Nocturnal

Literally, after I checked in the dictionary, nocturnal means “in the night”. This term is also used to describe creatures (animals) which do activities at night, such as bat or owl… Well, enough scientific explanation. Because I’m not gonna do more research to write more about the real definition about nocturnal. The reason why it becomes my title of post today is because I had sleepless nights these past 3 days. I was still awake when it’s dawn and saw how the sky became brighter from my window. Since I live in level 6, I pretty much can see the clear sky without building to cover my view. But, wait… Why am I nocturnal?

It’s not that I like to do that. But it’s more because I HAVE TO. I have two essays due this week. At first, I thought one of the essay is due on Tuesday, and the other will be due on Thursday. But I was being stupid by not double checking the date of the essay deadline, so it turned out that the essay (the one that I thought was due on Thursday) was due earlier than I thought, which is on MONDAY. It’s even worse because I just found out about it at 3 PM on Monday, while the deadline is on 5 PM, and I haven’t done anything about the essay. NOT A SINGLE WORD. Since I thought I still have plenty of time to do that, so I was concentrating on the other essay instead.

So, yeah, I went crazy. Because the two of them hadn’t finished. I already stayed up until 6 AM to finish my Tuesday’s essay on Sunday night. Then I also stayed up on Monday night to finish both of the essays. I went to sleep the next day (which was Tuesday) at 10 AM in the morning, after I handed in my essays. I woke up at 7 PM in the evening, and missed 25 calls from Sita, Josef, Alvin and Yushi who were trying to wake me up, because we planned to go to Singapore Flyer that afternoon. I managed to catch them up though after their dinner and we had some photos in the merlion. At that time, I felt relieved because I had done all my essays.

After our night walk, we went back to PGP and I had my dinner. But I didn’t sleepy at all. It’s because I just had a nine-hour sleeping from 10 AM to 7 PM. So I didn’t do anything on Tuesday night but I still couldn’t sleep. I turned off my laptop and all my lights. I closed my curtain so I couldn’t see if it’s sunrise already. But it’s still didn’t work. I feel asleep at around 6 AM but then I woke up again at 6.30 AM to had my morning prayer, and I couldn’t sleep until now. Yeah. I’ve been awake for almost 30 hours (with 30 minutes sleep in between) and it’s because I stayed up too long to get my essay done. But I was still awake all night although all my essays are done. And I even also woke up in the daylight. So I’m not even nocturnal! Maybe I’m a non-sleeping creature? Haha. They said ants never sleep. Oh well…

I know it’s so not healthy to keep staying up late every night. Because even before Sunday I stayed up late already to play pingpong, cards, and chatting in the weekend. So I should go sleep early now. Roy said people who don’t get sleep in a week will get a sleeping coma. And I have not been sleeping for…… Wait, let me count.

Friday : played pingpong, patin tero, and cards —-> slept at 6 AM in the next day (Saturday)
Saturday : played pingpong again —-> slept at 3.30 AM in the next day (Sunday)
Sunday : wrote my essay (the one that was due on Tuesday) —> slept at 6 AM in the next day (Monday)
Monday : finished all essays (I handed in late for the Monday’s essay) —> slept at 10 AM in the next day (Tuesday)
Tuesday : tried to sleep, but couldn’t make it. Fell asleep for 30 mins at 6 AM in Wednesday —-> haven’t slept until now

Whoa, it’s already 5 days! I only have 2 days left and if I still stay up all night I’ll get a coma!! I don’t wanna get a coma!

I guess I’d better go to sleep right now. I wasn’t born as a nocturnal, so I shouldn’t be one. Morten said I should get my beauty sleep anyway. Haha.

So, goodnight!

it’s nearly over

Miss Mandy said I have to write more English in my blog. Oh, btw, she is one of officer in International Relations Office in NUS and she’s taking care of the TF-NUS scholars. I guess I wrote in English a lot. But sometimes I just want to write in Bahasa Indonesia since it’s easier for me and makes me write faster. But this is good for me — writing in English — because I still have trouble on writing in English. That’s why I also have trouble with my essay here. *sigh*

Anyway, this past 3 weeks was crazy. I went to Bintan on 21-22 March with 15 people. All are exchange students. We were having fun, though all of us have so many assignment to do. And we ended up not doing the assignment well because we were so tired. The next weekend after Bintan (28 March) I went to Pulau Ubin also with some exchange students. We went for cycling and it was really fun. But it was also exhausting. Just like Bintan trip. The next weekend after Pulau Ubin trip — which is yesterday — also a busy weekend for almost all exchange students. The International Relations Office of NUS held a farewell tea for exchange students who went to NUS this semester on Friday. Ironically, I haven’t seen some of them. Since I didn’t come for the welcoming tea — because I was still in Indonesia at that time — and I also didn’t come for the orientation.

Just yesterday, a BBQ party held for TF-NUS students. Too bad not all of them were coming. Some of them are still doing their voluntary work. Well, good thing I have done my 10 hours community service, so I could make it to the BBQ. Before that, I went to Asian Civilization Museum with Josef, Morten, and Jess. That’s how I managed to get Josef walked me to the BBQ place. Because the place is so far and I have never been there before. The BBQ itself was so fun. Though deep down I’m still worrying about my essay (aaarrghh). But I’m really glad that I had a chance to get together with all fellow exchange students, at least once before we all go back to our countries.

Yeah, my journey in Singapore is nearly over. Just one month and then I have to go back and continue my real school (hehe) in UGM. I kinda feel sad about it, since it took a while for me to finally get settled and get used to everything here in Singapore. With all nice people I’ve met, and all the activities I’ve done. Though I miss all people back home, but I don’t feel like leaving so soon. I guess that’s why lately some people held so many events. And all of them involve “farewell” in it. I even stayed up so late these past 3 days just to play ping pong and fool around with some friends. It is exhausting, but maybe because we don’t have much time left, we want to use these remaining days to be together.

It feels like just yesterday when I first arrived in PGP steps and confused with all the new atmosphere that I have to live with for this semester. But now, I have to leave all these familiar steps, residence, rooms, food stalls, faces, and everything… I hope I don’t get too sad when it comes to the day for me to go home.

I can’t believe all of these are nearly over…

study vs. have fun

After two months struggling with all the lecture materials, assignments, and readings, I managed to enjoy all my classes here at NUS. Finally the excitement came and now I always walked out the class with smile. I still found some difficulties though, on understanding the lecturer’s explanation. Especially when it comes to “big” words that I never heard before, or when the lecturer starts speaking soooo fast. But anyway, the assignments are driving me crazy now. There are so many readings that I can’t catch up with. So I only read what I can read (a.k.a the not-so-long and not-boring readings).

Last Monday I had a presentation in one of my tutorials. It was “Politic and Visual Culture” class. It’s only 2 minutes presentation though, but I was so nervous since it’s a really small class (less than 20 people I guess) and everyone seemed very critical to each other’s presentation. I presented a picture from Vietnam War. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I thought before. Still, people delivered their opinion, but none of them said negative things toward my presentation.

Last Wednesday, in another class, we had screening of Blood Diamonds. The class is “International Security”, and we were talking about civil war. Too bad, we didn’t watch the movie till the end. But the discussion were running really well. But, since it was a make up class, so not all students were there, some of them were having clashes with the timetable. Still, the class was really interesting.

Oh well, I still have to struggle with my essays. One of my essay proposal for class “Cities and Urban Life in South East Asia” was rejected previously. But then I found another topic and I managed to send the proposal to the tutor, who said that my proposal is good! Yey! But then I still need to start writing the essay itself. I haven’t even really thought about them. Lots of distractions!!!

Last whole week, instead of starting my essay (or at least, think about it), I did things and spent my time for other things. I went to Orchard Road and Chinatown on Sunday with Morten, accompanied him buying presents for his brother and I also got my watched fixed. On Wednesday, after class, instead of doing my readings, I went to Potluck held by some local students who are affiliated into some group that facilitate international students. We were having fun, chatting, and even singing our national anthems! In the weekend, I played ping pong with Jess, Josef, Roy, and Jesse. Saturday night, I went to UCC, watching orchestra because Jess was playing violin in it. It was a really long weekend but I ended up doing nothing (except having fun).

This week I tried to do better. I finished some readings already, and I feel relieved. Because I will not do much in this weekend since I’m going to Bintan with some friends. Haha, I know, I’m going back home. But, hey, I think I have a logical explanation toward this. If I go to Bintan from Jogja or Bengkulu, it will cost me more. Bintan is so close to Singapore, so I think, why not go there now? Since I might not find friends in Indonesia who are excited enough to spend money to Bintan. So yeah, before wasting more time in the weekend, I better start doing all the readings now. I know I can do it. Yeah, I CAN DO IT!!!

Finally…

This week is exhausting. It started with a good thing because I went to Kuala Lumpur with some friends and enjoyed the weekend there. We left last last Friday, had fun, and got back to Singapore on Monday, to start the routine all over again. Still with some euphoria of having fun in KL, and also the tired feeling, I just repeated my weekdays activities, aallll ooover again. Except, this week it was doubled. I haven’t had any assignment before. Unlike some people who started studying like, three days when the semester began, I was pretty relaxing and had not much to do. But this week? I had to do more readings, printed some materials and did the tutorial assignments, and of course, attended the lectures. That wasn’t it. I had some friend came along from Indonesia to do some conference, and I really wanted to see him because it’s been a while since the last time I saw him. So I did it in my lecture day, I went to see him straight away after the lecture. Plus, I’ve been distracted with so many things, so I can’t really concentrate to my priorities. I stayed up late and ended up doing nothing. Well, I did read something, but just not all the readings. And I woke up late, too. And I had this emotional thing that kept distracting me. So , yeah, I was exhausted, physically and psychologically.

Good thing, I finally started my voluntary sessions. I’ve been worried about it for weeks, because the project director hasn’t contacted me and confirmed that I would be able to join his project and fulfill my 10 hours community work. While some fellow TF-NUS LEaRN students already fulfilled their 10 hours! So no wonder I was worried, right? Today, I was doing a workshop in campus about leadership and volunteering, when I got this text message from Samuel, the project director for MINDS, said that we (Sita and I) have to meet him to start the voluntary sessions. So we went to meet Samuel, without any clue what we’re going to do. I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but once we started, I enjoyed it very much. Oh I have to tell about MINDS. I forget what it stands for (whoops), but it’s working with different ability people. People with down syndrome, autism, aged around 10-20ish. So they have routine sessions, every week. It started with songs and dances (it’s been ages since the last time i sang “twinkle twinkle little stars”), and then some games (ladder-snakes, colors, writings, drawings, etc), and continue with making some flower from paper after a short tea break, and then exercise (BASKETBALL!! yeaah!) as the end of the session. At first, Samuel told us that it would not be easy to engage with them in first day. We need to be patient, talk to them, and be friendly. But I found out it’s not that hard. I’m volunteering for a girl named Jia Yen. I can’t guess exactly how old she is, but I’m pretty sure she’s teenager. She likes to sing, and remember all the moves of the dances. She likes to play the game with colors (I forgot what it’s called. I’ll check out next week). She ate all the cookies, and she’s good in basketball. And, the best thing I like about her is, she smiles A LOT! Though, it was a bit difficult for her to make the paper flower. I helped her out on it. Then she wrote on the card and planned to give the flower with the card to his brother. She wrote “happy valentine’s day” on it. She’s such a nice girl. But she’s not the only nice person there. Everybody was so nice. Particularly, the kids. They kept on smiling, and excited toward everything. Sometimes, yeah, might be over excited. Some would scream and yell so loud. But it doesn’t matter. I still enjoyed it. And I definitely will be back next week (Insya Allah).

So… yeah, finally…. Finally I started my voluntary work. Finally…

I was so sad the night before, but seeing that kids cheer me up again. Why was I sad? Because I finally said something and then made me quit wondering about it. Finally, I got what I was looking for. Haha… Confusing? Yeah it has nothing to do with MINDS. Oh yeah, and I realized this week was really tough, especially the weekdays, but I began this week with happy feelings and I finally ended it with smile. I don’t know why, I like counting the weeks.

Anyway, though I’m not celebrating it, Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone.