Posts

My Journey to Self-Love

Image
Seven years ago (almost a year since I started college), my high school friend told me via Skype, “Dev, you look chubbier ya. Did you gain weight?” The statement from that one person hit me so hard. I started looking at myself in the mirror and comparing my face before and during college. I indeed looked chubbier. And at the same time, I started having cystic acnes, the kind that hurts so much. I concluded this: I was fat and ugly.   I felt really ugly and decided to take a control of myself and my life. How? Through extremely strict diets. So ask me about any kind of diets, chances are - I’ve tried it already. I lost 8 kg (almost 15% of my body weight) in such a short time even though I was not even obese to begin with(!). Every day, I went to the gym to work out for at least 30-60 mins. I had one banana for breakfast, one mango for lunch, and an apple for dinner. There was a phase when I ONLY had popcorn the entire day or just salad and canned tuna. I also avoi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Swedes Through My Lens

Image
Apparently it has been exactly one year since I created this blog, so I thought it is somewhat necessary to celebrate by writing a new post. A long overdue one, of course. To be honest, I thought I would be able to write one blog post per month - but, my last term turned out to be one of my worst busiest ever. At first, I wanted to list down some of my 2018 highlights in this post, but I figured that's too much to do. Instead, I will share five  things I've personally learned about Swedes during my time here in Sweden: *Disclaimer: everything I write here is based on my personal experience and may be biased.  1. Swedes love their personal space. This is my absolute favorite thing about Swedes: the fact that they value and actually give you your personal space. Have you ever had one of those days when you do not feel like saying a word but end up saying something anyways because you don't want to be seen as a cold person? I've had so many of those days, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Devita's Ultimate Secret to Happiness.

Image
I've been feeling incredibly blessed these last few months.   Now that my first term is over and the second one has started - I’m finally reflecting on how amazing my life really has been.   I’ve flown to more countries in the last one year than ever, explored city by city, learned about their history, and been surrounded by the kindest, most positive human beings in my life.   My life seems so perfect and fun. And to be honest, I’m probably having the best time in my life so far. But it doesn’t mean that my life is always sweet. There were definitely many times when I felt sad and depressed to be so far away from my loved ones, times when I questioned - why am I in grad school again? This is obviously one of the reasons why I'm back in school. It might seem strange to hear that I went through such times when I clearly look like I’m having so much fun. But let’s be realistic - life is never always sweet. Remember that life is like a wheel? Some...
Post a Comment
Read more

7 Signs You've Lived in Sweden Long Enough

Image
The next thing I knew, it is September already, which means that I have  abandoned my blog for almost half a year  lived in Sweden for a little bit over a year now. Before coming to Sweden, I had no expectation on how I would change on a personal level. But to say that I expected no changes would be a complete lie, because as Kelly Morgan said, "changes are inevitable and not always controllable." But that personal changes talk is a bit  too deep , and my brain is not capable of producing anything near that at this time. Instead, I have compiled a few things that have changed about me after living here for a year.   Being an IKEA model is sadly not one of the changes. It's just a test to see if you've been in Sweden long enough. I assume those who have should know how I got this photo already . Disclaimer: I intentionally picked out the ones that are most relevant to most people in general. Hence let me start the list by this ...
3 comments
Read more

The 10 Naked Truths About Studying in Sweden.

Image
After a pretty successful blog debut last month, I decided to continue writing. I'm honestly not sure whether people liked my post because of the first photo I put up (which is of me and Pak Jokowi) or if they actually took time to read and liked what I wrote. I was surprised to see that many people did read and quote the things I wrote in it, but I wasn't surprised either when the comment made was something related to Jokowi. Well anyways, thank you for the overwhelming responses and care! So a few weeks ago, while lying in bed trying to figure out what to do with my life  how to fall asleep, I ended up jotting down some ideas about how different the Swedish education is compared to that in the US. And so if you're here to figure out what it's like to study or just my general comments on my study experience in Sweden so far, well you're in for a treat! Alright so they say ignorance is bliss . I guess this was kind of true for me, as I did not really pay at...
Post a Comment
Read more

Twenty Seventeen.

Image
It was my year. The year of rooster. A friend of mine told me that I should be careful during my year because it’s usually full of unfortunate events. Well, my year has finally passed, and I must say: it was, hands down, the best year in my life. Twenty seventeen highlights include: 1.      Taking a photo with my most favorite politician in the world: my very own president – Pak Jokowi. I must say that I usually do not give much effort when it comes to taking photos with famous people. I’ve spotted a few famous celebrities, but I never had the guts to ask for a photo. However, on the day I saw Jokowi, I knew that I just had to. It was once in a lifetime experience, and I knew that I had to get a photo with him. It took me more than half an hour to get past his bodyguards and the sea of people and older ladies who wanted to take photos with him too. It was tough because the bodyguards would only let you in after Jokowi pointed at you. Well, let ...
Post a Comment
Read more