Sayonara

I am sad. Yes, I have to admit that I am sad. I bet this sadness would be worse in case I had more communication with them. Today, 5 students from my lab have graduation ceremony. 1 one of them, I never had communication, 1 of them will pursue his doctoral study, so he will stay here at least until 3 years later. And then, the other 3 students, well, they left the lab today, in the day of their graduation ceremony.

May be I should let  you know that I am not too active in this lab. I don't have much communication. I rarely have time together with them, thus I only have very few memory of them. Though, I still feel missing them when they left. They were impressed me.

OK. I'll account a little bit about them. I hope by write it down makes me feel better. I start with the first person said 'goodbye'.

1. Ryouta Sekiya.
The only Japanese master student in our lab. It means we don't have Japanese student in our lab anymore after he graduated. He speaks English very fluent with good pronunciation. He missed my welcome party last April 2015. Several days after that, in one night while I still stay in lab until quite late (at that time 8 p.m. was quite late for me), suddenly one guy greeted me in my way to go outside.

"Hey, you must be that new student. I am Ryouta Sekiya, you can call me Ryouta. I am Japanese. So, sorry, what's your name"

"Shofi. Nice to meet you. So, where are you from?"     

"Do you mean my hometown? I am Japanese."

Drown to The Deep

Sai River Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture

It's getting worse!!

You cannot let it growing and growing

No!

You can't

Throw it away

Yes!

You can do it

Yes!

Drown it to the deep

Let it disappear into the depth

Don't see!

Don't see!

Let it go

Focus on the your goal

Focus!

Focus!

Drown it to the deep

and keep going

Your destiny will go into you

Be patient

Be patient

Be patient

Your destiny will go into you

Nomi-shi, 24 March 2016

Arti Sebuah Pelukan

"We gonna have a sweet party for XX birthday. Let come and join with us"

Tetiba saja tetangga meja sebelah mengirim pesan dan mengundang semacam surprise party untuk salah seorang teman se-lab.  Well, sebenarnya aku termasuk orang (berusaha) tidak menspesialkan hari lahir. Bagiku, tanggal lahir hanya penting untuk sebatas urusan administrasi. Jadi, maafkeun aku ya kawans kalau memang tidak mengucapkan selamat ulang tahun atau memberi kado di hari ulangtahunmu. Kadang aku memang sengaja. Bahkan ketika ulang tahun orangtua atau adik-adikku. Seringnya aku ingat tanggal lahir mereka dan ingat. Tapi, again, sengaja tak ada ucapan selamt ulang tahun kukirimkan. Tapi insyaAlloh doaku untuk kalian. Selalu. InsyaAlloh. Entah apa yang kulakukan ini baik atau tidak, aku cuma tidak ingin ulang tahun itu menjadi budaya meskipun nyatanya itu sudah merupakan budaya bahkan bagi teman-teman muslim sekalipun.

Tapi aku tidak juga terlalu antipati dengan pesta ulangtahun atau semacamnya. Kadang aku juga masih mengucapkan semacam "selamat ulang tahun" karena, well, kadang kita perlu menunjukkan bahwa kita aware. Oke, balik lagi ke masalah ajakan party. Jadi singkatnya, kemarin teman-teman lab beli buah-buahan, beberapa bungkus snack, 2 botol juz, dan kue tart untuk pesta kejutan kecil-kecilan. Fiuh untung saja kali ini tak ada bir seperti party biasanya (mungkin demi alasan penghematan).

Oke, buah-buahan sudah dipotong, snack-snack sudah dibuka, dan pesan dari seorang kawan yang bertugas 'membawa' tersangka sudah mengirim pesan "we are on the 1st floor", kami pun menyalakan lilin dan mematikan lampu. Ternyata jalan menuju lantai 9 lama juga ya, sampai lilin kita hampir habis. haha...