Review of a KazNU student from Iindonesia

Two lessons I learned as I was growing up are: "life is a series of choices, chances, and changes", and similarly, "change is the only constant in life". In childhood, my world was limited to only my mother and my books; and some of the books that I read during my early years made quite an impression, inspiring me to travel around the world. For instance, Around the World in 80 Days, where the author, Jules Verne, wrote, "It's really useful to travel, if you want to see new things."

So here I stand in front of you, coming to Kazakhstan to study is the result of making a choice, and taking a chance, and I'm hoping now to create an internal change; to move towards becoming the best version of myself.

I have made many plans, and gone many places, but never in my life did I imagine I’d be in Kazakhstan someday. Never in my life did I imagine I could feel -20° temperatures. The coldest I had ever felt previously was around 0°C during my winter in the US. So now, finally I know what cold is! I arrived here in December, and I could say, in these last two months, I have had a variety of experiences both good and bad, but the thing I love the most about being here is the people I meet, which has always been my main interest in visiting new places.

There are those who were very helpful, those who were surprised and happy to know that I’m a Muslim, and those who made us feel safe and unsafe. Those who made us feel loved. Or even those whom we fell in love with. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we see each person as who they are, despite their nationality, which means we can not define all of Kazakhstan by the individual good or bad experience we had with one person. 

Like other things in life, nothing is perfect. In these two months of my stay here, we have found the weather in Kazakhstan to be cold, yet the people make the experience warm. Thank you for opening your hearts to us. And last but not least, to my fellow International students, there’s a quote I would like to share:

“When your day is long

And the night, the night is yours alone

When you're sure you've had enough

Of this life, well hang on

Don't let yourself go

'Cause everybody cries

Everybody hurts sometimes’

It gets hard sometimes to be away from home. Although I’m sure we have our definition of what home is. From the bottom of my heart, I hope to make good memories with all of you. I am sincerely grateful to have the chance to meet and be friends with you all.