Project 365

I seriously couldn’t sleep well today. I was too worried with the floods in Queensland. As expected, when I woke up, Brisbane was flooded already. The city (CBD) was closed and people were evacuated in some areas. The worst is yet to come. People are saying that the flood will be worse than the 1974 floods. The combined capacity of dams in Queensland is 100% and is overflowing.

It shocks me. I couldn’t stand looking at those pictures. I was there. I knew the area. The good thing is that Brisbane is not a flat city. There are some high-lying areas so if people can evacuate on time, they’ll be alright. And I have to say, I’m impressed by how the government is handling the disaster. Maps of low-lying areas were published so that people would stay alert. Authorities are ready to evacuate people before the floods reached the area. But as the flood now covers the area the size of France and Germany combines, I fear the worst un-imaginable situations could happen.

Thankfully, my friends have been sending me updates and they are okay. Those who haven’t sent me any news, I can just pray for them :(. If you have time, please pray for those in Queensland!

I’m getting crazy. Absolutely crazy that I just want to take my brain away for a day. My brain needs a rest. If my brain were a hard disk, it would have made a weird annoying noise. Ohhhh, look at me! So geek, for comparing my brain to the computer hahaha!

My routine for a week has been this: wake up, do assignments, sleep, wake up, do assignments, sleep… continuously. I do assignments while eating. I think about the assignments while taking shower. And rather than counting sheep, praying, or think about something wonderful, I think about the assignments before I sleep. On the bed. O yeah! See how "devoted" I am?

I haven’t seen the outside world for a week already, except at one time I had to go to the campus to meet with my project mates. I wonder if my housemates ever wonder that I barely go out of my room, except to pee or to heat up my meals. Oh gosh, good thing I had lots of foods that I cooked a week ago! Or else I would go starving.

But no matter how stressing it is, the presence of my friends always cheers me up! Even though, it can only be done online. It helps. It really does.

And yes, I was laughing so hard! 😛 I felt like I hadn’t laughed for so long.

I guess, I have to always remember now that no matter how busy I am, I should never ever neglect my friends. Hihihihi 🙂 I’m sorry if you think that way! Been so stressing! 😀

Jessie is back already!! So I spent the whole day in Helmond with her, talking for hours (was it 7 hours? LOL!) and eating a delicious yummy mushroom soup made by her mom. One of my favorite Dutch foods I have to say! Haha. But anyway, I was so happy to finally see her again! I think she’s the only person in the whole NL to whom I can talk about absolutely anything! 😀 No rules, no restrictions, and straight-forward!

I also accompanied my friend Dessy in the evening as it was her last day in the Netherlands. I really enjoy her company these few days. Dessy and I went to the same elementary school in Jeddah. We weren’t actually close during those times, but we still remain friends til now. I didn’t expect that we can be so connected and have many things in common, knowing that we barely talk to each other unless I visit Jakarta! I hold her in high regard. I have to say that I’m very happy to meet yet another prospective travel buddy! 🙂

I picked up my friend, Dessy, at Schiphol today. Dessy and I used to go to an elementary school together in Jeddah. It was so nice to reunite again! She’s gonna stay at my small room until 4 January. It’ll be fun!

Yippy. I’m officially a TED translator. I’m still waiting for my request to translate this video to be approved, hopefully within this week!

As I’m a big fan of TED, I decided to spend some hours of my time to translate some of the videos into Indonesian. The good thing about being a TED Translator is that you’re not bind into some contract or anything like that. You have the choice to translate whatever video you like and you’re given 30 days to complete it (after which, other TED Translators may take over). So it’s very flexible!

If you have the time, I encourage you be part of the community so that we can spread those ideas worth spreading to even more wider audience! 🙂

So many things happened in one day!

I went to attend my friend’s graduation ceremony. Too bad I was late, I didn’t get to see him on stage. But I got to meet him afterwards for some drinks and snacks.

Surprisingly, after the ceremony, I met one of my lecturers, Hajo who used to teach a course I took back in 2008. I actually talked to him ONCE back in those days and from that conversation, I learned that his mother was an Indonesian. It was him who asked me where I was from and we got to talk for few minutes. So that was 2 years ago. When I bumped to him after the graduation ceremony, he smiled at me and actually talked to me again!!! I was really surprised that he did that! I thought he forgotten about me already. He asked me whether I was graduated already, who my supervisor was (and he told me that my supervisor’s office was just few rooms from his), and he said that he’s going to Indonesia next  year! That short conversation REALLY made my day. He’s such a friendly and smiling person. He got that Asian friendliness, no doubt!! Hahaha.

After the graduation ceremony, I quickly went to the Christmas reception that was held by the university. I went there to take a Christmas present and eat some snacks LOL. I was so happy that the university gave us a voucher for a TU hoodie sweater!!! Yay! I love all the free stuff that I got during Christmas and New Year hahaha.

After that, I went to the Muziekgebouw Frits Philips to get my free ticket for the New Year Orchestra Concert on 2 January 2011. I got there 30 minutes before the ticket counter opened and the queue was SOOOO LONG. I was so glad I actually got 2 tickets. I’m going to ask a friend to come with me ;).

Despite of assignments and deadlines… despite of emotional breakdown… despite of everything… I’m grateful for today. Alhamdulillah.

I looooooooooveeeeeeeeeeee playing with kids and babies. They are cute little creatures that always melt my heart. Their innocent face. Their laugh. Their way of looking at me in the eye. ARGHHHH.

There are at least 10 kids here whom I met regularly. They are adooooorable! And you know what? It makes me want to have a baby of my own! ARGH. The baby syndrome has strangled me!!! HELP.

I was invited to a close friend’s housewarming party in the evening. We’re a group of international and Dutch students who happened to take the same courses. There were Chinese, Taiwanese, Romanians, Columbian, Turkish, Indonesian (only me), and of course Dutch. All of the sudden, we were talking about floor buildings and we started to have some arguments for few minutes!

The Chinese and Columbian argued that the ground-level floor of the building is called the first floor, while the floor above it is called the second floor. However, the Romanians argued that the ground-level floor IS called the ground floor. The floor above it is called the first floor. While the Dutch seemed to agree with the Chinese and Columbian.

And me? To be honest, when it comes to floor numbering, I always get confused. Maybe because I’ve lived in different countries, so I get confused with their respective conventional ways on how to name their floors. When somebody say which floor I have to go to, I need to ask him/her again that we refer to the same floor. I just have to do it somehow.

Then the Dutch compared this floor numbering with centuries. You don’t call zero century, do you? You’d call it first century instead.

Hehehe. It was a loooong discussion and a friend of mine had to stop it by explaining in a Petri net way *geek mode on* LOL. Ah, what a day.

I went to Enschede, a city about 3 hours away from Eindhoven by train. I visited a good friend of mine, Maureen, and I wanted to get out of Eindhoven for a while. I just needed something different (how many times did I say this?).

I had a great time catching up, of course… despite the tiring 6 hours back and forth journey by train. I slept the whole time! I managed to read only few pages of Dan Brown’s before eventually fell asleep. I was too tired. I had only few hours of sleep.

I reached Eindhoven at 8.45pm and was relieved to find my one and only bicycle was still there. I parked it in the train station and it’s risked of being stolen. But I had no choice, I almost missed my train. Thankfully, it was still there when I went back.

Then I went to Andreea’s place to catch up with other friends. It was a long day. It was fun and worth it at the same. Did I mention that the snow has melted already? 🙂

Alhamdulillah, I’ve passed a small milestone. I’ve created a project description for the thesis and thankfully my professor liked it! He signed some documents to be passed to the education administrator, in which a green light to start the thesis project will be given.

Even though it’s a small milestone, I’m so happy. That means my thesis will definitely start soon and I have no reason to postpone it again. The project will officially be started in February and will hopefully be finished by the end of August *fingers crossed*. At least, that’s what I wrote in the document 😀

Ya Allah, please guide me through this difficult journey. I need Your support.