Dear blog, I have isolated you for almost 3 weeks. How amazing is that for a person who was so addicted to blogging? I've been totally busy these days (busy working, going to dinner invitations, spending HEAPS of time with my family and friends, et cetera that I couldn't be bothered spending a few minutes to blog). Anyway, I'd like to write about my graduation that occured on Thursday the 14th of December. Oh, and not to mention a few pics that I'm about to put up here!

So how did my graduation go? It was AWESOME and EXCITING!! I could definitely say that it was one of the best days I've ever had! Below is a pic on the night before the graduation day, I wanted to see how I'd look with the trencher -->

Then on the morning of the 14th of December (aka MY BIG DAY!!), I transformed myself into this (sheesh, I look like a ghost in this pic!) -->

It was such a big day for me; just wearing the graduation dress felt soooo amazing!! I couldn't wait until the ACTUAL ceremony, which was just a few hours ahead of me. At 11am, my family (excluding my dad as he's busy with work in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Indonesia) and I drove to Victoria University's Pipitea Campus (aka the "2nd home" of the students from the Commerce and Law faculties). We just had to take some photos before the graduation parade began! Awww I'm missing uni already.. especially the Pipitea Campus.. more specifically the Rutherford House building where I spent most of my lectures listening attentively to the lecturers, drawing, day dreaming, sleeping, and even reading the Harry Potter book!!

At 12pm all the graduands assembled for the parade from Pipitea Campus to Michael Fowler Centre in Civic Square where we had THE actual ceremony. The helium balloons made the parade really colourful! When we reached Civic Square, the mayor made a countdown from 5 to 1, and a second later everyone released all the balloons. It was such a wonderful view: the bright blue sky decorated with numberous red, yellow and green balloons squiggling up in the atmosphere. It was a symbol of our freedom from university life, perhaps?

At 1.30pm, the graduation ceremony began. This was it. The BIG moment. The moment where I can formally call myself a Victoria University graduate. It was such a happy and touching moment for me. Every couple of minutes I was about to shed some tears of happiness, but I couldn't let myself cry so I really had a hard time holding them back. I was classified in a seperate group: a group of graduands who have gained both a BCA and a GradDipProfAcc simultaneously. At only 20-years-old, I'm probably the youngest graduand in the group, and I'm proud of it!! Anyway, when the group was announced, I was the first person to be called up on stage to have my qualifications conferred -->

The graduation ceremony ended at 3.30pm, and by that time I was soooo hungry!! So we had lunch and drinks, then my mom, bro, and I headed out to take some more pics AND gelato!! Yummm!!




At 5.30pm-ish we went back home. I had a major headache by then that I had to rest in bed instead of going out to Chiqa's graduation+farewell dinner. However, just as I was about to climb to bed, I received a phonecall from Sherley who offered me a temporary full-time job at Transit New Zealand as an Accounts Clerk. It was such a great timing as my part-time job at Sony Style ended on Saturday the 16th, whereas this new job started on Monday the 18th!! Talk about rejeki on the day of my graduation!


So what's next, you ask? Well, as I've mentioned before, I'm working full-time at Transit NZ but only until the 24th of January 2007. I'm on my 6-months work permit now, so in the mean time I still need to find a full-time ongoing job (preferably accounting or finance related) in order to extend the 6-months work permit to the 2-years one. Go Dessy you can do it!!

Labels: Celebrations, University Life

Okay, so my first day of Eid wasn't at all amusing. However, ever since the second day of Eid I started to get that Eid feeling in my heart. On Wednesday night, my bro and I were invited to tante Marlina's house for halal bihalal. We were bloated with really yummy food and an even more savoury dessert (I forgot what the food were). On Thursday night, we went to Kania's house and ate siomay, sate, soto Padang, and es cendol. Then last night we went to tante Tri's house and we were bloated with pempek and a soto/soup-like dish. For dessert, we had es teler and tante Lina made this really tasty fruit cake. I'm so thankful that these people still care about me and my brother and that they're kind of looking after us, cos otherwise they wouldn't have invited us to come over for halal bihalal at their places as it was mainly the KBRI people who were there. Oh yeah, not to mention the tons of food that they gave us for takeaway.. which means that I might not have to cook until Monday, haha Anyway, this afternoon we had halal bihalal at KBRI and the food that they served was nasi kuning. Aaah, I guess my Eid this year isn't so bad after all but I still miss my mom's sate Padang and opor ayam.

Labels: Celebrations, Fun Times

Yay, it's Eid al-Fitr today! In Indo: Minal aidin wal faizin, mohon maaf lahir dan batin yaa! When I was in Jordan, we used to say: Kul 3am wa 2antum bikheir! But in general, you can say: Eid mubarak! Heheh, banyak banget ucapannya. (BTW what did you use to say in Saudi Arabia mel?)

To tell you the truth, I wasn't very excited when I got informed last night that today's the Eid instead of tomorrow, cos I have an exam today in the afternoon so I couldn't even go for the Eid prayer at KBRI this morning. Well, actually I could, but I desperately needed the time to revise. If only, oh if only Eid were tomorrow, I'd be way happier as I'd be able to enjoy the Eid day without worrying about the exam at all. So yeah, despite Allah's blessings for the most joyful day in Islam, overall this year's Eid seems to be the gloomiest for me for the following reasons:

• The weather!! Aargh today's the worst weather this month! It was dark, raining and drizzling, and not to mention the wind that blew at about 100km/h (if I'm not wrong). Why oh why does the weather have to be like this during Eid day?
• For the first time I'm celebrating Eid without my whole family..
• .. and that means no delicious sate padang, rendang, opor ayam, and lontong sayur for this year! Mom usually cooks them every Eid.
• Oh yeah, unlike in the previous years I didn't make kue lidah kucing for this year's Eid (exams, hello!)
• Ah yes, the final exam itself. Because of it, I couldn't enjoy Eid that much. As usual, after every exam I get a tension headache and it occured again after the exam today.
• Not only did the exam restrain me from going to KBRI to pray this morning, but I also couldn't go to Fereena's Eid celebration at her house this afternoon! Hwaa!
• Hmm what else.. oh yeah, no visiting other people's houses this year, cos usually the KBRI families would invite one another to come over and EAT! Hehehe. As this year my dad no longer works at KBRI Welly, who am I to go and eat at other people's houses uninvited? :D
• Oh, but thank goodness a few minutes ago tante Marlina texted me and invited me to go to her place tomorrow night. Yaay! Delicious Eid food!! Can't wait can't wait!!

Oh yeah, speaking of my exams..

• Last Saturday on the 21st at 2:30PM in the Easterfield building room EA206 (yay I still have a perfectly fine memory), I sat my Auditing exam. It was.. umm what's the perfect word to describe it..? UNEXPECTED! I just hope that they're not gonna be tough in marking the answers.
• Today at 2:30PM in the Cotton building room CO122 (my Spanish lecture room!) I sat my COML303 exam (ie. Law of Organisations). It was Oooo-kay... I guess. Well, to be good at commercial law is being able to give out good arguments in your answers, and as a pretty vague person *sigh* I'm not good at giving clear arguments, but I did my best though. Oh, but there was one question that was 1 whole page long! I thought "crap!" so I left that one til last and unfortunately I didn't manage to finish it, boo hoo.

I'm just soooo glad that my exams are over!! MERDEKAAA!!

Oh yeah, I finally borrowed Christina Aguilera's "Back to Basics" CD from the library. I luv it, luv it, LUV it!! Especially since it's a double-disc album! Next time I'll post my own review on it ^^

Labels: Celebrations