Project 365

There were many things I missed out during my stay in Jeddah. One of them was to play angklung at our first ever cultural event, Made in Indonesia, held at our campus.

I always loved cultural events! Besides having to promote our beautiful culture to others, it’s a great way to learn my country’s culture too! When I was in Brisbane, I had a chance to learn Acehnese Saman Dance and perform it for a number of times at different events around the city. I was proud of it. The reaction was incredibly great. People were amazed by us and we became more famous hahaha. It was a great success. So I really wanted to be part of something like this again… but it turned out, I couldn’t.

Suddenly, I was told that the angklung group was going to perform again next November and they were recruiting new members! So I immediately joined the group. Hehehe. Today was my first day of practicing. It was yeaaaaaaars ago that I saw and "read" the numbered musical notation. Phew. It was fun though! Finally I could play angklung! Hahaha.

* Photo courtesy of Windi, taken at Made in Indonesia event.

Life is like a river. There is no precharted way; there are no maps to be given to you which are to be followed.  Just be alive and alert, and then wheresoever life leads you go with full confidence in it. Allow it to lead you, don’t force it. Surrender to it and allow it to lead you towards the sea. Just be alert, that is all. While life leads you towards the sea just be alert so that you don’t miss anything.

— Osho

Turn the heater’s temperature to the max. Take medicine and a hot balm. Wrap myself under my thick blanket. Sleep.

Dear flu, please don’t be too harsh on me.

So, yes, I decided to move out. I really like my current room. I get along with the housemates really well. The location is really in the center and is close to university. But when I found a cheaper place, I instantly decided to take it.

My new room is still empty. I still need to clean it up. It’s bigger than my old room though and it consists of two small rooms; one of them can be used for study room. Hopefully I can move my stuff by next week! 🙂

It never happened to me, but it caught me this time!

I already changed my watch and mobile phone’s time. So I should be able to get the time right, shouldn’t I?! But apparently, I still relied on my laptop’s time in which I forgot to change!

I had an appointment with an agent to sign the contract of my room at 11.30am. When I reached her office, she wasn’t there. So I called her, asking where she was. She told me, "But we have an appointment at 11.30!" And at that time I realized, oh damn, I looked at the wrong clock! In Jeddah, it was still 10.30. Good thing she could come to meet me 10 minutes later, so it was okay.

The second time happened when I was about to go to the campus to do my project assignment with my group mates. When I reached the garage to get my bike, I realized and asked myself, what time was it again?! I was one hour early! So I went back inside, waited for another hour, and change the time appeared on my laptop! 😀

It just feels GOOD to be back! It feels so good to sleep on your own bed! The weather isn’t that cold, yet. Although it has reached —1 degrees Celsius at night, I haven’t really turn the heater on.

Eindhoven is still the same when the last time I left. Leaves have started to turn yellow and fall. I can now do whatever I want. I can smile to strangers. I can laugh as hard as I want.

Freeeeeeedoooooommmmm! 🙂 🙂

I arrived at Schiphol at around 12pm. Jessie picked me up, so we had a looooong talk for the whole 1.5 hours journey to Eindhoven (mind you, I was away for 1 month! A one month talk was compressed to 1.5 hours hahaha). When I reached Eindhoven Station, I went for a quick chat at Burger King with another friend (and my loyal heavy luggage haha). Yeah, what was I thinking right? LOL. Then Angga came over to my house to talk about our group project (already?!). Hehehe. It wasn’t that bad! It was more like a casual talk than anything serious. Actually, it took us few minutes to talk about it; the rest was a catch up! 😀

Alhamdulillah, I arrived in Amman after going through a lot of drama before departure. I almost missed my flight!!! Thankfully, I managed to reach the boarding gate five minutes before it closed. I was so panic!

I had a not-too-bad 2 hours journey to Amman, talking with a Jordanian guy next to me. I never actually had a friend from Jordan, so it was nice to meet a stranger and had a small talk about his country :). In another different setting, I saw a woman who got a UN passport!! I envied her so much! 😮

I’m now sitting alone in my room at Golden Tulip Hotel provided by Jordanian Airlines. I’m having a 9 hours transit. Although I’m in a hotel, I feel like I am in a hostel. Even some hostels are cleaner than this one! Oh well, I got it for free, so might as well enjoy it, right? The internet is free anyway :D.

I can’t wait to be in Eindhoven soon 🙂

The last time I went to Madinah, the huge "tents" were still under construction. They are now can be seen during the day, covering most of the outer space of the Mosque. They are massive!

As I looked through the view of the Mosque from the hotel, I realized that it would take years for me to be able to see this beautiful view again. And this might be the last time I would be here. Yes, I thought about ending my Saudi residence permit. It would be impossible for me to go back every year if I worked. Oh well, we would see what would happen next year.

I’ve just arrived here, in the city of Prophet Muhammad SAW, late at night. Dad has to do some assignments here so my mum, sis, and I tagged along :). I’ll be going to the Mosque tomorrow morning.

I got my residence permit today, alhamdulillah. I was so HAPPY. I’m going to leave for the Netherlands on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday, insya Allah.

If you want others to think the best of you, you need to start by thinking the best of them

— Yasir Qadhi

Gotta erase those negative thinking resided in my mind! 🙂

Lawan pelarangan buku! Fight against the banning of books!

I’m currently reading Dalih Pembunuhan Massal: Gerakan 30 September dan Kudeta Suharto by John Roosa. This book introduces new evidence about the September 30th Movement (or more commonly G30S), a group of Indonesian soldiers whose action leads to the assassination of six Indonesian Army generals, mass killings around the country, and the transfer of power from Soekarno to Soeharto.  The movement has been described by the Soeharto’s regime as a coup attempt done by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Indonesians who lived or grew up during the Soeharto years were required to watch the movie "Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI" on 30 September every year. The movie, which was no longer shown on TV after the fall of Soeharto, was part of a propaganda made by the Soeharto government to convince the public that PKI was the one to blame. After 45 years since the event took place, it is still not clear who the masterminds behind it are. That’s why I’m trying really hard to read the book (again — it has stopped before).

Even though Soeharto is no longer ruling our country, the book is unfortunately banned by the current government for unclear reasons!

The e-book version can be downloaded from here (in Indonesian only). The original English version is called Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’État in Indonesia.