YEAAAAH! I’m on the first page of Indonesian translators on TED! How cool! Hahaha… I would be "kicked out" by someone else if I stopped translating :P.
At least I know how it feels to be on the first page (does it matter?!) hahaha. I’m going to translate more videos if I have free time! TED is the coolest thing ever.
My friend, Elaine, came all the way from the States today. She’s going to stay at my place for two nights before traveling somewhere else. I’m SO glad to meet her again! I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since the last time we met and she promised me that she’ll be back one day to Europe again. She did 🙂
Previously she gave me a San Francisco cable car miniature and today she gave me a new cool pair of shoes! Hehehe. This isn’t my type of shoes, but it seems comfortable and it’s good for traveling! 😛 I’m so happy 🙂
I stumbled upon this song by Rossa. This is just a really sad song. I watched her performance singing this song and it was sooo emotional. I cried my eyes out. Damn, it’s been a long time ago, yet the memory is still fresh on my mind.
How I wish you never did it.
CARTUSSSS!!!
Yep, that is a greeting that only me and my Japanese friend understand. We lived in the same dorm during our first year in Brisbane. We had a weird friendship, I have to say. We barely talked (in depth) and I have little memories of us except this unique greeting.
One conversation we had that I fondly remember was about my headscarf. He asked me why I wore it and I answered it as short as I could as I wasn’t so sure if he’d be interested in the longer version of the story. And then he asked me: "When will I be able to see YOUR hair then?!" I jokingly answered, "when you marry me!" And that became his frequent question directed towards me 😛
One day, he asked me the word ‘paper’ in Indonesian. And I told him, it’s ‘kertas’. Since that very day, every time we bumped into each other, he’d mention that word. It became our greeting and we highly took pride of it. Everyone around us would probably be wondering, what in the world are these two strange people are talking about?!
Years passed by and we barely bumped into each other anymore. Now that we’re so further apart, we’re only connected through Facebook. When the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan, I wrote to all of my friends residing in Japan and my Japanese friends living outside of Japan, asking them if they or their families and friends are affected in any way. I wrote to all of them, including him.
I was so glad to hear that he and his family are fine. But one thing that touched me was when he wrote CARTUSSSS (he didn’t know how to spell the word, hence cartusss). I felt nothing but touched when I read his message. Wow! He still remembers that!!! 🙂 I believe it was at least 4 years ago since I last saw him!
One thing I feel so grateful about when it comes to these events: Queensland floods, Egyptian revolution, and Japan earthquake/tsunami is that: my friends and I are reconnected again. It doesn’t matter if we were only a hi-bye friend, bumped into each other for only few times, had little memories to remember, or never wrote to each other before. The thing that matters to me the most is that we are able to connect again and knowing that they are fine. Even if it’s only in the form of very short messages. Sometimes it helps just to show that this insignificant friend of them still remembers them. I hope they would realize that the world still cares for them and they’re all in our thoughts and prayers 🙂
Amalia darling, I haven’t read your email yet, but I wanted to first let you know that I’m fine. I’m at home now watching the heartbreaking news on tv. The earthquake we felt here was about 5 on the Richter scale. At the time of the earthquake, I was on the 9th floor; therefore, the shaking was amplified. Fortunately, we evacuated the bldg & no one was hurt. I hope those who are closer to the center of the earthquake find food & shelter soon. Thanks for checking up on me, hon!
— Jenny
I’m so glad she is safe! I was thinking about her last night out of the sudden (see my previous post). I felt a bit worried for unclear reasons. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but I take it as a sign that something bad was going to happen. Which it did. I watched the live pictures of the tsunami in horror! But I’m so grateful that she is safe and sound.
I also got in touch with another ex-housemate Mayu, who is in Brisbane. Thankfully, her family is also fine :). I still remember how kind her mom was to me and Jenny. She’s so understanding, very considerate, and tolerant towards me, a Muslim. I can’t wait to see her again at the wedding! And I call her Mama too 🙂
I also call Jenny’s mom Mama. I have three moms spreading around the world, huh? Hehehehe! She was the one who taught me how to cook at the time when I didn’t even know how to cut veggies properly hahahha! (THAT’s how bad I was at cooking. But hey, I’m much better now! I’m sure she’ll be proud of me hehehehe). If she still lives in Penang, I’m going to pay her a visit this October 🙂
I won’t be able to see my "real" mom this year, but at least… I’ll be able to see at least one of my mums 🙂
A friend gave me this chocolate 🙂 It made my day!!! Merci beaucoup 🙂
The sun was out today!!! It was sunny and lovely :). But it was SOOO cold! It reached —1 degrees Celsius when I left my house in the morning. I wonder. shouldn’t it be spring already?!
Nevertheless, I had such a lovely day! I met my high school friend, Wiza, who has been sending me postcards from all over the world these days. She has been traveling in Europe since November last year (envy her!!) and she’s ending her travel here, in The Netherlands.
So I met up with her in Den Haag. I hadn’t really talked to her ever since I finished high school in 2003. I did met her a few times whenever I went to Jakarta, but we didn’t get a chance to talk that much. We weren’t THAT close anyway when were in high school. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be so connected. You know, it would be boring to spend the whole day taking about dull topics 😛
But it turned out, we had such a great time!!! Talking and talking until we forgot about time!!! Hahaha! I didn’t realize that we had a lot of things in common (besides traveling, of course). We also went to Kinderdijk to see the windmills. I always loved Kinderdijk :). It’s a lovely place. If it weren’t so cold, it would be perfect to sit by the canal!!
Anyway, one thing she said: "We are the citizen of the world. That’s why we don’t have ‘home’!" Hehehe! Yeeeep, maybe that’s the reason why 😉
A blogger friend once tweeted:
Love is NOT enough to become the basis for a marriage. A much stronger foundation is a commitment.
He went on to say:
Definitely, a loveless marriage is very painful. However, you may have also noticed that people in love for years, got married – then divorced quite soon. A strong commitment may enable the couple to develop solutions to their problems – conflict management, etc. A strong commitment will help dissolve each egos – and let a new personality, your partnership, to emerge.
It’s true. Many people these days got married because they’re deeply in love; failing to realize that they’ve signed the "contract" for life.
Indeed, commitment is such a powerful thing. Sometimes I do think that, for some people, commitment overrides love. No matter how many times your husband or wife betrays you, ending a marriage is still not an option. For some people like me, we would have questioned, how could it be not an option?!
And for me, the questions remain unanswered: How do you know that you’re ready to spend the remaining years of your life with that person? How do you know that you’re willing to be committed and stay true to that commitment for the rest of your life? How can you be so sure? How does it feel like to be sure?!
I’ve had little memories of my years in Egypt. Yes, I was born there. But I only lived there for 4 years until 1989. I managed to visit the country for a month in 1997, but sadly I didn’t have that much things to remember. We were there during summer, making it harder to enjoy our travel as it was SOOOO hot!
So I’m planning to come back. I’ve been planning to come back for so long. The one city that I’ve been wanting to visit is definitely Luxor. I’ve been to Alexandria and Suez, but I’ve never been to any cities in southern part of Egypt. I want to see Abu Simbel toooo! (and all temples around Aswan!)
Wait for me, Egypt. I’ll be back for the third time. I’ll visit the New Egypt, insya Allah.
