Project 365

I’ve been so busy these days! Too many things to do yet so little time. I’m heading for an uber awesome trip (still a mystery for now ;)) in 9 days time. Yes, you hear me, NINE DAYS! I’m just too excited about it! Wohoooo…

But despite of the excitement, I’m currently super busy with 2 projects. I want to finish them before my trip but I think I can only complete one of them. One of the projects that I’ve been doing is this:

I’m developing a website of Angklung Eindhoven (yes, it can be viewed). Compared to other websites that I’ve created, I didn’t design the template. I focused more on the back-end part (yes, by that I meant that I actually edit some plugins to add more features that suit my needs). The website is almost complete though. I think I can finish it by this week :).

The other project that I involve in is developing an Android tablet application for a restaurant. It’s kinda weird to develop this app, since I never actually played or owned an Android phone. But it’s been a fun journey! I’ve been learning a lot of things and I love Android! I’m doubtful that I’d be able to finish this app by next week, but I want some parts of it running, at least.

In addition to those two projects, I have another web development project to be done by next year AND a WordPress plugin related to traveling that is currently under development… which I decided to create for my own excitement. My own excitement?! Yeah, when a geek is bored, he/she would usually resort to coding. LOL.

🙂

Not many people knew that I’d go back for good. Most of them found it out a week or even a few days before my departure. So I never expected to receive anything from them. I have too many stuff with me already. I didn’t want to bring anything more. But there was one special gift I got from our angklung team that really touched me and almost made me cry:

This frame is now put in my room in Jeddah. It’ll be brought to Malaysia next year, for sure! I’ll definitely miss playing angklung with them! 🙁

I still can’t believe that I have left Europe for good. It does feel like a dream. It really feels like yesterday when I stepped into this country for the first time. Now I have left. I have left for the better :).

I had a lovely Moroccan farewell dinner with mbak Widi, Cintya, and Farida. We sat at a Moroccan restaurant called Chomicha located in Kruisstraat. The restaurant was quite cozy with a lovely setting. I ordered a 3-course surprise menu. The chef got to choose the meal(s) for me. They were delicious :). The beef tajine was fine. I think Cintya’s kofta tajine was better 😀

I hardly sat in a “real” restaurant here in Eindhoven. I have done it before, only one or two times a year. I decided to do it again since this is my last week in the Netherlands. I just want to treat myself with a really good meal! Alhamdulillah!

 

I just love it to have my passport’s page(s) filled with  stamps, leaving little or no empty space. These are the pages of my old passport, that almost caused me heart attack. This particular passport only contains 24 pages and it only has 5 empty pages left. Too bad I had to renew it, otherwise I could get the entire pages of the passport full of stamps 😉 hehehe.

The year 2009 was a great year indeed. I traveled to 8 different countries in one go! 🙂 I started with a road trip with some friends to Luxembourg, Strasbourg (France), Heidelberg and Köln (both in Germany). From Köln, I went to Düsseldorf to catch a flight to Jeddah. I had an almost 20 hours of transit in Dubai so I decided to explore Dubai (which — as expected — I didn’t really like. Dubai was not my thing). From Saudi Arabia, I flew to Indonesia, visited some friends in Singapore for a day, and stayed with my sister in KL for five boring days (it was an exam week for my sister. So I was there feeling rather bored. Nothing much to do). I came back to Europe through Paris, where I stayed there for 3 days. That was my first time visiting Paris. I love Versailles!!! 🙂

It was a crazy trip, to be honest. At the end of the trip, I was left with only 10 euro on my bank account! hahaha.

I have no mood to write anything these days. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I decided to post some pictures that I took for the past one month ;).

Leaves have started to fall in Eindhoven, after few weeks of sunny and warm weather. Usually, we’d take our gloves out by the month of October. But the weather has been very warm lately. Does that mean winter would be worst and colder than last year? 😐

I was invited to a Korean lunch at a friend’s house. I forgot what this dish was called but I always loved it! This was the second time I ate it.

Baby Nolan and baby Mentari are two of my favorite kids 🙂 I’ve watched them grow ever since they were born and it’s always impressive and exciting to see them growing and doing their things for the first time :).

 

Last weekend, Jessie and I went to the McDonald’s near Best. This particular McD got a Rock & Roll theme. There was a huge statue of Michael Jackson on its parking lot. I saw lots of pictures, flowers, and messages from his fans near the statue. We were checking out these memorabilia, when we saw a teenage boy crying with his family trying to console him. That was my first time to actually see with my own eyes someone crying because of the death of a celebrity. How stupid does that sound?! Isn’t it ironic that people don’t believe in God but they believe in these fake looking celebrities that they have no relations to and have no idea whether these celebrities are honestly a good person or not…! A strange world we live in…

This picture is not actually mine, but this one was taken at the Welcoming Party organized by PPI/e (Indonesian Student Association). I had a great time there, meeting new Indonesian students. I gave a short presentation about Dutch culture. It was OK, I think I should have done it much better than that. I prepared it in less than 8 hours before the event itself haha. But it was a relief to know that people found it useful.

I’m so proud to be part of the family :). It’s been a great and an inspiring journey from the beginning. It started off as an ambitious dream with only 18 members and it has grown rapidly with a total of more than 40 members! Impressive!

Today was a celebration of our achievements (and apparently it coincided with the birthday of our director :)). It was also the day when the committee presented their visions and future plans on where this group would be headed. They even planned on recording in a studio!!! How awesome is that?! There were too many plans that they’ve laid out and it’s sad to say that I would not be here next year…

Not to mention: the foods were not to be missed, of course! After all, an Indonesian gathering without the foods were never complete!

Happy 1st birthday, Angklung Eindhoven!

Oh, what an awesome (and tiring) day! The annual cultural event that we had all been waiting for finally took place! The highlight of the event was of course: Angklung Eindhoven! 🙂

Before the start of the event, we had the chance to do a last-minute practice at the parking lot of the St Petrus Church located across the event’s venue. We couldn’t practice at the venue because the organizing committee was busy doing check sound. It was on Saturday afternoon. Many people passed by from the market nearby and of course, they watched us practicing :). We told them to come to the event and some of them said they wanted to come. Last minute promotion, I guess? 😉

 

At the start of the event, I was busy welcoming some people from Eindhoven University of Technology (my university!) and Gemeente Eindhoven (Eindhoven city council). They were very warm and friendly! They even told me to do whatever the things I supposed to be doing. Too bad the Alderman couldn’t come (he was supposed to come, but due to the changing of event’s time, he couldn’t attend). I had the opportunity to welcome the people from the embassy on another occasion and I hate to say that they’re very very formal. Some of them were not friendly and they even distanced themselves from us just because we’re ordinary citizens (that’s what I felt). Talking to the Dutch “important personalities” were much more relaxed!

The angklungers performed twice at Made in Indonesia, with different songs. We played Medley Maluku (Nona Manis — Ayo Mama — Rasa Sayange) and Bungong Jeumpa for our first performance. For the second one, we played six songs: Yue Liang (a Chinese song), Yamko Rambe Yamko, Burung Kakatua, Si Patokaan, Tulpen Uit Amsterdam (a Dutch song), and finally Medley Indonesia (Tanah Airku — Indonesia Pusaka).

 

The climax of our performance was of course the last part! The newlyweds, mas Dody and teh Ida (teh Ida is also one of our conductors and founders of Angklung Eindhoven), sang Tanah Airku and Indonesia Pusaka accompanied by angklung. Their voice was amaaahhhhzing. I was told that some people even cried when they heard them singing and they stood applauding us when the song finished. I didn’t pay attention to anything like that hahaha. I was just glad that we could play it nicely. The two songs are Indonesian national and patriotic songs. The first song is about our love for the country even though we live abroad. I think this one touched people the most 🙂 I can’t wait to see the videos 🙂 Meanwhile, here’s the lyric of the song Tanah Airku:

Tanah airku tidak kulupakan
Kan terkenang selama hidupku
Biarpun saya pergi jauh
Tidak kan hilang dari kalbu
Tanahku yang kucintai
Engkau kuhargai

Walaupun banyak negri kujalani
Yang masyur permai dikata orang
Tetapi kampung dan rumahku
Di sanalah kurasa senang
Tanahku tak kulupakan
Engkau kubanggakan

 

Coming soon: the videos 🙂

I promised myself to completely take a break from all organization and angklung activities, but I CAN’T HELP IT!!! This event is our last big annual event before the end of our organizational term — before the new president is chosen. Of course I wouldn’t want to miss this chance! I want it to be a successful event tooo! 🙂 Can’t wait for Saturday!

I’m currently in the process of applying for a visa and look what my friend found! Look at the date I put under my signature! Do you see the YEAR?!

How can I be THAT reckless?! I mean, this is a visa for God sake!!! If it weren’t because of my friend, I would send this application form with the wrong year and my visa would be rejected right away :|.

I think I’ve been too stressed 🙁

I don’t know… I’ve been so worried. Worried about something I don’t even know about. I hate this feeling. I can feel my heart beats so fast and I haven’t had a good sleep. I always have this when something bad is going to happen. I really hope that’s not the case.