Wrote this back in August 30th, 2020 but just finished adding the pictures today (December 13th, 2020)
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Hi. Whoa, it feels super nostalgic to write in this blog again. Somehow, I feel young! Hahaha. This makes me reminisce the 2013~2014 Shabrina when she was so dedicated to this blog, writing religiously 2~4 times a week! My last post on this platform was published on September 15, 2018. Such a long time ago hahah. That was this Atami post. A very amazing day trip with Hitomi. Have you read this one? Heheh.
I guess life was pretty jam-packed back in the last quarter of 2018. I was busy writing and finalizing my Master's thesis that was due in the first week of January 2019 while juggling with a tremendous amount of tasks from my company's job training and going on some trips a little bit here and there 😅😃
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| Place：Jogasaki coast, Izu |
Yep, I was still a Master's student when I got accepted to the company that I'm currently working at and they scheduled the job-training 10 months prior to the official start of the job. This is a typical job-hunting and fresh grad recruitment style in Japan. Have you ever heard of it? Everyone typically starts to apply for a job a year prior to their graduation and if everything is smooth sailing, one will manage to land on a job at least 9 to 10 months prior to graduation. Oh, I guess I wrote a little bit about the fact that I was on the hunt for a job in this post. Just a teeny tiny bit, nothing informational I guess.
As for my job-hunting case, I started attending job-hunting seminars on March 1st, 2018, and started sending out applications to companies from late March throughout April. I then proceeded to writing tests (those intimidating SPI tests in Japanese!) and bunches of interviews afterward. Long story short, I got my first job offer in late May and the second one in the second week of June. I then chose to work at the company which gave me an offer in June. They called me on June 11, 2018, post-lunch time. I still remember it clearly. And that was that. I eventually managed to end my job-hunting journey and was able to get back at my thesis! My job was scheduled to start on April 1st, 2019, anyway.
I spent my last day of 2018 by writing my thesis before eventually headed out to my Uzbekistan friend, Farrux's house to spent the New Year Eve there with some other friends. Such a good night filled with laughter and extra yummy foods that Nilufar, Farrux's lovely wife had prepared. I ended 2018 in a very good note, I suppose?
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| Everyone looked so happy despite the fact that we were rushed by the thesis deadline lol |
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| Missing this very warm atmosphere at Farrux's old house |
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| Ahh I miss my Beku Beku! I wonder how big he's become now! |
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| Wishing everyone in this picture happy and healthy and can get through whatever problems that might arise in life. |
Bye 2018! Let's move on to 2019.
I managed to submit my thesis on the second day of the submission period. The second day was the last day. Submitted it at 9 in the morning, haha. Relieved for a while but then I got a tad nervous whenever I thought of the thesis defense.
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| My interview transcript (left) and my thesis (right)! |
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| My baby. Lol. I wish I could have done better but I knew that I had tried the best that I could at that time. |
The university scheduled my thesis defense on February 5, 2019. Right at my mom's 54th birthday! My defense went quite well. Thank God! I called my mom first thing after finishing it and regarded this good news as her birthday present and I think she also thought the same way. My graduation ceremony fell on March 27th, 2019. I've already booked the hakama that I was going to wear for the ceremony in January, a few days after I submitted my thesis.
Prior to my graduation ceremony, I flew to Taiwan to meet my soulmate Maru-chan and Maru-chan's Baloon Club's best friends who turned out becoming my best friends too! I spent 4 days there. I found this trip to Taiwan a tremendously heart-warming one. It's one of those rare trips where I don't really care about the places that I want to visit. Well, of course, I still did care about places but those weren't my priorities. All I wanted from this trip was to reunite and have a quality time with the people that I hold very dearly in my heart and now to think of it, to be able to have this feeling is so priceless.
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| Touched down Taipei and had this super yummy Beef Noodle immediately! Couldn't thank Andy Jhu and Maru-chan enough for picking me up and brought me to the best places in Taipei to eat at that night!! |
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| This is from the second day in Taipei. Went to the National Museum with my beloved bunch as you can see in the picture below! |
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| Thank you Buchou, Tina-Li and Judy for accompanying me for hourssss roaming around the National Museum and even explaining me lots of stuff about the Chinese dynasties! |
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| Aaand this is from the third day! We went to Jiu Fen and this time Pin-chan and Jia Pin (Maru-chan's little sis) were also joining us! Ahhh what a happy day. And Jiu Fen was so beautiful! |
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| Had the yummiest dinner at Maokong, a famous tea plantation area in Taipei. I remember I laughed way too much this night. This one is also from the second day of the trip! |
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| This is the cutest day that I could ever imagine. Strolling around Dihua Street with Maru-chan's mom!! She's the sweetest and the cutesttt. I'd definitely love to have another stroll session with Maru-chan's mom. I hope she also enjoyed the time as much as I did ❤️ Xie xie, auntie! |
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| Closing my Taipei trip with these lovely people. From my right side, counter clockwise is Maru-chan's mom, Maru-chan's dad, Bucho and Tina Li! |
I'm thinking to write a separate post about my Taiwan trip because it was just too wonderful to be tucked in this one post. The trip deserves its own spotlight!
Got back from Taiwan, I was ready for my graduation ceremony. My mom also came to Tokyo! I wore the hakama that I had booked previously. Dang, renting this hakama really broke my bank account hahaha. The rental fee was exactly the same as my monthly apartment rent! What an experience. But I didn't regret my decision. Because wearing a hakama for a university graduation ceremony is quite a tradition in Japan and I don't see myself getting another degree in this country for at least the next few years so I thought, "why not?!" and rent it anyway as this might be once in a lifetime chance, I thought.
Ended March 2019 with a good note and nice memories with friends, Master's graduation and mom's presence. Now, moving on to April 2019. A completely new beginning in life, almost equal to the journey to the unknown―building a career. Or perhaps, trying to build a career is a better way to put it out.
My mom walked me until the station during my first week of office commute. She loved doing that and I was super happy for having those precious moments. She prepared my breakfast, took bunches of pictures of me as I walked to the station. She always waved her hands saying goodbye to me as I entered the station hurriedly, catching my 8:16 train. She's a very good paparazzi, I told you. We then parted at Tama Station and she would walk around the neighborhood by herself before heading back to my apartment to chill there the whole day, waiting for me to come back home. She did this for the whole week before going back home to Indonesia.
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| First day of office! |
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| Miss youuuu, Ibuuuk!! |
Wait, I think I should end this post here. Will continue the story on a separate post! It's now Saturday. I'm having my day-off. About to meet my girls at 13:00 in Ueno and have yakiniku for lunch! Ah, excited!
See ya!
Shabrina
