Between Now and June 14

While enjoying a well-deserved holiday after Ujian Nasional, I couldn't help but think about what I'll be facing these days before the results are out on June 14 (or preferably earlier). There are still stuffs to come, so it's true that there's test, not rest, for the weary. Let me elaborate.

I have to prepare speeches for Bahasa Indonesia and English speaking tests. For Bahasa Indonesia, the theme of the speech is upon the student, for better or for worse; for English, we have to prepare either a personal recount or a hopefully funny spoof. There will also be writing tests for each of the subjects. Furthermore, IA students will have chemistry, biology, and physics experiments to do. Now, where did I put my lab coat?

Arts, PE, and religious ed will have tests too. It means that for the religious ed test I'll have to memorize and recite long verses of zikir and prayers in Arabic, a language that I don't really understand, with strictly no improvisations. I need to remind myself not to forget it. I guess the education system can't handle personal messages to God. And why do we even need to test someone whether he/she can pray or not? To start with, who can really set a standard on this stuff anyway? For God's sake, Indonesia's not Saudi Arabia. No one should impose a belief and religious practices to others.This kind of education will breed narrow-mindedness and misunderstanding of religion, which in turn, will destroy the religion itself and the freedom of belief.

Anyway, after all those wonderful acts, comes the school exam or Ujian Sekolah for subjects not included in Ujian Nasional. Let's see, there'll be citizenship ed, history, and written religious ed tests...including Qur'an-Arabic language for me. Blurgh. And after all the tests, we still have to wait until June 14. What a wonderful world! Hahaha...blurgh, again.

So, I guess I'll splurge on DVDs and books until the promised day. Grey's Anatomy S3 just finished on StarWorld and I'm going to buy the S2 DVD, along with others to murder time. I might also finish reading some books. Oh, speaking about books, remember Three Cups of Tea? Thanks to GoogleEarth, I visited the vilages talked about in the book. Skardu's there, so is the Braldu River but Korphe's satellite image is not so clear yet, I only got it by the placemark. Thanks a lot, Google!

PS. I'm posting Leona Lewis' excellent performance of "Bleeding Love" on American Idol. Enjoy!