Tidbits of studying abroad (preface)

Around this time last year, I was bustling with preparation of my master study includes admission to the dream university (ok wait) and the most wanted scholarship (self proclaimed).

Firstly, let me apologize to my future self i.e tomorrow self: maybe you're gonna regret writing this things up in your most productive hours instead of studying for exam.

Back to the admission things. If studying abroad (w/o having financial breakdown) is one of your dream then NOW is the time to take real action and make dream comes true. Why? Because admission period for new academic year (August/fall semester) usually close on March/April of the same year. After gathering your soul and spirit, this maybe the first question that pop in your mind (a lot of my friends and acquaintances asked this one): Which one you apply first, scholarship or university; and how? My personal answer of the first question would be: up to you. I did my applications simultaneously both for scholarship and university, mostly because it was basically the same procedure. For the second questions: the mighty answer is GOOGLE IT! You have to diligently visit those websites containing information of your desired scholarship and study program. This list below is what my browser history full of a year ago:

1. http://www.lpdp.depkeu.go.id/

2. http://www.beasiswa.lpdp.kemenkeu.go.id/

3. http://www.mastersportal.eu/countries/1/netherlands.html

4. http://www.uu.nl/masters/en/water-science-and-management/admission-and-application/non-eu/ndu#quicklinks

5. http://www.ets.org/toefl

6. http://www.ielts.org/

Besides official websites of institutions those offer scholarship fund and study programs, you also need to get ready for english proficiency test. TOEFL iBT and IELTS are two of the most familiar test which you can use to enter thousands of university around the world. Afaik, TOEFL is more common if you want to study in USA/Australia while IELTS is more customary in Europe (side notes: even I applied to universities in Netherlands, I chose to take TOEFL iBT because American English is somehow more comfortable for me -oh and the test was cheaper!- just make sure what kind of the test accepted on your destined institutions). After that, you only need to focus on the struggle. Doing your best and pray! What is/are the most difficult part(s)? Personally, preparation for TOEFL iBT was so damn hard and tiring; my english is a mess (is, not was, because it is still a clusterfudge) but at least I managed to pass the limit for acceptable grade. I didn't join any TOEFL-preparation class whatsoever because of financial recces lol yet I used this illegal copy of Barron's TOEFL iBT 12th Edition. It really help much! You can always ask me if you want a copy. Another points which I found quite hard was.. writing essays and motivation letter, those are not my things, apparently. After all, if you put every efforts unto, it should paid off :)

For building the hype, maybe this time is perfect to introduce the magnificent "Sahita Sahwahita" all glorious PK-28 LPDP. PK (Persiapan Keberangkatan) is the reason why LPDP is kinda different with any other scholarship. It may sounds as formality and seems uninteresting at first but it turns out the best thing happens for you in a while (yes it was definitely tiring but all those experiences you can't buy with money were worth it). Lurk it yourself in our video below!

I am not really a person who can make such post full of motivation and clear steps of doing something right but I do hope that very-short explanation means something to help any of you. 

Lotta love,

Noya

Rubbish as usual (just from different IP address)

Hey october!

Reading this blog all over again, I realized that I always made the same mistake. Promising to write regularly then poff.. gone! That is the same bullshit I tried last march, which is more than half year ago. I guess it best if I dont make any promises because who knows in that way can turn me out into "more productive" owner here.

So what happen in these past 7 months? Well, the biggest change is now I already live in utrecht for almost two months. Crazy eh, when last year it was only all dream. Frankly, living here is not easy (duh) in a good way, it drag me out from my comfort zone. The city is quite big (number 4 of largest city in netherlands after amsterdam, rotterdam, and den haag) yet it doesnt get crowded so much thus make it much calmer. I bike 35~40 minutes to the university everyday, usually early in the morning because all my classes start at 9.00. Anyway last week was uber cold, it hit 0'C (with real feel temperature around -3'C) in the morning.. and it just mid-october; guess I wont take my bike out during winter. Nevertheless, I love living here, the city is vibrant and serene at the same time. The one thing that challenges me so much is.. ta-dah.. the campus /slash/ academic life. Not intended to bring down my beloved GFM or IPB or Indonesia education system in the general, but obviously, studying ethic here is so different. You cant just come in and sit with empty head and expect to be feed by knowledge. You cant just skip homework or copy paste your friends' answer to yours. You cant just lying around every other night and depend on one night study before exam day. Wait I make it so terrifying lol but indeed its true, but those thing are bad in a good way, right? I currently attend two course for this period (exam on oct28 and nov6, wish us luck!) which are both interesting. I expected my self to love this theoretical/opinion based course and suck at technical/mathematics one but it is the other way around. Can you believe if I get more excited now to meet numbers than words? No? Neither do I ;) And how about social life? Well, utrecht is unpopular between Indonesia student, only six of us came to Universiteit Utrecht this academic year. We hang out together during weekend (its a must! you have to prepare your mind for another weekday) and thankfully utrecht located in the middle of netherlands with busiest train station (imagine manggarai). I havent had a chance to get together with classmates yet, except for the first time during orientation day. We meet outside the class almost only for work/study group, or simply biking together when class is over. They are all really nice.. and bloody brilliant, I am such a lower outlier.

Well, my life just started here so I cant complain much (I shoudnt, right). I still have bits of my regular life back then.. watching doctor who every sunday (this season is better than last year, thankfully), going to the cinema sometimes (it's so damn expensive to watch a movie here, but I registered as a subscriber so.. yayness), having two cups of coffee a day, and hanging out to somewhere new in every chances (well.. hellooo, youre living 11000 miles away from home). Like I said million times before, being here is exciting and challenging at the same time :)

I hope to fulfill my promises to write about sawarna, gunung padang, and PK28, but not sure when and how. A lot of things going on my mind (yea you're not the only one). 

One day, I should manage to get to top of that :p

Ehm, so see you later, and good luck in life?

Het beste,

Noya 

Try to make a promise

A week ago, as usual, I sit in front of my desktop at work when suddenly my youtube playlist started to play Jogjakarta, a song by Kla Project. My memories went back to some days before when mbak Karlina, mbak Cesa, mbak Ikis, and Ilham were playing the accoustic version of this song in front of Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and us, fellow members of PK 28 LPDP.

Well that paragraph above isnt quite my style to start a post, dont you think. If someone ever track back my blog, sure he/she will be confuse on what the hell is she talking about, suddenly jump from last year post about weekend at sofy's to current mellow dramatic mood I have for almost a week. So let me apologize first, for being very lazy to keep this platform alive.. too many things happened and my weekend run too fast. Earlier this year I have my resolution to write at least once a month here, but here goes my bullshit again *sorry. I ve been caught up on some errands, like overtime at work which is almost like everyday (yes, Im in even on weekend sometimes) also a miracle came and I am now officially LPDP awardee #dreamcometrue. This afternoon I installed blogger app on my mobile phone and make a promise to myself that I will try regularly post things here. There are already a queue on my drafts (in my mind palace, not on my blogspot dashboard though) about posts I had to write:

1. Travelling to Sawarna, Banten

2. Travelling to Gn Padang, Cianjur

3. LPDP dedication post, esp for PK 28

it may seem like a brag but I just know those things above really worth to share :)

So what about now? What will I talk in this almost useless post? My feelings as usual ofc bcs thats what blogging for. Lol. No kidding but hey, at this moment I feel grateful to stand on corner of jakarta-bogor commuter line while thinking about life. Yes life can be so cruel and wasting time to contemplate about it too much but if you ever feel like crap, believe me it will all pass. I dont want to write something too depressing or advice-like now but nowadays I learn how to appreciate myself bcs usually when something unfortunate happen to me, even just a bit, I will act like drama queen (maybe ppl around it dont see it but heck yeah I am full of life drama inward). Now, when something happen, whether it is good or bad, I try to accept it carefully.. thinking when I have something good, there are many people out there who have greater one so no need to show off and when something unlucky came in my life, I remind myself that others might have much troubled problems than me so there is definitely no need to freak out. Sometimes, appreciate yourself is something we need (for people who always think they are the most unlucky creature with no achievement, like me hahahah). Life is not as bad as we think. God will never give us something we can not bear :)

And uh it is a lot of words up there compared to what I intended to write *pardon me, but I am ready to write again (I hope)

Lotta love,

Noya