Sweet Sixteen

Last week was such a very wonderful moment to me. I turned 16, and that became one of my unforgettable memories I will never ever forget

March 4^th, 2010 

Coming back from school, I found two packages on the living room table. The first one was from anonymous and sent to my brother, and the second one was from Aunt Sanne! I knew it’s for me, since Aunt Sanne never forgets to give me a birthday present. Without thinking any further, I excitedly opened the Germany-smelled package. She cognizes I love Bayern, and so she always sends me Bayern’s stuffs, and this time—it’s the towel. It’s very nice, and I like it a lot! She is one of the most benevolent persons I have ever known.

Apparently, the second package was for me too. My brother ordered it from an ad on facebook. It’s a pack containing 20 handkerchiefs, in which each hanky is coiled like a roll spongecake and has its own little box. They are so cute! I gave some to my friends.

March 5^th, 2010

I woke up at 5.30 AM, directly checking my phone out to see whether there were any messages. And yes, I figured out that there were 11 unread messages wishing me a happy birthday. I supposed my bf, Lintang, would be the one who sent the first message. But no, unlike the other year, it was from Ardi. I knew he was (as usual) staying out late, studying. And so he could send it in the middle of the night. Lintang did too, but her message came 5 minutes after. It’s not important anyway, Lintang is still and will always be my bestie :) Within’ an hour, Sarah’s, Assa’s, Tante Lia’s, Chrissel’s, Nindy’s, and Rere’s messages received. I couldn’t believe they woke up (or at least stayed awake) to send me those birthday messages. I was so happy knowing how kind my friends were! The day was just about to start :D

I went to school anxiously, hoping the day would be a wonderful one. When I just arrived at my classroom, some girls wished me a happy birthday and slapped me 16 times. It hurt actually, but I was just happy they did it. During the day, I got many birthday wishes from many friends I met on my way to canteen. I didn’t expect them to remember my birthday, but maybe they saw it on facebook. Well, thanks to facebook! lol.

When I was studying mathematics, I could solve one of the questions and my teacher asked me to write my answer on the whiteboard and explain it to my friends. I just finished writing and was about to explain when a friend of mine started to sing “Happy Birthday” to me. Soon, the whole class sang it together. I didn’t know what to say, I felt quite embarassed yet happy.

Unfortunately, after school was over, all tenth grader girls had to attend swimming class at Vila Duta. We finished swimming at about 16.00 and I decided to treat Tika, Nindy, Dyanza, Wita, and Assa at Ikkito, a Japanese restaurant near my English course. We all ordered different food, so we could taste them one by one. I ordered sukiyaki, Tika ordered takoyaki kani, Nindy ordered udon, Assa ordered katsu, Wita ordered ramen, and Dyanza ordered yakiniku, if I’m not mistaken. One interesting thing was that we found a beverage page on the menu which listed 6 various kinds of drink whose names were completely strange. They are Harajuku, Samurai Side, Sakura Sunset, etc. So, we ordered all the 6 beverages without knowing what their taste would be. We tasted each glass and figured out that each drink was made of different vegetable and fruit mixes. It’s really fun indeed!

After we all had finished with our lunch, I ordered another weird fo

od named okonomiyaki,a Japanese pizza to be eaten together. And as the dessert, I ordered fried ice cream and pancake. They all tasted good, especially the fried ice cream. We couldn’t stop saying the fried ice cream was really delicious! lol. After we were totally full, we decided not to order any food anymore. And before we went home, we took some photos first.

What a smashing day it was!

March 11^th, 2010

is the day that might be considered as ‘my second birthday’. I went to school as usual, back to my routine.

When we studied math, an hour before the second break, the test score about logic was about to be given. I, Tika, Ardi, and Dika (usually shortened as tikardikapp or the quartet, lol) were worried so much about the result, because we believed that we hadn’t done our best in that exam. But in fact, I got 100. I was happy, but was’t happy at the same time. First, I wasn’t the only one who got 100, and second, my other 3 friends didn’t get as good as I did. So, I just kept quite.

The bell rang at 12 o’clock. My friends watched The Simpsons Movie together at class, and so did I. At 12.30, I went to mushola to pray. When I came back, the break was already over. Fortunately, the Sundanese teacher didn’t come. So, we were free to do anything until school’s over. From outside the window, Ardi called me and asked me to go to the library along with Tika and Dika. We discussed many things, including about our recent score results which were not very good. I tried to solace them and said that it’s still just the beginning.

Not long after, Nindy texted me asking where I was. Ardi got my phone, so he was the one who replied it. He replied ‘why?’ and Nindy said ‘nothing’. He decided not to reply that message and continue on talking. At about 13.30, he asked me and Tika to go back to class. We were almost got there (some of my friends could already see us from inside the class) when Pak Bas came out of teacher’s room and asked us to go to X-9 class and call certain students. So Tika and I went up again to the third floor while Ardi kept going back to class.

When I was on the third floor with Tika, two of my classmates, Made and Bahe, suddenly showed up. They walked towards us and when they passed us by, they asked me and Tika to teach them chemistry, and they continued on walking. I asked what their purpose was to go upstairs and Made said that they just wandered around.

I was almost reached my class when Made and Bahe suddenly ran behind me. I also saw some boys hid themselves abruptly as soon as they saw me. I was wondering what happened.

The door of my class was closed. But when I opened it, the whole students of my class sang a “Happy Birthday” song again, for the second time! At first, I thought that it was such a joke, because it wasn’t my birthday anymore. So I turned around to see whether there was someone behind me and that the “Happy Birthday” song was meant to him/her. But no, there was nobody! When I stepped in to the class, I saw Dyanza walked slowly toward me having a birthday cake on her hands for me. Oh my God, what a surprise! I never thought that I would get any surprise by any chance, especially because my birthday was over! I was so happy, very happy. All that I could do was laugh and laugh. I blew the candles out and everybody cheered on me.

I sliced the cake and gave th

e first one to my chairmate Nindy, then Odah, Dyanza, Ardi, and Wita. Alas, the top of the cake was covered by a lot of cream and someone started to put it on my face. Almost all of my friends did the same thing and my face became all white, smeared by a lot of cream from the cake. After that, we took some pictures. I finally washed my face using a handwash, because my face was so oily and nobody brought a facewash. I really had a great time that day.

Actually, the fun of the day didn’t end there. At Eden, my english course, we were given a free dinner. Sue, one of the teachers there, cooked a big pan of Chili Con Carne. I’d never eaten it before, only knew the name from The Sims 2. It’s like a sweet “sayur lodeh” soup with chips on it. And it tasted really good! I kind of like it.

After finishing our dinner, we decided to hang out at Colonial Café and had some coffee. We had a really nice talk and I had a really nice moment spending the evening with them.

I never thought that my ordinary 16^th birthday would turn out to be something so special. If compared to paupers, beggars, and orphans on the street out there, I am actually a very lucky person. I am just never aware about that and am supposed to be grateful for having such good friends and family in my life.

I wish, by the time I turned 16, I could be a better person in every aspect and one step closer to be a mature girl. I wish I could accomplish every goal that I have, and make everybody who’s been very kind to me proud. Amin.

Putri F. Iskandar, a new sixteen-year-old girl.