New Environment

There are times that I'm bored reading tons of papers in my room, or even in my home. Moreover, I'm kinda addicted to internet. Although there's nothing important to browse, I still hang around wasting my time. And in the end of the day, I feel regret cause I couldn't finish my work.

Then I get out from my home, my comfort zone and from unlimited-fast speed internet, to find a place to read papers and write my work. I found Starbucks nearby with small bathroom inside. Ordered a cup of green tea latte with cinnamon, sat near the corner and start reading. I stayed there for about 3 hours, had my lunch, read paper and finish my work. Yeay! I feel proud of myself. I feel so delighted. And it feels really nice to get my work done. How could I procrastinate my work for all this time? Since then, I'm able to encourage myself more to work :)

In the next week, I went into another Starbucks store, it's one and a half block from the first one and it's a part of a mall. It was a fine chill afternoon, so I decided to try to work outdoor! The weather was really nice. But after two hours, I felt my hands were freezing, needed to pee -the toilet was kinda far and I didn't feel like leaving my stuffs outdoor- and there were a lot of cigarette smoke - oh tell me about it. So I went inside the mall and continue it in the foodcourt, instead.

These two times of working outside were really fun! Refreshed my mind and I can finish my work without an interruption from the internet! LOL

So if you find it hard to concentrate, maybe you can try to find a new place to finish your work.

Good luck! :)

'Udah ada tanggalnya'

Ketika ngomongin pernikahan, selalu aku jawab: "belum ada calonnya" atau "masih belum nemu calonnya". Lalu saat itu dijawab oleh seorang istri ustadz:

"Tenang aja, udah ada tanggal yang ditetapkan oleh Allah kok untuk mba Nisa.. 'Mba Nisa dengan siapa, pada tanggal sekian..' gitu"

Simple. Tapi ngena banget. Mengingatkanku kembali bahwa jodoh itu sudah ada yang atur. I don't need to worry anymore and let Allah handle it. 

To all jomblo (including me :p):

Jadi, udah ngga perlu lagi galau kalo gebetan menjauh, bingung kalo ngga ada yang ngedeketin atau sedih pas gebetan punya pacar baru. Semua udah diatur kok, ngapain dipikirin? mending mikirin sekolahan, kuliah, kerja, hobi baru, keterampilan baru, tambahin wawasan, tambahin teman, dll.

Gunakan waktu berhargamu dengan kegiatan positif! :)

Meilun Science Park

It's located in across from National Taiwan Science Educational Center (click it for reference) and beside Taipei Astronomical Museum (click it for reference).

It's a park, obviously. But there are also some other things related to science -well I don't know what is called. Hopefully the pictures below could explain more :)

It's really a nice place to chill around, for families and friends :)

FAITH :)

I got those words from "International Muslim Exhibition Culture" in my campus on November 2012. Since then, these words keep spinning in my head. It kept telling me that I need to have a bigger faith, especially when it comes to hijab. It really pushes me through my hard times. 

And now I can smile while reading it because I know I just beat my fears down and wear my hijab on :)

I'm so glad I got this message. It really helped me through.

So guys, whatever things you're dealing with, "Let your faith be bigger than your fears".

Taipei Astronomical Museum

It is located just across National Taiwan Science Education Center (click it for reference). You can go here by the same way as you did when you go to Science Museum. Actually when you walk from MRT Jiantan or Shilin, you will pass by Taipei Astronomical Museum first, then you'll walk across the street to go to Science Museum. 

Okay, I'm gonna review briefly about it.

It's actually a really nice place with 4 floor building. But almost all of the explanations are in Mandarin!
Too bad I can't read Mandarin, so I can't enjoy it. I got a little bit disappointed, since it's on tourist travel book, so expected more from it. To be honest, I expect it to be as good as Science Museum. Well it turns out that I got not even half from what I expected.

If you want to go there and can't read Mandarin, just don't expect too much. 

This place is also well-known for its special activity on a Special Occasion, such as New Year or Chinese Moon Festival. 

My new look

I proudly announce that, I'm wearing hijab. You know, a scarf that covers your head. If you ask why and how, well, it's such a long journey. But let me break it down into 5 things or steps that went through my mind before I decided to wear hijab. Hopefully, this post inspires other Muslim women to cover their heads.

1. I'm not ready.

Well, that is my reason every time people ask me why I don't wear hijab. It was until a women came on to me -out of no where- and asked me why, intensively. After I answered it with my classic answer, she said, "if you're about to die, you can't said 'wait, don't take me yet, I'm not ready, I haven't wear hijab', can you? and since wearing hijab is an obligation, you need to wear it, no matter what". Her words struck me pretty bad. My tears started to falls, don't know why. Then, I kept on thinking about it and started to plan. I also thought that if I keep on waiting, until when will I be ready? Will I ever know that I'm ready? I remember it correctly, that woman came on to me on October 2010. And a little while after that, I started to plan forwards.

2. Look Different.

This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I started to think about hijab. How will I look afterwards? How different will I look? How will others react? Will I comfortable with myself? Will I able to wear cute/fashionable clothes anymore? - It was me, long before that women came on to me. After she came, I thought that I can try different ways to wear hijab so that I feel comfortable in it and I still can wear cute/fashionable clothes as long as it is long sleeves and big enough for me to wear. So this problem is solved. Checked! It was around May 2011.

3. Bad Thought.

When other people from other country saw a women with hijab, they thought she is a terrorist. Or in some country, they underestimate Muslim woman. Since I've been to that country and heard someone calling Muslims are terrorist, I'm afraid if I'm being noticeable by them, I don't have any argument to fight back. Back then I was just a kid. I know little about my religion. Since then, I try to seek more knowledge, throw some challenging questions to other Muslims and listen to their answers, just in case later on, it will be my time to answer it. I observe people and realize that there are a few Muslims out there that know little about Islam, even less than me. But they are proud and say it out loud that they are Muslims. Then, I thought that there will never enough knowledge for someone to understand, but you need faith to do what you need to do. As long as you believe in it, Insha Allah, others will understand. I have my faith around Feb 2012.

4. Lost my significant other and 5. Everything else

Sounds silly, I know. But look around, people do care about what's their significant other are thinking or saying. And after a long steps that I went through and faith that I finally have, I still think about what if after I change, I lost him. Because maybe he doesn't like the changes that I've made. After several thoughts, I finally said to myself "I rather lost him, than lost a GOD". I know that this hijab is really important for me, it's an obligation for every Muslim woman and if I don't wear it, Allah may not be with me anymore. And I know that there will be someone out there that accept me with hijab. Almost at the same time, I also thought that I might lose what I have right now. Anything. Such as freedom, or any other opportunities. But then, as I know better, woman will feel free when they wear hijab, there will be no guy looking at them with 'that' look. And, if you can't get a good opportunity by wearing hijab, then it's not good enough. Nothing comes good from someone who can't respect our religion. And remember that Allah will give you even better opportunity if you still wear your hijab. I brace myself to move forward around March 2013.

Then, I just wait and getting ready for it.

Why not wearing it directly? Well, I'm not a big fan of 'suddenly', especially, not for this big changing in my life and myself. Even more, from March-July, it was oh-super-hectic-days for me, busy preparing my thesis and all of the documents for PhD admission. I don't think I have a little room to think about this changing. Because you know, you can't just suddenly wear hijab as you like it - at least, not for me. I need to think how will I wear it and what kinds of materials that I'm comfortable with. I need to prepare every tiny details, so that when I change, I don't feel like a stranger with myself. So I decided to wear it around August when things are settled.

So here I am, wearing hijab, proudly, since August 26th.

In 2012, I experienced a lot of unique things or reminders - I would say, which makes me feel uneasy and rush the process of wearing hijab. (1) Around January, out of a sudden, my mom's friend asked me when will I wear hijab. (2) On March, a stranger thought that I'm Christian because I don't wear hijab. (3) Around June-July, my mom's staffs asked me, when should I cover my head like my mom. (4) Around July, a stranger that doesn't know if I'm a Muslim or not, ask me why I don't wear hijab. (5) Uncountable nightmares about not wearing hijab and there was one night I woke up from that nightmares and found tears on my eyes.

 

*Despite all my understandings in each step, there's always one legitimate-undeniable facts that I included in my steps: "There's always good things that comes from believe in Allah and woman looks prettier in front of Allah if they cover their body and head, no matter it's a fashionable clothes or not."
 

Practice makes perfect

I believe everyone ever heard those sentence and maybe some of us think that it's just a word. Because sometimes, no matter how hard we've tried, we just can't do it. Moreover, when we see our friends are very good at it, we feel like we are sooo far behind them and we will need such a long time to become like them which will lead us to not wanting to try at all. Well, sometimes it happened to me. One of the examples are: jogging.

I can run pretty fast for 100 - 200m, which called a sprint. But I need to stop and walk if I have to run for more than 200m. And if someone ask me to jog, I can only jog for a few seconds. Weird huh? Don't know why. So I hate to jog, ever since. But recently, I notice that walking and jogging are the easiest exercise. Compared to swimming, you don't have to pack your clothes, shampoo and soap; and the time is quite flexible. You can jog for 15 minutes or even less, if you want to. So it's very easy, and you can do it any time.

So I tried to jog. It was around January and cold. Such a perfect timing to start jogging. And I can only jog for a few seconds, walk and jog again for about an hour. Then I keep on jogging at least once a week.

I realized that I improved! The improvement that I made makes me want to jog more often. I didn't keep a record for some time. But then I realized that I improved A LOT! In July, I was able to jog non-stop for 8 minutes!

Within 6 months, I can jog from a few seconds to 8 minutes! And until now, it keep on increasing, gradually. I feel really amused and proud of myself.
This is the proof that practice does makes perfect! Just wait patiently and see the improvement.

Good luck! :)