Project 365

After having a 4-day road trip in 3 different countries, I came back home and arrived today at 2am. I went to bed at around 3.30am and woke up again at 8am. I had to go to Den Haag with my friends Ian, mbak Linda, and Sam. We had planned this gathering two weeks ago so that we could have a reunion with all the Indonesian people at the Boekenfestijn. And I was so glad I met all of them, except Maureen though 🙁 She had promised to come but I didn’t hear any words from her.

Anyway, we then went to the Pasar Malam organized by our Indonesian embassy in Den Haag. I spent quite a bit of money as I ate too many foods there! We also got the opportunity to watch some of the performances which were very entertaining! I had such a great time! 🙂

Ian and I then went to Amsterdam at around 6.30pm. I asked him to accompany me to meet my mom’s friend in Jeddah, tante Novi & family, who were here for vacation. I brought some stroopwaffels for my little brother 😀 . Tante Novi and oom Agung then invited us for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Kantjil (yet another Indonesian foods for today! hehehe). It wasn’t bad at all.

We took the last train to Eindhoven. I’m too tired but I’m impressed that I still managed to write this post! 😀

*the last 4 days of the posting will be written later 🙂

Thank you for being the best company ever. I enjoyed it every moment with you. And I can’t ask for more.

I was sick the whole day. So I didn’t do much and there is nothing to write about. I’m just blessed to be given another day to stand. Blessed to hear your voice. And blessed for everything 🙂

So yes, I applied some henna on my hand 🙂 I always have some stock of henna with me and I love doing it! So here it is I present you my own very creation. Hihihi.

It wasn’t the best henna design I created to be honest. The henna paste was not good enough — it was too watery. Therefore, it was really hard to preserve some details of the design. Because in the end, everything blended together. So the leaf part looked quite awful. It looked like a fish now. The color seemed to be good though! I think this henna would last quite a long time. I didn’t wait until it dried completely though, so I’m sure the color would be much darker had I wait for more minutes or hours.

I’m still searching for the best henna paste (the one in the tube!). The previous ones that I used did not last for more than a week. Let’s see how long this would last for 😀

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)

I spent the whole day with my friend today. We talked, cooked, watched two movies, and tried to kill the time by being lazy at home! It wasn’t bad at all — at least I have a great company :) 

Several scientific studies have demonstrated that children who learn to play a musical instrument have increased success in reading and math, improved self-esteem, better ability to work in teams, higher school-attendance rates, and a greater likelihood of graduating from high school and going on to college.

— Bill Clinton in Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World

This is very interesting, indeed!

The truth is that, I can’t play any musical instruments. I regret that I didn’t have the motivation to take any musical classes back when I was still at school. I went to an Indonesian school in Jeddah and there were no extracurricular activities available during my 9 years of studying there. Taking musical lessons in Jeddah was very expensive and I don’t think my parents could afford it. I wasn’t encouraged or pushed by my parents to do it either, so I wasn’t motivated to do it even if I had the chance.

It was in Indonesia that I got this huge chance of taking musical lessons. I went to Madania Boarding School and we were given freedom to take any lessons that we wanted; be it guitar, piano, cello, etc. We could even take two or three classes without having to pay extra (coz it’s already included in the tuition fee). But sadly to say that I didn’t take that golden chance. I took an art class instead of a music class and even then I couldn’t really enjoy it because it wasn’t my “thing”.

It’s never too late to do it actually. But I feel like I have more important things to be done rather than going to a musical class. I guess, I have to accept the fact that music is not something I’m passionate about 🙂

But I always look up to my friends who can play any musical instruments, especially piano, violin, cello, or any other “rare” instruments. Somehow I feel like these people are not only good at what they do in music, but also in academic fields! They are smart, outspoken, and critical. I don’t know why, somehow they have these similar traits. But after reading the quote I mentioned above, it is indeed true!!!

I feel that it’s okay for me not being able to play any instruments. But I’m going to encourage my children later to take the lessons and not miss that chance! 🙂

I don’t know where this leads me to. I know I should stop, but my heart said the opposite. We’re in the same ship. Yet, we’re not heading for the same direction. One part of me wants to stay in the ship until it’s time for me to hop on to the other ship. But the other part of me wants to jump out of the ship and swim for freedom until I find a ship that can take me.

But I can’t deny the fact that this past week has been joyful. I want it to stay like this. I want the sun to shine brightly everyday. And the moon to glow; fighting the darkness. I want to feel like everyday is special.

Will you guide me ya Allah? Will you protect me? Will you give me the map to the fairest and wisest direction?

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.

I had such a lazy and relaxing day today. Chatting. Reading few pages of Rumi. Cooking. Doing some laundry. I enjoyed it. I loved staying at home. I was happy and I had nothing to complain about.

One of my favorite bloggers, Karen Cheng, just published a post today about 5 things to do everyday (in order to find some balance and spirit in life). I really love it! Here are the list (make sure you read the explanation on her blog!):

1. Do something enjoyable
2. Do something active
3. Do something brainy, challenging or intellectual
4. Do something good for someone else
5. Take one moment to savour life and your surroundings

I do 3 out of 5 points frequently, which are number 1, 3, and 5. I do #4, but not as frequent and I feel like I have to do more with it. I’ve been struggling to do #2. I never really like sport. I’ve always wanted to learn to play tennis, but I’m just too lazy to do it. I need someone to push me! 😀

Perhaps, the two points will be my own resolution for this year 🙂