living life without regret

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You

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I once posted the quote on this blog and been trying to live the quote ever since. Though I won't be the most positive person you might know but I am trying to live a life without regret, or at least with WAY LESS regret.

One of my biggest regrets in life is letting opportunities pass by, especially when I was in high school. I had always wanted to try this and that but my doubt was controlling me by that time. For instance, I wanted to join Model United Nations but I doubt myself so I did not go or when I wanted to join competitions but I doubt myself that I can do it. The thing is... I don't even know, maybe I will succeed but there was a chance that I won't either. But the new me is willing to go against that chance. Pursuing my curiosity and not letting opportunities pass by is one of my most impactful lesson learnt so far in my life.

 This is my most favorite saying engraved at my campus:

"Supaya kampus ini menjadi tempat bertanya dan harus ada jawabannya."

or can be translated to:  

"So that this campus becomes a place to ask and there must be an answer"

Curiousity killed the cat, they said. I don't agree to the proverb until it has "but satisfaction brought it back" added. 

For now, I like to pursue my curiousity and these are some of my stories on me pursuing it:

Watching The Beach Boys concert ALL ALONE
In summer last year, I had the chance to visit the United Kingdom for the second time. Well, the journey itself was a bit impulsive because my sister and I was planning to go to somewhere else but ended up going to the United Kingdom (again) because apparently our visa was still valid at that time. It was a last minute decision where I thought the ticket would cost extremely high, which (thanks to my hidden talent) I found a round trip ticket from Jakarta to London for around Rp7.000.000. It was unbelievably cheap because it usually cost around 7 millions only for a single trip ticket. Every pros has its cons, I have to transit in Ho Chi Minh for around 7 hours but that was okay for me. Well, I have this thing with my family where I get to pick my own flight whether I choose to fly with Garuda Airlines because all my family except me get a discount or I get to fly with another airlines to get the cheaper price and the price difference between the Garuda Airlines flight ticket and the flight that I choose go straightly into my pocket for me to spend, and of course I always choose the latter option. For me, why bother to spend a lot on 15 hours flight where I can spend those money for the next 2 weeks? More importantly, I have this trick where it usually work on how you get 3 economy seats for yourself so you can make them a “bed” to sleep on it and pay nothing additionally.

So, my trip was supposed to go from London-Bath-Oxford-York-London but apparently there was a slight change of plan and it went by London-Bath-Oxford-York-Scarborough-York-London.

I was in York having my english breakfast which suprisingly I never get tired of when I found out that The Beach Boys was going to perform the day after that in Scarborough, a town next to York where it takes only 50 mins train to go from York to Scarborough. I asked my sister but she was not that interested and she chose to stay in York to explore more of York by herself. So, I went by myself to Scarborough where at that time I still had not bought the ticket because apparently I had to have a permanent residence address in the UK to buy the ticket online. After I arrived at the Scarborough station, I walked to the Scarborough Open Air Theatre. When I was going to buy the ticket at the ticket booth and and old couple in front of me offer two tickets for only £30 because apparently their sons were not able to attend the concert with them. At that time, I had a little of doubt that it would be a scam. Well, I think that is one of the things I acquired by being born and raised in Indonesia. After some consideration, I bought the ticket from them.

After buying the ticket, I went to the B&B I just book on the train. It was only about half a mile from the venue but I have to go through an uphill road to get there. It was decent for the price paid, nothing fancy it was just like a home but turned into B&B with Mr. Bean’s room-ish kind of interior design. I took a nap for about an hour before looking for something to eat and headed straight to the venue.

At the venue, the security screening was the tightest of any concert I have attended. Perhaps it was because of the Ariana Grande concert bombing incident happened less than a week before. Well, I was seated next to the couple and turned out we had these chit-chats for around an hour before the concert began. They both were retired and now they are enjoying their lives going from concert to another concert, from country to country. They said that they have visited almost all of the countries in Europe and interested in exploring Asia. They went to Japan before, and planning to go South East which unfortunately they were interested in Thailand and Singapore and not so much in Indonesia. They were fun to talk to, they know a lot going on in the world. They also offered to buy me a pint of coke because they thought Indonesia was a moslem country and people here do not really drink at all, it turned out that they brought me a pint of cider though after I kind of told them the truth going on in Indonesia (or at least, what I know was going on).

When the concert began, I did not see a lot of phone recording videos or taking photos. What I saw on the other hand was a group of middle aged women dancing near the stage, and also it started all of the craziness during the show. After that, a lot of people got up from their seats and also dancing a bit because most of them are middle aged. Oh, I also saw a security guard also dancing to Kokomo. Anyway, John Stamos was there and performed too!

I had a lot of fun. Turned out watching a concert by yourself was not that bad. Screw you watching-movie-alone shamers, I watched a concert alone and it was fun.

 

First working experience at United Overseas Bank

I always thought that working at bank would be boring because the work is too rigid but that was my prejudice. Last summer, I thought it was a good opportunity to gain hands-on professional working experience through internship. At first I was clueless since I don't know where to go and what to do first, but thanks to the internet and also online talent recruitment and career discovery platform such as Glints to help me get through the obstacles. From there, I tried to look for internship vacancies and it has clear instructions about what to do. After applying, I wait for several days for the company to contact me and fortunately UOB responded to my application through e-mail to continue with the application process. I had to take the online test and online interview. After about a week, I got an e-mail saying that I am accepted as an intern, YAY!

From around a month and a half experience as an intern, I changed my prejudice I stated earlier. There is no such thing as boring like I thought before, working in a bank could be dynamic and also fun just like start-ups work life. I also met a lot of new COOL friends and also I get to work with amazing staffs and superiors. I am grateful that I pursued my curiosity and took the chance. All thanks to United Overseas Bank and Glints!

le petit prince x la rose

precaution: it's just some randomness ive been thinking of when i should've been doing my tekpres presentation but yeah you know
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i want to love
and be loved
as the little prince loves his rose
and vice versa

he first met her
unexpectedly
amidst the senselessness
just at the time
he needed her the most
without him knowing

they loved each other
like crazy

"they were too young to love",
people said

until the time that he left her
for some self discovery

yet she didnt blame him
not at all

because she knew
it would be his journey
back to her
and love her even more

that is his journey
to find that
there are million other roses
she's not the only one
or what he thought she was
but then he realised
the rose was HIS rose

london//edinburgh in 86 seconds

Spontaneous Trip to Semarang

My IELTS Experience

Ya, jadi 31 Oktober lalu gue baru aja ambil tes Academic IELTS di IALF, salah satu institusi di Jakarta yang menyediakan IELTS. Selain di IALF, ada beberapa lembaga lain juga kayak British Council atau IDP yang nyediain IELTS. Untuk biaya IELTS sendiri itu $195, jadi harga tergantung kurs dollar pada saat registrasi. Saat itu gue registrasi online di http://ieltsonline.ialf.edu.

Preparation
Untuk preparationnya sendiri gue bilang masih kurang banget apalagi buat writing dan speaking yang gue kebanyakan belajar lewat internet karena gue gak ambil IELTS preparation course atau apalah. Untuk buku yang gue beli buat persiapan IELTS ini cuma Barron's IELTS Practice Exam, harganya 200rb-an kalau nggak salah ya.

Buat waktu persiapannya gue rasa agak kurang sih soalnya gue semangat-semangatnya belajar itu pas lagi libur akhir semester, pas masuk gue gak belajar buat IELTS soalnya udah sibuk sama tugas-tugas dan ulangan di sekolah. Gue baru belajar buat IELTS lagi sekitar 2 minggu kurang sebelum tes (nekat sih HEHE) gara-gara awal Oktober di sekolah gue ada UTS jadi ya fokus UTS dulu, padahal niatan awalnya gue selama Oktober bakal intensif persiapan buat IELTS, tapi apa daya...

H-2 mingguan itu gue fokus di writing sih soalnya menurut gue paling susah adalah di writing, gue cukup pede di reading soalnya selama gue ngerjain soal-soal di Barron's dengan waktu yang gue tetapkan 1 jam kayak IELTS yang asli juga nilai gue hamdalah belum pernah di bawah 7.5. Untuk listening, agak di bawah reading sih soalnya gue orangnya suka gampang terdistract sama sesuatu dan kalau udah ada yang kelewatan gue akan kurang fokus, tapi selama gue ngerjain soal di Barron's score gue juga belum ada yang di bawah 7.0. Buat speaking, gue agak pede soalnya selama di Wallstreet gue lancar-lancar aja ngomong sama guru-guru gue yang full native. Sementara buat writing, gue sangat amat tidak pede soalnya writing di IELTS itu academic banget apalagi gue emang ambil yang Academic IELTS dan gue sangat tidak terbiasa he he he.

Gue belajar darimana aja? Mostly dari internet. Nih recommendation situs-situs yang sangat amat membantu gue mempersiapkan IELTS:
http://ielts-simon.com
http://www.ieltsbuddy.com
http://ieltsliz.com

Oh iya, selain itu gue sempet ikut IELTS Try Out yang diadain Sun Education x IALF di Mandarin Oriental Hotel pas bulan September. Try Outnya gak full test jadi cuma reading dan listening, itupun soalnya gak bener-bener sejumlah soal pas IELTS aslinya. Ini hasil IELTS Try Out gue.

Dengan hasil segitu, score reading dan listening gue sekitar band 7.

TARGET
Target score gue buat IELTS minimal 7.5 deh dengan gak ada score yang di bawah 6.5 soalnya untuk di NUS sendiri IELTS gue applicable kalau writing dan readingnya di atas 6.5 dengan overall minimal 6.5.

Gue sampe bikin komitmen sama diri sendiri kalau IELTS gue naudzubillahmindzalik di bawah target, gue gak boleh lanjutin nonton Game of Thrones HAHAHA.

D-DAY!
Untuk hari H pelaksanaan IELTSnya gue bakal jelasin satu-satu ya dari Reading sampai Speaking.
Gue dateng jam 7 kurang dan sebenernya masih ngantuk banget, maklum itu hari Sabtu pagi yang biasanya jam segitu gue masih molor, jadi lah gue nyari Starbucks atau apapun yang jual kopi disitu akhirnya cuma nemu 7Eleven yang gak jauh dari Plaza Kuningan. Pokoknya setelah ngopi itu gue langsung cus ke gedungnya IALF di lantai 3 sekitar jam 7.15an, pas gue keluar lift itu orang-orang udah pada duduk ngeleseh di lantai nunggu registrasi ulangnya dibuka. Proses registrasi buka pokoknya jam 7.30an dan semua orang disuruh ngantri bikin dua line yang dimana lo bakal dikasih tempat pensil transparan (IYA SEGITUNYA) buat naroh alat tulis lo, alat tulis yang boleh dibawa cuma pensil, pulpen dan penghapus. Setelah itu lo bakal dicek satu-satu, yang dicek adalah HP lo yang harus udah dimatiin dan identitas (either passport atau KTP).

Setelah registrasi ulang, lo bakal dikasih nomer peserta dan disuruh nitipin semua barang bawaan lo. Jadi yang boleh dibawa cuma tempat pensil transparan yang tadi dikasih, air minum (harus transparan, kalau lo bawa air mineral macem Aqua itu labelnya harus dicopot), dan identitas lo.
Abis itu kita digiring ke satu ruangan buat foto dan sidik jari. Setelah itu, nunggu deh... lama nunggunya di koridor sebelum masuk ke auditorium dimana kita bakal ngerjain soal listening, reading, dan writing tanpa jeda. :)

LISTENING
Tes pertama itu listening, seperti yang sudah gue bilang tadi... gue orangnya gampang ilang fokus kalau udah kelewat dikit. Awalnya agak takut sih tapi ya udahlah ya. Auditoriumnya dingin banget pokoknya lo harus pakai sweater atau jaket atau apalah, di ruangan gue ada yang sampe pake syal sih tapi ada juga yang malah pake sleeveless gitu. Soal listening IELTS menurut gue sebenernya intinya adalah lo harus mengerti konteks gak hanya sekedar dengerin sih, tapi fun. Pertama-tama masih gampang sih biasanya tentang telephone call gitu jadi kalau gue kemarin ngisi form dari percakapan orang di telepon, setelah itu yang agak susah sih biasanya yang lecture agak panjang soalnya audionya agak panjang.

Gue sangat menghindari banget soal tentang maps atau lokasi gitu-gitu soalnya gue buta arah he he, dan untungnya gak keluar saat gue IELTS kemarin.

READING
Untuk reading, ya biasalah ngerjain 40 soal selama sejam. Yang jelas lo harus sarapan sih biar gak kelaperan kayak gue kemarin, dan kalau bisa lo pakai jam deh biar enak liat berapa waktu yang tersisa saat lo ngerjain soal-soal reading. Soalnya kalau reading gak bakal dikasih waktu buat mindahin jawaban ke answer sheet.

WRITING
Soal writing gue kemarin untungnya gak ada yang berhubungan sama process diagram sama maps. SENENG BANGET soalnya emang gue takut banget sama dua materi itu, gue gak ngerti HE HE HE. Untuk task 1 kemarin soal gue adalah disuruh menjelaskan bar graph tentang employment di berbagai bidang selama periode waktu tertentu.
Untuk task 2 kemarin disuruh bikin essay yang discuss both side tentang anggapan kalau museum itu udah gak penting lagi karena segala informasi bisa kita dapetin di internet.
Di writing ini menurut gue lo harus pinter-pinter time management soalnya emang 1 jam buat nulis 400 kata dengan struktur, kaidah bahasa, dan vocabulary yang baik itu kurang banget menurut gue. Gue gak sempet ngitung berapa kata yang ada di essay-essay gue itu, takut juga sih scorenya dikurangin gara-gara kekurangan kata. :-(

SPEAKING
Buat speaking ini gue dapet jadwal agak sore yaitu jam 2.45, jadi gue emang pergi dulu nyari makan setelah kelaperan 3 jam lebih HAHAHA. Gue agak pede di speaking jadi emang kurang belajar (serius jangan ditiru). Walau gue dapet jam 2.45, gue udah disuruh stand by jam 2 dan bener aja tes gue dimajuin jam 2.25. Agak grogi pas masuk ruangan soalnya emang bener-bener cuma berdua sama si examiner tapi gue tetep pede sampai part 3 dimulai dimana topik yang keluar pas gue tes adalah tentang jobs & profession. Ada bagian dimana gue diem sekitar 5 detik karena gue emang bingung apa yang harus gue bilang, gue sangat gak familiar dengan topiknya. Plus, itu ruangan dingin banget bikin gue pengen ke toilet.

Pas gue keluar, gue sok-sok ramah dengan bilang "Have a great weekend!" dan senyum selebar-lebarnya buat nutupin salting gue gara-gara kebodohan gue di part 3 itu. Setelah menahan rasa pengen ke toilet selama gue di ruangan, akhirnya pas gue kelar speaking test gue bener-bener ngibrit ke toiletnya. Pas balik dari toilet dan lewat ruangan test gue tadi, BEGONYA GUE LUPA NUTUP PINTU. Kebaperan gue mulai disitu, gue mikir "waduh examinernya bakalan sebel gak ya sama gue gara-gara gak gue tutup pintunya? bakal ngasih nilai jelek gak ya dia?" soalnya emang gue pribadi suka sebel kalau ada yang masuk ruangan terus pas keluar gak nutup pintu. Bodoh ya emang gue sebaper itu padahal si examiner kan udah trained buat obyektif sama hasil tes kita. :")

RESULT
YAAAK! hasilnya keluar setelah 13 hari yang membuat jantung cukup mendebar-debar. Sebenernya bisa sih kita liat secara online tapi gue ngerasa gak plong kalau belum ambil hasilnya langsung. Jadi hari Jum'at lalu pulang sekolah gue langsung cus ngambil hasil, masih pake baju sekolah dan pas masuk emang agak ditanya2in gue mau ngapain, soalnya emang itu IALF kan letaknya di gedung perkantoran gitu dan pas tes IELTS pun gue termasuk yang paling muda soalnya yang lain rata-rata udah kuliah S1 atau bahkan udah kerja.

Setelah gue ambil hasil, gue bener-bener gak berani buka sampe ada temen. Gue takut banget nilai jelek dan gak ada temen yang bisa dengerin ocehan gue he he. Pas dibuka... hamdalah, lulus target. Gue sangat gak nyangka bakal dapet skor segini dengan tes gue yang kemarin apalagi pas speaking itu. Seriusan gak nyangka.


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Sekian dulu ya share pengalaman gue buat IELTS pertama gue ini.

Kalau ada yang mau ditanya-tanya seputar IELTS boleh comment di comment section di bawah ini atau gak bisa e-mail di nadiarizka@yahoo.co.id :-)

Things I Randomly Hate

NOISY EATERS

Okay okay, I get it... your food is heavenly delicious but STOP!

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SOMEONE USING CERTAIN WORDS WITHOUT KNOWING THE PROPER USAGE AND WHAT IT REALLY MEAN

e.g. "OMG, I haven't been out of my house for 3 days, I am so introvert lately." *facepalm*

"I want to be LGBT" *sigh*

"The pen is dancing on the paper. Yes, I enjoy using hyperbole." WTF?! That's not a hyperbole, that's personification. 

To prevent this mistake, you better use some words you're familiar with or at least know the meaning of it. Or you could google it before. In this modern age, you should work smarter than harder.

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RACIST

/ˈrāsəst/

(noun) a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

Even if you're not insulting any race, I consider it as racist if you say something like...

"Turkish women are beautiful."

"Japanese girls are cute."

"Arabians are good looking" 

"Indonesians are so pretty"

et cetera.

Please, you could just say "You look beautiful!" instead. 

STOP MAKING SOME STUPID STEREOTYPES!

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PEOPLE WHO ARE ALWAYS LATE

(especially on purpose)

If you have any appointment at 9 o'clock then 9 o'clock it is. It's not 9.30 or even 10 o'clock. 

Haven't your primary school teacher taught you how to read the time on a clock?

How could people invited for something at 7 pm think it's cool to arrive at 8.30? It's rude, and most of my friends do that. 

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"FOREVER"

The word itself is just way too overrated. There's no such thing as forever unless you're a character in a romantic chick flicks.

"I love you forever" UGH

I am officially allergic to "forever".

Senior Year in 3... 2...

My report card turned well, except for the f-in sociology. I think that woman hate me and my sociology classmates so much that she gave us a really bad score. Yeah, I hate her even more now. Even a few days ago I thought why did my favorite fictional characters die when she's still around, OMG, I hate her as much as I would trade her life with Catelyn Stark.

Well, hello senior year!
I hope everything's going according to my plan. Which, I've kinda "rombak abis" my previous plan. We'll see about that, about that we will see.

By the way, sudahlah jangan ngomongin sekolah dulu. :)
Gue lagi libur yang super lama, kurang lebih sebulan. Bingung sih awalnya mau ngapain aja sebulan itu, tapi makin kesini makin berasa cepet aja sih waktu jalannya. Sebelumnya gue ada semacam obsession sama QuizUp gara-gara Audira nyuruh gue main QuizUp yang baru karena katanya seru terus ada kategori Game of Thrones dan lainnya juga. OK, gue main dan ketagihan. Achievement gue sampai sekarang adalah Best di kategori Gossip Girl di Indonesia, terus Top 10 di kategori Game of Thrones dan Name The Movie di Indonesia.

Awalnya selama liburan gue pengen nyelesein A Song of Ice and Fire gue tapi... kok kayaknya almost impossible ya ini gue baca A Game of Thrones lama banget hiks. Mungkin memang bukan tipe-tipe buku fast-paced macem Divergent Series yang gue selesein semaleman doang kali ya...

Untuk tontonan, gue lagi asik nonton Downton Abbey dan terima kasih berkat nonton itu gue berasa jadi hopeless romantic HA HA HA. Gak deng. Tapi, drastis sih perubahan tontonan gue dari Game of Thrones yang bunuh-bunuhan mulu terus blood bath gitu eeeh sekarang nonton semacam drama yang like almost 70%-nya cinta-cintaan. Walau begitu juga tapi percintaan di Downton Abbey lebih ke yang mature gitu sih, gak masalah ngambek-ngambekan berebutan pacar atau yang bisa lo temukan di typical teen tv shows gitu sih.

Karena Downton Abbey gue makin cinta sama 30-ish british guys HWAAA. Gue juga sedih ngeliat servants disini tjakep-tjakep pisan, da aku mah apa atuh. Saya merasa gagal.