I grabbed me some books!

This holiday, I actually planned to start reading English classics again after a complete four-year hiatus! I started reading these when I was in middle school, borrowing from the school's library. Every week I'd borrow a book and read it with great fascination and curiosity. I find myself flipping over the pages at the speed of light, skipping my study sessions, staying up late just to reveal the plot and start over with a new title. 

I was fond of learning English by that time, and these novels not only helped me improve my vocabulary collections, it also gave me an insight towards the past :3 Not that they were all historical fiction - I do love this genre- but  the fact that we're living in the 21st century makes everything that happens in the plot considered history! What's more amusing than knowing how people live in the past centuries? ^____^ uh. Probably a large cone of chocolate ice cream, thank you.

So, since these are classics, and the authors have passed away a long time ago, the copyrights have expired and we could easily download these novels from a galore of sites in the world wide web. My first download was Arthur Conan Doyle's complete collection of Sherlock Holmes and the Jules Verne's adventurous science fictions. But seriously, reading a digital version was inconvenient to the maximum. So I came to the thought of actually buying these at a bookstore (Seems like this girl has got pots of ingots :p). Oh I have to tell you that I actually found a friend who pretty much has a similar passion towards books and reading :D She recommended an international bookstore, which I have once heard of but have never visited. I was extremely excited knowing that they sell imported books, and they're all not translated into Bahasa. U n f o r t u n a t e l y. . . It turns out that spending your money there would lead to bankruptcy- imported books remember. Well that's one bitter news. I don't recommend buying -real live- classics. But Google's always around to help :) here are some of my favorite sources:

• http://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212
• http://www.planetpdf.com/free_pdf_ebooks.asp
• http://www.classicreader.com/browse/1/title/

Happy aren't we :) ? 

Happy!  But now I'm happier since I gladly found a place where I can get these novels, without having to spend any money: The Library of Campus B! I have almost forgotten the concept of Libraries!! That's because Campus A's Lib wouldn't everrr have a collection of literature! (What for! They say med students only read anatomy atlases and medical textbooks. But they're the lame ones. Oops :p) It started out after a friend of mine asked me to make a description of Airlangga University for Medspin, and then I remembered this nearly forgotten information: We have a Faculty of Humanities, which has a department of English Literature. And what do English Literature students read? :D ahahahayy you know the answer!!!

So that particular day (July 3rd, based on this borrowing note from the lib)I rushed (by feet) to the B Lib - it was a cloudy afternoon, and it had just stopped raining, the roads and sidewalks (well there weren't literally any) were all wet, puddled and muddy. :( It was a really tough journey. Not a really long one. But it was so wet. When I arrived at the entrance gate of Campus B there was this really big puddle that I can't walk through, I almost gave up and I felt like turning back and going home. But I walked on, and managed to go to the other entrance. There were so many sidewalk shops and I actually bumped on a rope that supports their canvas shelters. On the head. It hurts so much >.< And people were looking at me and I felt really awkward. But then again I was so close. And I walked on.

And I reached the building. It was a big, three storey building :) painted purple (or was it gray), and so many hopes lay in it. I felt really good, but also anxious, worried that there might not be any hope for me to find the book I was longing to read. But I was more of excited and happy yayay :) it's a new place to explore anyway. There's always something interesting on an exploration. I went in and wandered around, going in and out of rooms, skimming the books, studying the patterns, asking around, trying to act (and sound) like a good student lol. Then there. I found the label literature: 009 Dewey Decimal system -whatever they call it. 

And There

On the third floor

On the southernmost row

A bookshelf labelled 009

Filled with E N G L I S H  C L A S S I C S 

(And other literature books)

And there were more and more shelves forming a corridor!

A corridor of books! What say you!!

I almost shouted. I almost jumped, I almost cried. I was so happy :D

They had everything!

Dickens, Bronte, Austen, R.L Stevenson. Mark Twain. Daniel Defoe. Hemingway. Rudyard Kipling. Robert Ludlum! Stephen King!! And a lot of other authors, some I hardly ever heard of, some very familiar names but never had the chance to read. Like Virginia Woolf, Anthony Trollope, Goethe, Tolstoy, George Orwell. It was just amazing.

I had to borrow something. I have a long holiday ahead, and I have to finish reading these before I graduate and probably not have a chance to borrow from here. I could only pick two books and fr a period of two weeks.That was a hard choice to make. I saw a galore of books, I wanted to read all of them! So I walked to and fro, up and down the corridors, picking books, skimming through, returning them, wow-ing all the time, wishing that I could just grab them all and bring 'em home.

Despite the excitement, I was actually unsure of what genre I wanted to read. The titles were so amazing, but then again, titles don't tell much about the story don't they. 
And I was questioning myself, what do I want to read?

After an hour of some tough consideration (seriously an hour), I picked up 1984 by George Orwell and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Reasons? a couple of days before, I stumbled upon an article in the web about the term Big Brother and how it emerged, and they talked about 1984 all the way, and George Orwell and his influence. I was quite amazed when I saw this title in one of the shelves. So I think I have to find out what the fuss was all about. And The Old Man and The Sea? It was just too popular that I wanted to know what was so great about the book. :)

And I have finished reading them, and they're already safe and sound back in those wooden shelves. I alredy switched them with another couple :) Kim (Rudyard Kipling) and Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)!! This time I read reviews on Goodreads so I don't waste too much time wandering around!

Reviews by me will be written as soon as . . . I have the time :/

The Renovation

This is an official day off! and I've been working quite a lot since dawn, cleaning up the house. We're having several renovations, re-paintings, fixing some leaking taps and broken faucets. It's been going on for half a month and everyone in the house is really wired, the house has been such a mess, and I haven't been quite helping since I'm rather busy lately  (sorry mom) But I officially declare that I won't be leaving the house for the rest of Ramadan for personal reasons.
it really is home time :) [except for Monday evening :p]
I've been hanging around in the house wearing this surgical mask as if I'm in the anatomy practicum room. *missed it soo much lol* But hey I need this protection from dust!! I am frustratingly allergic to dust!

Okay so what has happened around?
Frustration
Renovation = mess = dust, cement, sand etc. As I said I'm allergic to dust, super, hyper allergic towards dust! a single exposure of even a single part per million of this particle could make me blow seven greatest sneezes in the world. What makes it worse is the allies of sneezes that comes after: Stuffed, runny nose and watery eyes. Horribly devastating!! >.<

" After a dreadful beginning, and a weary process, there's always hope for a happy ending. "

My room turned purple
So what's with the choosing of purple?
it was really late one night in a hardware store, mom wants to buy some paint for the outer wall of our house, and she just offered us to paint our rooms too. I didn't want to take the offer since.. well.. what I want is just to finish the renovation asap, and I'm actually okay with my white room. But mom insisted to paint it, so I guess I just have to make the choice. Since I don't actually tempt to have my room painted, it took me hours to decide. I said red, but mom says it's too angry, i asked for blue, she says the kitchen's already blue, I picked brown, she says its an outdoor color >.< Okay I give up. It's all up to you, I don't have the least imagination of what color suits me, it's just a room, it's just a color. I then I left the paint counter feeling all the way confused, and took a walk around the store.
After a while of wandering around the store, I spotted a picture of a house painted purple and brown. I thought it looked good, a purple wall might suit the wooden furniture in my room. So I came back and picked a light purply color. My mom liked it, oh..I was unsure actually with purple, but huh, there's nothing else I can do. I cant take back my words. And at least it's something she said yes to. 

The word purple actually makes me feel silly. Reasons?
First. you know there are a great number of girls out there who just WORSHIPS this color. oh and I do think they are some of the silliest creatures on earth, no offense! Well I don't have the tiniest fascination towards a particular color, I think colors are just colors, they don't symbolize anything and i believe we should make our life colorful by not worshiping a single color. Such as:

" I'm a big fan of Manchester United and I'm all red, I wont even go for a swim in the pool cause the water looks blue under the sky and blue is the color I hate because Chelsea wears blue, so I'd probably swim if you drop some tomato ketchup into the pool until it looks red. "

I don't have a favorite color, even if i'm a fan of Chelsea, and even if I wear blue a lot, I put an Iron man theme on my Google chrome and it looks fiery and red and I like it. I don't want to be a color worshiper, especially purple. Really, these purple girls turn insane when they see the color and I just want to keep my sanity safe and sound. Now this is a true true story:

I had a chemistry teacher in high school, who is a purple lover girl ehm I mean woman, she's 50 something years old, and she.. okay, even when she's teaching she still responds to her senses of purple like when she saw my purple cell phone case.

" So students, the rate of a chemical reaction is affected by several fac... hey what a cute phone case, nice purple! "

(No it wasn't a sarcastic remark of seeing a student's cellphone in class. I wasn't using my phone in the class. It just sat on the desk doing nothing. I've always been a good girl :3 she knows)

Now what say you?

Second.
There is a myth, that purple is the color of widows. Blistering Barnacles!!! Now this is a contradiction towards the cutie purply girls I mentioned above. But this myth is really famous. Whenever somebody hears the word purple, their brain always associates it with the word widow. Being a widow is somehow seen as a negative thing around here idk .-.
But actually, the western society uhmm purple is known as a royal color *wow*, it is rare in nature, and in earlier times, hard to be extracted from nature.Thus only certain aristocrats could use this color for their attire. Well that relieves. By the way, fate is in The Almighty's hand, widow or not.

I never believed the power of colors, that color affects mood and emotion and such things, but I think I kinda realize it's true (well of course scientists out there have made researches. But this time I admit that I proved it myself). Purple is actually tranquilizing, they say, it is a balance of red and blue which are absolute contradictions. And honestly I do feel a lot calmer in this newly painted room. They say it lightens up our imagination too! I'm writing in room now, painted with a combination of light purple and white (plus checkered white-purple ceilings!! idk whose idea this was!!), and truly, ideas and words easily flow. This new room definitely brightens my mind up :) I like seeing this color :)

Have I turned into a person with a tone of light purple personality? With a combination of tranquility, balance and imagination?
I have never been someone like that, but I somehow wish to be.
We'll see.
Oh and one more thing: always listen to mom.

Meld Magazine

Meld Magazine: Melbourne's International Students News Website.
I truly forgot how I stumbled upon this website... wait, now I remember: Metcards! Again, I was browsing facts about Metcards, and Google led me to a post by Marcella Purnama on Meld Magazine, once again about the conversion of metcards to myki.

So, Meld Magazine is an online magazine run by students in Melbourne. How fascinating! You know I've once been an international student  :P (oops, my dad was, I think I didn't count lol) 
The writers, editors, photographers, web designers, videographers and every other staff are international as well as local students of Melbourne. Starting out in 2008, this magazine aimed to give international students a true insight on how life in Melbourne is really like.This way, international student candidates won't only obtain information from university promotions.

I think the articles in Meld Mag are extremely interesting, well-written, and actually a lot of fun, and it seems really helpful and informative. They cover up almost everything about Melbourne: lifestyle, cuisine, news, issues, reviews on films, music and festivals, education, youth programs, or anything else related to international students, regulations, fees and stuff. They tell you everything you need to know, every information, every hot issue, and also every fun facts about Melbourne. All in a youthful writing style, not too formal, yet mature indeed. Reading Meld Mag is so much fun, I learned a lot of new vocabularies and recognize different writing styles :)  And of course, my all time longing of seeing Melbourne is a little bit relieved.

To be honest, the fact that these students could produce excellent pieces of writings -which is in fact not in their own mother language- and manage it in an online magazine pretty much amuses me! I feel really inspired to learn from them and become a writer myself. They're actually opening up chances to join their team. I really wish I could join Meld one day [Of course I have to find a way to study in Melbourne first (y)]. But lets start with improving my English proficiency and writing skills. Oh and I know a good way to begin: visit Meld Mag and read!

Scarlet

I adore this color.
http://www.crayola.com/explore-colors/scarlet.aspx

It reminds me of The Scarlet Pimpernel, a beautiful novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, one of my all-time favorite classics :)

AU!

Airlangga University is one of Indonesia’s leading state universities located in Surabaya, thecountry's second largest city, as well as a major seaport and commercial center in the eastern region of Indonesia.

Airlangga University has been known as one of Indonesia's top five Universities with thirteen faculties, ranging from basic science, medicine, and social sciences, which are located in three campuses, 

Campus A accommodates the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Dentistry. The campus is comprised mainly of buildings built in the Dutch colonial era. The buildings remain upright, still conserved until today and noted as one of Surabaya’s heritage buildings.

Campus B hosts the Faculty of Pharmacy as well as the faculties concentrating in the social science fields which are the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economy and Business, Faculty of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities. In Campus B, there also reside many of the main institutional support units for the university, such as the Central Library, Post Graduate Programs, Center for Health Care, Center for Quality Assurance, Institute for Educational Studies and Development, as well as a religious facility.

While in newest established campus C reside the rest of the life science faculties which are The Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine, and The Faculty of Nursing). The Rectorate building, the studentcenter, and the university’s convention center are also located in campus C.

To encourage educational and public service purposes, Airlangga University has alsodeveloped several educational and research facilities such as The Arlangga University Hospital and The Institute of Tropical Diseases, both located in Campus C. A Medical Education Center has also been built to encourage a better educational environment for the Faculty of Medicine in Campus A

The Institute of Tropical Disease is a research institute dedicated to developing researches, counseling and Laboratory services on tropical diseases including Malaria, Dengue Fever, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and many others. The Institute of Tropical Disease is equipped with up to twenty Biosafety level-3 laboratories.

Airlangga University started out as a medical school, built by the Dutch colonial government to educate young Javanese to become health experts. Itwas named NIAS (Nederlandsch Indische Artsen School). And since the year 1913, medical education has been conducted in Surabaya in Jl. Kedungdoro38, Surabaya. In 1923 the building was moved to what is now Campus A of Airlangga University. In 1928, a school of dentistry is founded, better known as STOVIT (School Tot Opleiding van Indische Tandarsten). In 1948, Airlangga University became a branch of The University of Indonesia with the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry. And in 1954, joined by the Faculty of Law which was previously a branch of Gadjah Mada University, Airlangga University was officially established by the government of Indonesia, coinciding the celebration of the 9^th Heroes’ day

By this year, it has been a century since medical education first started out in Surabaya.

A Seemingly Failing Holiday

I have at last finished up my journey in the second semester of med school :)
How's everything been? I cant guarantee flying colors since I haven't seen all my grades- the system's just keeping it a secret from me with no reason- but at least I didn't have to take any remedial. thank goodness.
It was rather tough, I honestly have to admit. Since the very beginning of the semester, I was evidently aware of having to study every single minute of my life in the second semester, and it freaked the hell outta me. But once again I have to admit that I didn't actually do that: Sitting still on my desk and concentrate on studying, staying up late, waking up early, all the study programs I made, the timetables I sticked on my bedroom walls- i planned them all, but it failed. I didn't remember the last time I studied. I didn't remember studying in the middle of the night. It was freaking weird. I watched a movie the night before one of my anatomy exam, I played with my sister a lot, I blogged, I read other nonsense in the middle of the exam week. But I survived. I guess it was all fate.It was fate. It came from my prayers, and my parent's and I have to pay a lot for it. For all the goodness Allah has given me.

So I planned to study again this holiday. I have started reading my anatomy books again, that I did on the first day of my unoffficial dholiday.

But circumstances cancel out my holiday plans.

tbc
July 9th. 2.46 PM. GMT+7.

0000:00:00:00:00:00

Ever seen this scene in a movie?
I'll give you ten seconds to recall before you blast. No way. I'm kidding.
It's from In Time! A 2011 sci-fi action movie starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and the bluey gooey eyed chameleon Cillian Murphy.

The movie was, fair enough, thrilling, entertaining. imdb rated it sixty-something percent, Rotten Tomatoes rated it thirty-something percent. I myself, have only watched halfway through. Not that I wasn't interested, but I actually watched it on the evening before my anatomy exam  and it sent me right back to my books, freaking me out...

Can you imagine only having twenty five years to live your life normally, and the second right after your twenty fifth birthday, the clock on your arm starts ticking backwards like a countdown timer, showing you your remaining lifetime. Not just that it ticks backwards like a countdown timer, you'll also have to buy your daily needs with your remaining lifetime, like buying a cup of coffee in a coffee shop would reduce your lifetime by ten minutes. Now what if, after a day's work, you wanted to go home to meet your son and "share some time", but you only had an hour and a half left while the bus fare was suddenly raised to two hours for a ride home, and walking home takes two hours. Doesn't that mean you'd have to run home? This is what I call running for life.

Time's too precious to waste.

Don't. Waste. Your. Remaining. Time.

Welcome to ... [drums rolling] our new header!

And my header is done! Hooray!!
To be honest, this blog was previously named Autumn Scribbles since I fancy soouu much the season autumn, but I couldn't find a pretty enough autumn themed header so I tried to make one myself. Well I actually found this reddish orange header with a crumpled paper on it and I decided to overlay it with some autumn scribble text but then I thought that it sort of didn't match, so well here I go, I thought it would suit better if I call it scribbles on a crumpled paper. A bit. . Straight, right to the point but ay, truthful anyway. And I write thoughts, tales, and much much more trash trash trash [ha-ha] but I'll surely leave trashiness behind. Then I found these critter images which are so adorably cute!! Uh! It adds to the crumpled-paper-been-thrown-to-the-trashcan accent :3. All crumpled and germy, full of creepy crawly critters lol. What say you?
And last, but definitely never the least, I would like to deliver my greatest appreciation to Picmonkey <3 which was a real big help in making this header! So it's a web based picture editing app, easy to use, simple yet rich in features: highly recommended! Oh and definitely they use ridiculous forms of language in their dialog boxes. You gotta try, you just gotta try and laugh out loud at some point!