Project 365

I was told that my new house was very near to Eindhoven’s Red Light District. Actually, I didn’t realize it until I signed the contract. People had been telling me not to go out really late as the area was quite dangerous. You know… the drunk people, drug dealers, and so on… But I didn’t actually know where the Red Light District was?! So, for the sake of curiosity, I googled it.

It turned out that the Red Light District was only 500 meters away from my house.

Oh, bugger! 😀 Is that the reason why it’s so cheap? LOL.

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 🙂

Caution: This is a completely rubbish blog post. Don’t waste your time.

I’m slowly turning into Saudi. In terms of lifestyle, of course. Sometimes I wonder… Gosh, what kind of life I’m living right now?

I sleep everyday at 3am or 5am. Then wake up at around 1pm (SAY WHAT?!). Yes, one o’clock in the afternoon. I don’t need to eat for breakfast anymore. It’s lunch time already. After lunch, I indulge myself on the internet, TV, movies, or books. It goes on like that until sleeping time. Yeay, welcome to my boring life!

I want to go somewhere. Do something different. But where? And most importantly, HOW? I’m just too bored of malls. Beach isn’t that exciting as it’s still quite hot. Desert is not my thing. Meeting up with friends? I’m not in the mood of doing that anymore.

Maybe it’s just me who’s too moody and too hard to be entertained right now. I know that really well; living here for more than 3 weeks can turn me into a mad woman. So, yeah, look at me now. A mad freaky woman. My mind is in Holland right now. Take me back there!!!

I’m tired of complaining. I’m tired of waiting. So what should I do? Get mad?

Isn’t it cool and scary at the same time that it takes us not more than 6 human-to-human connections to be related with anyone in the world?

I knew about six degrees of separation when I first joined Friendster many years ago. The website allowed us to see the connections that we have with other people and it’s the only coolest thing about it, really. I encountered this term again by accident a few days ago.

Every time I met new people, there’s a great chance that we share common friends. Or their friends had some kind of connection with my friends. I’m talking about the Indonesians, of course.

The world is indeed so small. And it’s becoming smaller and smaller. Let’s keep on spreading our wings and encountering new friendships so that there’ll be less misunderstandings and prejudice between us; and create the world full of loving and peaceful people 🙂

Ya Allah, let me leave this country, please? I can’t stay another week here. I have so many things to do. I miss my carefree life back in Eindhoven. I miss my friends. And most importantly, I AM BORED HERE!

Departure date was changed to Sunday. I really hope that the permit will be out by then! Amen.

in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

• My little brother “officially” became my driver today! He drove my mom and I to a mall nearby. I sat on the back seat and refused to look at the road as I freaked out so easily and it might mess up his concentration! 😛 He hasn’t got a driver license yet, but in Saudi Arabia, kids as young as 15 get behind the wheel. As long as my brother is accompanied by adults and he obeys the traffic rules, the police won’t catch him 😀
• My Saudi residence permit is still in the process and I have lost my patience! I am supposed to go back this Thursday but it seems like I have to extend my stay here. I can’t do anything. I am trapped! I was thinking of ending my permit all together, but my dad said it’s too late already. All I can do now is to wait 🙁
• I have terminated my house contract in Eindhoven and I’m moving out by the end of October! Not too excited about it but I’m so grateful that I found a cheaper place to stay! 🙂 The new house is located near AH XL (the big supermarket) although yes, it’s 15 minutes by bike to my campus. I am okay with it. The only thing I’m worried about is cycling during winter! It’s going to be a big challenge! Oh, well… nothing I can do about it!
• My friends told me that Eindhoven is getting colder and colder. It reached as low as 6 degrees Celsius at night! Brrr… I gotta be ready! Oh I can’t wait to go back! I miss my bike. I miss everything there! :-S

In Saudi Arabia, black people are called takruni. These people have lived here for many years and generations, that some of them do not even know their country of origin anymore. They have no idea where they come from. They speak Arabic and live mainly on the streets, searching for bottles and cans in trash bins to be exchanged with money.

My brother asked me today, where did the word takruni come from? He was so curious that he started googling it. In the beginning we searched takroni and takrooni but found none. After googling and wiki-ing (?) for a while, we found the answer.

Takruni is derived from Takrur, which was an ancient kingdom of West Africa, including much of Ghana and Senegal and the western Sahara desert. Takruni refers to the people of this kingdom. Other known forms of takruni are Takarin, Takarna, Takruri, and Takarir. It is believed that the earliest West African Muslims to be seen in the Middle East in recognizable numbers may have come from that state.