Dhabit, Farhan, Icha, Unda, Rina and Yudha. The team assignment was to arrange the tickets, hotel, itinerary, and collect the payment for the trip. 

After waiting for several months, we finally had 20 confirmed participants. All participants would depart from Soekarno Hatta in early morning and arrived at Changi Airport around 10.00 in Singapore time. After arriving and few minutes exploring the airport, we straightly went to the hostel to put all the luggages. Our hostel was in ABC Hostel near Arab St Area. Our first destination was Asian Civilization Museum (ACM). ACM is the first museum in the region to present a broad yet integrated perspective of pan-Asian cultures and civilizations. The museum is located in near Marina Bay and Singapore's  prominent landmark, Merlion. So, we had tour around the area. First day was an exhausted day but we believed that participants were enjoyed the day.

Day 2 was a very interesting because we would traveled through Singapore in race. The race was called 'The Amazing Race'. We divided the participants into 3 groups. All the three groups should find the certain destination that had decided before. The participants should find Teka Market, Mustafa, Takasimaya, Istana Park, Sri Mariamman Temple and Tian Hock Keng Temple. We started in the Hostel and would finish in the Vivo City. All were so excited. During the race, they got many experiences like asking to local people, reading a map, taking public transportation and knowing the Singaporean culture. Though sometimes, they got lost, tired and confused, they still enjoyed the trip and the game. To cooling down, we ended up the day by watching "Song of the Sea" show in Sentosa Resort Island.

Last day in Singapore was a travel day. Since we had afternoon flight, we still had a chance to go shopping. So, some of us went to grab some souvenirs in Bugis area.

Overall, our first trip to Singapore was a unforgetable moment. For me, personally, it was a great moment to see all the britzoners could enjoy the trip. And hopefully, the trip would bring togetherness among britzoners and would increase the ability to speak English in the daily basis.Finally, we would say  many thanks to all Britzoners to share the moments (laughter, tiredness, madness, and happiness) with us :).


Cheers,

BZGtSC

A Hope for the Olympic

The Olympic Games 2012 is only four months left. Badminton, as the only game that gives a gold medal since 1992, is becoming the spot light to get the highest achievement. Though it seems impossible before, but now, the possibility is there.


Second week of March creates a new happily atmosphere for Indonesian hope. It's a long waiting to finally triumph the All England title this year.


It's a mix double who makes Indonesian dream comes true. Liliyana Natsir together with her younger partner Tantowi Ahmad grant the very first All England Premier Super Series after 33 years waiting in mixes doubles competition.


Tantowi/Liliyana seeded four defeated the Danes Thomas Labourn/Kamilla Rytter Juhl who place 7th seed in the tournament.  The match between two pairs was absolutely incredible. From the beginning, both pairs started with very aggressive play. Tantowi who usually becomes the weakest point played so attractively. He played so fast and dominated the match. 


First round, Indonesians and Danes played tightly until Kamilla made a lot of mistakes. It was undeniably disadvantage for the Danes. Indonesians looked that opportunity and take that advantage. Second game seemed too easy for the Tantowi and Liliyana as they led five points. But, in fact, it was not. The German Open winner had no word of giving up. They strove to get close with the leading score. They did it. The game were more interesting after they finally got the same point, 19-19. The game were getting nerve-racking for both players but it was Indonesians who could overcome it to finally claim the All England title, 21-17, 21-19.


The winning first title in 2012 triggered them to continue their success in Swiss Open last week. Becoming the 1st seeded, it didnt turn them to be an easy game in the entire tournament. They had to play rubber game with 3 different mixed doubles players in approximately 52 minutes for each match. However, they could conquer the final match shortly with only 23 minutes beating Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam with 21-16, 21,14. 


These two consecutive titles surely will boost their confidence. With only few months away from Olympic Games, they are now becoming a solely hope for Indonesia to get Gold Medal in London.        

Twenty Twelve

It's the year 2012 now. It's a good time to commence a positive work, attitude, everything that probably encourage you to become a new you.

However, this post, I will not write about my plan this year. Instead, I will tell about twenty twelve. Yes, what I was doing when I was 20 and 12 years of age.

Sometimes, it is fun to tell about the history that you have been trough before. It can  be a good experience to learn or simply just refresh your mind from the messy daily activity.

Let's start from the 2005 when I was 20 y.o
It was a tough year actually. At that time, I was in 5th semester of my college. I didnt have a problem in my class or score. However, I did have a problem in my organization. I joined the organization since I enrolled the university for the first time. I did enjoy the organization a lot at first. The environment, good support, friends, activities are ok for me. However, an unavoidable thing happen. In that organization, every member has a mentor to, let just say, assist you to stay on the right track both attitude and faith. I couldnt agree more. I could accept that. But, suddenly the mentor had to be changed. The change was caused by the older member should be assisted with the "older" mentor. So, the younger mentor could reach the newbie. I was upset. It was solely because I was enjoy with young mentor instead of I had to adapt with a new one.

From that point, I decided not to join any activity from that organization. When my friends called or invited me to go back, I refused. Honestly, it was tired because I had to reject  the never-ending invitation and automatically didnt ever say hi to my friends in that organization. It was so sad to lose friends who always accompanied you almost everyday. But, this problem taught me to finally know what the real organization is. Thank God, I found the other friends to hangout and share everything and still befriended with my friends in the organization.

Moving on two twelve years old boy..
It's kind a hard to tell the history of mine in 1997. Gosh, it's about 15 year ago and I had to dig all the memories.Back to 1997, when I was in junior high school. It was my very first year to step from elementary school. I got not so famous school (SLTP 116) in Ancol Area. Actually, at that time, my school was one of the favorite school in North Jakarta. But, I doubted it hahhaahha.

Junior high was another hard year for me. You know, it was about transition, adaptation, new friends, etc that I had to struggle with. The toughest one was adaptation. Growing up in the private primary school was one of the factors. Literally, I never found any bad boy ever in my previous school.  So, I was like a nerd boy with have no friends. I tried to mingle with a good boy but what I got was I only got a few of them because it was difficult to find a nice one.hehehhe. More, I had to face some crazy things like smoking, drugs,"tawuran", alcohol, etc. I wouldnt get more details here. But, step by step, I could overcome it. Yeah, I got  "clean friends" and bad boy friends became one of the best buddy.

Sharing the history is not an easy business (life is hard, huh)..I have to try to remember what was going on at that time. I dont have a good memories to tell something in detail. So, I just sum them up to finally write in this blog.

Moral of the stories are, because you have done or get used to the problems, it tells you how you finally can overcome all those hard time to become something that can be worth experiences or simply become a funny stories. Some people probably dont give a damn with the history since they think that history is the pass. For me, history is more than that. Sometimes, I do flashback just to be a tough person ahead. I often said to my self "Hey, I've been through the hardest one before" So, let the history becomes part of your life, teaches you how to face the toughest day in your life, and becomes a basic structure to face the future.

Happy New Year!