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!!!

My Silent Words...

Hey bloggers, it's been a while. Confused about my last post? Nah just let it go, it's just a phase. I'm sure for the next few days, I will be all over it.

R: Oh for God sakes! Can we talk about other things? Pleasee

L: Owkaay..

This past few weeks has been a theater, a production, a play, a masquerade: name everything with drama, act, feelings, surprises, upside, downside, it's my past few weeks you're talking about. Why? Oh why else would something like this happen beside the fact that Chace Crawford came to our school and declared his love for me in the middle of a lesson! the result of The Province Science Olympiad is out.

Yes, that's true everyone. It is out. And boy that pdf appearance brought a lot of concussion. I'm talking about national mass hysteria here. Apparently there's some changes in the rules this year and those rules were applied without a prior notice to the contestant. Some disappointed contestant even hacked the website of the announcer to send a message that they are messing with Indonesia's best students. Well, in our turf, these new rules costs us our bright students who could have passed but thanks to the stupid 2-students-per-school, they have to stay home and give their last and precious chance to someone below their achievement, who got lucky because apparently they are in the first place in their province.

As to my room mate, my team mate, one of my best competitor and motivator: I miss you so much! We, miss you so much. I don't know what I've done wrong or if I've done something wrong, if I do please forgive and please please please be normal again. You told me that there's nothing wrong but your actions reflect otherwise and it's killing me. It's not going to be the same without you, trust me. I mean we're Motil after all and we've been through A LOT together. You're still the great you even without this OSN stuffy. Don't let it defines who you are. You kicked people's asses before and I believe you'll kick ass as hard as you did before or maybe even harder. No, definitely even harder.

Okay maybe I'm not your favouritest person right now and maybe you'll say that I don't understand your feelings right now but at least please let me be there for you. Don't go all alienized on me, we're room mates for goodness sake, you know how awkward it is when the three of us are in the same room. And well you may say I 'm a coward by putting this in my blog rather than talking to you, the fact is I've tried! I even burst into tears one night and told you that I missed you but then it only changed you for a smaaaaaaallllll amount of time and parts before you go all 'alien mode: on' to me again. Talk to me, pleaseeeeeeee. Desperately need you here.

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