My Saturday Night is About TED Talks

After reading the title above, I know some of you think it is a miserable thing when you have nothing to do in your free saturday night. Yeah, and no. Actually I had plans for this night, to meet some of my friends and hang out. But you know, things don't always work the way you wish to. So my friends cancelled it and I ended up in here. It was such a bad day when you worn out after doing 3 hours workout in the morning then you found out that your crush dating someone else. And this was how my saturday night rolls : do some work-read books-and binge watching amazing TED Talks. 

It was a good coincidence when I scrolled my timeline, twitter account of TEDxUnivBrawijaya (yeah, i know. finally my campus organize the first TEDx Event tomorrow!!) and they tweeted about a TED Talks playlist about public speaking. Thanks to my cheap but not cheesy internet modem, I could binge watching them and share my favorites ones. Here they are :

1. Julian Treasure - How to Speak So People Want to Listen

In TED Talks, you will meet a bunch of powerful, interactive, and awesome speakers whose jobs are mostly the ones you never thought exists. In this talk, the speaker-Julian Treasure- is a Sound Expert and the chair of a Sound Agency. His job is giving advises to bussiness worldwide --offices, retailers, hotels -- on how to use sound.

This time, he spoke about how to speak so people want to listen. He explained few things that make people don't want to listen. First, the content. Second, our sound. He also advised us to do warming up before speaking in front of people. Watch him and get inspired. 

2. Amy Cuddy - Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

I always mesmerized by women who has terrific level of public speaking. Amy Cuddy is one of them. She is a social psychologist, a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School. In her 20 mins of talk, she gave me sight of how body language can change our mind and then it would change the outcomes. This body language she meant is the Power Pose, which is the gesture or pose of powerful people. Power posing can make us feel more powerful and later be more successful in what we do. She explained the magic of fake it until you become it not fake it until you make it. 

Along with her exciting topic, she also has brought many evidence and researches which support the talk. She mentioned about the level of hormones in our bodies, mainly testosterone and cortisol, which govern our body to be powerful or powerless. Moreover, she also share her personal story about her being judged not capable to finish her college due to brain injury. But she proved to them she can, eventually, after struggling and changing the way she pose into the power pose. All in all, I adore how she speaks, the topic she brought was also rare yet it was atrractive.

3. Megan Washington - Why I live in Mortal Dread of Public Speaking

Megan is one of Australia's performers/songwriters. Surprisingly, she has had a stutter since childhood. In the beginning of her speak, she spoke her first sentences haltingly. I thought she was joking or pretending to have a stutter but she wasn't. Having a stutter since early age make her afraid to speak with people. Until she found out when she sings is the only time when she can speak fluently. She said it is tricking her brain. 

“Megan's edifying admission will help others who struggle with speech impediments that may be hiding in the shadows to embrace life and not let their difficulties hold them back. ” — Woman's Day

That's it. Happy watching and get those ideas worth spreading!

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Pengalaman Wawancara Visa Amerika (2)

Pada hari Rabu di bulan Desember, sesuai dengan jadwal yang telah ditentukan sebelumnya saya datang ke Konsulat Jenderal Amerika Serikat di Surabaya. Lokasinya di daerah perumahan elite Citraland, dekat dengan Pakuwon dan Supermall. Jalan menuju kesana juga tidak susah karena penunjuk jalan sangat jelas. Sebagai informasi saja, sebelumnya Konjen AS berada di Jl. Dr. Sutomo Surabaya kemudian pindah di Citraland ini. 

Menurut jadwal, wawancara saya dimulai pukul 08.45. Namun berdasar saran teman-teman yang sebelumnya sudah diwawancara dan menilik pengalaman saya sebelumnya mengenai visa Schengen-Eropa, saya memutuskan untuk datang lebih pagi. Sekitar pukul 6.45 saya sudah sampai di lokasi. Dari depan, Konjen AS didominasi tembok putih dan mirip dengan bunker dengan penampakan petugas keamanan yang bersenjata lengkap.

Konjen AS di Citraland tampak samping (google.com)

Saya orang kedua yang datang pagi itu. Ketika datang, saya lapor terlebih dahulu ke petugas keamaanan dan disuruh untuk menunggu. Katanya, meskipun jadwal saya 08.45 namun karena saya datang lebih dulu, maka akan didahulukan (Yes!). Sembari menunggu, saya pun mengobrol dengan pelamar visa yang lain. Sebelum saya, ada seorang bapak yang ingin memperbarui visanya karena akan bekerja di Bermuda dengan lebih dulu transit di New York. Beliau sudah bolak-balik ke Bermuda karena pekerjaannya. Untuk transit ternyata butuh Visa juga, yang berlaku 29 hari. "Banyak mbak, orang Indonesia yang curang. Mereka apply visa C1 (untuk transit) lalu kabur untuk bekerja. Tapi ya resikonya besar, tidak bisa pulang atau pulang dan dipenjara" ceritanya sekilas.

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Pengalaman Wawancara Visa Amerika (1)

Seperti yang telah saya sebutkan di post sebelumnya, saya berencana mengikuti konferensi dan simulasi sidang PBB terbesar di dunia, Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) 2015 Februari mendatang. Berbagai persiapan telah kami (saya dan tim) lakukan, dan Hari H semakin mendekat hingga akhirnya tibalah waktu kami untuk apply visa Amerika.Saya akan mencoba menceritakan kepada anda tentang pengalaman saya mengajukan aplikasi Visa Amerika.

But first of all, the main question everyone would ask is : How to apply for US Visa? Bagaimana caranya? Saya sendiri dibantu oleh teman satu tim Brawijaya for HNMUN yang berbaik hati.Jadi bisa dikatakan saya hanya menyerahkan data-data saja. Prinsipnya, pertama anda harus mengisi data-data aplikasi online yang disebut DS-160 di web konsulat Amerika. Untuk mengajukan aplikasi visa non-imigran seperti saya, silahkan klik di https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/ dan untuk informasi lebih lengkap pengajuan visa Amerika, anda bisa klik di web berbahasa Indonesia ini.

Setelah aplikasi online anda selesai, selanjutnya adalah melakukan pembayaran. Prosedurnya yaitu :

1. Klik di sini untuk mengetahui berapa yang harus anda bayar disesuaikan dengan kurs rupiah. Print Slip Deposit tersebut. Sebagai informasi, ketika itu saya harus membayar 160 USD yang setara dengan Rp 2.000.000.

2.Bawa Slip Deposit, Uang, Fotokopi Passport ke Bank Permata dan serahkan kepada Teller Bank.

3. Minta tanda bukti pembayaran

DS-160 Confirmation Letter

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Lessons.

Have you ever seen a romantic soap opera on TV and feel sick about the plot? Have you ever seen girls crying after breaking up with her lover in the public places? Have you ever seen a couple who are having a terrible quarrel and yelling at each other in the public places? 

If one of those answers is yes, you might think that love can be so incredibly wrong and what might be left are the PAIN and HATRED

So, what are we gonna do? We can't just easily walk out or force ourselves to not being in love with someone. It's just clearly impossible, isn't it? What I suggest you to do, my dear readers, is do learn from the experience. Take lessons from every terrible things that bang you in the past.

This time, you can learn from my experience. My personal experience about LOVE which I should say the most frustrating thing ever in this decade of my life. It's like the thing you wanna tell to your children later, so that they will be more prepared in the event that they're in the same position (which I really don't hope so)

So fellass.. Let's begin our lesson. (I'd say these things to my beautiful children if I have later)

"Kid, if someone starts to pay more attention to you or starts flirting with you meanwhile he's still in relationship with someone else, back off and say NO from the beginning. Because he will do it again to you, sooner or later."

"Kid, if you are in the middle of your friend's relationship, just stay quite and do not act or talk to them unless they've finished their problems. Otherwise, you might add another problem"

"Kid, if you get blamed by many people for something you don't do, just be nice to them and let the time reveals all the truth. Because if you're busy listening and clarifying things here and there, it's totally in vain"

"Kid, if someone say bad things to you, don't do the same thing. Because they won't stop"

"Kid, if guys come to you and say they love you,don't be too happy and accept them easily. Take time. Take time as long as you need to convince yourself whether he's the right one. Because a guy who's in love and seems like he wants you very bad,will say enormous sweet things to you. Unfortunately, most of them are just garbage. They just want to get you in their hand first, and they will forget everything they say to you"

"Kid, if you feel like people abandon you, and you feel alone, it's the sign that Allah misses you. He just want to talk to you, so go talk to Him"

"Kid, don't judge people easily based on other's people story. Ask directly to them. Because you might be in their position someday, and it feels HOLY terrible"

End of the lessons.

As Ted said in How I met Your Mother : 

"A word of advice: play along. The more you fight it, the worse it’s gonna get. It’s like when your car slides on ice, you stir into the skid"

"There are a lot of little reasons why the big things in our lives happen"

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Catatan Perjalanan dari Kuala Lumpur

Tanggal 30 Januari 2013 adalah salah satu hari ternekat bagi saya diantara hari-hari penuh kenekatan lainnya. Why is that so? Karena pada hari itu saya terbang ke Kuala Lumpur tanpa ijin orang tua, seorang  diri, dan hanya bermodal uang 500 ribu rupiah atau sekitar 150 ringgit. Saya jadi teringat kata-kata Mas Muchlis yaitu sebagai mahasiswa dan seorang yang dewasa kita terkadang tidak perlu lagi meminta ijin orang tua selama kita berkeyakinan hal itu bukan merupakan hal yang buruk. Entah benar atau sedikit sesat, saya pun akhirnya percaya akan teori itu.

Berawal dari hunting tiket promo Air Asia , saya iseng-iseng membeli tiket SUB-KUL pp seharga 300 ribu. Empat hari di KL saya rencanakan untuk mengisi liburan kuliah. Sebelumnya saya sudah merencanakan dengan baik dan melakukan banyak survey baik itu di internet, buku, dan bertanya ke orang lain tentang KL mengingat nantinya saya hanya seorang diri.

Tiba 3 jam sebelum keberangkatan, pagi itu sekitar pukul 8, Bandara Internasional Juanda terlihat cukup sepi. Karena counter check in belum dibuka, saya lalu mencari tempat duduk untuk membaca novel sembari membunuh waktu. Selang beberapa menit membolak-balik novel, diam-diam saya memperhatikan seorang wanita di sebelah saya. Membawa ransel khas backpacker, berpakaian casual, seorang diri, dan membawa buku mengenai info travelling ke Asia Tenggara. Saya pun memberanikan diri untuk bertanya dan berkenalan. Menit berikutnya, kami sudah terlibat perbincangan yang seru.

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Cross Border Medical Education : Prague, Czech Republic

Dobry den! I was lucky enough to experience a professional exchange to Prague at July 2012. I got a chance to meet other students, doctors, and health professionals at Third Medical Faculty Charles University of Prague. As one of the out-goers, I had a secret mission to get to know how was the medical educational system in Prague like. This was quite a hard mission due to the only-a-month-exchange-period I had. Anyway, I've done the mission so I'd like to share it with all of you. Happy reading :D

Prologue

Czech Republic is one of the countries located in Central Europe. It is widely known for its rich ancient histories and amazing architecture. Its capital and largest City is Prague. There are a lot of famous cultural attractions with stunning architecture in Prague. Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Astronomical Clock, Prague Castle and so many others had made Prague as the sixth-most-visited city in Europe.The economy condition in Prague remains high and stable with a GDP per capita of 80% of the European Union average.

Prague amazing view

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Prague, I'm Coming !!! (Part 2)

So, the story goes...
After I got the passport and CA the next thing to do was apply for visa. For this occasion, I used a Schengen Visa. It's a visa which you can use for European Union countries, known as Schengen Area, which currently consisting of 26 countries. Pay attention for the EU countries you're gonna travel to, it might not listed as Schengen Area, such as UK and Romania, and you will be surely in trouble when you don't have a proper visa. (don't laugh, my friend had been arrested by the immigration officer in Romania because of this)

Schengen Area

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Prague, I'm Coming !!

As I said in my last post that I got a chance to do student exchange program in Czech Republic! Woohooo ! But, (there's always been a 'but' anyway) it surely didn't just stop there. I had another tasks following my exchange application. There are some documents requirements I had to submit. I took up the torch anyway.

First of all is Passport. Yap, this was my first time going abroad so I hadn't got any passport yet at the moment. So, I went to my hometown, Sidoarjo, to submit my passport application. The office was so packed like sardines and I didn't know anything about how to make it. I came at about 9 o'clock in the morning and I took the form. The form was a bit confusing as well so it took me more time to fill it. Thirty minutes later, I finished it all and headed to the officer at the locket.
As I gave my map to him, he said "Sorry, miss. But we can't receive any passport applicants. The quota is already full."

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Bonjour! Let's Learn French Together!

I am currently addicted to learn new languages after I traveled around Europe. It's just amazing to see how natives speak their languages with their original accents. It's also just annoying that you can't understand them as well. Besides, I've met some friends, they're just like me, ordinary medical students, but what distinct us is they speak more than 2 languages. Mariusz is one of them. This Polish guy is able to speak Polish, Czech, German, Russian, and English. Although he isn't too good at speaking those languages, but at least he understand some words and can communicate a lil bit. That piece of 'lil bit' has amazed me enough, indeed.


The languages I wanna learn a lil bit are Czech, German, and absolutely French. Czech, is because I've been there for a month so I knew some of the words and also its culture. German, is because I already learned it at high school and as I left the school I definitely didn't make any contact with it so it just gone. Moreover, few countries in Europe speak German, for example in Austria and Switzerland. I found it useful to be spoken especially for those who live in Europe.

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An Epic Article : Tips for Surviving Medical School

This article is taken from medscape site, and I was told by my classmate about it. I read it for sure and it really represents med-students' life, as I've got thru that since a year ago. These simple tips may lead you to a better quality of your study, whether you are a med-student or not.
So, Enjoy it !

Tips for Surviving Medical School

Farook W. Taha; Adeleke T. Adesina

Authors and Disclosures

Posted: 02/04/2011 

Remember when you were a premedical student in college? It seems like a century ago for many of us who have just completed the first year of medical school. It feels that way because our lives have changed dramatically. Normal life seems to have vanished, and suddenly, 24 hours in a day are not enough to get through the enormous volumes of information that we are expected to learn for every exam. It seems virtually impossible. We barely have time to eat or sleep.

Medical school is not the end of the world. Take it from us, 2 students who have been there, when we say that medical school is what you make of it. Do not let medicine define you; instead, you should tailor medicine to your lifestyle. Otherwise, you might become overwhelmed by the demands of your new life and lose the sense of why you chose medicine in the first place.

How do you survive medical school? From the beginning, time management must be a major priority. If you can manage your time successfully, you can still enjoy your life to a certain extent. Studying in med school is not the same as it was in college; this is a new world where you have to explore different techniques and find what works best for you. In medical school, it is all about studying smart, not studying hard. If you don't know this at the beginning, you will learn it the hard way.

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