Debate

I honestly don't know what else to say now. But yesterday I had a debate with my father.
I wanted to take CIP for next year, but my dad says different! He said I should go to IPA Bilingual for next year.. But I want to go to CIP. My dad said CIP is not good, because you can't enter university straight away after the 'O'-level. Plus bilingual is cheaper. He said that CIP will cost Rp. 2 million next year.. And you can't enter an Indonesian university after getting a CIP certificate. He said I should do my bachelor's degree here. Then go somewhere else for my master's.. Entering SMAK 1 wasn't my first choice either. I just follow my dad.. But I sort of find it OK now.
And I really like the book I'm reading for my book report. And my dad says it's not good.. He always disagrees with me!!
I think I'm going to stop now: before I have to pay more for the internet..!

Stories

For the last two posts (of the project) I'm just going to tell stories. This is because I'm not allowed to use the internet anymore for the rest of this month, because the internet quota is only one 1 GB/month. Now it's already over and image: I have to pay for everything!! Eventhough everyone else used the internet (especially my sister for games!)!!!!
I'm only allowed to post my last 2 posts here. This is why I won't say much more.. And I don't know what else to write about the solar-system. If anyone has any ideas, maybe I could try it...
I recently heard about the swine flu is the USA and Mexico. And no kids are supposed to go out (no school or university!).. And they have no homework now as long as they aren't supposed to go to school. While, we got homework! But homework is still good as long as they don't give you bad headaches. =)

At Last!!

Yay!!
I'm sooooo... happy! At last I found a book for my Indonesian homework!
It had to be a book by either Mochtar Lubis, Y. B. Mangunwijaya or Pramudya Ananta Toer..
It was so hard to get one, because those books are quite old... But at last I found one!

Now, there's still other homework waiting for me...
The ones giving me the most headaches are Maths & Chemistry!!
Only the Revision Tests left for Maths, but it seems like much more...
For Chemistry it's only the half left, but with numbers I don't like.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about the English book report..
So, I think I'll continue reading the book now.
And I haven't studied for the English on Monday about relative clauses..
But I think that should be easy. ^.^

My 'Holiday'

It's the week where the 12th graders have their national exams..
The 10th and 11th graders get off for the week. ^.^
But with TONS of homework.. >=(
Now the great 'holidays' are nearly over. And I still have much homework to do!
These aren't really great holidays. But at least I don't have to wake up at 4.30-5.00 AM in the morning..
These aren't really holdiays, but 'study at home' days!
All the teachers say we get 10 study at home days. Where Saturdays & Sundays are included!
The days we have school (if we don't study at home) are only 6..! Because on Saturdays & Sundays there isn't supposed to be any school!!!! Eventhough we get homework over the weekends, but not as much as this!

One of the few things that made me happy during the 'stressful' week was to see him.. Although it was only for a few minutes on Saturday & Sunday..
But I'm not sure if I could see him tomorrow or the day after... Because of the many homework I still have to do (they're not finished)..!

Easter Service

Today, we had Easter Service at GKI Kebonjati. We had to be there at 06.30. But the service begins at 07.00. Before, we had to find a place to sit according to our classes. But, there was not enough seats for X-3.. Hahaha. So, I sat amongst X-2 students. In the beginning it was fun. Then, further on in the service, I got a headache and stomachache. I was glad when it was all over. But I felt even worse when I got out.
Today, I was going to go home on my own. I went to get to the angkot. But then, I felt more and more sick. So, I called my dad, to see if he would pick me up. He said to go to my aunt first and have a rest there. And they gave me medicine. I tried to go to sleep, but it was hard, because my tummy was still hurting. At last, I could fall asleep! But I was awake again 2 hours later to eat lunch. Soon after that, my dad came.. And I could go home! But he was angry.. >=(

Tiring Day..!

Yesterday was such a tiring day for me..
I went with Merry, other SMAK 1 students & my best friend in Indonesia on a 'picnic'. Well, it was supposed to be a picnic.. But it wasn't!
We wanted to have a picnic near a river. They thought the river was at Dago Pakar. But, no..!
The river was far away at Maribaya! Therefore, we went all the way up from Dago Pakar to Maribaya. That's about 5 km or up to 8 km (I forgot).. But it took more than 2 and a half hours of walking up in a forest. I really didn't imagine it to be this way. I thought it was going to be a nice morning, full of laughter, fun & snacks. But no, it was full of sweat! And we had to play a game all the way up.
We got a target (a person). And there was also a character we had to act out to that person (like ingnoring, caring, etc.) But none of us really did play. We only walked up with some jokes. In the beginning, my friend and I walked together with the others. But soon enough we walked faster & faster, because we didn't want to walk slowly. Because if you walk slowly up a mountain, in my opinion, you will feel the tiredness even more. But if you walk fast, you wouldn't feel tired while walking (only later). You would only feel the tiredness when you took a break. And for a long while it was raining. It rained when we were on our way up, and when we already reached our destination to picnic.
When we were already up there, we played some games. But I didn't play, because I got a headache, because of the rain. At last, we went home! Thank goodness, I thought~
And we went home with an angkot. By the way, I was car sick. So I felt even worse then. When we reached Lembang, they bought me some medicine before we went on the angkot 'St. Hall - Lembang'. But I still didn't feel a lot better. The others planned to have dinner together too, now that it was 5 or 6 in the afternoon already, because we were supposed to be back by the latest 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I planned to eat with them, but as traffic was slow and I was scared to go with the angkot alone when it was too dark, I decided just to go home. And I reached my house when it was about 7 o'clock already. =(

Comets

Comets are much larger objects than meteors that are actually still out in space. They can form tails and change positions from night to night. But unfortunately, they are too slow for our eyes to notice that. Therefore, we think they just stay in the same position every night. And as you read in the last paragraph of the last post, comets have a connection with meteors, but they aren't meteors..!

Not long ago, people thought that comets showed that something bad is going to happen to them in the near future. People didn't get how objects in the sky move. So, seeing a comet was something of a shock to them. There are many historical records that record the sight of comets and link them with very bad events.

But today we know that comets are lumps of ice & dust that in a period move toward the center of the solar-system from far away. Some comets make repeated trips. When comets get close enough to the Sun, the heat makes them evaporate slowly. Much dust & gas form long tails we can see from the Earth. Sometimes, these tails can be man kilometers long!

This is Comet Hale-Bopp on the 7th March 1997. The picture is provided by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The yellow arrows show where the comet has released a large amount of dust from its center (nucleus).

I will talk about trips to comets later.

Meteors

Meteors are streaks of light (like lightning) flying through space. They usually last only a few seconds and can be seen in the night sky. These are what people sometimes call "shooting stars" or "falling stars", eventhough they aren't stars at all.

Meteors are caused by small pieces of rock, dust or metal entering the atmosphere from space at a very high speeds. They are called meteoroids (like asteroids) when they are still in outer space. They travel at speeds of tens of km/s when they reach Earth's atmosphere. The high pressure that meteoroids experience when they break through Earth's atmosphere shatters them. This transfers energy to atoms & molecules on Earth. They then release energy by glowing, which produces the trail of light we see as meteors.

Most meteoroids are very small. Their sizes range from a grain of sand to pea-sized stones. Almost all on them disappear before they can reach the ground. A larger meteoroid can actually survive to hit the ground, but this happens very rarely. They then create a meteor crater if the explosion of colliding with the ground is big. This explosion usually vaporizes any solid parts left of the meteor after burning through the atmosphere. But sometimes, solid pieces of meteoroid survive & can be found in and around the crater. These little pieces are called meteorites.

Meteors are different from comets. You'll see why in the next post.

Extremely bright meteors are called fireballs. Some fireballs can even be seen at daytime. (O.O) You can see meteors above any planet that has an atmosphere (eg. on Mars). The picture on the left shows the Leonid Meteor Shower in November 1998. It also include a fireball. ^.^

A meteor shower happens when there are many meteors in one night. Sometimes even more than 100 meteors per hour. This happens when Earth crosses the orbit of a comet. Dust and other particles that have been left behind is what we see as meteors.