Culture Explosion

There are some popular terms on internet that people usually use to express some things that can't be seen visually. For example, when saying they really love something they use the words 'explode', like there is a new K-pop music video and my feels are going to explode just by watching it. 

This time, I want to use the term to describe my favorite reality television show, The Amazing Race. Thus it kinda explain my intention to write that title. 

I discussed about American TV series before in my post about Glee. But when talking about culture especially in real life this is BEYOND your imagination. Really, if you have never watched it before, then you should!

 According to Wikipedia, here is the explanation about the TV show:

The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams. Contestants strive to arrive first at "Pit Stops" at the end of each leg of the race to win prizes and to avoid coming in last, which carries the possibility of elimination or a significant disadvantage in the following leg. Contestants travel to and within multiple countries in a variety of transportation modes, including airplanes, hot air balloons, helicopters, trucks, bicycles, taxicabs, cars, jeepneys, trains, buses, boats, and by foot. Clues provided in each leg lead the teams to the next destination or direct them to perform a task, either together or by a single member. These challenges are related in some manner to the country wherein they are located or its culture. Teams are progressively eliminated until three are left; at that point, the team that arrives first in the final leg is awarded the grand prize.

 

At the first glance, it was like, okay, so that is how the game is played. But, notice the word that I purposefully bold? It is a race and it is around the world! The tasks given in the game show is no ordinary task. The tasks are directly taken from the culture of each city or country they visited. You can see in the picture above, it was one of the tasks given in Indonesia, where the racer has to ride the odong-odong while making balloon art.

There are some versions of the game show but the one that I enjoyed the most is the original U.S.. series. In each season there are approximately 12 episodes with 8 countries visited. Throughout 24 seasons, they have been to 82 countries. Can you imagine how many culture have been promoted by The Amazing Race? 

For me, it has been a fun way to learn the culture of other countries as well as getting a trembling heart as I watched my favorite team race to win the game. I can't wait to watch season 25 once it is aired in Indonesia. Yay!

All images are searched via google image and courtesy of its respective site.

Cheers,

filicia

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Traditionally Youth

It has been past final week, and I feel bad for not posting drafts that I should have posted sooner. So, I guess I might as well posted them here rather than having the photos and stories being wasted :)

In this post I would like to talk about an event that I attended several weeks ago. I support a friend of mine in a contest called 'Remaja Ceria' for East Jakarta region. The final night was broadcasted live from TVRI and I happened to come to the studio.

Remaja Ceria is a contest that has been held for years. This time the theme is called J.A.V.A. It actually stands for Journey to Another Valuable Achievement, but they also take the literal meaning and pick the culture of Java as the part of the event. It is shown for example through their dance choreography and outfits.

 It is good to see how the traditional culture is brought again by the youth nowadays. In regards to this post, you might also check out the post I wrote about Mr and Ms President University here.

Also, congratulations to all the winner! So proud that both contestants from PresUniv took the 2nd runner up place, they will then proceed to the next round which is Remaja Ceria Jakarta. Best of luck to you guys!

Cheers,

filicia

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The Power of 2x3 cm Paper

Earlier yesterday I wrote a post about Presidential Election and how people on social media are showing their supports. If you think that the support comes only in virtual form, you are extremely wrong. It is not! 

The support of using the right to vote also comes in a form of print. But this is no ordinary print. Can you guess what it is? Du du du du dum,

I am talking about stamp. Yes, stamp as in postal stamp. If you have seen my other blog, I did some posts about snailmail. Through exchanging snailmail with penpals that I 'met' from all over the world, I realize how the culture is also exposed not only through what is sent but also from the stamps used.

As you may notice in this certain stamp sheet, the theme is General Election 2014. Every month, Indonesia's postal service release one or two new sheet depending on the event. Some including traditional musical instruments, traditional food, batik, etc.

  

Look at how small is it! But with the tiny size, it can bring a message and spread it to all over the world. Imagine that you are sending your letter to a friend in USA, Japan, Finland, Australia, or everywhere all over the world, your penpal might be aware of the election in Indonesia. That's why, stamp is a very good outlet to also expose our culture to the world.

Now if you are familiar with philatelic hobby, it is a hobby of collecting stamps. There are lots of people out there who has this kind of hobby, you know. My aunt used to give me a bunch of old stamps she had from Taiwan (picture below). When I posted them on internet, some people actually come to me and ask if I could send them some stamps in exchange of other thing.

Since I am not actually a stamp collector or philatelist so I happily send them part of my stuff to help their collection grow. Well, I bet you guys are getting curious about how this all snailmail and penpal thingy works. But I guess, I will save it for my next post okay ;)

Cheers,
filicia
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Vote for Change!

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been away for quite some time. I know I know, it has been two weeks since my last post. I was really busy and, the internet connection did not work properly in my campus, not to mention the dormitory. Also, I was feeling unwell this past few days. But worry not, I am feeling much better now. I am catching up with all the posts I meant to blog. So, do^expect new post everyday! ^o^

Enough with the babbling, because today is the day! Finally, the long awaited Presidential Election is happening today, Wednesday, July 9th 2014 in Indonesia!

See, even Google created a special Google Doodle for this once-in-five-years event. If you guys have the right to vote, please use it wisely. One vote will definitely make a difference!

You guys may or may not have seen the stream of campaigns, either supporting Prabowo-Hatta or Jokowi-JK. I do not want to be biased here, and since I do not really understand politics, I have no right to judge or to critic the candidates. Of course both of the candidates have their own positive and negative side. We can always watch, listen and observe what we saw in TV, newspaper, or social media. But we will never know if it is the truth or not. 

The thing about this year's election though, the youth really take a huge part in supporting or promoting their chosen candidate thanks to social media. As one of the avid /ahem/ user of twitter, facebook, path, instagram, etc, there sure are lots of the campaign. 

Another great thing about this election is that it has become a creative outlet for artist all over Indonesia to show their support. Though controversial, you may have seen the campaign video featuring Ahmad Dhani. On the other hand, I saw lots of independent artist are showing their support in instagram 

All in all, vote wisely, this is not the chance you get everyday. 5 minutes you spend voting (exclude the queuing and going back and forth to TPS okay) could lead to a totally different 5 years for Indonesia. 

Have a good day! And enjoy your holiday!

Cheers,
filicia
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Follow Friday +04

If you know me, you know how much I LOVE K-POP (yes it is a love with capital letters, that is how much I love it lol). And now after more than ten posts, it is surprising that I have not written any single post about K-pop (at least it surprises myself haha).

But now I think it is time to finally reveal my love to not only K-pop, but Korean culture in general. I spent my junior high school days swooning over a Japanese boy group Hey! Say! JUMP because I used to watch Animax a lot back then. In the end of my junior high year, I got to know K-Pop because of TVXQ, and the rest is history.

Well this time, it is not the K-pop that I want to highlight, it is the Korean very own sport, Taekwondo.

Lots of people know that Taekwondo is a martial art. But, not so many people know that you can incorporate Taekwondo with K-pop! If you are imagining a dance choreography of K-pop songs mixed with Taekwondo movement then yes, you got it right. Another example of music and sport together (see World Cup post for previous example).

I am here to introduce you to K-Tigers! They are super duper talented! They are good in taekwondo, they are good in dancing, their movement is powerful and synchronized and bonus point, some of them are cute >__< haha.

They gain lots of popularity because of this cover dance video. They even got the approval from the singer himself! For the original music video you can check it out here.

Just recently, K-Tigers enter an audition to Dancing 9, a dance survival competition in South Korea. Needless to say, they totally left the judges in an awe. It is very smart to incorporate sport with modern music, isn't it?

I will definitely have the same reaction if I were those judges. So, makes sure  you check out their youtube page for more awesomeness.

And eye candy for you guys, here is EXO (one of most popular Korean-Chinese boyband right now) member, Tao incorporating Wushu with music.

Cheers,
filicia
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