A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

I recently listen to some old Disney songs and I was captivated by "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella. The song is beautiful and it makes me emotional. I even cried a little bit when I listened to it. I don't know why, I guess it hit the right spot in my brain and I just cried.

There are 3 different versions that I listen to. I first listened to the original version then I found out that Carrie Hope Fletcher did a cover for the song. After that, I listened to Lily James' version. Which version do you like? I like all of them.

What's more interesting is, I find that some people admire how Cinderella could still be happy despite the fact that her stepmother and stepsisters treated her badly. Instead of being depressed, she sang and had faith in her dream. I know many people think that Cinderella is silly because she did nothing to get out of her condition. However let's just face that she was helpless. At that period of time you couldn't go to police and report child abuse. Well, I don't know much about European society back then. If you know anything about it, please write a comment.

The song she sang, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" carries some messages. Let's take a look at the lyrics first.

A dream is a wish your heart makes

when you're fast asleep

In dream you will lose your heartaches

whatever you wish for you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday 

your rainbow will come smiling thru

No matter how your heart is grieving,

if you keep on believing the dream that you wish will come true

The first message that I got is everyone needs good sleep. Sleep helps your body maintain its function and clear your mind. That's why treatment for depression often involves keeping good quality of sleep. 

Secondly, the song is about optimism. You wish something and you believe you can get it.

The third message is this song, sung by Cinderella, can be an example of coping mechanism. Coping mechanism or defense mechanism or coping strategy is how people respond to stress. There are many examples of it. The one that Cinderella used is called sublimation. It means channeling stress or uncomfortable feeling into something useful or creative. You can read more about coping strategy here and here.

I think those are nice messages. I know that we don't live in fairy tale and we don't know how our tale will end. It doesn't matter. A little fantasy is always fine and the messages are still good.

Some Lessons from Megara

Megara

I like some Disney stories and recently I'm a little bit obsessed with Megara. Do you know Megara? She's Hercules's love interest. In Greek mythology, Megara was the oldest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. However in Disney version, her family background is unknown. 

Megara is different from other Disney girls because she's not even a girl. She's a woman. If you look for role model for girl in Disney, you can look at Belle because she likes to read, or Tiana because she believes in working hard to reach her dream.  When a girl grows up into a woman, she still have to read and work hard to reach her dream. Beside that, she will find difficulty, make mistakes, and have to deal with the consequences. She need more role models and Megara can be one. 

According to Disney Wikia, Meg is the first Disney female heroine who had an ex boyfriend. She had saved him but he left her. Then she fell into Hades' trap. Her past made Megara skeptical about love. She's not like other Disney girls who seem to be "innocent" and "inexperienced" in love.

I don't mean that girl should have boyfriend to learn. Even so, let's face it, many of us have made that mistake. You know, falling in love to the wrong person. Falling in love is actually a natural thing because love at the first sight does exist and you can blame dopamine and oxytocin for any irrational thing that happens when you fall in love. Just because it's natural, it doesn't mean that you can marry or have a relationship with anyone you're falling in love with. When Meg was in love with Hercules, she didn't admit it at first. She took time to think it over because she didn't want to make the same mistake. 

Another thing to note from Meg is her sassiness or, my friend call it her "like a boss" attitude. Watch this video and you will know what I mean. I like when she introduced herself by saying, "Megara. My friends call me Meg. At least they would if I had any friends." She also taught us thing about men. "Well, you know how men are. They think 'No' means 'Yes' and 'Get lost!' means 'Take me, I'm yours,' " said Meg.

My obsession with Meg came to the point when few days ago, Lady Slytherin and I browse through pictures to print as stickers. After we finished, I asked, "One more picture please. May I add Megara?" She said, "You like Megara? Oh well, but why?"

Anyway, I found two interesting articles about Disney's Megara and Hercules:

Meg from Disney's 'Hercules' Is One of the Best Role Models for Women

Proof That “Hercules” Is One Of The Most Underrated Disney Movies Ever

A Strange Guilt

When I had KKN, I met a lot of people. Usually, my group leader talked and introduce us to the people we met. He introduced not only our names but also our majors. He even called me "future doctor" or "doctor". 

To be honest, I felt guilty when someone introduce me as future doctor. Yes, it's true that I'm a medical student and I want to be a doctor. However, I feel that, I haven't tried my best in medical school. I waste a lot of my time  browsing random stuff or doing useless thing instead of studying. Many times I don't make good amount of preparation for tests or exams. The mistakes I make in OSCE are often caused by my lack of practice. Beside that, there are a lot of basic medical concept that I still don't understand. Being that kind of student, when my group leader introduced my as medical student, I sometimes wanted to scream, "Don't mention my major, please!"

It takes a great responsibility to be a doctor and when I think about my laziness and ignorance, I think I'm not ready yet to be one.

Gift for My Country

On August 17th, Indonesians celebrate the independence day. I remember on August 16th, 2010, I had a conversation with my mother. 

Mom: "Tomorrow is Indonesia's birthday."
Me    : "What present should we give?"
Mom: "Honesty."

Honesty would be a great gift for Indonesia. However, in my opinion, this country need not only honesty but also the ability to accept honesty.

36 Questions to Fall in Love

A while ago I watched a BuzzFeed video entitled "Falling In Love As A Grown-Up - Real Mature Ep. 1". In that video we see Zach tried the 36 questions to fall in love, with three different people. I sent the link to Lady Slytherin.

You can search the 36 questions in the internet. The idea is, there should be two people talk about the questions and their answer. After the conversation, they can fall in love. In my opinion, the questions aren't supposed to make you fall in love. It's supposed to make you open up more and know each other better.

Yesterday, I visit Lady Slytherin's boarding house and we tried the 36 questions. We had a good laugh while answering the questions. We did have deep conversation while answering some of the questions. However, there are some questions that made us tease each other. 

I had fun answering the 36 questions because I did it with my close friend. We usually comfortable with each other. I can't imagine if I were in Zach's position in the video. He had to answer the question with the girls who isn't his close friends. If I had to answer the questions with, let's say, my crush or any of the guy I know, I would be awkward. I would carefully choose my words since I'm sometimes afraid if people think I'm rude.

I then think that the 36 questions are also meant to find out whether someone makes you feel comfortable. Thus, you know if he or she is the right person to fall in love with.

Cat's Cradle Again

One saying that I remember from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is about maturity. Frank Hoenikker said, "Maturity, the way I understand it, is knowing what your limitations are."
What is maturity for you?

When I Read Cat's Cradle

I've just finished Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Cat's Cradle. I'm not going to write a review. I just want to write how I feel.
When I read the beginning, I was amused. As the story went, I became curious and surprised. When the story ended, I felt empty. I feel like, "So it ends? There are still more to tell."
Now I'm reading another book.

Realisation before Crush

How do you call the moment when you almost have crush on someone but then you realise you can't be together?

Seven More Facts about Me

I got a "Beautiful Blogger Award" from Owlivia (Untainted and Odd). Thank you, Owlivia. You're such a nice friend I have in bloggerland.

The rules for this award are:
1. thank the blogger who nominates you
2. list 7 random facts about yourself
3. nominate 7 other bloggers.

Here I present 7 more facts about me (I've written "7 facts" posts before).
1. I learn to do five basic wushu stances from the internet. I hope I can learn wushu in real class.
2. When I want to send snail mail to a penpal whom I meet in the internet, I use my campus address.
3. I'm lazy to change my profile picture in any social media.
4. I'm both liberal and conservative (what?) but I'm a bit more conservative.
5. I like to eat mushroom.
6. I love animal but I eat meat. If you call me hypocrite, that's okay. I respect your opinion.
7. I have a lot of T-shirts with "Solo" written on it. I think I will write about the T-shirts sometime.

Sorry, now I'm using phone so it's difficult to create link. I can't nominate other bloggers now.

Blogger Complex

I guess I will call it a blogger complex. It's a condition experienced by blogger when they want to post something but don't know what to post.
P. S. I forget the difference between complex, syndrome, disorder, and disease. If you know the difference please tell me.

How is Your Thesis Going?

Students of my year are now busy writing undergraduate thesis and doing community service. The question "How is your thesis going?" sounds quite scary for us. 
My thesis is not finished yet (of course it isn't). I consulted my counsellor and he asked me to change the title because there have been many people who wrote "correlation of physical activity and sleep quality". I should write about specific activity. Then I decided to write about dance. Still, the professor asked me to write about specific dance. I'm going to do my research and find out.

The Day before KKN

Tomorrow, on Thursday, July 2nd, I'm going to go to Ngawi, a city in East Java. I, with my 8 friends, will stay for about two weeks then we have day off and stay there again.
What are we going to do? We will do community service, but not because we commit crime. It's a program in our university called Kuliah Kerja Nyata, abbreviated as KKN. Literally, it means "Real Work Lecture". Well, literal translation is annoying. In Ngawi, we will teach children how brush their teeth properly, raise awareness of bullying and how to prevent it, etc.
I won't bring my laptop with me since it's quite big. It also means that I may not write in this blog for quite a long time. I hope I can write a lot about our experience in Ngawi right after I come back.

Dance with Me?

Dance with me, will you? You choose the song then we dance. You may look clumsy while I look silly. You can step on my foot and I will make you laugh. It's okay. Just dance.

Frustrating Crush

I often read my friends' facebook status that said thing such, "I'm still single because I have crush on anime character." Everytime I read that kind of status I was like, "Duh." I've watched cartoons and been interested in some characters but I haven't had crush on any of them.

Then I read Girls of the Wild's and I have a crush on Li Mi Nam. He's a high school student and a boxer. 

This crush makes me frustrated because:
1. he's fictional
2. he's a comic character so it's not even possible to meet the actor in real life
3. he's not the main character so I can't see him often
4. I can't find many fanfictions which include Li Mi Nam (yes, I like fanfiction)

It's not that I want to date Mi Nam. It's just .... I can't even explain.

Anyway, if you like Korean manhwa and martial art, I suggest you to read Girls of the Wild's.

p.s. I don't know Korean so I don't know the proper transliteration of Mi Nam's name. Is it Li Mi Nam? Or Lee Mi Nam? Or else? 

My Handbags

Several days ago, I was about to go out and I carried my white sling bag. My mother noticed that and said, "Why do you carry that bag? It's already dull. It's dirty. Why don't you carry the green one?"

I said, "The green one is not big enough."

"Then you should use your backpack," she told me.

I ended up carrying my backpack.

Talking about bag, I always choose a long lasting and big backpack for school. Appearance doesn't matter. I like dark or dull coloured backpack since if it get dirty, it won't look so dirty easily. However, I like pretty handbags.

The picture below is the white bag I first carried.

My mother bought it for me long time ago. The bag is made by knotting technique called macrame. Let's have a closer look. 

The green bag my mother mentioned is another macrame bag. It looks like this:

Closer look:

Yesterday, on Saturday night, my mother took me to Ngarsopuro night market. She said, "We need to buy a new bag and some T-shirts for you."

At first, we saw a stand of canvas tote bags. They looked good but we needed a big bag so we continued walking.

Then we found a stand of handbags and I bought the biggest one.

That bag is made of zipper. If you look closer, you will see....

I then told my mother that I also wanted the canvas tote bag so she bought me one. Hooray!

I really like the owl painted on the bag. It's fierce yet colourful.

Anyway, I've just found out that there are many kinds of handbag. You can read the wikipedia article. 

Lipstick Again

I bought lipstick again a while ago, on June 5th (yes, I bought it after accompanying Lady Slytherin to market). This time I bought a lipstick with natural colour: La Tulipe no. 13. I like the colour. It looks almost exactly like my natural lip colour. It's pink with slight purple and brown mixture. Also, the lipstick smells like grape (if my nose is correct).
Another info, La Tulipe is manufactured in Sidoarjo, Elsa's hometown.

p.s. I've just realised that lipstick colour in the photo above doesn't look like the real one.

Blanja Jamu

Mbiyen dina Jumat tanggal 5 Juni aku ngancani kancaku golek adas nggo skripsine dheweke. Kancaku iki neng postingan basa Inggris jenenge Lady Slytherin. Merga iki postingan basa Jawa karo basa Indonesia ya wis aku njenengi Nyonya Besar.

Awake dhewe motoran nyang Pasar Gedhe. Tekan kana takon karo tukang parkir, "Pak, pados obat sinshe ten pundi nggih?" Bar kuwi diancer-anceri panggone. Jebule adas sing digoleki Nyonya Besar ora ana ing toko obat. Ing toko obat kuwi anane obat sinshe sing wis dikemas. Ngendikane sing njaga toko, "Cari di kios jamu aja, Mbak. Di dekat kios buah-buahan di sana itu." 

Mlaku adhoh meneh. Bingung meneh. Takon meneh karo Pak Satpam sing njaga toko teh, "Pak, menawi badhe tumbas jamu ten pundi nggih?" "Ngrika, Mbak. Ngandhap jembatan," ngendikane Pak Satpam.

Pas mlaku menuju kios ngisor jembatan, awake dhewe nggawe video. Ya critane pengen nyoba nggawe video travel kaya YouTuber ngono lho. 

Tekan kios jamu ....
Nyonya Besar (NB): "Pak, ada adas?"
Penjaga toko (PT): "Adas yang jamu apa yang masak?"
NB: "Bedanya apa, Pak?"
PT: "Lha Mbaknya mau mbuat jamu apa mau masak? Kalau mau masak ya beli adas masak."
Aku: "Yang buat masak itu yang manis apa yang pedas?"
PT: "Yang buat masak itu yang manis, baunya agak harum. Kalau yang buat jamu itu yang agak pedas, yang warnanya agak hijau."
NB: "Oh ya udah, Pak. Coba lihat yang manis dulu."
PT: (maringi adas manis)
NB: "Ini harganya berapa, Pak?"
PT: "Mbaknya mau beli berapa?"
NB: "Sekilo berapa?"
PT: "Sekilo Rp 50.000,00."
NB: "Ya sudah, Pak. Beli sekilo sekalian."

Aku lagi pisan kuwi weruh wujude adas manis. Jebule bentukane kaya gabah. Tenanan, goleka ing Google. Mangga menawi kersa maos artikel saking Wikipedia basa Indonesia:  https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adas_manis ; basa Inggris: https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Anise
Oh, iya, bar kuwi aku nonton videone awake dhewe pas mlaku nyang ngisor jembatan. Jan tenan, videone tengil -_-

Body Language, Grit, and OCD

It has been a long time that I haven't posted in this blog. Many things happened and I hoped I could write them right after I experienced them, as usual. But I couldn't. I just felt tired.
Anyway, recently I've been watching TED a lot. Here I want to share three videos that I like and I think you should watch, too.
1. Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are
My father told me to maintain straight posture because I slouched a lot. Then I found this video and I was like, "Whoa!" Amy Cuddy said that our body language can affect our mind. How? You should watch the video.
2. Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit
This video is short compared to other TED Talks videos. That's why I like it. Angela Lee Duckworth told us it's grit, not social intelligence, not IQ, that determines our success. Watch the video to find out what grit is and how it determined our success.
I guess I should embrace my inner Hufflepuff more.
3. Debunking the myths of OCD - Natascha M. Santos
Psychiatry and psychology are interesting. It's so interesting that many people like to diagnose themselves or their friends and family with certain psychological condition. OCD is one of those conditions that is often diagnosed. You should watch the video to understand that OCD is not so simple as being meticulous.

Useless Advice

A guy friend of mine is in love. My other two friends who know the girl he's in love with tried to give hime advice. The conversation went like this

"She'll only use you."

"But I love her."

"She's full of drama.'
"What do you mean?"

"She's annoying. She will hurt you."

"I can take the pain."

"I just want to say, take care of your health."

Hearing that conversation, I remember Sujiwo Tejo said that the most useless thing to do in this world is giving advice to someone who's falling in love.

First Lipstick

Today, on Sunday, May 31st, my cousin got married. I attended the wedding and wore red lipstick.

Let's talk about my lipstick first because posting about wedding and marriage requires proper focus. I'm a little sleepy now.

I bought my lipstick on Thursday. It was my first time buying it. I have worn lipstick some times before but I never owned it. Also, I had never applied it myself.

At first, I wanted to buy a natural coloured lipstick. I browsed through lipstick shelves in the mall then I came to Pixy shelf. There were moisture lipsticks. A Pixy sales promotion girl approached me and showed me some of their products. After some talk, she recommended Pixy moisture lipstick R-03. It's red. She said it would look good on me and wouldn't make me look pale. I thought, "Why not?" I mean, I would only wear it on special occasion so red is fine.

When I first tried the lipstick, I failed. It was difficult at the first time. However, on my second try, I succeeded. I guess applying lipstick is a natural skill for woman. The colour looked good on me, in my opinion. 

A make up artist did my make up and hair today but this time, I used my own lipstick. My mom said, "You look pretty." Then I said, "Thanks. By the way, I wear my own lipstick. I bought it myself." She was a little annoyed and said, "Why did you buy that colour? You should have bought natural colour." I reason, "It's a wedding and red lipstick is all right."

Saturday with Lady Slytherin

Yesterday, I attended a graphic design training and I ended up making a mess (duh). Thankfully, the mess was only in my laptop.

Lady Slytherin explained a little about event publication at the beginning. She also showed a video by Ryan Higa, "Most Annoying People On The Internet". Take time to watch the video. Are you one of those annoying people on the internet?

In the evening, Lady Slytherin informed me that I had left my pencil case and it was with her then. I told her that I would visit her boarding house to take it.

Before taking my pencil case, I went to Ngarsopuro. It's a night market in Solo, opened every Saturday. I wanted to look around and buy T-shirt for my mother. My mother gave me some money to buy her T-shirt but I forgot to bring the money. I was lucky that I brought my own money. Anyway, I couldn't find the T-shirt my mother wanted.

I also visited a cafe nearby. There was a charity concert held by Childhood Cancer Care. I bought a navy blue wrist band in their merchandise stand.

I then visiting Lady Slytherin. She gave me my pencil case and an example of thesis proposal. We had a little talk (I told her that I forget a lot lately; first I lost my driving licence, then I left my pencil case and my mother's money). After that we decided to go together. She chose a fast food restaurant and she took her Samsung tab and headset with her. She said, "I want to browse internet there." 

Arriving in the restaurant, she realised that she forgot to bring her wallet. We thought that my forgetfulness was contagious.

We still ate there anyway. We ate, talked, and read weird articles in the internet. We even dipped our potato in ice cream. It tasted sweet then salty.

Oh, you may think, "Why do you med students eat in fast food restaurant? You should give example of healthy eating habit." I myself rarely eat fast food and I think I have to write a post about healthy food later to counter this post.

Book Hunting with Book Mate

I wanted to post this on Friday but my internet connection was poor so I couldn't.

Last Friday, my book mate asked, "Is there any imported book Togamas bookstore?" I said, "I don't know. But if you want imported books, I know a store that sells used imported books." 

We then went to the store and spent hours there. She found many interested novel but ended up buying nothing. She actually wanted to buy a novel by Nicholas Sparks but she didn't buy because the paper was not in good condition. I bought a book talking about pants (of all the books in the store!!). The book contains stories we know such as Trojan Horse but it adds annoying story about pants. It really is annoyingly funny.

We then went to my home to pray and take a rest. After that, we visited a library. The library was quite famous among bookworms in Solo and it was our first time going there. Arriving there, we gasped. We were overwhelmed. We were excited that we considered living in the library to spend our time reading all of the interesting books. Again, we spent hours with the books.

My friend borrowed four books (crazy bookworm she is). I didn't borrow anything. I guess I will just come back again since the library isn't so far from my home.

Note: I call my friend in this post "book mate" because we often talk about the book we read or we want to read. We don't always like the same book. We just love to read.

Cafe, Wifi, and Sore Throat

I have just attended a training on graphic design (I may tell more about it later). Now I'm in a cafe.

It's the fourth time I come here, third time I come alone. When I come alone, I bring my laptop since this cafe provide good wifi. I also type an article so I look like that professional writer or businesswoman who do their work in cafe.

I order a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of onion rings. Anyway, I have sore throat again so I want to apologize to anyone who will drink using the cup I now drink from. You may get sore throat, too. Let's hope the cup is washed clean before you drink from it.

Three Kittens

I wrote a post about a cat that often visited my house.

Yesterday, on May 20th 2015 at night, she gave birth to three kittens. My father was the first to see them. I just found out this afternoon (poor me).

I haven't taken picture of the kittens. I think it would be better for them to cuddle with their mother without disturbance.

Waiting for the Announcement

I haven't found out who my thesis first counsellor and first examiner are.

Let me explain first.

When a student create undergraduate thesis, there will be first counsellor, first examiner, second counsellor, and second examiner. The student will consult about thesis with the counsellors. Once the thesis is finished, the student will make a presentation and get asked by the examiners. 

In my campus, the first counsellor and the first examiner aren't chosen by the student. A department will announce who will be first counsellor and first examiners.

Parasitology, dentistry, and community health department have released the announcement. It means that my three friends: Lady Slytherin, Elsa, and Miss Perfume have found out who they will consult their thesis with and who will ask them questions and score them.

Psychiatry department hasn't. I still have to wait.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell about second counsellor and second examiner. Usually the student come to lecturers and ask whether they can be the second counsellor and second examiner. However, I haven't asked any lecturer yet because I'd better consult with my first counsellor first.

My Driving Licence was Found

In my previous post, I wrote about my lost driving licence. It has been found by my friend. I don't know how exactly my friend found it. I haven't met him. He still carries my driving licence. He told the news in Line group.

I'm just happy that it's found.

I Lose My Driving Licence

I ride motorcycle and I always bring my driving licence (or we can call it riding licence) and vehicle registration number. 

These few days, I didn't go out a lot. I only rode my motorcycle a few times and I wore brown trousers. I put my licence and number in the right trouser pocket.

I wore the trousers again today to my campus (yes, I have a habit of wearing the same trousers for some days) and when I took out my cellphone from the right pocket, I accidentally pull out my ID card and vehicle registration number. That time, I realised that my licence was no longer in my pocket.

It might have fallen somewhere. I don't know. I searched but I couldn't find it.

I have to go to police office tomorrow to report the losing and make a new riding licence.

My Story with Instagram

I have recently made instagram account to support my friend. My two friends join "Duta Mahasiswa FK" competition. It's like medical student version of beauty pageant but there are also male contestants. One of the judged criteria is how many accounts like their instagram photos. 

Those two friends are Denata and Gani. Both of them are also candidates of my campus representatives for Indonesian Medical Olympiad in digestive system field. Denata is also a dancer while Gani is a mountain climber.

You can see Denata's photo here and Gani's here. If you have instagram account, please support those two amazing people by liking the photos. 

Kumbakarnan

My cousin is going to marry at the end of May.

Yesterday, we had Kumbakarnan. In Javanese tradition, Kumbakarnan is a meeting to discuss the wedding ceremony (what time and who will do what).

I'm somehow interested in the name Kumbakarnan. It's derived from Kumbakarna, one of Rahwana's brother, known for his big size and long duration of sleep. I guess the meeting is named Kumbakarna because it's held to prepare for a big event. Or is there any different explanation?

Erythro is on WordPress

I mention many times in this blog that I join a student journalism club in my campus. Now, my journalism club, Erythro, is on WordPress. The site is still blank now. Visit us here.
What theme do you think is suitable for our site? What widgets should we put there? It's intended to be a site for news and it's not a personal site. 

A Project and a Visit

A high school friend of mine who now studies industrial engineering had to do a research for her practicum and she needed some participants to answer questionnaire. She needed three people from medical faculty and she already found one. In this post, I will call her Miss Forever Friend because she has been my close friend since high school and she is adorable like the bear from Forever Friends. In fact, she and I together in picture look like the bears from Forever Friends.

On Thursday, I visited my junior to pay for journalism club uniform. Yes, she was my friend in journalism club. I told her about my friend's research and she said that she was willing to participate. I will call this friend Miss Positive Side since she could still be cheerful after losing her cellphone.

On Friday, Miss Forever Friend and I visited Miss Positive Side in her boarding house. I brought a big bag of chip and Miss Positive Side had many cookies and snacks. 

At first, we intended the visit to be quick. However, after we were done with the questionnaire, we talked a lot and ate a lot. We ate up Miss Positive Side's snacks and cookies (terrible guests, aren't we?). We talked about many things, from cellphone to fried noodle.

To be honest, I still wonder how we could manage to have great conversation. My friends just met each other for the first time but we weren't awkward. 

Another thing to remember, if Miss Forever Friend and want to visit you, we suggest you to hide some of your snacks. If you don't, they will vanish.

P. S. Miss Forever Friend is my friend whom I mentioned in my post "Marriage?"

Unimportant News: Video Call with Elsa

Today I have a day off. Beside that, since traumatology block is over, I will also have a day off tomorrow. 
I'm bored.
Not that I want to go to campus. I'm not in a good mood to do anything today. However, a 27 second video call with Elsa has made my mood better. Well, for 27 seconds we just laughed. We didn't talk about anything particular.

After a While

I haven't posted anything for a while because I was ill. I'm still ill but I get better. It started with sore throat then I had terrible fever for a day. After that I coughed. Until now. 

That's all I can write. I'm going to sleep now. I will write more tomorrow (hopefully).

Songs, Letter, and Other Things

It's 23.57 here. Almost Sunday. I have no idea what I'm supposed to write but I will write anyway.

I open three tabs of YouTube video: Child in Time, The Heart Never Lies, and Beauty and the Beast (I realise it is the third time I talk about Beauty and the Beast song in this blog). "The Heart Never Lies" song by McFly is strong that I can't resist the urge to play it sometimes. I like the part, "If you wanna fight, I'll stand right beside you. The day that you fall, I'll be right behind you."

Yesterday (Friday) I received a short letter from a Taiwanese friend. I mean real letter, the one made of paper, not the electronic mail. The letter was given to me by a junior student. Wonder why? Let me tell you.

I don't share my home address to people I meet in the internet. I give them my campus address instead (I sound annoying). I sent my friend a postcard last year. She then sent me a postcard but for some unknown reason, I didn't receive it. The postcard may lose on its way to Indonesia. Last week, she told me in e-mail that she sent another card. I doubted that the card would arrive. Yesterday I attended a meeting of my journalism club and a junior student gave me an envelope. She said, "I came to student affair office and I saw it." I was so happy to receive that. There was a card with short letter in it. 

I watch the clock again and it's 00.37. It's Sunday now. I have to sleep. Talking about sleep, I remember my thesis. I searched journal article on sleep quality and I couldn't get full article since I have to pay to get it. 

Yesterday (Saturday), I didn't go out because it rained all day and I got sore throat. My throat got better after I eat hot soup and took paracetamol. 

I actually still have many works to do. I'll do it after I wake up in the morning (but it's already morning).

Validated

I wrote that I had to submit three title ideas for my thesis. Today, I got the validation result. I was quite lucky since not everyone got their idea validated today.

The validator team approve my thesis idea on exercise and sleep. I will write it with the help from psychiatry department. If you wonder why student who wants to write about exercise and sleep is helped by psychiatry department, that's a long story.

A lecturer told us what the validator team consider before approving our ideas. They consider whether our idea is new. They see if we, undergraduate students, can do that. They also take a look at our three ideas and read between the line on what interests us.

I guess they see that I'm interested in psychiatry. Beside that, exercise and sleep have correlation to mental health.

What about my three friends? Their ideas were also validated today. Elsa will write about toothpaste. Lady Slytherin will write about eugenol (I don't know what it is). Miss Perfume will write about health insurance. 

I hope we can do it well.

p.s. I guess someday I will write on why I call my two friends Lady Slytherin and Miss Perfume.

I Write a Long Post

I open my mail today and there was mail from Writing 101. The mail said, “Today is a free writing day. Write at least four hundred words and once you start typing, don’t stop.”

I laughed reading that mail. I have difficulty in writing long article. One day I had to write a news and my editor pointed out my mistakes: 1. wrong format, 2. no title, 3. less than 400 words. Another time, I wrote another news with 400 hundred words and my editor (different from the first one) said that my writing wasn’t long enough.

The mail also said, “.... once you start typing, don’t stop.” I admit that I have concentration problem. Writing 400 words at once sounds difficult. What if I’m bored and I want to browse something random? What if I’m thirsty and hungry? I don’t put my drink and snack near my laptop.

Anyway, last Monday, I had an accident. I rode motorcycle to campus and I was crashed by another motorcycle. I was all right. I could still ride my motor to campus. My right cheek hurt but I later found out that there was no fracture. Now my right shoulder still hurts but overall, I’m fine.

Whoa, traffic accident on the first day of traumatology block was “awesome”.

Talking about traumatology, we’ve got lectures from surgeons and .... (can’t find the proper words). Well, the lecture slides were full of pictures of horrible injury. Yesterday my friend said, “It seems that the surgeons like to show us such picture. They implicitly said, ‘Look, this is what I see everyday and I’m fine with it. You all just see it once or twice and you cringe?’ ”

The lecture slides make any thriller film looks lame. If you watch a thriller or horror film, you can still enjoy it if it’s your preference. In film, you can still enjoy the actors’ performance, background music, and setting. One important point, film is fictional and you, as viewer, just have to watch. Or leave if you don’t like it. In traumatology case, we have to watch and examine. We also have to help.

Last Tuesday, my three friends and I visited our university bookstore. It was not interesting. The place was comfortable but the books were mostly textbooks. Nothing is wrong with textbooks. As students we need them. However, there is time when we just need to read thing outside university textbook.

Today at 12.10, I’m going to have anatomy practicum. Anatomy lesson in traumatology includes all organs in the body. It means that I have to learn a lot, considering most organ systems were taught in our second year, the year when I spent my study life in darkness.

Now I’m going to play minesweeper and study. 

I Once Hated Med School 2

Day thirteen prompt of Writing 101 is about finding something. The twist said, "If you wrote day four's post as the first in a series, use this one as the second installment - loosely defined."

I wrote that I once hated med school. Busy lady from darlenescorner asked how it changed me. Now I'm trying to explain it.

Since I was a kid, I had always been a top student. My academic performance was the source of my confidence. 

Then I entered medical school.

In medical school, I experienced failure (I still do), thing that would scare and worry my high school self. And because of my poor grade, I somehow lost a little of my confidence.

I learned from that.

I learned to fake my confidence. I didn't always succeed to do that but at least I can. I then learned that no matter how bad my grade was, I should always love myself. 

Then there was ENT and that talk.

The first subject I studied in my third year was ENT. I was interested in ENT because I myself had problem with my ear. You can read about it here (if you don't like ENT related topic, the link can be disgusting).

I also had that talk with my mom. I forget what my mom said first but I retorted, "You don't believe that I can be a good doctor?" She said, "Of course I believe that you can be a good doctor. You must prove that my belief is right."

I found my interest in medical school again.

Unintentional Plagiarism

I've just remembered that my "Word List to Story" post was inspired by an episode of reality show. I forget the reality show but I remember that there was a girl asked the boys who wanted to be her boyfriend to create a song including certain words. I then thought it would be good to write story that way.

I didn't write it in that post because I forgot. All I remembered was how my friend and I wrote our story.

I'm sorry for that unintentional plagiarism.

We Need to Rest

Day seven prompt of Writing 101 is about contrast, "Write a post based on the contrast between two things - whether people, objects, emotions, places, or something else."

I have three close friends and I often think that we, four people, can show contrast when you compare us to most students in our year.

One day, we browsed internet randomly and read unusual articles together. Near us, there was some students talking about thesis.

We were like, "Read this article." "How can someone write such weird article?" "This article is annoyingly funny."

Near us, the students said things like, "Have you found what you want to write in your thesis?" "When will they announce the validation result?" "How should we contact the lecturer to become our mentor?"

Noticing this, Elsa said, "Hey, listen! People near us talk about thesis while we are here reading some useless articles." 

Note: when reading this article you may think that my friends and I are irresponsible students. Believe me, we're not that bad. We do care about our thesis. However, at that time, we just needed a little rest.

Journalists I Met

I missed a lot of prompts in Writing 101. This time I'm going to write for day six prompt, "Who's the most interesting person (or people) you've met this year?"

I met some interesting journalists last year and this year. They taught many good lessons.

In 2014, there was a journalism workshop for the members of student journalism club. The speakers were two journalists.

The first journalist was a young woman. She wrote entertainment news in local newspaper. I remember she taught us how to befriend fellow journalist. She shared her experience, "There was an event attended by many journalists. I was still new and I didn't know anyone. I then told my editor about it and he said, 'You have to talk to them (other journalists). Even if you don't know them. Just approach them and ask what media they work in,' "  To be honest, I often feel awkward around people. There are many times when I attend events with people I don't know well. I will try to start conversation.

The second speaker was a journalist for online media platform. He gave us important lesson on news writing and deadline. I remember he said, "I work for online media and it means that I must write quickly. Right after an event happens, the news should be seen online." I was amazed by that considering that I often procrastinated writing article.

Also on 2014, my friend and I became representatives of our journalism club to attend a journalism gathering. Ardus. M. Sawega, a senior journalist, spoke in that gathering. He used to write article on art performance and culture. He told us that one day, he watched a performance with fellow journalist. They both were going to write it in their newspapers. Their articles were quite different since Mr. Ardus notice things that his fellow journalist didn't notice. Lesson to learn: always pay attention. 

Recently in the journalism club upgrading, a student journalist from history faculty came as a speaker and she was cool. She has written since she was in junior high school. Not only that, she has ever seen "tawuran" (student fighting) and child jail for her articles. Whoa, I haven't written article on those topics. It would be quite terrifying for me to see such things.

There was also one thing they always told us about: etiquette.

Trauma & Traum

Next Monday on April 27th, I'm going to start studying traumatology. It's not about mental trauma anyway. It's about physical injury.
The word trauma sounds similar to the word Traum in German. They have different meaning, though. Traum means dream.
Can dream cause trauma? Maybe.

16 Weeks to Write Thesis

Yesterday I attended a meeting on thesis. We got information on thesis timeline (when we can start, the deadline, etc), mentor, and examiner.
We are given 30 weeks to finish our thesis. However, the lecturer said that if we work well, we can finish our thesis within 16 weeks. She said, "You are going to write undergraduate thesis and it only needs 16 weeks. Believe me, 16 weeks are enough."
I'm still waiting to know which of my ideas is validated. I hope I can manage my time well so I can write thesis, study, and still post regularly in this blog.
16 weeks? Challenge accepted.

Friday Lecture Note: Bandage and Splint

Yesterday, I got lecture on bandage and splint. 
Bandage is used on injury without fracture. Splint is for fracture. Both procedures are first aids.
Bandage shouldn't be too tight but not too loose, either. A pen can be inserted in well-fitted bandage.
Splint should pass both proximal and distal joints. However, if the fracture is on femur, the outer splint extends from malleolus lateralis (outer ankle) to axilla (armpit) and the inner splint extends from malleolus medialis (inner ankle) to inguinal.

Note: due to poor internet connection, I can't put picture in this post. 

Marriage?

"Today, take a cue from something you've overheard and write a post inspired by real-life conversation."

I sometimes overhear people talking. However, today I stay at home and study for exam so I don't overhear any unusual conversation. I can't even recall conversation I overheard so I write a story of my conversation with a friend.

One day in February, I met my old friend. We first met in high school and we became close. 
We had conversation over fried rice (because conversation over coffee was not enough, duh). Never meeting each other for a long time, we had many things to talk: university life, news from old friends, our own lives, and marriage.
I'm not good at relationship advice. However, talking about marriage with a close friend doesn't require me to be an expert. We can always share our opinion, thought, and worry. 
My friend said, "I want to marry when I'm 25 but now that I'm 21, I haven't figured out how I will find my husband." I said, "I haven't figured out, either. Sometimes people find their match in unexpected places, though."
Since we both were single (we still are), we came to our usual conclusion, "Let's just think about it later. We need to take care of our study first."
Anyway, I found a good video from BuzzFeedYellow, "Marriage Advice from Divorcees". It's a good video and if you're an inexperienced single who want to marry, I suggest you to watch it.

House

Today's prompt in Writing 101 is, "Where did you live when you were 12 years old? Which town, city, and country? Was it a house or an apartment? A boarding school or foster home? An airstream or an RV? Who lived there with you?"

Reading the first sentence, I answered, "I've lived in my house in Surakarta since I was born." All right, I was born in hospital but after that I live in my house.

When I read the last sentence, I got that strange feeling. When I was 12 years old, my grandma was still alive. She lived in my home. Now I live with my mother, father, and aunt.

My house changes a lot through the years. I remember there was an empty area near the living room. There was soil, some plants, and grass. It is now a dining room, or not. It was supposed to be dining room but later it became my mother's work space. And my father's, too.

We still had a mango tree back then. It was later cut. Why was it cut? There was caterpillar outbreak in some cities and my mom was worried of it so she asked someone to cut the tree. It turned out that the caterpillar outbreak didn't reach my city. Now I sometimes see mushrooms grow near the tree stump.

My grandma had a bed near the television. There she read or created paper boat. She also watched soap opera. In the night, she slept in my room. After she passed away, the bed was moved to somewhere I didn't know.

Those are what I remember from my house when I was 12 years old. I've lived in this house for a long time and I have no idea when I will leave it. 

Weekly Doodle: Imagination and Acceptance

I haven't doodled for Weekly Doodle. There were Acceptance and Imagination themes. I decided to draw one picture for those two themes.
I have weird, even annoying imagination. My close friends know that and they're fine when I tell them what I think and imagine.

Record, Speak, Listen

I found a good video in Easy Russian channel, "How to improve your pronounciation". In that video, Maria showed how she improves her English speaking by recording her speech then listening to it.
I've ever done that with my English. I recorded myself speaking English then I listened to my voice and I found it terrible. It was fun anyway. I guess I will record myself speaking Russian after this.
You should try that, too. Record yourself speaking foreign language then listen. If it doesn't sound good, try again.

Twenty Something and Other Stories

It's a late announcement.
Sandeep from Daydream & Happy Things created an online magazine called Twenty Something. It's a magazine written by bloggers in their twenties and I'm one of those bloggers. Yeay!
Beside the content, I really like the layout. It's so colourful and enjoyable to read. Read the magazine in ISSUU.
My post in Twenty Something is "Word List to Story". Since Sandeep has just created a story out of word list, I also make one.

Words:
pass
move
outlook
skunk

It was a sunny day and she decided to take a walk. Wearing a midi dress, she went to her favourite cafe.

She ordered pancake and tea. While waiting for the order, she heard someone said, “Dad, let’s move near the window.”

A boy passed her chair. He held his father hand and walked to the seat near the window. She couldn’t help smiling when noticing that the boy carried a ransel with skunk picture on it.

The story talked about cafe. May I cheat and include it in Writing 101? I haven't written for day eight prompt. It was, "Go to a local cafe, park, or public place and write a piece inspired by something you see. Get detailed: leave no nuance behind."

Three Titles

I once said that I had no idea about what I should write in my thesis. I also stated that I considered writing psychiatry. However, I had to submit three titles to be validated.
I have submitted the three titles.
At first, the only idea that came to my mind was a thesis talking about internet addiction. I still had to find two more titles.
I then read that many senior students pick anxiety as thesis subject so I considered anxiety. My friend said, "Why don't you choose ADD (attention deficit disorder) instead of anxiety. We both seemed to experience ADD so it would be more interesting." I then decided to choose anxiety. 
I got two titles.
The third titles just came to my mind when I remembered once a penpal told me to exercise more so that I didn't experience sleeping problem. My third title is about exercise and sleep.
Now I just wait to know which of those titles is validated.