Project 365

I had a decent day today as usual. I went to the Dutch class after skipping so many lessons. I was supposed to go to the centrum (city) with teh Rita to explore some sales, but I was stuck in doing chapters after chapters of my Dutch book. It was fun actually and I felt like I didn’t miss anything huge when I went to class.

My Dutch teacher told me something interesting today. The Dutch language for “I sit in front of the computer” is:

Ik zit achter de computer

… which literally means: I sit behind the computer (achter = behind). She said that Dutch language was the only few languages that used “behind” rather than “in front of” in this case. Cool! 😀

After the Dutch class, I had a three-hour-long meeting at the computer lab. Couldn’t believe time ran so quick! But I was glad we made a progress 🙂

Then in the evening, I was invited to Reyhan’s place to have dinner with mbak Rining and Pak Agus. We had a really interesting conversation — well, actually Pak Agus told us so many things about some failures of our education system in Indonesia and some nasty bureaucracy at one of the best universities in our country. I really wanted to share it here but I’m really tired now. Plus, I’ve got an assignment to finish. Hmm maybe next time!

Welterusten! (good night)

A friend of mine came to Eindhoven today. He’s a Dutch whose mother is an Indonesian (yet he has a Dutch look but a little bit of Indonesian politeness/manner hehehe — he’s polite compared to normal Dutch I’d say). He has a lot of interests about Indonesia and plans to live in Indonesia after he finishes his college. He’s trying to learn Bahasa Indonesia from now on. He is a good cook!!! He cooked me a delicious nasi goreng (fried rice)! I was supposed to decide what he had to cook for the dinner but I ran out of ideas and chose nasi goreng instead; merely because I hadn’t eaten it for so long! Hehehe.

We watched movies. We talked about different things. I was surprised to know that he had an interest in Islam! And he wanted to know more about it. He told me about stuff he did in the army which he did for two years. Very interesting indeed!

Well… it was definitely a great night. I really enjoyed it 🙂 Thank you, ya Allah for today.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

Kahlil Gibran

The Boeken Festijn has ended. Today was my last day of working there. I worked from 12pm til 10.30pm! It was tiring, as usual. But I had SOO much fun with the people I worked with; my new friends. We had a lunch break together and some brought foods to share with. Ian brought a delicious kentang kering (dried potatoes), kak Linda & Sam brought some kerupuk (and something else, probably? I forgot!), and I brought macarona bechamel (a left over from the dinner party last night). We ate together, took pictures, made jokes, and laughed… while visitors passed us by probably wondering what in the world we were doing there! Hehehe. It was as if we had our own world and we didn’t give a damn on other people hihihi.

Too bad that we couldn’t work together anymore! But we planned on meeting up (and reunion) in the beginning of April and I just couldn’t wait for it! Hope to see you all sooooon!

* Picture taken by Maureen. L-R: mbak Dessy, Bahri, Ian, Sam, me, kak Linda, Indah.

Vanessa and I invited some friends for dinner today at her place. Actually, I wanted to do it at my place, but there are no space to accommodate 10-15 people. So I decided to host dinner together with Vanessa; as both of us haven’t get the chance to do that since we first moved to our new place.

I cooked two different dishes. First was an Egyptian macarona bechamel which had become a famous dish among my friends. I’ve made it several times and friends have come to me to request cooking it 🙂 It is very delicious and I admit that I’m good at making it! Hahaha. That’s the only dish that I’m confident about without having the chance of cooking failure! LOL.

The second dish I cooked was ayam kecap which was the easiest recipe I had ever discovered! (And thank you, mbak Ina for publishing the recipe!). The first time I cooked it was a total failure, because apparently I put too much butter in it. But this time I knew how much I had to put and the dish turned out quite good! At least, everyone loved it! And they loved kecap tooo! (I brought a big bottle of it and told them how to eat it with rice hihihi – the Indonesian way!).

Vanessa and I cooked too much foods. We were expecting at least 15 people to show up but many of them cancelled in the last minute. So we ate too much and our stomach was stuffed! Ah, it was great 🙂

I work at the Boeken Festijn (Book Festival) again this week. This is my third time working in this festival (I worked in Rotterdam and Eindhoven previously). I’ll be working for only three days though; trying to get money for my Easter trip. Den Bosch is only 20 minutes away by train from Eindhoven, so it’s not far at all.

Anyway, I really enjoy working at this festival. Besides having the opportunity to see the books and buy them with the discounted price, I get the chance to meet new people, including Indonesians living in different parts of the Netherlands. They are mostly students and ex-students who are searching for permanent jobs and trying to survive in this country buy being part-timers. I do admit that sometimes I’m quite hesitant to meet Indonesian students; mainly because I don’t feel that I think the same way as them. We have different lifestyles. We have different ways of thinking. We have different stuff to talk about.

But these Indonesian people that I usually meet at the Book Festival are of different category. Perhaps they’re more mature. Or they don’t mind to work and try not to spend their parent’s money. Or they’re humble. Either way, I feel like I belong into the right group.

Although the work is quite tiring, but every time I have a break, I always have wonderful time. Laughing. Cheering. Even to the point… screaming! Hahaha. It is such a joy to be entertained and to be “freshed” again when I go back to work after a 15-mins break.

I’m off to work again tomorrow. I have to wake up early and gain extra energy. Good night, people!

Jessie: When does ur summer vacation ends?
me: Usually on August. Why?
Jessie: Day trip Barca [Barcelona]? or on the weekend? =))
me: =)) I wannnttt!!! LOL
me: Okay we’ll talk about that later :))
Jessie: It’s been 10 years since the last time I was there. The urge to go there is back again
me: Hahhahaha. Yes I wanna go there!
Jessie: Cool hahahahaa. But we will discuss that on the way to Paris… wakakaka
Jessie: And next year touring around in Indonesia!! SINCE U NEVER BEEN TO BALI
me: =)) =)) =))
Jessie: *still kinda shocked since this bule already been there*
me: Hahhahahahah. Yes u beat me!!!
Jessie: Yeah, but you’ve been to many more places. So I don’t beat u on that one
me: Hahaha.. The next thing I wanna do in Indonesia is diving! I wanna take a course and diveeee. Wanna do that? ;;) Interested?
Jessie: YES. I am!
me: Let’s do it next year! Hahahha
Jessie: Wkakakakakaa. OK I need to make a serious saving account =))
Jessie: Amel. We need to get a good side job and work our ass off and start saving money =))
me: WE DO!!!!! LOL. Saving money for traveling hahaha
Jessie: Yeah, before we get married and get knocked up and become IBU RT [ibu rumah tangga / housewife]. We still need to see the world
me: =)) INDEEDD!!!!

This the chat with my travel friend, Jessie today. Oh gosh, I can never save money for the future!!! I’m always going to travel until I’m really settled! Hahaha.

It isn’t that bad to enjoy yourself before being somebody else’s wife, right? 😉

Whatever it is… I’m excited about next year! All the travel plans. Everything. Let’s see if I can really do it (since I’ll probably be jobless LOL).

I went to have dinner at Andreea’s place at her Spacebox today. Andreea and I took the Communication Skills class last semester, together with Shilpa, Evans, and Ciprian. There were only five of us in the class, so we knew each other quite well. The class has ended few months ago, so we decided to have dinner together. All five us had to cook and bring a food (potluck). I brought an Indonesian food, gulai, which turned out to be okay (not superb or something 😛 ). Shilpa made some Indian foods (complete with raita and a starter!), Andreea made a roasted pork (which I couldn’t eat unfortunately), while Evans made some bean curry. Sadly to say, Ciprian wasn’t there! He decided not to come in the last minute!! And I wasn’t happy about that!!! But thankfully, Andreea invited her friend so Evans wasn’t the only guy there 😀

Anyway, we had a super great time! Besides the foods (of course!), we did a karaoke. Andreea recorded a video for that and I’m sure it’s awful! Hahaha. She also taught us a dance she did at the student organization; which was quite fun!!!

Next week, a friend of mine, Vanessa, and I are going to host dinner at her place. I’m looking forward to it. I don’t know what I’m going to cook (yet!) but I’m hoping that it’s going to be a fun evening! I think there’ll be many people coming (as I kept on inviting people I met!!!). Hope it won’t make me broke hahaha. Can’t wait for it!

Surprise! I got a postcard from my friend Wiza today! 🙂 It instantly made my day!! Wiza was traveling around Tasmania, Australia (an island I never got to visit!). She and I have been exchanging postcards for some time now. Both of us love to travel to different places, so we send each other postcards for every few months.

Thanks so much my dear. Can’t wait for the New Zealand’s postcard, W! 🙂

Dinner at Agni’s place on 25 Feb.