Gradschool Life #5 (End) – Leaving Boston, What Did I Miss The Most?

Running, Sunset, and Charles River

I can’t believe that I finally finish my graduate school at Boston University! Can you believe its been 2 years since I am leaving home in Indonesia to move to Boston? Time really flies when we have so much fun. Its a mix feeling when I have to leave the city in August 6th, 2017. I am so sad leaving the city that has been greatly influence my life in this past 2 years with all the memories, my apartment, great friends that become family, and a lot of fun things that I did in the city. I remember I spent my last week in Boston by exploring the city by walking from Cambridge to Boston, from home to downtown, from home to campus, Trader Joe’s, Brookline, Charles River, Yusuf Mosque, Chesnut Hill Reservoir, and many other favorite place in Boston.

However, I am also happy to finally going home and end a very long distance relationship with my boyfriend, getting closer (in terms of distance) with my best friend and family in Indonesia, and start doing something that I left in Indonesia.

To stay or leave Boston, has been my biggest question since the end of 2016. There are so many freedom and opportunity that I can pursue while I am in Boston yet there are people I love that I can see if I stay in Boston. There are also several best friend in Boston that I am so sad to leave them 😦 It’s been a very difficult decision until finally I decided to go home for a while.

But the next question is.. where is home? A definition of home become a wider perspective to me after I left my heart in so many places. During my stay in Boston, I have been able to visit my lovely people across Canada, my best friend in Puerto Rico and Peru, get an unforgettable experience in Tanzania, traveling across the U.S., even going back to Indonesia twice for conference and thesis research, and visiting my sister in Japan. These experience teach me to travel light and being a nomad if needed with my backpack. I have a 4 hours long conversation with Professor Barry two days before I left and he said, “I am pretty sure even though you are going back to Indonesia, you will be everywhere, Dini. Who knows you will be back in Boston again, doing some businesses or collaboration.”, and Fiona, my favorite staff in my Department hug me when I say goodbye and said, “You will be everywhere, I am sure you will not stay in one place forever.” .. that statement really make me think about myself. Am I a nomad? Maybe for now? Maybe I will settle later in the future when I find a place to settle? Again, the same question, where is home to me?

Me and Didi with the Coffee Farmers in Bajawa, Flores for our research in May 2017

He did not attend my graduation in Boston but we have our early ceremony at Kelimutu National Park, Flores!

When I finally land in Indonesia and meet Didi and JP, I feel so happy. Nothing make me happier to be able to see lovely faces for the first time I go home to Indonesia. Then, we have lunch and I see Adrian, his present with JP make me miss Boston a lot — yes in my first day in Indonesia. But surely, to see Didi and then see my sister in that night, I feel home. From that day, I never really stop moving, being a nomad on the road by accompany JP to do his research in Lombok, going to Yogyakarta for another research and academic purpose, got an invitation from Kick Andy to represent Wanderlust Indonesia, went to Ujung Kulon for Wanderlust with Kick Andy team, accompany friends from Seattle who visit Indonesia for 2 weeks, and spent quality time with my lovely people in between.

Shooting for Kick Andy at Ujung Kulon

After Kick Andy show with Friends & Family of Wanderlust Indonesia

After 2 months leaving Boston, sometime I really miss some of things that I can get in Boston. One of the #1 thing I miss about Boston is my room in Boston! I miss the not-so-hot temperature in my room where I can relax and being alone, playing my record player / spotify, reading my book and drinking my coffee or tea. Being a nomad for 2 months make me miss that space a lot. I never really know that I will miss my room that much.

Hello 1472A! I miss you!

#2 – I miss my morning coffee routine! :(( Did you know that I broke my coffee grinder after I use it in Indonesia because it has a different voltage between US & Indonesia? I am so sad that I only have my manual grinder (which has a really bad grinding quality) and it will take longer to make a cup of coffee. Being a nomad and not having a portable coffeemaker such as cafflano make me really miss my morning routine in brewing my own coffee. Oh plus making a breakfast!

Missing this routine a lot 😦

#3 – Which related to breakfast, I miss cooking a lot. Not to mention, cooking with Kuniii, my lovely roommate in Boston. We have such a good time cooking together in our kitchen in Boston and I have to admit that not being able to have your own kitchen to cook your own food make me sad. Oh and I miss my groceries shopping routine to Trader Joe’s!!

Lovely roommate, Kuniiii!

and this kitchen!

#4 – I miss being active in outdoor that much! I miss my bike, being able to walk a lot in a decent street and nice temperature, running along Charles River or Chesnut Hill Reservoir, hiking in the weekend, camping, roadtrip, yoga & meditation, oh how I miss that a lot! How I miss the fresh air and being able to see clear sky and fresh water.

In our hiking & camping trip to Grand Canyon – Sedona – Antelope – Bryce – Zion

#5 – Surprisingly, I miss being a student! I love University, being in the classroom, having a discussion with friends & professor, doing some paper & presentation, being in the library, call me nerdy or what, but I really love being a student in Boston! Btw I will update you later about a profile video that my Department created to feature myself as one of the International student in Boston University (BU), it was so much fun! In the end of my study in BU, Professor Barry and Professor Samuel Mendlinger also nominate me to receive a Graduate Excellent Award from our Department and I am so humbled to receive this award.

From left to right: Prof. Greiman a.k.a Ginny, Prof. Steve, Prof. Barry

With Melani, my best friend from Puerto Rico & her family

With Prof. Samuel Mendlinger, our guru ini Tourism!

Do I look happy? ^_^

Our field trip to Tanzania!

#6 – I miss the freedom and doing whatever you want without someone judging you or asking about your life, where are you from, what is your job or occasion, and dress casually. In Boston, I can even wear running gear to go everywhere or a sandal inside the classroom in the summer or hot weather! I remember every time I take Go-Jek or Uber in Indonesia, most of the driver always so curious about your life and asking questions such as: “where are you from”, “are you not working”, “are you a student”, “what are you doing here”, “are you married”, and other questions. I guess our society culture is just so curious to know about other people life and people do love to talk and making conversation.

#7 – Last but not least, I miss my companion in Boston! Group of Indonesian students & professional in Boston that turn into a family, group of classmates, oh how I miss them after spending 2 years with them! Hope everyone is doing good & we stay in touch!

Best friends!!!

Jepeee, I know Fall classroom will be difficult without me around you, right? :p

I guess that’s so far the list of what did I miss already from my Boston life and now, I have to come back to my other “home”, I don’t know for how long, and where life will bring me next. For now until the end of this year, I want to enjoy my time before starting something new next year, I was thinking also to write a book of my travel journey (any idea/comment? :D).

What I always believe until now is that happiness is a state of mind. It does not mean that after I leave Boston which make me so happy, I will lost my happiness. Happiness is inside ourself and hopefully I can take it wherever I move.

Thank you LPDP for the scholarship that make me able to stay for 2 years in Boston, and for everyone who is helping me in finishing my Master Degree in Boston University, you know who you are and your support means a lot to me! Love you all!

Welcome back to Indonesia, Dini! 

In a boat journey around Ujung Kulon National Park. August 2017

Prayer vs Desire

 

One of the path at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia

 

This semester, I decided to take Zen Meditation class again with Mark Houghton at Fitrec Boston University (BU). What I like about my University is that we can take the PDP (Department of Physical Education and Dance) courses for free and we will have credit in our transcript, normally it is only 1 credit. There is no grade for it, it just PASS / FAILED and to be able to pass, you just need to attend the classes and have no more than 3 absents.  There are a lot of options at BU Fitrec from wall climbing, yoga, pilates, swimming, dance, badminton, volley, marathon training, basketball, and any other including Zen Meditation.

There is always an insight everytime I get out from the meditation class and from today, I would like to commit write that insight down right after the class so that I won’t forget.

Today, after the meditation practice, there is an interesting thought that Mark said in the class about prayer vs desire. I realize that most of the time when I pray, it is about asking something from God. It is about the desire that we want. Prayer is different. It is not supposed to be a selfish request from our self to God. Prayer is about hoping for the best to all the people who suffer in the world. God know what we want even before we think about it. We don’t have to ask or tell our God what we want because if you believe in God, you supposed to believe also in what the best your God will give to you.

Prayer is not a desire.

There is also one activity that we experiment as a group in the class in the end of the class about how our thoughts are always running around in our head. What we supposed to do with all those thoughts? We don’t need to invest in all the thoughts that running around in our head, we don’t need to feed all those thoughts, we should learn how to accept it and control that. That is what meditation practice will help us in accepting, meditation is not about discipline or concentration, it is about learning on acceptance.

Rumah

Di depan campsite kabin yang kami tinggali dalam perjalanan kami ke Acadia National Parks, Maine bulan Oktober 2016. Photo by: Sitti Arlinda

Rumah kamu bisa saja dimana kamu dilahirkan
Tapi kamu akan menemukan rumah-rumah yang lain
Seiring dengan tumbuh dan berkembangnya dirimu
Dimanakah rumah sebenarnya bagimu setelah itu?
Akan susah untuk kau jelaskan

Rumah itu bisa saja tidak berupa bangunan
Bukan juga harus memiliki perabotan
Atau lebih mewah lagi, punya lahan pekarangan di depan dan belakang
Dengan kandang binatang peliharaanmu dan tumbuhan yang kau tanam

Rumah itu akan berubah menjadi sesuatu yang tidak berwujud
Tempatnya pun tidak ada di peta apalagi google maps
Rumah ini tidak bisa dibeli dari siapapun
Hanya bisa kau temukan sendiri dengan ketulusan cinta

I feel “home” every time I am with you

Selamat ulang tahun yang ke-25, Adikku Faelasufa.
Kakakmu ini sangat bangga padamu, sedari kamu lahir 🙂

Gradschool Life #4: 1 Year, 2.5 Semester, 11 Courses, Half way to go!

As the continuity of my journal about Gradschool life in Boston here (1),  here (2), and there (3), now let me write what I experience after 1 year being a grad student at Boston University.

As I don’t take any class in the summer, I decided to take the internship opportunity from May – July. However, I ask the permission to leave the office for 2 weeks in late May – early June for my road trip to Canadian Rockies and West Coast. I did the internship at Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism as a part of their Marketing & Research Team. There are 3 Director who I work with, 1 person focus on branding & marketing the events going on in Massachusetts – 1 person focus on the MassJazz (Jazz around Massachusetts) and community in Massachusetts (nations, religions, clubs, etc) – 1 person focus on doing a research and presenting about the impact of tourism through the economic development in Massachusetts.

In the end of my internship, I deliver a report on the economic impact data of tourism in Massachusetts, manage their website in regular basis at massvacation.com, interact with some visitors / tourists who came to the office at 10 Park Plaza, Suite #4510 – near the Boston Public Garden. I also published an article on the research on Islamic community in Boston: http://www.massvacation.com/blog/2016/08/discovering-halal-food-in-massachusetts/

I love the people there where I work with and definitely learn a lot about Massachusetts, DMO strategy, research, and other.

In August, me and my classmate Melani fly to Indonesia (yes I am going back home!) to present our paper that got accepted to be presented at the 6th Arte-Polis International Conference in ITB Bandung. Never thought that I will go back to Indonesia within my 2 years study, who knows.. life sometime gives you lemon, make a lemonade!

Such a great experience for both us, the first time to present our research paper about “Developing Culinary Tourism to Support Local People Development & Preserve Cultural Heritage in Indonesia”. We got to meet the people who are working on tourism in Indonesia, the Ministry of Tourism, researcher and practitioner from around the world.

Me & Melani on our 1st semester! (Fall 2015)

Me & Melani at Arte-Polis Conference

Introducing Melani to “Rendang & Resto Nasi Padang”

Fun people at the conference!

I also did some adventure after the conference and I realize how important to going back in your home country to remind you where you come from. So no matter how far we go, we know where we belong to, we know where is our “home”.

Our adventure to Kenawa island, Sumbawa, Indonesia

The fall semester is now half way to go. I just finish my midterm when I wrote this. I also decided to take the dual concentration in Boston University.

In addition to my “Economic Development & Tourism Management” major, I also take “Innovation & Technology” major. Thus, I have to take more courses and hopefully finish next year on August 2017. The courses that I take this semester:

Financial Concept – with Prof. Ivan Julio
Innovative Marketing Strategy – with Prof. Rand Ghayad
International Economics, Business, and Culture – with Prof. Jung Wan Lee

On top of my classes above, I still continue working as the Graduate Research Assistant of Prof. Barry Unger – the Head Department of Innovation & Technology, my previous professor who teach “Innovation class” at our department. I am helping him with his research on science parks, innovation in incubators / accelerators for startup in Asia as well as develop his courses together with him.

 

Prof. Barry also invite me and Melani to speak at his class to share about our experience at Summer Accelerator program that we both join at BUzzLab, an Entrepreneurship Hub at Boston University. We are also happy  to share our conference experience in Indonesia at Prof. Billington class on “Economic Development & Tourism Management” that we both join last year.

School are getting interesting, not about the classes but to me is more about the network that you build along the journey. That is more important than your grade. I feel more in love and comfort with living in Boston, such a great city to live in especially when you are a student. A lot of friends (and my sister!) coming to visit Boston  this year which bringing more interesting story on my journey.

Me & My sister Fela on a river in Maine

Half way to go to be a graduate student! 🙂

Tentang Berlari

Hari ini pertama kalinya aku berlari dengan Nike+ Running Club (NRC) Boston bersama beberapa kawan di Boston yang memang suka lari. Akhirnya bertemu dengan Coach Ally yang sebelumnya ketemu dan ngobrol tidak sengaja di Instagram. Kami berlari dari jam 6.34 PM hingga sekitar satu jam kemudian dan karena di jam pulang kantor, kita jadi perhatian banyak orang yang kita lewati. “Runners is in da house!!!” teriak salah seorang fans Celtics di depan TD Garden yang sangat penuh fans Celtics karena sedang ada game.

Rute 6 miles sore ini

Rute 6 miles dimulai dari Nike store di Newburry Street lalu stretching di taman dekat Newburry dan mulai berlari menembus Boston Public Garden – Boston Common – melewati beberapa area Freedom Trail hingga akhirnya menuju daerah TD Garden dan Bunker Hill – kemudian kembali melewati Charles River, Beacon Street dan akhirnya sampai juga di Nike store.

Stretching before the run. Photo by Andrea

Ada sesuatu di dalam berlari yang membuatku sangat bahagia ketika melakukannya. Ketika berlari dengan lebih banyak orang, sejauh ini membuatku lebih bahagia. Berlari dengan musik, membuatku lebih bahagia lagi. Berhenti di tengah berlari dan diam sejenak melakukan meditasi 5-10 menit di tengah pepohonan Chesnut Hill Reservoir atau Dock Charles River, membuat damai itu terasa semakin ada.

Tidak bisa aku jelaskan dengan baik apa sesuatu yang membuatku bahagia, seperti apa yang aku pelajari dari kelas Zen Meditation pagi ini, tentang berlari, tidak bisa kamu jelaskan dengan orang lain. Tentang berlari, harus kamu rasakan sendiri lalu kamu akan mengerti apa itu.

Semoga aku tidak akan pernah kehilangan perasaan sesuatu tentang berlari ini. Merasa bahagia dengan hanya berlari, dimanapun kaki ini akan berpijak.

Some of running buddies tonight inside Nike Store as the start & finish. Taken by Lucy

Allowing Questions

Today is my last Zen Meditation class with Mark Houghton. In my opinion, the last 2 class (last week and today) is the best class. Last week, we were partnering with one of our friend and we have to take turn being the guide & person who close the eyes. I start to close my eyes and my guide will walk me to wherever he/she want to go, I cannot open my eyes. Just following and feel it. So my guide bring me across the street from our gym where the zen meditation located and walk to Amory Park. I can smell the freshness of the nature, dogs barking, people chatting, laughing and walking. Maybe they feel that we are so weird. Why there is one people closing the eye and the other guiding it. Or maybe they feel that one of us blind and one of us guiding. We don’t care what other think about us, we just enjoying the moment, being in the present.

I dip my feet into Charles River water with the glowing sunset around!

Today, we are doing the regular practice starting at noon (12.00) to do breathing continue with relaxation (and Mark read the story about life wisdom) then sitting meditation. After that, we do the activity in a group as usual. But this time, we do it together with the whole class. Mark ask us several question that we need to answer and instead of explaining the answer, we found out that its more important to attain it – experience it – and feel it together so that we are all to be in the same page and in the same feeling. I also learn this from the Cambridge Zen Center where they have Dharma Talk and when someone ask complicated questions, the Zen master just hit the floor with the one hand, “Katzz!” and we are all in the same room can feel and being in the same moment together. Mark did this practice today. He also bring cup of tea and ask question, “Is it a cup of tea or what?” and how do we answer that? We found out that to answer that is simply attain the cup of tea, drink it and feel it. That is the practice about zen and “before thinking”. Allowing our mind to attain the experience instead of trying to explain it with thinking or understanding.

In the end of the class, Mark give his last sentence, and to me, this is really true:

Naturally, as a human being, we tend to life narrower. As we grow older, we push out things that we do not like and narrow our life to only things that we like. If you ask an old man 70, 80, 90 years old.. their life become narrower. It does not matter what practice or religion that you have, whether you are christian – practicing yoga – practicing meditation – muslim – and other, but you have to hold into something that can help you to pull out things that make you overwhelmed and narrow it down.

So, it also not about answering the questions you have but allowing that questions to come into your mind and attain it, experience it.

The take out from my Zen meditation class this Spring semester is short:
I want to live simpler. Narrower. As I grow older.

Capture by Andrea (Fujifilm X-T10), Sunset talk at Charles River