Accommodation

Accommodation is a hard thing to find when the first time you stepped this land. For instance, I had to live in temporary accommodation with my friend for about 2 weeks until I found a permanent one. There are some criteria need to be met when we choose an accommodation to live. Firstly, Of course It should be cheap ! Because It’s ridiculous thing if we spent more than half of our living allowance for housing. Rate of accommodation here ranges from 100 to 300 AUD per week or even more depending on what type of housing we need. Please never once convert the rate into rupiah…! It could make us frustrated . A month fee for renting an accommodation is as the same as one year you rent it in Indonesia. What a life !

Secondly, it had to be nearby campus whilst in general, the nearer you get into the campus, the more expensive you’ll get the one. We should go to campus routinely to get many advantages from it, and It became completely impossible if we stay away from campus, since transportation would be the most important consideration. That’s why looking for an accommodation is hard and easy in between. Sharing apartment , renting a room and home stay are kind of accommodation you can find here. Just try to think about advantages and disadvantages once you decide to choose accommodations. Here, in New South Wales, there’s a department which handle all the things about renting called Department of Commerce, where you gain new insight about your basic rights and responsibilities as a tenant. Check this site :

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/

Have a nice hunting for a convinience accommodation..

Much Loves for my 2 cute suns and My Beloved hubby ever….
Ummi will always miss you..!

My first reflective essay in Usyd

This is the 1st reflective essay I made in Master of Medical Education Program

Hi all..

Probably this is my prominent problem about approach to learning ,since the result of questionnaire indicated that I had surface approach to learning with S (25), D (18), and A (17 ). I just realized that it had been happened for a long time since I was in high school until I got medical doctor behind my name. I tried to remember and analyzed why this thing occurred and what factors influenced the way I learned.

Firstly, I had a lot of subjects to be learned at the same time, for instance I have about 6-7 subjects per semester with wide range of material in every subject, so it made me hard to focus with particular subject because I had to memorise so many things in it with no emphasize to subject which had relation to real world. I was anxious that if I missed something, I wouldn’t get a good result in examination, so every word I kept in my mind for a temporary time because soon I would forget all the things just after the examination finished. This related to assessment which asked questions that only depended on our memory by giving multiple choice questions, even the questions were reproduced from previous exam.

Secondly, teaching and learning activities tended to be one direction, known as teacher-centred, which considered teacher as a source of knowledge, in term that he or she knew anything and this generated depending students with no curiosity to find other sources . Unfortunately, I was included to this group of students who tried to learn from handout or notes of lecturers only. At the other hand, teacher often motivated their students to think systemically and holistically, for example how to connect their present knowledge with prior knowledge in order to make their learning to be more meaningful. And at the other side students lacked of awareness how to build their maturity in learning activities by doing it by theirselves. Sometimes I didn’t know how to relate my previous knowledge even basic medical knowledge with clinical situation when I was in clerkship and that supposed to be hard effort for me dealing with such circumstance.

I hope that what I’m learning now will change approach to learning in my place. There should be improvement from many aspect which involved teachers, students, and learning environment as well.

Anyone has the same experience with me ? :)

University of Sydney

Let me tell you a little about Univeristy of Sydney , a place where I get my academic knowledge from , which was well-known as the oldest university in Australia. Well.. it was represented by the old buildings around the campus ( figure ). The first time I came here, this university was confusing. It’s hard for me to memorise every road and building in it and no wonder if I often got lost heheh…by the way I suggest that you have to be fit every time because you suppose to use your feet walking around the campus. I don’t want to compare this university with other universities in Indonesia. Here, everything is computerised. Probably we have left 1000 steps behind, but no worries.. I’m sure that someday Indonesia is going to chase it ( be optimistic ). I had an experience when facing a machine which could add our credit to student card for using copying machine. I asked a man, an international student too, how to use it because never had in my life time I used machine like that. I told him honestly that in my country there’s no such a machine. Poor yuni , I whispered in my heart.

Now I’d like to tell you about the students profile here. They came from different cultural background, I guess that there must be, at least one student represented countries all over the world. When orientation week was held, I noticed that probably there were only 15 students from Indonesia, not a big number huh. I don’t’t know much about their lifestyles, but perhaps they were free thinkers. I could take such a conclusion from the way how they dress and socialise. Most of the ladies used topless or backless dresses which showed part of their body and they kissed each other in front of public with no shame. Absolutely, it’s not eastern culture and I was shocked for the very first time saw it by myself . I have to clean my eyes everyday with istighfar….Suddenly I miss my previous environment . There is the place where I belong !
A short description about Sydney University.

I miss u so much : my 2 cute suns and beloved hubby : Ummi will come back !

From the heart of Sydney, March 8, 2008

Brotherhood in Islam

Before I left Indonesia, many thoughts played in my mind about being alone to be identified as a muslim here, in Sydney. But it turned into absolutely wrong perception when I arrived here and met others with the same faith as me. Finally, I found my previous community presented here without any doubt. Brothers and sisters from all around the world gathered and brought the same message, peaceful. Here and there I could find Islamic circumstance with halal food and identities which meant that someone was regarded as a Moslem, although I couldn’t deny that many Moslems acted like ordinary people with jahiliyah ( foolishness ) attributes on them.

When the first time I stepped my foot in Lekemba, a suburb in Sydney, I was surprised for the first sight, as if I’m back home or even in the other world of Islam. Islamic cultures were dominant there. Many shops were owned by Moslem, what a wonderful suburb ! Indonesian’s shop were presented too, with Minang Restaurant ( remind me of Pekanbaru ). I kept in my mind that I have to find accommodation there. But unfortunately, time was not by my side coz until this time I haven’t found it yet (I’ll tell you, readers ,where and how I live afterwards). Back to the community , finally I could continue my study about Islam in a small group, where I can share all my ideas even my burden as well. In another chances I attended many Islamic forum which were held by Iqro’ or Pengajian Usyd. what an interesting experience by joining Islamic community here. There’s a simple conclusion I get that I’m not alone !! This wide world is Allah’s world, where ever you go you’ll find people who serve Allah.

Big hugs for my 2 cute suns and beloved hubby : ummi isn’t alone !

From the heart of Sydney, March 8, 2008

Arrange Your Budget Carefully !!

Well..actually it’s an honour for me to be awarded scholarship for continuing my master degree in Medical Education at University of Sydney, from Ministry Communication and Information Technology of Republic Indonesia . But of course there must be unsatisfied part of it dealing with living allowance fee which we accept monthly. To be honest, it comes below of the standard of living here in Sydney which has everything in high cost. For instance, accommodation charge expenses about half of living allowance fee, beside we don’t have a right for concesion in transportation. Mmm.. what a life ! But anyway, we’re still thankful to MCIT which had delivered us here. This is not about how we ask for more funds, but about how we have to arrange our limited budget carefully. It’s not a simply one since not all of us come from wealthy family background.

Personally, for me it’s a kind of challenge how to use it appropriately and it will be better if we can save it for another budget, traveling for an example. I’m sure that traveling is one of the way out of the blue according to my experience. Don’t you ever spend your money for useless thing in term of something that we don’t really need but we are teased to have it. If you live nearby the campus, don’t try to use public transport but enjoy your feet walking through the road. You will get at least two advantages, first you can save your money and the second you will be trained to get exercise and of course the more you get exercise, the healthier you are :) Another way to save our money is by using library. It provides us a lot of benefits, for instance we can borrow books instead of buying them, because we know obviously that books price is not quite cheap here. Also we can use computer lab instead of accessing internet at home. For student like me who has limited internet bandwidth , it’s more convenient to use internet from campus and again we keep our live longer. What about meal ?? mm…it sounds good if u try to cook although you hate to do that unless you want to spend a half of the rest for food. Yeah.. this is Sydney, man..!

Living alone outside home to continue studying is not my first experience, so I get used to live with limited budget. But separated from my real family, husband and children, for a long time is the first one. Sadness, frustration, loneliness are my friends now. Yet I have to be more friendly with them by ignoring such feelings. This is what I call a lesson learned from real survival field. Keep on fighting ! The true battle is inside forever.

Much loves for my 2 cute suns..

From The Heart of Sydney, March 8, 2008

Sydney, End of Week 3

Loneliness is a particular word to be engaged in my life this time. They are, my sweetest things in life, far..far away beyond my sight. Yet their images still alive here, flying in this blue room. I just don’t know how facing days if my eyes blured with tears. Trying to be tough is another word which encourages me passing all silent nights ever. I have decided it with all consequences considered prior to depart, although sometimes I thought it was wrong by leaving them outside. Standing here is as if I’m in the middle of nowhere, lost in the shadow of pain. I need their touches, smiles, and cries. Those make me regarded as a true human being, as a mother of two cute angels . I hope this will be end soon whenever it is.

Allah..cure me !

Sydney, Day 1

Sydney , February 19, 2008

Day 1

I start to count the days here,a place that I never dreamt of before, which will turn my way someday to be a better one, InsyaAllah.

Opss.. finally pesawat Qantas AF 42 mengantarkan diri ini menginjak benua Australia. Penerbangan yang memakan waktu kurang lebih 7 jam adalah perjalanan yang cukup melelahkan, bukan hanya dari segi fisik tapi juga psikis.., barangkali beban no. 2 yang terasa lebih berat saat harus meninggalkan tanah dan orang2 tercinta dengan kerelaan berbalur air mata. Awalnya biasa saja, tapi setelah “tersadar” bahwa diri tengah berada di antahbarantah..ow.. I feel so blue…ohh.. what a feeling..! Menunggu baggage claim dan imigrasi selama 2 ,5 jam dengan antri tak dapat mengalahkan kesedihan hati saat ini. Menelepon orangtua juga nada berat..menahan air mata. Matahari2 ku…ummi rindu kalian. Ummi gak boleh cengeng yaa… Karena semua sudah Allah atur…

Mmm…mungkin besok akan ada cerita lebih indah yang dapat dituangkan di blog ini.


Sydney…let me in to your heart..