Due Dates

Another 2 weeks have passed and its getting closer for me being here almost 2 months. But its not bout the 2 months that really matters. It's more bout the due dates on my calender that I really need to put my thoughts on.

As expected from lectures, you'll definitely get assignments in whatever forms. And with those assignments of course there are due dates that are the last dates for the assingments to be submitted. It certainly won't be a problem if you prepare things slowly and in advance. But things will get nasty if we neglect those asses and cram all of those things all together.
Luckily Curtin has some sort of tuition free week. At first i thought "Oh great, time to enjoy a weeks life free of lectures...". But it turned out I was wrong. With a dozen of assignments due after on April and May, it turned out that the tuition week was nothing more than a replacement for lectures. It's just that we have to do our ass rather than having lectures. I thought "Hey...what a neat trick to set up a tuition free week just to get us do our ass...". But, if I remember all the hectic lectures day, I think having a tuition free week certainly does help us finish our ass in without all those lectures.

And so, it comes back to us on I'm gonna use the next lecture free week to finish and cram up all the asses all together. Of course I'm definitely not gonna finish all of them, but I'm certainly gonna start things up and do some hard work so that I can get all the asses in track. Of course this would help me in the next weeks when Uni resumes coz I then have a definite plan and schedule on how and when I should be finishing all of the asses.

Of course life isn't all bout asses and lectures here. As a normal human (Am I...??), I sure want some time of between my work to enjoy life and have quiet resting time. But since Perth isn't that abundant with crowded attractions all day long, it then really forces us to make the best of things that are available here to enjoy our leasure time. As usual, just surfing the net and donwload miscellanous bits are just enough for me. But ever sinc seeing my last months internet bill soaring up to $121, I thought that I definitely need to diverse my netting needs to other places so that I don't use up my bandwith. Luckily the campus provides the best answer with the abacus lab availabe there.

But I really can't expect much. Aside from browsing, You really can't expect to do some heavy duty downloads unless you're really lucky to be on the perfect time and conditions coz the bandwith will be limited and the downloads would run really slugish...However...if you're lucky to be on the perfect time at abacus lab, than expect to go home with at least more than 800 MB of any kinds of data you can think of. Coz of this, I've been doing some sort of gambling each day going to the lab, hoping that I can get a big catch of data. But to my observations, things get lucky only between Friday till Monday. I might be wrong but at least this does help me diverse my netting needs.

But asides netting, its all back to reading journals and books. Due to the absence of comic, reading journals has been some sort of a hobby for me :P. Even I can still download comics from the net, its not like I read them straight away. Also, I ned to pay more attention on my spendings here. It turned out that Perth wasn't again one of the cheapest cities in ozzy and prices have been soaring high lately according to the locals. Coz of that, I need to spend smartly so that I can still enjoy life's to the fullest but not needing to put a hole in my wallet. Also, I need to make sure I can save money for both my accounts here and in Indonesia. Nevertheless, this would be a tough thing to do each month.

I guess that's all for now. I have no clue on what kind of moaning would be in the next blog. Just hope something good would happen in the few weeks a front. Matta aimashou...jya ne....

Rising Pressure

Time does fly when u'r busy. Keadaan sekarang adalah berkebalikan dengan ketika aku masih awal2 tinggal di Perth. Sejak kuliah mulai, yang pasti segala sesuatu menjadi serba berbeda dengan keadaan sebelumnya.

Setelah penantian hampir 1 tahun nganggur, datang juga masa ketika aku harus menjalani kuliah jenjang S2-ku. Beberapa berjalan sesuai apa yang kuharapkan dan beberapa lagi tidak. Hal2 yang kuharapkan adalah seperti kuliah-nya disini lebih padat dan harus berani berpartisipasi dibandingkan Indonesia. Jangan deh berharap dapat nilai dengan sekedar hadir di kelas soalnya partisipasi sangat diharapkan. Sejalan dengan itu pertanyaan2 pun juga ditunggu dan ngga ada istilah "kebanyakan bertanya adalah memalukan". Justru kalo ngga nanya malah dikira ngga belajar <_<.

Selain itu, adalah padatnya tugas. Kalo ini emang dah dipesenin siap2 aja dengan mencicilnya alias jangan dikerjain mendadak menjelang due date-nya. Dan emang pesen2 itu bener. Walo aku sejauh ini ngga pernah njalani model "SKS" kaya di Indo, tetep aja tugas2 yang ada terasa lumayan banyak dan menyita waktu.

Mungkin dibilang banyak juga ngga sih tapi yang pasti kita harus membaca materi2 kul yang lumayan berjibun agar dapat menjawab pertanyaan di tugas maupun di kelas. So..it's the reading that hurts actually. Bagiku yang sudah sekitar 1,5 taon ngga kul secara nyata, hal ini lumayan bikin kaget coz harus kembali menghadapi bahan2 bacaan berupa teks yang amat melimpah.

Mengenai hal yang ngga kuduga. Salah satunya adalah kecilnya kelas kuliahku. Satu kelas paling banyak cuma berisi anak 10. Itupun bisa berisi anak dari berbagai angkatan dan program studi. Kirain bakal kul dengan temen2 satu prodi eh ternyata dicampur dengan anak2 lain. Yang bikin nyesak adalah fakta bahwa prodi-ku tuk tahun ini cuma terdiri dari 3 orang!!Aslinya sih 4 tapi ada satu temanku yang pindah prodi di-awal2 kuliah. Jadi agak ngiri ma anak2 finance yang persertanya bejibun angkatan ini. The last thing is the fact there is no bule's here in the class. Kebanyakan temen2ku kalo ngga indo (that's why Indonesians are everywhere) ya orang malaysia, cina dan satu2 dari korea dan thailand. So, the asian taste still resides within the class i guess...

I guess that's an intro bout how's things r doing @ campus. Yang terutama sekali harus lebih kuperhatikan adalah fakta bahwa ngga ada hari tanpa belajar disini. Dengan banyaknya bahan bacaan yang diberikan dosen setiap habis kul, tentunya bacaan2 itu harus dicicil satu per satu secara pelan2. Bisa aja sih ngga dibaca tapi tuk kul2 tertentu, hal ini akan membuat anda lebih banyak bengong di kelas karena ngga begitu mengerti apa yang diajarkan dosen. Dengan sudah diberinya silabus oleh dosen, dosen berasumsi bahwa mahasiswa sudah membaca materi yang akan diajarkan hari itu so no excuses @ all..

Walo sudah bilang hal2 itu harus dicicl, tetep aja di kenyataan hal ini terasa begitu menyesakkan. Terutama setelah minggu pertama lewat langsung deh terasa tekanan akan banyaknya tugas, bacaan dan hal2 lain yang harus kukerjakan. It's as if there's little or no time to at least have time for u'r self. Bahkan tuk ngenet sekarang ngga bisa model browsing lama2 kaya biasanya dan harus diakali secara short time sekitar 30 menitan. Kalo ngga gini waktuku bisa habis tuk hal2 yang bukan prioritas.

Hmmm...selama seminggu ini ngga melulu tentang beratnya kul. Ada hal2 lain juga tentunya yang mengasyikkan. Terutama adalah ketika aku menghadiri acaranya AIPSA yang berkepanjangan Association of Indonesian Postgraduate Scholars in Australia (bener ngga >_
For the time being thats all for now. Dengan banyaknya tugas dan rutinitas yang harus kujalani, aku yakin hari2 bakal lewat tanpa terasa. Tapi kalo flash back ketika aku masih menjalani awal2 hariku di Perth, aku mending milih sibuk kaya gini. Paling ngga ada sesuatu yang dikerjain secara nyata. Tentunya aku ngga sekedar berharap hari2 lewat begitu saja tapi aku berharap agar dapat mengisi hari2 kedepan dengan kerja keras nyata agar mendapatkan hasil belajar yang memuaskan. My slacking days have passed and it's time to mature and prepare your future. Dengan begitu jika saatnya aku ketemu semua di Indo, aku bisa bertemu dengan kepala tegak dan penuh kebanggaan, amiiinnn...