cold Arch

5 mm wetsuit, 21 degree water, dive site nobody knows, deep dive, the greatest dive experience ever! i got it all in The Arch, Komodo National Park. my dive guide said only a few people have dived here so i kinda feel exclusive ;p despite the (very) cold water and terrible headache after, i really enjoy this dive. too bad i only got to dive here once. the most fun part was when we pass a little cave. i felt so adventurous! haha

giraffe overload

i'm a happy girl. my room is filled with giraffe ;p

(not) the last time

me with Andy (my mentor), Fabi (the winner of the Canon S100 and housing! lucky guy), and Ichsan (fellow intern). one month seems really quick. miss everyone in Labuan Bajo. but not to worry, i will be back. sooner or later :)

Castle Rock

one of my favorite dive spot in Komodo National Park. it got huge rocks that almost looks like a ship wreck, but it was actually a rock. that's why this dive site called Castle Rock. the rocks are as big as a castle! it was a really cool spot

pembuatan visa (again)

tahun lalu gw bagi2 cerita tentang pembuatan visa di embassy jerman yang ribetnya minta ampun dan heboh. sekarang, gw alhamdulillah (punya dua makna sebenernya hehe) mendapatkan kesempatan membuat schengen visa lagi, tapi kali ini di embassy norway. nah sekarang lebih heboh lagi karena gw cuman dikasih deadline 2 minggu!
abis pontang panting nanya sana sini, akhirnya hari ini gw udah ke embassy dan alhamdulillah lancar. orangnya baik2, mau ngebantu kalo kita ada pertanyaan, tidak memasang muka jutek layaknya orang yang belum dapet gaji, bisa diajak curhat (loh?), dan prosesnya ga ribet. proses pas di embassynya loh ya. tapi kalo proses ngumpulin dokumen2nya, sedap banget! oya, dibawah ini adalah dokumen2 yang bikin gw pusing selama 2 minggu:
- paspor asli (disananya sampulnya minta dibuka gatau kenapa)
- pas foto yang udah memenuhi kriteria (3.5 x 4.5)
- surat keterangan mahasiswa (yang udh diterjemahin ke dlm bhs inggris)
- travel + medical insurance at least 30.000 euro, +15 hari dari rencana travel kita (jangan lupa di fotokopi)
- bank reference (dalam bhs inggris)
- print an rekening bank orang tua (kurang lebihnya gw gatau soalnya ga terlalu dipermasalahin sama mereka)
- letter of guarantee dari ayah/ibu yang di kasih materai 6000
- undangan dan rekomendasi dari ISFiT (yang attorney ga usah, karena kata mbaknya kita apply sendiri, bukan diwakilin sama org lain)
- covering letter yang udah di ttd, receipt (biar uangnya bisa di refund), sama application form yang udh diisi online)
- bukti booking tiket round trip
- kalo yang mau extend, lampirin semua bookingan hostel, invitation letter (kalo mo visit temen/keluarga/nginep di KBRI)

banyak bukan? emang sih pas diliat orang2 pasti bilang oh segini doang? yaa.. standar lah ya kayak embassy yg lain. tapi kalo dikerjain selama 2 minggu doang, beuh! enak banget! gw sampe nyusahin nyokap gw (emang selalu sih hehe), jadi keliatan bawel banget di grup ISFiT Indonesia (sorry guys), dan dalem sehari gw bisa mantengin laptop buat bikin travel gw se ciamik mungkin. yaah.. inilah namanya perjuangan. kalo kata Uncle Ben, "from a great power, comes a great responsibility". jadi, inilah sisi perjuangan dari kebahagiaan mendapatkan sebuah student festival sebesar ISFiT dan bisa pergi ke Norway. kebanyakan orang pasti cuma liat betapa menyenangkannya pergi ke Norwaynya doang. tapi lihatlah kawan, di dalam kesenangan pasti ada perjuangan. dan perjuangan gw belom selesai sampai disini (caelah).

power rangers kalaaah!

the perks of having crazy friends (and the ones that can actually dance) in your KKN group. i had a blast practicing the routine with them because it was full with laughter and jokes i can't even mad at them for not being serious as i used to. in conclusion, i missed that feeling, those moments.

invitation!! :D

so proud of myself! see guys? dreams do come true if you didn't give up on them. so february next year i will experience my first ever snow and minus degree temperature in Scandinavian countries! :D

ekspedisi perdana

 dulu gw pernah posting tentang Pulau Biawak. tapi dulu gw kesini with the purpose of having fun. sekarang sedikit beda. OSEANIK ngadain the first expedition ever: COELOSERIS! so happy akhirnya kita bisa bikin ekspedisi setelah beberapa bulan ngerencanain. yang belum tau letak Pulau Biawak, pulau ini terletak di utara Indramayu. sekitar 4 jam lah ya dari sana kalo ombaknya ga kenceng dan cuaca lagi mendukung. kalo kayak kemaren mah gw balik aja ke Indramayu makan waktu 6 jam! jadi lah gw nahan pipis 2 jam. 

dulu kalo mau mandi di pulau ini harus di sumurnya langsung karena kamar mandinya unbearable banget. tapi sekarang udah lumayan lah ya buat dipake. gw aja alhamdulillah bisa buang air besar hampir tiap hari disana hehe (itu berarti membuktikan kamar mandinya udh bagu kan?) dan emang lagi ada pembangunan sih disana. jadi kamar mandinya mo diperbanyak, rumahnya juga lagi dibangun biar kalo ada banyak orang yang mo dateng bisa ketampung di pulau ini. soalnya menurut gw pulau ini banyak banget potensi wisatanya. sayangnya masih kurang pembangunannya aja. semoga aja 2 atau 3 tahun lagi nih pulau udah bisa sebagus Pulau Hoga ;)

The Expendables 2

as i expected, this movie is really incredible! great action movie (well of course. look at the actors!), and my favorite part is that it has a biting sense of humor. especially when Silvester Stalone said: "that thing should be on a museum", and Arnold said: "we all should be on a museum". i don't know why, but that one was really hilarious. too bad Liam Hemsworth died too soon in this movie. i really wanted to see him in action.

dragon and decompression

this week there are two highlight of my internship with MantaWatch. first of all, the fact that i couldn't dive for a day! well this is because i spent too much time in the deep (if i'm not wrong, it think it's around 25-27 m). i did realize that there was something wrong with my dive computer because it showed that i have to come up (ascending time) to shallow water no more than 3 m. but because Andy and Ichsan looked fine, so i thought maybe it is fine. that was my first mistake. after i surface, the computer started beeping and showing error sign. and i thought maybe the error would go away itself. that was my second mistake. so the following day i went diving again, and it still showing error. so i asked Andy why, and he told me that i shouldn't dive anymore until the computer stop showing error, and he told me that i won't get a decompression sickness (fiuh!), only a higher risk to get one. so i have to sit on the boat for a day. 

but that day turned up pretty great when Andy told me that whether we want to switch boat from Divine Diving boat to DiveKomodo boat because they are going to Rinca Island to see the dragon! of course i said yes immediately! i have been waiting for that moment. and that was my second highlight of this week, to finally see the dragon!

belajar mengajar

 selama ini kita ngeliat guru dalam perspektif seorang murid. ada guru yang ngebosenin lah, ada guru yang killer lah, ada guru yang kepo lah, ada pula guru yang doyan ngasih tugas. tapi pernah denger ga sih guru ngeluh gara2 kecapean ngajar atau ngeliat guru bener2 down ato stres gara2 kecapean ngajar? kalo gw sih ga pernah. setelah akhirnya dapet kesempatan ngajar anak SD di 3 sekolah di Desa Lengkongbarang, gw baru ngerasain betapa capeknya jadi guru! haha! harus mengeluarkan suara ekstra (apalagi kalo udh kelas 4,5 atau 6 yang udah mulai bandel). ngajarin nyanyi sih emang awal2nya seneng dan semangat. tapi lama kelamaan stamina berkurang dan jadi capek. lebih2 pas gw ngajarin pelajaran matematika sama bahasa inggris. kadang2 ditengah2 ngajar mati gaya! bingung mo ngapain lagi.

bukannya gw sebelumnya underestimate seorang guru, tapi gw cuman ga ngira aja bakal secapek ini jadi seorang guru. padahal gw cuman ngajar sehari setiap satu sekolah. emang bener banget deh kata2 guru itu adalah "pahlawan tanpa tanda jasa".

first of everything great

 the them for this week is obviously experiencing first things, which i will explain it to you one by one.

first, i had my first live-aboard experience for four days. MantaWatch arranged a four days manta safari. we went with a small group of amazing people. the boat was very nice, even though at my third day in it i felt a little seasick. i had my own cabin, and my favorite part was the food! the food was always nicely prepared and so tasty, it was always take the hunger away after diving.

second, and this was the most memorable of all, my very first ever night dive! at first when they asked me if i wanted to go, i felt hesitant. because i always have anxiety every time before i dive (i don't know why and i still couldn't get rid of it). but thankfully i said yes, and i had a great time during that night dive although most of the time i'm always thinking: 'don't get lost, Dita. try to look over everybody around you.'

third, still about my first diving experience, my first deep dive! the water was so cold and even though i was wearing 5 mm wet suit, i still feel cold. but i love the dive site. it's called the arch. as i was explained by the dive master on the boat, it has a chair like contour with may reef fishes and corals. at first they didn't tell me how deep we're going to dive, so when i looked at my dive computer, i was surprised that we went until 34 m! but it wasn't so scary because i was mesmerized by how there are so many fishes, and of course, the highlight of that dive is when we passed to a little cave. that felt amazing and i wish the cave were longer and wider so it could be like experiencing a little bit of cave diving ;p

fourth, and i think this was the most challenging of all, my first English presentation about mantas. it was pretty hard for me to present something with indonesian language, i couldn't imagine how it goes. but to my surprise, and for the helpful advise from Andy and Laura, i did pretty well (well at least for me it did).

so to wrap things up, i had an amazing weekend, a lot of things for y head to wrap into, but in a good way though. so how's your week? did you experience first things like i did?