Project 365

2007. I started my final year project with 6 other great teammates. I became involved in a student organization called AIESEC, became in love with it, dived myself into it, and devoted my time for it. It was such a busy year, but I found a way to divide my time between uni, AIESEC, and Saman Dance. I met a lot of new awesome people, but I had much less quality time with my closest friends. I was ignorant enough to realize that this was my final year! I wasn’t ready to be apart from my best housemates in the world, Jenny and Mayu. As expected, time flew by and suddenly I held my farewell dinner. I had planned on going back to Jakarta upon graduation. But suddenly, my mum changed the plan; she would rather having me back in Jeddah.

2011. I’ve started my thesis project. I’ve been involved in an Indonesian student organization, PPI/e, become in love with it, dived myself into it, and have been devoting my time for it. It’s been quite busy time for me: thesis, PPI/e, and angklung! I’ve been meeting a lot of new awesome people, but I’ve been having much less quality time with my closest friends. No more potluck dinner or hanging out in a café for hours — I wonder if it was me or them who have no time. As usual, I’m ignorant enough to realize that this could be my last year in the Netherlands. I’m not ready to face farewell and to give up my routine that I come to love and enjoy. I’ve been planning to go straight to Jakarta upon my graduation, but 2 days ago, my mom called and she told me to go to Jeddah first because she misses me hahaha… 😛 So it seems like Allah SWT still wants me to go back to visit the Baitullah, uh? Lucky me 😉

I feel like my life is in a circle and I’m almost approaching the finish line. After the finish line, I’ll start the lap again — from the beginning — fresh, confused, and excited. I’ll be in the stage where I’ll try to adapt again, find new friends, be longing to go back to the past, and then… at some point in time, I’ll be enjoying my life again and thinking nothing but about the present and future. If my life is a process, then this would be the so-called steady-state (geek mode: ON hahaha).

Oh dear life. Please be gentle on me.

I’m slowly reading this book: Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Revised Edition. The author lists some of the challenges of being a third culture kid (TCK). One of them describes the challenge that I always face…

TCKs are often sadly ignorant of national, local, and even family history. How many rides to various relatives’ homes are filled with parents coaching TCKs about who is related to whom?

People know that I’m quite ignorant about Indonesia, but not many people know that I have a bad memory of my own relatives’ names and their relations to my parents! My mom’s family is soooooooo huge that no matter how many times my mom explains to me about how they relate to her, those information just can’t stay in my brain! Worst still, I barely remember their names. It’s so bad. Every time I meet them, my smile and basa-basi become my only weapon. Otherwise, I’m screwed! hahaha.

Few things make people, including TCKs, feel more left out than seeing everyone else laughing at something they can’t understand as funny.

Been there, done that. It’s the most frustrating thing to not being able to understand what people are talking about. Not only that, their hesitation to explain to me about their conversation makes it so much worst. I did end up crying once — in front of my friends, and they’re all heartless boys — because they always made me feel like I didn’t deserve to know what they talked about. Every time I asked them what they meant, they always said "oh, you don’t understand" or "how come you didn’t know?!" and so on… It’s okay if you wanna make fun of me, but do please explain! Some people just need a little bit of punch to understand this thing 😛

Admiring my rose before it dies 🙂

Look at love
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

Look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life

Why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
Pay attention to how things blend

Why talk about all
the known and the unknown
See how the unknown merges into the known

Why think separately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

Look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

Look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

The wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

Look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

You too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

Be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
Don’t get mixed up with bitter words

My beloved grows
right out of my own heart
How much more union can there be?

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Innalillahi wa innailaihi rojiun.

I was very shocked to find out that my uncle (I usually call him papa) has passed away today. I still can’t believe that it happened to him. He had an accident on his journey to Madinah. The bus driver suffered from sleep deprivation and hit a truck. Everyone, except him, was fine and only suffered from minor injuries. It was as if Allah SWT deliberately wanted to take him away…

His death is a great loss to our extended family. We can no longer hear his laugh that can be heard all over the house. His "goooooooollllll" scream when he watches a football match. His encouraging words. His jokes…. Oh, I feel like it was only yesterday that we had this interesting discussion about politics in Egypt. I still can’t believe this.

I’m greatly worried about my aunt and my four cousins, especially the two youngest ones. Ya Allah, give them the strength and the patience to go through this difficult time…

A beautiful red rose :). I can’t remember when was the last time I got a rose haha…

Well… not only the rose that made my day, of course.

I met many new people during an international dinner today. It was such a great evening. It always felt good to be in your comfort zone. And yes, I realized that this was my comfort zone. I always enjoy to be around with people who are interested in different cultures, who have been abroad for quite some time (hence, they know the kinds of things we’ve been through as a foreigner), who do not judge others based on their appearance, and so on…

I haven’t had time to write about the trip. So, for now… I can only post some pictures with the captions. These are some of the best parts of the road trip, sorted by my most favorite ones 🙂

Switzerland: The Alps & The Lake

The roads to the Alps were still closed as it was still snowing heavily over there, so we had no choice other than to take the Gotthard tunnel, the third longest tunnel in the world. The Alps and the lake were so beautiful. Too bad most of the places in Switzerland are touristy and too crowded, compared to New Zealand… But the good thing about traveling with car was that, we got to avoid the tourists and got to "chase" the view of Alps and the lake… so breathtaking!

CouchSurfing

Couchsurfing at locals’ houses is by far my favorite part of any previous travels that I did! I got to learn and discover new things. It was memorable! My couchsurfing experience in Arzo, Switzerland was THE BEST one out of all! We got to stay at a super cozy 16th century apartment and got a chance to have a delicious vegetarian dinner and a breakfast prepared by our wonderful host! We couldn’t ask for a better host 🙂 She’s just the best!

"The Great Wall of Switzerland"

We planned to go to Lugano in the Italian part of Switzerland, but our host recommended these castles in Bellinzona (there are three castles by the way), not too far from Lugano. So we decided to change our plan and went to Bellinzona instead! It was worth it 🙂

Italian Pizza

Our main aim of going to Italy was to EAT! We didn’t regret it at all! I ordered a seafood pizza (Frutti di Mare) and it was DELICIOUS, even more delicious than the Italian pizza at my favorite Pizza Café at UQ (Uni of Queensland).

Côte d’Azur

The beach was beautiful, but the weather wasn’t that nice and the city was just too posh, full of wealthy tourists. It’s not my most favorite parts of the trip but it’s just refreshing to see the beach again!

Won’t be writing anything in this blog til my mood is back to normal…

Til next time!

Isn’t it funny that…

I keep on complaining about those who are so ignorant about the world’s current events and how they’re able to live in this world without thinking about others, while I keep my eyes and ears shut about what’s happening in Indonesia?

I criticize people who love to buy gadgets whenever the new one comes out because it is such a waste of money, while I spend so much money on traveling? (although I can give you a long list of arguments, benefits, etc about it hehe)

I get overly irritated when ANY of my guy friends commented on the physical aspect of any girls on the street (e.g. "look at that sexy woman"), yet I find it perfectly fine for my girl friends to admire handsome boys?

This is the world we live in. It is full of hypocrisy — whether you realize it or not.

As I organized my inbox today, I found an email sent to me a year ago which read:

Keep on smiling for the rest of your live [sic]

I am and I will!

🙂