Project 365

At this moment in time, I am in a desperate need of miracle…

I told him that I would be going to the stadium of AC Milan next month and he told me to take some of the grass in the stadium hahahhaa…. Crazy dude, as usual.

CARTUSSSS!!!

Yep, that is a greeting that only me and my Japanese friend understand. We lived in the same dorm during our first year in Brisbane. We had a weird friendship, I have to say. We barely talked (in depth) and I have little memories of us except this unique greeting.

One conversation we had that I fondly remember was about my headscarf. He asked me why I wore it and I answered it as short as I could as I wasn’t so sure if he’d be interested in the longer version of the story. And then he asked me: "When will I be able to see YOUR hair then?!" I jokingly answered, "when you marry me!" And that became his frequent question directed towards me 😛

One day, he asked me the word ‘paper’ in Indonesian. And I told him, it’s ‘kertas’. Since that very day, every time we bumped into each other, he’d mention that word. It became our greeting and we highly took pride of it. Everyone around us would probably be wondering, what in the world are these two strange people are talking about?!

Years passed by and we barely bumped into each other anymore. Now that we’re so further apart, we’re only connected through Facebook. When the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan, I wrote to all of my friends residing in Japan and my Japanese friends living outside of Japan, asking them if they or their families and friends are affected in any way. I wrote to all of them, including him.

I was so glad to hear that he and his family are fine. But one thing that touched me was when he wrote CARTUSSSS (he didn’t know how to spell the word, hence cartusss). I felt nothing but touched when I read his message. Wow! He still remembers that!!! 🙂 I believe it was at least 4 years ago since I last saw him!

One thing I feel so grateful about when it comes to these events: Queensland floods, Egyptian revolution, and Japan earthquake/tsunami is that: my friends and I are reconnected again. It doesn’t matter if we were only a hi-bye friend, bumped into each other for only few times, had little memories to remember, or never wrote to each other before. The thing that matters to me the most is that we are able to connect again and knowing that they are fine. Even if it’s only in the form of very short messages. Sometimes it helps just to show that this insignificant friend of them still remembers them. I hope they would realize that the world still cares for them and they’re all in our thoughts and prayers 🙂

Amalia darling, I haven’t read your email yet, but I wanted to first let you know that I’m fine. I’m at home now watching the heartbreaking news on tv. The earthquake we felt here was about 5 on the Richter scale. At the time of the earthquake, I was on the 9th floor; therefore, the shaking was amplified. Fortunately, we evacuated the bldg & no one was hurt. I hope those who are closer to the center of the earthquake find food & shelter soon. Thanks for checking up on me, hon!

— Jenny

I’m so glad she is safe! I was thinking about her last night out of the sudden (see my previous post). I felt a bit worried for unclear reasons. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but I take it as a sign that something bad was going to happen. Which it did. I watched the live pictures of the tsunami in horror! But I’m so grateful that she is safe and sound.

I also got in touch with another ex-housemate Mayu, who is in Brisbane. Thankfully, her family is also fine :). I still remember how kind her mom was to me and Jenny. She’s so understanding, very considerate, and tolerant towards me, a Muslim. I can’t wait to see her again at the wedding! And I call her Mama too 🙂

I also call Jenny’s mom Mama. I have three moms spreading around the world, huh? Hehehehe! She was the one who taught me how to cook at the time when I didn’t even know how to cut veggies properly hahahha! (THAT’s how bad I was at cooking. But hey, I’m much better now! I’m sure she’ll be proud of me hehehehe). If she still lives in Penang, I’m going to pay her a visit this October 🙂

I won’t be able to see my "real" mom this year, but at least… I’ll be able to see at least one of my mums 🙂

I think I need to read this book. Reading the reviews of this book made me more interested:

• "As an adult TCK, I have long wrestled with how I fit into this world. This book is the ‘bible’ for anyone who wants to understand the blessings and the curses of growing up multiculturally" — Wm Paul Young
• "Because Third Culture Kids have been exposed to other cultures in significant ways and have experienced multiple transitions while growing up, it is in their DNA to thrive within the pace and nature of globalization. This book is a must to understand the challenges TCKs face and the unique skills they can leverage as global leaders." — Katrina Burrus

The sun was out today!!! It was sunny and lovely :). But it was SOOO cold! It reached —1 degrees Celsius when I left my house in the morning. I wonder. shouldn’t it be spring already?!

Nevertheless, I had such a lovely day! I met my high school friend, Wiza, who has been sending me postcards from all over the world these days. She has been traveling in Europe since November last year (envy her!!) and she’s ending her travel here, in The Netherlands.

So I met up with her in Den Haag. I hadn’t really talked to her ever since I finished high school in 2003. I did met her a few times whenever I went to Jakarta, but we didn’t get a chance to talk that much. We weren’t THAT close anyway when were in high school. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be so connected. You know, it would be boring to spend the whole day taking about dull topics 😛

But it turned out, we had such a great time!!! Talking and talking until we forgot about time!!! Hahaha! I didn’t realize that we had a lot of things in common (besides traveling, of course). We also went to Kinderdijk to see the windmills. I always loved Kinderdijk :). It’s a lovely place. If it weren’t so cold, it would be perfect to sit by the canal!!

Anyway, one thing she said: "We are the citizen of the world. That’s why we don’t have ‘home’!" Hehehe! Yeeeep, maybe that’s the reason why 😉

A blogger friend once tweeted:

Love is NOT enough to become the basis for a marriage. A much stronger foundation is a commitment.

He went on to say:

Definitely, a loveless marriage is very painful. However, you may have also noticed that people in love for years, got married – then divorced quite soon. A strong commitment may enable the couple to develop solutions to their problems – conflict management, etc. A strong commitment will help dissolve each egos – and let a new personality, your partnership, to emerge.

It’s true. Many people these days got married because they’re deeply in love; failing to realize that they’ve signed the "contract" for life.

Indeed, commitment is such a powerful thing. Sometimes I do think that, for some people, commitment overrides love. No matter how many times your husband or wife betrays you, ending a marriage is still not an option. For some people like me, we would have questioned, how could it be not an option?!

And for me, the questions remain unanswered: How do you know that you’re ready to spend the remaining years of your life with that person? How do you know that you’re willing to be committed and stay true to that commitment for the rest of your life? How can you be so sure? How does it feel like to be sure?!

Today, I got a phone call from a contact person at TU/e and he said that they’ve decided to sponsor our event, Eindhoven League!!! I’ve been stressing out that we may not be able to get enough sponsors for this event so this is quite significant!!! They’ve chosen the platinum sponsor which amounts 2,500 euro!!! OMG! I can’t be happier! Alhamdulillah! 🙂 A great achievement!

I can’t believe it was a year ago that I decided to start this Project 365. The purpose was simple enough. I wanted to write more often and remember the things that I did in the past, and more importantly: I wanted to be grateful each and everyday.

I’m a complainer. Most of the time I didn’t realize I was complaining the whole time. And that’s not good at all. It’s not good for me and for the person who listens to my grumble. It needs to stop!

But doing this project forces me to think about something that makes me grateful each day, even though I might face the ugliest problem in my whole life. What I learn from this is that, there must be something good everyday. There must be something that makes you grateful! You just have to stop focusing on the bad thing and start searching for the good thing.

Anyway, in the beginning I was quite skeptical about doing a one-post-per-day project. I knew it would fail at some point. And indeed, it hasn’t been easy. Finding the time and a topic to write is perhaps the hardest thing about doing this project. When I went to Indonesia last year, I didn’t get to write a single post merely because I got no internet at home. As thesis and social life have started to drown me, I wrote less often. The posts became useless over time. But it didn’t stop me from writing anyway. I tried to write anything that I encountered, even though I would missed some days.

As 21 February is approaching very soon (the day when I started writing a year ago),  should I continue writing? Should I stop? Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. It really depends. I’m getting VERY busy and I’m enjoying it, to be honest. My motivation is on the highest level. But I hope I’ll be able to write few posts per week 🙂

Yemen. Libya. Bahrain. Jordan. Iran. Algeria. My hearts are with you all.

Out of all those countries, I so want Gaddafi to go down! He is much worst than Mubarak and Ben Ali COMBINED. He can massacre the whole nation if he wants to.

Kick those dictators out. Long live the freedom! Long live the people!