The International Youth Camp 2009, day 5

TRIP TO LAKE TOBA!!! Wow!!

I had to wake up at 5 am that day, I was still so sleepy, lousy girl I am, and that time, Welly and Adi woke me up and forced me to come by calling and calling me. Thanks, dudes.

Lake Toba is located 4 hour journey by bus and it was the best natural view we had in North Sumatra. Lake Toba was also the nomination of the 7th wonder, and it's the largest volcanic lake in the world. As a Medan citizen, I went there one or two times in a year.

In this International Youth Camp, we all got the chance to go there again with the delegates, and Lake Toba that time was so hot...

with Kim Jung Hwan, the Korean guy.

Then we cruised on a ferry, the boat that crosses from Parapat to Samosir island. You can see the pictures below on the ferry...

At Tomok, we did shopping and negotiating prices for the delegates so they wouldn't be cheated...

These are the traditional houses of Batak tribe.

Lake Toba, it has breathtaking views. I suggest everybody to come to Lake Toba when visiting North Sumatra. It's wonderful! And we departed right at sunset time, and I reached my home at almost midnight. What a fun day!

As for my health, well, it's not as worst as the previous days. :)

The International Youth Camp 2009, day 4

Ok the schedule for day 4 on 14th of June was like this:

09.00-12.00 Attending Fashion Show (national dress)

Above: From Malaysia

Above: From Philippines

Above: From Singapore (though I believe the national dress that they were wearing belong to India, hehe, salwar/ punjabi suit)

Above: From Thailand

So, during this, the delegates will show their national dress, like the Koreans would wear their hanbok, their national dress, and Indonesians would wear kebaya. I didn't join this one, hiks, I know, too bad, but I was so badly having my fever. I was glad to still come in the afternoon, cos no matter what I have pledged myself not to let my university down.

03.00--03.30 Leaving for SMAN1 Medan (high school) and "Taman Beringin" (Beringin Park)

03.30- 05.30 Informal meeting at SMAN1 Medan and Planting friendship trees at Beringin Park (collaboration with green teachers Indonesia, Local government and University of Sumatera Utara)

So, for this one I joined. We were given the same sweatshirts, BUT my sweattshirt was too large for me, hiks, but It's ok and we had to plant friendship trees called Gaharu trees, but prior to that we still had to join a meeting at SMAN1 Medan, it's one of the top high schools in Medan. There were some dances and speeches again. Here was a glimpse.

Then, we went to Beringin Park for planting frienship trees.

All of the delegates were classified in their own countries, Thailand had its own special area, as well as China, Korea, Singapore, and so on. Even my university, USU (University of Sumatera Utara) had its own space. Even I am from Medan, but I am a Chinese, cos of my Chinese blood and a little bit Japanese from grandpa, so I call myself Chinese Indonesian. That's why the Chinese delegates asked me and Yose to join them in planting tree in the China space, and I did that. ^_^

Above: The Chinese delegate

Above: Yose and I were with the Chinese delegates planting Gaharu tree.

And I also had my university space...

Then, from the park, we went home and we had a closing ceremony to attend in the evening around 7.30 pm. And I was told abruptly that I would be the valedictorian, you know, a speaker who gave speech about impression and stuffs, and so that night I gave my sudden, nearly impromptu speech, and thank God, it went successfully.

I got my certificate that night, and oh well, what a farewell party it turned.

Indeed, I have learnt some things from this event:

1. The entrepreneurship itself

What is entrepreneurship? What is the government's role in the youth empowerment, entreprenurship in particular? And what are the drawbacks of youth entrepreneurship in Asian countries?

2. Culture

- Indonesian culture is rich, Bataknese dances are cool

- The cross culture between the delegates and Indonesians

3. Friendship

Making friends is something that I will always treasure in my life. Thank God I met a lot of nice friends from different countries.

Go for Youth International Youth Camp!

P.S: We still had one trip to go the next day, but that was out of the program, only a tour as a bonus from the program, we went to Lake Toba, I would share about this one in the next post.

The International Youth Camp 2009, day 3

The third day, we also had to attend opening ceremony in Batubara Regency, it's four hour journey from Medan by big bus, but before that in the morning there was a group discussion, in which the topics are: Small-Medium Enterprise Development Strategy to Enhance People Welfare, Strategy to develop the spirit of Entrepreneurship, and Pioneering the ASEAN youth Business Community, well I can't say much about this forum as I didn't join, I slept and had a bad fever the day before... :(

But around 10 am, I came. Mona kept calling me to come, so then, I came, and luckily, I wasn't late for Batubara Regency trip. The bus departed at around 10 pm. We reached there around 2 pm and It was a tiring journey...

Yeah, this was the place, and the bus that brought us here could not get in to that small lane, so we had to walk, it's about 30 minute walk, even more tiring, hiks, we were about to go the a beach called Perjuangan Beach (translate Beach of Struggle), there was an opening ceremony, again, hehe for International Festival in Youth and Sports.

walking and walking and finally...

we reached the spot, and these people kept taking pictures, hehe

We walked and we found out that the beach was so crowded. Look at this! :O

Many and many people were there to celebrate the opening ceremony of the festival, and there were many dances, bataknese (one of the tribes in Indonesia) dances in particular.

The two people in middle were from China. They were very friendly, and the guy was a bit silent and cool. But we talked several times, and I can spot the difference between my Chinese language and theirs, hehe, but still, the Chinese blood is there, so feel like meeting brother and sister. Wish I could go to China. And here, the dances were performed:

I think these were welcoming dances known in Batak culture.

And here I was sitting down with friends, really tired, having fever, and really didn't know why I still survived.

Now, see the close up, I was with Marina, my junior, Mona, my best friend, and Hotma, my close male friend... Nice...

above: With the Thai people, Ohm and Via...

It's very hot here, but well even there's a guy sitting in his parachute, and bringing the advertisement...Pheewh, can't imagine being him, must be very hot up there...

(Look at the picture below) Then, what was so amazing was, the skydivers dived and jumped from Hercules airplane very high above...

Can you see the parachutes? Ok take a closer look when one was about to go down...

After this magnificent skydivers, we had 640 students in that region performing dances, 8 different dances according to tribes existing in that region...

The picture below was Sigale Gale dance, very entertaining with the puppets...

And when they finished dancing, the sunset came and we went back to Medan.

It was four hour journey or even more that time, cos we still stopped to eat in the restaurant. It was a tiring journey, I was so knackered and very sick plus my fever and headache. I reached my home at almost 12 midnight and threw up a lot. Bad health! But u see, I was having fun...