Project 365

The Boeken Festijn has ended. Today was my last day of working there. I worked from 12pm til 10.30pm! It was tiring, as usual. But I had SOO much fun with the people I worked with; my new friends. We had a lunch break together and some brought foods to share with. Ian brought a delicious kentang kering (dried potatoes), kak Linda & Sam brought some kerupuk (and something else, probably? I forgot!), and I brought macarona bechamel (a left over from the dinner party last night). We ate together, took pictures, made jokes, and laughed… while visitors passed us by probably wondering what in the world we were doing there! Hehehe. It was as if we had our own world and we didn’t give a damn on other people hihihi.

Too bad that we couldn’t work together anymore! But we planned on meeting up (and reunion) in the beginning of April and I just couldn’t wait for it! Hope to see you all sooooon!

* Picture taken by Maureen. L-R: mbak Dessy, Bahri, Ian, Sam, me, kak Linda, Indah.

The Book Festival @ Brabanthallen

A book that has 300 recipes for Nutella!

taking a pic with a DJ bfore he’s famous

Some ppl are working, some are posing…

Bahri & Linda working 🙂

Bosche bollen — a must eat! Super!!!

Today was the second day I worked at the Book Festival. I went to Den Bosch with my friend Bahri as well as my new friends Maureen and mbak Dessy (who stayed over at my place for few days). We decided to take a bus as it was much cheaper (although it took us 1 hour to get to Den Bosch; compared to only 20 minutes by train hehehe). Once we arrived, we went straight to buy Bossche bol, which was a super delicious chocolate ball and was only available in Den Bosch! It was my second time eating it, and I couldn’t be happier! 😀

I took few pictures today when I was working at the Book Festival. It was in low quality though, as I took them with my poor mobile phone. But anyway, that’s how the festival was going to be like. The place was quite huge. My job was to unload and arrange those books; it involved a lot of carrying, pushing, sorting, walking, good eyes, and good memory. We worked for 9 hours for the preparation of the festival and got 15 minutes break every few hours (1 hour in total). Today was the last day of the festival’s preparation (tomorrow is the opening), so I worked longer than expected and went home quite late.

The good thing was I went home with Bahri so at least I wasn’t alone and had someone to talk with. We had a good conversation on the way back and we reached Eindhoven at around 9.30pm. Quite late, huh? But anyway, there were a lot of things to be thankful for. Judging by the pictures, didn’t I look happy (though tired)? Hehehe.

I work at the Boeken Festijn (Book Festival) again this week. This is my third time working in this festival (I worked in Rotterdam and Eindhoven previously). I’ll be working for only three days though; trying to get money for my Easter trip. Den Bosch is only 20 minutes away by train from Eindhoven, so it’s not far at all.

Anyway, I really enjoy working at this festival. Besides having the opportunity to see the books and buy them with the discounted price, I get the chance to meet new people, including Indonesians living in different parts of the Netherlands. They are mostly students and ex-students who are searching for permanent jobs and trying to survive in this country buy being part-timers. I do admit that sometimes I’m quite hesitant to meet Indonesian students; mainly because I don’t feel that I think the same way as them. We have different lifestyles. We have different ways of thinking. We have different stuff to talk about.

But these Indonesian people that I usually meet at the Book Festival are of different category. Perhaps they’re more mature. Or they don’t mind to work and try not to spend their parent’s money. Or they’re humble. Either way, I feel like I belong into the right group.

Although the work is quite tiring, but every time I have a break, I always have wonderful time. Laughing. Cheering. Even to the point… screaming! Hahaha. It is such a joy to be entertained and to be “freshed” again when I go back to work after a 15-mins break.

I’m off to work again tomorrow. I have to wake up early and gain extra energy. Good night, people!

Phew. There are too many things to be grateful about today. It was quite a busy and tiring day, yet at the same time it was such a fun and exciting day.

After about a month of procrastinating, finally my friend and I resumed our project that had been looooongggg abandoned. I went to the ICTheek in the morning and tried to understand the whole thing. It wasn’t so effective, but at least we saw some light. We saw progress. It was slow. Yet, we were a bit sure. At least, this could be my new motivation! 🙂

I went to the High Tech Campus to meet with some people to finalize my website project. I was sooo panic that time because I was 15 minutes late! I could have been on time had my Dutch class finished on time and I weren’t LOST! It was raining so heavily that for the second time I was lost. I took the wrong street. I cycled and cycled and cycled until I had no energy. I felt so bad 🙁

Long story short… I met them and discussed about some improvements and adjustments that I needed to make. We discussed about the salary too. Well, in the beginning I wasn’t expecting that much since this was a new NGO. So I was quite satisfied with it, alhamdulillah. I also told my boss that once I graduate (if!), I’d be able to work for him temporarily; so that at least I can do something while I seek for a permanent job. Well, let’s see what will happen later.

After the meeting, my boss and I also had a long conversation about his work and life, politics, etc. It was quite interesting. Meeting this kind of people who is the initiator and whose purpose is to improve other people’s life always inspires me. Hope I’d be able to do it one day. Insya Allah. Amin.

My day finished with a great dinner at Agni’s place with his sister and Arya. It was such a fun and warm night. We haven’t done any dinner gatherings for sometime now… Hmm, maybe we should plan one soon! (trying to gather my motivation here!)

I’m really looking forward for tomorrow. I’ll be going to meet a couchsurfer from Russia for a coffee. This would be the first meet up after I took a long half a year break from Couchsurfing. It’s going to be exciting! And he seems very excited! I’ll share the stories tomorrow, of course. Good night. Dream sweetly.