About ITB

I did chitchat with 2 of my ITB seniors just now.The way they described ITB totally different then what I heard before.It was freaked me out.


Me : I heard my pharmacist ever said ITB was a nice school.Easy going college life .

Seniors : What the hell are you talking about?Who told you ITB was easy?I think he/she was telling you in sarcastic way.That is no such thing.

Me : In ITB they conducted our class in English right?

Senior : Ermm with term and condition.If your intake manage to archive more then 5 international students per class, they may open a new class for international student which fully conduct in English.If not,ITB simply dumped you into the regular class,with local students.The local class will be all in Indonesia language.

Me : When is our midsem break or sem break?

Senior : No.For your information,ITB had no 1 week of midsem break like Malaysia,but they did had sem break.Dont stress,not only ITB no midsem break ,but all university in Indonesia too.This mean, during exam week ,in the same time you need to complete your lab report,research ,homework,and lab. We will have our holiday,Sem break,in May (3 months) and December ( 3 weeks).

Me :I heard the entry requirements over here are quite low,quite easy for Malaysia students to get their place here.

Senior : No deny, the entry requirements really lower than Malaysia ,but it dont mean easy to get your place here.As you know , ITB finally secured its place in the first rank of Indonesia Pharmacy School this year,2015.In order to maintain their place, ITB did make they biggest efforts on the academic which quite stressful for us,student.For Malaysia students intake , ITB did set a quota and the number kept on decrease from years to years.This year there is only 5 of the international student from Malaysia.Quite sad , I thought it should be more than these.Make sure you make your physically and mentally well prepared ,sleep and rest while you can.Once you started your class,there will be no time at all for rest.Sometimes we only slept 4 hours per day.

Me : How if I fail my paper for my first year?

Senior : If you fail your paper,what a bad news to tell you,that you only can retake the papers on your seconds year.If you fail 1 paper,mean you need totally retake the whole entire paper,and compulsory come for the every classes.Because the attendance take in count.It will become a burden.My advice is try hard to not fail your subject if not it will be tough for the coming up years..

Me : Ever any students didnt complete their study and back Malaysia for good?

Senior : Few of them.ITB was quite stressfull ,I did cried lot at the first year I am here.I ever told my dad,I wanna give up.But at the last,see.I m still here doing my forth year,final year.So there will sure tension but just remember we,seniors all are ready to help if you face any problem in study.

Me :I did have really bad math.

Senior : Err, the maths are relatively simple. Just basic multiplications and stuff.Its just how you apply the formulas into practice.

You might interest to read my : FIRST DAY ITB REGISTERATION

FOod

I m from Malaysia,and I m a typical Chinese that cant really eat spicy.(Mean even bit spice make me sweat and face blushed red)

So,that was quite funny ,when I exactly choose to further my study in Indonesia.

Bandung,local peoples used to tell me, "Ini pedas ya sedikit..."

When I came to taste it.What a lie."Hollyshit, what the X$%^*^$@&%#@.Damn spicy drew me to tear man.!! "Truly worry how I gonna spend my rest of 4 years life here with these kind of food.

We started seek for those no spicy food that we familiar with.The result came out was...

1. Nasi Goreng
2. Nasi Goreng
3. Nasi Goreng
4.Nasi Goreng.........

Dont think it was a simple fried rice dish.Meanwhile it really huge knowledge and experience.I always asked price first and add on few words when I ordered it.


" Fried rice WITH EGG AND FRIED EGG ON TOP."
"NO BAKSO(beef). NO SPICY. NO CILLI. NO GULA."


After a week here,I started to adapt with environment and food. Every times I pass by angot, I used to see the small stalls in trolley by roadside.Ever desired to taste it,but its still too early.Lets take more time for my little tummy comfort with here 's food,in order to prevent any stomachache in night again.

After day and night of fried rice as my most importance energy source, I got bored.Moved my sight to other kind of food,mostly are fast food,western food. Japanese food , Korean food and so on.


Heehee.

International Relation Office

The most importance things when you further oversea study,make sure you make real much copies of all your documents and photo.Approximately should more then 6 copies ;One copy for  registration ITB school, one copy for visa,one copy for agent,one copy for kitas(IRO),one copy for bank ,one copy for self keep.

*Kitas is kind of indonesia visa or student visa *

The international informed us ,they would took 2 months above to get our kitas done.In the duration of this 2 months,we not supposed to back Malaysia,or our kitas will be automatically cancelled.Due to certain kind of problem,not sure technique or procedure problem,our kitas wont done in 2 months .That means we need to renew our visa after 2 months if not they can fined us almost rm 100  per day for stay in Indonesia.

What a nonsense excuse to charge us more!

(I have my diploma convocation ceremony first week of octorber,Izit this mean I cant make it back.Damn !!!!!)

ITB Registration day

Wake up early in the morning ,putted on my best suit.Today was a big day for me,no doubt I felt the butterflies in my tummy.

Waited in front of my hostel (they call kost)for our agent,IBu Lien to pick us up.A black colour tinted glass Hyundai car stopped in front of us,and we entered in.

“Did you bring your all documents  I mentioned in whatsapp yesterday.?Passport?Bacause later we were going for the ITB new student registeration and also IRo (ITB Indonesia Immigration Office).

It was early in the morning.We could felt the cool freeze wind hit against us make me shivered.I regretted to forgot my sweater in my room.All along the way to ITB,my eyes kept  staring outside through window.Bandung,was a busy hectic city,where the traffic always jam.The driver in Bandung  must owned good driving skill in order  to survive. If you are saying Kuala Lumpur traffic jam,I think bandung traffic jam was more worst.The reason was in Bandung the road small and the traffic jam in chaos.Two lanes road might have 3 lanes driving car or more.The U turn not  really a U-turn road instead of a U turn signboard in a 2 ways road,no any specific way.Watching those traffic making me phobia.

After 20 minutes of driving,we arrived .With our personal  documents and few documents  gave by our agent in hand,we stepped into our school.First thing I ever thought when I got down from car ,“Why this ITB look so different with what I saw on internet.”Soon,I got my answer.Actually in Bandung got lot of ITB and this ITB is call Auditorium SABUGA. SABUGA is a red building where we gonna do our registration by own inside,no parents or agent allow. Queue was super long in front.Even I thought we are early ,but yet still late.We queued at the most behind one.I looked around me,why they all wearing uniform,white shirt and dark blue pant.Some of them looked young ,age between 16 and 19.In the same time,the other students also gave us some weird glance,cant blame them.Who asked us to wear so unformally, as they were all in their dark green jacket.

Okay,finally the gate opened.We queued at the back ,but been given priority for registration.Maybe because we are international students.A security guard opened the way for three of us and guided along to the international student register counter.Whoooaaa the scene was so familiar,in drama always showed a super VIP came and security guard opened way for him.That was what exactly I felt.Along the procedures to register ,damn lucky got an international officer assisted us beside.Bahasa Indonesia sounded likely Bahasa Melayu but actually no so.It essence and some pronounce did form the communication gap between us.The registration form was in Indonesia.No mean to be so stupid,but honestly I seriously cant understand their language so well.So basically we communicated in English.

Checked. Our colour blindness test not pass.In the other word,they dun really accepted Malaysia Hospital Colorblindness test result.So they want us to redo a new check up.We came to ITB Rumah Sakit.I heard my father Indonesia worker  ever told me,

“Rumah Sakit in Indonesia will charge your super expensive.If Don’t have money mean ,they wont serve you even you die.”

His words kept re-flashed in my mind.Opened my wallet ,checked my money.

”My money enough?”I started worried.

When time to pay,in the payment resit,rp 25 000.For a typical Malaysian ,I wasn’t so good with the money rate changing to Ringgit value.Calculated.”HollySh**”.The big amount did scared me,actual value in Ringgit was RM8.10.This  price in Malaysia only enough for your lunch.Quite cheap for a medical checkup.

Done our checkup,backed to campus.Proceed with the registration.Lot of sections  need to go through, personal information,family data,hostel,payment,photoshot,insurance………Actually because I m Chinese, so people used to assumed me Indonesia Chinese .The officer would speak in Indonesia with us.Today was a day I showed most blur face in my life.I acted so idoit,like a English people dumped in Indonesia.

”I am international student from Malaysia.Can you speak English ,I cant really understand Indonesia.”I surprisely found this sentence quite useful.For this whole day long, I dun knew how many time did I repeated this, when ever I came to new officer.

Next stop will be the IRO(Indonesia ITB Immigration Registeration Office).

ITB was so big,triple than my previous college.Lot of charity and sale booths around run by the students.They also sold food,all look so weird for me.

Even I m damn hungry ,but I m not willing to take a risk on those strange food.I scared my tummy cant stand it,and again suffered of diarrhea.

We meet few of the local students , they were so kind and friendly. 

Thanks god!!!

Exactly 13 days ago, I received a call from my agent, IBU Lien.

From the another side of the phone, I heard sound of an old lady around 40 age ,passed me an unexpected news with her super strong Indonesia essences ~

"Apakah ini Tan YiJia?Ibu mau kasi tahu sama berita baekk. Tan Yi Jia udah komperm temp at ya di ITB "

At the split of second I felt happiness but  rapidly turned into confuseness. Then mixed up with sad and also fear.Sad ,because I gonna left my family and travel to a far place,mean no more mummy girl after this.Everything must be done by own.Fear, lot of negative rumors about Indonesia make me lack confidence with it.


This will be my first time travel oversea and my first time flight.Strange country, strange people,everything so  strange for me. 

Soon, I found out there will be another 2 girls going too. 

THAT MAKE ME A LITTLE BIT  RELIEVE. Thanks god!!!!

First day troubles

My ticket was 3.20pm flight,and arrived Bandung, Indonesia 4.10pm.(Malaysia 5.20pm).Never mean to cover my clumsiness, I admitted my first time flight wasnt endup so perfectly.Everything was screwed up and come in mess at the moment I found our agent forgot to add on extra 30kg luggages weight for us. My day came in cloud and storm, slightly striked ligthing.With each kg of extra 1 kg weigh they might charge RM 50.After few of discuss and initiatives ,finally we settle it .We late for flight.Rushing like hell with 6kg of hand luggage and heavy laptop bag. I even din had much time to say to my parents when boarding, instead rush for flight.

Inside the plane, I was placed in between 2 mans,a Japanese guy and a Indonesia uncle.My heavy big laptop bag did make a big smash on the uncle face when I tried to get into my seat.Really felt sorry for that.I thought I might had sweet rest after all those disaster. Unluckily,the uncle sit beside me was truly friendly,until I need to act sleep.Non stop talking.2 hours was just another torture.

Forgot to mention here, when I look down from  the flight through window , view up there was gorgeous and now I understand why my boyfriend so addicted to aircraft things.A little bit impressed  toward intelligence of human created a vehicle exactly can make us fly like bird in blue sky.

"I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky........"

Bandung airport, the actual look wasnt what I expected. I expected for look at-least like KLIA or KLIA 2 airport, but what it was just more likely an old bus station building than airport.Once pass the kastam , we stepped into a busy and noisy open area.My heart sank, as I started worry about the university.What if the ITB I saw wasnt what I expected?? I sure be so damn sad and disappointed. No comments about the immigration and kastam , was slow and crowded like Malaysia. The different is Malaysia airport facilities and environment "N" times better than this.Suddenly I felt Malaysia is nice, started to miss my country.

Almost to 30kg luggage,1 hand carry,and laptop bag,I damn suffer to bring all that along me.The departure site wasnt even organised well.Once I got my luggage and get out.Crowded making me hard to breath.Taksi drivers proposed themself to help me carry my luggages, I stopped it.I did some research before,some bloggers did shared their experience been charged so expensive by those driver.Repeatly checking my passport and phone,anxiousness keep on rise.My eyes was staring around, tried to be alert to this totally strange surrounding until our driver(supir) come.

Got into car, I guessed my driver real identity was a racer. He managed to make corner with the space of 0.01cm between the building. (Bandung road more like a street )The motorcyclists here not much of self safety awareness. Speedily ride in between the cars.This terrified me the most.No doubt ,my driver did owned super thumb up driving skill.Such funny as I automatically reacted to step on my invisible emergency brake at passenger seat.

Since I reached Bandung until 8pm ,dinner time we still haven't got our sim card.Totally lost contact with the outside world. Why we din get our sim card? The answer is our agent mentioned the sim card at airport quite expensive and promised to bring us some where else which cheaper.The problem was we dun care about the price but I want call my mummy.Another reasons, we crushed with Bandung peak hour, horribly stuck in the traffic jam. (In Indonesia they don't say traffic jam but "mace ")I bet  my parents sure worry about me at the other side  in Malaysia. Before boarding I promised will straight away brought sim card and informed them.

Finally we dropped by shop,grocery shop.Maybe I just a typical Malaysians,when come to the money stuff I seriously got stucked. Imagined 1 liter mineral water cost me 4000 rp. My reaction super funny.The price tags on the rack did hold me for few moments. Straight away took out my phone and starting do my rate changing calculation.4000 rp is like RM 1.20(Cheaper than Malaysia ).What a relieve and embarrass with my reaction earlier.I drink a mineral priced  4 thousands,this sure shocked everyone if I dint mentioned was in rupiah.  HAHAXD

In Malaysia I used with money in 1 or 2 digits, now still not yet  adapted with too much digits and zero.I realized all of us, mean me and my friends had a  too bad habit.What ever we want to buy we need to take out our calculator and count first.Forgive on our behave, as we still new to this strange country need time to familiar with those thousands and millions money notes.My mathematics wasn't so good, the price tags did made me nervous some how.

Another funny story happened. That was a late dinner.Exhausted with whole day.We come to a restaurant and planning to feed our tummy. The menu came.Too bad, nothing in the menu I can understand except Nasi Goreng Ayam (Mentega /asam )Since that was the only things I knew and familiar with. So three of us refused to take the risk order strange food.We order 3 NASI GORENG AYAM MENTAGA.What we all expected was chicken fried rices with margarine. When the food came,we all blur. 

The waitress served the wrong food???

"Ya, ini la nasi + ayam goreng mentaga " the waitress answered us patiently.

All bursted in laugh after knew we totally got wrong with the menu.Another Sabahan guy,which come along with us ,laughed and continue with his "dago" special nasi goreng. Honestly I damn jealous the sabahan guy,because he ordered the right food,fried rice.

Done cured our hungry tummy, we told the driver to drive us buy sim card. Stepped into the shop,the shopper was friendly. When we ask him about the data mobile plan.He started to promote lot of mobile plan.We kept nob , actually we dun really captured what he said. I found communication problem between us as the shopper talk too fast in Indonesia language and too much digits of money was including.Back to our habit, took our phone and started converting rp into ringgit.I took SIMPATI sim card plan with 5Gb of data, it cost me 85 000rp.Sounded much but actually when converted into ringgit, quite cheap only Rm 27 ++.When we got our sim card, first thing was subscribe to internet then called back to Malaysia.For the whole day long, the most happy part was my phone subscribed internet ,can call my parents.

Bandung is cold place,especially night. 2 hours non stop calling my mum, my dad,and my boyfriend via whatapps .12 o'clock only I made my mind to shower after whole day long.My rent  house  water heat by gas while at home I always used the electric one.So I cant really made a good adjustment temperature of shower water.Shower in sudden cold and sudden hot water.

Still so many things havent settle yet, my luggage, my kitas, my insurance, my ITB registration....

I got bad instinct next day will be a long day.