Fennecs; Cute Desert Foxes

Did you know about these cute little foxes with ears almost as big as their face? If you don't, I am going to tell you about them, like, right now.

These creatures are called fennec fox, or with their Latin name Vulpes zerda, or simply desert fox. These bad boys are part of the canidae family (related with a lot of vicious fiend who looks nothing like them). Wikipedia provides me with their complete scientific classification.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Vulpes
Species:	V. zerda

You can find them around North Africa, the Sinai Peninsula and the Arabian desert and can easily differentiate them from other foxes from their large ears and small body. Their nocturnal habits and physical adaptation help them deal with the searing heat of the desert environment. What physical adaptation? Well, those ears, duh! Their bat-like ears radiate body heat and help keep the foxes cool. They looked like realistic stuffed animal version of foxes with real fox ears attached, but those big ears also have their own purpose. Cool huh? In captivity, their lifespan reach fourteen years.

Fennec foxes are so small their weight normally don't reach 2 kg. Their body length are around 24 to 41 centimeters with ears that could reach half that size. Yeah, ears half the size of your body. Imagine if humans are like that. Finished? Now thank God that we aren't like that. Most fennecs are around twenty centimeters in height. Their tails can reach 31 centimeters with black tip.

They are the social type. Making adjoined dens and living in packs. And what's even better are that once they mate, they mate for life. Even if one of them dies the other wouldn't go around searching for a new partner. Beautiful.

Fennec foxes are known to be omnivores, eating plants, rodents, insects, birds, eggs, and rabbits. Just like any other desert animal they can survive long without water. They can jump high an far and this helps them catch prey and avoid being caught as prey. They could also detect things by sound. Their hearing are really good.

This is probably as much as I could tell you about them, as looking through data on internet only gained me this. If you know more about them, mind sharing?

Lunaria used :

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS!!!

1. Where can you find fennec foxes?a. deserts.b. Sinai Peninsula.
c. North Africa.
d. Arabian Desert.
e. All of the above are right.

2. What is so unique about them?
a. their small build.
b. their fur.
c. their ears.
d. choice a and b.
e. choice a and c.

3. Why did they gain the social animal title?
a. they are small.
b. they live in deserts.
c. they live in packs and make adjoined dens.
d. they live close to each other.
e. they mate for life.

4. What is fennec latin name?
a. Vulpes vulpes
b. Vulpes macrotis
c. Vulpes zerda
d. Vulpes bengalensis
e. Vulpes velox

5. What kind of eater are they?
a. meats.
b. omnivores.
c. plants, rodents, insects, birds, eggs, and rabbits.
d. vegetables.
e. insects.

IT'S HIGHLY EFFECTIVE!!

My Last Holiday

Which is quite uneventful, by the way.

We had about two weeks of free time after our report card was distributed. Mostly I didn't do anything for the rest of my holiday but two days of it was at least fun and taught me a bunch of new things. I am part of an extracurricular called TRIAS which is short for Tim Riset Astronomi or Astronomy Research Team in English. Every semester we have this thing called 'Astrocamp' where we will go hiking or something and stargazing. Not only that, we also did a lot of games and knowledge sharing.

This was my first Astrocamp experience and I can't wait for the next one already. We rented a villa at Lembang. Went there in the morning around ten o'clock (actually scheduled at nine but some of us came late) with Grab, school car and one personal car. The air at Lembang was really cold I didn't even want to take off my jacket when the sun was fully up and ablaze. First thing we did when we arrived was picking places to sleep and store our belongings. I got myself a room on the second floor of the villa and gazed out the window for a few moments, daydreaming as if I was inside a drama or something until we're called to assemble. There were a lot of people I don't know and I was getting nervous because of that. Turns out we have to introduce ourselves in order with our seating. I introduced myself near the end, after knowing that they all are outgoing and nice I could do it with ease. Probably too much ease, but that's okay since after that I got a whole bunch of senior friends. They were very casual while talking to us as if we're old friends and it feels reassuring somehow.

We are then divided into three teams, and the games begun. Each of the team had to search for things needed to make a sundial and a spectroscope. Spectroscope is this thing used to see the color spectrum from a ray of light. Everyone were pretty competitive about it, taking more items than needed, but everyone got theirs at the end. We successfully made three sundial and three spectroscope, each team contributing one. Our next event was supposedly stargazing, but of course we could only do it at night. So we had a lot of free time until then. What did we do? We played games. Not mobile games but real games like cards and uno stacko. It was super fun, the loser got their face painted with facedeco. I also got myself painted one time because I made the stacko tower fell, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Nighttime came and we went to Imah Noong to stargaze. Unfortunately it was cloudy at the time so we only managed to learn about telescopes and watch a video in their planetarium. There was also this unique sundial that projected shadows of numbers into some kind of stone pedestal thing. It's weird shaped and we thought it was ruined because it didn't form a full half circle but turns out it was made like that and work just fine (we tried it with our phone flashlight).

We went back into the villa and rather than sleeping most of us played more games instead. It was this game called Werewolf where one of us would be the game master and distribute roles. The game mainly have two objective. Werewolves needs to 'kill' villagers or villagers must execute all of werewolves so that one side could win. It was a great game to get to know each other and strengthen our bonds. I joined the game until 4 AM, then went down to watch a movie with a few others who didn't want to play games. We watched Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle until 6 AM― where I couldn't resist the urge to sleep anymore and fell asleep.

I woke up at 8 AM, fully refreshed even though I only slept for two hours at most. Some of us waited for the next activity, which is breakfast, by watching a friend playing this game called Far Cry Primal. It was funny and we enjoyed it a lot even though we're only watching. Then breakfast time came! We ate a lot of nuggets, sausage and corn. They are delicious! Maybe because I helped to roast the corn? I don't know.

We played with this water rocket launcher made out of pvc pipes before our study session starts. Some of us got really wet from the water. We went inside the villa again to learn about multiverse theories. It really blew my mind, I don't know where people get those ideas from and it's cool.

Somehow everything felt as if they were on fast forward. I'm kind of sad the camp ended but I also missed my parents and little brother. On the road home me and my friends joked around and ended up sleeping. We were tired but we just didn't realize it because we were with friends.

Well yes, I got to admit this is the best thing in my previous holiday because I didn't even do anything after that. Well maybe there is. I spent my new year's eve at my grandpa's. His house was at Dago Pakar, so we could see all of Bandung from his porch. The fireworks were beautiful and my grandma made a really delicious breuneboenen (even though I like my mother's cooking more).

Not Participating

So at 26th August there was this event at my school called 'World Tournament'. I'm really excited for it because they have unique theme and we have to dress up according to the theme. This year's theme was pirate. I think I went to overboard with my preparations to the point that I borrowed my friend's cosplaying properties such as sword and eyepatch. After I got everything set I decided to sleep early, hoping that my flu will get better the next day.

But it almost seemed like God didn't want me to go, the next day I woke up with nasty pounding on my head. It hurts so much that I can't walk without teetering around. My mom helped me reach our dinner table and gave me some medicine. I rested the whole day and the day after. Even so, at Monday my condition is still kind of bad.

And my mother took a photo of me because I told her I need to write a journal about why didn't I go. Here it is!

Her Holiday Plans

Saskia : So, end semester break is coming. Do you have any plans, Lubba?
Lubba : Of course I am. My family is planning to go to Jogjakarta for the next holiday.
Saskia : Wow, sounds cool. Everyone in your family is going?
Lubba : I don't know yet, because my oldest sister is at Banjarmasin.
Saskia : That's kinda unfortunate... But how will you go there, though? Plane? Train? Car? I mean, a family road trip sounds nice, right?
Lubba : Well, I think we'll be going by car. But I'm not really sure. There is a big chance that we will go by train, too.
Saskia : Mmm, both are nice. You can enjoy a whole lot of family time using car. But you could also meet new friends if you go by train. Talking about train, aren't they usually full on holidays?
Lubba : They sure is. Maybe I have to go buy the tickets earlier.
Saskia : Great planning! But when will you go there, though? Right when the break started? And how much time will you spend there?
Lubba : Maybe from the first day of holiday. And we will spend five days there at most.
Saskia : Five days? That's a long time! Had any interesting places to check out already?
Lubba : Well, the problem is I do not actually want to go there. My wishlist for holiday is going to Singapore. But my mom said that she doesn't have that much money to go there. So I think I'll just enjoy the holiday no matter what.
Saskia : Oh... That's so sad. But you're right. Holiday is there for you to release stress. Not to make you more depressed. You could check out some nice destinations online!

Mr. God's Hand

   I am going to share an experience of mine, and wherever you are Mr. God's Hand, I'm still really thankful of what you did.

   So it happened when I was on a group vacation in Bali around five years ago, I'm a fifth grader at the time. My mother's boss gave her workers a free vacation. The best of all, they are allowed to bring their family! We went to Bali with a bus, visiting a lot of other places on the way. I managed to get my hands on a whole lot of traditional cuisines around Central Java, East Java and of course Bali. It makes me really happy and excited for our main activities.

   If I am correct, we spent two days on the road and four days and three nights in Bali. We went to a restaurant in the first day morning. I forgot what the restaurant name was, but I remember how good their sate lilit is and how we could see Lake Batur and Trunyan Village trough the windows. I ate a whole lot of food because it was just so good until my stomach hurts.

   Honestly, I don't really remember how everything went. I forgot a lot of things easily, but I could tell you how amazing and mystical night performance of Kecak Dance and how touching Barong Dance was. And their seafood was just heavenly, even though seafood from my hometown are much much better. We also bought a bunch of souvenirs like sea shell necklaces and bracelets, t-shirts and of course foods!!!!!

   We went to a beach that isn't Kuta at some point and played some water sports. Because my uncle is from Bali, he is fluent in Balinese local language and we got some discount for that. I still don't understand how this 'price-cut-for-locals' works until today, honestly.

   This is where one of the problems start. I really feel confident with my swimming skills. I could at least keep myself afloat until someone came to save me or something. So, I asked to ride the banana boat with their normal speed. Yeah, they gave us a choice of slow, normal and the last is what I would like to call extreme speed. Being a stubborn kid I am, I refused to ride with the 'wimps' in their slow speed. But really, I don't know what happened but I ended up falling from the banana boat in the middle of the ride. And somehow I went into a shock and almost drowned. My mind turned into a jumbled mess, all I could think was 'ASDFGHJKL I'm drowning blhurguvbdjkcufhu' and everything around that.

   And then, here comes Mr. God's Hand. I don't really know his name, but he's either my mom's colleagues or one of my mom's colleagues little brother or son. He looked fairly young though, around sixteen or seventeen. He pulled me up effortlessly and just swam to the shore like he owned the sea. But really, what makes me really sad is the fact that he. is. so. tall. Yeah, after being saved that is the first thing that crossed my mind. I couldn't even thank him properly due to the fact that I am so embarrassed. I mean, I brought this fate upon myself and I was told I might fall. The embarrassment is overwhelming I might cry.

   When we finally finished the tour around Bali, we were back on the road again, and let's welcome the second problem!! Yay!!

   So we used a bus, right? And somewhere before we reached Malioboro these group of retarded, uncultured and barbaric humans threw what I suspected is rock to one of the bus windows and just sped past. More unfortunately, I sat in the area of that window. I might get a lot of cuts and maybe even impaled by the shards, but once again Mr. God's Hand came to the rescue.

   He brought this leather jacket with him. Either it's reflexes or just instinct, he threw that piece of clothing toward me. It protected me from the glass shards, and I was unharmed!

Really, I can't thank you enough Mr. God's Hand.

Conversation With A New Friend

Saskia : Hey, I see your phone wallpaper is Kageyama. Do you watch Haikyuu! too?
Lubba : Yes, I love Haikyuu!!
Saskia : Which means we can be good friends! By the way, I'm Saskia Clarannisa. What's your name?
Lubba : I am Lubba Ailati. I'm from Al-Masoem Junior High. How about you?
Saskia : I'm from 7 Junior High School! Back to the topic, who's your favorite character in Haikyuu!?
Lubba : I love everyone, I can't choose!
Saskia : I know right? They are all so precious!
Lubba : So you can't choose too?
Saskia : Well, duh.
Lubba : Other than that, what do you like to do?
Saskia : I really love writing and reading. Oh! Singing and listening to music too. And you?
Lubba : I love listening to music, singing, reading and fangirling hahahaha.
Saskia : Well, the last one is relatable. I also like playing games. Do you like games?
Lubba : I do play games, but... not a fan.
Saskia : Doesn't matter. Games are for fun, right? So as long as you are happy, keep on playing!~
Lubba : Uh-huh. What kind of music are you listening to?
Saskia : I don't listen to one genre in particular. If a song is good, then it is. And it will join my playlist for sure.
Lubba : We are on the same boat. Recently, I really love Wanna One and AKMU.
Saskia : Wait you are into K-Pop too? Whoah, I like AKMU too. My favorite song is Melted.
Lubba : I love AKMU's Play Ugly. The song's is so catchy, playful, and the lyric is interesting too! Especially, it really suited their image.
Saskia : Oh, the bell rings! We should go to class. What class are you?
Lubba : I'm at X Science 8.
Saskia : Hey, that's my class too! Let's go there together.

Introducing The Writer

Normally, I am going to say hello.

But for me, this is not quite normal so I will say, or rather write, "Hey, what's up?" instead. Here I go everyone!

HEY, WHAT'S UP?

But turns out it is even weirder to hear, in this case it's see, someone you don't know saying that. So I am going to introduce myself! Why? It is mostly because you guys are going to read my writings a lot. And by a lot I mean A WHOLE LOT. You all see how dramatic I wrote that? Good, because it is going to be very dramatic indeed. I am a writer trying to be productive, so bear with me!

I will start with name. You see, my name is Saskia Clarannisa. My parents said it means a woman that shines as bright as the moon. Hence the blog address. But according to my research at the internet Saskia actually mean a Saxon woman or knife, these two from Dutch origin, or protector of mankind, this one is Slavic. The Clara part is actually right, it means bright or clear in Latin. Meanwhile, the Annisa part is taken from Arabic word for woman. And then my parents mixed things up to form my name. Boom, finished.

If you can guess where I live from my name, I will give you a virtual cookie! If you can't, I will still give you a virtual cookie because I'm nice!

So I live in Indonesia, or Balinesia if you don't recognize the first name I told you. Indonesia is this massive, beautiful, tropical country in Asia! To be more specific, I live in Bandung, West Java. My country is famous for it's culture and panorama. If you haven't visited Indonesia, give us a shot! You are going to enjoy it so much to the point of craving another visit.

I was born at 25th March 2002 at Tanjungpinang, Riau Archipelago. I am currently 15 years old. Which means either I am a student or I am smart enough to be working right now. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I am the former. This blog is actually an English project of mine. But do not fret! I am going to upload periodically, too. So I am a student, right. And I am currently studying in one of the best high schools in Indonesia. I am not bragging, I warn you, because entering this school took up a lot of effort! What school did I mean? You can check it out for yourself here.

I really, as in really, like reading, writing, watching TV series and a lot more! I also love doing sprint. I have a lot of favorites and maybe I will write some of the things I like to read or watch or write. Here we go!

1. Rick Riordan's works.
2. Supernatural TV Series.
3. Fantasy and sci-fi books.
4. Anime and manga.
5. Marvel and DC.
6. J.K. Rowling's works.
7. Myths, ranging from Greek to Indonesian.
8. History.

If I am allowed to, I'm going to write a lot of retell story and poems here. I have a funny writing style and I believe you guys are going to enjoy it a lot.

So that's it from me... For now!