Cerita Sedikit Dibalik Proses Pembuatan Pre-Thesis

Hello World,
Been a long time I didn't update my blog. Now, I feel like I really want to share this feeling :)

Seminggu lagi kira-kira adalah deadline pengumpulan Pre-Thesis Seminar on American Studies di Fakultas saya dan apa yang sudah saya kerjakan? Diatas kertas belum ada memang tapi Brainstorming dari hari ke hari, ngobrol dengan beberapa orang, dan baca buku yang relevan sudah coba saya lakukan. Hasilnya? Bingung. Itu yang sampai sekarang masih saya rasakan, pertanyaan-pertanyaan seringkali muncul seperti: Topiknya difokusin kemana ya? Sumbernya nanti cari dimana aja ya? Mulai darimana ya? Pake teori apa ya? and bla bla blaaa..

Dan beberapa kali sempat terjawab dari hasil diskusi atau searching lewat om Google tapi kadang kembali bingung lagi. Yah, ternyata seperti inilah rasanya ngerjain Skripsi.. padahal ini belum skripsi, baru Seminarnya! Waduh. Ada temen yang pernah bilang, Kuliah itu gampang kok tapi skripsinya yang susah. Hahaha kadang kalau dipikir-pikir ada benarnya juga, itulah kenapa akhirnya ada pilihan Non-Skripsi di Fakultas saya. Saya tidak pernah berpikir teman2 yang mengambil Non itu tidak bisa mengerjakan skripsi, sebenarnya kalau mereka mau pasti bisa tapi saya pikir mungkin passion mereka bukan untuk Skripsi tapi lebih ke hal-hal yang ditawarkan di Non skripsi seperti Journalism, Public Relation, dll. Softskill yang asik memang sebenarnya. Tapi skripsi bagi saya seperti sebuah puncak dari tantangan yang saya hadapi di game selama saya kuliah ini, dan sebagai orang yang suka mencari tantangan dan berkawan dengan bahaya, saya akhirnya memutuskan memilih untuk Skripsi.

Tema saya di final project mata kuliah Method on Cultural Reseacrh semester kemarin adalah tentang Kelemahan Kebijakan Gov't Amerika dalam menangani kasus Imigran di film Crossing Over. Entah kenapa saya mempunyai passion yang tinggi untuk menguak kelemahan2 Amerika, hehehe. Akan tetapi, setelah saya pikir2 lagi, saya memutuskan tidak lagi meneruskan tema itu karena saya mulai jenuh dengan mengangkat Literatur sebagai objek untuk diteliti. Saya ingin mencoba rasa yang lain dan saya menemukan rasa kopi Amerika yang baunya hingga ke Semarang juga akhirnya: Starbucks Coffee!

Saya ingin mengangkat tentang Pop Culture, pernah sih dapet kuliahnya di Semester 3 dulu sama Mr. Moore dan sekarang sedang mencoba mengontak beliau via email untuk sharing ide. Lalu saya memutuskan memilih Starbucks karena belum ada setahun ini, baru dibuka gerai baru Starbucks di Semarang (Paragon Mall) dan ini memudahkan saya untuk melakukan survei serta penelitian langsung di TKP memakai konsep Ethnography atau penelitian langsung ke lapangan, mengikuti aktifitas orang2nya, dll. Kenapa tidak McD, KFC, atau yang lain? Karena saya pikir Starbucks cukup unik, jika McD dan KFC mengadaptasi apa yang dikonsumsi masy.lokal, Starbucks tetap memilih untuk mempertahankan keasliannya seperti yang dijual di U.S. Sebagai contohnya saja, kita bisa menemukan Nasi di McD Citraland Semarang tetapi kita ga akan bisa menemukan itu di U.S karena mereka beradaptasi dengan lidah masyarakat Indonesia supaya McD tetap bisa dinikmati sesuai dengan rasa yang biasa dinikmati lidah Indonesia. Starbucks lain, karena kopi yang kita rasakan di Semarang dan Boston misalnya, pasti sama karena mereka menjaga kualitasnya agar tetap sama, bahkan menurut bukunya Rahayu Sekarsassi yang berjudul 'GLOBUCKSISASI', pembersih lantai yang digunakan Starbucks juga diimpor dari Amerika. Wow! Proses inilah yang membuat saya tertarik untuk mengangkat Starbucks menjadi calon Skripsi saya.

Globalisation, Celebratory Approach, dan teori budaya populer lainnya yang sedang coba saya cari dan kumpulkan untuk mendukung thesis saya nanti yang semoga saja disetujui oleh Dosen Pembimbing. Kalau temen-temen pernah lihat buku atau apapun tentang ini tolong segera kabari saya yah, that would be very helpful :)

Ohya, brainstorming tema skripsi memang sepertinya perlu ya sering2 kita lakukan, ide yang sempat terlontar dari Mas Yoga untuk bikin Thesis Club sepertinya asik tuh..kita bisa kopi darat dimanaaa gitu buat ngumpul atau secara Online. Hohoho.

Doakan saya dan semua teman-teman yang sedang memulai perjuangan puncak untuk bisa menyelesaikan game ini yah.. Doakan semoga proses perjuangan ini membuahkan hasil yang luarbiasa dan berguna bagi kita semua! Amin.

Dreams,faith,fight!

From UNDIP To Harvard (Report for Faculty)

all Indonesian Delegates.

B O S T O N .

megang kakinya John Harvard, katanya bisa ketrima di Harvard, amin :)

in front of the venue

libertyyyyy!!!

It was fun and unforgettable to be one of the ‘Harvard National Model United Nations’ (HNMUN) delegates. Although we were not get any awards because this is the first time for us but being a delegate for Diponegoro University (UNDIP) and even Indonesia was a great experience. Moreover, this is the first time for me going aboard while join the world event, and it is in the United States. Here, I would share to all of the people about my experience there, both the conference and other memorable activities. If you are UNDIP students, prepare yourself to join the selection next year because HNMUN is a great chance to develop your skill and personality.

SQ Airlines brought us from Indonesia to Singapore. We were 15 people together with Mr. Sapto as a faculty advisor ready to face the conference in February 11-14 2010. The journey spent about 23 hours and we transit to some airport such as Changi Airport, Singapore – Narita, Tokyo – St Paul, Minneapolis – Logan, Boston. Our flight was also change from SQ Airlines moved to Delta Airlines in the Narita, Tokyo. We met Padjadjaran University delegates in the flight so we just start the conversation with them during the journey. Since this is the first time for UNDIP join HNMUN 2010 so we can ask some questions to other universities in Indonesia which have joined this event couple years ago such as Padjadjaran University.

After the long journey, here we stand in the Logan Airport, Boston. It was very late in the night and finally we found the shuttle bus which brought us to Radisson Hotel. The HNMUN conference actually held in the Park Plaza Hotel but we stayed across the Park Plaza and we have to walked from the hotel to the venue. That’s quite difficult in the first time since the weather was winter and snowy.

During the conference, we were separated into different committee. We joined 9 committee this year. Disarmament and International Security committee was filled by Buna (Engineering) and Yoga (Humanities). Social Cultural and Humanitarian was filled by me (Dini) and Cresti (Humanities). Legal Committee was filled by Anindya Nastiti (Law) and Rizky Febrianto (Medical). Economic and Crisis was filled by Resha and Rizky Yulianisa (Economic). SPECPOL committee was filled by Ary (Social&Politics) and Ardhy (Humanities). World Conference on Women was filled by Satrio (Law). Economic for Latin America&Carribean was filled by Nadya (Engineering). Social Development was filled by Echo (Engineering) and Narottama (Medical). And the last but not least, Historical General Assembly committee was filled by Achmat (Humanities).

In my committee, we were talked about the ‘Ending World Hunger’. We discussed many things related to the topic then we made the working paper with our alliance. Since UNDIP was represented Paraguay therefore most of our alliance were the Latin America countries. All we have to do in the HNMUN is like other Model United Nations. We did many things to do about International Relations such as negotiation, expand alliance, work together to create resolution related to the problem, etc. Since this is the first time for us, therefore we didn’t work as great as other delegates who have many experiences about Model UN. Actually, Model UN is very popular in the western culture. It is like the popular competition which held not only by Harvard but also other universities. Therefore, after this event, Indonesian delegates from 6 university (UNDIP, UI, ITB, UNPAD, UGM, UNPAR) desire to create Model UN competition and want to promote the Model UN from senior high school. We consider that Model UN able to create a great leader for this nations and also for the world.

After the 4 days conference, it is time to us to explore the city. Boston was a nice city. We went to Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Downtown Crossing, Public Garden, Quincy Market, etc. In the February 16, we got a dinner invitation from the Kon Jen RI (KJRI) in New York therefore we took a bus from Boston-New York. New York is quite crowded than Boston. We went to Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and KJRI in the night. We gathered with all of Indonesian delegates in the KJRI. They were all nice and great persons and it was very great opportunity to meet all of them in this nice event. We sang Indonesian song together in KJRI and talked so many things. This is a great chance to expand the networking therefore someday if we want to work in the Embassy of Indonesia, we can contact them. The winter outside was very terrible but the dinner inside was very warm and amazing. We will not forget all of those moments and someday hopefully we can come back to these nice places.

After spent 10 days in Boston and New York, February 18^th 2010 was the time to go home. We took the same way as before but with different feeling. Now we have something useful to share and by experiencing Harvard National Model United Nations, it is expanding our horizon and enlarges our knowledge and mind. Next year, UNDIP delegates must perform better than us. Since UNDIP wants to be an International University and an Excellent Research University, it is very useful to attend and send delegates for such kind of event like this. For me, this is very great opportunity in my life to join the Harvard National Model United Nations. Meet a lot of great people in the whole world, share ideas with them, negotiate each other to find the best solution for the world problem are very useful to improve our personal development to make a better future. Thank you for give me a chance to join this great event with other 14 great delegates from UNDIP. Thank you for making my dream comes true, flight from UNDIP to Harvard.

Road to HNMUN 2010: My First Snow in Day #2 of Boston :)

Hello again in my 3rd notes about this journey.
This is February 11 at 3 PM in the early morning and still, I cant sleep while all f my roommates already slept. I think all of the delegates also already close their eyes to prepare the conference this morning.

Hmm.. karena mau prepare buat conference besok yang bakal padet banget seharian, updatenya dikit aja yah.. I ll continue later..

Pagi ini setelah breakfast di Radisson yang ternyata ga includes dari expenses yang kita keluarin dari bayar hotel so we have to pay for this. Each person $17 tapi kita cuman bayar $7 aja, yang $10 diambil dari duit kas kita selama disini hehhe..

Setelah breakfast, awalnya kita berencana mau keluar buat jalan2 tapi tiba-tiba aja ada snow yang mulai turun.. We feel so excited! Sampai2 kita keluar ke balkon kamar kita dan membiarkan saljunya nimpukin muka kita hehhe tapi untungnya ga parah2 banget salju pertama yang turun ini.. Nah karena salju turun ini kita ngecancel jalan2 dan dimundurin ntar siang aja kalau saljunya udah ga terlalu parah dan sekalian lunch.

Siangnya setelah agak mendingan udaranya, kita keluar dan explore Stuart Street which is the street around our hotel. Kita ke Garden Park, City Place (like a mall), jalan-jalan sekitar situ dan foto-foto tentunya hehhe.. Taco and Nacho menjadi santapan lunch saya yang dibeli dari City Place. Temen2 pada makan Burritos, California Pizza, dan yang asik, si Vivi dapet Fried Rice dari Restoran Jepang gitu.. Osaka apa gitu.. Whoaaa.. enak banget fried rice-nya gurih banget! Apalagi nasiiii.. kita kangen banget sama nasi disini hehhe jadilah menu Vivi itu kita rebutin dan besok pagi kita berencana mau breakfast atau lunch disitu lagi :)

After explore the street, kita balik ke hotel karena udaranya udah mulai ga enak lagi (dan juga mau belajar karena kita tadi ketemu delegates lain dan hawanya udah pada mulai belajar gitu) So we come back to the room.. and.. SLEEP! Hahah.. ternyata bukan belajar yang ada tapi kita tidur udah kaya tidur malem (dari jam4-an sampe jam8-an malem) Gosh! Jadi siang kita kaya berasa malam gitu (Jetlag maybe). But thats fine lah.. yang penting masih baik-baik aja, Amin.

Kondisi badan sampai saat ini alhamdulillah masih sehat2.. Walaupun hidung beberapa delegates mulai berdarah kadang2 kalau udah mulai ga kuat dingin, bibir pada pecah2 dan kering. Semoga kita sehat wal afiat semua sampai pulang lagi ke Indonesia, Amin.

Anyways,
Laper adalah hal yang sering terjadi disini dan nyesel juga waktu Ibu mau bawain banyak banget makanan like popmie,roti,oreo,biskuat,etc aku ga mau masukin semuanya ke koper karena penuh tapi ternyata sangat kerasa banget we need all of those foooood!! :( Persediaan popmie, milo, jahe wangi, dll tinggal dikit nih.. Hukss. Yaah, experience lah.. Kalau kesini lagi bawa banyak persediaan! :D

Okay I think thats all for today. I want to have my sleep tight cause tomorrow we have to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, walk to the Park Plaza (yaa its near from our hotel) and start the event!! Go UNDIP Delegates for HNMUN 2010!! Semangaaaat!! :))

Regards,
Dini yang udah ga sabar nunggu conference besok *curious*

Road to HNMUN: Boston, We're Coming!!! Finally!!!

Hi Again guys.

After the loooong journey that we've like about 23 hours and we were transit in some country's airport which are in Changi, Singapore (about 6 hours and did the most craziest thingslike marathon competition in Changi :D) - Narita, Japan (about 1 hours and didn't have much times to explore Japan in Narita) -Minneapolis (about 5 hours,feel excited when the first time step this feet in the US!! And it's snowy outside the airport!! Damn we just wanna go outside!! :D) and finally.. Logan Airport, Boston!!!

Di dalam pesawat adalah hal yang sangat membosankan. Apalagi kalau sebelah kita pas ga enak (iya ga, ky? huhu), parahnya lagi, pesawat Delta Airlines kita yang dari Narita-Minneapolis tu even worst than the SQ or Delta yang dari Singapore-Japan. Padahal kan kita ngeluarin waktu paling banyak di pesawat Delta Narita-MI itu for about 11 hours. Udah ga ada TV set depan seat kita, sempit juga.. tapi dapet Rice disituu.. meal pertama yang keluar saya milih chicken rice bla bla bla and it was soooo delicious!! Beda dengan meal kedua.. saya bener2 lupa ada sausage pork-nya di menu eggs. They offers eggs/noodle and I choose the eggs..eh lupa kalau ternyata di egg-nya itu ada porknya..untung diingetin ma kiky..yaudah deh akhirnya ga kesentuh mealnya dan makan rotinya,fruits,yoghurt,etc.

Anyway,

Begitu sampai di Minneapolis, udah langsung kerasa banget bedanya airport manapun dengan airport US yang ketatnya minta ampun. Nadya yang baru ngeluarin camera-nya dan mau take picture aja langsung diteriakin ma security dari jauh.. "NO CAMERAS! NI PHOTOS!!" kita langsung jalan lurus ga berani ngapa2in hahahah. Padahal kan saljunya lucu, Sir.. huhu.

I dont know why they re so affraid of moslem, bombing issue, etc. Jilbabku emang ketutupan sama topi yang aku pake dan itu bikin aku bisa langsung antri buat check pasport, etc then go to the baggage claim buat ambil koper. Tapi, ary yang keliatan pake jilbab karena dia emang lagi ga pake topi masa langsung dipanggil dulu gitu dan kartu declare-nya dia langsung ditulisin apa gitu ga jelas. Tapi security for male is even worst and longer than female. Mereka para cowok2 itu masih harus diinterogasi dan ngisi beberapa form bla bla bla gitu buat meyakinkan they're ok and will come back to the home country such the schedule. Kita deh para cewek2 yang harus ngambilin koper2 mereka di baggage claim (berat..huff) trus kita tinggal gitu karena mereka masih lama sementara kita menuju ke pengecekan barang bawaan. Popmie ary sama mas buna disita karena mengandung chicken and they said we're country that has avian influenza virus so they can't let Ary and mas buna bring their popmie.. Besides, popmieku lolooooos!! hehhe.. itu ternyata usut punya usut karena mereka nyentang YES di pilihan yang "do you bring any food,vegetable,bla bla bla?" dan aku emang sengaja ga aku centang karena aku pikir popmieku ada di koper jadi semoga aja aman. Sementara foodku yang kaya sari roti,biskuat,oreo, permen karet terpaksa aku buang karena awalnya aku bawa di tas ransel.. huhu sayang banget.. coba aku bawa aja yaa.. ada kemungkinan lolos mungkin. Sekarang baru kerasa kelaperan malem2 ga ada camilan. Stokku tinggal popmie, milo, dan jahe wangi yang dibawain Ibu :)) Ohya, the first food that I buy in Minnesota Airport is.. as Stephanie (my lecturer) suggest: SUBWAY!! hehhe..and it cost about $7 includes taxes and water. Bingung banget tadi milih menunya di subway but finally we can eat that deliciously! :)

Well, sesampainya kita di Logan Airport, Boston kita langsung nyari shuttle bus kita dan setelah ada trouble dikit, akhirnya kita naik shuttle bus yang lain. Kita naik 2 shuttle bus..10orang di shuttle pertama, 6orang di shuttle yang satunya. It cost $12 per person to take us from Logan to our Hotel: Radisson. Ternyata emang deket banget dari venue 'Harvard National Model United Nations' yang diselenggarakan di Park PLaza Hotel. Thanks God.

And.. here we are in the Radisson.. hotelnya sama aja kaya hotel di Indonesia hahahah bedanya banyak bule aja hahah. Tadi anak-anak pada keluar ada yang cari makan, ke bar tapi ga boleh masuk gara2 belum 21 tahun *hahahah dodol*, dll. Tapi saya, ary, nadya, dan vivi stay in the room, enjoying the internet connection and some brochures about Boston. Get ready for tomorrow's trip! My God, it is almost 3 AM in the morning and I still wake up. I'm wondering this is what they call JETLAG or it just my another insomnia?? Hahahah no differences. Bedanya, kalau lagi insom di Indonesia ga sedingin ini (panas malah di Semarang!!).

Doanya ya teman-teman supaya perjalanan kita lancar dan conference-nya juga run well.. because actually that's the main purpose we travel here!! Hahahah.. sounds this note like indicating that we're in the holiday hahahah.. yea maybe that's the other purpose but just remind you, we're here for the "Harvard National Model United Nations" representing Paraguay as Universitas Diponegoro delegates. Wish us luck!! We'll have the conference on February 11-14 :) Me and Cresti are in the "Social Humanitarian and Cultural (SOCHUM) Committee". We have 2 topic areas: a) Rights of Refugee b) Ending World Hunger.

You wanna know more about HNMUN?? It's all in here: http://hnmun.org/

Prepare yourself for next year's delegates, UNDIP students!! :)

Already miss Indonesia,

Dini Hajarrahmah

PS. In Minneapolis Airport, there was a stranger from Lebanon that coming to me and he's so weird. He also knew I'm from Indonesia. As my dad warn me: NO TALK TO STRANGER. hahahah beware delegates!! :D

Road to HNMUN 2010: Changi Airport.

H-1 before Boston and H-2 before HNMUN 2010!!!!
Wooooo!!!
We're in Singapore now!! In Changi Airport!!
Setelah perjalanan dari tadi siang (Kudus-Semarang-Jakarta) akhirnya sampai juga di Singapore.
Kita transit disini dari jam 11 malam waktu S'pore dan akan berangkat lagi pagi ntar jam 5 pagi menuju Tokyo.. waaaa.. feel so excited!! Oya, dari di Soekarno-Hatta kemarin kita bareng2 terus sama anak UNPAD. Ketemu anak Danone TRUST juga hahahah. Ternyata yah, dimana-mana ketemunya orang2 yang sama, komunitas yang sama hehhe..

Menghabiskan waktu di bandara malam-malam jadi berasa ngautis ga jelas, dari mulai lomba lari di dalem Changi Airport *ide echo* sampai foto-foto di tiap sudut bandara, wasting time and waiting for 5.50 am!! And now I'm using the internet connection from the launch for free.. Changi Airport is sooo nice! :)

Tomorrow we're going to continue our trip. Transit again in Narita, Tokyo then go to Minneapolis and.. Boston!! Hopefully tomorrow will run well and better than today!! Thanks for all of your pray, your support, and your wish! I'll try to update this blog/note everyday if there is internet connection beside me.. Go UNDIP Delegates for 'Harvard National Model United Nations'!!!