An Email to My Lost Friend (HERI SUSANTO)

Sydney, 14 December 2012

Assalaamu'alaikum,

How are you, Her? It has been nearly 10 years I haven't heard about you. Where are you now? The last time I heard you're in Batam working forTelkomsel. I have been looking for you for years either online and offline but no significant result so far. I really miss our past when we're still nobody and used to talk about everything without any boundaries. I miss the moments when we shared our happiness and ate some'pangsit mie'in a street vendor near Samaan. Do you still have the sweet memories with you?

Today seems to be very important day for me. I just finished the first meeting with my supervisor at Faculty of Education and Social Work. He welcomed me warmly and we chatted for quite long in his office. We exchanged stories and experiences and happily laughed each other (Similar to me, he also gives teacher training to secondary school teachers). Having much deliberation from the fruitful discussion, we came up with an idea that I should focus on Critical Reading or Critical Literacy. He shared an interesting e-book on the matter by a UK scholar. very good stuff!.

I was lucky that Prof. Ken Cruickshank, my supervisor had much time to show me around and introduced me to two key persons there (Prof. Leslie, the Associate Dean for International Students - she can speak Indonesian! and Venice, a senior admin staff). He also suggested me a Qualitative Analysis class I should enroll officially. It seems I will attend one/two classes each semester for the first year of my research.

That's all my updates. Wherever you are, please reply this email. I simply wanna meet you and if possible, I wanna treat you some 'pangsit mie' to compensate your kindness in the past. May Allah always bless you. Amiiin.

Wassalam,

Rizha