VLD Week 2

The day when our family's about to leave came, and the 7 of us are prepared already, holding our own belongings and stuff. My father, my grandmother and I went out together that morning while the others run the shop to not look suspicious, then followed by my uncle, sister, and mother. My uncle rode the last bus at night alone, to make sure that no one looked. Unfortunately, our plan didn't quite work out. My sister met her friend Freddy that hates her so much, and had connections with the government himself. I don't know how a kid that small could have connections, but he did, and he's very reliable for the government. I was so worried that Freddy would tell on us, but somehow we didn't get caught by any of the police. But it's such a bad thing that my mother overheard our conversation and worried about it all the time. Thank God we had her promise not to tell the others.
After succeeding our first mission of taking buses to the harbor we started to make our way to the dock to find our grandfather. But later we found out that my grandfather died already, leaving us nothing. But my curiosity took control of me, forcing me and my dad to look at the boat. The moment I looked at the boat I was about to cry, feeling so devastated I turned away and think. Finally, I got the craziest idea of stealing the boat and sailing the open sea ourselves. I told my father this idea but he shook me away.
At lunch, I told my family my idea, and surprisingly, they agreed to help me. They chose me and my dad to go and steal the boat, and what shocked me is that my dad agreed to help me! And he was looking positive. I didn't know what got to him. My sister gave me her cooking knife before my father and I went to steal the boat that night, and she wished me luck. I hope that this time, it will be more than luck.
My father was very useful, and he was actually leading the way. I dragged along behind, proud of my dad. The tide was almost over when we reached the boat and cut the rope, but it moved away from the dock. Both of us cheered silently and I steered the boat happily towards the place where my family awaits me. But as we arrived, we discovered bad news : We have no ladder! Then my father found a rope, which is super helpful. I started to think that he IS serious about this anyway.
It was kind of hard getting my grandmother to climb up the rope, but she did anyway. My father had to climb down the rope and push her up in order to get her in the boat. It was hard work, but at least we succeeded. The 7 of us rested happily in the boat, some of us inside the wheelhouse and some of us outside, and we let the waves take us to another land..
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and everyone seems to be very energetic. My sister took out some tea and crackers she packed inside her gigantic bag and all of us had breakfast. Then, we washed our face to make sure that we're really awake. My father and I were discussing about the direction of where we should go and the engine when we heard a shrieking sound from my mother. We turned around immediately, wanting to know what just happened or what she just saw.
Suddenly a humongous figure stood before her, with a hideous helmet on. After he introduced himself, he turned out to be a good man that worked on this boat before. I am so glad that he said that he'd help us. Things are just getting better and better, what could possibly go wrong this time?

VLD Week 1

Dear Kelsey,

                I have sad news to tell you. My family & I have been accused for spreading Christianity to Javanese people. The government caught us when we were giving beggars some food while telling them bible stories, and they planned to separate us, the Hutchersons. Josh is going to be sent to Kalimantan to do some labor work, Samantha, Dylan, and Kristen are going to be sent to a Muslim camp somewhere in Sumatra and I’m going to be sent to Bali to be a Hindu. I can’t believe that we’re going to be separated. Anger, sadness, fright, and disappointment swirled in me.

                Josh and I were devastated, we’re so afraid of our children growing apart from us. You know how old Kristen is, at the age of 2 she’s going to listen to everything people say and I’m afraid that she’s going to forget us, her parents. So we decided to disguise as a Javanese family that just came from the village, and take a plane to go to London. I am very uncertain and unfamiliar with London.

                We are going to take off tomorrow morning, so this is my last night in Semarang. Josh is so calm and I’m freaking out, stressing about everything. About Kristen’s diapers, Dylan’s clothes, and Samantha’s syringes. Samantha has diabetes, remember? Josh said that London is a nice place, with very friendly people and highly interesting city. But it’s not only London that I’m afraid of , I’m afraid of the way to London too. How can we go to the other side of the world with just a little helicopter, carrying all our luggage inside it? Exactly. I’m still frightened at the thought of it though.

                I hope that they have nice schools with friendly and welcoming children that will welcome mine. I just wish that Dylan could fit in fast, I’m worried of him. I hope that they’d have a nice little flat we could live in as a family and welcomed. My children felt kind of excited with everything, but I just can’t help but be scared. It’s midnight and I’m still wide awake, thinking about the people, the climate, the places, and everything about London. Please pray for me and my family for our trip to London. With much love, Mrs. Hutcherson.

Part B :

I think Phan Thi Chi is the best character that describes me, because I think that I sound very convincingly afraid and worried about every single thing. Phan Thi Chi is also worried about his transportation, as well as me. I was worried about the helicopter we were going to use, and he’s worried about the Lucky Dragon. I’m also worrying about the children, but he didn’t.

Project #5, Biography

                 I interviewed my cousin Fiona Wiraatmadja because I think that she’s unique. Interviewing your own parents sounds common, don’t you think? Well, cousin Fiona lives on a glamorous lane of life after going through so many things and making decisions on her own. I think of her past jobs and talents, and presumed that she’s the perfect person to be interviewed. Born on October 21, 1986, Jakarta, meant she reached such high accomplishments &n succeeded to make her goals in such a young age.

                “I have 2 siblings,” Fiona said. “I’m the eldest of 3 siblings.” Her brother Ivan is a year & a half younger than her. He’s now starting to step into his dad’s shoes, for he had started working with him as a business partner. Her sister Andrea and herself are 9 years apart, but love never fails to fill such extensive gap. “The most important people in my life are my family. Because without their support I wouldn’t have been where I am today.”

                 The young Fiona is just an ordinary teen with big dreams and fascinating talents. Like what Thomas Edison said, success is made of 1% inspiration and 99% expiration. It figures, she may not be the genius, but she’s never off the top 10 of every grade. She graduated from university on 2007 with a summa cum laude, after completing her double degree in accounting & finance in 3 years, which made her the youngest graduate with such an award. She also came first in the national young pianist competition at the age of 10 and was fortunate enough to have held a few recitals as a young musician. “Fiona is brilliant and very well educated, she works hard to accomplish her goals and is very responsible,” My father, from the perspective of a business partner. “She also has an ability for dealing with stress.”

After graduating from university, Fiona found a job in Merril Lynch bank of London. But due to the recent financial crisis she had to re-evaluate her priorities and decided to leave her job in finance industry to further pursue her passion in culinary arts (2009). “Leaving my job was the most significant and hard experience,” Fiona reported.”It lets me experience and realize that one should never stop believing in his or herself.”

From each of her past workplaces she learned something valuable. Currently, her occupation is as a food writer for Travel & Gourmet magazine. “I write about culinary trends, review restaurants, & anything in between,” the girl explained. “It’s an exciting job as it gives me insight about the industry from different ends of spectrum.” But between her busy schedule, she still makes time and tries to spend more of her life with her family and friends. “My sister’s thoughtful, for she always think about me wherever she goes and ask me whether I need anything all the time, and she’s also bizarrely crazy, because of her wild and loud behavior. She could laugh on her own sometimes, which is funny!” her sister Andrea speaks out. “She’s also lovable because that’s just the way she is.” This proves on how much Fiona loves and cares about her family & tries to spend time with them. So now if I say that she’s a good and sophisticated role model, you know why. A patisserie, a consultant chef, a jewelry line designer, a food writer, and a businesswoman. How cool can she get?




1. I learned how to write well and use more complicated, sophisticated and vivid words. I also learned how to arrange my words & sentences in a logical order. This project also helped me to learn more about my cousin, know her more and stuff. I also learned to write paragraphs with language features.

Project #4 - Alphabiography

B stands for Breathe Again

Breathe Again is a song by Sara Bareilles that I love so much, it’s unforgettable. It reminds me about a forced split, the long sleepless night spent with tears on my covers. It reminds me of how hard I tried to move on after a break up, and how my heart aches, how I tried to let go and get over the pain & sadness that never last. Breathe Again reminds me of a past story that is forgotten already.

C is for Camping

I once had my first & last camping 2 years ago, and it was an awesome experience. Imagine sleeping inside this cold tent while it rains outside, walking in the rain without any umbrellas, not showering for 3 days, wearing my hair in a ponytail that I didn’t untie for 3 whole days, sharing a water bottle with 5 people. Falling into mud, slipping on the rocks when hiking a waterfall, was fun. But only if you did it with Livia, Nadya, Nadia, Grace, and Ashley (:

D stands for Driftwood

The 3 of us were in Reichel’s pink bedroom when she decided to lend me some of her Cathy Cassidy’s books. After she brought some of them Nadia squealed, ”Aha! The girl in this book must be Cherry!” while holding the book Cherry Crush & Scarlett. “And this one must be Scarlett.” And with that, we started to play the guessing the character’s name. “This must be Drift!” Nadia said, holding the book Driftwood. “Or Wood. Ohh I like the name. I think I’m going to write a love story of a girl with the name Drift!” “Nadia, the girl’s name isn’t Drift. Or Wood.” Reichel corrected.

H is for Halloween

Halloween, I must confess, is my second favorite holiday after Christmas. Everyone’s always up to it. Dressing up, trick-or-treating, scaring kids.. The atmosphere is crazy! I do not actually have any traditions of dressing up to go trick-or-treating, but I did, a few times ago. This is a thing that I’ve always longed to try. I had an idea of dressing up as a cat in a hat by Dr Seuss, of Alice in the Wonderland. Ha!

K stands for Kelsey

Kelsey ‘s my best friend, she is glorious, wonderful, fun, lovable, indescribable. We like to watch the Fashion Police together, especially Guess Me from Behind and Starlet or Streetwalker. It’s always fun playing with her, because she got the answers wrong most of the time. And there’s this time when she was telling me a story & was acting a scene, when she pretended to smile to a boy and stared at him. Well the boy happens to look at her that exact moment and smiled back at her! Kelsey was so embarrassed her whole face turned red. Oh I love her so much J

L is for London

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the city of London? Well, boy, do I adore it. I’ve always loved everything about it though I’ve never been there. There’s just something about everything there. The Big Ben, the London Eye, the London Bridge, the double-decker bus, the sidewalk, the phone booths, the Palace, Harrods, the atmosphere. Oh, and the BRITISH ACCENT. I pretty much love everything about London.

M stands for Makeover

I’ve always wanted a makeover. That’s why I had one about last year, when I’m going to seventh grade. I cut my hair shoulder length and perm it. I didn’t dye it, but it looks like I did dye it brown. I took my braces off, so I have rows of neat pearly little white teeth. I also swam, ate, and exercise a lot which made my body look better. I gained weight, height, and confidence.

O is for One Direction

1D is the most epic boyband ever. And they have British accent, which boosts up their hotness. My favorite is Liam Payne, then Niall Horan and Zayn Malik. And I love their songs! Once Kelsey & I went to Marks & Spencer in Senayan City, and One Thing was on. We went crazy, danced, and sang in the middle of the store. Then everyone started to stare, someone even threw a 2000 rupiah money at us. But before we put on our finale the security guard asked us to stop and go.

R stands for Red Velvet Cupcakes

I once had baked red velvet cupcakes with my little sister. It was really fun baking it, though it was very late and we were getting very sleepy. The cupcakes turned out looking like chocolate cupcakes, with deep brown color and we had a hard time explaining to our parents. Well, at least they liked it.

S is for Selena Gomez

Ever imagine anything more important than her? I am such a fangirl every time it comes to her. But seriously, I love her to death. When I was in my elementary school, my nickname was Selena Gomez. People say I look like her or something. I don't really mind being called that. Why should I? They don't call me that anymore in junior high school, but still, my heart belongs to Selena.

T stands for The Clique

This is my favorite movie/book series of all time, written by Lisi Harrison. It's about this group of girls that ruled the school, with lives full of drama. I adore this book. I have been in this situation when I was bullied & I wrote stuff about The Clique in the things I want to learn, and they took it & I ended up being questioned about it. My insides laughed so hard because they actually took it seriously & thought it was real, but I was half scared to death too. So it was kind of a difficult but funny situation.

V is for Vogue

My favorite magazine of all time! ( Well, Teen Vogue, literally ) I've always loved this. Always have, always will. When I grow up, I wanna be a fashion editor of Vogue ( other than hosting the Fashion Police or designing my own fashion line ) so I could go to fashion shows, meet designers, be known, oh the joy. Vogue is a part of one of my biggest dreams.

1. First I wrote a list of all the alphabets and listed all the words that reminded me of something in my life on each letter. Then I circled the most important ones, and wrote a paragraph according to it. I enjoy writing every paragraph I've written, and trust me, all of them are real. At first I wrote long paragraphs, but after I reread them, I took some parts away that exposed too much of my personal things.

2. The 3 objective details I have are about my looks that I've written about in the M paragraph. It's objective because I've written how I changed my appearance and now you could see how I look, and it's what happened after I had the makeover. The 2nd objective detail I had is in the L paragraph about London. It is objective because I described it according to the real details. The 3rd objective detail that I have is in the H paragraph because things like I listed in that paragraph does happen in real life. Now, moving on to the 3 subjective details. The 1st subjective detail I have is in the D paragraph, because you don't know exactly what happened. The 2nd subjective detail I had written is on the K paragraph, when I said all the good things about my best friend it doesn't mean that they're all true, some people might have other opinions. The 3rd subjective detail I have is on the V paragraph. Not all fashion editors in Vogue magazine do all the stuff I listed.

3. I think I did really well in expressing my feelings in writing, and developing characters. I did very bad in answering question number 2. I think the hardest thing was to explain what happened in short sentences, and using rich vocabulary.

Project #3, Bible Story

Genesis 6-7

People down the road look at me like I’m crazy. Well, I don’t blame them. What I’m doing is actually kind of crazy, to be honest. I’m building an ark. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. But whatever God told me to do, I do. No matter how crazy it sounded. “Hey crazy man,” a lady down there yelled at me. “Where’s the rain?” Another asked and both cracked up. I ignored them. I ignored the crowd, everyone who yelled, mocked, or pointed at me when I’m building the ark. At first, my sons thought that I’m crazy too. But after I told them about the whole story, they shut their mouths & helped their father.

Today, were adding finishing touches to the ark, and tomorrow we’re gathering animals to sail them. Sweat dribbled down my chin as I hammered the dented parts of the ark. I watched as people stop & stare at my ark on the top of the mountain. I kept quiet & continued to work.

The day when I had to gather animals come. My wife lent me a hand to gather live stocks and reptiles while my sons gather wild animals with their wives. We went to the forest, the farm, & other places just to gather everything. We took the animals in, just to make themselves feel comfortable. It didn’t take long for them to feel comfortable because my son found a sleeping lion & lioness in a corner. As the rest of the animals get cozy, my family & I started packing the food my wife & daughter-in-laws had prepared for the ark. Barrels of fruits, vegetables, and water have been moved inside.

As we walked through the crowds pushing a cart full of barrels filled with food, people laughed & called us names. One of my daughter in laws’ lower lip trembled & her nose turned pink, her eyes started to fill with tears. I approached her & tapped her shoulder gently, trying to comfort her. “Don’t let a tear fall,” I sad. “You’re doing this because God asked you to do it.” She nodded & gave me a faint smile, and I continued on pushing the cart.

Weeks passed since God asked me to build an ark. People now liked to come closer & take a more detailed look of my ark, then mock me. “Noah, why are you so stupid?” A man asked. “Hey Noah where’s the rain?!” One of the youngsters yelled sarcastically. I can’t help but wonder too, where IS the rain? But I kept calm & answered them, “It’s coming”. And it did. It only drizzled at first, but then the rain got harder and harder, then turning into a storm. “Quick, everyone!” I shouted to my family. “To the ark!” we climbed to the ark with the rest of the animals, then God shut the door for us. I see citizens running out of their house, trying to save themselves from the big flood. Some climbed up the palm trees, some climbed up to the roof, and some just run around screaming. “God! Help me!” they cried, sobbing. An unfamiliar face swam close to my ark, yelling at me, pleading to open the gate. But it was too late, the water washed the person away.

And now we’re here, safe and sound, away from all the danger. We know that God is with us, and He has been keeping us safe. I sat down and watched my family mingling with the animals, teaching the animals funny gestures and feeding them. I feel warmth wrapping my heart and peace in my mind. And that’s when I close my eyes and thank God one more time for everything He gave me.

1. I picked the story of Noah's ark because this is my family's favorite story. I think it's one of the most important story in the bible too, so everyone needs to know this story. I decided to take out the beggining of the story and the end, when they finally found land because I think by taking away sections of the story it will make the audience want to open the bible, find the interesting story and finish reading it.
2. The most difficult thing I need to do was giving the details and stick to the story, because my mind's always wandering and adding untrue things to the story. Like I was going to write that Noah almost opened the door for the person calling him but a giraffe was in the way. Things like these sometimes get in the way of creating a true story.
3. I enjoy writing the story from the character's perspective. This is a fun way of writing the story & understanding it better. Being in the character's shoes instead of ours made us study the story more and feel it deeper.

Celebrity Toddlers Catfight

By - Keziah Raharja

    Sunday, 17 January 2012, Mission Impossible 3 : Ghost Protocol's star's daughter Suri Cruise got in a fight with little Zahara Jolie-Pitt in a Barney's boutique in LA over the last pair of Manolo slippers.
    Perhaps the Cruise family settled for a shopping spree in LA's best boutiques the next day after Tom's movie was released. Katie was seen with Suri by a couple of people strolling down the streets. And unfortunately, Suri's nemesis Zahara was too. Both were seen entering a Barney's store at close times, together with their mothers.
    An eyewitness said that Katie & Angelina saw each other and decided to shop together. When they get to the shoe section, both Suri & Zahara eyed a limited edition silver Manolo slippers. The two of them raced to get the shoes right after they found out that it's the last pair. Once both got there each grabbed a slipper, & Suri was very furious about this. "She looked like she's ready to swallow Zahara alive," the shop assistant informed us. "That's why Suri hit Zahara's forehead first." The girls fight and both of them won't give up, until their mothers came & stopped them from fighting. Both of the toddlers are physically okay, except for a bruise on Zahara's cheek.
   

"I have a strong reason for the cat fight. I know that my daughter is very involved in the fashion world & she respects it too. But I apologize for Zahara's bruise, I really am. I know Suri didn't mean to hit Zahara that way."

    Later that day Katie Holmes sent a pair of Manolo shoes the kids fought for to the Jolie-Pitts mansion for apology. But the next day Suri was seen in the same pair of shoes Angelina received. Rumour said that Angelina sent back the gift from Katie, in other words, she did not forgive Katie. In the future, maybe Suri & Zahara will be rivals, but we're hoping that there will be no more cat fights ahead.

Project #1

1. My purpose of creating this advertisement is to persuade people to go to London & imagine London with a different image. Like people like to imagine London as a boring, old town. With this advertisement I would like to make people not think that way, then enjoy & discover the fresh, young, and hip side of London. I want people to respect the old city more.

2. My 2 best language features are the friendly tone I used, to make people feel comfortable reading my ad. It will also help the readers to feel close & trust us. My second best language feature is the pictures I used & put in the advertisement. People say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I put some pictures in the advertisement for people to see & imagine about. And I don't have to waste more time describing the image.