Surviving in a new academic atmosphere can be quite an effort. My 6 years involvement in a local university has given me a deep picture of how the academic life rolls in my workplace. The administrative system as the vein of the education process is nearly not improving since 2004. Nevertheless, newer facilities have been integrated to prepare the system to be up to date and catching up other well developed universities in the country. But, I might say that we are pretty left behind.

The opportunity to get into a new academic atmosphere, where I can actually become the beneficiary of the education institution is a great life marking for a rather 'late Master's candidate' like me. I live my days toward my departure with great excitement. I managed to browse the net finding some tips about studying in Australia, how to behave in the first days in the new environment and so on etc. However, I found that there are lots of possible tips were not covered in the materials I browsed. I felt that I am in need of meeting directly with a person from the same place I live, whom I can ask personal-unusual advice that would never appeared in the net and also willing to sacrifice his face portraying his lesson-learned 'desperate moments' when he was coping with the shocks and excitement on the arrival in the new world.

The 2-days discussion was very interesting. The tutor was very articulate in describing his terrifying bits in the new realm, which gives a good portrayal of how benefiting is to understand in advance all the potential problem that everyone will eventually encounter as a visiting students. I learned many small things that surely will help one's coping in the early days of settlement, for instance, personal hygiene items should be brought from home because most of these products are quite expensive compared to buying in Aceh-I never have thought on that piece. Needless to say, many other specific topics also put me into serious attention, which extensively helps me prepare for the H day--my departure leaving my family to the unexampled academic life in the new world to pursue my lust for wisdom.

Best regard,Rahmat

It will be a common belief that joining an education institution such as university is one of the best ways to develop knowledge and skill. Indeed, a better quality of education institution must produce a better output of a student. In order to have a qualified education institution, most of student in Indonesia especially Aceh has agreed that most of the university in abroad such as Australia is better in education system and facilities than that in Aceh. This has been proved by the increased number of Indonesian student especially Acehnese student who studies in Australia from 2006 to 2010.

Based on some of graduated student from Australia, they mentioned that Australia's has better education system such as providing tranparancy in teaching learning process even in taking decision in class. In addition, most of Australian university provide many supported facilities for the students. It is obvious that learning abroad moreover in a multicultural country as Australia has many positive effects that will be achieved by Indonesia student such as experiencing a new culture, meeting a new relative, and having a chance to see other different places in other side of the world which won't be achieved by students who study in Aceh.

That's why, I was surprised when I got the email was informing me that I pass the scolarship. It was so excited at the first time wondering how great learning abroud is. However, I then realized that there were lots of stuff need to be prepared;mentally,physicly and materially. Toward these necessety, I personally not ready at all to face new social and educational environment in Australia. Fortunately, brother Rahmat yusni managed initiation to create group discussion for pre-departure and led other member to be involved on that group. After joining two meetings and having lots of important discussion, I felt much better and more confident to face new experience.

All of these facts in discussion above will broaden the view and the mind of Acehnese student which will lead to a better and qualified human being in the future. As was suggested in Islamic culture and done by the Muslim scholar such as Imam Hanafi and also one of the most famous world traveler Ibnu Khaldun.

As I was contacted a night before the first session, honestly I have no idea about what the meeting would be. Therefore, no surprise that I was confused for the first session of discussion conducted in KBA office. However, attending the session has led me to a deeper understanding of the upcoming challenging that will be faced by this group, both social and academic life in Australia. From very beginning, my expectation merely knowing several tips to assist me coping with the new experience of living in such a diverse country I have never been before. In fact, what I have obtained was more than I expected. I got not only the tips but also additional confident and excitement that I lost due to unwell internal and external factor of departure preparation.

The first session of presentation focused much of how living in totally foreign country where I do not have any friends and family can be a great disaster if I am unable to manage it well. It has been explained that the life without a good socialization with the people around will be so hard and suck. In addition, I know that this point is extremely important to focus because one thing I learnt that I should make friend with people around regardless of what religion they believe and what nation they are from as they can help me to see the real life of the country. Another thing I learnt from the session is additional information about the supply I need. I gain more information of what to prepare within the first two months which is obviously helpful to add more items on my list.

Another session turned my worry bigger than I thought, especially to the academic life. Frankly speaking, I do worry to my writing capacity. Knowing that thousands words essays will be assigned regularly drives me to desperate and anxious feeling that I can cope for unusual writing habit I have. However, tips given in this session such as loving library, building a good rapport with professor and classmate, joining group study and having time management raised my confident that I can do well as long as I take the advises.

From overall pre-departure orientation, if I can call it so, has opened my mind and been very helpful for my preparation to organize what I should do and should not do for the success of social and academic life in Australia. Personally, I am really thankful to Mr.Faishal who has been very generous for sharing his experience as well as the whole group for being so creative to hold this fruitful agenda.

I was very happy when I knew that I will have friends when I go to Australia. At first, I thought I would be alone and the journey would be very boring and quiet. My excitement accelerated even more when I learnt that not only do I have friends but also I got a bunch of nice and smart people. Just like me, their purpose is to advance their knowledge and skills by studying abroad.

We obtained our sponsorship from the same program, which is Aceh Scholarship held by Aceh Scholarship Commission (ASC). Actually, ASC promised us that there will be pre-departure training program to prepare us facing new life in a foreign country. But the reality is, until today, such program never exist. Therefore, we began to worry. We all know that life in a new environment would never be easy. With so many things to learn and so much to achieve, we are in a great danger if we don’t prepare.

Luckily, there is Bang Rahmat in our line up. He appeared very concern regarding this issue. He initiated a gathering to settle this problem. Interestingly, even though Bang Rahmat never talked about this, the rest of the team had the same thought. We were about to start a class where we can have a bit of grounding toward our departure. The only different is that we wanted the class focuses more on academic writing.

Then, the odd thing happened. We and Bang Rahmat contacted the same person to be the mentor of our separate program. Consequently, the idea of joining these two classes pretty much seemed to be a common sense.

The first class covered about various topics on social lives in a foreign country, from how to survive during the early days of settlement up to how to have fun during your studies. The tutor was very communicative in his presentation. Systematically, He shared his experiences, tips and knowledge. He informed us what to prepare, what to do and what not to do in order to cope with a range of situations that we might encounter as a student in west culture. I learnt a lot that day. I came to know that all is well if prepared well. For illustration, if you plan to have drugs from home, you should have prescriptions for the drugs. Otherwise, you might experience a great trouble in the immigration check point.

The second class gave us a sight of how the academic live in an advanced country might look like. The subject is really important. This is one of the reasons why we need the class in the first place. However, attending the class also made me a little bit worry. I felt I am not ready. I realised that that the academic live I will face is very challenging. There is so much pressure and many obstacles might make me fail. I need to discover the way to deal with it. Our tutor then gave us tips and guidance regarding the problem. I found it really helpful. Having the guidelines such as don’t hate library, having good relationship with your professor, set up a study group, so on and so forth, really make me feel, at least, I know what I should do.

I am very grateful to have an opportunity to join the class. Even though with so limited time we have and so many things we should learn, I hope by the end of the class I can confidently say: I am ready!