First mission: Colloquium

My colloquium ppt
(designed by my dearest hubby :))

"Alhamdulillah…all praises to Allah", it's all I can say. Another chapter has been through. Even though colloquium* doesn't sound like a deadly word, but having it experienced is surely awesome. A killer moderator lecturer, gives it a nerve-wrecking twist #grin.

Honestly, I typed and presented my research proposal in English not to impress the colloquium attendees, as almost all of them (particularly my classmates) have noticed my superb English ability #tongue. Moreover, nobody obliges the graduate students in BAU to type or present their proposals in English. The thing is, I'm pretty confident with my English ability, thus I'm almost always did my assignments or presentations (or even exams) in English. That's why making and presenting my research proposal in English is just an ordinary thing. Ergo, "excellent English and this is the best research proposal I've ever seen so far" praises by the killer moderator lecturer doesn't really surprise me; I considered the praises as a bonus for my hard work in preparing it.

I would actually thank my saddening Taiwan study experience as a series of events that moulded that very confidence of mine. I would never become like this without that experience. I would not step into so many challenging doors without that confidence. So, thank you…again :). First mission, accomplished.

*Colloquium is a presentation of one's research proposal before conducting a research. It is attended by an appointed moderator lecturer, academic/research advisors and fellow colloquium participants.

Two-semester Contemplation

Source : http://tinyurl.com/mdwykmu

This semester has finally ended. To be exact, it was dramatically ended just today with an online statistical analysis remedial exam #sweats. Frankly saying, I don't feel satisfied with my academic performance. This semester is basically quite similar with last semester. I remember that I was only performed as a typical student who topsy-turvied to survive from a red elimination zone***. 

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For your information, when you're enrolling to BAU graduate school, you'll be addressed as a "regular" or "trial" student. A "regular student" is a student who has previously graduated from the same major/department as the major/department being enrolled at BAU. This "regular student" will have two semesters to prove his/her academic performance at the enrolled department with achieving a minimum GPA of 3.00 at the end of his/her second semester. Whereas a "trial student" is the one who has graduated from the different major/department as the major/department being enrolled at BAU or a student who has graduated from the same major/department but lower standard university compared to BAU. A "trial student" only has one semester chance to prove his/her academic performance; it means that a trial student must achieve a GPA of more or equal to 3.00 in order to proceed his/her study in BAU graduate school, at the end of his/her first semester. I was being addressed as a "regular student" because I was graduated from GMU's Food and Agricultural Product Technology department which of course similar with BAU's Food Science department. Hence, this second semester is quite an emotionally stirring period for me. If my GPA (from this past two semesters) is lower than 3.00, I'll be forcibly kicked out from BAU. 

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For Better Or Worse (part 2)

It's been a long time since my last post (*let's consider 6-month blogging absence as an awfully long time for a reason so-called "gosh-i-don't-even-have-time-to-keep-up-with-an-appropriate-social-life-due-to-this-academic frenzy"). Yeah, that's a mere start. 

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As for this second part of "for better or worse" post, I would actually "share" a tiny part of my marriage life. Share also means documenting this past almost-7-month marriage journey in this blog. I believe that record and documentation are part of a good traceability system (*sok gaye yang mentang2 baru belajar food traceability XD). 

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Source : http://steadyflowblog.com/on-marriage/

So..yeah..after almost 7 months marrying this man, I would say that I still need some adjustments. Marrying Mr. Right who shares more than 80% similar interests with you, doesn't mean everything will work just perfect. Remember there is around 20% gap to be filled and adjusted (*percentage varies between couples :)). That's just normal when a husband wants his wife to meet his perfect standard, vice versa. For example, my husband is dying to make me ride my motorcycle slower-and-safely and talk/act less bitchy (judes in Bahasa Indonesia) to others when I'm in a bad mood***. The problem is, both are things that have been marked as "so me" and definitely hard to be reversed. But you know what, we call these hard to be reversed matters as "the art of marriage". In art making, difficulty and time never counted. An artist will devote his/her life to obtain his/her art-related dreams, as in a sculptor who can spend years only to make a piece of statue. So does marriage.

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