The Real Life of a Ph.D. Student: Part #1

Alas, it's been 5 months since I posted something here. Many things happened to me in the past 5 months. I went back for a 1 1/2 months vacation in Indonesia, I got myself a new, cool apartment (but kinda expensive for 1 bedroom apartment in Richmond), I got a girlfriend (yep, peeps, a girlfriend!!! And that lady of mine is very beautiful), and I've turned into a nerd because of these overwhelming reading assignments for this Ph.D. program I'm doing =)

Well, what to say about my vacation in Indonesia? Uhmm, Jakarta has turned into a city of malls!!! Many new skyscrapers can now be found around the downtown (Sudirman street and Thamrin street.) The Government should do something with the traffic though, cause it's getting even more ridiculous (believe me, if you're used to driving in a country with strict traffic law, you don't wanna drive in Indonesia.). They should try to add more comfortable and safe public transportations (please get over with the monorail train project!) and add huge taxes for households that have more than 2 cars and those whose car is over 10 years old. What I did was just going to Batam Island on my first week in Indonesia and visiting my families and my close friends (hey Rico, I was trying to look for you, I sent you e-mails, like twice, how come you did not get back to me, even until today?)

The first week back in the U.S. was already terrible. I drove back and forth Fairfax and Richmond, putting stuffs and buying furnitures. Even until the first week of school, which was in the mid of August, I would still be assemblying my furnitures (I love these furnitures! Thanks to Ikea =D) and went back to Fairfax in the middle of the night cause I couldn't sleep over at my own apartment (my Uncles helped me assemblying my bed on my last day of going back and forth Fairfax-Richmond. Thanks Uncles =)). Then my body couldn't take it anymore that I got cold (it was very bad that I lost my voice). The apartment where I live is called "The Gardens at Twin Hickory". I love where my apartment is located, at the back of my apartment you can find Super Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Food Lion, Short Pump Mall (this is a huge mall! There's Nordstrom, Dillard's, Macy's, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Apple, Bose, Brookstone, etc., you name it! They have everything in this mall except for Banana Republic and Aerpostale!), Target, Lowe's, Gamestop, Starbucks Coffee (there are even 3 branches, one of them is inside the mall.), Barnes & Nobles, Wachovia (there are even 3 branches), Staples, Blockbuster, Midas (one of the busiest branches in the U.S.), Jiffy Lube, Citgo (I'm their loyal customer =p), Bowl of America, Regal Cinemas, Best Buy, Circuit City, a fitness center, many kind of dry cleaning and alteration, and a lot of fastfood restaurants (in case I got too lazy to cook). You name it! Twin Hickory is a new community located at the back of Short Pump and it's a quiet and safe place to live (I hate living around campus cause those undergrad kids who just got their first experience to "see" the real world, living away from their parents, would always be loud and wild on weekends. Rebelling from their parents rules. Jeez, grow up will ya!!!). Even though there's a huge mall at the back of my place, that doesn't mean that I go there often, and as a matter of fact, I've been to the mall just once! (I shopped for a cologne, and just explored the mall). Places that I visit often are, of course, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Citgo, Food Lion, and Lowe's (when I need to buy new bulbs) for grocery shopping. Despite the apartment's monthly rent, I LOVE where I live =)

Another thing why I haven't been able to explore Short Pump and Richmond a lot is because I got to visit a beautiful lady at Rockville, Maryland every weekend =) (besides the fact that I'm not really interested in exploring the surrounding area of my apartment.) I've been single for a very long time, even for half of my age, so it's kinda weird for me that now I'm in a relationship =) We're trying to be as communicative as I can despite of our busy schedules. She's an Indonesian like me, and Alhamdulillah, a Moslem and she comes from a very devout Moslem family. She's currently working full-time as an assistant to a lawyer and as a waitress at a cookies store (Mrs. Field's Cookies). Just so you know this, she is very beautiful (need I describe her physical appearance?) and I'm not being bias and subjective just because I'm her boyfriend (my Brother and a lot of my friends admit that she's very beautiful). She has a very cute and soft voice. Overall, she's very ladylike, something that I really treasure from a woman. I love her very, very much and I get along very well with her family (her Mom is a great cook, her Dad is very nice and very kind, and her Brother is cool. I wish I could spend more time with her Sister though but she's a student at Virginia Tech so she's only home during school breaks.). We, my girlfriend and I, share a lot of same personality traits and I'm glad that she's a person who really values privacy. She's not demanding at all and she really understands my crazy schedule as a Ph.D. student. Although we may not talk on the phone that much and that long (we only call each other for like, every other day, three times a week, and only for like 10 minutes.), but we know that we'll be there for each other. In January 2007 she'll become a student at the University of Maryland - Eastern Shore, majoring in Physician Assistant. She plans to go to a medical school after graduating the Physician Assistant program in 2 years. Gee, I'm very proud that my girlfriend will become a medical doctor =) Thank you Mayang and I'm sorry that I can't visit you next weekend (aaarrrggghhh, those reading assignments have stolen my social life =( As if I had a social life before =p)

Now, this is the root cause of everything, why I move to Richmond, why I quit my full-time job at the World Bank (which many people think it's a pity), why I can't see my families (my Uncles, Aunts, and Cousins) and my girlfriend as much as I want to (I even sacrifice wushu although I'm still paying the tuition-fee). I am now a full-time Ph.D. student at VCU's School of Business and a part-time Graduate Research Assistant to one of the most famous Information Systems researchers in the U.S. A Ph.D. program is very demanding! Doing a Ph.D. program is not like doing a Masters program (or even an undergrad or Bachelors program), so do consider getting a Ph.D. if and only if you're really into research and academia! First of all, let me describe how the classes (seminars) work, which affect my daily life. Most of Ph.D. classes are held during daytime, in the late afternoon (except for statistics research method courses, which are held in the evening cause these are Masters level courses). So you can never assume that the way these classes are conducted is the same way as Masters level classes are conducted. Professors (of course, they must hold a Ph.D. degree and be at Associate Professors level) do not act as teachers, they act like moderators or hosts in talk shows (such as Oprah Winfrey or Jay Leno). Most of the times, they learn together with us cause the reading assignments mostly consist of new academic journals, so they're learning together with us to keep themselves up-to-date to the current researches in their respective fields. We, the Ph.D. students, are the ones taking control of the classes; we discuss and debate the assigned articles. The Professors just assign reading assignments (and the amount of reading is crazy and overwhelming!!!) and pick which students are going to present or lead the discussion on some particular articles. Well, they still grade you though cause anyway, they are the instructors (although they don't act like teachers or instructors during Ph.D. level courses). Sometimes the Professors will assign us to read a book (and I mean the whole book, 200 something pages for a week) along with the assigned articles. So, one class usually demands at least 3 articles per week, at most 7 articles per week with one book. One article usually consists of somewhere between 8 pages and 38 pages and one book usually consists of somewhere between 75 pages and 250 pages. I'm taking three 3-credit classes this semester (there's another one, which is a 1-credit class, but this class doesn't need that much reading assignments). 3 articles x 3, so I have to read at least 9 articles per week! Sometimes it can be 15 articles and a book per week! The one week assignment is like one semester assignment for a Masters level or an undergrad level course. Not to mention my duty as a Research Assistant, which sometimes costs me more than 20 hours per week (my supervisor is the School of Business' Associate Dean, so of course I have to be an assistant to both a Professor and an Associate Dean. But we get along very well. I think because we're both East Asians. I respect him very, very much and I wish someday I could become as famous as he is in the IS researchers community.). And I'm also sitting in for an Intermediate Microeconomics class (I'm not allowed to register for this class since this is an undergrad level course, so I won't get credit for this) to prepare for the Advanced Microeceonomics Theory class next semester (now this one is a Masters level class and I will be given credit for taking this class.). Yup, this Ph.D. program really stole my social life, I've turned into a nerd as a matter of fact =p (I chatted with 2 other first-year Ph.D. students last Friday, and we all agree that at this point we've turned into nerds and had no social life =p We laughed dramatically at this fact =p) But call me crazy, I really LOVE and ENJOY what I'm doing now. Although at some point I got fed up of reading journals and books, writing papers, and making powerpoint slides presentation (have you ever felt like throwing up every time you look at a pile of papers?), I'm not complaining what I'm doing. I love writing and now I've developed passion for doing research. Getting a Ph.D. program is very rewarding to me, it makes me feel smart. Your fellow Ph.D. students are some of the brightest people you've ever met and Professors do not treat you as a student anymore; they treat you as their colleague. Most of the time the Professors will invite you to have coffee and chat for topics ranging from current research to even personal life.

I'm really looking forward to my first symposiums, one on March 2007 at Jacksonville, Florida, and another one on December 2007 at Montreal, Canada (McGill University). I'll be presenting my papers, which are my semester research projects for my 2 IS major classes this semester, the Decision Support Systems class and the Information Systems Strategy class. I found a topic on the DSS class (all I need to is to write the abstract and find some research articles that relate to my topic) but I still don't know what to do for the ISS class. I'm very anxious about the fact that I'll be presenting my works at major IS symposiums cause, of course, the participants are IS Ph.D. students and IS faculties from other universities (I'm terrified to think these bright people would ask questions on my works during the discussion session.). All in all, it's easier being an employee at the World Bank than being a Ph.D. student. But this is very rewarding cause I can put this experience (and my works) on my resume. Now you all see why I have no time for myself. But how come I have time for updating this blog then? =p Guess I'm currently fed up of studying =p