Project 365

It wasn’t the best day for me today. I feel betrayed. Thank God there were few people who were kind enough to be with me and hear my complains. Thank you :-*

It was yet another hectic Saturday. I was picked up by a family friend early in the morning. We planned to go to Het Goed, a huge store selling second hand goods: from furniture, electronic and kitchen appliances, books, to clothing. I didn’t plan to look for anything in particular, but I just wanted to have a look. The store was huuuuge! There were many good and CHEAP stuff, especially the furniture. I bought a 0.5 cent box for my jewelry. I also found an original Dutch football t-shirt for the previous World Cup for only 4.5 Euros!!! What a great bargain! I wasn’t sure at first whether I would buy it because the size was too big (XL), but yeah… I decided to buy it in the end. It was original for heaven sake! (The original t-shirt usually costs about 60-80 Euros! So this was a really good value!) I hope my brother would like it. I also bought a really nice skirt (me? skirt? haha. yeah, rare!) for a cheap price. I was very satisfied!

I went home afterwards before leaving again to attend the pengajian at the Mosque until around 7pm. Then I went to a family friend’s place for a while to kill time and then to Yasmin’s house for dinner. I was invited to her dinner party and her parents cooked the food. They were kind enough to provide me with vegetarian foods 🙂 I met my university friends whom I hadn’t seen for ages! It was a total blast day!

When I was sorting out some papers, I found some feedback sheets written by my classmates about me. These sheets were given during a Communication Skills course and each person had to present some feedbacks (strong and weak points) about each of their classmates. Reading these made me smile again. Some of the points surprised me and made me question: “Really? Do I really have those qualities?” Some of them motivated me to improve myself. While some allowed me to be introspective about myself.

So, let me quote some of the feedbacks about me given by my classmates:

You are enthusiastic. You cope well with people. You are expressive, you listen and motivate. You make people want to listen to you. I like the way you elaborate things. It really inspires.

You are observant. You like paying attention to detail without compromising simplicity and creativity. You easily point out things that are missing and can bring in new ideas.

I like your inquiring character. You are doubting facts and not people.

I get corrupted by your lively presence and creative ideas.

I would describe you as a little miss sunshine, very positive and engaged and slightly chaotic. I’m thinking here about telling ideas.

I think you are very flexible.

You brought inspired [sic] ideas to our group.

I find you to be a well-organized person. This includes your planning, your speech (knowing what to say) and your approach to things in general. This is a point that really stands out for you.

🙂

Jessie and Ari stayed over at my place for a night. We talked about many things; especially about our adorable guys 😛 and relationships in general. Jessie seemed to be too tired and she slept earlier than us; while Ari and I kept talking until Fajr prayer. The good thing was, the Fajr prayer was at 3.15am so I didn’t need to worry about missing my prayer 😉

Anyway, we talked about relationships last night. One thing I noticed about my past relationships was that I tend to get bored easily. I’m not be able to keep the sparkles and chemistry strong enough to keep me going. I’m not able to prevent the flame from perishing. It’s sad, I know. And it’s something that I’ve been trying to find for the answer or the solution for some time now. It irritates me. Could it be because I haven’t find the right guy yet? Or could it be because of myself?!?

I’m still trying to find the answer.

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!

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.