Project 365

I accidentally found this post and I loved it. Let me quote some of the things she wrote:

A girl who travels has developed a deeper appreciation for life. She won’t judge you, or pressure you to do things you don’t want to do. She knows too much about the importance of identity and self-efficacy, and she will appreciate all the more if you won’t pretend to be who you’re not.

Is a girl who travels worth it? Yes, she is. So when you find her, keep her. Don’t lose her with your insecurities and doubts. Because when she says she loves you, she really does. After all, she’s seen so many things, met so many people, and if she had chosen you, better grab that opportunity and thank the gods that you were lucky enough she’s chosen you and not that bloke she met watching the sun rise in Angkor Wat, or while whitewater rafting in the Padas Gorge in Sabah.

Date a girl who travels. Make her feel safe, warm, and secure. Make her believe that no matter where she goes, and however long she’s gone, you’ll always be there for her, the one that she can call home.

Of course, not all girls who love to travel have those characteristics. But some do! 😛 LOL

My parents raised me to be independent from the very early age. Back in those days when we’re still financially unstable, my sister and I had stay at home — just the two of us — while our parents worked hard to earn extra money during Hajj.  Being the eldest child, I was already trusted to take care of my sister and myself. I was still in the elementary school at that time, but we managed to live like this for a month every single year.

I then became totally independent when I came to Indonesia to study. For the next 10 years after that, I had been living independently without my family. I was too comfortable to be apart from my family that it felt weird to stay under one roof with them for more than a month. I had to re-adapt.

I love living my life without having to worry about others 24 hours a day. I don’t need to take care of anyone or be worried about anyone. The only one that needs to be taken care of is only me. It doesn’t mean that I prefer to live alone. I hate living alone. But there’s a big difference between living with your friends and living with your family. Yes, there’s a big difference.

This is something that I still need to get used to. Living with my sister is such a big challenge for me. She is the most needy person I’ve ever encountered. She doesn’t like to be alone at all. Even if it means going to the market next door, she wants to be accompanied. I don’t want to make it a big deal, because that’s what I come here for. I’m just not used to it and that’s a real challenge for me.

But then I thought to myself. Imagine if I have a child. Like any children in the world, this child constantly needs the care, support, and attention every single day. If I can’t even stand having my sister by my side, what would happen next if I have a child?!? Would I be able to stand with my baby?

I really need to sort out this issue!

You call him a moon,
yet moonlight fades.
You call him a king,
yet kingdoms fall.

How often you say,
Wake up, you’ll miss the sunrise.
But His Sun always shines within me.
How can I miss the sunrise?

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

This picture was taken from my sister’s apartment. Not the best view, to be honest, but hey! It’s better than nothing, right?

Oh, wait a minute! Let me paraphrase that sentence. It’s so much better than THIS one:

Did you see that? The two highways? I never dreamt of living nearby busy highways. It’s like a nightmare, really. You are forced to hear the annoying sound of traffic every single day and night. Cars. Trucks. Constructions. I live in the 24th floor. Imagine that.

Well, I didn’t have any choice. This is where I need to be. I just have to live with it. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I miss my house in Eindhoven and its quiet neighborhood. Its calmness and tranquility is definitely priceless. What can I say? Big city is just not my thing. I’m going to be out of here in two years!

Alhamdulillah, I’m now in Kuala Lumpur, arrived here two days ago to be precise. I’ve been moving around from one place to another for the past 3 months and I kinda need some time to take a rest — to finally settle and “breathe” normally. Hopefully I’ll find the environment that I need here in KL.

So what’s next for me? Job hunting and getting a visa! I can only stay here for a month so I need a visa that allows me to stay here longer. And of course, a freakin job. Any job will do. I’m desperate. Hahaha. I wanted to work at NGO and be sent to the remotest place ever in Indonesia. But it’s not possible now as I need to be in KL. Need to change my plan and strategy! Ah, wish me luck!!! Insya Allah I’ll be fine.

I’m back from my travel. Back to reality. There are so many things I want to write about my travel in Iran, Turkey, and Jordan, but I don’t have time to do it yet. I’m going to Jakarta in two days time. It was rather unexpected and unplanned, because my grandma was suddenly hospitalized. I had to change my plans and I’ve been busy with the preparation of my sudden move to Jakarta. Anyway…

My laptop is also broken & the internet is extremely slow here. This is the reason why I decided to slowdown my blogging activities.

Not sure when I’ll start blogging again, but I hope soon! I miss writing something here! I hope the next time I write again, there will be good news about my grandma. Amin.

Insya Allah I will depart tomorrow to start my one month travel :). Hopefully I can get the visa on arrival! I don’t want my visa to be rejected anymore 🙁

Where am I going? For now, let me just show this picture as a hint:

Super excited! 🙂

Obhur may not be as beautiful as Indonesian beach, but it is the only place here in Jeddah where we can rent a cottage and enjoy the beach. Most beaches in Jeddah have been used for private residences (thanks to the greedy royal family) and resorts, so they’re not open for public (and "free") — which is a pity. You need to pay in order to enjoy the beach.

Most people don’t mind paying to stay in a resort, of course. After all, this place is one of the very few places in Saudi Arabia where we can escape from all those restrictions, not only social, but also religious restrictions! The religious police will not go in, so we have our own taste of freedom, which is great :).

Apparently, the Filipino embassy rented the WHOLE resort next to ours for Christmas celebration. We planned to stay there previously, but we were turned away as it was already booked. But we could spot from our resort their Christmas tree. This was the second time in my life I saw a Christmas tree in Saudi Arabia. This was not just any Christmas tree. It’s a big one! The biggest one I saw in Saudi Arabia!!! LOL (look how excited I am!). There were even discos, karaoke, and live music. Men and women could mingle freely. I was amazed, but at the same time very pleased :D. I didn’t feel like in Saudi Arabia.

Anyway, about my weekend? It was a super great one! I feel so blessed to have my family — all five of us — in one place. We hadn’t had a family vacation with a full member for a long time. Alhamdulillah!

Here’s a silly picture of me and my siblings:

I’ve been so busy these days! Too many things to do yet so little time. I’m heading for an uber awesome trip (still a mystery for now ;)) in 9 days time. Yes, you hear me, NINE DAYS! I’m just too excited about it! Wohoooo…

But despite of the excitement, I’m currently super busy with 2 projects. I want to finish them before my trip but I think I can only complete one of them. One of the projects that I’ve been doing is this:

I’m developing a website of Angklung Eindhoven (yes, it can be viewed). Compared to other websites that I’ve created, I didn’t design the template. I focused more on the back-end part (yes, by that I meant that I actually edit some plugins to add more features that suit my needs). The website is almost complete though. I think I can finish it by this week :).

The other project that I involve in is developing an Android tablet application for a restaurant. It’s kinda weird to develop this app, since I never actually played or owned an Android phone. But it’s been a fun journey! I’ve been learning a lot of things and I love Android! I’m doubtful that I’d be able to finish this app by next week, but I want some parts of it running, at least.

In addition to those two projects, I have another web development project to be done by next year AND a WordPress plugin related to traveling that is currently under development… which I decided to create for my own excitement. My own excitement?! Yeah, when a geek is bored, he/she would usually resort to coding. LOL.

🙂

My sister just got a smartphone. A BlackBerry to be precise. Her decision to abandon her classic mobile phone has made me the only person in the family who still refuses to follow the majority. My family fails to understand why I keep on resisting to get a smartphone. But I am a very stubborn person sometimes. If I said no, then nobody could change it except me. Anyhow…

It has been 4 years since the first time I owned this Nokia mobile phone. I did not actually buy it — I got it from my dad after he bought a new one. The phone does not look good anymore. The plastic silver cover has been partially torn up. What can I say? I may be a loyal owner of a gadget, but I am not good in taking a good care of it. But that small gadget is perfectly fine. It is working wonderfully. At least, I can make some calls and send some texts. That’s what I need it for.

Sure, smartphone is a handy and important gadget for my family. Being miles and miles away from each other, my family needs any cheap means to communicate. So far, Skype, VOIP, Yahoo Messenger, and (sometimes) SMS are the things that bind us together, despite our distances.

Recently, my mom who is a BlackBerry addict, has been trying so hard to convince me to use a BlackBerry so that she can communicate with me much easier and cheaper. I’ve used that ugly device before, only for 3 weeks when I was in Indonesia 2 years ago, and I have to say that I did NOT like it at all. I had to borrow and use it because I needed the Internet. Otherwise, I would never use it. I just hate it… It’s sooooooooo not user-friendly.

Well, that’s not the only reason why I refuse to use BlackBerry or any other smartphones. I just don’t want to be too addicted to it. It’s such a bad device. I already have an iPod Touch, given by my former boss, and I use it every.single.day. Even with an iPod, sometimes I complain if I can’t find any Internet connection. If I had a smartphone, I’d definitely be on the Internet the wholeeee time! I’m an Internet junkie, for sure, and I’ve been trying to limit it. Limiting internet usage seems to be unsuccessful for an IT geek, so the only thing I can do now is NOT to give myself a device that would increase my geekness (if there’s such a word, LOL).

I’m not saying that I will never get myself a smartphone. I will definitely get it one day (YES, it’s so tempting, to be honest!). But for now, let me just stick with my old granny phone. Let’s just see how many months or years I can resist the temptation :). Hooray if I could stay with this phone until it completely refuses to work!