Student Village - Where I Live

I just want to share how incredible my hostel is. If you want me to list the reasons why I don't want to go back, Student Village will probably in the TOP 3.

View of student village block from sauna room.

Let's start with the location. It locates just next to the university area, and as you know their university don't really sticks to a compound, it scatters everywhere in the town and you could hardly tell is that a building for university or a shopping mall. Turku has three universities (as far as I know), University of Turku, Abo Akademi University and Novia University of Technology. These three kind of mix together and form a university area, then Student Village is just next to it. If walking to the building that I usually have class there, 20 minutes are more than enough. Student Village is quite big, i mean, really BIG. It has more than 60 buildings (I don't really count it) and divide into East part and West part, where my building located at West part, nearest to the university area and 12A is my building, and I love it so so much, I will explain later.

The map of Student Village, and the orange one is the block

Inside the Student Village, we have different kind of apartment to choose, some is for families where you can rent the whole house, some is double room, and mine is single room. There are a lot more, but I could not really differentiate them through the appearance, they looks alike from outside. Not to mention, there is a tall building looks much more like an office building than residence building, but it actually is an apartment... I really wish I could go in there and have a look what is the difference with mine.

This one looks so magnificent... like an office building haha

The yellow one is my block, and i live at the highest floor. The small extra floor top there is sauna room

In front of the entrance of the block, you can lock your bike here, My bike is the white one with basket, nearest to the door.

It also has a small convenient store named K-mini market which you can get most of your groceries and daily need product here, but the price is almost double if you compare to Lidl or S-market near the Kauppatori. I am glad they have it because when you first arrive, especially a timid one like me, will rather spend some money than go far away to a place where I have no confident not to get lost when coming back, also, if the snow was heavy and almost impossible to walk that far, this store will safe you.

K-market opens everyday from 10am to 10pm

Beside K-market is a student bar... where they sell cheap beers

Another service such as laundry, storage space, parking lot and sauna etc are provided, although not every block will have one, but they make it as fair as possible, such as if your block have sauna, then you won't have laundry and so on. Every block will have three floors, and each floor will have 12 rooms. For my floor, I know almost half of them, and the rest are just seldom meet, rather meet only once since I come here, or never meet. I just wonder do they really exist...

By the way, the reasons I like my block so much got two. First is the sauna. I could hardly describe how incredible the sauna is, it is just fantastic! The sauna located at the top of the building (which is just one floor above mine, perfect!), and only 10 blocks have that, and lucky that is my block!!! Hahahahaha.... I don't really care about laundry because I wash by hands... You have to book a time for your sauna, and you can only book four times per month. Here's the tips, you can book and invite your friends to come, so if you have four friends, that means you can go 16 times a month. Every session last for one hour and I feel that is great, Although I didn't bring any watch or clock inside, but every time I feel "that's it" it is almost one hour. The rest of the time you can take shower and relax. When you go upstairs, and open the door, you can see a lobby-like room, or you can say waiting room? There are hooks for you to hang your coats if you have one, and high stools and tables for you to dry your hair maybe. There is a mirror too, and it is quite spacious. I guess we can have a sauna party here and bring some liquor and dance there. Then there is a glass divider, and there is shower room, and an attached toilet with door (of course!). It is wide and spacious, almost like my room. And next to it is a glass door, and there is sauna. I feel like it can fit the whole floor inside and there will be some space left. The temperature does not really get too hot, so you can pour a lot of water inside the rock heater actually.

The door to sauna!

This is 'lobby' i could say... the place where you hang you coat or put you stuff on the table at left hand side. On the right hand is the door to shower room

This is the door to shower room

Inside the shower room is wide, but only got one shower head. Right hand side is toilet and in front is the door to sauna room.

It might looks small, but once you get in here, you will feel how big it is for a sauna room. 

The second reason why I like my block is... it is quiet!!!! This is so damn important when you live here, because they can have party until 4am and you won't be able to sleep before that if they have party at your floor. Luckily i don't have this problem because most of the parties at 10A, 3B or 3C, and 10A party I could say it is the most high frequent and craziest, two times get caught by security guard.

Then about my room. It has a small entrance to put my shoes and coats, and a toilet plus shower room, divided by a curtain. A fridge, cabinet, wardrobe, bed, table and chairs, book racks, mirror, table lamp and a heater. I feel like it is as big as the room one in UPSI hostel, and not to mention the room is for two. You just need to bring your own blanket and pillow here, but the previous resident left me a blanket. Every floor will have one common kitchen where you can cook or have party here! The kitchen is well-equipped with all the tools you need, two oven, one microwave, two electric stoves which can put 8 pots at a time, a toaster, a coffee maker, a lot of plates, spoon, knifes, forks, pots, pans, whisker, blender, wine glass, table and chairs, cabinet for each room and many more! Sometimes we even study in the kitchen...

This is what you will see when entering the kitchen

It is quite spacious for a kitchen in hostel

Now I want to say the little bit cons of living here, and it is hard to find one because it is so perfect for me. Still I manage to find two, if that consider as cons... First is the door. The door is so hard to open, and I still remember how panic I am when I was unable to open my door and I thought I will be stuck in my room forever. The door knob is so hard to twist, and every time my hand hurts after I try to open it. Now I know, I have to twist it and kick it at the same time to open that stupid door. Next is if you lost you key cards or left it in your room (we don't use key, we use cards just like hotel), you can get a temporary card for one week if it is working hour, but if it is off-working hour, you still can dial the 24/7 number, but they will charge you 58 euros for that. It is not worth at all, and most of us will choose to stay in friends' room for a night if next day is working day, or for three nights if you lost your card on Friday after working hour. God bless.

Don't lost the key cards. You need this to open three doors, the main door to enter the floor, your room, and the kitchen door

12 Facts of Finland

I am just gonna summarize what I feel about Finland after about a month staying here. It might be stereotype that I am not aware of, but this is just my personal opinion towards Finland! I say that no one will tell you about some small facts because they don't find it weird of worth talking about, but I myself find it might cause some inconvenient if we don't know it beforehand.

1. The sun are somewhat rare to spot especially in winter, it is 50/50 chances
I remembered the first time i spotted the sun is after one week I'd been in Finland, and we were so excited to take the picture of the sun and shared it among the exchange students in Finland. Mostly the weather here (winter) is cloudy or gray, the day time is still as bright as normal, but you just can't find where the sun is.

2. The snow is cute, but evil too
Before this, I never encounter snow before, hence for us (or maybe just me?) snow is often associate with romantic, pretty, fluffy(?)... as you can see, it is all positive traits. Well, indeed I still love snow now, yet when I think of the icy road that appear after snow melts, it never fail to upset me. I wonder HOW can local people walk so fast and even walk with high heels on the ice, while I fell frequently in a winter boots. The road is an ice skating park for me, especially when the road incline up or down, either one is worst! And I live in Turku which build along the hills, it is normal to have incline road than a flat one. I can say that I was actually sliding rather than walking.

3. Finns are cold, but helpful
This is from what I observed and also personal experience. What will you do (or people in your country) when someone is falling? Well, perhaps people will approach and ask "Are you ok?" such a typical questions, and reach out a helping hand. People in Finland just won't care to give help if you fall, they will have eye contact with you, to make sure you did not break your body somewhere, then they will walk away. Sounds terrible, right? But actually they are looking whether you ask for help or not. If you do, they will be very happy to help. Bare in mind that do not scared the Finns (*laugh*). If you suddenly approach them in fast speed or with a huge gang, they might feel terrified and eventually refuse to help because they are too scared. (in some cases, they will run away). Exception case is when they are in a bar/pub/party/disco/karaoke something like that, they will become more open and talkative, more easy to approach. If you want to have a real good start of friendship with Finns, you can start with party, and they do held a lot of parties during orientation week. In my opinion, Finnish speaking Finns are more reserved in some cases, and Swedish speaking Finns are more open and friendly. No matter what language they speak, once they know you, they are very kind and eventually the "coldness" disappear.

4. Self-study all the time
I know that the education system of Malaysia vary from Finland, but I don't exactly know how it actually varies, ...until I encounter it. Basically, the reference book I bought in Malaysia is just a decoration for my bookshelves, but in FINLAND, I would say I never been so hardworking before. The lecture is just like a summary of the chapter, so you need to revise it beforehand or otherwise you could not catch up the class. It is insane in Malaysia if we study three or four chapter in one lecture, but it is possible in Finland, because they just summarize it. When you go back your room, it is your responsibility to read it on your own. Besides, they will upload a few articles to read, and they won't inform you, you just need to check the portal often and read it on your own. In short: READ IT ON YOUR OWN!

5. They are so digital...
Everything in digital! They pay using cards rather than cash, even 1 euro of coffee. They scan the books in pdf and make it e-book, they make the library become e-brary and you lend and return the ebook just like how you do it with real book. Just a small fact: when you want to withdraw money from their ATM (they called it otto), you need to pay some charge. I am not quite sure how much, but it depends on the bank you have. On top of that, cash is still king. You can't pay cloakroom fee in a pub by card, you can't buy coffee from vending machine by card too. You can't pay travel fee if you follow student trip with ESN or any student organisation by card either. Despite all the digital access, cash will be so handy in some cases.

6. They use a lot of websites for academic purpose.
 In Malaysia or if only UPSI, we only have myguru for academic purpose, all the study materials of different subject are in one website, but in Finland, mostly use moodle (for abo akademi), but some use psykonet, some is nettiopsu... depends on the subject you are taking and the preference of the lecturer. Some of it even use a facebook group... so it is crucial for you to write down or at least memorize every password and account name for different website, or else you will be in trouble when you are lock out.

7. Flexibility of the course and also inflexibility
There are no "only one lecturer" for one subject, you could have two to five or more lecturers for one subject, and each of them represent different topic, so it is better for you to write down which lecturer are responsible for which topic, so that if you have any questions you can ask the correct lecturer. Their timetable (or maybe only Abo?) are not the same every week. This week I might have full class for the whole five days, but next week maybe just two classes on Tuesday. They are not very stick to one way of teaching, rather they substitute lecture to research seminar, self study and so on. Not as Malaysia, we can depends fully on lecture. Some of their subjects are not stick to the typical study duration, such as my social psychology, it started yesterday, and the last class is next monday. The duration of the class is only one week, more or less. Each of the subject works independent to each other, which means they do not have prior agreement in negotiating class schedule, so it is possible to clash courses, and here is where inflexibility is. In UPSI, you can negotiate with lecturer to change timetable if it clash with other subjects, or we are not satisfied with the time arrangement, but here it is a MCQ, you can only pick one and skip the another. More hurt is, sometimes the class you decided to skip the lecturer might have a test on that day. There is nothing called substitute test or late test, if you miss it, you missed it. You have to be good in organizing too, count correctly the number of class you skip per subject, or else you will be banned for exam.

8. They have two official language
Swedish and Finnish, depends on where you are, you need to know at least one of them if you want to live easier here. In Turku, Finnish are more than Swedish, but because my institute is Swedish based, so they use more Swedish in the school compound, but Finnish outside of the school. Their signboard is also in bilingual, so knowing one of them is enough. How to know which language is majority in your city? Simple, just look which language is the first one / at the top of any signboard.

9. They talk Finnish to you, although you look like a tourist
For them, it is consider rude if they assume you don't talk Finnish at the first hand, so they will try to talk Finnish to you even though they thinks you come from a different country. I feel offense a bit before I understand why they keep on talking Finnish to me when I look exactly like a typical Asian, so bare in mind that they do this because they respect you. You can say politely that you don't speak Finnish, and they will speak English. I tried to understand their language but judging the situation and content of the surrounding, and answer back using their language, this really helps and they will be so happy when you are able to response to them in their language. Basically, you can start with saying kittos every time, which means thank you, or in Swedish is tack. Or in the other case, they just don't want to talk English because they do not feel confident to their English, so they might refuse to talk to you in English. Do not assume they don't understand, they do, just don't want.

10. Buses are expensive
Yupe! For me it is expensive. For in-town bus, it costs you 3 euros no matter how long the journey takes, and the ticket last for 2 hours without any limit of transit. For long journey it counts according to kilometers, but you can get a cheaper one by Onnibus. From Turku to Helsinki cost about 4~8 euro depends on time section. Peak hours are more expensive and vice versa. Shockingly I never seen a motorbike here, the most common transport in Turku is bicycle, or walking hehe. Cars also have, but there are quite amount of place where you couldn't reached by car, only have pedestrian and bicycle track.

11. You won't die if you cross the road
Finland are so safe that even if you want to cross a road, you no need to pay much attention and you won't die (technically please check the road before crossing😁). It is written law that let pedestrian walk first before any vehicles, and the people follow it 100%. I tried to stand by the road and pretending I was going to cross the road, and every car that I had tested really stop in front of me and let me cross the road. Not to mention, bicycle stops too. I tried out in Helsinki also, and except highways, they still stop for you, even bus or lorry that are so difficult to accelerate back to the previous speed. So if you want to cross the road and you see a car is approaching, never mind, just cross, because even you want to wait for the car to pass before you cross, they will still stop and let you go first.

12. Salesman/Promoter are just nice
It is so annoying when you encounter any salesman or promoter on the streets and they keep on harass you while you still walking. You have to repetitively tell them "No, thank you" until you are in rage and tell them to get lost or begging them to let you go. In Finland, the first time when i spotted two promoter, I was thinking "Oh God not in Finland please." and I actually stood there and try to find a way to avoid them, but I realised that is the only way to supermarket and they are so clever to stand there. No choice, I accelerate and tried to avoid eye contact, but sooner one of them spotted me and smiled at me, waiting for me to jump in the trap. Miracle happens, when I waved my hand and tell them "No, thank you." they stepped back and said "Thanks." and continue looking for the next one. I was so impressed that they respect your will and so polite even they were rejected. So next time if you are in Finland, no need to be scared of promoter, they are just nice and respectful.

Student Residence Permit and The Embassy

Most of the countries are taking a VISA (a sticker in the passport) as a residence pass in their country, but Finland choose to use personal identification permit, something like IC card for the foreigner. You though the function of residence permit is same as VISA? No, you are totally wrong. Once you holding their residence permit, you are a part of the Finland until the expiry date of your permit. You will have the same benefits as Finnish people, you can get the same treatment there, you won't be excluded in their events. It is also more convenient, you no need to bring your passport all they way you go because the VISA is in there (you won't choose to tear it out right?), you just carry the residence permit in your purse like how you bring your IC in Malaysia.

Actually the process of application is very fast, most of the time waste at queuing, you queue to wait for your turn. I queued for about three weeks, and they processed my visa at 12 Dec, accepted at 19 Dec, then it arrived Malaysia at 21 Dec. For US, they will send the passport to the address that you wrote when applying VISA, but for Finland, you have to visit the embassy again to collect your permit. You no need to bring any documents there because when you show them your face, they know who are you and will give you the permit after you sign on the photocopy of your permit as their reference. (Only applicable if the receptionist knows you haha!)

By the way, the embassy located at the Menara MCA, Jalan Ampang, Level 5. Once you go out from the lift, you will see a financial management office, next to it is Finland Embassy. The embassy looks like inner security room of a bank. Thick metal door with a doorbell. Once you ring it, the door will buzz and you need to pull it hard to open it (it is heavy). I lean my whole body on it to open it at the first time haha. There is only one Malaysian receptionist, and their inner office i could see a few Finnish and most of Malaysian. The embassy is just an office big, not something that I expected... a huge building with grand architecture design, royally looking...-- No. It is just an office with a heavy metal door.

Once your permit arrived, you should receive a call from the receptionist. She will tell you to pick up the permit at embassy. Just to be safe, call them every week to check if your permit arrived once you received an email for accepting your application. While mine have no problem... but my senior's case is, the embassy did not call him to pick up his permit, and he rushed there three days before his departure. (I called them so many times until they remember my name...)

It is a shame that I forget to take picture of the inner design of embassy, and I also wonder am I allow to take photo inside...? Should it remain confidential or what?

The signboard(?) at the outer wall of Menara MCA

This shield-like logo found beside the metal door

I Get An Offer!

I received email from both ISEP and the institute from Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. You just need to wait for the PPAF and IIS to come and complete the PPAF, which you need to reupload some document that you did on the ISEP page, as the ISEP is just a middle-man between you and the institute there, sometimes the institute do not get much information from ISEP. Then you will also start to process passport and visa things once your insurances is done. Person-in-charge will buy the insurances for all of us, go don't worry much about this. Just make sure whatever she asked, you respond as fast as you could. Different institute will have different type of doing stuff. As for my friends from Orenda also, Fatiha going to Univeristy of East Tennessee, US received an e-manual regarding all of the information she needed whether it is about the orientation program or the culture, expenses and everything she need to know. Chiang Kai Huei received a hard copy from University of South Indiana, US which they post it to him. a huge and heavy manual. While I received nothing, since I am the first ISEP student that will go to their institute, kind of like white rat. They are so passive, if I don't ask, they wont answer. This is quite disturbing as do they assume that I know everything without people teach me? This is not coded in gene ok? Self-learning is also not applicable here as there is no model for me to mirroring.

I explore myself and found out that I need to apply for my housing, so I went to the page and click on one of the option, then found out that i need to pay about 290 euros first. As i mention, we no need to pay for housing as it includes in ISEP benefits, so I email them and ask what happened now. 

Upper message is one of the question I asked regarding housing, and they reply me this...

Second part of the email. I can see that they are in chaos...

This is the first problem that i faced... this actually bothered me for a week and I am quite worried, if they insisted that I need to pay the rental, then every month 290 euros... no I can't imagine how would it be. It is really a huge relieve when they said it is actually their miscommunication problem.

Then the PPAF and IIS finished, my health insurances safely arrived (?) to me also, so I immediately apply my visa online via enterfinland.fi The document needed are passport pdf, evidence of acceptance letter from Finland institute, means of support, reasons, and so on. After online application, you need to go to Finland Embassy to prove your identity and have your finger print. Before that, remember to bank in to their account and bring the receipt along with the attachment. I paid RM1400.

This is the website for online visa application. You need to create an account before you apply. Choose First Residence Permit, then choose Student Residence Permit for our case. 

Apply it as early as possible since the visa normally need 6 weeks to proceed (for finland), US case is faster, but US need to interview when you apply, Finland no need. When you go to embassy there, you can contact person-in-charge and ask her to prepare a car for you, but allow her 3 days to book the car for you. The driver will send you to the embassy and wait for you, send you back too. 

After you submit it online, you still need to print all the attachment and the form of online application out, bring it to the embassy and hand in one more times. That time, the person there told me my insurances coverage not enough as they said they need 100k euros, but mine only 25k US dollar. I was like going to speak bad words as no matter how I explained that is the one and only one insurances I can buy for my ISEP, they still told me I need to buy extra one, maybe private insurances company such as APA or AIG. I quite worried as I am afraid my visa could not proceed, but you know what, my senior do not face this problem when he went to Finland. I asked my senior, Khairul Izwan about this, he has no idea, nor do Kak Asiah (person-in-charge) know. I confirmed with them, so with this problem, can my visa proceed? Luckily they told me still can proceed, just maybe later the Finland Govrn there will send me an email about this. Relieved! If like that, I will wait until they email me.

Just a few days ago, I received an email from Finland, and I though is my insurances problem, but no! It is about my means of support. They requested me to send evidence to prove that I have 1170 euros in my bank account plus evidence that I have at least 560 euros per month to cover my living expenses. God knows I send them three document about my benefits, which coverage is 650 euros per month!! I still left less than 20 days before departure, and now they ask me something like that. You know the most funny is, they said any enquiries can email them. When I email, they auto-reply me stated that they already received and in order to make sure high-efficent, they won't reply message. WT... i called embassy in Malaysia, they do not know about this (what!?), Kak Asiah also don't know, Khairul also don't know... Luckily, just now the person work there email me about this, and say it was their miscalculation. Can I curse?

I wonder why my VISA application so many problems... and most of them are either miscommunication or miscalculation. When I feel relieved, I feel I want to punch them in face too. My Visa was accepted and now just waiting for it to deliver to Malaysia's Finland embassy. 

Oh yah by the way, I joined the fb group for incoming spring term 2017 exchange student in abo akademi university. I just got to know something called Student Union card from Khairul too... they did not tell me about this. Student Union Card is something that we should apply if we want our life easier and get discount when buying things there.

Applying ISEP

I know ISEP at my Orientation Week, when they show us the video about our senior and also picture of seniors that went ISEP. They persuade us to apply for it, and I personally like to go travel very very much! SO i applied.

When I went to the taklimat, boom!!! Mind blown. OMG there are so many steps to do. You know what? I saw my friends' face all turn green. Well I guess mine maybe not better than them. Almost break down that time when I open the page and saw more than 200 universities available and I need to filter it one by one, from language requirement to course provided. From the benefits to living cost. This process really took a long time, and I struggled for almost one sem. I though I couldn't make it, but I went through it. At that time, I met Dr Hazalizah (my KJ) several times, Kak Asiah (person-in-charge) many times thru email, and Dr Nurul Ain (my academic reference). I had my laguage proficiency interview by Dr Raja (TESL lecturer) and I suggest her, she is the most easy interviewer among the rest. Choose her if she is one of the interviewer.

Then the essay part, haha this one funny,. I have my friend backup me. I wrote the essay, and she checked it since I tend to make a lot of grammar mistake. Actually I took about two months to complete the essay as I want to make it perfect, as perfect as possible. I take back my english level when SPM (my legend time hahaha😆) and rocked my brain hard, then my friend will help me in correct the grammar error. I edit and edit for several times and upload it because the due date is tomorrow... if not, i will continue edit it until i satisfied. This is one of the paragraph...
"Overall, the reasons I want to take part in ISEP is because I hope to displace my ignorance with enlightenment on the subtleties of a different way of life, even if it is not too entirely different from my own now. I would say that this is one of the most exciting decisions I have made in my life"
Even i look back at my own essay now, I couldn't believe that it was once from my brain.

The applying part is very tortured for me... as I like to settle things fast and in once, but this one I could only settle it one by one, at a very slow pace... That was really torture! 

When you are applying, you think that nothing is more complicated than these.... yah i think that too, not until I started my step two...

About ISEP

I guess I should update my progress of ISEP here, as a reference for those interested and also my personal refresh.

Before I start, I want to mention that without passion and determination, applying ISEP will be very suffer as it involve a lot of parties and need to refer a lot of people, need to do a lot of documentation task and emails. Lots of student give up half way just because the procedure is too hectic and the process is too long. The price you pay is also big, you need to mentally prepare that you might need to extend sem in some rare cases. Not only during application, when you come back to UPSI, you still have a lots of cleaning to do, transfer credits and so on. You have to be very independent as most of the problems you face when applying you need to settle on your own. Although we will receive some scholarship there, either it is in voucher form, invoice form, or bank in, we still need to invest money before going there (unless you are not going to their winter season). Because my tern will go at Jan-May, so it is still winter. We need to buy winter clothing and it is not cheap in Malaysia. Seniors suggest e to buy at Family Bundle in Ampang, but they went to US, mine is Finland, a lot more colder than US, so I choose to refer my senior that went to Finland, and he suggested Universal Traveller(UT) and Sox World. I personally suggest you to buy from UT too if you have the budget (Or Winter Times, more expensive!), but if don't have, maybe can try Uniqlo or Terranova. For clothing, I spend almost a thousand. Think carefully before apply. Yet, ISEP really brings benefits and it is very shame if we don't apply.

This is how the ISEP page looks like. To sign in, click the "log in" at upper right, or directly go to sat.isep.org

So first let me brief a bit what is ISEP. ISEP is acronym for International Student Exchange Program, as it's name says the function so I just skip it. ISEP is not the only organization that serves exchange student, but also include ERASMUS and so on. Something that UPSI student should cherish, UPSI is the one and only one Malaysia's institute that participate in ISEP. In the other word, only UPSI student can apply for ISEP (hurray!) Yet, before you apply make sure to ask your dean / KJ as they might forbid you for applying...(especially education program) The website: http://isepstudyabroad.org   or   http://sat.isep.org

To apply ISEP, First you need to be sem 2, and you need to attend a taklimat held by bahagian akademik 3 every sem. The venue will be inform once you email to the person-in-charge for registration. Timetable will be announce at upsi portal, so stay alert! When you attend the taklimat, person-in-charge will teach you all the steps and open an ISEP account for you, which you will frequently visit and fill in the document needed in the account.

As i mention first, documentation process takes a long time. I just briefly explain a bit here, the rest when you attend taklimat you will know all.

After log in, this is what you will see

There are six section you need to fill in, and each section will have sub-section.

1) Participant Profile
- Biographical Information (name, gender, address, citizenship)
- Dependents ( just select "NO" if you don't have a child)
- Emergency Contact
- Academic Information (Your major, minor, expected graduation date, list of classes taken, terms for ISEP and so on)
- Terms and Condition ( look thru it before accept)

2) Host Request List
For this process, you need to filter all the universities available for UPSI and email them one by one to get the information about the list of benefits they give, qualification to apply and so on. Some university / country need certain language requirement such as Australia, England... they need TOEFL or IELTS. Japan or Germany, France, Spain they need their language level certificate. Be patient when gathering the information as this process will take most of the sem (almost one sem). Fill in at least 10 institute. Mostly go to US, or Korea.

3) Course Request List
This process you need to contact their academic department / education service or whatever they called that in charge for academic part. You need to ask them the course syllabus (UPSI called it RI). Even though the subject you take have the same name with subject in UPSI, but sometimes the syllabus is not same, this will cause problem when you come back, maybe you cannot transfer credits. This step is very crucial as you need to print out the RI and meet your Ketua Jabatan (KJ) and ask them whether you can take this subject or not. If can, ask them to sign on the RI if they agree you can take the subject as an evidence. (sometimes they quite forgetful). Fill in the courses you want to take at every institute you apply just now.

4) Documentation
- Language Proficiency (you need to interview at UPSI by TESL lecturer to test your english ability to speak with confident and grammatically correct)
- Personal Statement (you need to write an essay with 300-350 words. This is the question I get, maybe they won't change question?  "ISEP is unique because it offers the opportunity for full immersion in the host culture. However, it is your responsibility to make the most of this experience. Introduce yourself and explain your academic goals for studying abroad and for integrating into the host culture. What specific situations from your past (i.e., coursework, job experience, travel, intercultural experience) have helped you prepare to accomplish these goals?")
- Academic Reference (you need to find a lecturer that is at least Dr title to be your academic reference, or we called it PA - Penasihat Akademik. They will received an email to rate you. Remember to find somebody that is quick and not lazy... they need to upload one document, if they did not upload, you will not be accept by the ISEP)
- Passport (upload your passport pdf of the identification page. If you don't have a passport yet, just check the box indicate that you are processing)
- Transcript (latest final result)
- Additional Information (no need)

5) Coordinator Reference
(no need, not your job)

6) Application Fee
(no need)

This is just the first step. When all these settle, and you shall get an answer from ISEP at the first few weeks of next semester. Then you can proceed to the second step. You need to fill in the form that person-in-charge email you so that academic there can help you to buy insurances. The university that accept you will contact you soon. There is the time where you can ask question about the institute, academic and so on. You will have a guidelines (or maybe not) that teach you how to apply visa.

You will start to settle things such as your housing there, bank, visa, at that semester. The rest I will share later in my own experience post.

The benefits of applying ISEP are, it actually opens your eyes that let you see how good is other countries in academic area. You can compare between two countries, having vacation while studying where your housing and meals are provided (in other word, free!). You can meet new friends that have different language, skin, hair and races. You do not need to pay for the tuition fee there, UPSI will pay for you, and all you need to do is pay the tuition fee at UPSI (around RM1500 per sem that we need to pay every sem). UPSI will pay for your VISA, passport and flight ticket too, You just need to pay for your own personal expenses such as vacation, transport fee, books and so on. While there are cons too. Like my case, I am going to Finland which is an Europe country, that the education system is totally different. It is hard to transfer credits and I might not even transfer one of them, so I am at high risk of extend sem, but I think it does not bother me much as the experience itself worth a lot. Not to mention the time consuming procedure, when you come back UPSI still got a lot of things to settle, sometimes it might drag until sem 8 also haven't settle. Even though you do not need to pay much. but if you go to Spring term, you still need to buy winter cloths as January still consider winter if you go to western country. Europe country even worst as like Finland 365 days are cold, January can reach -30. Winter cloths not cheap in Malaysia... in Universal Traveller, one coat alone cost you about RM300 cheapest.

You Have No Reason to Do This

All the meetings and quizzes all squeeze in the same day, and the same time, I do not think that it is my fault, and then, that lecturer do not have any reason to do such a stupid decision too.

"Sorry Sir, we have another quiz at the same time..."
"For those who can come, just come, For those who can't attend, don't come then. You all are really problem maker."

I don't see there is any problem maker in our classroom, and obviously half of the class cannot go on that time. As a lecturer, he should change another time that can match most of us, and the minority will find another quiz time, but not HALF of us! And what do he means that PROBLEM MAKER? Just simply change the time and that's it!

What he do as a lecturer? He simply complain on our class and stay to his not-so-wise (and even stupid) decision, then claimed that we are the one who finding problems. Now I see the one who creates problem is he. I did not say more in class, actually I have another two meeting, which all held at four different place but same time. Do you think I know any shadow XXXX from ninja, which I can divide myself in four and attend all the meeting and quiz at the same time? Ha!

Please, students are busy too. Don't take things too easy, man. Some student even more busier than lecturer.

Argh, cool down.

Lecturer As A Professional

While lecturer is delivering class, I think it is better to put aside personal belief system right? It is not wrong if they are loyal to their religious or race, but it is not appropriate to critic others religious or races when it disobey their belief system.

I do not know who give him that qualification to critic it in the class, and even talk about the so-called facts about others race and religious, create further misunderstand among his students. When religious and race issue are mention in the syllabus of the lecture, lecturer should teach and deliver fully the true fact (or at least what include in the syllabus, they should teach) but not skip all the other religious and only magnified their own belief system. Lecturer is a professional job. as a profession, they should show their quality as a pro. Lecturers are paid to deliver correct facts, but not belief system and brain washing their student.

Especially in Malaysia, issues about race and religious is quite sensitive, I do not agree on mention the issue in class, as this really isn't a good idea when they know their class is mix races and religion (even not mix, they shouldn't mention it too).

I am free thinker (which means no specific religion), but I still feel insult when the lecturer speak all the bad things about other religious.

Lecturer have their right to have a belief system, so do their student. It is really not a good idea, and a terribly bad idea to talk bad other belief system.

Not An Excuse If You Are Female

Always hear some people (obviously girls) say this:
"Where are the guys? We are girls, we can't do that."

When female can't do a thing, especially when it relates to hectic task such as carry a box, automatically our gender will become an excuse. Just like today's post-mortem for Pesta Chun, not specifically address anyone, but the most frequent excuse for not doing job well is "We are girls." "We have no boys in our group."

It really bothering me. As a female, I do not think that when you are a female, you can't do anything that a guy can do. Not to mention feminism, but, as a committee, we should do our best but not depends on someone, especially using gender as an excuse, Indeed, guys have their advance, they have more muscle mass than girls, but do bear in mind, no women can't live without a man, women (and for human) can't live without human, and it doesn't mind that the human is guy or girl. Do not depend too much on guys, they will feel tired.

Human limits are unlimited. We are not using our full strength in daily life. See, don't say that if you are a women, you lose. If so, why still have women win in weight lifting can counter a guy? That is the power within human. Excuses makes us feel ease and restrict us from break out the limit. What we initially can do become can't when we start making excuses.

Stop using "I am a girl" as excuse to avoid hectic task and blame on guys for not giving support. They are not born to be our worker, do not think that when it comes to physical work, find a guy. They are superior in physical but that is not a reason for them to do all tiring job, just like you are clever but doesn't mean that you have to be a scientist.

Gender stereotype should be avoided when comes to work. Guy can be as gentle and neat in doing their task, and girl can be very wise in making decision. I encounter many guys who are very gentle and girls who are very cool. Just take an example, the hair stylist guy I met at Pesta Chun. He is very gentle guy ,soft in speaking and he treats our hair very gentle. Normally I hate to find a female stylist as they are rude in styling your hair - I think they treat my head as their training puppet. Guys are mostly more gentle, it is very comfortable when they very neatly comb your tangled hair. Another example, our ex-chinese representative is a girl, and she is wise in making decision, debate and so on.

The world is in transformation, and the gender border become blurrier, most of the task are shared by both gender. So, do not use gender as an excuse in escaping job. Equality.

Loveats Cafe

Loveats located at Taman Universiti, Tanjung Malim, which is a favourite spot for students nearby to pick for a dinner or celebrate event.

Unlike other cafe, Loveats mainly serve on burgers. Besides, it also have western cuisine such as chicken/fish/lamb/beef chop or steak. The burger also available in those four meat include a veggie burger.

The design is normal I would say, and the light inside I consider it as slightly dim, but the overall atmosphere is comfortable, and the staff there is helpful too, as long as you ask for service. Basically, the design fulfill what a cafe should look like, and it follow the main stream - woody design.

You will be introduced how to take order by the staff if you are the first time. They are self service cafe (except serving), you need to tick the order list and walk to the cashier to pay. Pay before you eat. Their service speed is moderate. At its peak hour (dinner time, around 6pm), you will have to wait for at least half an hour to get your order.

Right wall

Menu for burger

Left wall

Cashier

Today, I would like to introduce two dishes, one burger and one western cuisine.

For the burger, I ordered fish burger which available in two flavor. One is normal with cheese inside, and other is with their special hot sauce (i did not find any special on that sauce). The fish they use deep fried, but the fish inside is not as dry as I expected. It comes with seasoned steak cut fries and special sauce (looks like thousand island) with a drink when you order it with set (RM 5 added). If order ala carte, the prize around RM8.90 to RM10.90 depends on the burger you order.

Fish burger comes in set

The fish is thick

(Please bear with the quality of the image... I am so lazy to do any edit on it...)

The bread is charcoal bread, and what it differs from the fast food is, the bread is moist and softer, and it taste sweet. The bread indeed add many marks for the whole burger. Inside the burger there is no much mild sauce, so when eating, you will find it is difficult to swallow if you didn't drink any water.

The fries taste great when serve hot.

About the western cuisine, I tried lamb shoulder.

Lamb shoulder

It cannot be classified as steak if it is only this thick

I would like to say, I am not a fan of lamb, as it taste funny every time I ate it. This time, since the lamb shoulder here get quite lots of positive comments, I decided to try it out, and the result was appealing. The meat is tendon, and it does not have the smell that lamb will have. It is well-cooked, and the sauce is black pepper sauce. Eat it while it is hot, because it will turns hard to swallow when cool. The taste is splendid.

The side dishes were incredible too. I like the mashed potato so much, that I even order it if the mashed potato does not included in my set. The potato was serve with mushroom soup, and it cause the potato to taste milder. The corn was brushed with salted butter before steam (is it steam?) and the salad was fresh. Just a little bit comment on the salad... when I first come to the cafe, the cherry tomato I get half of it, but now only a quarter...

Salad

Mashed potato

The most astonishing is I found a surau in here (a place where muslim conduct their prayer)

They open after 5pm, so it can only be a site for dinner.

This cafe I will continue updating. ^_^