Project 365

Compared to November snow, last night’s snow was the heaviest. See how my bike was almost completely covered by snow? Compared that to this photo of my bike, taken on November in the same place.

”ŽThis place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.

— Hafez

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.

Do not look for God,
look for the one looking for God…

But why look at all?
God is not lost,
God is right here…
closer than your own breath.

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

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.

Yay! So happy to practice playing angklung again after so long :). It’s not confirmed yet, but we’re planning to perform again next week, this time in the city center! I hope it’s going to happen!!

Finally, I had a chance to watch a performance at Muziek Gebouw Frits Philips! I was browsing the website the other day when I found a free orchestra concert. I quickly booked the ticket. I was planning to book only 4 tickets, but I found out later that I actually booked 8 tickets! So I invited my friends to come along.

It was really nice! I loved it. I was so happy to hear Infernal Dance by Igor Stravinsky LIVE! 🙂 It was refreshing to be here… especially after many hours looking at the computer. Oh how I love my life.

I’m looking forward to yet another free orchestra concert on 2 January!!!

I always love Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. I don’t really understand music and all those weird looking notes, but THIS is a beautiful piece of work! I’ve been watching different performances done by many orchestras and I have to say that this version conducted by Leonard Bernstein is by far my favorite one! The tempo is just right on the spot.

And yes, I’ve been watching orchestra performances again, after feeling so bored of James Blunt which I played it over and over again.

Not to forget that I’m going to watch an orchestra concert on Thursday night! I wanted to book 4 tickets, but due to some technical problems, I got 8 tickets in total! So I asked my angklung friends to join me. Hope it’s going to be an awesome evening. Can’t wait 🙂

* NOTE: you have to watch this video in FULL volume. It’s much more amazing!!!

One of my ultimate dream is to watch the LIVE orchestra concert of Distant Worlds (from Final Fantasy). They came to Singapore last year when I was still in the Netherlands. They did go to Sweden to perform, but I didn’t have much money at that time. I hope one day I have the chance to see it live!!!