Wednesday 17 July 2013

Becoming the 9th from 10.400 in National English Olympiad

rozz's property


Lil bit (choco)late, actually to post this kinda awesome news. But it still awaits in the waiting list to be done. Finally, after all of somewhat more important things accomplished to deal with, here a time to share. No need such a beat in the bush, well ya, here we go!

This is about my summer vacation. Summer? Excuse me? Summer??? Umm, let’s call it holiday season. Ya! Holiday season. Just like how it used to be, I barely had any holiday in holiday season  though the others did. But I always enjoy every minutes of my routins. Never mind. In this season, I spent it in Malang, road to Malang, and road to Magelang from Malang. I was not alone. Noverina and Ms. Feri were with me.

On the beginning of May, there was an invitation from Administration English Club (AEC) – Fakultas Ilmu Administrasi (FIA), Brawijaya University. It was about National English Olympiad, some kinda English Competition at National level. The competition itself is UB GLOWING; Shining, Sparkling, Inspiring. And it was, what made me so mesmerizing.

To get there, we should pass some tests. We conducted the first test in the end of May. It was conducted in our school, SMA IT Ihsanul Fikri. The questions of the test was delivered by the commetee from UB GLOWING, and we had to send the answer sheets back. There were 34 students of our school joined the selections, both 10th and 11th grader. The commetee would choose top 50 students from 10th grader and 50 from 11th grader from all of participant through Senior High School in Indonesia. I hope there were some of 34 could be one of the top golden 50.

The announcement was announced in the official website on June, 18th. I always stayed turn my in front of my laptop screen. Can’t wait the result. But yeah, till dark, its result was nothing. We have to be patient. Finally, I went back to dorm and decided to see the site again, on the next day. Before I opened the site, Hirzi told me earlier;

“Noverina counted in,”
“Really,”
“Ya, number 35,”
“How about your name? Did you find it?”
“I’ve scrolled up and down plenty times, but the result remains the same,”

I browsed just to make sure. Is it that? Nimbly I opened my laptop, turned it on, typed the address, quickly jumped to the semifinalist number 35. Oh, so sad, I didn’t find her name. I scrolled up and down. Again. And again. Still...didn’t find it. Hey, wait!!! I read the tittle... “Ah, this is eleventh grader!!!!” Well, I searched in another page. Nah, got it! Here, here... “Noverina Shirinovski. Number 35. Exactly!” Then I printed it, hurried looking for Rina, gave her the printing, told her to read it completely, after she’s done with it, found her name, then I hugged her. Cried. I don’t know what the tears for, but, I was just happy about that at that time.

In short, I told Bu Yuvita and met the Principal, Ustadz Jamal, not to mention, Bu Nuri ;) Not that short actually, lil bit chocolate, eh, complicated. But, finally, we were going to go for Brawijaya University by the date June, 26th. Due to holiday season, noone left in dorm. Only Noverina and I who left in Daarul Marhamah. We prepared all kinda things that we might need on the competition.

June, 25th

Early morning, after Subuh, Pak Umar and “Si Putih” took us; Ms. Feri, Noverina, and I, to the bus station. We went to Malang by EKA, but we had to transit in Surabaya first. By Malang, we were picked up by Iffatul’s father’s relative. She’s a principal of Islamic School there, also a mother of four children; Shofura, Zahra, Akmal, and Umar. She’s so kind, and they’re so nice. We spent the night on her house.
June, 26th

We packed all of the things and we went to Brawijaya University with those kinda stuffs, just like a backpacker. We stepped on the 4th floor of FIA UB, did the registration, and entered the hall. Ms. Feri met her college mate, Ms. Tiara who also accompanied her students. They catched up there, while Noverina and I entered the hall.

The hall was arranged so well, there are a lot of round tables surrounded by about six chairs in each table. We chose the back row table, so we could enjoy the laser show before opening ceremony in a perfect view.

The Main Hall


After the master of ceremony opened the occassion, the commetee gave a briefing about the competition. There were three rounds. The first round was called BoB (Battle of Brain). The system was like Rangking Satu. There was no elimination. The second round was Spelling Bee. The Spelling Bee itself was devided into two round; written and spoken. In written test, there would be elimination. It would only remained fifteen student. For the final round, story telling, there would remained five students, and took three students as the winner, first runner up, and second runner up, and only one student who won the prize to go to Singapore and Malaysia.

When the first elimination was announced, I looked into the screen meticulously, wondering there’s a name that I waited coming up. There! Noverina Shirinovski from SMA IT Ihsanul Fikri. Number Thirteen. Good. Let’s prepare for the next round!

The announcement for the second section of Spelling Bee was attached on the door of the hall. Well got it. Rina got the ninth position. It meant that she didn’t go to the final round. Well, it’s very very very okay, since we know that all the total amount of UB GLOWING participant through all Senior High School in Indonesia was 10.400 participant.

“Becoming 9th of 10.400 is very cool, though!”

FYI, her score were just the same with the participant on 8th and 7th position. Very great. Proud of you, Rin! *tap*

ms. fe ~ me ~ nover
*ups sorry... there's nothing wrong with your eyes, we really did the blur for the photo :p

Well, here we go for dinner. It was also conducted in the main hall. There were several performances; AMC and Yohana (X-Factor). I was there for a lil bit a while, then I walked to look around, out from the main hall. There was a stair with a huge clear window glasses there. I sat down and looked the view of Malang traffic at night. More reasuring, then. I turned my head when I heard a crowd behind. Ah, what’s that? Oh, someof participants took pictures of Yohana. Well, I didn’t really know her, so I just kept busy with my own. Ah, there’s something more interesting on the table I thought. Es Kopyor!  *lol* I took a bowl and enjoyed back that great view.

After closing ceremony, we both of three were going to go home by Bis Malam; EKA (again). It was 9 pm. Before leaving Brawijaya, we took some picture and buy something, some food, and yeah... some others. A public car brought us to Malang town square. Hey, were looking for a merchandise shop, actually. But then, we were lost I thought. We were around looking for public car (again). We found a police station. Wow look! The coolest police station ever! The door glasses, an LCD tv, and air conditioner. The police was so kind too. In front of the station, Rina and I took some pictures.

“Heyh! Both of you! What on earth are you doing! Oh, really! If I don’t come with you, I don’t know whether you’ll arrive home or not!” Ms. Feri shouted to us after realizing when we left behind.
“Wait a moment, Miss. It’s once in a life time,” I said.
“This is the coolest police station ever!” Rina said.
“Well Rina, take some pictures of me here!” I asked.

We got public car to bring us to bus station finally. Yeah, it’s 10 pm. Our destiny was Surabaya. We got there at midnight exactly. Because of the bus that would bring us to Magelang was full, so we decided to go home via Semarang. And a bus again from Semarang to Magelang. We arrived by Dzuhur. How exciting!

Here my holiday season in this season. Though I barely have holiday, I took it as a free ticket to spend the so called holiday. What’s on my next holiday season? Let’s see!