An Update After Years Past

             So it has been like almost three years since my last post in this blog, the readers (if any) must have abandoned the blog and even spam messages stopped coming to my chat box widget. This long pause was not because of me not having time to spare to my blog, it's just that I was easily distracted whenever I wanted to write a post. Once I sat facing my laptop, time was spent on finishing my assignments, watching videos on YouTube, compulsively reading random articles on Internet, checking my Facebook, etc. Hence no post since October 2011.

             Enough with self-defending already, let me recap what happened in my life since then. Instead of chronological description of events in my life (Facebook Timeline does it better than me), I'll just point out important ones. Here they are:

• Finishing my undergraduate project paper and graduate (finally :) ) I finished the paper on time only to knew that the deadline was delayed due to others still worked their papers. No intention to brag but if only I knew the delay beforehand I would have sent the draft to any editing service and had it corrected (so my teachers would not critique on my "common" English writing). Anyway, the paper scored nice and I finally graduated

Me, my paper and father

• Visit to Japan and New Zealand (easily one of the best moments in my life). To visit Japan was like a dream come true for manga-lover like me. Thanks to Zakaria-sensei and friends from East Asian studies, I could go to Tokyo and stay there for two weeks. It was something like study tour and to collect enough money to fund it we spend almost one year selling nasi lemak and other snacks (plus some fund from sponsor). And we did it. Days in Japan were filled with fun and nice memories (though halal food was scarce and everything was expensive). Visit to New Zealand is for my postgraduate internship and.... traveling (only in weekends and holidays, but that's what always in my mind during weekdays). Those were the days when I mostly traveled alone in a nearly-perfect country with tolerant people and amazing landscapes. I stayed for two months in Christchurch and few days in Queenstown (an amazing resort town) wherein my passport got soaked in rain when I insisted to goes around the town in a very wet day. (still many stories to tell, maybe I'll leave it for another day).

Pardon the narcissistic author

In NZ, around autumn-winter 2013

•  Continuing my studies to postgraduate degree (Master) and land a job (finally) right after my undergraduate program was completed (not yet graduated) I directly continued to postgraduate program still in the same university. The master program was quite short, only lasted one year but God it was so packed, the daily class schedule was full from morning to evening not to mention the tasks and assignments. Alhamdulillah it was offered in full scholarship and provided a chance to go abroad for internship (isn't that sweet?) which sent me to NZ. Later I realized that I have to face another project paper (again for Master program qualification to graduate). After some sleepless nights, episodes of tired eyes, liters of tea and hours of reading, eventually I finished writing the paper and submitted it around September 2013. Right at that moment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Indonesia opened a few vacancies which I immediately applied. Long story short, after four months of following the MFA's series of tests I got accepted (another stories for another post).

Of course, my life was not always rosy back then. I fell sick due to Malaria and Dengue Fever (which happened in the same time, with sore throat in the beginning) right before my master studies program started, the governor who supported my scholarship passed away and me being useless (in M'sia) during my family's difficult moments (in Indonesia). Anyway life's a b****, if you have it easy then you're doing it wrong.