Reunion

It was a sunny morning above the Medical Faculty of Indonesia University. She was mingling with her friends, preparing herself for the competition. Never occurred to her that that day, something out of ordinary is bound to happen. A group of students walked across the field. Someone waved. Hey, that girl thought, that's my senior. She waved back and joined her. They did some small talk. Her senior said that another senior of her also joined the competition and he's walking behind them. She looked behind and waved her hand to her senior. But someone else was waving behind her senior. A familiar face perhaps? As the figure came closer, she realized that he is more than just a familiar face. Yes, it is him. She threw an awkward smile and turned her back on him with great shock mainly and a cocktail of other feelings. All of them then entered the exam room.

During the recess time, they met again. She was walking with her senior who came from the same school as he does when he joined her. He asked her about the exam. He told her that he thought exam was hard. She didn't know what to say or even to use what kind of expression around him. How can he be so calm after all that has happened? Most part of her were relieved that he is such a kind guy to let it all pass and treated her like nothing happened. But it's just like looking at a scar, you're glad that it's healing but it also remind you of how you got the wound at the first time.

Throughout the competition, they didn't talk much. She passed to the semifinals while he didn't. She never met him again afterwards. What a serendipity :)

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving - Albert Einstein

Road to IBO 2012!

Hey everyone, yes I know I have been malfunctioning my blog for those sad posts but technically, they are serendipities, and as this blog is called A Log of Serendipity I know of no reason why those events shouldn't be posted. But I'll get to the fun part of the post just keep reading :)

Now as a strike breaker post, I'm gonna tell you about my most recent activity, what I've been doing for the last four weeks. One word, eight letters: Pelatnas.

Pelatnas is an abbreviation of pelatihan nasional. It's like a science camp, held specifically to train students who are qualified for a special occasion called the International Biology Olympiad. Shiver me timbers, I want it, like so much so bad. This is also basically a competition to fill the glorious two seat to Singapore as an IBO participant. The activity is being held in Wisma Kartini Bandung with TOBI Team under the house of Bandung Institute of Technology. I basically come here to learn, do some tests, go home and wait for the result. But there's much more to it than it seems. It's making new friends and new experiences. I am thrilled to be united with these 25 other student who is as gifted as ever. I had so much fun while I was there. We studied, practiced. We took exams, we trolled, we celebrated birthdays, watched some movies, threw some water ammo to the assistants, swam (or I'd rather say laid down) in a hot spring and much much more! I'll go with the details in the next paragraph.

Week 1:

Ta-Da! Finally, it's 23rd of October. I have had enough purgatory in school for two weeks ever since I'm back from OSN. Especially every Friday. That day I arrived late to Wisma Kartini. I got lodged in room 3 with Meva, Sifa, Tazky, Tia and Kezia. I met and greeted some old friends.Then out of the blue, they said there will be a pre-test done that very night. Also a new assignment come from Kak Fenryco. So, I did what every man could do, do the best and God will do the rest. Luckily, when the result came out, I didn't screw up too bad. Oh and what's different from the previous pelatnas, instead of in Wisma Kartini, we had to get our lecture in a small, hot, crowded room on the 6th floor of PAU ITB. The week went normally. On the weekend, me, Meva, Sifa, Billy, Nobi and Gun went to Ciwalk and watch Johnny English Reborn.

Week 2:

This is week is just like any regular week. Except, we got to celebrate Assifa Nur Hisana's sweet 17th! The theme of her birthday is sticky ;) So what we did, is tied her up in a pole and then charged her with eggs, flour, soft drinks, etc. And then after all those mess, Gerry brought a cake for Sifa and then we all sang Happy Birthday! So memorable! This week we also got a test from a psychological firm to measure our academic potential and our mental stability I guess? And also a mid test which was difficult as hell. After the test, my mom visited me and we went to Paris van Java to get something to eat. And then I stopped by RE Martadinata to buy a klappertaart which I ate together with my roomies who were gloomy because of the freaking mid-test.

Week 3:

This is week we had a practical exam part 1. It was quite okay I guess, though I haven't got the result just yet. This week we also celebrated another birthday, Nobian Andre's Sweet 18th. His theme was Stinky! Yep. This time we really bring it. All those stuff from garlic, terasi, fish, palm oil, bananas, eggs, flour, we got it all. Except during the torture, ther's a little mishap. The rope used to tie him in the pole got loosened up so he managed to escape. The second everyone saw the rope dropped, they all run like an arrow released from its bow. We managed to tied him up again and the torture continues.This time Meva brought the cake and we all sang Happy Birthday. All the other boys got dumped in the pond as an 'imbas' hahaha. The next day is outing to Rancaupas. It's raining when we got there so we ended up playing water fight with the assistant and then played in the hot spring.

Week 4:

Ah the last and final week :") I started this week with fear cause I have 2 exams waiting for me at the end of the week. 2 super important test which will decide my fate onward in this competition. Well, in the practical test, it's sure is worse than the first practical test, but I don't know, once again, the real result just yet. The final test, like always, I prefer the part B of the test than its Part A. I feel quite confident with my answers but then again, sometimes when I feel that way, I end up pretty disappointed. After the final test, we celebrated kak Gun's Birthday! And then almost the whole member went to Ciwalk to watch a movie. Meva, Sifa, Tazky, me and some other guys watched In Time while the rest of them watched Breaking Dawn. We said goodbye the next day, took some photos and then the next thing I knew I was sitting in my car, already on my way to Jakarta.

It was a lovely experience guys and girls. Thanks for everything. I hope we'll see each other again at the 2nd Pelatnas Meva, Sifa, Tazky, Tia, Kezia, Tiwi, Rea, Elza, Lidia, Gomel, Nobi, Billy, Gunawan, Alvin, Eni, Ibrahim, Javier, Rabid, Keju, Gerry, Alfredo, Theo, Reza, Benny, Danu!

When you know what you want and you want it badly enough, you will find a way to get it - Jim Rohn

The Edge of Glory

"I'm on the edge of glory and I'm hanging on a moment of truth"

Thursday, 15th September 2011 is both historical and hysterical. In fact the whole week was magical. I can still recall the atmosphere in Grand Kawanua Convention Centre the night the medals were given away. It was the most awesome feeling I have ever experience.

Yes reader, finally my hard work had been repaid. I present to you this silver medal! I ranked 11th overall and ranked 6th among the other silver medalist. I was a wee bit disappointed though that I didn't get a gold medal because everyone was already kind of hoping so. But it's alright, thinking that I get to experience Pelatnas is good enough for me :) I must fight though, because this time there is only two slots available and I want this thing. So bad.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun with my friends from DKI Jakarta for the past couple of weeks. Meet The 12 Happy Contestants and our co-ordinator:

From left to right, back to front: Matthew Billy, Janice Tanumihardja, Meva Nareza, Bu Naniek, Nazmun Lailah, Alvin Sanjaya, Bu Yus, Tazkya Amany, Elva Vidya, Meutia Admiralda, Afandi Charles, me, Nobian Andre, Fahmi Ahmadi

Oh and the biology team of DKI Jakarta brought home 3 gold medals, 2 silver medals, 4 bronze medals, a best experiment trophy and an absolute winner title. So proud of them! God, I miss them already :')

Award Night at Grand Kawanua :)

So, what's next? Next is pelatnas satu which will be held on 5th of October at Wisma Kartini Bandung. This is a training and selection for Indonesia's delegation at International Biology Olympiad 2012 Singaporee!! I will be rejoined with most of the DKI Jakarta biology team except for Nazmun, Elva and Fahmi. I will miss you guyss :") Please do not forget me okaay.

Oh and before I forget I'd like to thank these people:

Biology most legendary couple: Harun Reza Sugito (Gold IBO Korea 2010) and Marsha Christanvia (Silver IBO Taipei 2011)

Thank you for your kindness and patience during the training week at Belleza and also for everything before and after that. Thanks for the chocolate, and your faith in us. I hope you'll like the present we gave youu :)

Alright, I think that's a wrap. Oh and last last request, please always pray the best for me. I am nothing without you ;)

Torang samua basodara!!!

Thank God It’s Finally On Us!

Dear my faithful readers, I'm going to pop a quick question: in several of my posts I mentioned about my olympic life, didn't I? I hope so, because this post is going to be a recent news about my olympic life and Thamrin's (my school name) olympic life. Remember what I said in the previous post about my olympic life that was unnerving and stuff, now (hopefully) all of it will change.

Recently I have won a national biology competition held by Institut Pertanian Bogor (Bogor Agricultural Institute) along with my two team-mates Tiroy Junita and Meva Nareza. Thank God for your blessing, we placed 1st :)

Which is kind of amazing because our rivals are so tough. They are biology masters such as Harun Reza Sugito, Marsha Christanvia, Patricia Jonathan, Lilie Fransiska, Thoriq Salafi. Their team-mates Jeffry Alamsjah, Matthew Billy, Gunawan, Ibrahim Ardisasmita, Parangeni Muhammad are OSN medalists and TOBI's pelatnas members.
However, the main goal is still The Tenth National Biology Olympiad which is going to be held at Menado in 2011. I take this as a stepping stone to create, what my Biology Olympic teacher, Miss Celine, said: A Snowball Effect. Hopefully my snowball will gain size as big as a mountain when it's time to strike NBO with it, hehehehe.

I've also participated in another competition called LCTIP (Lomba Cepat Tepat Ilmu Pangan) with a physic student Indhika Fauzan and a chemistry student Hana Antonio but we didn't place. Another team consist of Bagus Wicaksono, Fiorentina Cemerlang Ririhena and Fauzanil Azmy also made it to semifinals but they didn't place too. We also send out two teams for Medspin UNAIR 2010 at Surabaya: Tiroy Junita, Nurul Aulia, Ubay Noor, and the second team are: Selma Ramadhani, Aisyah Hafizha and Radhian Ferel. Tiroy's team made it to final and placed 10th. Okay that's enough about biology. Wanna hear from other major?

1. Please welcome Ayu Fatmawati, Dhata Karuni Mutia Masyita and Nurwidya Utami Jati who have just gotten back home from World Mathematic Team Competition (WMTC) in Beijing! They didn't place but we are still so very proud of them!

2. From the English major (like we got any), we placed first on 48 Senior High Debate Competition against 81 Senior High. The team members are Inado Grace Simarmata, Michelle Ginting and Vera Ridhani. I am so excited that they got the first prize and beat 81 :D Don't ask me why haha.

3. Chemistry major rocks Health Ministry Chemistry Competition and brought home the first prize. They (Nurul Aulia, Bagus Wicaksono and Prika Maulina Agaristi) made it into semifinals too at IPB but they didn't proceed to final. But that's okay. They've won after all ;)

4. Me, Tiroy Junita, Fiorentina Ririhena, Meva Nareza and Melysa Sitepu flew to Jogjakarta on December 2010 to attend the semifinal round of Indonesian Bio-Science Competetion held by Universitas Gajah Mada (Gajah Mada University). Thank God, I made it to semifinal round two, but I didn't proceed to the final.

Past events that are also amazing to share:
1. We dominated the semifinals of Universitas Negeri Jakarta (Jakarta State University) Math Competition called Pelangi and our math master, Dhata Karuni Mutia Masyita placed 5th!

2. Tiroy Junita attended Asian Science Camp in Mumbai, India along with other gifted children conducted by Surya Institute. She apparently gain a new bff along the journey :P

3. Ayu Fatmawati and Fiorentina Ririhena get a bronze medal for Singapore Mathematic Olympiad of junior category. You know what, they are a 14 years old 11th grader!

4. Samuel Leonardo Putra get a bronze medal at Chemistry National Olympiad at Medan and now he just got back from Pelatnas. Welcome back amigo!

Well that's just about it. To be true, I am really happy because our school has become famous for our good reputation. People start to fear us in the arena and that is an amazing thing because our school have only been there for two years. And we are now doing everything we can to maintain our reputation. But I feel reallly sad because, not that I underestimate them or anything, I think our predecessor must struggle to keep up with our education year, because from what I heard or see, they haven't got what it takes to be a champion. Well, wisest thing to say is to just wait for time to do its thing. I begged you my junior, please please don't fail us. I know you guys are amazing so please please make sure you will hold on to everything that we have gained and push it higher. I have faith that you all can do it :D May our school be the best school in the states!

Your friend, senior, teammate, classmate, roommate, tablemate
Lindy Mawardhani Dharmawan

Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye

What's with the sad title? Oh nooo, it was not sad. It's inspiring. Because we all know that every hello followed with a goodbye. The problem is not everyone know when to say goodbye, or how many time they have left until they have to say a goodbye. A goodbye can be planned or it can arrive like a wind and they'll be gone before you know it.

Oops, I forgot to greet the bloggers. Hi everyone. It's been a long time since I posted for the last time. I swear I tried to post as often as I can but consider this condition: I'm on a boarding school with super hectic schedule and many competition to participate and I have to win all of them in order to get a scholarship and my modem is not available and my school network is sooo moody, looking at that situation, I am grateful if I can write one post per month. Okay but I will not talk about that. At least not at the moment.

Guess where am I now bloggers? New Yooorrrk! Malaaang! City of Flowers and City of Apples! What am I doing here? I am participating a competition. A biology competition held by Universitas Negeri Malang (Malang State University). The competition is called Lebah Madu and the theme of this competition is "Where Great Minds Compete To Become A Real Biologist"

It was fun and amusing. We didn't get into the final because our experiment score are very low, but thank God we manage to become the best performer in case study. We scored 91,5 out of 100!! Isn't that fun-fu**ing-tastic? I feel bad to my friend that I didn't manage to get into the final. But I personally, feel satisfied because of that case study score. That means we are ready for the theoritical aspect.

Oh, why we? Because I don't fight alone. We enrolled as a team and my teammate is Tiroy Junita. She is a super smart student and I'm glad having her as my teammate. We also meet our cousin-in-law (literally in law), the brilliant class students, Zuriel Immanuel Natan and Yosua Heresta. They are pretty bright as well but nonetheless we still score better than them :P

On Sunday (that means yesterday) we spent the whole day exploring Batu, the tourism city of Malang with BC students and our guardian teacher, Mr. Dion. First of all we arrived at an agrotourism object. There we picked two apples and two guava and eat an apple friedrice. After that we took a really nice photoshoot and of we went to Cuban Rondo Waterfall. It is amaziiiiinng there. The cliff are soo cool and the air is so cold. We took pictures in front of the waterfall, buy some souvenirs and head back to the hotel.

The next day we searched for more memento.Our friends asked us to buy apple crackers and jackfruit crackers so we went for them. I bought some Malang Apples as well. We also stopped by a crystal store called Crystalline that it's advertisement we saw at the airplane on our way to Malang. We love its handphone cover so we're looking forward to have it. But when we asked about the price, I got hopeless. It is sooo expensive. Almost 1,2 million rupiahs per item. So we skipped it. We stopped for a while at an ancient ice cream shop called Toko OEN. It has been in there since 1930, it means since the Dutch Colonial era. I ordered the one called Calypso Fantasy and it is awesome :9

We have to go back to the airport by 1 p.m. We had an uneventful airport experience, a normal flight and I'm back in Jakarta. I love coming back to Jakarta because Jakarta is such a great place to live in. They have everything in here. Name it and you'll find it here. But coming back to Jakarta means I have to go back to my routine, which I resent. Well, not actually resent but I don't want to learn anything but Biology at the moment. I think one of the reason I still failing is that I'm not focused. I don't give a shit about Cambridge or any other thing going on in my school. I just wanted to win many competitions for my CV in order to get a scholarship. Selfish? Tell me about it. Well, the point is I just hate saying goodbye and go back to my routine. Just like when I come back from OSN. But, every hello has it's own goodbye. So, Goodbye Malang and Hello Routine :)

OSN IX 2010 :D

Hey bloggers, how are you? I'm doing just fine.
I know, I know I haven't posted for ages but now I am ready to share a new one!

I'm in my room right now waiting for my call to go to the school while I'm writing this blog. It is now 06:10 a.m and Sugar Sugar from the Archies is playing from our dorm speaker -____-

I'm going to share all of you my most recent breathtaking experience and that is: attending Indonesia's most prestigious academic competition.

I am very very very proud to become one of the participant in that event eventhough I didn't get any medal or even get to be the Indonesia's Biology Olympiad Team. I wasn't trying hard enough to deserve that medal so I guess I'll have to try next year :)

About the competition, it is divided into eight major for high school student and that is: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer, Geology, Astronomy and Economy.

I majored in Biology which I resent for the first time but now I'm really in love with this subject <3

Now, biology is divided into three main competition. One experiment and two theory. I failed in the experiment and the theory as well. My score is only 49.24 out of 100 and that makes me in the 61st position (general) and 22nd position (11th grade)
And the requirement to be a TOBI is that I have to at least become the big 15 in my grade (11th) and I only lose 2.08 point to the last big 15. Isn't it heart breaking? :'(
Well, that's competition.

But what I really want to share is that I miss being a part of that event, I miss the training, I miss my DKI Jakarta team, I miss my coach and my friends I met in Medan. I miss the atmosphere and the competition aura. I want to dedicate my whole life for Biology. I want to be a part of this event forever, whether I am a participant, a coach, a crew, a companion teacher or even a reporter in that event. Every year I get to meet many bright students from all over the country, I learned their key to success and sometimes envy them on how life can be so easy for them. But I am so thankful that I have an opportunity to be a part of this event and realise how small I am to thius big big world.

I also wanted to congratulate my friends who had been able to carry that medal home. Wish me to catch up with you guys next year at Manado. Au revoir! I have to go to schoooollll