Too bad I couldn’t watch Al Jazeera when then-VP Omar Suleiman announced the stepping down of Mubarak. I was in the train, on the way to Delft to perform angklung. Mbak Dina called me to deliver the news, that Mubarak has finally resigned! It was one of the happiest moments of my life!
I can’t believe that one day, I’ll go back to a new Egypt with the new president!
Mabrook ya sya3bi Masr!
Stories like this stripped away my excitement to go back to Indonesia for good.
It took me years to finally be certain about going back. I finally knew what I wanted to do. I pledged to take this as yet another challenge. I wanted to do this. For real.
Then I read about Ahmadiya people being brutally murdered. Then there were church attacks. It hurts me. This is my country. How can they be so cruel and intolerant?! People have been saying to me about provocateurs or some parties being paid to do that for some weird agenda. I don’t care about those. The fact that the government can’t even protect the rights of minority citizens saddens me. This has been happening for years. Yet, nothing was done. I’m extremely disappointed.
Then that story of injustice was spread. An emotional story written by a girl whose mother was jailed for 10 years and was fined 10 billion rupiah (USD 1.12 million). The story showed how rare justice was in our country. I shouldn’t believe her story 100%, but this is too common. She’s not the only one. There are many people who experienced the same thing.
Going back to Indonesia seems to be a burden now. I know that this can’t be changed. The decision has been finalized. There’s nothing I can do right now, except to imagine the beautiful Indonesia with beautiful beaches… Take me back to that dream, please!
I’ve decided now (again) that I’m going to avoid reading any news about Indonesia. I’ll unfollow those Indo tweets. I’ll unsubscribe the newspapers from my Google Reader. I’ll stop reading anything about my country. I know I’m being paranoid, but I don’t want to go back with a heavy heart. I want to go back because I want to. Not because I need to.
I just realized that I’ve got a lot of things I have to take care of!!! (besides thesis, of course) Here goes the list:
I love being busy, but I didn’t realize that I had a lot of things to be responsible for! Be positive, work hard, and SMILE! 🙂
I was suddenly asked to be photographed for a friend’s portfolio few weeks ago. I never ever did it before so I was like, uh?! I didn’t know how to pose. The most difficult thing was to do a "bitchy" pose hahaha. I seriously couldn’t do it. My face was just not meant for that. I love to smile and laugh so that was hard. Somebody had to make me angry first.
But then, there was this random thought (as usual) running through my mind about modeling. It was: HOW BORING IT IS! I just couldn’t think myself of being a model. Well, I’m not pretty, beautiful, tall, or whatever. I’m sure nobody would want to see myself in the magazine. LOL. But if I were, I would have NOT been interested in modeling at all. I found it so boring. The only thing you’d do is posing, posing, and posing. What else, seriously? Oh, being famous, of course. But that’s not always the case. It’s nothing challenging.
(UPDATE: I think the most challenging thing was to be able to stand in the COLD place for hours!!!)
Just my random and useless rants :).
No updates from me for awhile. Kinda overwhelmed with everything that’s been happening in the Middle East, especially the two countries that have close relationship with me, Egypt (where I was born) and Saudi Arabia. I’ve been tweeting and tweeting. So go ahead, read my tweets (don’t want to link my account here though).
I decided to put my twitter account on public as it’s hard for me to reply those tweets by people who do not follow me. I’m still considering whether it will be temporarily or not.
Off for few days.
*Posted on my Twitter, but I gotta put it here too…
2000 was the year of freedom. I got the opportunity to live far away from my parents for the first time in my life. It felt great to finally be the pilot of my own life. I was in control of everything.
2004 was about getting away from my comfort zone and experiencing things that I never experienced before. My love for cultures started here.
2007 was the important milestone of my life. I was one of the proudest kids around. But farewell was the hardest thing. I had to do it…
2008 was a dream come true. I had been wanting to step into this continent since high school. I finally made it! Alhamdulillah.
What will 2011 be for me? Insya Allah I’ll pass yet another milestone. And it’ll be the year when I’ll be searching for my passion and my home.
I used to be passionate about one thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. But that passion was gone. I’m searching for a new one. And how about home? I haven’t found one. And that’s okay. Coz that means I won’t stop exploring 🙂
I still remember the comment in my blog by a blogger friend of mine, Mulia, loooong time ago. "Luck is not for free. The more you get, the more you have to give." That comment struck me. And I’m determined to pay it back. That’ll be my focus from 2012 onwards. Amin.
I may not be certain about what exactly I’ll do in the future, but I know that I’m going to work in an NGO somewhere outside of Java, preferably Aceh. If I have enough money, I’m seriously considering volunteering in Palestine, but that’s still impossible.
I realize now that the only reason for me feeling rather hesitated to go back to Indonesia is because of Jakarta! I don’t want to live there. I’m not excited to live there for too long. So now I have to find a place somewhere outside of Java to live in. Friends suggested me Bali or Balikpapan. Well, let’s just see where I’ll end up in :).
To conclude: there isn’t anything in my life that I regret. I’m grateful for everything. Alhamdulillah. Allah is great.
Finished exam but I expect to retake the same one this April! 😛
Published a new blog post. Beware: it’s SOO long!
The Queensland Floods & Can The Indonesians Learn from Them?
Reading too much tweets and news about the Queensland floods made me realized (again) that Australians are soooooo obsessed with abbreviations! Here are some of them that I came across:
Australian: Aussie
Mosquito: mozzie
Television: Telly
Kangaroo: roo
Barbeque: barbie
Woolworths: woolies (a supermarket chain)
Brisbane: Brizzy
Football: footy
University: Uni
Afternoon: arvo
Sunglasses: sunnies
So what about having a barbie this arvo? LOL. It sounds funny now since it’s been so long that I heard these words appear!
Next week I’ll be hosting a CouchSurfer from Brisbane. I’m so looking forward to it. A little bit of reminiscing about the good old days, perhaps? 🙂
My bike’s tire was and is still completely flat. I obviously didn’t have any backup bikes. I used to have one, but its tire needed to be changed too! And I hadn’t done that, til now. I guess, procrastinating had a price to pay, right?
So, as a result of this nonsense, I had to walk to the Uni. I could take a bus, but I didn’t want to wait for another 30 minutes plus 10 more minutes walking from the station. So I thought, yeah, let’s try walking. It didn’t seem too far, at least by bike! LOL. It actually took me 45 minutes to reach the Uni, complete with back pain as I had to carry my heavy laptop and a book. It was tiring! I should have taken a bus. Seriously.
But my effort wasn’t worthless at all. I studied with my friend, Vanessa and we finished one chapter. Yay. Very happy about that 🙂
Tomorrow, she’s going to teach me how to patch my bike’s tire. Not sure if it can be done, but if it can’t, then I have to bring it to the bike shop so that its tire can be changed. Ah, my poor bike!
I can’t believe some people are still too ignorant to know about the situation on the other side of the world!!!
Actually, it wasn’t even the other side of the world. It’s our neighbor!
And it didn’t happen only today. Or yesterday.
It happened during the three disasters in Indonesia at the end of last year too! Somebody came up to me (by the way, he was an Indonesian): where’s Wasior? What happened over there?
I felt like bursting in anger. I could have stroke at that time. Seriously. Too shocking. How could you be THAT ignorant???
😐
At least, empathize! Put yourself into other people’s shoes and imagine the worst thing that could happen to you.
Geez. Just go to Pluto.