Project 365

It was a REALLY hectic day for me today. I had to attend my friend’s wedding in a small city called Enschede, about 3 hours from Eindhoven (if you live here, you know that 3 hours is very far!). The ceremony was at 2pm and I had to take a train from Eindhoven at 10.45am. As I was still in Helmond on that day, I had to wake up early in the morning to go back to Eindhoven.

I reached home at 8am and quickly took shower and had breakfast. Good thing I had thought about which dress I would put on days before the wedding. Otherwise it’s going to be even more chaotic! I decided to wear my modern kebaya and a trouser (since the wedding was going to be less formal, I tried not to be too formal and over-dressed). I put on my make up quickly — the quickest time I had ever done!! — and rushed to the train station. I forgot to buy a card for the newlyweds (I bought a wrong card — an engagement card LOL… coz everything was in Dutch), so I bought it in the train station. I ALMOST missed the train. Phew.

The whole journey took for 3 hours and more. I had to change the train in Utrecht and took a bus from Enschede Central Station to the destination. The wedding was held in the house of the bride’s mom and only few people were invited. The bride is one of my good friends here, Maureen, whom I met when I worked at the Boekenfestijn in Rotterdam 2 years ago. The wedding was announced all of the sudden, I ALMOST couldn’t attend it! But I was glad I did. To see the happy couple on their big day was amazing. To witness the whole process was mind-blowing.

I was asked to read a verse in the Qur’an and at that time I just realized that it was the first time for me to witness a wedding ceremony. I really didn’t know what to expect. Haha. Anyway, I met few friends of mine whom I hadn’t seen for ages! It was great seeing them. I took a train back to Utrecht with them and it was good coz I had somebody to talk to! LOL. Great day, as usual.

Congrat’s once again, Maureen 🙂

I was in Helmond since morning. Playing with baby Mentari, cooking, and talking. I slept over there, at Teh Desi’s place for a night. I was asked to accompany her as her husband was away for some work. I loved playing with Mentari. She’s very calm and seldom cry. She would sit on my lap for a very long time. Sometimes we watched stuff on YouTube. Sometimes we watched TV. She would just sit there and tried to observe things that she could see. She was only 4 months old though (going to 5) and I’m sure she’ll be like her mom, dad, and grandparents whose academic achievement was just astonishing and unquestionable! It ran through the blood of the whole family! 😀

Love her to bits!

Have a decent rest, hey you. I hope you will be greeted with good news tomorrow. My prayers go to your granddad tonight. And I wish him well soon.

Sweet dreams. Sleep tight. And good night.

Talk to you tomorrow, my friend.

Mom sent me a message asking me if I have any plans for the summer; otherwise I could just go back to Indonesia. My cousin is getting married and mom wants me to be present. My sis is going to attend the wedding too.

I don’t want to go. I really want to attend my cousin’s wedding, but right now I’m really trying to save money for my extended study here. It’s already stressing me out that I couldn’t be able to pay for the tuition fee. I don’t know. I’m trying to get a loan from the bank which I have no idea if it’s ever possible. I’m still waiting for the answer from the university.

I haven’t told my mom about my decision yet. I’m going to work my ass off this summer. I have to get money to fund my living cost for the next 6 months I’m here (starting from September). I have to make sure that I have enough money, so that I can focus on my thesis the moment my scholarship finishes. I really hope.

Ya Allah, open the doors for me, please. Help me.

Maureen contacted me today to tell me that she’s getting married this Thursday! What a good news! The ceremony is going to be held in Enschede, which takes about 3 hours from here. It’s very far and the transportation cost is a bit crazy. I’m quite broke already, but I can’t say no to this one! I really want to witness one of her happiest moments. I want to be present at her big day. I’m really happy for her!! I can’t wait for Thursday.

I’m trying to get my friend Ian to come with me on Thursday, so that we can share the transport costs (well, it’s only 5 euro difference if you ask me!). And I want him to see how a simple Indonesian wedding is like. I’ve been trying to expose him to Indonesian culture for some time now. The language, movie (we watched Merantau already! And we loved it!), etiquette, foods (those which he hasn’t tried, because he eats Indonesian foods almost everyday), and so on. I’m not a good teacher, but I’m trying my best 😀

When the good news came, the bad news followed. Few hours ago, I was shocked by my friend’s tweet:

Inalilahi wa inailahi rojiun telah berpulang kesisinya sahabat kita RICKY THORIQ PRAMUJATI.. Semoga amal ibadahnya diterima disisiNYA amin.

I couldn’t believe it when I read his tweet. Thoriq (as we used to call him) was my high school’s friend. We weren’t very close and occasionally had brief conversations, but I just couldn’t imagine having to lose another friend. He was the second third person from our batch to pass away. I offer my deep condolences to his family.

Eindhoven was raining all day today! It wasn’t the best weather, but I enjoyed it. I went to the city with Jessie and do some shopping. I finally got my purple jacket for a discounted price! I was so happy! 😀 I had been going to that shop for several times only to find that it was too pricey. But the jacket was on discount today so I was quite pleased.

The thing about living here (or anywhere in the world which has 4 different seasons), having coats or jackets for each of the 4 seasons (or in my case, 3 seasons, since I treat spring and fall to have the same weather), is really important. I didn’t know it until I was here. For the winter, I have one jacket designed for temperature below -2 degrees Celsius and a coat designed for temperature -2 degrees and up. I also have one coat for temperature between 8 to 15 degrees, which I usually wear during fall or spring, and one jacket for temperature above 15 degrees. The gloves and shawls also need to cater for different weather. I have 3 different gloves for extremely cold weather, mild weather, and raining season, and 2 different shawls for cold and mild weather.

One thing I don’t like about living here (uhm, not really lol) is that I don’t get to wear my flat shoes or sandals frequently. It’s too cold to wear it during all seasons except summer, which only lasts for few weeks (and it’s not always warm, by the way). So I wear closed shoes most of the times: boots and sneakers become really handy. I prefer to wear sandals though. Or even flip flops. They are comfortable.

Anyway, as I walked back home today (after a nice conversation with Jessie over an ice cream), I realized that the leaves of all the trees were visible now! That means, summer is approaching (uhm, okay, it’s still a long way to go). Spring remains my favorite season though, so I’m quite sad to see the tulips and all other flowers were beginning to die. See you next year, spring! Going to miss you 🙂

For numerous times, Ari and I talked until so late today — until 5am! I couldn’t believe myself that I could stay up that late knowing that my energy was worn out due to Queen’s day and the preparation for our weekly pengajian. But I did that anyway, and I slept just after Fajr prayer.

I was awoken by a phone call from a friend in Leiden at 9am. It was at this time that I got a major headache that lasted until the evening. She had some problems and was even crying when she called me. I was still very tired but couldn’t really say anything except trying to calm her down and gave her my opinions and possible solutions. This kind of thing was unexpected; but I knew that if I needed help, I would perhaps annoyed people too. Hehehe. But I was glad that I picked up the phone and tried my best to help her.

I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t really sleep very well. I had to wake up and get ready by 1.30pm anyway. I went to Helmond at around 2pm; I was invited by Jess to celebrate his father’s birthday. Jess’s mom, bu Rosita, cooked a super delicious sate padang!!! I ate like crazy hahhaa. I think I ate more than 15 tusuk lol. Our friends, Windi and Heru also joined the celebration and we talked, talked, and talked! It was fun and we laughed a lot!

I reached home around 9pm and prepared myself to go to bed straight away. My headache didn’t get any better — it was even worst! I called my friend (who called me this morning) again to make sure she’s okay and went to sleep. By the time I was suddenly awake at 3am, I realized my headache was gone. Alhamdulillah.

Such a tiring day, yet fun! Ari, Jessie, and I planned to do an ice skating tomorrow, but it seemed like the plan would be canceled. So, I’m going to spend my Sunday for myself quietly.

Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day) is a national holiday in the Netherlands which celebrates the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands and symbolizes a national unity and togetherness. Queen’s day is one of the most celebrated holidays in the Netherlands, where people dress in orange (which refers to the name of the Dutch royal family, The House of Orange) and gather in the center of the city (in Dutch: centrum) for parties, concerts, etc. The centrum of all big cities in the Netherlands are generally packed with people, with most main roads are closed to cater for many entertainment events. Amsterdam is perhaps the most visited city for the Queen’s Day. A friend of mine told me that even the trains leading to the city had to be suspended due to the exploding number of people in the Central Amsterdam train station.

On this special day, anyone in the country are also allowed to sell things in the streets without being taxed. As I’m not a big fan of being around with drunk people and loud music, I preferred to spend this year’s Queen’s Day helping teh Rita and others selling many things on the market. I got the opportunity to practice my Dutch speaking skill with the customers and Oma Yana (pictured). It was a fun day; we managed to be there from 9am til 3pm and got about 70 Euros!!! I was so happy. The money would be used for our religious activities (i.e. mosque) and donated to Indonesia. I was very satisfied 🙂

I also went around the market to hunt for cheap stuff. I was looking for Scrabble, the game I used to play when I was a teen, but found none (I found the children version though). I bought two beautiful necklaces for 50 cents (both!). It was worth it!

We went home (back to teh Rita’s place) at 3pm and it took us more than half an hour to reach home! All roads leading to centrum were closed for concerts (the music was very loud, it could be heard from as far as teh Rita’s place! — about 2 kilometers from centrum). I was quite tired by then and decided to take a rest about an hour before continuing to cook for our weekly pengajian.

Staying over at teh Rita’s place today. I had to help her cooking but I ended up helping mas Umar with the RDF thing. I learnt new thing today about RDF, for sure 🙂

As there’s another guest of teh Rita who’s staying over tonight, I’m going to sleep at her daughter’s room. I really love the room! So cozy and pink! It’s not my favorite color but this room was the kind of room I longed to have when I was still a kid. I used to love looking at IKEA catalogues and dreaming about the sort of room I would like to have. It was a little kid’s wish. I’m kinda reminiscing about my awesome childhood memories.

I have successfully influenced my friend Ari to Arabic music! Haha! And she seemed to like it! 🙂

Anyway, I was supposed to have dinner with my friend today, but unfortunately she cancelled it. I was a bit disappointed about it as we hadn’t seen each other for so long, but I understood that she had some stuff to sort out.

I went for an afternoon walk today and I thoroughly loved it. Walking for half an hour, thinking about my life and other issues. It’s enjoyable. Spending your time alone is really important 🙂

And what was the result of this afternoon walk? I got an idea to write for my blog. Stay tuned!! 🙂