A brief notes

My hobby is one of nerds' hobbies and you may feel I'm so nerd because I enjoy studying :D.. and yeah I absolutely enjoy it. I like facing books but more than that I really love the "class" experience. In these 20 days, I met different people from different country. I'm gonna jot down a note from what we have shared and it is something new for me. It is not about the English lesson I have got sound too academic!) but it is interesting stories I have got.

* My UK teacher pronounced "bus" with "bos" . Then one of my classmates asked her that how to say "bus"? was it "bos" ? I thought I was the only one who was misheard. Later on, my teacher told us that in UK, every 15 KM distance, they speak in different accent! Let's say "cup" it is pronounced 'kap', but every 15 KM you can hear different pronounce, 'kop', 'kup'. And not all accent sound like in the "Harry Potter" .. the best English accent in that movie , according to my teacher is Hermione. She has "Posh" accent it is similar like "high-accent" style in UK.

*No offence about this. Malaysian-chinese loves to have white skin color instead of tan! why? it is silly though, but my friend said that it was because people would misunderstand that person was Malaysian not a chinese if she had "tan" skin color.

* In Iraq, there is no mailing address. Then, how they post goods? It is only through public places where they can get their posts. Also, if we want to find one's address there, just meet in public places. Plus, there is no electric there.

* In Tunisia, there are seven lakes (I don't know the name) and everything is thrown in these lakes (e.g stones) will be floating on the surface of the water. In these lake , there are two water taste which are salty and sweet!

* There are millions of camels in Australia.

Race does or does not matter?

It sounds a big topic, but I just want to share my opinion here..

What is culture shock?

Culture shock is the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown culture such as one may encounter in a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. This is often combined with a dislike for, or even disgust (moral or aesthetic) with certain aspects of the new or different culture (www.wikipedia.org).

As a foreigner have you ever experienced this?

Personally, staying in Malaysia I do not experience much cultural problems. As Malaysia and Indonesia share similar culture roots. However, we all know that Malaysia has multicultural environment and this has helped me to learn from all interactions and observations with many people from diverse countries, race, religion, etc. It might be not so much "Culture shock" for me and overall of this topic only my opinion.

I should put my words carefully here...What I have noticed is the race discrimination is very obvious in Malaysia either it is personal prejudice or in the workplace. This has made me a little uncomfortable because this topic always comes in the daily conversation, website, newspaper, etc. On the surface, it looks peaceful but if we are going deeper a lot of issues appeared. How they judge a person from skin, from your face feature, from what nationality and keep mentioning what race you are. Why it is so important?

It was pretty annoying because I have an Indian name with Chinese looking. They thought I was Malaysian-Chinese or Indian-Chinese ( =_= )'' because of that I had to explain where I do come from and why I have Indian name instead of Chinese name so many times..

Also, there are Chinese culture, local, Indian culture of organization. For local company there are more Malays and so does Chinese company. In short, people create the organization culture and they would prefer to hire people who share the same attitude and culture. Another thing that heaps of peope complain is customer service manner. It is very rare to see customer service or shop assistants always smile, greet you, or say Thank you. "Customer is not a King".

In my country, we also have this problem and it is a huge country with hundreds ethnic, races, and religion. People are having their own prejudice towards particular ethnic. Foreigners are scared when they see news about ethnic war, bombings and how unsafe my country. But, indeed no matter what race are you, we always say we are from one nationality. We do not emphasize I'm Indonesian-chinese here or she is another Indonesian-....( any race). And the funniest one, a Malaysian-Chinese told me that he did not know there are lots of Indonesian-Chinese in Indonesia. And again, I have to tell them how huge and diverse people that my country has.

In the end, this is just my story. We can not judge or generalize my thought about a country or race. Malays, Chinese, or Indians they are good and expecially in my class everyone is friendly, welcome and very helpful. The thing is how open our mind by not judging people from their skin color, race and religion?

A big sister role

Hola! This afternoon I had lunch with my friend. All in sudden I talked about why I like to teach and help people in studying. I have no burden to do that and yeah maybe I just want to help them with my capability in knowledge..

I told her, It might be my role in the house as a big sister I used to help my brother and sister in studying. Suddenly I missed that memories. When I was child, my brother is my best friend in the house and my enemy as well.. I used to help him to borrow his friend's notes or homework, went to his friend's house at night, and wrote in rush. I complained and scolded him how I felt embarrassed because of his laziness..

Then I realized he was just a small kid who might not know what is "study" meaning, very playful, had no worries about grade, and doesn't like to study. and yeah how many people like studying?.. I wish I can be like him never worried about studying!

But then as time went by, my bro has changed and more responsible with his study. He is still lay back one but no worries he knows what he has to do..

A big sister usually has a leadership personality, able to guide and control their bros and sis, take care them, listen and give comment to them. However, in the reality not all big sister has this kind of capability. Many of them like me and my friends who are a big sister always been bullied by our siblings. I can't find the reason maybe our character is not strong and fierce enough..we become the weakest and being burden with the responsibilities to be the best and as a model for our brothers and sisters. The eldest somehow acts as experiment, if we are failed to do well then it the brothers and sisters won't ever do the same, all we get is shame and regret. But if you are the real big sister with a strong character, you can make your siblings unite and care each other. All the best for big sister~ <3

I got lost in Kuala Lumpur

I would start with my first "lost"experience in Kuala Lumpur. That time I was a new student here. The class was over and it was raining. So, my friend and me (both of us are Indonesian) asked a favor from our friend from Korea to drive us back. We were so happy because we thought we could come back to our home soon. We thought he knew the way to go from our college to my place because it is not far , only about 10 mins.

But then, who knows my Korean friend took a wrong way.. just to tell u guys, here in Malaysia only has one way and it mostly Highway road! It is very difficult to find U-turn..

We are three foreigner students lost in highway, my friend kept straight and straight couldn't find the U-turn. We ended up in unfamiliar place, very quite, and far from town. I even couldn't see any buildings or houses. All around were trees and hills. It was raining, cold, and I became hungry! My Korean friend was very very calm. "All roads in Malaysia will always end up to KL, even though we turn or keep straight!" haha It was so funny...however, we still a little bit frightened.

We asked so many people on the road, fortunately my friend and me can speak Indonesian because we only met Malaysian people there. We spent 1 hour to get back. Finally...

-----------------------

My second experience was yesterday. This experience was still fresh in my memory. It was at night and the same thing it happened because my friend missed the U-turn! and three of us are foreign students too, two from China and me.. First hour, I felt confidence because I have had the experience... and I have been 2 years here so I thought I should have been familiar with some familiar places and knew how to go back..

oh and Oh,,,,, I was wrong. It was terrible than I thought. We almost got to our place, from the signboard it was shown 500 M but then we confused which way we should take. Subsequently, we took the wrong way, couldn't find U-turn, and we took the wrong turn so many times! we passed familiar places and went to unfamiliar places whereas I didn't know where! After 1 hour, I became desperate coz we couldn't find the way back and we were getting far from town...

We asked 3 people in this journey~

first was a Malay man who were standing near the bridge. My friend told me: ask him maybe he wanted to take suicide there! so funny ah,,,

this man has hearing and speech problem. when I asked he kept shouting "ha? ha? " leaned his ear like a small microphone. I didn't understand at all! In summary, we asked the wrong person....

Second person, surprisingly, he studies at same college with us and speaks in Chinese to explain. He said that our place is far and hardly to explain. It was only stick in my short-term memory and then what I had remembered we should take few left turn! Ok then , my friend just kept left and left, big turn and we ended up another place, housing area.

This is the final , I was so desperate and asked Security guards there. They are all Malaysian. So, I spoke in Indonesia again. Lucky, one of them knows well the shortcut. I explained about three times, turn right till up there, see three junction turn left, and you will see traffic light then turn right and ...Ok ok .. I asked him to draw a map. I might confused and forgot what he said! This time, I told myself this the last chance we should go to the right way! Fortunately, my hope became true! We found again Mid Valley Mall (very familiar place) took the right turn and started from there we could go back.

Lesson #1: Never take the wrong way in Kuala Lumpur, It is very hard to find U-turn here. U keep straight then u will end up somewhere!

Lesson #2: Never ask a wrong person

Lesson #3: Always bring drinking water , so thirsty man!

Lesson #4: Stay calm and focus, don't get panicked..

Lesson #5: If you still lost for more than 2 hours,, there are two ways to get back (as my friend said)

- Call taxi and follow him with your car

- Call Police to send you back!

last but not least I would say HAHAHA..fun!

Don't read my face..

Dang! I learned psychology and I fall in love with people's behavior. However, I can resist in how good someone can read my face and emotions. It was surprised me..

And yes, I am like a white paper. A white paper that plain and simple. I will always show what I feel at the moment, a blatant and a straightforward person. Say it first then think. Somehow I feel so stupid because of my words..

And some people are good in manipulating their emotions. I'm not an expert in this. But I wonder why some people choose to hide their emotions? maybe they feel shy to reveal their weakness, or pride matters? Nobody wants look weak and pitiful. how long they can keep a poker face?

Maybe I'm just too sensitive?

Money and Love

It's almost the end of my Master degree journey. I asked myself what should I do next? Where I want to go? What I want? Simple questions but it seems very hard to answer.

Some friends asked me: "Why don't you pursue PHD?" ..

>_<>

It is so a BIG thing. I would like to ask my brain first, "can you cope to study PHD?" ...ok it is not thinking but feeling. Maybe my brain can cope but pursuing PHD is something I never want to achieve. It is enough for me studying from kindergarten till now..

So I replied to one of my friends: "Now, I want to find money and love..

" It's sure I still want to learn so many things but more soft skills..

however, who knows what will happen next?

???

Welcoming July..

~The days are long but the years are short~

July! Time flies too fast ? yeah! It feels like few days ago of January.. and now I am at the middle of 2010.Is it just me or you all feel the same? so, what's next ? Time flies and I always feel compete with time. Each day seems boring and same and suddenly it would be no longer September, Oct, Nov, and Dec. We meet same person, go to the same place, do the same things, but remember this time would never return back. One day we might not meet this person again, won't go to that place again and we will miss our past activities we have been through. As same as how I miss my primary school life, secondary school life, high school and college life.

I feel grateful for coming and studying here, it is gonna be 2 years in August. Many thanks for my parents for their support, new friends that I have never thought I would have, all moments we spent and it is sad to think that one day we might apart.

Hopefully, I will see signs that lead me to something in my life. Hehe..yeah I believe in signs, it was like clues in your daily life. It was happened before I decided to studying overseas and I never think to go to Malaysia. However, no regret for this experience.

We have many choices in our life, we can decide what we want but we will never know what will happen in our life, just believe with positive thinking there is always a beautiful thing in our life journey.