My Fulbright Journey - Part 9

Finally! The day that you've all been waiting for! It's time to fly to the U.S.!

I was still smiling here LOL

Even as I said my goodbyes to my family, I still couldn't believe that I'm finally moving to the U.S.! It was like a dream. I was on auto pilot, and I didn't cry until I was at Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta. My feelings were all jumbled up! I was happy because I'm finally going to be a student again, with an awesome scholarship! On the other hand I was sad, and frankly scared because I wasn't sure how I'll survive alone. Will I make friends? Or will I just be another graduate nerd. I guess you could say that it was bitter-sweet.

My last night in Indonesia, I slept in my parents hotel room although AMINEF booked me a room to share with another Fulbrighter. I think at that time my parents also still couldn't believe that their eldest daughter will be travelling to the other side of the world alone. They were as nervous as I was. What if I somehow ended up in Africa or something? Haha. We talked all night long. They hugged me tight.  
(This is where you all go AWWWW... XD)

We had to wake up before the break of dawn. My first leg of the flight was from Jakarta to Tokyo-Narita. I was pretty excited because I've been to Narita Airport before. I really wanted to get some Japanese gifts to decorate my new room in Iowa.

We arrived about two hours before boarding. I suggest you do the same. Don't take Jakarta's traffic lightly! You don't want to look stupid by missing your flight. It's better to just get ready earlier, take a nice shower, and relax once you get to the airport. I said my goodbyes pretty quickly, couldn't stand my aunt and uncle's tears (Yeah you guys, they went to Jakarta to send me off! I'm their favorite niece XD). Hugged my little sister a bit longer, since we were actually starting to get sisterly you know, no more bitching about each other! And then in I went to the immigration place thingy after getting my boarding passes and checking my two fat luggage. I only had a backpack and a small fanny pack where I stored my documents and some money.

I Am Back To Revive This Blog!

Hello dear readers! 

I can't believe it... my last post was posted in 2016! Four years later, and I've decided to at least get the My Fulbright Journey post series completed. 

It's been a crazy past three years for me. I graduated with a Masters in TESL/Applied Linguistics from Iowa State University in 2017. I then stayed in Ames, Iowa to pursue my PhD in Applied Linguistics and Technology also at ISU. This is now Fall 2020, and I'm a fourth-year PhD student! FOURTH-year. Jeez, it sounds so alien to me.

Anyways, some things that I'd like to talk about in my future posts (aside from the My Fulbright Journey posts that I PROMISE I'll post) are:

• Being involved in student organizations as a graduate student.
• How Ames has become my new home away from home. 
• Being my own advocate: How to promote yourself as a graduate student.
• Doing research in a Tier 1 research university.
• Working as a research and teaching assistant at a U.S. university.

I wonder, what other topics would you like me to talk about?

Salam hangat,

Nanda

F.A.Q (Frequently Asked Questions)

Hello dear readers!

Wow, this summer has been a blast! And by a blast, I mean, I slept, ate, watched, read for pleasure a lot. So much so that I completely forgot that I had other things to do! Like updating my blog.

So here I am, dear readers. I read and replied to most of the comments on this blog and emails that were sent to me. Not surprisingly, there were questions that get asked more often than others. Therefore I tried to compile a list of these frequently asked questions to make everything easier for everyone! If you don't find the answer to your question(s) here, please don't hesitate to send me an email at ananda_astrini@yahoo.com and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can!

1. Which is harder, IELTS or TOEFL IBT?

Answer: Both are hard! Especially if you don't prepare. Uh, duh. Hahaha. The IELTS (Academic) and TOEFL IBT both attempts to assess your English proficiency in an academic context. However, they do it quite differently. Although they both have listening, reading, speaking, and writing tests, their question types are very different. So I learned for IELTS first and then I found out I had to take a TOEFL IBT test. Then I learned for that, and although some skills did transfer (e.g. skimming and scanning), the TOEFL IBT test just had a totally different format. I just had to learn other skills, like note-taking. So, no, I can't say that IELTS was easier and TOEFL IBT was harder and vice versa.

Proofread Me Project

Dear para pembaca yang budiman,

Berikut adalah informasi yang akan sangat membantu kalian dalam proses pendaftaran beasiswa. Silahkan bagikan informasi penting ini!

****

Dear Calon Penerima Beasiswa,

Awal tahun biasanya teman-teman yang niat daftar beasiswa sudah sibuk mempersiapkan kelengkapan berkas pendaftaran. Selain skore TOEFL/IELTS, surat referensi, essay juga sangat penting sebagai syarat utama diterima sebagai penerima beasiswa. Setiap program biasanya punya istilah tersendiri dalam mengartikan “essay”. Kadang dengan istilah “ Study Objective”, “Personal Statement”, “Motivation Letter” atau bahkan ada yang hanya dengan menjawab beberapa pertanyaan di form aplikasi dengan batasan kata atau karakter tertentu.

Apapun istilahnya intinya para reviewer beasiswa ingin tahu kenapa teman-teman tertarik ikut program tersebut, dari sekian banyak pelamar kenapa anda layak diberi kesempatan ini, apa kaitan program yang teman-teman ingin pelajari dengan pengalaman dan jurusan sebelumnya, dan yang pasti apa dampak/kontribusi anda setelah kembali ke Indonesia. Nah….makanya essay sangat penting untuk merubah status teman-teman dari pelamar (applicants) ke penerima (recipients) beasiswa.

5 Ways I Procrastinate Productively (as a Graduate Student)

It's the 9th week of the Spring semester, a.k.a my second semester as a graduate student in the U.S. Alhamdulillah, so far I feel like I'm on the right track. Currently working on my thesis proposal (Tentative title: Designing and creating video materials to promote communicative L2 ability and enhance wilingness to communicate in academic and social settings), waiting to hear from my *cross-your fingers* soon to be out-of-department committee member, thinking about my PhD plans (I know, I know, I'm way ahead of myself), and working on some research ideas. I'm living the life that I want and enjoy it immensely.

But compared to last semester, I've been procrastinating a lot. I like to say that I'm having fun, too much. My friends insist that there's no such thing as having too much fun. I say there is, and it's called chronic procrastination, with a twist. I'm saying with a twist because procrastination is always perceived as wasting your time and being unproductive. However, the optimistic me looks at procrastination using a whole new lense.

Here are the 5 ways I procrastinate very productively as a graduate student: