Kelak akan ada masanya kita mempercayakan hidup kita kepada seseorang dengan cara-cara yang baik dan sopan. Atau seseorang akan datang mengetuk hati dan meminta kita untuk berada di belakangnya, mendukungnya selalu, mendorongnya untuk menjadi yang terbaik. Dia akan meminta kita dengan cara-cara yang baik pula.

Tak perlu dengan tingkah-tingkah yang bisa mengaburkan keiffahan dan keizzahan. Yang hanya menambah titik-titik hitam di hati, merusak kekhusyukan ibadah, mengacaukan konsentrasi.  Kita tidak memerlukan cara-cara yang bisa memancing setan untuk menggoda atau menjauhkan keridhaan Allah. Sebaliknya, kita akan menempuhnya dengan cara-cara yang Allah berkahi.

Kita hanya perlu berdoa, bersabar, berserah diri dan mempercayakan segalanya kepada Allah. Masa itu akan datang. Semuanya hanya butuh keberanian, keyakinan, keimanan, dan ketakwaan.

Since I consider that watching movie is one of my ways to spend my leisure time and learn English, I start collecting movies from my friends. Like a book, a movie also can give us moral understandings. I think why some people fond of watching movies is because they not only want to entertain themselves but also get a lesson even new knowledge. Sometimes, through movie, we learn science, psychology, medical term, history and definitely moral lesson.

I am not going to tell Hollywood movies which dominate this world but two highly recommended family movies made by Iranian filmmaker, Majid Majidi. These movies are Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise. I am sure that many people have watched these movies since they are dearly distinguished. When I was watching them, I cried a lot. I have literally watched them several times and I always shed tears. How magnificent!

The first recommended family movie is Children of Heaven (1997). It tells the story of Ali, a young boy in the suburb of Teheran, Iran, who accidentally loses his sister’s pair of shoes when he is out having them repaired. The whole film focuses on the children’s difficulty to share a pair of shoes while hiding the loss from their parents who are burdened with financial problems. Zahra and Ali are sibling that colorize the conflict of the story which is sharing the same shoes after one of them coming back from school. They are very kindhearted because they don’t want to tell their parents for losing the shoes. I was very impressed by Ali’s expression. His acting precisely shows natural expressions that aim us to shed tears when seeing him. I personally think that his pitiful face adds the sadness of this film.

The ending is a bit disappointing yet touchy because Ali cannot get a new pair of shoes, a present he extremely longs for in the running competition. He is supposed to get the second winner if he wants the shoes. Unfortunately, he gets the number one with such a great effort.

I think this movie indeed deserved the academic award because the plot is profoundly great. It is actually a simple movie but very rich of moral and religious teachings. I have never found such a family movie that is very memorable except this movie. Highly recommended!

The next family movie is The Color of Paradise (1999) which is also an Iranian movie made by Majid Majidi. Like the previous one, this movie is also tearful. I cried a lot as well when I was watching it. The similarity of both movies is use of children as his main protagonist. The Color of Paradise tells the story of Mohammad, a young blind boy who is well educated and grateful. His father is widower, only see Mohammad as a burden. Mohammad is loved by his sister and his grandmother even people around him but his father cannot accept his condition so he sends him to a blind carpenter for learning. Mohammad is a very content boy. He never complains anything although being treated rude by his father. One day, when his father wants to propose a woman, he keeps Mohammad away because of feeling embarrassed of the woman.  At the end, after saving Mohammad sinking in the beach, his father realizes that he do love his son.

         Both movies are incredibly suggested to watch for any family particularly those who want to teach moral and religious values to their children. These movies could be a fascinating and worthy family entertainment at home. It is highly praised for these Iranian movies that teach us abundant lessons.

Belajarlah cinta pada matahari
saat ia menerangi bumi
Belajarlah keteduhan pada rembulan

Belajarlah kedermawanan pada hujan
Belajarlah kegigihan pada pohon yang diterpa angin
Pelajarilah kerendahan hati padi yang berisi
Pelajarilah kerja keras semut-semut

Belajarlah rindu seperti malam merindukan pagi
Belajarlah harapan pada bintang
Dan belajarlah ikhlas pada senja
yang merelakan matahari

Hidup ini adalah perjalanan yang tak tahu ujungnya
Kita diperintahkan bukan untuk sampai ke ujung
tapi melewatinya dengan baik
dengan jiwa dan pikiran yang bersih
dengan hati yang taat
dengan cinta kepada Tuhan
dan cinta kepada segala yang Tuhan cintai

Selamat bermuhasabah dan
bersyukur wahai diri!!!

Jogja, 30 November 2014

*the picture is from my friend's congratulation (hehe..it's just her pray for me)

I remember when I arrived here, Jogjakarta, on October 9. It means I have been here for one month. I will say time indeed flies so fast. One month is as if like one day hehe… At the beginning of the program we took pre-IELTS test. After two-week wait, I was contented for my IELTS prediction test result. Alhamdulillah, I was not bad. I thought my score would be awful since I didn’t study at all and never opened my IELTS materials lately. I got 6 overall band score with which the lowest band was the listening section. At least, that result will be my measured standard on how many improvements I should make further and which part I should work on more.

Ok, I am trying to evaluate what I have gotten here. I veritably do not get what I expect here for this one month. It might be because I have learned English in my undergraduate study so English Academic Purpose (EAP) seems like repeated lessons for me. It is quite exhausting and a bit boring. However, I won’t say it is wasting time because I can recall the lesson back. I just think it will retard everything.  I am supposed to get the IELTS test on December 20 to pursue the February or March 2015 intake in Australia, but the problem is IELTS program will be conducted after 8-week EAP program which is on mid December. Hence, if I take the test on December 20, I will just have very little time to study or prepare for the test and I am not sure about it. I need very well-prepared study.

Contrarily, if I take the IELTS test on January 31 2015, I will have relatively long time preparation, yet I will not have the opportunity to enter the February or March 2015 intake. Therefore, I should wait for the July 2015 intake. It is not a big concern whether I will study on March or July 2015 in Australia or even in September/October in UK. I just don’t want to waste any precious time. The most important thing right now is my IELTS score. If the required IELTS score is on my hand, I can absolutely process my application immediately in whatever universities to get the Letter of Acceptance (LoA).

In short, I am here to gain those goals, the IELTS Score and the LoA. Thus, Allah, help me to achieve them well and to endure my days here in Your pleasure and blessing. I should focus on these things first then take the next step. I am absolutely grateful for being here since it is a scarce opportunity for many people.

And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah ]

(QS. Al Baqarah: 45)

Overseas studying might be very demanding especially in advance country for instance in US, UK, even Australia. The academic environment requires us to be perfect in everything. It will be a stressful condition if we don’t prepare ourselves enough. On the other hand, studying abroad might be exciting yet challenging. We can study directly from the brilliant experts, but we can’t also shun cultural shock probability that will bother our life there. For me, Australia and UK are good destination if we want to study in English native speaker country. Although US universities are absolutely prominent, but here, I would like to compare the positives and the negatives studying both Australia and UK in my point of view.

Firstly, I would like to talk about the positive and the negative studying in the United Kingdom. UK consists of four countries, which are England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. England is the most visited country because there are so many reputable universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, UCL, LSE etc. I am sure people who can enter these universities are definitely very proud and can acquire valuable and detailed knowledge. Furthermore, one of advantages studying master in UK’s universities is the duration of the course which is averagely 1-year taught course. We can achieve our master degree sooner. Nevertheless, we should prepare ourselves to study harder because it will be very hectic. I consider that the spare time is less because we should finish the given module no more than 1 year. 

Moreover, UK’s universities are only opened once in a year, which is September or October intake, so for those who want to select UK’s universities as their aimed university just have one chance to apply for. If you are late for some reasons means you should wait until next year and it is going to be exhausting. In addition, concerning the chance of part time work, I am dubious if you can make it well because beside the given time for master degree is so short, your course will also be hustling. No enough time to do other activities. However, I think it is still possible to find a job depending on your ability to manage your time.

Additionally, this one is just my odd thinking. If you are given a lucky chance to continue your postgraduate by scholarship, studying in UK might not be a good place for saving much money. It only gives you less saving because the duration is sooner than other countries hehe… but it opens your chance to visit Europe and feel the sensation of four seasons.

Now, we will talk about Australia. There are also several universities in Australia that are in 100 best world universities for instance Melbourne University, Australian National University, and University of Sydney. Talking about the length of study, Australia has similar duration study with Indonesia. To finish master degree, it requires 1,5-2 year of study. Furthermore, the application process is opened 3-4 times in a year. It precisely gives us much time to process our application. We don’t need to wait the next year intake. 

Selecting Australia as our aimed country has positive and negative aspects. The positives are we have more time to practice our English and of course much money we can save hehe.. In addition, studying a program which is two years in Australia will give us more leisure time. Surely, we can use it for holiday trip. Also, we have much free time that we can use for working. It absolutely can add our saving. However, I think men are more possible to do that because his movement is more lively and energetic than that of women.

The negative thing is just for only who wants to finish his/her study soon might be better to choose UK, but it is actually same because we need long duration of waiting for attending classes in UK which is on September or October, while Australia begins its class on March and July so we don’t need to wait lengthily. Therefore, if we start from now to process our application, I think it will slightly spend the same time duration in both countries. Another negative is we can’t feel the sensations of four seasons. Australia doesn’t have snowy seasons. We can only find snow in the mountain. 

All in all, having a chance to study abroad is very hilarious and blessed. I think whatever country as long as in advance country is not really a big concern. Therefore, before choosing our destination country, we should ponder all aspects above so we will not feel remorse.

I am going to say some things that impress me so much here. I just cannot imagine how much Allah’s favor bestowed to my life and with what way I should reply them equally. Ok, Allah knows everything; time and place are in His control. Human just tries the best. What I want to share is I possibly live in Yogyakarta for around 6 months or even lesser than it, depending on my targeted score for postgraduate admission. In fact, I want to spend the given time properly. 

Being a postgraduate student is one of my goals. I never think what I will be later after achieving my degree. I probably become a housewife, writer, teacher, and lecturer. I just never worry about my future because I believe Allah has designed it perfectly in His consideration. I just need to pursue perfection in everything. 

Approximately one week I live here has blown me away. Yogyakarta is small city in my point of view but it has a lot of places to visit, though I do not visit many well-known places yet. I just visited UGM Sunday Morning and went to downtown. People here shorten the word to be SunMor, a kind of shocking market. A lot of people come to UGM area to sell everything. It was so crowded because many people visit it not only UGM students, but also local citizens. I have heard about the SunMor before from my friend. I was just curious when she told me about it. Then finally, I saw by myself. It was totally fascinating.

UGM is huge. It is likely 3 times bigger than my previous campus, Unhas. Here, I lived in UGM’s dorm, Kinanti Dormitory, a new dorm that was just officially announced. My rute is only Kinanti and PPB UGM. I just feel like I am UGM students, take a course and study a postgraduate program here. I used to have that goal, but I changed my mind hehe… at least, one of my hopes comes true, I can be an UGM student even just a momentary student. Also, I can see the sky and smell the wind of this city.

Next, I will tell about the living cost. Many people and data say that Yogyakarta has lower living cost. It might be true but it depends on a person how he/she spend his/her money. I will share the culinary. I think it is similar with other cities. Jogja also has various culinary with assorted price, from the cheapest until the most expensive. As long as I live here, I find that Jogja and Makassar relatively have the same food price, but you can find 4-5 thousand staple food here for instance nasi kucing hehe. 

To get into many places in this city, we can use motorcycle, private car and public transportation. If you don’t have a motorcycle or private car, the only way is getting in trans-Jogja. It’s considerably difficult to go anywhere. Unlike in Makassar that has pete-pete, Jogja has only one public transportation. Fortunately, this city is quite small, so trans-jogja might not be too baffling except for the new comer like me.

There will be still lots of things I could share here, but since I am a new, I just can tell what I have experienced lately. I found Jogja is simple and humble city, not too crowded and not too quiet, or perhaps, I haven’t visited the crowded one. The people are nice and creative. You guys should visit this city. Welcome myself to Jogja!