Project 365

My bike’s tire was and is still completely flat. I obviously didn’t have any backup bikes. I used to have one, but its tire needed to be changed too! And I hadn’t done that, til now. I guess, procrastinating had a price to pay, right?

So, as a result of this nonsense, I had to walk to the Uni. I could take a bus, but I didn’t want to wait for another 30 minutes plus 10 more minutes walking from the station. So I thought, yeah, let’s try walking. It didn’t seem too far, at least by bike! LOL. It actually took me 45 minutes to reach the Uni, complete with back pain as I had to carry my heavy laptop and a book. It was tiring! I should have taken a bus. Seriously.

But my effort wasn’t worthless at all. I studied with my friend, Vanessa and we finished one chapter. Yay. Very happy about that 🙂

Tomorrow, she’s going to teach me how to patch my bike’s tire. Not sure if it can be done, but if it can’t, then I have to bring it to the bike shop so that its tire can be changed. Ah, my poor bike!

It’s been a devastated month for Queensland (actually, MONTHS!). I watched the videos in shock!!! The flood has hit Towoomba, a city very near to Brisbane! The water will reach Brisbane soon :(. I’ve been so worried about my friends over there. I have a good friend of mine whose family is in Rockhampton, one of the hardest hit area in Queensland. I’ve been trying to contact him with no success. I hope he and his family are okay.

I pray that all of my friends in Queensland are going to be alright. Hope the situation is getting better soon. Amin.

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! 😀

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! 🙂

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!

Yippy. I’m officially a TED translator. I’m still waiting for my request to translate this video to be approved, hopefully within this week!

As I’m a big fan of TED, I decided to spend some hours of my time to translate some of the videos into Indonesian. The good thing about being a TED Translator is that you’re not bind into some contract or anything like that. You have the choice to translate whatever video you like and you’re given 30 days to complete it (after which, other TED Translators may take over). So it’s very flexible!

If you have the time, I encourage you be part of the community so that we can spread those ideas worth spreading to even more wider audience! 🙂

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.

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!!

It was snowing SO.HEAVILY. today. ALL DAY. It was the worst I had ever experienced. The country never had this much of snow for one whole day. Today was clearly the exception.

It just happened that today I had so many things to do which required me to go out of the house. I used to live in the center for two straight years, so everything was close by. But it was different this year. I could really feel the hardship of fighting the snow, trying to get from A to B. I almost fell from my bike for many times. It was so hard to keep it balance. It was quite scary. The roads were soooo slippery. Going by car was as much dangerous as going by bike. A friend even told me she hit another car as she couldn’t brake her car.

And you may wonder by now, why didn’t I take a bus?

EXACTLY.

Yes, I didn’t plan to go out of the house today. But I had to go to my friend’s place for a while. The streets were very slippery! I almost fell from my bike a couple of times. It was truly a challenge to cycle on the snowy roads. Let’s be more careful, yes?