Batik: 27th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Applied wax on the dyed tablecloth using canting (this process is also called as nembok)
• How I felt:
• Relieved because nembok, which is applying wax the second time after the cloth is dyed, is much easier than applying wax the first time on the cloth
• What I think about the activity, what I perceived, what the activity means to me & what is the value of the activity:
• I think the activity done today is fun and meaningful because it is easier than last meeting's activity and it is something new that I have never tried previously. This is the first meeting that I tried nembok, which is why, I think that today's meeting is important.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely. 
• I found out that the previously applied wax are cracking. The supervisor told me that it is normal. The cracks are due to the storage condition and properties of wax. This is the reason why the process of Batik should be done as fast as possible. 
• Today I learned about a process of waxing called nembok. It is used when more than one color of dye is applied to the cloth. By nembok, the colored part of the cloth will be covered with wax and be protected from being colored again with the next color of dye, allowing more than one color of dye be applied on the cloth. I realized that making Batik is actually the reversed of coloring, painting and all the other common art activities. 
• Thus, these facts made me realized how smart Batik artists must be.

Batik: 20th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Applied wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• How I felt:
• Stressed out because I did not finish applying the wax today whereas according to the schedule set for me, I should've finished applying the wax today.
• Today's activity time was also stressful because one of the employees in the place where I have my lesson kept on bothering me so I could not concentrate on finishing my work
• What I think about the activity:
• I think today's activity time wasn't as productive as the previous activity time because I did not cover much task plus I did not finish the task that I should've done this activity time
• What I perceived:
• I realized that the people who are making Batik in the place where I have my Batik lessons are actually not as slow as people say people who make Batik in general are. I am much slower than them.
• I realized that the place where I have my Batik lesson is quite prestigious and looked upon in Bogor because I kept on seeing students from all over Bogor interviewing my Batik teacher, Kak Lisha and seeing the many achievements she and her team have (e.g. last week I couldn't do Batik because she was in Yogyakarta to attend a competition that relates to her Batik business where at the end she won first place).
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely. 
• I now understand that people actually do value Batik so highly. Before taking this activity, I thought that Batik had always been under appreciated by the society of Indonesia, which was why one other country took it and claimed it. But that isn't true. People actually do value Batik very highly. Maybe previously I was just not surrounded by those people who value Batik so highly. So why don't the people who I know before taking this activity value Batik as highly? This question challenge me to be the one who spread and raise awareness of the high value of Batik in my community.

Debate: 18th of Nov. '13

So yesterday was the debate competition in President University. In debate club today, we reflected on what we've done. We watched the video of our final round and pointed out the mistakes we did and how we could do better next time. I think today's debate club was useful because reviewing performances is very important. It is sometimes better to look back at what is done than to keep on practicing. I found out that in the final round I lacked confidence and I should have been more aggressive in my speech. I did pretty well in digging the topic though. Ibu Stephanie, one of my supervisors, said that I did well in choosing the examples to support my arguments. Today's debate club meeting does not only made me realize of my weaknesses but also of my strengths.

Debate: 17th of Nov. '13

The venue of the final round

Courtesy of President University

My team won first place in this week's debate competition! I am so proud of my teammates and myself. I never imagined winning first place in a debate competition this fast. I learned and had a lot of fun. The final round was under the motion "THW ban all donations to religious organizations." After today's debate competition, especially after the final round that was held in a huge public room, I am definitely more confident in speaking. I now understand that besides having POIs to the opponent speaking, I can also have Point of Clarification to clarify what I said if the opponent gets it wrong. I also learned that all speakers should explain everything thoroughly because if we don't take a lot of time explaining our arguments, the adjudicator might not catch all of them and even maybe skip one whole argument we mentioned. This week's debate competition also made me realized more of my weaknesses as a speaker. In the final round, I was so nervous that I didn't use the whole 7 minutes to speak. I went down in the 6th minute. I felt that I could have spoken more and explained my ideas more thoroughly but I was so nervous that I forgot the things that I wanted to say. I should also learn to speak more aggressively so that I can intimidate my opponents

Me speaking in the final round of the debate competition

Courtesy of President University

and show that I strongly believe in what I say. I still need to improve my organization skill too. In some of the rounds today, I felt like I could have been more organized in the things I said. Even so, in overall, I think my team has improved a lot from the previous debate competition. We communicated pretty well and we had a lot of information to support our arguments. For me personally, what I think I did well was in giving factual data and feedbacks to my team. I believe that I should keep on doing that.

Debate: 16th of Nov. '13

Today is the first day of this week's debate competition. Fortunately, the rules that disallow the speakers to have notes and step down before 7 minutes were taken back. This week's debate competition was held in President University. My team prepared printed documents and electronic devices since the competition this time allows us to use our electronic devices when case building. Today's debate competition was interesting because it was different than the one in BPK Penabur. The kinds of people we meet here are different and the way things are set up are also different. Today was interesting because not only we won two of the three rounds, we also made a lot of friends. We met the people we went against in the previous debate competition, in BPK Penabur, too! Debate competitions are very educational and fun. Today I learned that we should dig our arguments deeper. As far as the arguments may seem, if they can be related to the motion and explained well, they will make points or even bring extra points because of the depths it provides the debate with. I also learned that I often repeat what my team's first speaker, Valeska said, which is a loss for me because it is time consuming. At the end, I do not have enough time to further explain and strengthen what Valeska has said. I could actually just say, "as was clearly explained by my first speaker..." and carry on to develop her argument straight away. Thus, I should really improve this for tomorrow's debate rounds. I am so nervous for this week's debate competition because the opponents all seemed so tall, big and mature. Physical appearances do affect how intimidating we are to our opponents. Too bad none of my team members are tall and big.

Debate: 11th of Nov. '13

This week I am joining another debate competition. My team for this week's debate competition is the same as for the previous debate competition. I will be with Sherni and Valeska. Today's debate club meeting is aimed to prepare the students who are joining the debate competition this week. This week's debate competition is both impromptu and prompted with no notes allowed when speaking in the podium and a minimum amount of time of 7 minutes per speaker. With this unfamiliar rules, today's debate club meeting is used for my team and I to practice debating under the motion "THW eliminate gender category in sports" using the rules established for this week's debate competition. We practiced speaking without notes for at least 7 minutes. This adds more tension to the debate competition and I am really worried because when I practiced before, I couldn't reach 7 minutes and my organization skill was really really bad. I forget a lot of things that I was going to say. I skipped one main point of my argument. After today's debate club meeting, I feel really anxious. I just hope that the debate competition held this week will be kind enough to actually take back that rule. After today's debate club meeting, I can see major flaws my team has as a whole. I can see that our communication skills are not good. We talk but rarely listen to each other, thus we usually misunderstand each other when the debate has started. We also do not have enough data to support our arguments whereas the opponent had a lot of factual data. We based our arguments mainly on our hypothesis, which is bad because it won't be as strong. Surprisingly though my team won the debate round today. the adjudicators said that they could relate more to my team's arguments. So today I learned that the way we deliver our speech (if it's relatable to common people or not) affects drastically to our winning or losing.

Batik: 6th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Drawing new patterns on papers, tracing papers and a 2 meters new blank white piece of cloth
• What happened:
• The tablecloth was dyed in brown dye
• How I felt:
• Confused and nervous because I have high expectations for my last Batik artwork, which is the 2m cloth
• Excited for my tablecloth because the result after it is dyed in dark brown is great!
• What I think about the activity:
• Challenging, definitely
• Interesting because the situation changes all the time. The process of making Batik is very dynamic and not monotonous.
• What the value of the activity was:
• The activity done today was basically the whole process of how to Batik (although not all of the steps are completely finished and not all are done to the same cloth). Thus, the activity done today was actually the most valuable activity done so far throughout my Batik lessons. The activity done today was the core of my Batik Creativity activity.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely.
• I learned that my first impression about Batik was wrong. Batik is not boring at all. Thus, from this I learned that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I should not be so fast in taking judgments, especially about my own country's culture!

Debate: 4th of Nov. '13

Today I debated on the motion: "THBT children who commit major crimes should be punished equally as adults." I was the second speaker, like usual. I think it went quite well. I came up with a lot of good points however I could have done better in delivering the speech. Like the other days, I got very nervous speaking in front of my peers and the adjudicators, Kak Karin and Ms. Debbie. I forgot a lot of things that I was going to say, thus missing out on a lot of what I believe are good arguments for my team's side, which is the affirmative side. I stuttered several times, and that affected the way the adjudicators evaluate my speech. It came to them as if I wasn't confident in what I was saying. I definitely need to improve my tone and confidence. However, in overall, I believe I did well. My team members, which consists of Georgio and Sherni, also did well. As the affirmative team, I believe that my team did okay because for me personally, being the affirmative team is harder than being the opposition team and I believe my team defined the motion quite clearly and also constructed the mechanism pretty neatly. The only problem for my team is probably the way we deliver. At the end, my team won! I was pretty happy but this doesn't mean that I should be contented with the way I deliver my speech in debates. It is important for me to keep on improving so that I can be a better speaker and therefore achieve this CAS activity's objective.