FROM SOLO TO DAEGU : Ceramics

Hi my silent reader

Today actually i had a plan to go Biseul mount for enjoying the azalea flower festival. But, when i checked on Instagram, people who just came back from there said all azalea already fell down. So being a little bit upset, i decided to make a new posting!

When i got my LASIK surgery, i could not go everywhere. I mean for travelling outside Daegu and Gyeongsan. So i prefer to stay in dorm, cycling around Gyeongsan and making ceramic stuff. I don't know in other part of Indonesia, but i never heard ceramic class in my hometown.

Back to January...

We had a hard time in January. Imagine that you have to school when the day is super duper cool. That was my second semester in Yeungnam Korean Language Institute. Usually every semester we have a special day for cultural trip. In that semester, my teacher suggested us to make ceramic in Daegu. Later she said because we were more than 16 peoples we would have ceramic painting class
I did not have any idea for the class. So just followed my teacher suggestion

my face before LASIK surgery

Bread and Ceramic workshop in one place

when we walked we spotted an ajumma (elderly woman) wore the same style as our teacher

My class (6A) and another class (6B) had to go to Sawol Area. First teacher said it would better to take the subway but later she said since the workshop is little bit far from the subway station she changed the plan and took a bus. The ceramic workshop is Sungmin Ceramic Gallery ( 숭민 도자기 blalala ) i forgot it hahahhaah. If you are in Daegu or Gyeongsan and want to visit there, go to bus 449 or 649 and stop at Gosan Apartment. From bus stop, you have to cross to the moms touch direction and go straight for 15 minutes.


Painting ceramic is not easy at all

When i saw this workshop for first time, my impression was good. But the room was so small. I love how they maximize the space and decorated room. If you open the door, you will be welcomed by the bread smell.

the decoration

fresh from the oven, yummy homemade bread

Then we were directed to a small room. Luckily that room was enough for us. The ceramic teacher asked us to have a sit and wear off our winter jacket. In that room, there were also a lot of ceramic making tools and ceramics itself so we had to be very careful when moved to another position.
We also saw so many ceramic works which placed in open front cupboards.

we listened to the guru explanation 

The teacher waited us until we sat in our chair and she started explaining what we had to do and what was the function of tools in our table. In our table, they already prepared water, sponge, color plate, brushes with different size range. I sat in the corner of long table so actually i could not listen clearly what the teacher spoke about XD. Aha, since we are learning Korean, she spoke in Korean.
After listen to explanation, every of us had to chose one ceramic. We could choose a mug, small mug, bowl or Vietnamese coffee drip and fish plate. I chose the tall mug. Since we came from various nationality, the teacher asked us to draw unique pattern that represented our country or just what we love to draw. I started to google batik pattern since that my favorite design. I thought it would be nice to draw Garuda (Javanese mythical bird). I drew almost all the surface with pencil and took me a long time to paint. Let say i can draw but i am bad at coloring with water color brush. We can use the sponge for erasing our pencil sketch. Some of my friends  erased her drawing sketch for more than twice and ended up asking teacher to draw for her. After two hours focused on drawing an coloring, here is my mug.

my garudaa (little bit failed)

batik wings pattern 

I was not satisfied with my color actually but it was not bad too. After cleaned brush and table, we got free bread and tea. In this time, teacher said she would pick three favorite artwork.And like usual, when i did not expect a thing then i would get award. I won it. My mug was selected as best three. She gave me two small ceramic name tag. So happy :)

After waiting for two weeks, i got mine. The color is more faded then what i expected beforeeee

I will share my ceramic making story in next post. I am afraid it will be too long if i write all here

Enjoy reading :)

Best regards,

Alfiana Raharjo

FROM SOLO TO DAEGU : LASIK Surgery (2)

Hi my silent reader

Outside is raining now and I chose to study in library. I would love to continue my story about LASIK Surgery. I hope you read and like  PART 1.


Back to March 15th,

I was waiting for the D-day. I spent all my holiday to do the surgery and recovery process. So we had appointment at 10.00. That means we had to be ready at 9.00. We took the subway to Beomo station. After 15minutes, we arrived and took a lift to 20th floor. For the last time, I saw the buildings using my glasses. I hoped at that time every thing going well and smooth.

We had a short examination (again) before the surgery. They called me, Rony and Bere one by one. Bere went first to the examination then Rony and me, the last. They checked our eyes by vision test and virtual reflection test only. Ah before had examinations, our interpreter explained us about we had to do and what we could not do after surgery and gave some papers to read and sign. One paper was about general guidelines after lasik. In this time you also questioned whether you have allergy or any impaired vision. I answered that usually my eyes became so dry after watching screen for long time.
And we had to sign a agreement between patient and hospital that declare the hospital will not take responsibility for the nonsense demand such us wanting to see ghost or bacteria after surgery. They also gave us paper bag which contains name tag, guidelines, eye shields glasses, a box of artificial eye drop, anti-inflammation, antibiotic and later they gave us our blood (or called us PRP) and not used anymore glasses.

For the payment, we had to pay right after we said our surgery appointment in the reception. I paid in cash for 1170000won of 12000000won. I already paid the examination fee 30000won so they deducted the payment amount. You are available to pay with you VISA/MASTERCARD CARD debit/credit card or any Korean debit card.

Payment =>briefing and consultation=> short examination=>surgery=>checking eyes=>receive the medicine and prescription=> go home


on the metro

on the lift going to 20th floor



having consultation

guide line

waiting for the operation

me, before the operation

me, again

rony, when he was being examined

the operation room

In the sterilized room....
I left my phone outside when going to surgery room. Behind the door is sterilized room. Actually I need to wear cap outside. But I asked them to allow me wear the cap inside. After sterilized, they took my blood for serum and a nurse dropped anaesthetic. Then, I had to wait. So they asked me to sit near the window and gave me juice. There is no toilet inside sterilized room. Better take a pee before!. Bere was the first among us who got the surgery. I could not see her face without the glasses. Ah yeah they already took my glasses. Rony was actually the second but then because they asked for vision examination again so he became the last. And I was the second. My heart beat so fast when they called my name.

If you can not imagine only by reading my words, this is the reference link

In the operation room....
Entering the operation room was a big step in my life. I only saw the operation room in movie or drama but at that time was so real. Even it was only LASIK surgery but for me this is the first time in my life I went to hospital for surgery! I laid on the bed, they asked me to move my body little bit upper. Doctor told me, actually my interpreter already told me for twice time even in the operation room too, I should only focus seeing the green light. they covered my lower body with blanket. The doctor said to me that he was ready to perform surgery. . He covered my eyes with a tool so I can only see one side and a tool that made me could not blink even a second.  He said he would clean my eyes. He dropped some eye drop (I don't know what was that). Since that, my eyes became so watery. At the same time, I heard he turn on the lasic tool because it sounds like zzzzzzzzz in my ears and smelt like something burn. Don't ask what I felt at the time. I was so nervous. The doctor tried to calm me. All the nurses, they will support you by saying see the green light and counting the time. Then he started to cut my cornea.He pinched my cornea to make the circle shape. When he did this, he waited my cornea became steady first. Because if I become panic then my pupil is not in the centre. After pinched it, he took the layer. I kept focusing my self to see the green light. There was a time after got pinched, I could not see the green light at all. Don't worry it only last for one or two second and you can see everything. After I saw the green light again, the doctor dropped some eye drop again ( I think he drop blood serum and anti inflammation) and said that my left eye surgery was successfully performed. Doctor then said he would perform operation for the right eyes. I swear I was more nervous for the right side. Even he had to wait several second to pinch my eyes and said don't be panic. Two second later, he pinched my cornea and took out the layer. The procedure was same as the left eye. After the surgery done, all people in the room congratulated me and gave me direction to another room. Finally, I came out from the operation room. Fyi, I only spent 5-10minutes in the surgeon room.

In the another room, Bere was already there. They took off my cap which means right after that I had to wear my hijab quickly. They asked us to not close our eyes for approx. 20minutes. A nurse kept checking our eyes and gave some eye drops to keep it watery. I still could not see clearly at that time. It was so watery and blurry in the same time. Because of anaesthetic I could not see close too. Our interpreter told us that our journey would be started at 1pm. It means at 2 pm we had to drop our blood serum and every two hours we drop the anti inflammation and four times a day drop the anti biotic. They released us from the waiting room at 12:30 pm. Before going home, they checked our eyes condition. The doctor said nothing was strange! Surgery finished! We had appointment the day after surgery to check our vision condition. Ah, we also stopped first in pharmacy to buy artificial eye drop. It costed 17000won.

after operation

luncccccccccccch in kim pasa

We had lunch first because we wereeeeeee too hungry. Ah, we had to use the sunglasses outside. So don't blame if I looked like a fly. Really thanks once again to our friend who accompanied us to do this surgery. Love you guys

My daily treatment after surgery
Here the list of my daily treatment :
Every hour, drop the blood serum ( the pink cap). I placed this one in fridge to make it cool
Every two hour, drop anti inflammation
Four times a day, drop antibiotic (the dark pink cap)
When going to bed, wear the eye shield glasses (seriously they have to invent the stylish one)
Whenever I feel my eyes dry, drop artificial eye drop. For first and second I really drop it twice for an hour. I really felt my eyes so dry. If I open an eye drop, i have to use it before 24 hours.

my serum blood, anti biotic and behind is the anti inflammatory



Rony placed the medicine tidily

unstylish eye shield

We also visited doctor two weeks after surgery (our second visit). Doctor said that my eyes were okay and didn't has any problem so he asked me to visit him 3 months after (since my second visit). While Rony and Bere needed to check one month later. I will visit doctor again in May. In the second visit they gave us another eye drop to replace the anti inflammatory drop. They gave us two bottle. This bottle has different rule. So here is the rule:
First week, 4 times drop
Second week, 2 times drop
Now, I am waiting for my third visit. I only drop the artificial drop when I feel so dry. Ah and the most important thing, I have to rest for a moment whenever I have to use computer or phone for a long time.  See you guys in the next posting!

Enjoy reading~

Alfiana Raharjo

FROM SOLO TO DAEGU : LASIK surgery (1)

 Hi my silent reader

I need to say sorry for long hiatus. Actually i was not busy so  i could not type any post here. But i could not manage time to write a blog. I only keep travelling around and posting on Instagram.

So in this post, i would like to share my LASIK surgery story. Do not take it wrong, i am afraid some of you probably mistaken between LASIK and PLASTIC surgery. Hehehe.
Back in January, when Korea was so cold, my Nicaraguan friend offered an idea to get surgery in Korea. He said that his teacher (we were in different class) got lasik surgery last year and it was successful. He asked me to join him. Later, my Mexican friend also joined this team. I had a dream to remove my glass. Truthfully, i hated wearing a glass. It was so uncomfortable. Whenever you eat hot noodles, sweating, swimming, caught in the rain or snow, etc you really want to take off your glasses. Oh and by wearing glasses, people think that you are smart, genius, nerd and love to read book. Heh?
Then, i talked to my parents , especially about budget and the risk. They preferred to believe me. Do whatever you believe, they said.

We had appointment with doctor in NUNE EYE CLINIC HOSPITAL ( 누네 안과 병원) in Beomo Station, Daegu on 22 nd of January. I went there with my duo Latinos friend and teacher. This time we had an eye examination. Imagine the clinic is on 19-20th floor, so you will feel that you  do examination on the sky. This exam took 3 hours.More than 6 test that i had to undergo. Sorry i did not take any picture of the exam. I was too busy because  they called my name for several times.
But let see if google provide some information
OH, i found this one. You can see all the examination steps through
this sites
But because all are written in Korea, i will help to translate here
1. Submit the application
2. Fill the questioner and have a consultation. Do not worry if you CAN NOT SPEAK KOREAN. Here they also provide an interpreter. We used interpreter too since two of my friend can not speak Korean fluently. Actually, i also found difficult word when they started talking about the medicine or the treatment. HAHA
3. Vision Test. They will ask you to read different size letters and numbers. When i did it without glasses, i could not read anything. Even the examiner face was also blur
4. Virtual reflection test. in this test they will ask you too see the object on the machine. Do not blink your eyes
5. Pressure Test. They will ask you to hold your blink when they spray air in your eyes.
6. MR Test. I dont remember about this test. But once you see the picture, you will understand. Maybe
7.Corneal Topography Test. See the picture
8.Cornea endothelial cell Test. I totally forgot about this test
9.Night vision Test. I remembered well this test. Because we had to enter a room and they really turned the lamp off. You have to click whenever you see white spot during test. They will give a tool who really looks like a computer mouse.
10. Mydriasis test.
11. Pentacam test
12. Retina and yellow area test (ponder spot)
13. optical coherence tomography test
14. Retina thickness test. for this one, they will drop some anesthetic.
15.  IOL master eye test
16. Last one, tear test (to see how dry is your eyes)
17. Consultation. They will give you result of the test. The doctor suggested me to take the extra lasik which cost 2200000won (Rp 23.000.000,00). But he also allowed me to take only the common one. This one cost 1200000won (Rp 13.000.000,00) . This amount also included to the examination fee. Ah We got this price also because we declared our Yeungnam University student card!

Lets talk about the result

The result was written in a book. My myopia was so bad, -7.00 for both my eyes and got 0,25 for the astigmatism. But they said after taking surgery my vision could be 1,0 (normal).
Why the doctor allowed me take the normal lasik? because i have a thick cornea. my right side is 577 micrometer and 562 for the left.  Next, they let me knew about my pupil size for the night vision The normal size is 6.0-6.5 micro meter. Mine is stated as the normal one. For the pressure result, i got 22 and 21 which the normal one is 10-21 mmHg. And i was declared as normal for the glaucoma test.

 the result book

my myopia and astigmatism result 

my cornea thickness

pupil size

After a long discussion between me and my friend, we agreed to undergo surgery on March 15th. It was holiday so we could recover fast. Okay, i will stop writing here. Continue to next post about the surgery and recovery time.

Enjoy reading~ 

FROM SOLO TO GYEONGSAN : Korean Life

Hi my silent reader

long time no write, so I am back guys
Miss me? huh I have been 4 months here.  Four months living in South Korea. Living in my dream country. Hehehe  I wanted to throw back my stories. How was my first flight to Korea and how I met my new friends.


Lets back to

25 AUGUST 2015

My journey started from Solo (my lovely home town) then continued by train for one hour to Jogja.
Our family doesn't have a car so we called a cab. Since I brought many luggage so I sat between mum and sister thighs. Luckily, it was only 20 minutes and we arrived in Balapan Station

So we had to wait the train. It would depart at  3 pm We bought 6 tickets for grandpa, grandma, mum, dad, me, and my sister. Flying from Jogja Airport  is more comfortable than Solo airport. Because the train station is near from the Airport. I cant imagine if my family have to accompany me to Solo airport which will cost more than 50000 rupiahs by cab.

I brought one big 30cm luggage, one 60ml backpack and small bag. My luggage was so damn hard. I didn't bring many things though. In the next stories, I knew why it was so heavy and I should haven't brought the big luggage one.



Let me introduce my friend and my scholarship partner. Call her Hana and she is from Jogja. We decided to meet up at Airport. Our flight to Jakarta would be depart at 6:10 pm so we met around 5pm . Then, we went to baggage check and checked in our ticket to get the boarding pass.

It took one hour twenty minutes for the flight. You can notice that my lipstick already gone since it was the long stay one. However, we felt very excited. Fyi, They provided us Garuda ticket because it is one of Skypass member. So nice :)

Arrived in Jakarta around 7:30 pm. I had promise to meet the other Indonesian Scholar awardee in the airport but because we thought it was better to register baggage and check in first so we didn't wait for them. And then we got a problem. After waiting the economy line ( Korean Air divided three lines; one is the VVIP class ,business class (morning calm)  and last, the economic class), the staff in counter informed us that our luggage were over weight. It should be only 23 kg. No more. Hana's luggage was around 24 and mine was around 26 kg. Actually we could move the things. Then we decided to wait other friends. One by one our friend came to the counter. They also got the same problem. Even their luggage are heavier than mine. We met the manager and started the discussion. The discussion wasn't going smooth. The baldy manager didn't want to listen our explanation and the discussion turned to  a debate. Come on, we got information that we could seize up the baggage via email and why suddenly they could not provide it. Sshhh.. Thanks for our tante CL who finally won the debate over the manager. 

 Hope it would not happen next year. But the same discussion happened again in the next day when the second batch awardee checked in their tickets.

 What will happen if six Indonesian sit in same rows on plane? Of course so noisy. We loved taking picture so actually that pose only one of several shots. The flight departed at 11pm and arrived in Incheon at 7am with two hours time difference between Jakarta and Seoul. Okay, what you can do during 7 hours flight? you can see drama, mv or like me I saw a documentary film about Inca. kkkk
Sleeping is a must! Guys,I almost forget to say this. If you are strict with the food, I mean if you are vegetarian or want to get halal food, you can contact them by email prior your departure. My Moroccan friend did it and he ate halal food on the plane.

Welcome to Korea, the morning calm

This airport facilities are awesome so I don't deny if Incheon is the best airport in this world

My grandma can use this car ^^

They divided the line into two. One is for Korean passport and one is for foreigner

Actually they have another line for diplomatic passport

Here is the luggage claim. So big right?

And we do not need to wait our baggage. In Jakarta, it will take 30 minutes until one hour to wait our baggage.

After arrived in Incheon safely, we just filled in the customs list and gave it back to them. Then we have to go to our meeting points which  were different for every Korean language course. Yeungnam University asked me to meet them in west meeting point. The good thing was they sent the picture so you will not get lost. I met my Malaysian friend there, three Malaysians and we took the same bus to Gyeongsan. They paid the ticket for us and it cost around 39000 won for each. hahha.

bus interior

we stopped in two rest areas

 Finally after 4 hours we arrived in Dongdaegu station and continued by taxi for 30 minutes. I was so exhausted actually. Only drank a cup of green tea latte didn't make your stomach full.

 We registered ourselves. They offered blanket . I didnt bring it from home so I paid it for 45000 won.

 
Seven eleven near our dorm. I noticed every dorm have their seven eleven kkkkk. And the elder who works there is so kind and like to have conversation with foreigner like me.

I found a domestic cat. Korean domestic cat isn't different with Indonesian domestic cat except the fur.It seems they have thick and long fur.

My first brunch was bibimbap and that was too much. Bibimbab here is a mix of vegetable, mushroom and fried egg. They also separate  the rice. I only could eat rice not the mix veggies.

welcome to the subway life. Gyeongsan is located near  Daegu;A metropolitan city in South Korea.

If i want to go to Down town in Daegu , just take the subway. It will take 30 minutes and stop for 13 stations (exclude the depart and arrival station). Living here is so comfortable. What I need to do is only walking and taking the subway. We can use T money and top up it at nearest convenient store on subway. Imagine if Solo has subway, so people can go to train station only by walk. they will leave their motorcycle at home. System will change behaviour not the opposite actually. I never imagine  that I can walk every day wherever I go. Providing bus is  also good improvement but it just stop only in several places. I wish someday my city can be  improved like Daegu.

Daegu only has three lines.

I noticed they put a lot of poems or stories in the public place

See, this is a rare thing that I can find in my hometown. This elder woman cleaned the subway mall floor. There was a sticky thing and she grabbed a tool to clean it.

OMG

That's all what I can tell you on my first day living in Korea . Keep reading my blog because I will update it with another post soon :)

KGSP SCHOLARSHIP : MEDICAL ASSESMENT AND VISA REQUIREMENT

After announced the 2nd successful candidates, KGSP asked all candidates to do medical assesment in hospital. I was so happy and went to hospital on first week. I went to hospitals instead of laboratorium because it didnt cost too much. For a comparison, in hospital i just spent around IDR 800000 but in clinic or laboratorium my friend spent about IDR 1500000. I recommend PKU Muhammadiyah for their service. Bring the KGSP medical assesment form and give it to hospital. Make sure your doctor write the answer in English.

What kind of test that you have to undergo? Here is the list:

- Physical Assesment. In this part, my doctor just check my physical condition by asking me if i had a problem or illness. Even for skin, my doctor didnt send me to specialist , he just asked whether i had skin problem or allergies. He also checked my blood pleasure. For general assesment like this i went to polyclinic and got charged around IDR 45000

-I went to radiology to get a photograph of my lung. This cost about IDR 150000

-I went to hospital laboratorium to check my protein in blood and the narcotic pycotropica test
This cost me about IDR 600000 (My friend also got the stool test but my doctor skipped it)

I got the result on day after tomorrow. Before receiving the result, doctor tested my eyes ability to differentiate colour. So here is  personal assesment and medical assesment form. Sorry, for my own privacy, the medical assesment result  will not be uploaded.

6-7 May 2015

I got email from EWHA and they forwaded the KGSP medical assesment information to us.

This is one their emails:

Dear student, congratulations!

Each candidate has to get medical checkup individually in your own place of residence and send the result to NIIED.

Please find the attached Medical Checkup Forms. You have to fill out <Form 1> first.

Next, you could visit a comprehensive hospital near your residences and submit <Form 1> and <Form 2> to a doctor. After you get a medical checkup and get the doctor’s signature on <Form 2>, you have to send both <Form 1> and <Form 2> to NIIED directly.

8 May 2015

 I sent my result  to KGSP and here was the first answer.

Dear Alfina,(

We have downloaded your attachment. Kindly send us the test results from the hospital as well. If not in English or Korean, as long as the Form 1,2 are in English, you may submit the scanned result in your language and English translated by yourself. (including the drug test result)

Thank you.

Regards,

KGSP team, NIIED

This meant i should attach the hospital result form too such as laboratorium test result. Since my result was in Indonesian, i translated all the result using tools in PDF. Then, i sent again my form 1,2 and the hospital form on may 9th, 2015.

11 May 2015

They replied me. 

안녕하세요.

메일 잘 받았습니다. We have downloaded your mail

감사합니다.Thank you. 

국립국제교육원 NIIED

국제장학팀 International scholarship team

16 June 2015

the 3rd successfull candidates was announced and i was the lucky one ^^

22 June 2015

KGSP sent the invitation letter.

Dear KGSP student

On behalf of NIIED, I am pleased to provide you with this letter of invitation for your visa process. Please keep in mind to take sufficient time to process your visa in order to come to Korea during the designated period. Your entry date is from Aug.25 to Aug 27, 2015.

24 June 2015

Today i got email from Yeungnam University as my Korean language institute. They attached two files. One is a letter invitation for each succesfull candidate (PDF) and another is an entry form. We ahould choose arrival day between september 24th until 26th.

Before you come to korea NIIED need Entry Information for ticketing. Refer to attached form. Fill the form and send me by 25th June.

30 June 2015

 Yeungnam officer asked us to apply for a year visa (D4). By this i had to apply visa in Jakarta. I didnt have time because of a lot of translation work. So i decided to send my pasport and requirement document (invitation letter, visa application, photo, copy of pasport). In this email the officer also gave us information about the dormitory and required document that we should bring to Korea.

Dormitory : http://eggec.happydorm.or.kr/
Please refer to above website for dormitory where you going to live. The dormitory fee is \180,000 a month(Double room)

Notice_ When you enter Korea Please bring Documents as below
- Copy of Guidebook for 2015 KGSP Graduate Scholars(생활안내서): attached PDF file
- LETTER of Invitation
- Contact Information of Yeungnam university
- ID photo 3copy

 TO BE CONTINUED