Living in a Hospital

That's where I was for the past three weeks. My mother got tumor and have to go under the knife. As the only "idle" and "available" child, I must step up to stay with her in the hospital. Just two years ago I lost my father, I just cannot afford to lose my mother this time. The visitors were flowing like water, feels like eid.All the way into the first week of Ramadan (fasting), and my defense went down. I got the flu. Well, at least the crisis has passed.

Over My Shoulder (Looking Back)

Going to a reunion has never been a pleasure for me. I missed two past high school reunions on purpose. In this  age, with no job, no family, no...thing to be proud of, I find it hard to tell stories to my old friends. Luckily, I've known to be the silent one in school, if not the mute. So, against all expectation, I got to this reunion last week. Well, it turned out to be decent, not as disastrous as I imagine. Many times I just sat there, accompanied with my old friends, playing catch-up from the last time. And all I did was just listening to their chatter, and to tell them as little as I want, at least I've nothing to hide. It's good to hang out again with them, to remember the good old days (well, looking back now, the old days must be that good!). I just realized two things: my life may be not that miserable (comparing to them, but again, different standards apply) and how far I have walked away from that days when we were together. Twenty years, how can you imagine that?

Stuck in a Moment (and You Can't Get Out of It)

Well, imagine you're in a bus on the way home, no air conditioning (economy class), fairly occupied (nearly full), still halfway in the afternoon, and got traffic jam? Yes, it happened when some road repair project doing their thing in this crowded Friday afternoon, on a two-way, up and down interstate road. It took a full hour to get out of the jam with so much sweat and swear words from the bus passengers. What a way to spend a birthday! The next trip home, we faced a simultaneous impact (we called it "karambol") between a container truck, two Avanzas, one Panther, and a public transport, and also two big mahoni trees. It just took a while to drag the damned truck out of the street.

Disjointed Programme?

Well, it's not the best kept secret anymore, apparently. Our compatriot from Bandung has been concerned about the inconsistency of their Jogjakarta counterpart, especially about the curriculum. And now, the question is: should the joint programme, currently in the fourth batch, be dismissed? After all, this program is already disjointed since the first batch, no continuation abroad, no synchronization between colleges, confusing curriculum, unbalanced theses, and finally undistinguished diploma from the comparable regular program. In short, the joint programme is disjointed and doomed from the beginning, when the entire first batch could not make it to Germany as students. And three batches later, nothing has changed, nor improved from the initial situations. Well, at least we could make it through, safe and sound (well, most of us did).

Across the Bridge

Well, the London bridge is not falling down, Pabelan bridge is, at least half of it. For a while, the traffic from Jogjakarta to Magelang, especially for big vehicle, must take another route. In that time, as a bus commuter we must stop before the bridge, walk across the surviving half of the bridge, and take another bus on the other side, and vice versa. Merapi eruption is over, but the materials of sand and rocks are still up there, ready to go down in fashion, a cold lava flood. Yet we never know where else they would go, or what else is gonna be destroyed.

Right Before Your Eyes

Yesterday, as me and my brother drove in our car out of town, we saw a car suddenly made u-turn and crashed into a truck coming from the opposite direction. I'd never forget the sound, as we were stunned, speechless, and finally ran away from the scene. Well, my brother needed to make it to his office on time, and there's nothing we can do. The car was wrecked, and don't ask me about the driver, judging from the shape of the car's bonnet, God only knows. All along the way to our destination we can't stop talking about it. We sometimes saw accidents along the way, even got into one ourselves, but never witnessed it, on that close range. And yet, I still can't find a single news about it online, wonder if I should check the nearest news stand.

The Deadliest Deadline?

After 3 full months of waiting in vain, finally there's some update on our status. Confusingly, we were told to get a special letter called "The Accelerated Supervision" for our theses supervisors to remind that we have reached our deadline (officially dead? again?). It's kind of shocking but in this program, nothing can ever surprise us in any way anymore.So, I come to get the letter this morning. Along the way, I asked what exactly happened since the last deadline notice (last October). The answer is: we were set to bypass the whole theses procedure directly to the final theses examination, but the proposal was postponed in every meeting held since then, before finally rejected. And so, we were thrown back to our last situation, after throwing back 3 full months without consulting our supervisors, to follow the same procedures all over again. It's not surprising, yet still irritating and undeserving. Guess I'm still gonna hang on for a little while now.

White City (As the End Draws Near)

The timing couldn't be more appropriate. The ultimate final deadline for our study is coming (or so it seems), and one of the most active volcanoes in this country has just errupted. And this city is white, covered in ashes. Wow, is this the end of the an era? Well, I wasn't here when the great earthquake shook this city five years ago, but now I was forced, or maybe just being persuaded to engage the scene. At the same time of the eruption, I got distracted by composing the supposed-to-be-called my thesis, under the threat to terminate our study and provide us with the debt that we could not possibly ever afford to pay. Well, it is said that there is no free lunch, in some other way you always have to pay.

Yet Another Deadline

Yes, you heard it right, another (the third if I'm not mistaken) deadline has arrived. By the end of this month, we must either graduate or die... I mean dropped out. We don't know if there will be monetary penalty or not. Well, as if monthly penalty (which we were never informed at first place) isn't bad enough, we might face the whole scholarship bailout. Well, talk about getting death penalty twice, this is as bad as you can imagine. We, three remaining survivors, are like lambs to the slaughter, as it's virtually impossible to make it to the deadline set just one week ahead. And we still have is our necks to spare, so enjoy it while it lasts. (sigh...)

Here Comes the Bailout

Yet another deadline for us. By next month, it's do or die. And I still wonder where the hell is my warning letter? I haven't change my address just yet since the first time I joint the programme. Well, here comes the bailout, at least for the sponsor (or is it?). This programme is a mess, and we got to take the fall. The weakest link, the bottom of the food chain. I got to admit that we are not totally innocent. We just can't predict that it will go this far, pathetically. And yet, the deadline always changes, unsurprisingly. One of our friend that has been graduated last February got to pay some penalties. Did he meet the deadline or not? It seems that we are caught between two deadlines: from the institution and the sponsor. Either way, we lose. If we meet the deadline, we pay the institution. If we don't, we pay the sponsor AND the institution (?). Wow, time to flee... (any suggestions?)