I even still remember the first time that I talked about aurora, a moment when it was an honor to deliver a short speech in front of around three hundred and sixty people in my school (senior high school). At that time, I explained Aurora is a rainbow at night, which is called magnetic midnight, the effects is well known as aurora borealis or the northern lights, magical lights. Because I have no perfect “R” to say it in Indonesian way, I made it become “R” in a British way, so it was correct English. Right after that speech, many people said to me “aurora” with wrong “R” in Indonesian way. It did not bother either make me angry but I accepted as a complement. As a young, I managed to resist the temptation to move to think about what people think of me. Just do it!
Then, I continue my study at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. I knew that I cannot see Aurora in NL, but I justified that I have a chance to visit another country to the north to see the aurora. In Wageningen, I joined an Indonesian student association and I met William, Indonesia photographer-cinematographer who currently shooting in the Netherlands-Europe. I have visited his website (here) few times and I found that he also facilitated a road tour to Iceland and promoted (if possible) to capture aurora as one of the objects. Coincidental! (don’t you think?)
Iceland, a Nordic island nation, it the north Atlantic ocean. In almost every time I heard “Iceland”, what I thought is icy, white, volcano, one of the greatest economic in the world, northern light, Viking history and Aurora. Then, I arranged my schedule to join his tour and whoa-la, I visited Iceland on 10-14 December 2016 and more importantly, I got my first aurora at the first day! and I hope I’ll get my second, third, and so on and so forth next future! Aaamiin