Blizzard? Snow?

What's up readers?

I promised y'all to write more so here is my second post in a week, I hope I can do this continuously. :D

As y'all have known that I am from a tropical country which is technically impossible to have snow there. In this post I'll share to y'all about what I feel and what I know about snow and maybe little bit about blizzard.

1. Snow

The picture shows how a real snowflake looks like. To be honest, I did not believe that snow looks like a beautiful crystal just like in the picture or movie. But after a snowflake actually fell into my hand, I know that this is real.. :)

2. Blizzard

Blizzard is not just a typical snow rain. A blizzard not only brings snow; it also brings ice and blows huge wind. I realized that most tropical people (like me) think ice is the same with snow during winter. Based on my own experience, I realized that they are different. Snow is beautiful crystal that you have seen on picture number 1. But ice during winter is like a crushed block of ice. Or I call it "es serut" in my own language. During snowfall, when the snow touches our face, it will be fine. But during a blizzard, the ice will hurt you. It feels like thousands of pinches on your face.

 This is how thick the snow during a blizzard.

3. Snowman!

If we watch a movie about winter, most of us will assume that snowman are made everywhere. And that is true if we have thick snow. On my first snowfall, it was almost impossible to make a snowman because the snow is thin and the structure is not strong enough to make a snowman. FYI, it is not easy to make a snowman. We have to make three big snowballs, then we put it above each other. And one snowball is not light to pull!

 4. Snow Angel

This term might be little bit unfamiliar (for me too!). Other way to enjoy snow-time is to make a snow angel. The picture above is showing how to make one. So we lay on a thick snow, then we move our hands up and down and move our legs to left and right. And then taraaaaa! the snow angel is formed! Kinda beautiful ain't it?

It sounds pretty fun to have snow right?
Well it is not 100 percent fun. Why it is not fun? I'll share with you in the next post! So keep following my simple blog!

Don't forget to follow me on twitter [@cwij_]
and if you have any questions, you can ask me via [http://ask.fm/cwij]

See you  soon on the next post!

War Against HIV (WAH)

Dear readers, 

I actually do not remember where I sent this piece of writing. I guess I sent it to join a competition. I found it worth to share. So enjoyyyyyy! I will try to make a new post once a week!

            “You have been infected by HIV, now you have AIDS as well. I’m so sorry to tell you that you have less than twelve months left to live.”

            What would you feel if that that was said to you or to someone close to you? Sadness and hopeless, those two words maybe the best words to describe what will you feel. You are going to lose energy. You are going to develop sores on your body. You will lose your appetite. Your body will find it more and more difficult to fight infections from all kinds of other diseases. No matter how rich and important you are, if HIV is inside your body, the first thing you feel will be that there will be nothing that you can do anymore. You have to face it: this is not going to be an easy twelve months for you and your family and friends.

            According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths. More than five young people are infected by HIV every minute worldwide. In Indonesia, more than 54.3% of infected people are young people. Scientist said that young people have the highest risk to be infected by HIV and AIDS because we are in the transition between childhood and adulthood. In this phase most of us want to try something new without thinking about the risk.

            These are some myths about HIV:

·         People with HIV will be die soon. That is just a myth! Although there is still no way to cure it, there is a medicine called antiretroviral that can slow down the spread of HIV in the body. It will not cure the disease, but if infected people could have the medicine routinely, and have the treatment, they can live like normal people.

·         HIV only infects gay and people who consume drugs. The fact, HIV can infect anybody. So everyone has to be careful and make themselves secure from HIV.

·         HIV cannot spread via oral sex. This is the most dangerous myth, because people with HIV sometimes continue to practise oral sex, and without realising it, they infect their partners.

Those myths can be so dangerous if most people still believe them. We have to make sure that people know the facts.

As young people, what we can do to have a war against HIV? Some of us will say that there is nothing we can do, or anything we do, it will be nothing because HIV will always spread everywhere. We have to change our mindset. The data shows that most of people with HIV are young people; it shows that we are not so far from the virus. We can say that the virus is among us.

The best way for us to combat the virus is by prevention. These are some ways that we can do:

·         Prevention by education. In this program we can tell younger students around us to be careful of HIV, and not to waste their lives by trying harmful activity that can lead them to HIV.

·         Street smart program.  We have to be a trigger for this program. Ask as many people as you can ask to go to the street and teach the street kids how to prevent HIV.

·         Peer to peer prevention is so important. We can hold a meeting with a role model to make other young people aware with HIV. Not only with a role model, but also with people who have HIV, so the participants could feel how difficult it is to live with HIV so they will not try it.

Those kinds of program are simple, but they will be so powerful because we can reach a lot of young generation in one vision to fight HIV. One of the most important ways to prevent it is by helps from parent. A research from CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention) told that the earlier parents have told their children about values and sex orientation, it will decrease the risk from HIV.

Beside the prevention, we can help the people with HIV by visiting them and giving them support. As we know, some of them don’t have a long time anymore to live. By giving them support, it will be so worthy for them. They will feel humanized by our action, and for us, it will make us feel good to see a smile on their faces.

HIV is a totally dangerous virus; it makes a lot of people afraid about it. As a young generation, we could be in the closest position with the virus. That is why; we have to start moving from now on. As a trigger to declare a war against HIV.

Leave comments or thought below!

The essay that sent me to Japan

Dear readers, 

I would like to share maybe one of the best writing I have ever made (maybe). This essay made me go to Japan! Enjoy!

I have always been interested in multi-cultural and international relations and it always been great for me to know and understand new culture from a lot of new people especially in an international setting. I believe this chance will take me into higher understanding about international knowledge and broader my way of thought. International camp has always be a dream of me, I could imagine how great it will be when many students around the world gather and share the uniqueness from each country. Besides that, social networking has allowed me to make many virtual friends around the globe.   The opportunity of meeting them in person and joining them in challenging and problem-solving activities will be so wonderful to me.

I am a good communicator, and I have a natural way of getting along with people of all kinds of different backgrounds. Living in a school dormitory has taught me a lot about how compromise is so important to understanding. I am an ambitious boy, but that can sometimes be my weakness, since I want to win every competition I have, and also I push myself to much for chasing a vision that I really want to. My other weakness is that I love chocolate.

My future will definitely be international. I have had just a taste of what is out there in the world when I visited Newcastle for attending UK School Games as a volunteer. I truly want to be a future leader for Indonesia. For leadership skills, I have learned through the process in my life, especially in this high school, I am prepared to be future leader of Indonesia. Relating future leader and international, I want to be a leader who has international thought to make betterment for Indonesia.

I did a special presentation when I was in Newcastle; I talked about what is necessary to be a good volunteer.  I gave my presentation to all young leaders from 10 other countries; and to their chaperone, and our trainer from UK. I did the presentation while we had training about how to be a good volunteer. I received very well comments for my presentation, since I did not only talk to them, but also I share my feeling. For me, a great presentation is in which could make the participants laugh and cry. Apart from Newcastle experience, I had presented in a group of twenty five students about the Pathway to Success; I am so pleased to hear that my presentation could reach their mind and their heart.

My hobbies are playing basketball and English writing. I am included in the 1^st basketball team in my school and become one member of journalistic club. I usually do what I love to do, because that will make me enjoy to do it and will give very good impact for me. For my basketball team, I always train hard, three times a week to increase my endurance, and also for the teamwork. Even we have not won any competition yet, we never give up, and for me I do it because I love it.

In writing, I practice once or twice a week. When there is writing competition, I try to join the competition to see my improvement in writing. The result is very good; I could be the second runner up in nationwide News-Feature Writing held by Jakarta Post and Paramadina University. Recently, I could pass the best 20 in opinion writing held by Jakarta Globe which the result is still in progress. The way to achieve my dream is keep training, never give up, and leave everything to God.

I am proud to be an Indonesian; Indonesia is a great and rich country. In international setting, maybe the “name” of Indonesia does not really sound good, to show how well is Indonesia, I will show the hospitality of Indonesian and I will be proud to present about the rich culture here. By telling them the beauty of Indonesia, I am really sure that they will fall in love with our country and cannot wait to visit Indonesia.

In my opinion, the most important issue to be shared and discussed with the people around the world is global warming issue. It may sounds so boring, but it is a fact that young people is the future for this earth and will fell the impact several years later if we do not start to be more considerate about our earth. To help and reduce the global warming, we can do simple things such as reduce eating meat, starting to use public transportation, and stop using plastic bag. By having social media, we could share the same spirit to love this earth more and more.

Apart from global warming, I think it is important for my generation to think global. By having global thinking we could emulsify any differences between so many countries in the world, and for sure it will bring peace to the world.

I am just a young man who has big dreams, I cannot say that I am an expert, I am just learning from the experts.  In this young age, I want to do more for my country, and for me this is a very good chance to make Indonesia have a better reputation in the world.

So what do you think? Please leave comments below and follow me at twitter. @cwij_

Christian Timothy Wijaya

30.05.2011