Archive for January, 2012
Beatrice Hendra
BSc (Hons) Psychology
January Video Diary
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012First of all, I want to apologise for not having a video diary in December. No excuses, my fault. So here it is, another video diary basically just telling what I’ve been doing in January. x
Just a Thought
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012I went to Greenock yesterday for an interview. It was the first time I travelled to a new city completely alone; taking the train alone, staying in the hotel alone, and doing everything alone. So in the train I was just sitting by myself, putting on my earphone to listen to instrumental music while looking outside the window. There lied a very big meadow; as far as my eyes can see I see green, with countless sheeps that looked so blissful.
Then a lot of thoughts passed through my mind, one of them was how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be where I am now. To be able to continue my study in the UK, to get part time jobs and gain experiences from them, to be friends with people from any countries you can think of, to experience travelling around even for a job interview, etc. when some of my friends were just stuck at home living a constant unchallenging life. I looked at what I was wearing – a complete business dress with blazer and trousers – and suddenly felt that I am in a different phase of life now, I am no longer a kid.
Oh and, I also realised how I miss my piano. I miss sitting in front of my piano playing my favourite classical pieces when no one is at home and everything is quiet. It’s been 2 years now and I don’t even know if I can still play it 
x
My First Paintball Experience in the UK
Saturday, January 28th, 2012So. After all the hassle of giving out the proposal to form the Paintball Society to the Students’ Union, promoting the society to get the members, arranging the first meeting to get input from the members, organising the first game, finally we made it happens! We have really diverse people in our society and everybody was really satisfied with the game today.
The venue for this first ‘taster’ game was Massive Attack which gave us a really good deal of only £6 for the transport (by bus from the City Campus) PLUS 100 paintballs. For your information, if you go by yourself the price you should pay would be £14 for 100 paintballs, not to mention the transportation cost that is about £15 by taxi or £7 by bus. Sometimes it’s really impressive how our Students’ Union can support its students’ passion by giving them really good deal like this, isn’t it?
If you like paintball, you just have to pay £10 per academic year to be a member and from that point on you’ll just have to spend £4 for its monthly game (transport+100paintballs). More information check this out.
Not interested? Then you can try other clubs as well such as: Aikido, American Football, Badminton, Ballroom Dancing, Basketball Men’s, Boxing, Canoe, Cheerleading, Cricket, Dance, Duk Moo (Hapkido), Fencing, Hockey, Howard League, Irish Sporting & Cultural, Judo, Kickboxing, Men’s Football, Men’s Rugby Union, Netball, Parachute, Parkour, Power Kiting, Rowing, Snow sports, Squash, Sub Aqua, Surf, Tennis, Trampolining, Triathlon, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Football, and Woman’s Rugby. Yes i know, that’s a long list. Don’t afraid to be yourself and explore what you really like! x
The Dragon Year
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it!
Chinese New Year is a national holiday in my country Indonesia, giving its chinese residents (the chinese indonesian like me) the chance to celebrate their big day. We have a tradition to have a big family gathering on the new years’ eve to have a dinner together (or feast you can say haha). Then on the next day we would either have an open house, providing a lot of food for anyone to come visit, or be the one who’s visiting people, enjoying the food people offer. My favourite part? The red pocket ££££££.
While everybody back home is having a feast and busy collecting loads of money from the red pocket, I on the other hand am not doing anything, mainly because I’m working today. Well there’s always next year. May all of you have a prosperous year ahead guys! x
Sayonara
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012I can’t believe I have to attend 4 farewell parties this week. I mean, oh my God, I AM losing friends aren’t I!!
You know, some people say childhood is the best times of their lives. Some say no, it’s high school. But I think it’s university. Well I admit that when I was in high school I did think it was the best years of my life, but now that I am in uni I think uni is much much better. Why? Because it is such a priceless learning experience and it offers things that high school doesn’t: it gives you the chance to be friends with hundreds of people, from everywhere – all the countries you can name and even you don’t know exist. Where else can you learn how to cook Indian food from an Indian, and listen about Bulgaria from a Bulgarian? But there’s always the suck part in every good thing isn’t it, which in this case is the goodbye.
If you think about it, how can it be called goodbye if there’s no good in goodbye right? And how can you celebrate something so sad. I know we can still keep in touch with Skype or Facebook, but it still means one less person to call in your phone, one less person to hang out with, one less person to invite to a party, one less person to invite you to a party and… well you get the idea.
Anyway, I still love uni. And again, this is just a part of life and I’ve accepted it. I will still make friends from various places lol :p x
A British Wedding
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
I went to a British wedding today, for the first time. It wasn’t that different than the wedding in my country, but still it was a different experience. I don’t know why I’m always so happy when I attend people’s weddings, maybe happiness is contagious and I get it from the bride and groom :p.
Congratulations Harry and Lisa! xxx
The Black Man
Thursday, January 19th, 2012I found a very interesting story from my favourite writer’s blog and I liked it so I thought of sharing it. It goes pretty much like this:
A German girl was about to eat her lunch in the cafetaria at a German University when she realised she has forgotten her cutlery. She then got up to get the cutlery, just to found when she came back that a black man, possible sub-Saharian, was sitting there and eating from her tray.
She didn’t know what to do at first, but then she presumed that the African man is not familiar with European customs concerning private property and privacy. She also thought that maybe the African man does not have any money to pay for his meal. She then decided to just sit in front of him and start to help herself, while smiling at the African. The African smiled back at her and they shared the food with genuine pleasure and courtesy.
He took the salad, she ate the soup, both shared the stew, one took the yoghurt and the other the fruits. All was done with smiles, timid and smooth from the man, encouraging and kind by the girl. Just when the German girl finally got up to get a coffee she discovered her coat placed on the back of a chair on the table behind them, and her food tray still untouched.
The moral of the story is it would be better to free ourselves of prejudices. The German girl had a prejudice towards the African man, assuming he was not civilised enough or didn’t have the manner to know about private property, and ended up getting the title herself.
What do you think? This story is really inspirational to me. The complete story can be found here. x
I’m Coming Home
Sunday, January 15th, 2012I just bought myself a ticket to go home. After 2 years I’m finally going home. 4th of June 2012. x
Software Engineering Enterprise and Innovation Project
Thursday, January 12th, 2012As I mentioned before, as part of the Softare Engineering Enterprise and Innovation module we are having a group project to work together to offer solution for a real-life client. The whole process has started now. Each team has already chosen the team leader and deputy, set the ground rules to be followed, and assigned the task for each person based on each preference. I took the programmer role in my team since I really enjoy writing codes :p.
So in several weeks time we will be meeting the client that would tell us about their company, the software they need, the requirements etc. We then have to come up with the idea for the solution to offer them and then present it in front of them to get their full approval before we start build it.
I’ll update you about it later when we’ve reached that stage ok? You have a good weekend x
New position: Community Service and Social Responsibility?
Friday, January 6th, 2012
As 2011 came to its end, so did my PPI UK contract. If you read my previous post about my London trip, you know the reason I went down was to attend the last meeting of 2011 aiming to choose a new president for 2012. As we successfully reached a decision and picked a new president who we believed was competent enough to lead thousands of Indonesian students in the UK, after a year long doing an unpaidjob beside of our own studies, we gave up our positions and our works.
It was a real good experience, I should say. It was my first time working in such a big organisation and my first time being involved in making a real change for other people. Not only that I learnt a lot of new stuff about IT and Media where I worked in, but also about how to work in an organisation and more importantly, it gave me friends and memories.
Ok, lets skip the bad news and go to the good news: I managed to gain a position again for this year! Woop! 
After sending my CV and cover letter to the recruitment team I was actually contacted by two divisions, the IT and Media division and Community Service and Social Responsibility division, requiring me to choose which offer I would like to take. I was so confused that I asked the new president what he thinks I should do, and he asked me back: “What is it that you are looking for: 1. Be specialised and real good in something; to have a label under your name that whenever people hear your name they will be reminded of something on top of their heads. Or 2. Have experiences of working in various divisions doing various jobs.” Rephrasing the question, it’s just like asking whether you prefer to be really good in one thing, or be just ‘okay’ in a lot of things. Which one would you choose?
I chose the second one. The reason was because I don’t want to be boxed inside only one thing, I want to gain as many experiences as possible. I mean I would do the IT and Media job anyway when I graduate, so I better use the opportunity to learn something new don’t I? So here’s my new position for 2012: Public Relations and Fund Raising Mgr., Community Service and Social Responsibility division.
The first meeting is scheduled to be held on the second weekend of February. I will update you again about my position and the new programmes by then! x
