Author: Ayunda Damai

Learner & Storyteller

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Book Review

Book Review: The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

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To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation

Last time on my blog, I wrote about my trip in the United States. And I mentioned the books I bought in the Coop Bookstore at Harvard. One of it being The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. 

In the shortest description possible, the whole story is a beautiful enactment of one’s journey to reach their dream. The story itself focuses on Santiago, a young Andalusian shepherd who had a strong connection with his sheep. The only companion in his life which its simplicity taught the boy (Santiago) about important life lessons. One day, he got dreams about a treasure in the pyramid. And his devotion in reaching this dream is shown throughout the book.

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US Trip Notes: (2) Art Galleries and Museum

Following the previous notes about the Tournament of Champions, I made this notes which focus about the  art galleries, museums, and other tourist attractions I visited while in the US. Hope you enjoy!

*A Short Visit to Boston*

I had a chance to go to Boston with my friends on the free day during the WSC program. We then decided and went for a stroll around the Harvard campus area, before we were freezing because of the weather and entered Harvard Museum of Natural History.

To sum it up, the museum is full of things like stones, minerals, as well as collections of ancient animal skulls, bugs, and some traditional items from around the world. Although the bug and animal skull collections are not necessarily the things I would enjoy to see, it’s pretty interesting to go around and find out what other kinds of collections they have.

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US Trip Notes: (1) The World Scholars Cup – Tournament of Champions

It was just two months ago, when I found out that my team in the World Scholars Cup was qualified to enter the final of this competition; the Tournament of Champions in Yale University, which also marks the end of this year’s season. So after many consideration, I think it’s best for me to write down my 2 weeks trip in the United States by dividing it into two posts due to the amount of experiences I’ve gained there. And I think it’s best if I start this series of posts with a notes about the Tournament of Champions itself.

Since the end of the Manila Global Round I had in September, my team tried our best to manage our time so that we could fit in a fair amount of practices within 2 months. Because after we committed to join the ToC (Tournament of Champions), we knew that the competition was not something to be taken lightly. It really came with full dedication as well as large enthusiasm to learn and be much better than we were before.

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Book Review

Book Review : Becoming – Michelle Obama

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For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as a forwards motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self.

– Michelle Obama

I’m sure by now, there’s not a single person who doesn’t know about Michelle Obama. The former First Lady of the United States, who played a big role in advocating public health and education. Making her an important role model to many people around the world.

So it’s not a surprise when her autobiography was released last year, people were so eager to buy it. And I was lucky enough to be able to buy it a few months ago. But because of my packed schedule this past week, I’ve just finished reading it two days ago and thought that I would like to share what I think of this book.

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World Scholar’s Cup | Manila Not So Mini Global Round 2019 (2)

We have gone through the days of the World Scholar’s Cup Manila Not So Mini Global Round in my previous post. So the experience would not be complete if I don’t talk about the last day of WSC, when we had the Talent Show and most importantly, the Award Ceremony.

In the Talent Show, I performed a piano cover of BTS’ song which is Mikrokosmos. As you may know, before I went to Manila, I already created this cover and upload it on my youtube channel a while ago. So for preparation, I only practiced it more to lessen the chance of mistake.

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World Scholar’s Cup | Manila Not So Mini Global Round 2019 (1)

After a long wait since the Regional Round of WSC I had in May, I was finally given the opportunity to join one of the Global Round in Manila from 6 – 11 September. Same as the Regional Round before, it feels amazing to be there. To be in the same program with these people from all around the world that have the same enthusiasm in learning and celebrating it. Therefore, I will try as I hard as I could to capture those moments and feelings in this post.

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The 2 teams from Sekolah Cikal Surabaya

Just like what I stated, of how this Global Round brought together a bunch of people from around the world, that is exactly what happened during the first day. As a part of the opening, all of the scholars did Scavenger Hunt around the area of the venue which was actually a mall. Around 800 scholars were divided into 40 teams in this activity, making up 18-20 scholars in each team. 

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Unraveling Princess Jasmine’s Character and Its Correlation with Women Empowerment | from the 2019 Live-Action Aladdin

Time has passed, and a character has revised. This is what happened to the character Princess Jasmine in the new live-action version of the movie ‘Aladdin’. In the original movies, we know her as a princess who dislike to be isolated from the other world. Although she and her father argued quite a lot about it, it is undeniable that she care so much about him. But sadly, we didn’t get to see the full potential of this character in that movie.

That’s why when I watched the newest version of Aladdin, I was amused by the character development in Princess Jasmine. She was portrayed as a young independent princess, who are not afraid to speak up whenever something is not right in her opinion. She is full of knowledge and dreams of the future Agrabah, until she always wanted to be the next Sultan. All of her immense bravery, independence, and other values made me think that the character and movie could promote women empowerment. Therefore I believe all of us can learn something from her.

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source: https://hdqwalls.com/wallpaper/2160×3840/princess-jasmine-in-aladdin-2019-5k
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Book Review

Book Review: The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

After a month, I finally have a chance to update this blog. This months I’ve been so busy with my school assignments and works until it was kind of hard for me to write on this blog. Now, since it’s still the beginning of mid-term break, I have a lot of time to do whatever I want and I choose to update my blog with a book review of The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

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I’ve been wanting to write a review about this book since several years ago. The Little Prince is one of the most famous classic book, and many people has mistaken it as a children book. For me, it make sense why people thought that way. The book itself is really thin, the word choices are relatively easy to understand, and there are so many illustrations in it. But actually, the writer; Antoine De Saint-Exupery, wrote in the foreword that The Little Prince is a book made for ‘adults who have been children before’.

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Nyoman Nuarta and Sunaryo Soetono Art Galleries in Bandung

Happy new year guys!! I hope you really enjoy this first week of 2019. For me, I really enjoy this week very much, and it is because several days ago, I went to Bandung with my family since I’ve been wanting to go there for a long time.

When I went there, I visited a lot of cool places and I will write a notes about it in several posts in this blog. For this first post, I will start the notes with 2 of my favorites destinations when I was in Bandung. Those two places are Selasar Sunaryo and NuArt Sculpture Park.

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