12 April 2011

Day 6: Picture Part 3

De Meisje
 If you go to Volendam, there are at least two shops that offer to dress you up in Dutch traditional costumes and take a picture of you. I paid around 20 euro to get one printed copy of my picture and a CD with pictures in it. So... this is mine. Pretty cute, isn't it? :P

Christmas Dinner
I have no idea why I chose to put this picture. But this picture was taken in an Ethiopian restaurant in Utrecht. My first Christmas far away from my family. That was also my first time eating Ethiopian food. And it was good! A bit pricey, but good! So... for anyone looking for a nice Ethiopian restaurant in Utrecht, this restaurant is located around Pathe oudegracht. Do look for it as they have a nice banana beer!

Oudegracht
Lay at the center of Utrecht, I remember Oudegracht as a chain of small rivers scatter around the center of Utrecht (my Dutch sucks, but I think Oudegracht means Old Canal or something like that). I remember the time when I felt down, homesick and such, I always took a stroll around this lovely canal just to calm myself down. One of the place in Holland that I miss the most.

Dom Tower
 The tower from Oude Kerk in Utrecht. I often used it as a direction sign every time I got lost in town. My friend love this tower so much. He was mad at me because I couldn't find a way for him to climb the tower. This picture was taken by him.

Somewhere in Holland
 Seriously, I can't remember the place where I took the picture, but I think it's in Amsterdam during a windy and foggy day. Yes. That's my gift of remembering little detail but forget the important matters.

Madurodams
Pictures below were taken in Madurodam. Madurodam is an interesting place located in Den Haag (the Hague) where you could find the miniature of Holland. It was a cute little (big) theme park. More information could be found in madurodam.




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08 April 2011

Day 5: Picture part 2

After blogger refused to upload more than four picture in the first section and after waiting for a confusing half an hour - not very patient, I know - here's another part of the pictures. 

The Goddess
Taken in front of Utrecht, Domkerk. Some information from Wikipedia:
St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, or Dom Church (Dutch: Domkerk) was the cathedral of the diocese of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. Once the country's largest church and only cathedral, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, it has been a Protestant church since 1580. The building is the one church in the Netherlands that closely resembles the classic Gothic style as developed in France. All other Gothic churches in the Netherlands belong to one of the many regional variants. Unlike most of its French predecessors, the Dom Church has only one tower, the 112 m (368 ft) high Dom Tower, which is the hallmark of the city.

De Meern Church
 T'was a foggy evening, during winter time in the Netherlands. Me and my friend, Mumba - a very nice Zambian girl, decided we need to walk to the nearest market for groceries shopping. It was Saturday and no shop will be opened on Sunday. We took the bus, got out at the wrong bus stop. Decided it's oki to get lost once in a while especially in a foggy and windy day like that. We found this church, complete with graveyard in front of it. The first thing came to our mind is that we need to take lots of pictures. So here one of them.

PS: I was thinking about silent hill the whole time. (like maybe there this zombie dogs came to attacked us, or the walking dead. Thrilling!)

De Meern
 Mumba was sick. She asked me to go with her to the doctor. The bus came every half an hour. So while waiting for the bus, I took the picture. It was so beautiful, the place I used to live for one and a half year. De Meern is a village outside Utrecht. Far from the school, bus rarely came. I just couldn't forget those days when I used to walk under snow storm just to go to school. But it's a very nice neighborhood.

Spring Sky
Spring sky in De Meern. Imagine you see this after being stroke by fall and winter for more than 6 months. Rain, snow, wind, storm... this scenery was so enlightening, I just felt like I have to take picture out of it.

The Bird in The Station
Taken in Utrecht Centraal Station, birds are just playing around in the station area. One time during winter, me and my friends were joking about how we were going to catch each and every one of the bird and cooked them for our dinner if the school did not disburse our monthly allowance anytime soon. 

Where There's Pole, There's Bike
 Typical Holland! :D

What's This?
This actually has special meaning for me. It's a pillow belong to Mumba and I named it Catepee. It does look like caterpillar, doesn't it? So... I used to spent time in Mumba's room when I felt lonely and homesick in my room. We lived at the same student house. She would just do her own business, with her loud sound system playing her kind of song, and I would just sit there and fell asleep. I miss her! :(

Hogeschool Utrecht!
The scenery that I always saw when I left school. But this one time, it was so pretty I couldn't help myself not to take picture of it.

Day 4: Pictures Part 1

 When I was studying in Holland, I kind of took pictures that I haven't been able to upload for some times. Now that I have lots of free time, I'll just going to upload it. Since blogger turned me down every time I tried to upload more than 4, so here we go. The first part of the pictures and the story behind it.
Butachan, The Pink Piggie
I bought Butachan before I went to Holland. Got attracted by its fluffiness and cuteness. Buta-chan literally means Piggy in Japanese.


Port of Volendam
I went to Volendam with a good friend of mine. He lived in Switzerland. Back then, even though I have lived in Holland for around a year, winter kinda locked me up inside my house. I never went anywhere except Utrecht, school and home. So when my friend came over for a visit, he's the one drag me all over Holland to enjoy the country. Volendam was one of the city he picked (he actually wanted to go to Edam to buy some cheese, since we couldn't find the way there, we decided to go to Volendam). And I fell in love with the city that moment I got there. I miss Volendam!


The Volendam Village
Still part of Volendam. One of my Dutch favorite singer is Volendamese. His name is Jan Smit. Though most, if not all, my Dutch friend dislike him, I think he's pretty cute and has a nice voice. By the way, according to my friend, Volendamese are famous for cross family marriage. Most Volendamese will marry other Volendamese. Thus, there are around four biggest family name in the Volendam village that confused me, as I though my friend's friends were brother since they have the same last name and both live in Volendam and both have similar physical characteristic. But they aren't.

Mr. Dog
Just a random dog picture taken by my friend in Volendam. It was a cold spring, but this one dog was playing actively with waves. Very cute.

07 April 2011

Day 3: Hypocrite


Human are actually similar to animal in term of behavior. There are patterns that can be generated if observed thoroughly.  These patterns are applicable to all, borderless. Some patterns could even be found in animal. Love, for example, is the human language for sex in animal kingdom. “I love you. Let’s have sex!” is probably similar to “I bite you. Let’s have sex!” among some species in shark. Yet, since human tend to think they have higher caste than animal, sex-love argument is often being used as thing-that-makes-us-different-than-animal. This argument was also being used by the missionaries when they invaded Latin-America. They were the one who taught the local that the only sex position acceptable before God’s eyes was missionary position and that this style was the one differentiate human and non-human. I bet they did doggy style back then. Oh... and do you know that bat also perform fellatio? Dolphin enjoys sex? Maybe I should do deeper research on the topic. :D

The introduction has nothing to do actually with what I want to write. I just got drifted away. Sorry. Nonetheless, the behavior pattern I would like to write tonight is about being a hypocrite. According to Miriam-Webster dictionary, a hypocrite is a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.

I am human. I made tons of mistakes my whole life. Huge one, small one, white lies, black lies, yellow lies, you get my point. One thing that I really am appreciated is when people being brave by acknowledging their feeling. 

There was this blackout in the afternoon. Very short, only five second each. But it happened again and again. I got a little bit touchy since my laptop crashed every time it happened.  I went to protest and being told to shut up and use my anger to do something useful instead of complaining things.
Um… yes. Got that!

I didn’t even THAT mad in the first place. I just want to say something just to let my emotion go. But it’s cool. I sat down quietly, being the sweetest girl in the world.

One minute later, the lady who told me to STFU, started to complain. Sitting there in the dark, doing absolutely nothing, I decided to see how long she’s going to complain. It turned out to be the whole hour. I didn’t even care to protest. I was amazed and puzzled. Why on earth she told me to be quiet while she opened her mouth for more than an hour.

I just thought that if each of us has a little mirror that shows things we said and things we did, maybe the number of hypocrite will be less in the world. But then again, maybe I did something like that in the past. Who knows? I’m just human after all…

05 April 2011

Day 2: The Power of Mind


My maid at home has been married for more than ten years. She has not being given any children yet. She’s constantly hurt by people asking her if she ever get any child. Background information, it is pretty common in Asia, once you get married, people will start asking you if you’re pregnant already. In most cases, people who have been married for years find this question rather insulting – which I am fully agreed with them.

My maid is a very lively lady who always response things hurting her with jokes, though I know, this children thing is killing her inside. With a big smile on her face, she accepted my suggestion that children are not that important in marriage with her own wisdom, “But then your marriage will not be completed without them.” I often argued back though she always sticks with her opinion.

It’s been two and a half month she did not get her period. Knowing her since I was a child, including her period pattern, my family and I assumed she was pregnant. Off course she also had other symptom, like morning sickness, feeling weak, tired all the time, you named it since I haven’t been pregnant myself. So yeah… not being confirmed by anyone, our house was fully agreed that she’s pregnant. Just to be sure, we asked her to take pregnancy test and even create an early-retirement plan just in case she’s actually pregnant.

Turn out the result’s negative. Yet the symptom continues. Being all positive, she showed me the pregnancy test result and said “maybe because it’s cheap it’s being inaccurate” or “look there’s a shadow of a second line, maybe it’s not strong enough.”

Skeptically, I just said “Maybe you’re heading toward your menopause?” She’s just 30. Evil me.

Yesterday, the symptoms were getting worse. She was totally nauseated she practically throw up the whole morning (she told me, I wasn’t even notice). Doctor, we’re so coming! So she went to the doctor with her hubby, took another pregnancy test – which result was negative as well, and being checked for women health related issues. All showed negative and her condition was totally perfect. Except maybe for the fact that she’s feeling something is off. The doctor gave her hormone pills and a little cup for her husband to fill with – you know, that thing – which I regret why on earth that I she had to tell me every single detail behind it.

Then comes today. The day when she found out she was not menopause (she was so glad), but she was not pregnant either. Doctor miracle works! She’s having her period. So she started to question herself and me that were with her during the whole situation and being used as an expert opinion.

What had happen to her?
Why on earth did she think and absolutely feel like she was pregnant?

Facing it with a big smile… I know she’s absolutely hurt inside.

By the time I decided to write something, I remember that once I read about expressing your feeling to the extreme, your body will start to adjust to your mind. True I read it in a manga about a sea lion or something feels like she was pregnant while in fact her cell mate was. She just shares the feeling.

I thought maybe this is what actually happened to my dear maid. She wants to get pregnant so bad. People started telling her she was. She starting to feel she was. While in reality, she is not pregnant. She just feels that way. That another proof of how strong and powerful our mind really is. We could actually influence our body, our behavior, everything just by thinking that we were something else.

Which brought me to this idea, if I feel being skinny and losing weight, will I really stop eating and become skinny? Let’s just call it the power of mind diet and see if it’s really working. Maybe I could write a diet book and become billionaire just like Richard Branson? Why not!

PS: I know you won't understand any word I wrote in this blog, but I will always support you :)

04 April 2011

Day 1: I found myself treasures!


After years – well... actually it’s not that long, only three and a half years – living away from my mom, I decided to go back to her house and take a break from my ME activity. That’s including go out, work, study, or any kind of activities that push me away from my mom. 

Like always, me as a hot-and-cold kind of person, have made up my mind that I am going to record every single day during my hibernation period. Hopefully, this time it goes well and not being left alone in the middle of April. :D


Day One: I found myself treasures!
April 4, 2011 – 15.00

My house has been rebuilt for almost six months up to now. Thanks goodness my room is safe from the dust disaster. Being the center of development, my mom’s room is totally torn apart. As I suspected, she decided to move into my room.
It was not a problem in the beginning, since I barely slept there. But as soon as I’m moving back in, things were getting slightly complicated. My mom is a ‘keeper’ in a way. She keeps all stuff she receives even things like bills and papers. She likes to put things in places, unorganized, creating a massive chaos in my room.

Being an impulsive clean-freak, I made up my mind that I had enough with her ‘stuffs’ and finally had the gut to tell her how I need to clean my room since I’m going to work from there.  Last night I held her hand and looked her in the eyes and said, “Mom, I love you. But I really need to clean my room, kay?”

……

And there’s this silent moment just like every time we discussed about that specific matter. Last time I remembered talking about this to her, we ended up arguing.

Thanks God she finally said, “Please put my stuff in a box so that I could easily find it next time.”

Yaaaay! Victory!

So that’s how I finally decided to clean my room. Changed clothes – Done. Prepare the mop – Done. Drinking anti-allergy drug – Done! I was so well prepared!

Starting with my old stuff, I found old pictures of me and my ex during our holiday in Holland. It was a fun time – not really – boxed. Next!

My mom’s perfume collections got separated into several plastic bags – collected them – put them together – boxed. Next!

Papers! Yuuuum! My favorite… not. Put this here, put this there. Wait a minute! What is it? A funny looking old magazine! Let slack a bit and read – after all reading is always a good way to improve your knowledge, isn’t it?

One minute reading…. Two minute reading… weird! This old magazine is full of naked picture as in real pictures and photographs. Let’s try the article… woooow! Like reading a porn script! What in hell is this old magazine? The cover has been torn apart. Looking… looking… looking harder and… AHA! Penthouse October 1987 edition!!!

I HAVE FOUND MYSELF A TREASURE!

Nice, I said, with a big grin on my face. The penthouse published just a couple months after I was born. What a treasure!

Afraid my mom will now I accidentally found a treasure. I put the vintage penthouse back to the envelope that covers it and put it in the box together with my mom other stuff. Back to my old cleaning up spirit.

PS: They have a nice art in the magazine btw.
PSS: One most memorable quote, “I really don’t like drawing men with women. It will only disgrace the beauty of the women!” ~ an artist whose paintings being published inside Penthouse.