Showing posts with label IR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IR. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Studi Ekskursi 2010

Experiencing Professional Life?

Dengan tajuk
“Experiencing Professional Life through Excursion 2010”, studi ekskursi jurusan hubungan internasional angkatan 2007 berhasil terlaksana. Dalam lima hari perjalanan menjelajah ibu kota, 7-11 November 2011, saya menemukan pemandangan yang lain dari keseharian. Saya pun diajak menatap erat hingar bingar kota metropolitan, dan menyelami aktivitas serta polah tingkah manusia di dalamnya. Seolah-olah diri ini dipaksa mengalihkan sedikit perhatian dari duka Merapi yang masih membalut pilu kota Jogjakarta tercinta.

Keputusan meninggalkan Jogja merupakan pilihan sulit karena separuh nafas saya masih melekat pada pori-pori ruang dan waktu, bersama debu dan abu vulkanik yang mulai kasat mata tersapu hujan yang mengguyur Jogja selama beberapa hari. Ya, Jogja telah aman dan nyaman seperti layaknya. Aktivitas Merapi memang bisa mengancam setiap saat, namun kenyamanan Jogja telah kembali. Saya bisa merasakan Merapi seakan anteng di dalam kekuatan mahadaya-nya. Dua hari itu Merapi telah berdamai dalam harmoni Jogja.

Hari keberangkatan, Minggu, 7 November 2010, cuaca cerah menyelimuti Jogja. Langit dan awan terlihat indah. Dedaunan telah berubah warna, dari yang semula abu-abu menjadi hijau. Namun ada yang berbeda dari biasanya. Saya tak biasa dengan kesepian di kos yang mulai menggerogoti kalbu. Bagaimana tidak, hampir seluruh teman kos saya telah pulang ke kampung halaman atau mengungsi ke rumah saudara. Hingga kira-kira hanya tersisa empat penghuni kos dari total 41 mahasiswa, belum termasuk keluarga ibu kos yang masih setia di rumah. Saya tidak terbiasa dengan kesepian di kos yang biasanya selalu riuh dengan tawa, nyanyi, dan humor penghuni-penghuninya.

Satu demi satu teman kos saya telah pergi meninggalkan Jogja. Dan saya pun merasa terpecundangi oleh diri sendiri karena ingin berbuat banyak untuk Jogja, namun terganjal limit diri dan keputusan yang telah saya buat sebelumnya. Namun saya tidak menyesali keputusan yang telah saya buat, karena akan selalu ada pembelajaran dan oleh-oleh dari sana.

Minggu, 7 November 2010

Sore itu, saya sepakat berangkat bersama sahabat saya, Flo. Saya lega, karena sebelumnya saya khawatir dengan absennya beberapa teman dekat saya dalam kegiatan ini. Tas travel yang saya jinjing terasa cukup berat hingga perjalanan menuju kampus membuat keringat saya bercucuran. Dari kejauhan terlihat bus yang telah terparkir di depan Fakultas Hukum. Kami pun mempercepat langkah, dan disambut dengan ringan tangan serta senyum ceria sahabat saya yang lain, Davi. Kemudian, teman-teman laki-laki saya dengan cekatan membantu saya menaikkan tas travel kami ke bagasi bus. Oh, what a nice beginning.

Perjalanan dimulai dengan doa. Saya terdiam, tersenyum, dan teringat kebiasaan piknik bersama keluarga dari sekolah ibu-bapak saya, ketika masih kecil, bahkan sampai saya SMA, Biasanya kami berkendara dengan bus pariwisata. Kebersamaan bersama teman-teman satu angkatan seperti ini adalah kesempatan langka bagi saya. Oleh karena itu saya mencoba menikmati setiap rasanya. Riuh, tawa, canda, teriakan, geram, nyanyian, dan beraneka obrolan menemani perjalanaan kami hingga larut. Di samping saya, duduk sahabat yang khusuk dalam perjalanan, ditemani Al-Quran, Al Ma'tsurat, dan boneka unta kesayangannya. Dalam suatu percakapan, saya merasa tertampar karena malu sendiri, mengapa saya sering mengacuhkan Kitab Suci itu.

Perjalanan menyusur senja sore itu sangat indah. Dari tepi jendela bus, saya mengagumi sketsa alam ciptaan-Nya. Sawah yang membentang, sungai yang tenang, dan pepohonan yang melambaikan tangan kebesarannya tersenyum pada saya, dengan sederhana namun menyentuh teramat dalam. Pada suatu celah waktu, saya melihat seorang kakek mendayungkan perahunya di sebuah sungai yang tenang ketika magrib menjelang. Saya semakin tersentuh. Mereka juga merupakan bagian dari kehidupan.

Semakin malam, semakin gila. Riuh renyah tawa ditambah dentuman musik dangdut semakin memeriahkan suasana malam. Mulai dari cinta satu malam, keong racun, sampai lagu-lagu ga jelas yang mengumbar aurat penyanyinya. Yang penting semua senang dan gembira. Perjalanan terus berlanjut, dan erhentian selanjutnya adalah untuk makan malam. Diteruskan hingga pagi menjelang. Akhirnya, kami sampai tepat waktu di arena rest room Cikampek pada jam 04.30 dini hari.

Senin, 8 November 2010

Kami masih mempunyai banyak waktu hingga kunjungan pertama ke LIPI (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia) pada jam 12.30 siang. Seperti biasa, apa yang terjadi menanggapi situasi seperti ini? Kuping saya lelah dengan semua komplain dan keluhan. Enyahlah dengan itu semua, saya melanjutkan tidur saya hingga jam 6. Kebetulan saya tidak sholat, jadi saya punya kesempatan untuk beristirahat lebih lama. Hingga akhirnya matahari telah menanjak, saya pun memutuskan keluar bus, menuju Indomaret untuk membeli barang yang saya perlukan. Membeli kudapan ngemil sebagai sarapan. Selanjutnya, mandi dan siap berbusana rapi.

Jam 10 kami melanjutkan perjalanan menuju LIPI. Jam 12.30, sesampainya di tempat tujuan, kami makan siang dulu. Kami pun menaiki gedung itu, di lantai 3, kami menemukan sebuah ruangan tidak terlalu lebar tapi cukup untuk sekitar 50 orang. Di sana kami di sambut dua peneliti bidang Politik dari LIPI. Sayangnya ingatan saya terlalu pendek untuk mengingat nama beliau berdua. Kami diberi pengetahuan seputar LIPI, dan diteruskan tanya jawab interaktif.

Ruangan LIPI itu mengingatkan saya akan dua hal : Pertama, Bapak Ikrar Nusa Bhakti. Siapa beliau? Ehmm, saya juga baru tahu kalau beliau itu adalah Kepala Pusat Peneliti bidang Politik di LIPI. Saya hanya terasa familiar dengan foto yang terpajang di dinding. Wajahnya serasa tidak asing. Usut punya usut ya memang beliau lah orangnya. Dalam seleksi beasiswa ADS di Jogja sekitar setahun yang lalu, saya bertemu Pak Ikrar. Selama dua hari saya menjemput beliau dan seorang juri dari Australia dari hotel untuk diantar ke Ruang Sidang Rektorat. Dalam perjalanan, kami berbincang banyak hal. Beliau sosok yang sederhana, ramah, hangat, dan down to earth. Beliau juga menitipkan salam kepada Pak Moechtar Mas'oed, dosen saya. Karena ternyata beliau berdua bersahabat baik.

Kedua, LIPI meningatkan saya pada a foreigner from Jerman. Perjumpaan tak disengaja yang melengkapi semalam obrolan saya di travel dari Blitar menuju Jogja. Kisah selengkapnya bisa dibaca di sini.

Selanjutnya saya mencatat beberapa hal dari kunjungan singkat sore itu, diantaranya:

Don't be too generous! Be selective!

Entah pada bahasan apa nasehat itu keluar dari ibu-ibu peneliti kawakan tersebut. Pelajaran berharga bagi saya diantara semua hal yang saya pelajari siang itu.

Selanjutnya, kami kembali ke Wisma Karsa Garini, di dekat Bandara Halim Perdanakusuma. Itulah tempat kami menginap selama tiga hari dua malam di Jakarta.

Hari berikutnya, Selasa 9 November, ekskursi dilanjutkan ke Kedutaan Besar Jepang dan Jakarta Post, atau CSIS.


Rabu, 10 November, kunjungan dilanjutkan ke ASTRA Internasional dan Kemenlu. Sementara, hari terakhir, 11 November kunjungan terakhir ke Kantor Delegasi Uni Eropa melengkapi rangkaian SE tahun ini. Sebenarnya sebelum bertolak balik ke Jogja, masih ada kunjungan ke Pantai Ancol, namun saya harus terpisah dari rombongan karena sudah merencanakan hal lain.


** Maaf cerita kunjungannya tidak terlalu detail ^^

Salam,

Kiki Fauzia


Thursday, February 4, 2010

INDONESIA on her eyes: "democracy, modernity, and gender empowerment"



Dear readers,

Maybe you wonder why I put the picture of a woman with black blouse, beatiful smile, strong eyes, and using eye-glasses on the left side of my post. There for a reason.

She is one powerful lady in this country. Recently she is holding a high position in Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Directorte General of America and Europe Affairs. She is the alumni from the same department as mine, International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Bu Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, we used to call it, Bu Retno, in short. Bu Retno-Deplu more spesifically, because UGM has two prominent ladies whose name is Retno. The other one is UGM Senior Vice Rector for Academic, Research and Community Service (WRS P3M), Prof. Dr. Retno Sunarminingsih, M.Sc., Apt, who happened to be a wife of Bambang Sudibyo, our previous Indonesian Minister of Education.

Firstly I heard the name of Bu Retno Deplu was from my International Law lecturer, Mr. US who used to talked much about his various activities and his networks, including his good relation with with her. He further said that he still stayed in touch by text messaging her. Then, I started to know her more whan I was accepted to attend international event in Norway. I searched with Mr. Google to find out the Indonesian Ambassador for Norway, and surprissingly her name was appeared many times in the results, Retno LP Marsudy, Indonesian Ambassador to Norway. I got so excited then, since I knew that she is UGM alumni so I thought it would be easier to approach her for helping my coming to Norway.

Until finally, my friend from Universitas Indonesia who's also got accepted in International Student Festival in Trondheim, Norway told me that Bu Retno didn't work there anymore. She knew her very well because Bu Retno is a mother of her (ex) boyfriend. Oh, I see:)

Then, I finally met her in person when she visited UGM in the occasion of the Rector meeting with the US Ambassador and White House envoy to Indonesia. The meeting was uphold regarding the plan of Obama visit to Indonesia, in the month of March, including the plan to visit UGM.

I can see that H.E. Cameron Hume, US Ambassador to Indonesia is likely keen on visiting Yogyakarta and UGM, especially. This is the second visit of him. The first one is when the US Higher Educators visited Indonesia last November, if I am not mistaken. The purpose of all the meeting whether with US Higher Educators, US AMbassador, and White House envoy are basically the same. They want to strengthen the cooperation and relations with UGM, as one oldest and biggest university in Indonesia.

What I want to say in this post as you can read from the title, I was impressed with Bu Retno thought and principle that she shared in a small discussion with the Head of OIA, the Deputy of OIA, PCs, and friends. I got so many insights which was beneficial from my self-improvement. Her sentences that I remember the most are about :
First, we have to start knowing 'WHAT WE REALLY WANT'. We often reject things without understanding what we really want. I thought that's a typical of woman. I think. Hehe. Second is about INDONESIA, as a country with the largest moslem population in the world, Indonesia is famous of being a moderate contry. She underlined that, "If you see Indonesia, you see democracy, modernity, and gender empowerment".
That's being so unique about Indonesia.


image 1 : www.detiknews.com/images/content...rop2.jpg
image 2 : mystockvoice.files.wordpress.com

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

DOs and DONTs


I started today with such a lost, disappointed feeling. But I tried to wake up and make the best effort to create a better day. I woke up, breathed deeply, and released my worrisome about my previouse bad. I often missed the moment of morning surrender recently. There is such a deep hollowness afterwards. But it's a worthed lesson learned.

All of sudden, I looked to my white board that used to be a weekly planner hang on the wall. I never used it since I had my cuty notebook planner. After a few moment of silent, I caught a brilliant idea. I grabbed my black boardmarker, then drawed a thin line to divide that board to be two parts. On the right side, I wrote a big DOs and the left one said DON'Ts. After that, I listed what I should DOs and what I should avoid (DONTs). It was just surprissing knowing that I am on trouble recently, especially due to time mismanagement that caused a long cycle of life mismanagement.

Morning 'til afternoon. I struggled with my fundrising proposal. Printing, copying, editing are not really special task since I always had done with them. After all finished, I headed to campus. First, I went to my IR department office. From a distance, I saw a crowd of people gathered in the lobby. They are IR student class 2006 fighting for their undergraduate thesis. After saying hello, smiling, and having a little conversation with them, I straight came inside the office. Fortunately, I met Mrs. RTN whom I had been searching for since the previous week. Thanks God, she already understood my intention to meet her. Without need to explain more, she answered my big question mark in my head.

In the beginning she asked forgiving for not grading yet my termpaper (as my 'susulan' exam). That is not a real big deal for me. I am still quite optimistic that I will get a good grade thou. My main intention actually is about asking for my department financial contribution due to my upcoming-2 weeks-program in Thailand which is just around the corner. Hell, yeah, I got dissapointed that my department rejected my proposal. Based on Mrs. RTN answer, my department just made a policy about 'financial contribution' to the international events. It's kind of pathetic that my department cut out the funding because I have already experienced international event. So, IR department only let the fresh students having no international experience to use their money. Huff. If that's the criteria, I must be eliminated since the first round:(

My mission is not accomplished. But somehow I am still optimistic. My next destination is Mandiri Bank. I had to pay my school tuition today. If not doing it soon, there would be various consequences. Let say, I might have no money left on my pocket in the end and I was threatened not able to fill my KRS. So, better to do it sooner.

Another meeting was setted up after finishing a bank transer to Rector account. I had to meet my Vice Dean of Student Affairs in my faculty. I had to wait for her about a quarter hour. I felt a little bit relieved since she promised me to give a financial support. She didn't decide yet since she have to review my proposal. She said almost the same things with my previous meeting in my department, about the lack of faculty budget, a massive MUN conference, and the idea of internazionalization.

Today, I dealed with the negotiation as part of the art of begging. Let's see whether it succeed or not. After done with my fundrising mission I had to go to my office, Office of International Affairs. There, we had done a half of selection process of recruiting new PCs who will be our new partners soon. Today like usual I chatted and laughed in the same time I worked in the office. This is a pleasure, and I enjoyed. Thanks to Pupu who gave me a nice 'gantungan kunci' of Singapore where she just visited this weekend.

Minutes by minutes passed slowly because I had nothing to do. So, when mbak Icha asked for outing to have a lunch, I undoubtfully agreed. Mas Timur then wanted to join with us. We decided to go to Pizza Hut. It was great pick bacause I really wanted to go that place since last night.

Always being so special and recharging moment to spend with good friends. We ordered 'sensasi delight 4' and a very sweet ice cream. We eated alot. We talked alot. We laugh loud. We are happy to be in today. We are happy to be together, in laughter, overcoming our hunger.

Thanks God for everything. You are still The Greatest. Thanks for this breathing, this disapointment, this friendship, and the day you blessed me with a smile of the sun. What a beautiful today is!

I promised to be better tomorrow. Doing those DOs and avoiding those DONT's!!