Project 365

You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself
That leads to transformation
of dust into pure gold.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

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! 😀

A card from a little girl 🙂 It instantly made my day!!!!

Love you too! 🙂

Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish; every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing,
Branching out, giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world is springing up from it

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

I find peace and calmness in this poem. Somehow 🙂

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! 🙂

Nice orchestra concert! 🙂 Great to hear Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 and Strauss’ Blue Danube!

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

— J.K. Rowling at Harvard University Commencement, 5 June 2008

Imagination also enables me to be more grateful about my life, for whatever hardships I have endured, others have experienced much rougher life than I have 🙂

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Happy New Year! Let’s celebrate our life and wish for an exciting one this year!

It seems that these bowling pins are the must-pictured-object in Eindhoven!

Dessy and I went to Amsterdam again today and started with a free tour. We only did the first half of the tour though. It was my  first time to be in the tour and I actually really liked it. I’ve been to the tour in Berlin so I knew what to expect. But I now understand how the prostitution business started and why a number of houses in Amsterdam are leaning forward! 🙂

After the tour, I met up with a CouchSurfer-turned-good-friend, Putri, her sister, and her boyfriend. It was a short meet up (as usual! :(). I tried to convince her again to join me for the Middle Eastern travel at the end of 2011 :P. She’s always interested but she’s not sure yet because of the timing. Anyway, I got to visit her house again and met with parents (finally!).

Afterwards, I met Abde, another CouchSurfer who lives in Paris. When I traveled to Paris alone for the first time, he was the one who was kind enough to show me around the city and help me with the super heavy luggage! He’s in Amsterdam to visit his family so we decided to meet up again. It was great!

We just realized that we never had a picture together!!! hahaha… So here we are…

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!