The last day of the year

31 December

2011 has been busy, exciting, great, full of experiences, joy, and full of blessing.  I went through loads of things, most of them are good! :D  I learn a lot.  gain a lot.  Here are some of the recap

being 21.

B'day with W15.

Bali with Ngkong & Fam.

Monash intercampus Exchange, Clayton.

TRAVEL to different CONTINENT! 

Super huge campus in Melbourne.

OCF - IPC - Easter Camp

Evelyn Street, Clayton with Sovan, Hung, Nukke, etc.

Winter

Perth with Oom Chris & Fam

Greco's cake *awesomeness!*

Cooking for daily meal.

Back to Malaysia.

Single room in LV

Part time job, Sno

Fraser Hill

Pulau Tioman

Patriot Band

Monash Ball

Market Research Internship, TNS

CHC Christmas Production, Chromeheart

Awesome year. I am thankful of what have happened in my life.  

Thank you God, thank you family, and thank you friends.

Looking for another year to come.

Last but not least,  

Goodbye 2011 and Welcome 2012!

Internship

After tons of resume being sent, dozens being rejected, and others being ignored, finally I was called for interview, and accepted for 3 months internship program. Praise GOD!

I just had my interview last friday morning and will start working as an intern this coming Tuesday.Quite fast, huh?! But that's a good thing in a way that I don't have to worry anymore about what will I do during this long summer holiday and can confidently reply "I'm doing internship in KL".  And confirm, I will spend the whole holiday here :)

This internship is very different with my previous internship at Stem cell and Cancer Institute.  Although my position is almost the same, both as a Research Assistant, but the companies do research in two very different things! For these coming 3 months, I will work in a market research company, TNS where the analysis more about people, consumers, and market.  Working at a multinational company which deal with clients like Unilever and P&G makes me excited.  It's time to learn something!

As I will start my internship very soon, I also decided to quit Sno, my part time work at Sunway Pyramid.  So this week will also be the end of my Sno-ing job.

Jessika

dalam menghadapi exam kali ini, walaupun hampir setiap waktu saya tetap memilih belajar sendiri, ada kalanya saya menimba ilmu dari teman sekelas yang juga tinggal se apartment.  Jessika namanya.  Sesama orang indo, sesama cewek, sesama anak biotek, ga susah buat kami untuk bersosialisasi satu sama lain.  Jessika ini memang satu semester diatas saya, jadi ini adalah exam terakhir nya di biotek monash.

Bukan pertama kali saya belajar bareng sama Jess.  Dulu, tahun lalu di desprate moment ga ngerti apa-apa tentang satu subject, saya begging ngajak belajar bareng.  Saya yang prefer belajar sendiri daripada rame-rame, saking putus asanya mengajar temen belajar bareng-bareng, yang sebenernya adalah 'minta diajarin'.  Satu hal, saya selalu merasa gain something kalo belajar bareng Jess.  Waktu desprate, jelas, wong dia gurunya kok.  Tapi bahkan disaat saya udah belajar duluan, curi start belajar seminggu lebih awal di kala dia masih ada exam lain yang lebih awal, tetep aja, saya merasa saya yang nambah ilmu dari dia.  She seems know everything.      Hari itu dia bilang,"Duh mik, belom belajar nih.."  Tapi ketika kita saling tanya jawab, dia kok ya tau semuaa. *tepuk tangan*  Dan ketika dia bilang belum belajar, kamu akan tau kalo dia bukannya sok-belum-belajar.. You know, ada orang-orang yang kiasu dan ga mau kalah yang bilang belum belajar karena ga mau kamu tau kalo mereka sudah hafal jungkir balik satu kamus biologi!  Ini beda, mungkin karena polos-polos innocent nya dia.  Pokoknya ga bikin kamu ilfil bilang "Yeah right! talk to the hand!!"  Nah karena sudah beberapa kali belajar bareng, saya jadi lebih mengerti, kalau Jess bilang belom belajar, berarti dia belom mulai ngafalin kata per kata.. Lah, kalo mikhal, kalo belom belajar berarti belom tau yang mana bahannya, belajar apa aja, berapa banyak afalannya etc etc.

Jessika itu mau berbagi ilmu..  Saya juga sadar saya nggak se-ngoyo dia.  Dan saya yakin dia juga sadar dia tau jauh lebih banyak dari saya.  Tapi toh, dia ga kapok tuh.. masih oke-oke aja digangguin mikhal, padahal kalo tanya jawab, banyakan saya yang tanya dan dia yang jawab.. hehehe.  Dia ga segan-segan kasih tips-tips apa aja yang penting dan harus dihafalin.

Lucu juga sih, pre-exam terakhir kita, Genomics, satu hari dia belajar sama Vony, teman biotek lain yang ga jauh beda lah nilai-nilainya sama Jess, besoknya gantian belajar sama saya.  Ketika saya datang, dia dengan despratenya bilang "Duhh Mik aku stress banget belajar ga hafal-hafal!!" Itu H-1 exam, ga lama dia tanya-tanya apa aja yang saya pelajari. Aku yang memang masih meraba-raba ya cuma bisa senyam-senyum aja, "Duh belom sampe situ jess belajarnya..... Mmmm itu yang mana yaa??  Ha?emang ada detailnya doang?bukan point2 doang?"  Sepulangnya saya dari tempat Jess, saya rasa dia malah jadi stress liat Mikhal belom tau apa-apa kok masih santai-santai ajaa.. hhehehe

Jessika & Mikhal at Monash Ball 2011

Inti dari semua cerita di atas, saya mau bilang, Jessika, saya mengagumi anda. your intelligent, your hardwork, your ambition.  When you get straight HD, that's because you deserved :)  Terimakasih jess sudah berbagi ilmu sama Mikhal.  Apapun hasilnya nanti, HD, D, C, I still thank you a lot.  I owe u those knowledge and time.

God bless u friend.

update

Setelah cukup lama Orange Ladybug terabaikan, kali ini gue berniat mengupdate kegiatan2 yang terjadi recently.  Sibuk! Banyak kegiatan-kegiatan yang sebelumnya memang ga eksis.  Tapi saya senang..  Menikmati setiap kesibukan yang ada.  Here we go, pictures speak thousand words.

Sasa, Keyang, Dicky, Sylvi, Kevin Birthday Dinner Oct 2011, Italiannies

Nukke's 21 - 12 Oct 2011

 Patriot at Battle of The Band Monash

Erlangga Ramadian, Robertus Kevin, Rangga Irzad, Ericka Leigh, Mikhal Anindita

Patriot at Cultural Diversity Day 2011 Monash  

Rangga, Angga, Etus, Mikhal

Pulau Tioman, Mid break September 2011

Monash Ball 2011, JW Mariott Putrajaya  

City Harvest Church KL Soft and Grand Openning, at No. 3

Fraser Hill

People Quit People, Not Company

Statement di atas diambil dari buku Leadership Gold by John C. Maxwell yang baru saja selesai gue baca.  Sekilas tentang buku, banyak point-point yang applicable dan waktu dibaca bikin gue ber "Ooohh.. iya jugaa.." sendiri.

Singkat cerita, jadi sekarang gue kerja part time di Sno, Pyramid, sebuah local beverage company yang fokus pada shakes dan smoothies.  Hampir sebulan bekerja disana, layaknya company-company pada umumnya, ternyata banyak lika-liku yang terjadi di dalamnya.  Padahal, kalau mau dihitung, kayaknya total staff disana ga lebih dari kesebelasan sepak bola.  Dalam sebulan gue di Sno, unfortunately ada 2 orang pentolan di Pyramid yang resign.  Sayang sebenarnya, mengingat yang satu manager, dan yang satu lagi, sudah kayak full timer disana.

Kembali ke statement di atas, coba deh kita renungkan, sambil lihat kanan kiri, memang pada kenyataan nya seseorang lebih banyak resign dengan alasan "ga cocok sama si ini dan si itu.." daripada "ga cocok sama company nya"  Kabar burung yang beredar, di tempat gue kerja sekarang juga sempat terjadi mogok kerja, resign masal gara-gara ulah seseorang.  Bahkan orang-orang yang masih stay juga sependapat sama yang sudah pada resign.  That's pity.  Bisa kamu bayangkan kalau kamu, tanpa disadari adalah si pembuat ulah.  Life will be miserable man, knowing that people arround you don't like you.

Inspite of those fact, gue pribadi ga ada, atau belum ada masalah sama yang bersangkutan, jadi yah gue ga mau terlalu nge-judge juga, toh orangnya juga baik2 aja sama gue.  Dan saya senang, karena kemaren habis gajiann.. Hore hore!! Besides, kerjaan di sana juga cukup menyenangkan.  Temen-temen yang kerja semua student part timers juga, dan kerjaannya simple dengan salary yang sama. Not bad at all.

Happy working, Happy studying, Happy playing.....

Maaf, kepotong...

Maksud baik tidak selalu berhasil baik.

Seiring dengan kepulangan ke Malaysia, mau nggak mau saya harus beres-beres rumah dan kamar baru. Nah, kemarin, dengan penuh semangat dan tekad tinggi, saya bermaksud membereskan kabel-kabel internet yang karena kecanggihan Wi-Fi technology, tidak terpakai lagi. Sebenarnya sudah lama (bertahun-tahun -red) saya merasa kabel-kabel itu cuma menjadi pengganggu di rumah. FYI saya beruntung bisa kembali ke unit di mana saya tinggal dulu. Akhirnya kesempatan datang untuk saya membereskan kabel-kabel berserakan itu. Seingat saya, sudah saya pastikan tidak ada kabel-kabel yang terhubung dengan line internet dan telepon. Setengah jam berlalu, saya cukup puas dengan hasil pekerjaan saya.

Namun, malam harinya, seorang housemate komplain atas terputusnya line internet selama berjam-jam. Saya yang baru pindah malah bertanya, "Memangnya internet disini sering mati seperti ini?" Dia pun mengiyakan. Setelah mengkonfirmasi dengan housemate lain, saya pun tau koneksi internet dirumah mati sejak sore hari, yang berarti setelah saya 'bersih-bersih' rumah. Deg. Saya pun mulai was-was, apa mungkin saya secara tidak sengaja memotong kabel yang masih berfungsi?

Mulailah saya menelusuri kabel-kabel telepon. Oh no! Sepertinya memang demikian sodara-sodara. Gara-gara terlalu agresif memotong kabel-kabel, saya tidak sengaja memotong line telepon juga. Pantas saja internet ga nyambung sejak sore. Saya pun mengaku dosa pada housemate yang kebingungan mengurusi internet "Kayaknya pas gue beres-beres tadi, gue ga sengaja motong kabel nya dehhh...." Untung aja housemate saya baik. Dia bilang "Masa sih? Aku juga tau kok kabel-kabel itu udah ga kepake lagi..."

Setelah penyelidikan selesai, terbukti memang sayalah orangnya! Yang memutus koneksi telpon sekaligus internet. Untungnya kami cuma perlu memindahkan pesawat telepon dan langsung menghubungkan kabel tanpa menggunakan kabel yang putus. Internet pun jalan lagi dengan lancarnya.

Hal serupa terjadi saat papa berbaik hati mau membetulkan koper yang rusak. Setelah seminggu tanpa koper dan mendelay packing barang untuk ke Malaysia, aku mendapati koperku dengan gagang baru, yang sedihnya lebih tipis dan ringkih dari yang sebelumnya. Sempat kesal karena koper super besar berkapasitas 25kg+ itu pasti nggak kuat bertumpu pada si gagang tipis baru. Ya apaboleh buat, toh aku masih bisa pakai kopernya...

Maaf teman, kali ini maksud baik tidak menjamin hasil yang baik juga.

inspection

Last week, i was caught by tram inspector with no valid ticket to travel on my way back home. I was alone that time, innocently get into a tram, didn't touch on my myki card just like what I always did. Unfortunately, I didn't realize there was an inspector entered the tram in the same stop. So after awhile, He asked everyone to show him the ticket! Dang!

Still act innocent, I gave him my myki which I know haven't been activated anytime that day. I thought, when He saw me that I had a ticket, He will just go away. Bad luck for me, instead of went away, He took out his Myki detector and checked my card. O,Oh..

He then pointed that the last time I touched on my Myki was a week before. Which means I got caught illegaly travel on the tram. Then he asked me whether I touched on by the time I got into the tram. Instead of replying, I asked (read: acting stupid), "Isn't that with Myki we only need to touched on one time on the tram? (I was saying that I thought we can touched on anytime we want, by the time we got in or get off). He said, "NO! You should touched on when you get into the tram, but Yea, u just need to touched one time."

I was proven guilty.

But luckyly, He didn't fine me. Huhuhu. He just said, "Be careful next time. Be alert."

Before the inspection happened, actually I was reading my lecture notes, but then I was shocked that I couldn't continue any longer.

This is not something to be proud of, or something to be celebrated that I can escape the officer. This is more about real teaching and a reminder.

7°C

7°C!

no wonder it is so cold. even with my jacket and my socks on. i heard there was hails just now. unfortunately the heater sensor only show 16 degree and only ON for some time. i just raised up the temperature for it to be working properly. hopefully tomorrow will be okay, and the exam hall wouldn't be so cold. wish me all the best for my first paper. amen.

(rice + milk) together

Di Indonesia, kita disarankan untuk mengkonsumsi 4 sehat 5 sempurna, dimana nasi dan susu adalah komponen utamanya. Jelas nutrisi kedua bahan tersebut terbukti nyata. Namun, baru-baru ini saya menemukan hal unik berkaitan dengan konsumsi nasi dan susu. Kalau makan nasi dan minum susu adalah hal biasa, bagaimana jika makan nasi didalam susu bersamaan?

Salah satu housemate saya, asal Bangladesh, bercerita kalau dia biasa makan nasi dan susu (together). Bisa bayangkan cereal? Nah, coba bayangkan tit-bits cereal nya diganti nasi. Dia bilang, itu makanan umum di negara asalnya. Umumnya makanan bayi dan anak-anak. Tapi beberapa orang, termasuk dia dan keluarga menikmati nasi dan susu hingga dewasa. He was saying that "But now I eat it as dessert, not for main course," So I replied, "Wow, you have a heavy dessert than, rice for main and another rice for dessert." Yah pokoknya dia bilang itu enak, and he encourage me to have a try sometime.....

By the way, this conversation arose because that time, I was having my lunch at home and he suddenly came, put yogurt on top of the rice. And I commented, "Hey you eat yogurt with rice.." and so the conversation followed.

Interesting fact. Feel free to try on your own. ;)

Provider

Have you ever heard the quote, "He makes all things beautiful, in His Time" ? I heard a lot, and more than that, i didn't only hear it a lot, i also experienced it a lot. This is one of my simple story..

Back in 2009, I was desperately looking for a room for myself as my contract at my previous apartment was almost end. With budget under average and no partner to share a room with, i started to contact some agents and did some inspection in Lagoonview Condominium. It was not an easy job considering a good place usually come with 'good' price, while not-so-nice place come with okay price. I was quite stress back then, wondering whether i could find some place in time. So what else did i do? Pray. I admit that i prayed harder that time because of this problem that i struggled in. To cut the story short, finally I got this really nice, huge, not expensive room in Lagoonview with nice housemates and roommate to share with. I can say out of nowhere, i just saw this ads posted at campus, and decided to contact it. Not from someone that I know, not from any of my friend. Somehow, there was a way that lead me to that room.

Last semester, I had to say goodbye to my lovely room as I was going for exchange to australia. No matter how nice and not expensive it is, it still a waste of money if I resist to pay the rental and keep the room for my coming back the semester after. Next challenge is again, to find another room in Australia. It was also challenging since I only contacted the landlords overseas through email. Most of them will ask people to pay the deposit to confirm the booking and almost all didn't allow us to share a room with someone else. I prayed. and believed if God could make it happen before, He surely will provide, as he always do.

Two weeks before my departure, I found an advertisement from a student website offering a twin-sharing room. I contacted the owner and was so glad that he is a very welcome person, and he was saying, "Don't trouble yourself to send the money overseas, just pay it once you reached," He even offered me a lift from the airport to the house. How nice that is. I emailed him to confirm the place, I thought, if something goes wrong and we really really couldn't stand it, at least we haven't pay anything. Nothing to lose. Thankfully, when i reached Melbourne, I saw the place and really satisfied with the room, it was much bigger than I expected! So now here I am, staying in a big room, sharing with my exchange friend, cut a lot of accommodation cost during my study here. Make friends with nice housemates, doesn't need to pay any extra money for electricity and all the bill (many of my friends do!).

As four months have passed, it almost the time for me to leave Melbourne, meaning, it also the time for me to find another room in Malaysia! A month ago I told my ex-housemate to let me know if there's anyone moving out from the house. I know it's quite impossible knowing that 3 of the tenants were just moved in last semester, and the other two will only finish their study next year. I started to ask from some friends, post it in fb, etc. Again with no partner to share, it's quite hard to find affordable room in LV. But this time, I really believe that He will be my provider.

One night I was checking my fb, and felt like checking Lagoonview fb account, and there was it.

A single room for RM650 (excluding utilities) is available from July 2011 onwards. The unit is only for GIRLS. Pls msg me if u r interested!
The UNIT...fully furnished, including air-con, stove for cooking, housekeeping, washing machine, dining room, sofa
The ROOM....

- a queen-sized bed, study table, big wardrobe(with mirror), 1 external mirror, air-con are, attached bathroom

-the room has good air ventilation as the room has 2 big windows and the room is repainted recently

(posted 1 hour ago)

I straight away contacted the person, read the post again and thinking "Hmm why is this place sounds familiar... 650 per month, middle room... Hmm i felt i have heard the person name as well" Then i msn my ex-housemate, asking what's the girl's name who's staying in the middle room. And it's really her!! Ohhh my! it definitely not an accident. That was the unit i stayed before. I quickly booked the room through my housemate. In this time when the rental price is increasing over and over, almost impossible to get room with this price. And I actually left some of my stuff in the house before, so i won't have to trouble myself to move house. I'm so lucky and thankful.

pisang

tahukah anda, saya rasa saat ini pisang menduduki posisi buah paling mahal di australia.. bayangkan, 1 kg pisang, yang bisa dibilang buah ekonomis di indonesia dan malaysia kini mencapai harga $12 per kilogram! kalau diconvert ke rupiah, angka ini menjadi jauh lebih dasyat! sekilo pisang di australia sama dengan seratus ribu rupiah, benar saudara-saudara... seratus ribu rupiahh!! kemarin salah satu housemate saya menghabiskan $16 hanya untuk membeli pisang.

konon katanya, hal ini disebabkan oleh banjir yang terjadi di Queensland beberapa waktu lalu. Mengingat perkebunan pisang terpusat disana, melonjaklah harga pisang gara-gara gagal panen di musim ini.. Kalau dipikir-pikir, harga pisang jadi jauh lebih mahal daripada daging!

pesan moral : bersyukurlah kalau anda masih bisa makan pisang hari ini

cheers ;)

what so happening easter break

Happy belated easter everyone!!

Lucky i had one week of easter break here so i could take a breath from my lots uni-works. Actually at first, i was quite disappoint that i couldn't join nukke, shinhui, joanne, and ola to go to sidney because it was quite expensive i would say. But now if i think back, i can be grateful because here in melbourne i had heaps of fun too. So here was my one week journey..

My holiday started on Good Friday, i woke up early that day and went for Easter Service at IPC church. Right after the service, me and many others went to Campaspe Down for Easter Camp!! The Camp was really fun. I made many great friends, listened to the word of God, exercised, played trampoline, ate good food, sang, laughed, etc etc. The most interesting part about the camp is the outbound session, we were divided into teams to complete some missions, and in order to do that, we need to defeat enemies, looks for money, talked to people, negotiated, bargained, etc. Just like what we did in RPG game. And the best part, the winner got bucket of chocolates as their throphy. My easter was indeed merry and happy.

Secondly, i went to Frankston beach on Tuesday. Staying home the whole day on Monday doing nothing makes me feel like going out (as always). SO i asked some people to go somewhere and ended up went to frankston with Chiquita and one of her friend. Frankston is a nice quite beach, it is much nicer than St Kilda where i have been previously. And they were having sand sculpture exhibition there.. It was beautiful. After, we had lunch in Sofia for pizza and pasta.. slllrrrpp.. It's not the end yet! In the afternoon, i went out some more with Tirza and her cellgroup to have a nice dinner, Simon's peking duck.. It wasssss reaaaallllyyy yummy...

Say Hello from Frankston!

The next day, me and clayton cellgroup members had arranged another trip to Mount Dandenong.. Actually there's nothing much there, we just ate and took pictures. We went for this small cafe called Miss Marple, which is famous for their scones ($8.5) and to get in we had to queue for 45 mins. ckckck.. Luckily, the food and the place was nice. Though we were full, we still had another dinner together. After spending money the whole day, it's time for home food. We all went to Gabby's place, cooked and ate korean black noodle.. My day was full and so was my stomach :P

With Miss Marple in the pic

Giant chair at Mount Dandenong

I spent my Thursday and Friday with Timmy, one cousin of mine who also studies here in Monash. I watched Thor on Thu night, fyi, it was my first cinema movie here, and it was 3D some more. I actually don't mind not to watch movie at all here (since it is very expensive $15), but maybe it's also not a bad idea to know how does it feel to watch it here. hahaha. Compare to malaysia, the cinema was big, with less people watching. The movie itself was good, but not spectacular for me.

My friday trip was actually a 'shocked-trip' since at the beginning i planned just to stay at home doing my assignment. However at the end, i went to Geelong (another small town near Melbourne, 1.5 hour drive) with Tim n Sam. It was just happened. Timmy texted me whether i was busy or not, and i said not really. I thought he will just asked to go for lunch or something, unfortunately, or fortunately, he asked me to join him going to geelong. I thought for a while, and decided i wouldn't miss this!! hahaha. The scenery was beautiful. we went for photo session in Geelong, followed by Dockland, and finished with heavenly taste sticky date pudding in malvern... Aaarrggghh it was just so delicious, words can't describe.. *lebay*

SO that's what my one week been. Full of experiences, Full of happiness, Full of Awesome Food.

;)

Group assignment : happy?

It has been a while since the last time i wrote a post. Geez. i'm starting my week 8 (out of 12 weeks) in this semester this coming monday. As usual, time goes like a click once the assignments and works started. I had 3 mid tests last week and lots of assignments until next week.

I was struggling in my music group assignment these days. Not exactly about how difficult the assignment is, but it's more about finding myself a right group. Ridiculous? I didn't think so. It was my worry since the moment i decided to take this unit, beginning of week 1. Finding myself one of few non-music-faculty student makes me nervous. How can i make friends when this unit only take me 2 hours class a week (i know this is actually the nice part of the unit).. Moreover, i didn't play or read music for quite some time. I even did consultation with the unit coordinator, ask them whether a non-music-player will be able to cope with this unit. Whether this unit require us to play or write music. I remember so clear that Tavis, my lecturer said, "Yeah, you need to write piece of music, but don't worry, it won't be due earlier than week 8" He successfully convinced me. And i said to myself, "Okay, you'll be fine, finding some people to work on this assignment wouldn't be that hard"

I was trying to talk to someone else in every class that i attended. It didn't really work. Well, maybe i found some Hi-Bye-Friends. That's it. Make the story short, I met some people yesterday, composed a 40 sec piece of music for 4 hours and we will submit it this coming monday. Surprisingly, each person in the group didn't know each other before. They just simply put their name in the web, randomly. Woo, at least, im not the only stranger.

They are okay, i guess. BUT, i found it not easy to communicate with them, Aussies. :(

I don't mean to discriminate people or something, but it is just hard to click. Huhuhu. Sometimes i didn't get what they're saying. And even worse, because of those music vocabulary which i'm alien to. I don't know how to say, "How about if we put 4-ketuk note, rather than all 1-ketuk note.." Aaarrggg.. it was a looong afternoon. So glad that finally we finished it. at 6pm.

So this is my point, i don't have a problem in introducing myself, berbasa-basi, etc. Even i met this local people in the church today, and he said, wow your English is good. However, once i need to communicate something deeper and more complicated, it's not easy at all. I know i shouldn't say this as i don't wanna limit myself, but, It's much easier to communicate with Asian and (definitely) Indonesian.

No. i'm not frustrated. I'm just kind of disappoint that so much effort is needed even to express my thought. It's not easy to express who am i. OK. Practice makes perfect.

Semangat. Good night.

Kisah seorang survivor

Di sebuah pulau tak berpenghuni, terdamparlah seorang pria dari kecelakaan kapal. Ternyata dia adalah satu-satunya orang yang beruntung, selamat dari kapal karam. Ketika sadar tak ada orang lain di pulau itu, mulailah ia mengumpulkan bahan makanan dan barang-barang dari kapal yang terdampar tak jauh dari tempatnya. Sehari, dua hari, dia tak kunjung berhenti memohon pertolongan Tuhan sambil terus mengamati kalau-kalau ada kapal atau pesawat terbang yang melintas.

Tiga hari berlalu, persediaan makanannya pun menipis. Tak habis akal, mulailah dia mencari buah-buahan dan bahan makanan dari pulau itu. "Sebaiknya aku mendirikan gubuk kecil tempatku menyimpan makanan dan berlindung dari dinginnya malam," pikirnya. Dikumpulkannya kayu-kayu sampai akhirnya berdirilah sebuah gubuk sederhana di pinggir pantai pulau itu. Hari demi hari berlalu, namun pertolongan belum juga terlihat.

Suatu hari, sepulangnya dari hutan, terkejutlah dia ketika mendapati gubuknya dilalap api. Api yang begitu besar membakar habis gubuk dan segala isinya tanpa sisa. Marah dan kecewa meliputinya. Dia pun berseru pada Tuhan,

"Tuhan, mengapa Kau begitu tidak adil? Setelah kau membiarkan aku disini sendirian tanpa pertolongan, kini Kau membakar semua persediaan makananku, melenyapkan semua kerja kerasku selama ini.. Apa mau-Mu Tuhaan..." Di keputusasaan dan kelelahannya, dia pun tertidur.

Ketika ia terbangun, dia melihat di kejauhan, sebuah kapal besar menuju ke arahnya dan mengirimkan sekoci kecil untuk menolongnya. Dia begitu senang dan tak percaya, akhirnya pertolongan datang. Dia pun bertanya pada awak kapal penolong, "Bagaimana kau bisa menemukanku?" Awak kapal menjawab, "Kami melihat smoke signalmu, tanda meminta pertolongan" Ternyata terbakarnya gubuk kecil di pulau itu memberi sinyal pada para penyelamat untuk datang. Pria itu pun hanya bisa berdiam diri dan bersyukur pada Tuhan atas apa yang terjadi.

Tuhan bertindak. Kadang persoalan hidup memang begitu berat dan seringkali kita bertanya-tanya, mengapa hidup begitu sulit. Tapi percayalah, di balik semua yang terjadi, Tuhan punya rencana buat setiap kita.

Because He makes all things beautiful, in HIS time.

Blood donation

Hey ya!

I just had my first blood donation last Friday. Woohooo.. I feel cool. Everything happened smoothly. no faint. no vomitting. no dizzy. No difference at all.

Actually i have tried few times donating blood during my high school in Indo, and in Malaysia. But it always failed at the end. Once, they told me that my blood pressure was too low that i was not eligible to donate. Second, in Malaysia, they require us, foreigner, to be inside Malaysia at least a year while i just came back from Indo back then.

I actually quite nervous to donate, worry if i would faint, or at least throw up after. Suprisingly, it's all good. They informed us to have a meal and lots of water to drink before the donating time. And i obeyed (afraid something bad happened if i didn't).

No pain. I donate 450 ml of my blood which is less than 10% of the total blood we have. If i can do it, u can do it too :)

O' week

This is the end of my O'week (Orientation week -red) in Monash University Clayton Campus. It was an awesome two-weeks i can say. The programs is not just about academic and campus stuff, but also about australian campus, melbourne, and making friends here.

During the first week of orientation, Monash Abroad introduced us to Australia in general, and Melbourne in specific. I met lots of exchanges student from around the world, Malaysia, US, Germany, Japan, and many more. The one i like the most during the orientation is,, free food are provided!! WOoohohoo.. don't be naive. It's Australia. and food are extremely expensive here. So anytime we have a chance to get the free one, why don't we take it?! ;)

Pancake and muffin for breakfast, BBQ and pizza for lunch. Ahh. i just can't resist it. Sllrrpp..
By the way, since the meal is so expensive here, i HAVE TO cook at home, besides, all the shop will be close at 6PM everyday, no more mamak, no tenda-an, so COOK is a MUST. I bought some groceries together with nukke. And we had our first cooked food, bake potato. It was okay, except in the beginning i actually grilled it, because i couldn't turn the oven on. It ended up burning on top. hahaha. but again, it was not bad, we just throw the burning part.. :P

We quite often went to the city in the first week, with the guidance of Monash Abroad team. Queen Victoria Night Market, Super Nice Durian and Ferrero Gelato Ice Cream which i forgot what's the placed called, Koko Black, Pacific, Shanghai Dumpling in China Town, Bimbo Place where we can get $4 home made pizza per pan :), Melbourne Central, Art Gallery.. Those are some places i went in our first week of orientation. Not bad huh!

Durian-Ferrero-Strawbery gelato

And today, as the closing of the Orientation Week, we went to Healesville Sanctuary to see koala, kangaroo, platypus, wombats, emu, and others local animals. It's FUN :)

Hello, Mr. Koala!

Hello, Uncle Emu!

Fun fact about emu :
In a season, female emu can lay 3 x a dozen eggs. Once it lays eggs, male emu incubates them for 3 weeks and raise their children for months.

Red Scooter Welcome Party

cold summer

Is summer identical to hot sunny day??

Not really actually. At least that's what i experience here in melbourne, australia. I'm wearing jacket while blogging inside my room at the moment. It's the same as Puncak weather! Puncak can u imagine, not even bogor, but Puncak. You can see the weather forecast below, it's 13 degree during the summer! I hope it won't be too cold in June :S

Weird summer.

14 february

It's not about Valentine's day.
It's more about my arrival in Clayton, Melbourne.

Saturday, 12 feb 2011
I flew from Jakarta to bali, with all my luggage for Melbourne. I thought i could go out, spending some of my waiting time around kuta and having dinner there. failed. because of 1 hour delay, i just sat in solaria, Ngurah Rai, enjoying my dinner all by myself while waiting for Nukke's arrival. Bali was hot and only solaria and starbucks have the proper indoor-aircon-system.

After around 40 minutes, Nukke came and we checked in for our flight to Melbourne. On that 5-hours night flight, i think i could only sleep for 1 to 2 hours. Different with most flight from indo, flight from bali have more foreigners than local. it makes us feel departing not from indo. However, a Balinese guy sat right beside me. We had quite lots of conversations about him being Australia-graduated-scientist and about me studying science. We ended it when the light turned off and both of us fell asleep.

Sunday, 13 feb 2011
Arrived at Tullamarine airport on 7.40 am (4 hours ahead Jakarta time), Dion fetch us. Arrived safe at 30 Evelyn St, finding that the room is far larger than i expected made me happy. Huhh. i kinda worried took the house without doing any inspection before. But fortunately, the house is okay, the landlord is kind, and hopefully the housemates too.. It's a multinational accomodation i can say. We're dealing with Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Chinese, and Vietnamese as our housemates. Guys and girls.

We continued our journey to do some urgent groceries. Our landlord drove us to the groceries centre and he explained how to walk back. The shopping was okay, except the 9100 rupiah per i dollar part =.= On the way back, we walk walk walk, but we didn't even know where we were. it was a long tiring walk in the hot sunny day. lucky, we met someone who roughly know where our house is. Finally we arrived home safe.

After a while, Melissa, an indo friend came by and asked us to visit her place. She introduced us to all of her friends and we watched movie together in her cozy apartment. It's very nice to be surrounded by kind people. Melissa helped us a lot, she gave lots of info before we arrived melbourne, and lent us some stuff we didn't have like pillows, bolster, and hangers. She fetch us to her place which is around 40 mins drive and send us back to clayton at night. She treated us like old friends, even it was our first time meeting her.

14 feb 2011
Met Ola and Shin Hui (both are our friends in Malaysia) by accident, ended having lunch together. I haven't got any australian phone number yet, it takes time to activate the bb service :( We spent the afternoon by cleaning the house with its kitchen appliances. It's kinda an exercise too. :P

It's the end of the day and i'm sleepy..
Get ready for tomorrow orientation! Woohooo..
Good night world. :)

abu-abu

seorang teman bertanya, "apakah A yang benar dan B salah? ataukah B yang benar dan A salah?" saya memilih mengambil jalan tengah. "A tidak salah, tapi B juga patut dipertimbangkan."

di dunia yang begitu rumit dan penuh dengan probabiliti saat ini, tampaknya semakin susah menentukan benar salah. kalau saja ariel tidak berada di kalangan selebriti, mungkin dia tidak dicap salah dan dijatuhi hukuman tiga tahun penjara 'cuma' gara-gara medokumentasikan kegiatan pribadi. toh kita yang orang awam juga tidak salah mau foto-foto kayak gimana. bukankah berekspresi itu bagian dari hak asasi?

satu hal yang saya simpulkan, banyak hal yang tidak terlalu hitam, tapi tidak juga putih. mereka abu-abu.. relatif. terserah bagaimana dan dari sudut mana kamu dan saya mau melihat. daripada ribut jadi hakim benar salah, apa salahnya mengikhlaskan apa yang terjadi, yang penting saya, kamu, dan dia senang kan..

thanks for the wishes

this birthday, i received a special gift from my friend in malaysia. they made me this hand made cards and calendar. so here are some of their wishes..

Yason
Semoga mikhal jadi orang sukses ya, tetep berpegang sama Tuhan, makin sayang sama Tuhan dan selalu berserah sama rencana Tuhan. Semoga mikhal makin sayang dan disayang papa mama, sama aku juga. hehe. Makin cantik, makin banyak temen, lulus dengan nilai bagus!

Semoga mikhal dapet pacar yang oke, yang cocok, ga kalah dominan ama mikhal, seiman, dan ganteng..

Tetep jago main pianonya.. makin dewasa dan bisa dapet kerjaan yang cocok. Walaupun mikhal orangnya kuat banget, semoga jalan hidupnya tetep dipermudah.

Moga-moga mikhal bisa jadi GOOD MOTHER kelak!!

LOVE YOU, SIS.

Nukke

Dear Mikhal,
Gila ga kerasa udah ulang taun lagi khal.. Time really flies. But you know what? I'm so happy to know such a "Mikhal" in my life!! and all the time we've shared together with our friends is not a waste. You have a great personality.. Hope you can achieve your goal.

Triandi

Mikhaal, nih dari tulisan gue udah tau kan siapa yang nulis.. (err... not really actually tri.. hahaha) Nih gue yang tulis sendiri, beda sama punya orang lain yang biasanya gue suruh orang lain tulisin.. Ini buktinya kalo lu special loh mik bisa gue yang tulis sendiri. hehe.

Tulisannya jelek, yang penting maknanya kan.. Happy birthday, all the best.. tambah dewasa, cakep, baik, manis, dapet cowo baru, sukses belajar di aussie.. Moga-moga taun ini taun yang baik buat lu..

Stella

Mikhal itu sweet, responsible, pinter, care sama temen (semua ultah temen dirayain, malah baru sekarang bisa ngerayain ultahmu..), dewasa.. Wish : better in your study & school, better in handling all your problems, better in any relationships.. Hope your "haven't come true" dreams become reality.. Wish you all the best and just so you know, your friends always got your back no matter what happens.

Nadya

Hey khal! It's nice to know you as my friend! Okay, gue akui gue penggemar blog lo. haha. You're such a good writter (and designer too)!! Keep your positive values. Kadang gue mikir, gue pengen jadi elo, yang punya keinginan dan kemauan yang kuat..


So, those were some of their writtings for me. Thankyou friends. I'm not what i am today without all of you. All of you are a blessing :)

where does this feeling come from?

Unexpectedly,

it hurts.
more than i could imagine

21

Thank u for YOUR protection, guidance, and blessing for these 21 years.

Time is really ticking. As far as i remember, it was just a while ago when i was spending my time in Regina Pacis high school. Busy with marching, busy with Korem at church, taking photobox, having lots of fun with hometown friends. Then I left home, migrated to malaysia, checked each corner of sunway and KL. And now here i am, getting older, seeing lots of my younger friends graduated from high school, welcoming those newbie in sunway, being familiar with sunway and KL places.

I'm still excited for what will come ahead, and i hope i will always do. But, i also realize that i'm not as energetic as i used to be to explore things and places. Well, we know KL is no more a new place for me and because of that, there is an excitement degradation to go here and there. I'm kinda tired. I remember those MUFY days when we used to go KL everyweek, by bus, and look for new places and malls to spend our weekends. And after a while one of my friend said, "I lived here much longer than u but seems u went to more places than me!" I just giggled. and took it as a compliment.

Wow! I'm 21!
Is it old to be 21? I don't really care. What i know is, that i'm so happy, thankful, and proud for what had happened in my 21-years-life. It has been amazing life i spent with my family, friends, special friends :P, and everyone else. I'm glad that i have the opportunity to continue my study abroad, to malaysia, to shanghai, and i hope to australia too. Having the most supportive and cool family, having best friends, having this personality that makes me able to adapt and not too dependable to others.

I like challenges.
I love new things.
And i love all of u.

Papa, Mama, Yason, budimans, andimulias, ex-Korem & GKI, Sisiel, Dita, Erick, Nani, Helga, Andal, Nanad, Nathan, Kak Gembong, Adri; Paksina, Adel, Feb, Nad, Jessi, Via, Ben, Sam, Ita, Vaco, akang teteh dan adik2; school friends, Beni, Anto, Cindy, Erwin, Lipi, Shinta, Riris, Didi, Mike, KB; Malay friends, Nukke, Tri, Sasa, Alvin, Yos, Supi, Jean, Peter, Emily, Daniel, Fenny.. Everyone else. Sorry I cant mention it one by one. Hopefully i have become a good friend to all of u.

and most important, thank u GOD for this awesome life! :)

leave

all my bags are packed
i'm ready to go
i'm standing here
outside your door
i hate to wake you up to say goodbye..

it's a semi-back for good for me, i supposed. leaving malaysia for the whole coming semester. this is it. this is what i aimed for in monash. going exchange to australia. indeed, i'm so excited. i'm still on progress in my exchange preparation, applying visa, looking for accomodation, etc, etc.

but on the other hand, i was a bit sad, having the fact that i need to say goodbye to malaysia, to sunway, to friends, and to my awesome life in malaysia. two and a half year journey there makes me really love the environment there. i'm glad that i could have fun each and every second i had there while some of my friends can't wait to go back home in every chance they had. it doesn't mean that i forget about my hometown. definitely not. but sunway had become my home too :)

I'll miss all my friends!
I'll miss W15!
I'll miss yosia and supi!
I'll miss yamcha, mamak, and malaysian food! :P
I'll miss sunway!

But don't worry, i'll be back in July, for sure.
Zaijian malaysia! :)

resolusi taun ini ?

sejujurnya, saya masih blank soal resolusi tahun ini. haissshh..
perlu merenung dulu mungkin.

not good.
sepuluh hari sudah berlalu dan belum ada dream list yang perlu dipenuhi.
resolusi. oh resolusi.