During the long holiday season that started from June to July, Bali Art Festival is held by Department of Torism and Culture that takes place in Art Centre, Denpasar. As an annual event, Bali Art Festival always attracts many local people and foreign visitors. Thousands of visitors come to see various traditional performances, art exhibition, culinary exhibition, and trade fair.

Bali Art Festival is an event where people can see various Indonesian cultures and foreign cultures, so that they can build an understanding to appreciate the difference and live together in harmony. Art and culture play an important role in Balinese life. It’s like a perfect expression that describes Balinese spirit, life, and their identity. Balinese believe that protecting the culture from the ancestor is an important duty for Balinese life. However, Balinese also believe that sharing culture and making a respect and friendship to people from various background of culture is also important aspect in order to create a harmony among the people. For that reason, Bali Art Festival is opened to make a good opportunity for people to understand and protect their culture as well as appreciating other culture and make an everlasting friendship with people from various background of cultures.

There are some stages and stands for art performances and traditional art exhibition. When we entered the Ksirarnawa Hall in front of Ardha Candra Stage, we can see Balinese traditional cloth, silver, aromatherapy products, and stand of book. This exhibition is one of the efforts to show many artistic Balinese handmade products. The price will be different for every item according to their size, model, and materials.

I think the best time to visit Bali Art festival is in the evening or at night. There are many various beautiful shows are performed in that particular time. We also can enjoy various kind of culinary while enjoying the performances. This holiday will be perfect if we can visit Bali Art Festival with family or friends.

Holiday is not always recreation, spending money for shopping, or going to an exotic place for relaxation. Holiday is going to be a great time for us to learn many things that we don’t learn it at school. We don’t have to spend much money to get a good time during the holiday. There are many places in Bali that offer the opportunity for relaxation or just sightseeing. In this long holiday, if you don’t have much money and time for traveling, visiting Bali Art Festival in Art Centre Denpasar is a good choice. We can enjoy many local and international performances and also learn the culture itself.

Being a smart student is a dream of all students. As a teenager, our main responsibily is study. Nevertheless, studying is not merely about your school, books, tests, or teachers. By studying we can able to explore many things and be a smart teenager. It will be a great pride when you received a good mark at school, and when you could show your ability to others and even you could make a good contribution for the people around you.


We may spend 2 or 3 hours a day for studying at home after school. When you study at home more than 3 hours a day, you are going to get tired and bored. If you spend more and more time for studying without relaxation, you will get bored with what you are dealing with for one day and its definitely possible that you can be even lazier than before.

As a teenager, we have a lot of chances, energy, and time to enjoy many fantastic things in our life. I think it is wise if you manage your time for useful acyivities. Studying, of course, is a useful activity, but it doesn't mean that you have to spend your lifetime solely for study, since you can't get other experiences which is also important for your life.


We often meet a friends whose name "kutu buku" at school. If you ask them about their marks and GPA, you probably get thrilled of them. Nonetheless, many of "kutu buku" students don't have many friends, experiences in school activities, social interaction, nor community activities either.

The devotion of time and attention to acquaring knowledge on an academic subjects allows the students to explore their vision. If you want to get a good mark, you have to study hard, despite that do not forget the social interaction.

Studying is a point plus for the smart students. But if they are willing to learn many things out from their subjects, they can be prudent students. We can learn culture from our traditional ceremony, we can learn politics from the media, we can learn economics by shopping in the weekend, we can learn sociality by joining in charity activities, we can learn math by helping our father in making a new table, we can learn law and human rights by making a good decission when our friend make a mistake and it hurts us.


Our daily activities also help us to build our knowledge, understanding, and awareness. If you spend your time solely for reading books in your room, you will lose your chances to develop yourself as teenager. We have to open our vision and learn many things from our life and our surroundings. We will take a part and play an important role in the future. We have a good strength, energy, and idealism. We can spend our dedication not only for ourselves, but also for the people around us. When we manage to get a good mark from our studies, we also have to make sure that we can get a good value from our social environment.

Now, let us spend our time for studying, exploring knowledge and experiences. Call your friends and confirm them that you will join the school activities and contribute your ability.

Studying abroad, exploring knowledge, sharing culture, making good friendship to other cultures can be a great opportunity in life. We realized that studying abroad for students in developing country take a lot of preparation and financial support, but trying to win a scholarship is a very good choice to make our dream come true.
When I applied for the scholarship, I didn’t have much confidence with my ability, eventhough I got good academic achievements ( with GPA 3,9). I tried to show my potencial and confidence by studying hard. My opinion is that the essensial thing is not about winning a scholarship, but it’s always about our effort to make the best for ourselves.
Having a dream and desire or determination to achieve success is always help us to accomplish our goal. But we have to control our ambition ( sense of purpose ) and manage it positively. Some of us probably get disappointed and lose confident if we’re unsuccessful in achieving the goal. We know that it’s very difficult to (accept) and face the failure wisely. But, When we understand our main responsibility, even if we fail, we can walk again to do our trustworthiness and build a positive awareness, than we will know that it’s not about the goal we’ve persued, but it’s all about effort. It will be a precius pride for us. Therefore keep trying!!!!
Living with simple family is hardness for me to study abroad financially which is only supported by my parents. We know that studying abroad can be really expensive for Indonesian students. Hence, why don’t we try to find a scholarship??? Winning a scholarship is not obout a fortune, but about an efforts. We have to do something to get our luck. There’s no fortune without efforts.
There are a lot of chances to win scholarship since there are many kind of scholarship. Nevertheless we shall remember, that we have to prepare our self before applying for scholarship, we also have to study everyday. Perhaps it’s better for us to study 2 hours a day after school. And we can join many student activities, find other experience and having fun with many friends as well. Social achievement is also one of the important thing for us to win a scholarship.
After winning a scholarship from Nanzan University Japan, I need to prepare myself as much as I can. Now, I also learn English in order to interact with people from various nationalities. English skills is important so that in order that we can communicate with many people from all over the world. In addition, I have to learn “Kanji” and read Japanese text. In SIKI, I learn how to communicate with Japanese, and it always help me to improve my Japanese speaking skill.
Thus friends, let’s start from now. Make sure that we study today. Studying regularly is helping us to understand the lesson easily. If you want to win scholarship, it will not be a dream anymore, browse the internet and apply it. Your ability will be the key of success and your efforts will be the way to your success. Keep trying!! Keep studying!! It is our duty as students….

Balinese people celebrate many kind of ceremonies. Traditional ceremonies is not only about obligatory ritual, but it also about Yadnya or holy sacrifice in our life to get the harmony of life. Ceremony teaches us many things, such as; praying, gratefulness to God and ancestor, togetherness, and rising our careness to the earth and its people.

One of the traditional ceremony which is held in Besakih(mother temple in Bali) is Panca Bali Krama (Batara turun Kabeh).
The ceremony was held from March 25th to April 25th this year and it is also held only one time in ten years. Thousand of Hindu people accross the country come and pray to Besakih during the ceremony of Panca Bali Krama. Panca Bali Krama in Besakih is held in the end of Saka year (according to Balinese calendar).

Panca Bali Krama is one part of Butha Yadnya and Dewa Yadnya. Butha yadnya is the ceremony where we make an offering to Butha which include all elements in the earth; pratiwi(land/soil), teja (light), apah(water), vayu(wind), and akasa (ether). All of the elements have their structure and system to create a harmony. But, as human being, we often make many mistakes, and to harmonize the life of human and their environment, Balinese people celebtrate Butha yadnya. Dewa Yadnya means a ceremony where we make an offering and praying to the God(Dewa).

Besakih temple - the biggest temple in Bali - is the temple that located near the mount of Agung - the tallest mountain in Bali.
Based on "lontar Tantu Pangelaran", mountain is a great place where human can find blessing from nature, harmony, and all the things that we need. For Balinese people, mountain is scared place where the God of Siwa as the "Padma" centre of this earth is described.

Celebrating the ceremony can be a moment when we find a joy in our deep heart, protecting the tradition from our ancestor, rising our consiousness and careness to this life. Modern world may offers many sophisticated things for us to make many works easier, but celebrating ceremony offers us a beautiful happiness to create beautiful life and harmony, not only for today but forever.

Studying abroad can be a great choice for us to continue our study. It is able to train us to be more disciplined and independent. We can explore our knoweledge in the university. One of the great destination country for studying is Japan. Japan has a good quality of education compared to our country. Besides, we can enjoy the unique tradition, culture, and sophisticated technology.

Studying abroad needs the skill of foreign language to carry out everyday conversation and to understand class instruction. If you want to study in the overseas universities, English skill or another foreign language is needed. Upon studying in Japan, we have to learn Japanese language as well. But, for international studies, English is obligatory needed.

There are many good universities for foreign student or "ryugakusei". One of the them is Nanzan University in Nagoya. Nanzan University is located in the rolling hills overlooking metropolitan Nagoya and in the nearby cities of Toyota and Seto. We can make an interaction between international and local students while we study in Nanzan. Centre of Japanese Studies-Nanzan University also gives the opportuniy for the students to tour in the assembly plant of the world famous Toyota Motors. Students may choose to spend on evening enjoying the classical Japanese art of Kabuki or experiencing the peacefulness of sitting in meditation or "zazen" (Zen Buddhist).

Studying abroad is not only about studying but also about travelling and looking for a new experience. We are go to have a great experience in the overseas country,
Studying abroad,living with many students from various background, and experiencing the local culture will allow us to build a good friendship among the people from all over the world. In addition, the fact that graduates of overseas universities have an edge over other job seekers.