So, yeah. Job gua sebagai tutor udah rame banget. Ampir tiap hari pasti adaaa aja appointment untuk tutoring. Entah math, chemistry, physics, or engineering. Anyway, dari pengalaman kerja jadi tutor ini, I really learn a lot.

First, I am really amazed by how perseverance Americans are. Banyak orang yang gua tutor itu udah masuk umur 50an. Udah gonta-ganti pekerjaan ketiga kali. That means thay’ve been through college 3 times! But even though their learning ability have diminished karena umur, mreka masih tetep gak mau kalah sama yang muda2. Mreka tetep dateng ke kelas tiap hari dengan tas penuh buku teks dan follow the lessons. Sometimes, they’re even better than other students.

Not just the olders ones, orang-orang yang punya learning disabilities lebih hebat lagi. Ada satu orang ini, meskipun dia butuh 5 menit untuk menggambar satu cabang alkil in organic chemistry, dia tetep semangat kuliah, mingle with other “normal” students. I mean, that doesn’t happen back home. And surprisingly, orang-orang ini kadang lebih banyak tau daripada orang-orang lainnya!

This really makes me think. This is still my first time going to college and I’m already whining. Too much homework, not enough time to sleep, blah! Masak gua kalah sama mreka2 yang udah umur jebot bau tanah…

SEMANGAT!!!!!

Pada suatu akhir minggu
terdengarlah sebuah lagu sendu
dialunkan dengan nada-nada yang merdu

Alunannya membawa diri ini
mengenang masa yang telah pergi

Pelukan di pegunungan yang terindah
serta badai dan angin ribut lewat sudah

Maka kutandai hari ini
ketika matahari menjelang terbit di pagi hari
aku tidak boleh bersedih lagi

WeHa
September 28, 2008
03:16

White Bear Lake, MN
USA

“Raganya Indonesia
Tetapi jiwanya tidak lagi Nusantara
Satu kelompok berkuasa
Sisanya pengaya saja
Sebagian kecil kelompok kaya
Sisanya menanggung derita
Bubarkan Indonesia
Bebaskan Nusantara
Bentuk negara kelima”

Bukan, gua gak bermaksud mbubarin indonesia. Di atas itu sajak E.S. Ito di dalam bukunya, “Negara Kelima”. Nyokap kan minggu lalu dateng. Trus bawain tuh buku karena udah gua minta bawain.

Trus langsung gua baca kan. Wow… it’s a marvelous book!!! The topic is like Da Vinci Code. Tapi setting nya di indo gitu. Blom abis sih bacanya gara2 skolah sibuk banget. Homework everyday!!! Tapi akhir minggu ini bakal lembur baca!!! Yo i!!!!!

Lesson learned this week : when riding a bus, always sit at the window side, not on the aisle side. This will ‘tell’ other people that they’re welcome to sit down beside us, that we’re not hostile. It also shows that we care that everyone get to sit down in the bus.

Felt the title is contradicting? Yeah, I know. But that’s the fact. A lot of people have been telling me that I need to slow down. What, with 5 classes and 20 credits, senate and clubs, how can I slow down?

On the other hand, I still need to study harder. I just got back my 1st chemistry test on Friday. Result : 70/80 = 87.5% = B!!!! I know that I sound like an over achiever (although that might be true), but I’m not used to Bs, especially in chemistry. I felt I could’ve studied harder for that test and that’s the truth.

The test was last Monday. That weekend, I had 5 homeworks and 2 tests for the week so I was kinda spread thin. And my tutoring job is not so empty anymore. Almost everyday I have to tutor at least one person. <sigh>

I guess I can’t really whine around. There are others that are in worse condition than me. I have friends who work night shift full time and still go to school full time. They barely have time to sleep and can still go on. I have to keep going too.

On a side note, Century men soccer team won againts Iowa yesterday!!! I think I’ve found a way to relax. This month, there will be a lot of home games. I can go watch them play!!! GO CENTURY!!!!!

Yep. Monday is always a busy day. There is almost no time to just sit back and calm down. I’m running all over the school all day!!!! There’s just too many things to do.

Outside class, my tutoring job has gotten crowded, leaving me no time to do homework. And then there are student senate things that I have to do, such as updating the D2L website, organizing files, and organizing meetings.

But today is especially crazy. Like, I ate lunch at 10 coz that 10 minutes (9:50-10) is my only empty slot of the day. Well, maybe if you’ve seeen my schedule in previous post you see 2 one-hour empty slots. But I used those empty slots to run back to student senate office and do all kinds of senate stuff.

Enough complaining. Lets move on to something interesting. Today, in o-chem lab, I made artificial banana flavour!!! ^^ The reaction used isopentyl alcohol and acetic acid with concentrated sulfuric acid as the catalyst, done in boiling temperature with reflux process. The product really does have a banana smell!!! Although, the two reactants smell really BAD!!! And the lab went on for… guess how long… 4 HOURS!!!!! Fun, eh? NOT!!! LOL But it’s still interesting. Banana flavour. Hmmmm……

Below is what it looks like after reflux:

*pack things in a hurry to eat banana at home*

This is my homework/assignment/test schedule for the next week:

Mon (15) : Chem test, chem lab report, programming homework, decide English paper topic

Tue (16) : Calc 3 homework

Wed (17) : Sociology paper1

Thu (18) : Calc 3 test

Fri (19) : Chem homework, part 1 of English paper

Whew…!! Crazy crazy!!!! Luckily, I got a chance to refresh my mind. Went BBQ at Tiffany’s house last night. Bee and her 2 little sisters(Mai and Maiki), Jack, Nhi, and Ryan was there. We ate, watch DVD, ate, talked, and ate some more. LOL. i think I gained even more weight…

Anyways, tonight is moon cake festival night!!! Me and my two Chinese roommates are going to eat moon cakes. *YUM!

*back to calc homework* T.T

To celebrate the activation of the Large Hadron Collider tomorrow, I post the picture below, in good will that it will not be the result of the experiment. ^^ Found this in some website. Very funny. LOL.

The last image, the full saying should be “Cool! I just gave a helicopter cancer”

Fiuh… Gak kerasa udah lewat dua minggu sejak sekolah mule. Bner2 parah deh. Jadi semester ini gua ambil 20 credits. Buat yang pada kagak ngartos, ekspektansi belajar sistem credit tuh kira2 1 credit = 1 jam belajar di kelas ( 50 menit) + 2 ato 3 jem belajar di luar kelas.

Jadi kalo standar Amrik, 20 credit itu udah bujubuset parah banget. Jadwal gua tuh hari senin paling parah. Non-stop kelas dari 7:45 pagi sampe jm 10 malem. Mana Lab kimia organik 4 jem lagi… Mati lah… Jadi semester ini pelajaran yang gua ambil tuh ada Multivariable Calculus, Organic Chemistry, programming C++, trus ada Intro to Sociology sama freshman composition.

Belum lagi, semester ini kan gua jadi executive member student senate. Sibuk banget dah! Padahal gua pikir posisi gua itu (Director of Information Technology) paling gak sibuk, soalnya gua liat orang yang punya posisi itu sebelumnya adem ayem aja tuh.

Taunya, college gua tuh lagi masa transisi IT system dari yang lama ke yang baru. Mreka ngubah sistem wireless, mindahin library dengan segala teknologi barunya ke east campus, trus student senate lagi nyoba sistem website barunya. Jadilah gua pengurus website itu. Belum lagi jadwal meeting and komite2 yang harus gua ikutin. Parah deh… Tiap hari gua bangun jm 6, pergi kuliah jem 7, trus baru sampe rumah jem 9 malem paling early.

Masih ditambah lagi kan gua ada Honors Society di mana gua juga officer. Belum lagi gua kan pengen bantu2 volunteer acara2 sekolah… T.T

Trus kan gua juga muai kerja jadi tutor. Gua tutoring fisika, kimia, mat, sama engineering. 2 jem/hari dari senin sampe rabu dan 4 jem hari kamis untuk standby di tutor center. Seringnya sih kagak ngapa2in nungguin orang dateng minta tolong jadinya gua bikin pr ajah. Untung meski stand by kagak ngapa2in tetep dibayar. UHUY!! ^^ Tapi takutnya, ini kan masih 2 minggu pertama. Takutnya ntar udah minggu ke3 pas kelas2 mulai ada ulangan, bakal bejibun. Hari Senin gua ada satu appointment buat one on one ttoring. PANIK!!!! Ntar kalo gua ngajarinnya salah gmana???!!!

Well, the bottom line is, 2 minggu pertama ini sibuk banget. Sperti tertulis dalam blog si mac, taon kedua ini udah bukan SMA kelas empat lagi. INi baru namanya kuliah. Pelajaran2 makin susah. Dulu apaan tuh, kimia aja masih susahan punya Wiwiek and Bu Lucy. Fisika aja masih parahan Agus Jarwanto ama Tarto. Mat mah kira2 setingkat Bu Indra lah.

Mungkin gara2 taon kedua ini tmen2 gua udah banyak yang transfer ke University jadi kelas2 banyakan gua tmen2 baru. Dulu kan Gua, Ben, Steve, Ryan, sama Aaron 4 kelas bareng2. Asik banget bisa belajar bareng. Skarang sih boro2.

Oh well… Just take it one day at a time. Wish me luck, everyone!!! And good luck to you guys too!!!

———– <edit>

Nih gua attach schedule mingguan gua. Smoga keliatan jelas. ^^

Yang merah paling atas itu ENGL 1021 (freshman composition).

Yang ijo paling atas lecture nya kimia organik. Hari jumat ada ijo kedua itu lab preview section. Lab kimia ada di senin, bagian ijo yang gede stengah mampus itu.

Abu2 CSCI 1081 itu C++ programming.

Jingga di bawah itu MATH 2081 (multivariable calculus).

Biru tua itu intro to sociology.

Yang ungu/nila itu jadwal tutoring standby gua.

Kuning itu rapat buat officer honors society.

Yang warna biru aqua itu rapat student senate sama office hour gua buat student senate.

Whew… This Labor Day weekend was a busy weekend in America. It’s under attack!!!! No, not literally under attack. I was talking about the hurricanes that’s forming way south from here, at the Gulf Coast. A year after Katrina, Gustav Hurricane did not bring the same devastating power. But still, fear of another disaster forced a lot of people to flee. New Orleans (was it New Orleans?) had a mandatory evacuation. Thousands of people went out of town, running for shelter to wait out Gustav to over.

But the danger is not over. Behind Gustav, There’s hurricane Hanna already forming, scheduled to make landfall on Friday at eastern Florida coast. Another scary thing. To make thing even worse, There’s an indication that hurricane Ike is also forming behind Hanna.

Now, I’ve never been in a hurricane before. But the bow cloud that passed through last summer was already really bad. Strong wind, heavy downpour, hail, and lightning? That’s scary….

Yesterday, the Republican National Convention started at XCell energy Center down in Minneapolis. The news said that there were some mini-riots going on. Mostly acts of vandalism. I can’t believe stuff like that happen in the US. It reminds me of political protest back in Indonesia : peopel burning tires, blocking the road, etc etc…

The world is sure getting stranger day by day…