4.28.2015

Pidato.

Pidato: meaning 'speech', in Indonesian.

22 and acing life - including this rather boring but most expensive paper I've earned in my life and it is entirely the most beautiful thing *tingles*

30.09.2014 LDN - I'M DONE WITH THE CITY. BUT, SO NOT DONE AND OVER WITH ALL OF YOU INSANE AND LOVABLE HUMAN BEINGS I'VE EVER MET.


I guess to recap the one year, I learn that I have to introduce myself like:
My name is Rice, short from Raisa.
45 years old mentally and going 46 as its less than 6 months away (the internal joke between a 36 and a 50 year-old classmate there), 24 - Korean age, but 22 internationally.
I have an Indonesian citizenship but to answer your beffudlement shown on your face, I'm second-generation Chinese from pops side.

But more than that, SOAS was the other world I couldn't wait to get through because of the challenges thrown to ask about my existence and sanity...



I'm not going back to London to get up to the podium. Instead, I'm saving money to travel somewhere else while I will be working and I can't take a long leave. But I miss everyone and I would like to remember each and everyone of you - including that #RICEinLDN YEARBOOK I haven't got to finish - and this is my speech if I ever came up and had the chance to speak (Never happen since it's not in distinction or special case or professor or whatever. Not your Steve Jobs after all)

Here goes all the love poured so bear with me you, each and every one of you who have click-through'd to this space. Let's race it through with outtakes you might enjoy :')

You see, SOAS had this otherworldly charm I couldn't resist. The image you have seen on Facebook is the last hurrah and achievement I have in the academic realm, me as a student but in the future I'm truly working on being a lecturer and spending more time in the education sector. I really enjoy teaching, whether it's for the babies, the children, the teens, or the adults at university. So far, the only one I have left is to stand in front of senior adults in a form of a seminar/business and get them to realise the earth is destined to be a total whack and wreck if this lifestyle continues.

SOAS, right. First question is - how did I get to know SOAS? Why are you here? from the SOAS-ians. (Let's not go from the perspective from where I come from, it's a never-ending confusion hahaha)

I first didn't know about SOAS. But I knew through the supervisor I had wished to be under for the media/ korean studies/ music PhD. My areas of research starting from 2010 through ethnography and direct respondents was about the rise of amateur journalism in new media, with a case study of K-pop as it grew along hand in hand. Regional-wise, I had been focusing and where the activities are sprouting, is in Singapore and Indonesia.

That "K-pop professor" which I dubbed - he's having a K-pop lecture last month and I'm missing it! -
was the person I found out about, and through him I researched that Oh OK, so he's in London, and he's working at SOAS...

The other choice was NYU Steinhardt or Michigan U, the concentrated Korean Studies and a lengthy contemp Korean culture like K-pop is pretty hot at the end of 2012 there.

Alas, I didn't get the funding.

I kept working.

Pops told me that you should go study and I can handle you for one year.
I said, no. No use. Waste of money. Paper doesn't guarantee anything I'm responsible for the work [I was at] the time.

No, you should go and study, pops said firmly.
So OK. That rested for a while until I received by post mail for the prospectus. (Because I hate everything online and I prefer to have a private one-on-one with a physical being, sorry).

I was flipping things through, and I saw a new school has just been formed. School of Arts (SOA). And even cleverer, SOA-SOAS = SOASOAS. Again, sorry. I'm a sucker for these since I'm a copywriter and I know the marketing department has clearly done the best research and amazing at that.

Two new MA course will proceed in the new 2013 term time.You bet that I'm going to choose the degree that has a looOooOong title (well, the other was something not to my expertise).



Long story short: I was heavily involved in one society, casual goer of 2 societies, and after the end of my studies I managed to upped my societies attendance to 4 different ones (life begins after school ends, you see). I was heavily depressed with the German theories I had to recite in the first 7 weeks, and I was extremely flabbergasted when I actually managed to get some Distinction pts. on my transcript.

I threw myself into the student body, something alarmingly so rich and warm in Western campuses that we can't find back home - you get to appreciate the liveliness of it when you know how different it is. Plus, SOAS scores 22nd overall for students' satisfaction and no. 1 for everything else apparently. Yummy!

In conclusion, as I have predicted, the paper still doesn't guarantee anything up to today. I haven't stretched it to use, perhaps to my original intention to get into the newly created Ministry of Creative Industries in Indonesia, aka the BADAN EKONOMI KREATIF (BEK)? Maybe this looooooooong MA title will be quite sparkling enough for me to break down doors and start creating change.

However, whenever you need to hack a little of life's interminent system, you can always count on me to do it. Signing off now, fellows, while I'm making more tangible magic, I also might do another short course for fun because I just heard that the Japanese government is throwing scholarships into thin air and all I have to do is inquire and apply... hehe.

The London retrospective starts soon after I'm done with my 'grad trip' no. 2, the NipPonPonPon saga to Japonica for 2 weeks on my own.  

All long last. Connect with me professionally on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter for timely updates of my career - my Facebook space is completely off-limits, friends I know only. Cheers!

More outtakes to what I call my own graduation pictures, free and easy hacks! All shot with the help of my homie in town, Ndam. No one understands me like she does in this small town.






The famous 2nd shot which needed contrast and lighting tweaks before turning out to be the hit. Have I channeled the Brit Rock properly here?


Till' next time, Great Britain.


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