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.

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.

My Fulbright Journey – Part 8

I’m so behind with writing this whole series! I promised that I would write more during winter break, but I was too busy having so much fun, which I will talk about in another post! But for now, I still need to share about my journey to arrive in the U.S. using the Fulbright scholarship!

Capek ah, bahasa Inggris :D

Well, ditahap ini ada dua hal yang menjadi perhatian: (1) Urusan visa dan (2) Packing. JANGAN SEKALI-KALI MEMANDANG ENTENG PACKING! Saya bahkan packing dua bulan sebelum keberangkatan. Tetapi, sebelum kita bicara tentang packing, saya akan berbagi sedikit tentang urusan visa yang juga cukup mendebarkan.

Pertama-tama, seperti biasa Anda akan mendengar kabar dari AMINEF. Seharusnya pada tahap ini, teman-teman juga sudah mendengar kabar dari universitas yang Anda daftari melalui AMINEF. Ingat ya, jangan menghubungi pihak universitasnya langsung. Bila ada pertanyaan, hubungilah pihak AMINEF terlebih dahulu. Jika ternyata pihak universitas menghubungi Anda secara langsung, forwardlah email tersebut kepada AMINEF. Pokoknya jangan sampai ada miskomunikasi antara Anda, AMINEF, dan pihak universitas.

Searching for Courses, Universities, and Scholarships!

Hello dear readers!

I am finally uploading something again! And if it wasn’t for the fact that this is actually an assignment for this course that I am currently taking (Multimedia in Professional Communication), I might not post anything until next month during spring break! But hey, here is a new post in video format!

Hopefully this video will be able to help you in your ‘adventure’ to pursue a degree abroad. Go ahead and click that play button! You know you want to! *Wink*