Ramadhan Day 8
Alhamdulillah akhirnya dapat buka bersama dengan teman-teman Indonesia, Malaysia, dan beberapa Sri Lankan yang sedang berpuasa bulan ini. Great cooking, tapi nggak ada satu pun yang mengalahkan masakan mbah putri. I miss her so much…
Ramadhan Day 6
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Introducing new students to deans who established the program.
No matter how tempting lunch can be on a sunny early autumn day, I had to resist the desire to taste that creamy vanilla cake sitting helplessly in front of me, untill the waiter cleared our table. Luckyly, I wasn’t the only one fasting!
Ramadhan Day 4
CHORAL GALA CONCERT
At last, all the hard work we’ve practiced every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was about to be presented before the Stillwater community. I was so nervous, but I knew back in Jogja someone who has taught me how to not sing like I would in the shower or like I would for my friends would be smiling in pride. Ha ha. This is for you mas Gathut.
At last, also, all the hard work I’ve done to teach my friend how to use my videocam to record the concert will soon be paid off.
At last, albeit, not that important, I hope my new cute shoes won’t make me trip over my skirt that’s way too long for my body and made me feel as if I were a princess ready for a ball.
The choir began, with the Concert Choral - the professional singers of OSU. WOW! Their voice vibrations made me shiver! How can God give such precious talents! WOW…
As we were in the midst of being immersed in the beauty of their Sonnet No. LXIV by Dominick Argento and the graceful conducting of Dr. Garner, a sudden loud and obnoxious sound filled the auditorium in an abrubt but continuous intonation - the fire alarm!!! WHAT?! Oh this must be some kind of joke? Could someone hate us that much to pull the fire alarm for fun? or could someone want to watch us so bad but had no ticket? Negative thoughts crossed my mind untill we all started to lift our skirts and tip toed out to the closest exit. Everyone was so shocked. I heard people say, “This is the first time something like this has ever happened in the history of OSU choir; Dr. Garner must be really p***** off; I can’t believe this; Oh look it’s the fire truck!; It’s cold out here; I hope the audience will want to come back!”
Ramadhan Day 2
Finally, I made my 3rd and my 4th dish, in Stillwater OK.
Fried Rice and Beef+chicken Stew (Rendang).
Yang pertama nasi goreng biasa dengan suwiran ayam ditambah jagung dan kacang kapri. Yang ke dua pasti bingung, masak rendang sapi kok ada ayamnya? Ya, buat genap-genap lah. Biar mantap. hehe
Here are a few other dishes on the menu. Please be the judge of it. Guess which one’s homemade, cooked by their mom, and purchased 30 minutes before dinner started. Be our guest! Sad to say though, that the only comment I got that night was about how pretty my tomato decoration was.
Well, what about my cooking?? ;(
Shall we start eating? Wait till the sun sets 
To break our fast, we, muslim students, went to the mosque to have some dates and milk and perform the maghrib prayers before proceeding with the dinner. It was a neat experience, since at home in Yogya we would have kolak beverage instead which is made from sliced bananas and diced casava, cooked in coconut milk with brown sugar. Mmmm.
Ramadhan Day 1
Oklahoma State Fair, Rodeo, & Country Concert verses Muslim Gathering of 1st day of Ramadhan, which shall you go to?
To most muslims, the priority is obvious. But to someone who wants to be in many places at one time and wants to get the most out of her time will work it out.
CNN - AMERICAN MORNING
How many TV’s do you have at home?
And how many people?
Research shows in the average American home, there are more TVs than the people living in them! About an average of 2.73 TVs are found in homes with an average of 2.55 people! More TVs than people watching them.
Gee, that’s more than a 1 TV per 1 person ratio!
I had to get to the department early this morning because I had graduate assistant work. As I was getting ready, Nira said goodbye and was ready to head to her research center. Then the bell rang as I was still chosing what outfit I’d wear (which is usually a long process for me). Wearing a skirt crossed my mind. When I opened up the door, a huge gush of wind just shoved itself inside our warm comfy living room. Short after that, Nira rushed in the door and said, “I can’t walk with an umbrella I think I need my raincoat.” What?! She came in quickly and left again.
Well, I heard some springklers turn on the field near my room, but I didn’t realize it was actually showering this great. Then I saw the heavy rain pouring down on the sidewalk. Ok, then I guess I need to make a change in my outfit plan for the day! By not having a raincoat yet, I not only put on my T-shirt, but a thick sweater, and my hoodie. I then quickly walked out of the apartment and to my department. When my umbrella was turned underside up by the great wild west winds… It suddenly hit me. I just understood why Nira couldn’t use her umbrella! LOL!
I got to my department all wet from my shoulders down to my sneakers. Unfortunately there weren’t any dryers in the restroom so I just laid out my jacket, sweater, socks on the chairs of my cubical. Then I directly checked the weather channel which I shoud’ve done before I left the house
AMERICAN NITE - INTERNATIONAL COFFEE HOUSE
It was actually American Nite at the ICH, but at the end, the host children decided to perform some Irish dances. They called it the ‘Bag Dance’ because we handed a bag to the next dancer on our left or right depending on which you prefer not to dance with, then we dance with the one which we didn’t give the bag to. Whatever they called it, violin tunes were already running through my head.
It was an experience I’ve longed for as long as I’ve discovered The Corrs back in 1997! I only wanted to watch the dance at first, but listening to the music made my feet tap as if I were a River Dancer. It was a unique high-spirited kind of feeling. In one night, I’ve learned two moves! haha
Thu Sep 14, 7:13 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The largest planet ever found orbiting another star is so puffy it would float on water, astronomers said Thursday. The newly discovered planet, dubbed HAT-P-1, is both the largest and least dense of the nearly 200 worlds astronomers have found outside our own solar system.
HAT-P-1 ORBITS ONE OF A PAIR OF STARS IN THE CONSTELLATION LACERTA
(ABOUT 450 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH)
“This new planet, if you could imagine putting it in a cosmic water glass, it would float,” said Robert Noyes, a research astrophysicist with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The planet, a gas giant, is probably a puffed up ball of hydrogen and helium. HAT-P-1 is an oddball planet, since it orbits its parent star at just one-twentieth of the distance that separates Earth from our own sun. While Earth takes a year to orbit the sun, the newly found planet whips around its star once every 4.5 days. Astronomers believe HAT-P-1 may belong to an entirely new class of planets, along with a second, smaller distant world that’s also puffier than theories would have predicted, Noyes said. Astronomers used a network of telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii to discover the planet. Its parent star is too faint to see with the naked eye but can be spied with binoculars.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: