After almost a year.....

After almost a year, I can enjoy my time of being a student!
Gee! what took me so long?

At first, I was graduated from Gadjah Mada University in 1999 and I have worked for 8 years. For sure, it is not easy to change your mind set from being an employee to be a student again. While more than a half of my friends are freshmen....it is not comparable though....

Second, I came to the U.S. with my husband and son, and here, we should do anything by ourselves. Means, doing all of the house working like cooking, cloth-washing, dish-washing, cleaning, etc, something that I had never done before...(In Indonesia, it is common to have a maid(s) to help us doing house working since the wage is affordable).
Therefore, I should be able to use my time wisely; like studying, doing house working and taking care of my husband and son at the same time. Yup, it's like multitasking but not in the office :)

Third, I should be able to deal with the culture shock. Ow...it was a disaster..
Talking with other students (we are all international students) with the same weakness in speaking English was really a disaster....hahaha.....
It is like you don't understand them and they can't understand you! LOL
We came from a different background, language, country and behavior. Sometimes, we tend to explain something with our own way which is different with other country's way.....so it was totally confusing, especially when I wanted to discuss a homework or a lecture with friends.
The more I asked them, the more I got confused!

Misunderstanding was not only between international students. Sometimes when I talked with an American in a public area and he spoke very fast, I was confused and couldn't get his point...and it made me nervous...I really wanted to run away far from him! hahahaha....

Fourth, following all the lectures in English was much much challenging...yeah, you should be able to listen to the professor, write your own note (sometimes I just wrote my notes in Bahasa, not in English, which is faster to me), understand the professor's handwriting (the worse thing is you even couldn't read yours as well), read the thick text books, do a ton of home works that makes you can't sleep well every night....yes, it's true! I was sleepless and if I couldn't keep my eyes open in the class, I just laid my head on my arms while the professor was teaching....and I was not alone...some students did it.
What surprising me is the professor is never angry when he sees his student(s) sleeping in the class, and I ever found that one of them was even snoring...hahaha...

I spent my whole life in the library, studying and studying and couldn't do anything but studying. Again, it was challenging because I had to leave my son and my husband at home....It was really bad and unfair....but what else can I do? I didn't have many choices....
(Thank you so very much, my love...I will never never ever forget all of your sacrifices!)

Sometimes a friend invited me to a potluck (either dinner or lunch) or a kind of party, while the home works buried me deeply...oh my....it drove me crazy...how can I deal with all of these things??? Even 24 hours were never enough for me!
Refusing an invitation is rude, but who will do the home works???
It was really really tough, and sometimes I just skipped the invitation since the main goal of being here is study....sorry guys....

Now, after almost a year, here I am...enjoying all of the things that I get here...
I like the school, the libraries, the materials, the home works, the environment...
I adore all of my friends and the professors (I like making friends!), the foods (well, sometimes it sucks), the spring-summer-fall except the killing winter...
I love my apartment, the playgrounds, the laundry room, the bus stop, the MTD, the street, the trees, the flowers, the squirrels, the grass and so on and so forth...
Although it is flat, means no mountain no beach, but I love it!

Suddenly I realized I only have 6 more months here...well, for sure I'm gonna miss them all someday....
The main library, the Engineering Library, the Undergraduate Library, the Union, the apartment, the playground, the class rooms, the very fast internet connection, the Orchard Down, the stone creek church, the pastors, the coffee shop, the groceries (Wal-Mart, Meijer, Green Onion, Far East, Am-Ko, County Market)...
I'm gonna miss all of the tears and sorrows, the days I spent in the library (sometimes
until 5 am!), the lectures, the people, the friendship with all the Indonesian friends who stay here....
(oh...I can't stop my tears from falling now)....

I should go back to Indonesia, but a big part of my heart is left here, in Urbana-Champaign, forever.....


Time really flies so fast.....



Urbana-Champaign
July 6th, 2009