Project 365

Despite my busy schedule and a 2-hour sleep last night, I can still do this!!! weeeewww!

I’ve been so grumpy and cranky lately. I can’t believe I haven’t traveled for 6 months!!! I can’t wait any longer. I promised myself not to travel until I graduate, but it doesn’t seem to work! I’ll end up insane if I don’t travel.

My friends and I were planning to do a road trip in Spain, but the flight ticket is so expensive! We’ve been waiting for more than a month and it doesn’t get any lower. So last night, I said to myself: THAT’S IT! Let’s change the destination! Let’s just drive somewhere!

You know you’re so desperate to travel when you open the whole map of Europe and try to pick whatever places to visit. Pasrah? Yep. I just need to get out.

Then my friend suggested  this route shown above. I immediately AGREE with it! Lyon — Nice — Monaco — Torino — Geneva — Lausanne — Montreux — Luzern. The cities are still not confirmed yet, as we’re still discussing about it. But I’m so excited already! Finally, I’ve got something I’m so looking forward to in 2 months time!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH….

Ok, I need to sleep. Nitey nite!

I got it!!! It was on SALE for 140 Euro (600 ringgit) including luggage, LCCT bus ticket, and taxes!

To-Do checklists:

• Return ticket to KL. I hope I can get a free one from AirAsia. Planning to stay in KL for few days before or after my trip to OZ, but I need to know my sister’s schedule first 🙂
• Australian tourist visa. I hope I won’t be rejected!!! (It happened to my sister last time)
• GRADUATE before August! The most important thing ever!

The urge to travel is back again!!! 🙁 Help! 911!

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

–  St. Augustine

Alhamdulillah, I arrived in Amman after going through a lot of drama before departure. I almost missed my flight!!! Thankfully, I managed to reach the boarding gate five minutes before it closed. I was so panic!

I had a not-too-bad 2 hours journey to Amman, talking with a Jordanian guy next to me. I never actually had a friend from Jordan, so it was nice to meet a stranger and had a small talk about his country :). In another different setting, I saw a woman who got a UN passport!! I envied her so much! 😮

I’m now sitting alone in my room at Golden Tulip Hotel provided by Jordanian Airlines. I’m having a 9 hours transit. Although I’m in a hotel, I feel like I am in a hostel. Even some hostels are cleaner than this one! Oh well, I got it for free, so might as well enjoy it, right? The internet is free anyway :D.

I can’t wait to be in Eindhoven soon 🙂

It’s definitely not about my residence permit. But it’s a very very good news coming from Brisbane, Australia!

A close friend of mine sent me a message today that she’s planning to get married next year. And she insists me to attend the wedding ceremony and be her maid of honor! I was so happy and thrilled upon reading her message!!! I was crying of excitement! I felt so touched too, to be one of the first people to know about her plan — and not to mention that she chooses me as her maid of honor! Wew, I feel so honored! This would be my first time to be a bridesmaid!!

Ah, next year is still a long way to go. But I don’t know how I’m going to do this, seriously — knowing that I already have so many traveling plans laid out. Going to Australia is not cheap. The travel costs are too much and I haven’t got any money for that yet. Maybe I should book AirAsia flight from KL to Gold Coast by this year. And maybe I should cancel my other plans and put them for the year after. Or maybe I’ll do all of them. It really depends on my financial situation next year.

Whatever happens, I can’t refuse to attend the wedding, as I have promised her for many times that I’d come back to Australia if she’s going to get married. She also kept her promise that she’d tell me about it a year ahead before her wedding, so that I would have enough time to prepare. She’s even willing to change the wedding date if the time doesn’t suit me! So there’s no reason for me to not attend the wedding! Hehehe.

If I eventually go back to Australia, it’s going to be a sweet reunion! I haven’t seen her ever since I bade farewell 2 years ago, although yes, we do have Skype session once in a while. I miss the 3 years we spent together as a roommate. And I’ll meet other friends back in the college too!!! I can’t wait! I’m sure Brisbane has changed a lot. I want to reminisce the good old days. Ah, those sweet days that are unforgettable. Insya Allah I’ll find a way to be there.

Who wants to join me? 🙂 (maybe this would be the best time for me to go to Cairns too! To see the Great Barrier Reef!!!! If only money can be grown like plants…)

I had been wanting to go to King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) for so long and I was so happy that today I had a chance to go there with my whole family!

It was such a HUGE campus! The moment we stepped in, I was already amazed by its size and the fact that it had its own golf course! Super cool!

 

Then there was a cozy library with its beautiful view of the Red Sea! The tall structure seen below was actually a lighthouse!

Everything was so new, clean, shiny, and cozy!

Without the help of these Indonesian students who studied at KAUST, we wouldn’t be able to visit this campus! Thanks to them, I got to discover a lot of cool things about KAUST. I’ll write more about it in my primary blog! Stay tuned! 🙂

At least, there’s something to be grateful about with my flight being delayed! Hehehe.

I have spent the last 6 years straight of Eid ul-Fitr without my family. And I don’t want to spend yet another Eid “alone” anymore! So today, insya Allah I’ll be flying to Saudi Arabia to join my mom, dad, sis, and bro for the Eid celebration!

I’ll arrive in Jeddah early Friday morning and I really hope I could perform Eid prayer over there! Or, worst case scenario I’ll be praying at the airport hahaha. Then hopefully I’ll meet some of my friends and former teachers at the residence of the consul-general of Indonesia. My family and I will also be visiting friends’ houses, so it’s going to be exciting! I can’t wait to eat the foods hahaha.

In the Netherlands, some people will celebrate the Eid on Friday. And some, including the Turkish people celebrate it today :).

So I want to wish you all, Eid Mubarak. I hope we have improved our faith and may Allah SWT accept our fasts and prayers, Ameen. Kullu 3am wa antum be7air! 🙂 Have a great celebration!

My future husband is going in with the commitment of traveling around with you & your husband, or else there will be no marriage! And ur husband has to deal with the same commitment!

— Jessie

I have been traveling with a good friend of mine, Jessie for few times and we’re planning for more: Spain, Italy, Egypt, and Indonesia! We’re just so addicted to traveling that every time we go back from vacation, we’re already planning where we should go next! No matter how broke we are, we still travel! LOL!

So today, I chatted with her over the YM and suddenly we were talking about marriage and I was like… “Sigh, I can’t imagine what we’ll be like after we’re married.” Will we still be able to travel again freely? People change. Most people change after they’re married. Well, that’s for certain because they’ll prioritize family first on top of anything else. So Jessie and I made this kind of commitment, which requires our future husbands to agree on any traveling plans we have! Woohooo! We rock! 😛

* Continuing this project again, after 3 months of hiatus — due to privacy concerns. Now this project is powered by WordPress! 🙂

Jessie, Ari, and I were supposed to wake up at 8am today. We planned to go to Lisse, a town made famous for tulip fields and the biggest flower garden in the world: Keukenhof. But none of us seemed to hear the alarm and the next thing we knew, it was already 10.30 am! LOL!

Today wasn’t as beautiful as yesterday though. The sun was hiding and it was forecasted to be raining. It was a bit chilly too (good thing I brought my coat this time!). But we went to Lisse anyway. We rented a bike near the Keukenhof and cycled around the town to see the flower fields (especially the tulips!). It was beautiful! Such an amazing thing to see massive fields with different colors of flowers scattered for many kilometers! Although I did the same thing last year, it was still worth doing! 🙂

We went back to Utrecht at around 8pm to pick up my stuff at Jessie’s place and went straight to Eindhoven. Overall, I had a super great weekend with my girls 🙂 Really enjoyed the laugh and the talks we had! Next plan is: ice skating 😉