It's been a while since I am writing for myself, one week to be exact. I've been busy for the last one week. Some assignments, reports, group projects, and let alone my 'deceiving' "Theory of Finance" class.

First, about my Theory of Finance class. As you can read from the title, it's very easy for everyone to fall into the trap that it is a basic finance course. However, things were not going the way I wanted it to be, it is completely about Derivatives, specifically about Pricing and Hedging. whooo. That's the first academical finance course that I ever take, hahaha (laughing over my silliness of not reading the syllabus, haha). I know what you are thinking, you must be saying, "why don't you drop that course", but things are more complicated than you think here.

1. it's 0.5 SMU C.U. (credit unit) and I can't drop it and find another 0.5 c.u. course in SMU about finance. so, my other 0.5 C.U. finance course here (Emerging Countries and Capital Markets) would be wasted, hahaha

2. It's just usual Suta, an over-confident-kind-of person (I can be quite pessimistic some times) which thinks that he can learn fast enough to cope with the lesson.

To cut the story short, I am now having 2 books which I should read before Tuesday because my 90%-of-the-final-grade exam is coming in 10 days. Financial Institutions and Markets, 7th Edition (771 pages) and Options, Futures, and other Derivatives, 7th Edition (822 pages).

Don't worry, I know I won't read all of them, but still, it's a very thick book.

Moving on, I spared some time last night to watch England vs Slovakia. It was a good game, we won (yup, I consider myself part of England, haha) 4-0. I really enjoyed how Gerrard and Rooney played together in the first half. It was also the first game that we played wearing the new kit, like below. I personally don't really like it, but the technology behind it is very impressing. So, I don't mind if someone wants to give it to me, hahaha.

Third thing is about my Easter holiday. I just got the news that my friend was successful in her application for a Schengen visa in Spanish Embassy (she's a Turkish, so she needs a Schengen visa too). I am now preparing for my visa but unlike other people, I want to apply for the Schengen visa at Czech Embassy with a hope that they will give more days in my visa details. (they are the country with one of the lowest living cost in Schengen Area in case you don't know the reasoning behind my decision)

I still have many things to say about the last one week, but I don't think anyone will be interested with my academic life busyness. hahaha. So, here I am starting a new day which is my first 23-hour-a-day kind of day (it's Daylight Saving Time in Europe starting from 2:00 AM today).

I thank God for the last one week and I hope the next one week will be more blissful.
(I have exam coming up on April 4th, a paper due on that day also, and some other homeworks, so I can bet that it'll be an even busier week than this week).

See you
God bless you all.

Originally posted on 21 Mar 2009 at 2:04 AM

I have a final presentation worth 50% of the grade coming in 7 hours, more or less done, it's just we don't know how to fill the 30 minutes available to present. hahaha.

Still in the midst of planning for my easter break. I was deciding on Belgium, Netherland, Luxembourg, and Germany for that 10 days, but then after some research, I realized that my visa is illegal to go there and I need a Schengen visa that I can only apply outside of Schengen countries. So, I quickly changed my direction and planning on the UK instead and apply my Schengen visa from there. Hopefully things will be going well this time.

I need to go back to my reading for my presentation, so meanwhile, I'll stop on writing this unintended post.

PS: this is my first post in the new blog address, I realized that the old one was only accessable for commenting if you are a member of Muliply, but now, feel free to say anything you want here, hahaha

If this blog were a country, it is a democratic one.

Originally posted on 20 Mar 2009 at 11:56 AM

This is new to me, haha. I never knew that such thing exists. One more proof that Hollywood has been deceiving us for all the image they put about marriage in their movies.

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Postnuptial Depression: What Happens the Day After

I got married in August, and — I'll admit it — I'm still slightly obsessed with reliving my wedding day. But I don't think my friends want to reminisce anymore about the miraculously sunny hillside ceremony or the super rockin' dance party at the reception. I can't really turn to my husband either, the only other person as emotionally invested in my wedding as I am, because he's 9,000 miles away in Vietnam. After the big to-do, which we spent a year planning long-distance, he's back living and working in Saigon and I'm back in Manhattan — living with my grandmother. Talk about a letdown.

It wasn't until I received an e-mail from a friend that I realized there was a name for what I was going through. It read, "Hope you're not too deep into the wedding blues (the depression you get after the wedding is over, that no one really tells you about)." Bingo. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)

Postnuptial depression may not be a clinical diagnosis, but it has entered the lexicon of marriage in the past few years, and newly hitched couples will tell you it's real. The blues typically hit early in married life, psychiatrists say, as newlyweds begin recognizing that expectations of how their partner or relationship will change postwedding are unrealistic. Worse, once the Big Day has come and gone, couples are forced to step out of their much-cherished and often long-lived "bride and groom" spotlight and just get on with real life.

Dr. Michelle Gannon, a San Francisco psychologist who conducts Marriage Prep 101, a weekend workshop, with her husband Patrick, says there's been an uptick lately in the number of recently married couples who enroll to deal with their postwedding doldrums. Newlyweds often blog about it, while brides-to-be fret over the anticipation of it on websites like TheKnot.com. Therapists say most people experience at least some minor disappointment as they settle into a new marriage, but 5% to 10% of newlyweds suffer strong enough remorse, sadness or frustration to prompt them to seek professional counseling.

Emily Summerhays, 30, felt regret immediately after her 2002 wedding ceremony. She found herself crying even as she said goodbye to guests at the reception. "It was sort of buyer's remorse — 'What did I just do? This is really permanent,' " she recalls. That feeling of losing one's selfhood can be overwhelming, especially when it's coupled with a sense of duty to do everything as a pair, says Dr. Jane Greer, a marriage and family therapist based in New York City who has taught a seminar called "Are You Ready for Commitment?" Greer says: "It's a question of how prepared you are to become 'we.' " (See pictures of the busiest wedding day in history.)

For months into her marriage, Summerhays remained in a funk. "There was a lot of me being sad and sullen, wishing I could be married and somehow also be single," she says. She felt afraid of sending the wrong message to her new husband. Summerhays recalls thinking, Will he think I don't love him enough if I don't want to snuggle with him all night or if I leave him for the weekend? And she felt trapped in her own melancholy, feeling ashamed that her new marriage wasn't living up to the fairy tale. Dr. Terry Eagan, medical director of the Moonview Sanctuary in Santa Monica, Calif., calls postnuptial depression the secret sadness — women who experience it are often too embarrassed to tell anyone, while men are simply less open with their feelings to begin with. "A lot of my friends had experienced it," Summerhays says. "It was just hard for us to admit that we were happy in our marriages and yet so indescribably sad on some level."

The so-called honeymoon period, say psychologists, really isn't. But so many couples buy into the myth that when they start arguing about sex, money or time — issues that all married couples battle over — it can seem catastrophic. Gannon finds herself correcting patients all the time. "Where did you get the idea that you weren't supposed to fight?" she says. "You are. It's normal." It's also normal to remain independent and to be responsible for your own happiness. "It's unreasonable to assume your partner is going to be everything to you," says Eagan.

Even couples who cohabit before marriage and who have presumably tempered their expectations and reconciled their petty differences are not immune to the day-after blues. "People who have been living together think they're going to feel something different once they're married," says Gannon. But there's no magical transformation that comes with signing a marriage certificate. In fact, if anything changes, it might be the couples' biology — which may only worsen postwedding blues. When people are newly in love — or feel a rekindling of love just after getting engaged — their bodies release more of the feel-good hormones dopamine and oxytocin, which stimulate bonding. But as the relationship wears on, the levels of those hormones drop. That accounts in part for the fact that "in the transition from dating sex to married sex, the interest, frequency and effort goes down," says Gannon. But having less sex precisely when couples think they should be having more is understandably stressful.

For many couples, it's not about sex or arguing; despite good sex and open communication, they still feel adrift. The problem may be that after months consumed by wedding preparations and feeling like the center of attention, the sudden shift back to everyday life can be a shock. "I put a lot of time and effort into the wedding-planning process," says Erin Hastings, 28, who got married in 2006 after an 18-month engagement. "Where do you redirect your energy once it's over?"

The answer, the Hastings learned, is to direct that energy on themselves and their marriage. "We have a date night every week, without fail," Erin says. Taking time to be with your partner and to think about each other is always important. Ideally before the wedding, Greer says, couples should take a step back and remind themselves of at least two things: the reasons their partner is the right person for them, and that their beloved's annoying little habits aren't going to disappear at "I do."

After the vows, to defeat the postnuptial blues, doctors say, couples should get adequate rest and exercise; communicate constantly; focus on the benefits of marriage, like having a built-in support system; and start thinking about the future in terms of family or finance. Women should stop thinking of themselves as "the bride" and throw out those wedding magazines, then plan social events for after the honeymoon, so they have other parties to look forward to.

Since my husband and I are half a world apart, all I can do for now is rest and exercise, and learn to relinquish the spotlight — to one of my bridesmaids who just got engaged. It'll be worth it, as I know the high point of her wedding roller coaster will be another rockin' dance party.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1861028,00.html

Originally posted on 20 Mar 2009 at 11:41 AM

Below is an article from FT which clearly express my view on the upcoming election.

Don't worry, I'm not campaigning for him. I agree with a lot of people that Indonesia can do better, but looking at the current economic and social situation in Indonesia and the world, I guess change may not be the exact word that we need for Indonesia. A new leader and a completely new system will only disrupt the harmony that we have from Indonesia's most advancing years since reformation.

Anyway, that's only my view and below you can see FT's view.

Enjoy

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By John Aglionby in Jakarta

Published: March 16 2009 17:18 | Last updated: March 16 2009 20:25

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ef131cb6-124c-11de-b816-0000779fd2ac.html

ps: PDI-P = Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle :-)

Originally posted on 9 Mar 2009 at 12:41 AM

Finally, I went to Paris today and enjoyed it verrrryyy much

you guys maybe confused, cause I suppose to be going on exchange to Paris and why i said that this is my first time in Paris. HEC Paris is not in Paris at all. It's in Jouy-en-Josas which is located in Versailles (it's a French word, so don't worry if you don't know the meaning, and you're right, it's where the Chateau de Versailles located)

it's in Il de France province. Ile de France to Paris is something like Jabodetabek to Jakarta but the size is quite different. Ile de France is 12,012 km2 (Paris is 86.9 km2), Jabodetabek is 7,315 km2 (Jakarta itself is only 664 km2), and Singapore is 707.1 km2. So yeah, my campus to Paris is more or less like IPB to Semanggi, or NTU to Orchard Road, hehehe. around 1 hour of journey by walk, wait, train, wait, train, wait, walk (if we are quite lucky enough to have short waiting time).

Photos will be up soon (after I do my reading and doing homework of course). Meanwhile, you can have a good laugh of how I am deceived of the word Paris in HEC Paris first. Really, even though some people told me before, I never think that will be that far.

ps: some extract from Wikipedia (yup, all the data above were from Wikipedia)

Jouy-en-Josas is home to the prestigious HEC School of Management. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jouy-en-Josas)


HEC is regarded as one of the most prestigious school in France

HEC is ranked first by French magazines for decades but the school has also gained international recognition. It has been ranked #1 Business School in Europe by the Financial Times of London in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. ^[1] :

In 2007, the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris published a "Professional Ranking of World Universities". Its main criterion is the number of chief executive officers (or equivalent) among the "500 leading worldwide companies" (Fortune Global 500). Despite its small size, HEC is ranked #7 while University of Oxford, for instance, is ranked #8 with 6 times as many students.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEC_School_of_Management)