Sholat & Adzan: Tolerance between Roommates

Selama 20 tahun, gue belum pernah bener-bener hidup sekamar bareng sama orang lain. Temen-temen emang suka nginep atau sekedar numpang tidur di kamar, tapi ya hanya sebatas itu. Mereka nggak akan jadi orang yang bebas keluar-masuk kamar karena ya cuma jadi tamu, sedangkan kepemilikan utama tetep ada di gue, seorang diri. Sayangnya, semua kamar di Ajou international dorm mewajibkan penghuninya untuk berbagi lapak dengan orang lain dengan komposisi dua orang sekamar, satu mahasiswa asli Korea dan satu mahasiswa foreigner.

Awalnya, gue lumayan deg-degan. Takut kalau-kalau si roommate nggak bisa menerima gue karena faktor budaya atau agama. Selain itu, isu-isu tentang privasi juga menghantui pikiran gue. Khawatir dia ngapa-ngapain barang gue kalo gue lagi nggak di kamar. Belum lagi bayangan mahasiswa-mahasiswa Korea yang emang terbiasa minum soju sampe mabuk tengah malam. Yha serem aja kalo tiba-tiba roommate gue masuk kamar sambil ga sadar dan bau alkohol gitu. 

Lanjut. Hari pertama kami bertemu, dia dateng ke kamar sekitar jam 12 siang. Kebetulan pada saat itu lagi ada temen gue dari Maroko yang main ke kamar, jadi dia bisa gue manfaatkan buat bantu-bantu mencairkan suasana. Si roommate ini bawa empat kardus besar yang isinya barang-barang macem sprei, baju, sepatu, dan daily needs lainnya. Ini cuma intermezo aja, jadi dia paketin itu semua barangnya dari rumah. Terus dia naik bus dari rumah ke asrama, tapi cuma bawa tas tangan biasa aja jadi ga ribet. Keren sih. 

Waktu dia dateng, gue belum sholat Dzuhur. Setelah basa-basi kenalan, gue pun ngomong ke temen Maroko gue, "eh ajakin roommate ngobrol dulu ya. Gue mau wudhu dulu, belom sholat." Fyi mahasiswa Maroko ini muslim juga jadi kita enggak sungkan satu sama lain. Setelah wudhu di toilet, guepun sholat di kamar. Space tempat sholat gue ini kehalang sama dinding meja belajar roommate, makanya dia tetep ngobrol sama temen Maroko tanpa memperhatikan gue. Tapi kemudian, pas gue sholat rakaat kedua, dia sadar kalo gue lagi melakukan gerakan-gerakan yang aneh. Gue denger dia sempet manggil-manggil: "Risti? Are you okay?" atau semacem itulah. Temen Maroko cuma balas: "selo dia lagi sholat," kemudian mereka melanjutkan pembicaraan lagi. 

Lama kemudian, temen Maroko ini balik ke kamarnya di lantai atas. Tinggallah kita berdua di kamar. Pas itu, barrier di antara kita udah nggak setebel pas baru ketemu. Gue juga udah jelasin kalo gue muslim dan berhijab. Si roommate pun (kayanya) memberanikan diri bertanya: "Risti what are you doing earlier? Is it bowing?" Gue rada bingung juga kenapa dia ngomongnya bowing, bukan praying. Istilah yang umum digunakan kan pray. Iya, kan? Mungkin karena banyak orang Buddha di sana jadi mereka mengasosiasikan sholat sebagai bowing. Gue jelasinlah ke dia kalau gue tadi sholat, kewajiban agama, and I have to do that five times a day. Dia kaget gitu kaya, "eii?? Really? Aren't you tired?" Gue cuma senyum-senyum dan haha hihi aja.

Akhirnya, tibalah malam pertama kita tidur bersama. Selama di Korea, gue pake sebuah aplikasi yang adzannya bunyi agak kenceng. Ya maklum, lagi winter subuhnya aja setengah enem. Kan wajib harus menyesuaikan rotasi matahari di sana. Apalagi ga ada adzan kenceng dari masjid layaknya di Indonesia, jadi emang kudu punya reminder sendiri. 

Paginya, bunyilah ini adzan pas masuk waktu Subuh. Kebetulan juga, gadget gue taruh di meja belajar dengan kondisi speaker di atas, bukan di samping kasur. Pas mulai kedengeran: "Allaahu akbar Allaahu akbar," rommate gue tiba-tiba bangun sambil teriak-teriak pake bahasa Korea campur Inggris. "MWOYA?? IGE MWOYA?? RISTII!! WHAT HAPPENED?? SOMEONE IS SCREAMING NEAR US!!"

Gue...... 

Panik dan bingung......

Dia literally yang menyibakkan selimut sambil noleh kanan kiri panik seolah-olah ada hantu lagi nereakin dia.

Gue otomatis bangun juga dan menenangkan dia sambil ngomong: "No, no, it's okay. It's my reminder to sholat. Nothing bad. You can go back to sleep, Roommate," sambil nepuk2 punggung doi. Sampai sini gue mikir, aduh susah nih kalo dia sensitif sama bunyi alarm. Masa iya gue subuh ga pake reminder kan pasti kelewatan (hehe). 

Kocaknya lagi, dia cuma: "Really?" kemudian balik bobok lagi. Terus habis balik ambil wudhu, dia udah ngorok. Serah lah mbak. Habis kejadian itu, gue ganti alarm gue jadi alarm dengan common ringtone di HP, yang itu berarti gue harus adjust waktunya setiap hari. Kebetulan waktu itu lagi masa transisi dari winter ke spring, jadi bener-bener kerasa banget yang sebelumnya jam tujuh pagi aja matahari baru terbit, sampai pada akhirnya matahari terbit jam setengah enaman. 

Siangnya, roommate inget kejadian pagi tadi dan nanya: "Ris, tadi itu kenapa ya? Kok kaya ada bapak-bapak masuk ke kamar kita terus teriak-teriak. Padahal gue yakin pintu kamarnya udah gue tutup." 

Q lelah. Ya, reaksi gue otomatis ketawa sih. Sebegitunya ya orang awam memandang kebiasaan-kebiasaan beragama yang emang nggak common di kehidupan mereka. Pada akhirnya, gue menjelaskan dari A sampai Z kalo suara itu tadi namanya adzan. Adzan itu panggilan buat sholat, buat praying. Kalo lo tinggal di Indonesia, lo bakal denger adzan ini five times a day, sesuai dengan waktu masuknya shalat. Terus, suara ini juga bakal di speaker dari masjid jadi kedengeran buat semua orang meskipun lo non-muslim dan tidak berkewajiban untuk sholat. Then, her response be like: "Jadi, Ris, kalo aku ke Indonesia, tiap pagi aku bakal denger suara bapak-bapak teriak-teriak itu?" And I was like: "Um.... yeah?"

Seiring berjalannya waktu, roommate gue pun jadi ngerti tentang praktek-praktek agama Islam dan dia juga menghormati itu. Pernah juga ketika weekend dia menghabiskan seharian di kamar dan menyaksikan gue sholat lima kali. Pas mau sholat ashar, dia sempet nyeletuk: "Again? You do this again?" sambil geleng-geleng kepala dengan muka takjub. Meskipun pada akhirnya dia masih stay dengan ke-atheis-annya (gue gagal meng-Islamkan dia LOL), gue menghormati apa yang menjadi pilihannya dan dia juga menghormati apa yang menjadi pilihan gue. Setiap kita mau makan, dia pasti juga berusaha nyariin makanan vegetarian. Apalagi ketika puasa ramadhan, dia juga berusaha untuk makan di dapur, padahal biasanya kita selalu makan bareng di kamar. Niceee.

At last, I took my faith seriously but I don't want to make it scary.
Semoga kalian yang mau hidup di muslim-minority country bisa mengaplikasikan ajaran-ajaran agama kalian dengan baik dan beradab. Semoga cerita ini juga tidak dianggap sebagai hal yang negatif; because I just merely love in the idea of diversity :D

Exchange Student (part 2 - Global Korea Scholarship)

Well I'm not going to explain GKS in detail, so if you need a further official information, please kindly check NIIED webpage. As far as I know, this scholarship also provides some sort of funding for master and doctoral degree.

This scholarship is famous (at least among us, UI student) as it is issued by Korea's Ministry of Education. They kindly offers you a monthly stipends (₩500,000/month), settlement fee (₩200,000), insurance coverage (₩80,000), and two-round flight ticket from your home country to Korea. Pretty attractive, right?

Before getting too much hype, make sure that your Korean university (destination school) listed in GKS/KGSP grantee. I think I got this information from NIIED's official webpage so maybe you can re-check it. Only top-20 universities in Korea got the chance to be selected.

After that, in my case, you need to pass two different selection process. The first process conducted in your home university, the later will took place in Korea.

My home university only recommend one student per destination. For instance, UI delegating two exchange students in SNU and two exchange students in Ajou, but only one student in SNU and one student in Ajou had the chance to apply. Well, UI also gave some sort of scholarship if you happened to fail this GKS, but we have to deal with their bureaucracy- so I still believe that GKS is the best option. This university recommendation is important since students can not apply for GKS by themselves.

Then, you have to submit the required documents within the deadline. This one is pretty harsh since they only gave you 1-2 days until the due. This documents consist of student transcript, self-introduction essay and study-plan essay. In Korea, they have a 4.5 maximum GPA index, so if your country adopt a different regime, you have to convert your grade. As for study plan, you only need to explain which subject are you going to take in Korea, and why. Make sure to check the university's syllabi before writing this essay. GKS awardee also required to take at least one subject focused in Korean development, so make sure that you put this course in your study arrangement. I'll suggest you to, at least, prepare your essay's outline directly after you are choosen as an exchange delegate because you don't have much time between GKS notification and submission deadline.

After that, Korean government & university will proceed your application. I'm not sure about the government's criteria of selection. As far as I know, they only choose 5 awardee per university. In Ajou University Spring 2016, along with me, there also a student from Finland, Germany, USA, and France.

The selection process will take more than a month; definitely leaving me hanging. I just got the acceptance news about two weeks before my flight. Some students got the announcement right before their departure to Korea.

If you need references for GKS essays don't hesitate to e-mail me through risti.hayu@gmail.com.  I hope it helped. Good luck!

Student Exchange (Part 1 - Preparation)

Not really exciting, but tiring. This is how I'm going to tell ya the whole process of bureaucracy, administration, and everything that come before I officially selected as an exchange student.

First, if you want to now something: just ask. If you have no courage (sometimes it happened to me- well, INFJ): google. That's the right place of finding what you really need. For me, I want to study abroad, but I don't want to crash my savings. Thus, among all the exchange programs available, I sort of picking the one that matched with my need.

Second, why would I choose Korea? I simply decide because they offer you a fully funded program called GKS (Global Korea Scholarship). I trace the former awardees of this scholarship and ask them for advice; how to apply and calculate the possibility of passing the selection. After a mini-research, thanks to our campus' good reputation, this GKS acceptance in UI is nearly 100%. So, why bother to choose others? ㅋㅋ
Besides, I studied in Economics & Business faculty which are proven to be the key sector upon Korea development up to this day.

Third, make sure you prepare the documents FAR before the deadline. Well, sometimes they're going to be harsh; the international office only spare a week between their open recruitment announcement and submission deadline. Meanwhile, they ask you to submit TOEFL score, recommendation letter, motivation letter, and such documents that is impossible to settle in a week (for further information about documents' requirement in my campus please access international.ui.ac.id). For me, I proceed the recommendation letter from my faculty's dean in a month. TOEFL test will take you about two weeks, and motivation letter only cost me around two days.

Fourth, international office staff will inform you about the interview date soon after the open registration due. The head of international office will face you herself; so please be prepared. As in my experience, you have to convince them why you are the most suitable candidate, what is your future plans, and how this program will benefit you.

Last, make sure that you are available for calls because they did not state a clear time upon when will you receive the announcement. Also frequently check your e-mails because in some case, they wrote to you.

Hope this article help you! Have a faith! :D

Ajou University - New International Dorm (part 1)

Well, since I write this in 2016, the official name of our dorm is "New International Dorm'. Maybe when you read this in 2020 or more, they won't put the "new" phase anymore. Actually before I came here, not that much people post something about this building, so, I hope that this writing will benefit the future Ajou International student.

Anyway, our dorm has 9 floors in total. First floor is office, living room, gym, toilet, praying room, and laundry room. Second until fifth floor are male's; while sixth until eight are female's. The 9th floor belongs to the professor and their relatives/colleague. Each floor has a kitchen or a study room. On female dorm's case, 6th and 8th floor have their own kitchen; while 7th floor only has a study room. So, if they want to cook something, they need to either go up or go down.

Before entering the building, you need to tap your Ajou ID Card into the main gate.

If you walk straight from this gate, you will find a room that has locker (the green square), a vending machine, a photocopy machine, and mailboxes which has a room number pledge on each box.

If you have a delivery package, you can pick it up here too.
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Next, if you turn left from the gate, you can find a laundry room and gym. I've never been inside the gym, so I don't have any picture of it. Mianhae :(

The divide the laundry room into male and female area. If you want to use a washer or dryer, you need to put 1000 won bill. No coins accepted. Oh, and we can also find an iron table with the iron, of course, in this room.
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Then, I'm going to show you the dorm floor.

It's very clean, compared to my campus dorm in Indonesia. One thing that I really love in Korea is the fact that you don't need to bring the room key everywhere. You only need to remember your password and voila! welcome to the house.

This is my room before my roommate come. I spent a lonely night for 3 or 4 days before finally she moved in. The office will give you a sheet, blanket, and a square korean pillow. But as you can see, the sheet has no color, only plain white with Ajou symbol in the middle, and the most horrible thing is: the brick pillow. You can buy a new pillow in Homeplus for 7.000-15.000 won. If you think it's expensive, go to Daiso, they sell a 5.000 won pillow.

I love this table. So many shelves and drawers.

We also have cupboard(?) (I dunno what's the right word) coat rack, shoe rack, trashbin, broom, and a fire extinguisher.

Luckily, I have a super kind, probably the most friendly roommate in the world kekeke. We don't have selfie together so just let me publish our room's door hahahah.

Nice, right?

We likes EGSIM! =D

At first, I thought I'm not going to get any problem living without a local SIM Card in Korea. But that was horrible. So anyway, I'll tell you about my experience on getting & activating a Korean SIM Card.

I strongly suggest you to use the Evergreen SIM (EG SIM) because it's kind of special SIM Card for foreigners so you don't need to buy a new phone in Korea. It's good especially if you don't want to stay long in here.

Anyway, you can buy this like, anywhere around Korea. Incheon Airport, Seoul Station, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, or if you don't live in Seoul, you can just go to the nearest GS 25.

Once you got the SIM Card, you need to register it by following this steps:

The prices will varied, depend on which package that you choose.

If you have any more inquiries, you can contact them through jangsh@egmobile.co.kr.

It was simple and only takes you around 15-20 minutes to do the registration & activation.

Well, enjoy your stay in Korea :)