Today is my blog's sixth birthday! Wow, time flies! Somehow now I have been blogging in this very blog for exactly six years! Eight hundred and ninety five entries of my life are recorded here.
Also today, I want to announce something very important. I have come to a decision that as of today:
THIS BLOG IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED
No no, don't worry. I won't stop blogging. I just decide to move to a new "home", and my new "home" is:
http://zilko.wordpress.com
I will not delete this blog as I do not want to erase my precious six year of life from my memory. It is just that from now on, I will write the story of my life somewhere else. So, if you have a link to my blog, please move it to my new blog.
I am so grateful with this Blogger blog that has been here for me for the last six years. It is just that I think it is already time for me to move on, to "leave" this old house and find a new one. Because it is such a defining moment, I choose this date, coinciding with this blog's birthday, to write one last entry in this blog.
So, again, thank you Blogger! :-) And see you guys in my new blog! :-)
BAHASA INDONESIA
Hari ini adalah hari ulang tahun blogku yang keenam! Wow, waktu benar-benar berlalu dengan cepat ya! Entah bagaimana kini aku sudah ngeblog di blog ini selama tepat enam tahun lho! Delapan ratus sembilan puluh lima posting tentang kehidupanku telah terekam disini.
Juga hari ini, aku ingin mengumumkan sesuatu yang sangat penting. Aku sudah memutuskan bahwa mulai hari ini:
BLOG INI RESMI DITUTUP
Eh, tenang saja, jangan khawatir. Aku nggak akan berhenti nge-blog koq. Hanya saja aku memutuskan untuk pindah ke "rumah" baru, dan "rumah" baruku adalah:
http://zilko.wordpress.com
Aku nggak akan menghapus blog ini karena aku tidak ingin menghapus memori kehidupanku selama enam tahun yang berharga. Hanya saja, mulai hari ini, aku akan menulis kehidupanku di tempat yang lain. Jadi, kalau pada punya link ke blog-ku, tolong dipindahkan ke blog baruku yah.
Aku sangat bersyukur atas blog Blogger ini yang sudah menemaniku selama enam tahun. Hanya saja aku rasa sekarang ini adalah waktu yang tepat untuk pindah, "meninggalkan" rumah lama ini dan mencari rumah baru. Karena ini adalah hal yang spesial, sengaja aku memilih hari ini, bertepatan dengan hari ulang tahun blog ini, untuk menuliskan satu posting terakhirku di blog ini.
Jadi, sekali lagi, terima kasih banyak Blogger! :-) Dan sampai jumpa di blog yang baru yah! :-)
Exam week is over, it is time for a little bit of relaxation. So, a group of friends and I had this plan to go to Keukenhof today. Keukenhof is a famous garden in Holland for its beautiful tulips (and other flowers) they have every year. They only open during spring and we thought today was the best time to go.
We caught a 9.24 AM train heading for Amsterdam Centraal (but then got off at Leiden Centraal). The train was so fully packed. We found no empty seat and we ended up standing for the whole trip to Leiden! Crazy! From Leiden, we caught a bus to Keukenhof. Again, there were SO many people who wanted to go to Keukenhof that there was a really long line for the bus. Lucky somehow we managed to get to the front of the line for an upcoming bus, meaning that it would be easier for us to get seats :-D All that we concerned by this time was the potential long line to buy tickets on the ticket booths in Keukenhof. This made sense because today was one of the busiest days Keukenhof has due to the flower parade they had today.
Once we were in Keukenhof, our anxiety was proven to be irrelevant as there was no line in the ticket booths at all (because there were several booths). However, it was true that there were A LOT OF people there. I mean, yeah, A LOT OF people! I think there were more than 10 thousand people visiting Keukenhof today as also indicated by the huge number of cars and coaches that I saw today.
Anyway, Keukenhof was BEAUTIFUL! I mean, there is nothing like it in Indonesia. Along the way there and around the garden we could see a vast flat field planted with flowers in many colors. And they also put flowers with different color separately, making them look very neat and nice! The garden itself was great! It was huge and also neatly arranged! Well, there was not that many activity that we could do there, but enjoying the atmosphere was already really really nice. Even though at some point after walking around for hours we did not really care about the flowers anymore (because we had already seen like tons of them).
Talking about the flower parade, this parade was actually another reason why we picked today. It was said to be the biggest parade in Holland. So, who wouldn't want to see that? We heard it would start at around 3 PM in one of the main road nearby the garden. We went there at almost 3. We were kinda late as "too" many people were already there and basically had taken every single inch of good space to watch the parade. We were still a bit persistent at first, waiting for it patiently. One hour passed, still NO parade!! C'Mon! The weather then turned to be not so good anymore. Tired, we decided to leave the place as we would not have been able to see the parade like clearly anyway. And we can just watch it on Youtube later. So, we ended up leaving the garden without seeing the parade.
To get back to Leiden, we should also catch a bus. There was a line for our bus and we waited there. We missed the first bus available (because it had already been full) and had to wait for the next one. I read that during the weekend they operated like 8 buses per hour. It translated to 1 bus every 7 minutes 30 seconds in average, right? Okay, it was not supposed to be that bad, I thought. So, we waited...
Ten minutes, no bus.
Twenty minutes, still no bus.
Thirty minutes, still no freaking bus.
Forty minutes, finally a bus showed up! Apparently it got stuck in a traffic jam (due to the freaking delayed parade).
So we got to Leiden Station and caught a train back to Delft. That summed up my Saturday story now :-)
::: Keukenhof's Entrance. Yeah, there were this MANY people today.
::: Red flowers.
::: Another flowers.
::: A really cool scenery! Those colors were flowers!
::: A Windmill in Keukenhof.
::: More flowers.
::: Still more flowers!
::: Even more flowers!
BAHASA INDONESIA
Minggu ujian berakhir, artinya waktunya untuk sedikit relaksasi telah tiba. Nah, aku dan segrup teman-teman sudah berencana untuk pergi ke Keukenhof hari ini. Keukenhof adalah taman terkenal di Belanda yang terkenal akan tulip (dan bunga-bunga lainnya) yang mereka tanam setiap tahun. Mereka hanya buka di musim semi saja dan makanya kami berpikir hari ini adalah waktu yang tepat untuk pergi.
Kami naik kereta jam 9.24 pagi tujuan Amsterdam Centraal (tapi turunnya di Leiden Centraal). Eh keretanya penuh banget loh. Kami tidak menemukan tempat duduk kosong sama sekali dan harus berdiri deh sepanjang perjalanan ke Leiden! Gila! Dari Leiden, kami naik bus menuju Keukenhof. Lagi, karena BUANYAKK yang mau pergi ke Keukenhof, antrian untuk busnya panjang banget. Beruntung kami akhirnya berada di depan antrian untuk menunggu bus yang akan datang. Ini kan artinya kami bisa lebih mudah dalam mencari kursi kosong di dalam bus :-D Yang agak kami khawatirkan adalah potensi antrian panjang di loketnya Keukenhof. Ini masuk akal karena hari ini adalah salah satu hari tersibuk di Keukenhof karena mereka ada pawai bunga hari ini.
Begitu tiba di Keukenhof, kekhawatiran kami tidak terbukti karena nggak ada antrian di loketnya sama sekali (soalnya ada beberapa loket sih). Namun, benar bahwa ada BUANYAAKKK banget orang di Keukenhof hari ini. Maksudku, iya, BUANYAAKKK banget orang! Kira-kira 10 ribu orang ada deh di taman itu hari ini, seperti yang juga terlihat dari banyaknya mobil dan bus-bus pariwisata yang aku lihat tadi.
Ngomong2, Keukenhof memang INDAH sekali! Maksudku, nggak ada deh yang kaya gini di Indonesia. Sepanjang jalan kesana dan di sekitar tamannya ada tanah lapang yang luas dan rata yang ditanami berbagai macam bunga dalam berbagai macam warna. Sudah gitu mereka menanam bunga dengan warna berbeda secara terpisah, sehingga bunga-bunga itu kelihatan rapi gitu. Tamannya sendiri juga bagus banget! Sangat luas dan ditata dengan sangat rapi! Yah, nggak banyak aktivitas memang yang bisa dilakukan disana, tapi menikmati atmosfer dan suasana tamannya juga sudah enak banget koq. Walau di satu titik akhirnya kami sudah "muak" sama bunga-bunga lagi (soalnya uda ngeliat buanyak banget bunga).
Ngomongin tentang pawai bunga, pawai ini sebenarnya adalah salah satu alasan mengapa kami memilih hari ini. Katanya ini pawai terbesar di Belanda. Nah, masa nggak tertarik? Kami dengar pawai akan dimulai sekitar jam 3 sore di salah satu jalan utama di dekat Keukenhof. Jam 3an kurang kami kesana. Kami agak terlambat karena sudah "terlalu" banyak oraang yang datang dan pada dasarnya setiap sentimeter tempat yang bagus untuk nonton pawai sudah terambil. Awalnya kami sih masih bersemangat dan teguh, menunggu pawai itu dengan sabar. Satu jam kemudian berlalu, dan masih belum ada tuh pawainya!! Ayolah! Cuaca juga terus berubah agak kurang mengenakkan. Capek, kami memutuskan untuk pulang saja deh, toh juga nggak akan bisa lihat pawainya dengan jelas juga. Dan lagi, kan bisa nontonnya nanti aja di Youtube. Ya udah, akhirnya kami meninggalkan Keukenhof tanpa meliaht pawainya.
Untuk kembali ke Leiden, kami juga harus naik bus. Ada antrian untuk bus itu dan kami mengantri disana. Kami ketinggalan bus pertama (soalnya uda penuh) dan harus menunggu yang selanjutnya. Aku baca bahwa di akhir pekan mereka mengoperasikan delapan bus per jam. Artinya, satu bus rata-rata datang setiap 7 menit 30 detik kan? Oke, nggak papa lah, itu yang kupikir. Jadi, kami menunggu...
Sepuluh menit, bus belum datang.
Dua puluh menit, bus masih belum datang.
Tiga puluh menit, mana ini busnya woi!!
Empat puluh menit, akhirnya satu bus muncul! Ternyata bus itu terjebak kemacetan lalu lintas (gara-gara pawai sial itu).
Begitu sampai di Stasiun Leiden sih kita langsung naik kereta balik ke Delft. Dan disinilah cerita Sabtuku berakhir :-)
I have always known that exercising is very important. The past one week can be categorized as the week where I had pretty many exercises and I am happy with that! Wow, how could I do that??
So, the story started from the nice and perfect weather we have had in the Netherlands for the past several weeks. It was (mostly) sunny but not too hot nor humid at all. Even last week, on Saturday it reached 22 degree and I found it really HOT!! I can't believe that!! Also, as you have noticed, I have been so busy in campus lately and in a way I feel like I need a break for a while. These two combined with the thought that exercise is important and I need to do that once in a while resulting in me having an urge to do light exercise.
The thing was, I (still) have not subscribed myself in the Sport Centrum in my campus because I think it is a bad deal if I do it now (I can use it for three months where I have to pay for a six month membership). I will wait for next August when the new semester starts and subscribe by then. Until then, I have to find something alternative for exercising. I don't want to spend too much money on it (stingy :P). And I think of a perfect solution: biking around! It is cheap (as I don't have to pay anything for it) and efficient!
My route was just going around Delft. To avoid boredom, I change the route ever time and sometimes just follow my guts where to go, with no planning at all :P It is kinda fun! It is great that I can do this activity in the Netherlands as I don't see me doing it in Indonesia. First of all, the country here is flat. In term of track, there is literally nothing that will make you feel like not going biking regularly (imagine you live in a mountainous city and you have to go by bike all around. Unless you have a super strong will, your urge will be knocked out after several attempts, at least for me). Second of all, the air here is very clean and refreshing! Imagine you are biking in a bustling street in Jakarta. I guess instead of healthiness, there is a chance you catch a respiratory problem. Third of all, the temperature now is perfect! It is not too cold, but not too hot either. Beside, it is also not as humid as in Indonesia. It is the perfect weather for me! Fourth of all, here we have a special lane for bikers. Plus, the motor-vehicle drivers here obey the rule very much and (almost) none of them drives like crazily. So, I feel safe biking here. Fifth of all, the atmosphere here is just breath-taking. Look at these pictures:
::: Kandelaarbrug, a bridge to the south of Delft.
::: One spot in Delftse Hout.
::: A house and a windmill near the Delftse Hout.
::: A Windmill near Delft.
BAHASA INDONESIA
Aku selalu tahu bahwa olahraga itu sangat penting. Seminggu belakangan ini bisa dikategorikan sebagai minggu dimana aku lumayan sering berolahraga loh dan aku bahagia karenanya! Wow, bagaimana aku bisa melakukan itu semua??
Nah, ceritanya dimulai dari cuaca yang bagus dan sempurna di Belanda selama beberapa minggu belakangan ini. Bahkan minggu lalu, di hari Sabtu suhunya sampai di 22 derajat loh dan aku merasa PANAS!! Nggak bisa dipercaya deh aku ngerasa panas!! Seperti yang pasti pada tahu juga, akhir-akhir ini aku sibuk sekali di kampus dan aku sedikit merasa butuh refreshing sebentar gitu. Kedua ini dikombinasikan dengan pikiran bahwa olahraga itu penting dan perlu deh dilakukan sekali waktu menghasilkan semacam dorongan di dalam diri untuk memulai olahraga ringan.
Masalahnya, aku (masih) belum daftar di Sport Centrum di kampus soalnya aku rasa kalau aku daftar sekarang rugi deh (karena sekarang aku bisa memakainya selama tiga bulan tetapi aku harus bayar iuran keanggotaan selama enam bulan). Aku akan nunggu sampe Agustus nanti aja ah ketika semester baru dimulai dan baru daftar. Sampai saat itu, aku harus menemukan sesuatu yang lain kan. Aku nggak mau juga keluar uang banyak-banyak (pelit mode on :P). Jadilah aku menemukan solusi yang sempurna: sepedaan aja! Aktivitas ini kan murah (karena aku nggak harus bayar apa-apa) dan efisien!
Rutenya ya sekitaran Delft aja. Untuk menghindari kebosanan, aku mengganti rutenya setiap kali dan kadang aku cuma ngikutin insting aja pergi kemana gitu, tanpa perencanaan sama sekali :P Asik juga loh! Bagus nih disini bisa melakukan hal ini karena aku rasa aku nggak bisa deh membayangkan diriku melakukan aktivitas ini di Indonesia. Pertama-tama, disini negaranya itu rata. Jadi dari segi rute, nggak ada deh yang bikin males untuk sepedaan secara teratur (bayangkan hidup di kota yang bergunung-gunung dan untuk berkeliling mesti sepedaan. Kecuali semangatnya luar biasa membara, pasti semangatnya bakal habis deh dalam beberapa usaha, paling tidak buatku). Yang kedua, udara disini sangat bersih dan menyegarkan! Bayangkan bersepeda di Jakarta yang sibuk. Bukannya sehat, bisa-bisa malah dapet masalah pernapasan. Ketiga, suhu udara akhir-akhir ini pas banget! Nggak dingin, dan nggak terlalu panas. Di samping itu, udaranya juga ga selembab Indonesia. Cuaca kaya gini nih yang cocok banget buatku! Keempat, disini sepeda kan ada jalurnya sendiri dan pengendara kendaraan bermotornya juga tertib-tertib dan (hampir) nggak ada yang ugal-ugalan. Makanya merasa aman deh. Kelima, suasananya juga keren banget. Coba deh lihat gambar-gambar di atas!
Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy for a Christmas break. After spending more than one week in Italy, now they were ready to leave Firenze for Venezia.
After a not so nice experience in Firenze (mainly related to the hostel), we could not wait to leave Firenze. Plus, our next destination was Venezia, where we would stay in the most expensive hostel in our trip to Italy (because it would be during New Year's Eve). This made us more eager to leave the city. So that was it, this day (Thursday, December 30), after breakfast, we directly went to Firenze Railway Station.
Then, a nightmare occurred. We arrived at Firenze Station at around 10.30 AM. We went to the ticket machine and looked for train tickets to Venezia. The thing was, ALL tickets to Venezia departing prior to 7.30 PM had been SOLD OUT (even first class tickets). Finding no other option, we bought tickets for that departure time. It meant that we had like 9 (NINE) hours to kill in Firenze! We felt like this city loved us so much that it would not let us go! At first we planned to kill our time in a local McDonald's restaurant just accross the station. However, during lunch-time, we were shooed away because the restaurant was busy. So, we decided to wait in the waiting lounge. What we did during that time was: "studying"! Even, in a way I am a bit glad we had to wait that long since I made a significant progress on my assignment at that time! During this time, our hostel in Venezia called me and the guy on the other side of the phone was angry at me for not informing him that we would be late that day! I was shocked! I mean, sure, we were in a way "wrong" for forgetting to inform them. But still, we were customers! I mean, he could speak to us in a nicer way so that we would not feel like being under-attack! Beside, it was not our plan that we would be late arriving in Venezia! I was kinda mad!
Anyway, so eventually nine hours passed and we finally left Firenze. We took another Eurostar ride which cost a lot (Eurostar was the only train with available tickets that day). We arrived at Venezia at almost 9.30 PM. Once we got out the station, we were really WOW-ed!! It was VENEZIA!! I could not believe I WAS IN VENEZIA that day!! Well, Venezia had always been in my "must-visit-place" list so imagine how I felt at that time! Instead of the usual parking ramp and road, just outside the station there was a pathway and the grand canal! There was no road, thus no cars, buses, etc! What were there were: boats! Cool, eh?? Long story short, we finally arrived at our hostel after getting a little bit lost. And the good thing was, the hostel was REALLY good!!
::: One small canal in Venezia
The next day, December 31, was the last day of 2010. In the morning until afternoon we walked around Venezia, enjoying the beautiful city. We went back to our hostel to take a break for a while. At almost 4 PM, we left our hostel and explored the city even more. Well, since one friend was travelling on a wheelchair, it was quite a challenge to walk around the city. In every bridge, we had to do the following procedure: my friend stood up, one friend would then help her to jump crossing the bridge, and I would bring the wheelchair to the other side of the bridge. The thing was, none of the bridge was a flat bridge. They somewhat lied between arch bridge and moon bridge: It was arch bridge with steps on it. That was why we had to do those exhausting procedures everytime. Well, it was okay if there were just two or three bridges, but it was Venezia, a city also known as "City of Bridge"! There were TONS of bridges there! After this evening we knew next time we would take the waterbus instead :-)
::: St. Mark's Square
::: Somehow I managed to be part of this crowd during New Year's Eve.
::: New Year Countdown in Venezia.
New Year's Eve in Venezia was crazy! We were in St. Mark's Piazza and there were tons of people there. Up until the Countdown, it was okay, everything was pretty much under control. However, some two minutes after the countdown, everything went crazy!! Firecrackers were everywhere (many of them were ON the piazza), many people were drunk, etc. I remember thinking: "Just get me out of here" as it felt like I was literally in the middle of a war with hidden active grenades surrounding me and one wrong step: it exploded! In a way, I was kinda surprised and shocked with the craziness. I mean, yeah, I expected something to be "out of normal" during the New Year's eve, but not that crazy where situation could be very wild and kinda dangerous in a way. Anyway, at almost 2 AM, we left St. Mark's piazza, taking a ferry ride back to our hostel.
On New Year's Day, of course we got up kinda late. That day we only went around the city. Because it was winter, the day was really short and as a result we only had three or four hours daylight. Learning from our previous experience, we decided to buy our train tickets to Milan, our final destination city, in advance. Because it was still two days before departure, there were tons of options available. Now, to save budget, we chose to travel with regular train. Then, we saw that the price between second class and first class was not that much different. Considering it would be a 3+ hours trip, we decided to spoil ourselves a little bit by buying first class tickets :-) (beside, the first class price was still cheaper than Eurostar's second class price).
::: A gondola in Grand Canal
::: Venezia
::: Waterbus Ride in Venezia
Anyway, we visited several places that day, including one museum whose ticket price was incredibly expensive. Our experience that day taught me that in Venezia, the beauty is not a particular place in the city, but it is the city itself. Going around Venezia is the best way to enjoy the unique floating city, and we don't have to pay for that :-) Later that evening, we watched a classical music concert! Yeah, a classical music concert!! Somehow I did that!! Well, surprisingly enough, it was not boring at all. In fact, it was kinda interesting! They played Vivaldi's masterpiece.
::: My first ever Classical Music Concert.
On Sunday, we went on a trip to two neighboring islands of Venezia: Murano and Burano. I like their names though, making people thinking that they are twin islands, lol. Murano was an island famous for its glass. Burano was another island which somehow resembles Venezia (with canals). Well, there was one unique thing about Burano: the buildings in the island were painted with colorful colors, makin them kinda nice to see :-)
::: Murano Glass. Note: these were the cheap ones.
::: In Burano.
The next day, we left Venezia for Milan. The trip was awesome. We were glad we decided to buy that first class tickets as the second class carriages were super full and looked a bit uncomfortable (compared to first class :D). On the way, the scenery was SO amazing though! There were mountains with snow (the Alps), passing some enchanting rivers, etc! Awesome scenery! This day, we also realized that this was our first (and only) train trip during the day. Our other train trips were evening trips.
::: An amazing view from the train, wasn't it?? :-) The mountain was the Alps.
Anyway, so we finally arrived in Milan. The city of Milan was, I felt, a little different. It was more metropolist than other cities we visited. We then went to our hostel catching a cab, and the cab was surprisingly not expensive! Once in the hotel, we got bad news. Our room was on the third floor and there was no elevator! The thing was, my friend was travelling on a wheelchair which meant that an elevator was a must! My friend did call the hostel before our trip and the hostel guy said they HAD an elevator! But well, there was nothing we could do at that point, right? We did complain, but what would it change? We saw no other option but to take that room anyway. Beside, it would only be just a one night stay in Milan. To make things worse, the hostel did not have a free wi-fi connection. If we wanted to use wi-fi, we had to pay! Crazy!! We were so upset that we ended up doing not so much things that day.
The next day was the last day of our trip to Italy. Our flight would depart at 6.10 PM so we had pretty much the whole day in Milan. That day, we were kinda not really in the mood to really explore the city. I don't know why but it seemed that things were not going our way in Milan. It was kinda difficult to find a place for breakfast, and the metro system was practically unreachable for us as there was no elevator or stuff for handicapped people to get down there. We just visited Duomo (the Cathedral) and that's it. After that, we just sat in a cafe and at 2 PM we left the city for the airport.
::: Milan's Duomo (Cathedral)
::: easyJet's Airbus A319-111 which brought us back to the Netherlands as EZY2729.
Our flight departed on time. It was easyJet's EZY2729 on an Airbus A319-111 reg code G-EZIZ. We landed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at around 8 PM, and that marked the end of our year-end trip to Italy.
No, no, don't worry, I won't tell a lie here. I just put that title as a mark that a new month has come, and it is April. And April is gonnabe relaxing! Well, that is a lie, hahaha. Telling one lie doesn't hurt in April Fool anyway, right? :-)
Well, so, April has come. For TU Delft students, this April marks the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. What does that mean to me? HELL!! Yeah, it means HELL!! I am taking one resit exam this April, not really a biggie. However, the thing is, I will have a super busy fourth quarter, and it will all start this April. Next quarter, I will have three projects to work on, and they are big ones! I have started working on one of them now, to reduce the ammount of work I will have to endure later. Well, this project that I have started is a very interesting project though, about Expert Judgment! Anyway, beside those projects, I think we can expect the usual assignments from the classes and stuffs. Beside, there will also be one oral exam within. Last week, my friends and I looked at the calendar and marked some dates in the fourth quarter about all the deadlines of our projects, assignments, exams, etc. Just looking at that calendar, I am literally shocked as there seem to be no time for "breathing". The schedule is so dense that we always have something to work on week after week, day after day, to make all the things work out. Well, no use in complaining now, the important thing is that I have to keep working hard and be passionate about it, just wish me luck!
Anyway, speaking of something nicer, I think spring has officially come now. Overall, the temperature has been warmer. Btw, I can't believe that now I feel that 14 degree temperature IS warm! In Indonesia, 14 degree is like really cold! Anyway, beside warmer temperature, some of the past several days the sun was also shining nicely. Of course I made us of those rare time as much as I could. I exercised a bit more, not a heavy one, but just biking around the town of Delft. It was fun! Hopefully many of this kind of day will come in the near future!
::: Spring in TU Delft Campus. I love this kind of weather.
::: Apparently, this is a sakura tree (I guess)!!
::: Yes, at one point, somehow I managed to get out of town literally while biking around!
BAHASA INDONESIA
Engga, engga koq, tenang aja, aku tidak akan menulis kebohongan disini. Aku menulis judul di atas (April Mop) ya sebagai penanda bahwa bulan baru telah datang saja, yaitu bulan April. Dan April adalah bulan yang santai! Ya, ini adalah kebohongan, hahaha. Toh bohong sekali di April Mop nggak papa kan ya? :-)
Yah, jadi, bulan April telah datang. Bagi mahasiswa TU Delft, April ini menandai berakhirnya kuarter tiga dan dimulainya kuarter keempat. Apakah artinya buatku? NERAKA!! Ya, artinya NERAKA!! Aku akan mengikuti satu ujian resit April ini, bukan masalah besar sih. Masalahnya adalah, aku akan memiliki kuarter empat yang sangat amat sibuk banget, dan itu semua akan dimulai April ini. Kuarter besok, aku sudah pasti ada tiga proyek yang harus diselesaikan, dan mereka proyek-proyek besar loh! Aku sudah memulai satu proyek sekarang, hitung-hitung nyicil kerjaan gitu biar nanti nggak berat-berat amat. Lagian, satu proyek ini adalah proyek yang asyik koq, tentang Expert Judgment! Ngomong-ngomong, di samping proyek-proyek itu, aku rasa kami juga bisa menjangka akan ada tugas-tugas seperti biasa dari kelas-kelas. Di samping itu, akan ada satu ujian lisan bulan ini juga. Minggu lalu, aku dan teman-temanku menandai beberapa tanggal di kalender dengan deadline proyek-proyek, tugas-tugas, ujian-ujian, dll. Hanya melihat kalender itu, aku udah geleng-geleng aja nih soalnya bisa dibilang nggak ada waktu buat sejenak "bernafas" deh. Jadwalnya padat banget sampai-sampai selalu saja ada yang harus dikerjakan minggu demi minggu, hari demi hari, agar semua bisa terselesaikan. Yah, nggak ada gunanya komplain sekarang, yang penting adalah bekerja keras dan tetap semangat, doakan aku yah!
Ngomong2, ngomongin hal yang agak lebih mengasyikkan, aku rasa musim semi sudah datang nih. Secara keseluruhan, suhu udara sudah lebih hangat sekarang. Btw, aku nggak menyangka lho kalau sekarang aku merasa suhu 14 derajat itu hangat! Di Indonesia, 14 derajat kan udah dingin kan yah. Ngomong2, di samping suhu yang lebih hangat, beberapa hari terakhir ini juga matahari bersinar dengan riangnya. Tentu saja aku memanfaatkan cuaca langka ini sebaik mungkin. Aku berolahraga sedikit, nggak berat-berat sih, cuma sepedaan aja keliling sekitaran kota Delft. Asyik juga loh! Mudah-mudahan hari-hari semacam ini akan datang lagi dalam waktu dekat.
Apparently, the DST last Sunday had a jetlag-ish effect.
The first apparent one was the sun, of course. Before the DST, the sun set at around 7 PM around this time in the Netherlands. However, due to DST, the sun now sets at around 8 PM. Also as a consequence, the sun also now rises about one hour "late" than before. Well, no biggie though, it is just sun, no??
The problem arose in my body and mind clock. Yesterday I cooked my dinner at around the "same" time as before, at around 6.45 PM. However, due to the DST, it was the same as 5.45 PM as before DST. I was still not that hungry at that time and it resulted in me having dinner a bit "late" yesterday. Okay, another small problem.
The bigger problem was that yesterday evening at the time I was supposed to get to bed, I did not feel sleepy! The thing was, I would have a morning class in Utrecht on Monday, which meant that I had to get to bed early on Sunday. I wanted to get to bed at 10 PM, but it means that it was equivalent to 9 PM the day before! If my body clock was still set in the winter time, no wonder I did not feel that sleepy at that time. As a result, I got to bed at almost midnight.
Of course the effect was prolonged until today. Having to get up at 6.45-ish this morning to catch the 8.45 AM train to Utrecht (via Rotterdam), it was equivalent with getting up at 5.45-ish last week to catch the 7.45 AM train. So early, wasn't it?? That is why today I was a bit asleep the whole day, hahaha...
So, there it is, just a one hour DST had a jetlag-ish effect on me today.
BAHASA INDONESIA
Ternyata, DST hari Minggu kemarin ini ada efek jetlag terhadap diriku loh.
Yang pertama adalah matahari, tentu saja. Sebelum DST, matahari terbenam sekitar jam 7an malam di bulan2 sekarang di Belanda. Namun, karena DST, matahari sekarang terbenam sekitar jam 8an malam. Juga sebagai konsekuensinya, mataharinya juga terbit sejam "terlambat" dari sebelumnya. Yah, nggak masalah kan, cuma matahari gitu??
Masalah mulai muncul pada jam biologis dan pikiranku. Kemarin aku masak makan malam di sekitar jam yang "sama" seperti sebelumnya, sekitar jam 6.45 malam. Namun, karena DST, itu artinya ekuivalen dengan masak jam 5.45 sore sebelum DST. Aku masih belum lapar jam segitu dan akhirnya kemarin aku makan malamnya agak "terlambat" deh. Oke, cuma gini aja, masalah kecil kan.
Masalah yang lebih besar adalah kemarin malam di saat waktunya aku tidur, aku koq nggak ngantuk yah! Masalahnya, aku akan ada kelas pagi di Utrecht di hari Senin ini, yang artinya aku harus tidur agak awal tiap hari Minggu. Aku berencana tidur jam 10 malam, tapi itu artinya ekuivalen dengan tidur jam 9 malam sehari sebelumnya! Jika jam biologisku masih di waktu musim dingin, ya nggak heran aku masih belum merasa ngantuk deh. Sebagai akibatnya, aku baru tidur hampir tengah malam kemarin.
Efeknya tentu berkepanjangan hingga hari ini. Harus bangun pagi jam 6.45-an pagi ini untuk naik kereta jam 8.45 pagi tujuan Utrecht (via Rotterdam), itu ekuivalen dengan bangun jam 5.45-an minggu lalu dan naik kereta jam 7.45 pagi. Pagi banget kan!! Makanya deh hari ini seharian aku agak-agak ngantuk gitu, hahaha...
Jadi, itulah dia, penyesuaian DST sebanyak satu jam ternyata bisa mengakibatkan efek seperti jetlag di diriku hari ini.
This past one week has passed really quick! I mean, literally! I feel that I wrote my last entry just one or two days ago, but it has been one week! Wow! Maybe this is due to the fact that I have kinda been busy with all the stuffs from campus. Bah, same old story. I have one assignment due next Monday, and last Wednesday I had a really great trip to Amsterdam. No, no, it was NOT a vacation trip, it was more like a company visit to one financial company in Amsterdam. Somehow I got selected to be part of the visiting students (not all students could participate at this trip) and of course I accepted it. It turned out that it was so much fun! My eyes were opened wider and it really pumped me up to work harder!
Anyway, I can not believe that tonight, the spring Daylight Saving Time(DST) will take place. Well, it is not that I cannot believe we have a DST, but it is just that now we are already at the point of another DST! I remember writing this entry about my first DST and somehow now we are already approaching the next DST! How fast time flew!! Anyway, tonight the DST is not my favorite one as this Sunday we will only have 23 hours a day. The time will get fast forward one hour once it reaches 2 AM.
BAHASA INDONESIA
Seminggu terakhir ini benar-benar cepat berlalu deh! Maksudku, beneran deh! Rasanya aku menulis posting terakhirku ini tuh baru satu atau dua hari yang lalu, tapi ternyata udah seminggu yah! Wow! Ini mungkin dikarenakan aku sibuk minggu ini dengan semua hal dari kampus. Bah, cerita lama. Aku ada satu tugas yang harus dikumpul Senin besok, dan Rabu lalu aku mengikuti acara di Amsterdam. Bukan, bukan, acaranya bukan acara jalan-jalan, tapi lebih ke kunjungan perusahaan ke sebuah perusahaan finansial di Amsterdam. Aku terpilih untuk bisa ikut acara kunjungan perusahaan ini (nggak semua mahasiswa bisa ikut loh) dan tentu saja aku menerima tawaran ini. Ternyata acaranya asik banget! Acaranya benar-benar membuka mataku dan menyemangati aku untuk bekerja lebih keras!
Ngomong2, aku nggak percaya bahwa malam ini,Daylight Saving Time(DST) musim semi akan berlangsung. Yah, bukannya aku nggak percaya bahwa malam ini ada DST, maksudku aku nggak menyangka aja sekarang kita sudah berada di waktu DST lagi! Aku masih ingat menulis posting ini tentang DST pertamaku dan entah bagaimana sekarang kita sudah mendekati DST selanjutnya! Waktu benar-benar cepat berlalu!! Ngomong2, malam ini DSTnya bukanlah favoritku karena hari Minggu ini hanya akan memiliki 23 jam sehari. Waktu akan maju satu jam begitu waktu menyentuh jam 2 subuh.
My life lately, well, I think you know how it goes. I have been busy lately with, as usual, all the works from campus that I must do. I barely had enough time to take a deep relaxing breath during the weekdays even though in the weekend I have had time to take some rests that I needed. Thanks God for that.
Two weeks ago I went to my friend's birthday celebration here. We all had dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown in Delft's centrum. Well, I had really wanted to trya Mexican cuisine called "chimichanga", for two reasons: (1) it sounds funny; (2) I watched a movie some years ago where the character had chimichanga and it was depicted that it was super delicious, so I was curious. But then, reading the description (some food with mangos, etc), I decided not to take the "risk" and went with something more "familiar" (carnitas). It turned out that the carnitas was just okay (except for the grilled corn, it was awesome!) and now I feel that I should have taken that risk!
Last week there was an international students gathering where the idea was that everyone brought a meal representing their country of origin. Well, I decided to bring Javanese Fried Noodle as I had a pack of noodles that I bought last month which up to that point I had not had the mood to cook noodles for myself yet. So, fried noodle it was (yeah, in a way: gathering = one way to get rid of unneeded supply without just throwing it away to the garbage).
These past three weekends, I have had the privilege to (finally) have time for nap. I am so thankful of that. However, it just happened that in those three naps, I always dreamed, and those dreams were not nice ones, hmmm. Does it mean I should never take a nap??
After hearing some reviews from friends, I decided to start watching The Big Bang Theory. My friends were right, it was awesome and funny!! I started watching earlier this week and now I am already in the third season. :D I really recommend this show especially if you are pretty much familiar with the world of science :-)
Somehow lately I have this urge to start trying wearing contact lenses. I don't know why, the thought just popped in my head :-D. Then, I did some surveys online (mainly about the price), and the prices shocked me to hell!! Contact lenses are damn expensive!! Well, by expensive, I mean, the prices I saw were kinda higher than my expectation. Hmm...
Lately, I have been in the mood for experiments in the kitchen. You got a peek of one of the results two weeks ago. After that minced meat steak, my kitchen managed to produce lemonade chicken and soto. Yeah, soto!! Well, sure the soto was still not as delicious as many soto I had back in Indonesia, but considering it was my first attempt plus it was from scratch, I am very pleased!
I read on Facebook that today that the moon would appear on a rare size. By "rare size", it meant: bigger size, a.k.a "supermoon". Well, today the weather was great in Delft and some minutes ago I just decided to go outside to see the moon, and walked around for a little bit (That soto made my stomach really full. Thus, taking a walk sound like a good idea). And yeah, the moon was freaking huge!! Kinda cool!!
Talking about good weather in Delft, today I went grocery shopping for a while and I noticed something a bit unusual: Delft was more crowded today. By that, I mean the traffic was busier than other normal Saturday! Well, I guess it was because of the sun. The sun shone nicely today and the temperature was not that cold (nor that hot either). My theory was that this rare condition stimulated people to go outside and enjoy the rare good weather that somehow occured on a Saturday!
Third quarter's exam week is around the corner now. Well, just like last October, technically I will have no mandatory exam this term (even though last October I had one oral exam though :-P). But I decided two weeks ago that I will take one resit exam, even though I have passed the subject, to get a better grade. Well, so, wish me luck! :-)
::: Spring is around the corner! Spring in Delft
::: Some cookings at international dinner gathering last week.
::: My first ever attempt to cook a bowl of soto.
::: Supermoon
BAHASA INDONESIA
Kehidupanku akhir-akhir ini, yah, mungkin pada bisa nebak yah. Aku akhir-akhir ini, seperti biasa, disibukkan dengan kerjaan dari kampus yang harus dikerjakan. Di kala hari-hari kerja, beneran deh akhir-akhir ini susah mencari waktu bahkan untuk istirahat sejenak sambil menghela nafas. Walau di akhir minggu aku masih bisa beristirahat sih. Untunglah.
Dua minggu yang lalu aku pergi ke perayaan ulang tahun seorang teman. Kami makan malam di sebuah restoran Meksiko di centrum-nya Delft. Yah, aku sudah sangat pengen mencoba masakan Meksiko yang bernama "chimichanga", karena dua alasan: (1) namanya lucu; (2) aku nonton di film beberapa tahun yang lalu dimana tokoh di film itu makan chimichanga dan kayanya koq enak banget, jadi penasaran deh. Tapi kemudian, membaca deskripsi menunya (makanan dengan mangga, dll) koq malah aku agak goyah dalam mengambil "risiko"-nya yah, dan akhirnya malah memilih menu lain yang deskripsinya lebih "familiar" (carnitas). Eh ternyata, carnitas-nya rasanya biasa saja (kecuali jagung bakarnya sih, enak buangett!!) dan sekarang aku koq malah merasa seharusnya aku mengambil "risiko" itu!
Minggu lalu beberapa mahasiswa internasional kumpul2 gitu dan idenya adalah setiap orang membawa makanan yang mewakili negara asal mereka. Nah, aku memutuskan untuk membawa Mie Goreng Jawa buatanku sendiri karena aku memiliki satu pak mi yang kubeli sebulan sebelumnya dan sampai saat itu belum ada mood buat masak mie buat diri sendiri. Jadi, mie goreng lah yang kubawa (yah, di satu sisi: kumpul2 = satu cara menyingkirkan bahan masakan yang nggak dibutuhkan tanpa harus menyia-nyiakannya dengan membuangnya ke tempat sampah).
Tiga wiken terakhir ini, aku mendapatkan privilege untuk (akhirnya) tidur siang loh. Aku sangat bersyukur karenanya. Hanya saja, koq di tiga tidur siang itu aku selalu bermimpi yah, dan mimpinya tuh bukan mimpi yang menyenangkan deh, hmmm. Apa artinya aku nggak boleh tidur siang nih??
Setelah mendengar beberapa ulasan dari teman-teman, aku akhirnya memutuskan untuk mulai menonton The Big Bang Theory. Teman-temanku benar, acara ini benar-benar keren dan lucu!!! Aku mulai menonton awal minggu ini dan kini aku sudah ada di musim ketiga loh :D Aku menyarankan untuk menonton acara ini deh, apalagi kalau pada kenal dan familiar dengan dunia sains :-)
Entah kenapa akhir-akhir ini koq rasanya seperti ada dorongan untuk mencoba memakai lensa kontak yah. Nggak tau deh kenapa, cuma pikiran ini tiba-tiba muncul gitu aja :-D Trus, aku melakukan survey online (terutama tentang harga), dan ternyata harganya mengejutkanku loh!!! Lensa kontak ternyata mahal yah!! Yah, maksudnya mahal adalah, harga yang aku lihat lebih mahal daripada ekspektasi hargaku. Hmm...
Akhir-akhir ini, aku koq sedang dalam mood melakukan eksperimen di dapur. Satu hasilnya sudah aku posting dua minggu yang lalu. Setelah steak daging cincang, dapurku kemudian menghasilkan ayam goreng lemon dan soto. Ya, soto!! Yah, memang sotonya masih belum seenak soto yang pernah kumakan di Indonesia lah, cuma mempertimbangkan bahwa soto ini adalah soto pertama yang kubuat sendiri dari nol, aku sangat senang nih!
Aku baca di Facebook bahwa hari ini bulan akan muncul dalam ukuran yang langka. Maksud dari "ukuran langka" adalah: ukuran yang lebih besar, atau "supermoon" atau "bulan super". Yah, karena hari ini cuacanya lagi bagus di Delft, aku memutuskan untuk jalan keluar melihat bulannya beberapa menit yang lalu, dan sekalian jalan kaki keliling sebentar deh (Sotonya membuat perutku jadi penuh banget. Makanya ide jalan kaki sebentar sambil menurunkan isi perut terdengar menarik). Dan memang loh, bulannya besar banget!! Keren juga!!
Ngomong2 tentang cuaca yang bagus di Delft, hari ini aku pergi belanja bahan masakan dan aku memperhatikan satu hal yang agak tak biasa: Delft lebih ramai hari ini. Maksudku, lalu lintas lebih ramai dari hari-hari Sabtu yang lain! Yah, aku rasa ini karena mataharinya sih. Hari ini matahari bersinar cerah dan temperaturnya juga nggak dingin-dingin amat (walau nggak panas juga). Teoriku adalah, kondisi langka ini merangsang orang untuk pergi keluar dan menikmati cuaca indah yang kebetulan bisa terjadi di hari Sabtu ini!
Minggu ujian kuarter ketiga sudah mulai datang. Yah, seperti Oktober lalu, secara teknis sih aku nggak ada ujian wajib di waktu ini (walau Oktober lalu aku ada satu ujian lisan sih :-P). Tapi dua minggu yang lalu aku memutuskan untuk mengambil satu ujian resit, walau aku sudah lulus mata kuliahnya sih, untuk mencoba mendapat nilai yang lebih baik. Yah, doakan aku yah! :-)
Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy for Christmas and New Year Break and now he had used most of his time in Rome getting around the city during Christmas.
Before I start, well, I think I have to speed up my pace now otherwise this entry will be a never-ending one, hahaha.
So, we only had less than one day left in Rome since that day we planned to leave for Florence by evening. We still had one destination in mind: the Vatican Museum in Vatican City as the museum was closed when we first visited Vatican City three days before because of Christmas (see Part I).
So, that was it, our plan for that day was obvious. We also had a date with our Italian friend for lunch that day. So, after lunch, we all (including our Italian friend) went to Vatican Museum. Lucky the queue was not that long that day and we got a pretty good discount for the entrance fee because we were students! My own agendas for the Vatican Museum were two things: visiting Sistine Chapel and taking a picture of the famous purple spiral stairs in the museum.
Well, in fact, the WHOLE Vatican Museum was SO beautiful! It was definitely the best museum I had ever been into in my life (well, I have not visited Louvre in Paris yet so I cannot make a comparison at this point :-) ). With that entrance fee (15 euro, but we only paid 8 because we were students), I think it definitely worthed it. I loved the Roman architecture of the museum, and the art masterpieces in it. There was this long hallway which was divided in rooms, and they somehow designed the rooms to be so symmetric so that you were like seeing a mirror!!
::: One Roman Palace inside the Vatican Museum.
::: A magnificent hallway in Vatican Museum.
Anyway, so we finally got in the Sistine Chapel. Entering the chapel was so magical for me. As you might recall, about two years prior,I worked on a project about Michaelangelo for my Aesthetics Class. And the movie I watched in that class mainly focused on this Sistine Chapel. So just imagine how incredible it was for me that that time I WAS IN the Sistine Chapel itself, seeing Michaelangelo's masterpieces with my own eyes!!
::: The purple spiral stairs.
We also visited Raphael's Room just nearby Sistine Chapel (of course), and it was another magnificent place to visit!! Anyway, after going around the museum (and taking picture of that purple spiral stairs), we decided to leave Vatican Museum as it was already about 5 PM. We visited St. Peter's Square for a while. After that we left for Roma Termini Station. After taking our luggages (earlier that day we deposited our luggages in Termini Station), we bought our tickets to Florence. Somehow, we did not buy the regular train's tickets but we bought the Eurostar Train ticket instead. Well, the ticket was of course more expensive but Eurostar was a faster train and in a way I also wanted to experience how it felt like to ride a Eurostar! :-)
::: St. Peter's Square in the dusk.
Eurostar was awesome. Even the second class was incredible and nice! And it was fast (of course)! Once we arrived at Florence there was a funny incident as we (somehow) arrived about 15 minutes earlier in Florence, causing us to be like "F*ck, we are in Florence!" because it took a bit of time for us to get ready to get off the train (because one of my friend was in a wheelchair, so it took more time to prepare) and we planned to prepare for it 10 minutes before our scheduled time arrival, which meant at that point, we were not ready yet, lol.
::: Eurostar Italia, an Italian bullet train.
Anyway, that night in Florence we had dinner at a bar (it was more like an American bar though, as I ordered Ribs steak). The hostel was also not really good. They messed up with the reservation and they prepared smaller room for us. We of course complained and for the first night we got an extra room and for the rest, well, they sort of packed all of us in that smaller rooms but gave some discounts. But still, not a really nice experience.
The next day, we asked a recommendation for good places to eat in Florence and we got some. The problem was, one of them was closed because it was holiday! hahaha. Anyway, this day we went around the city. Florence was a nice city. One of the most landmarky place was Ponte Vecchio. We also wanted to enter the Palazzo Pitti, a museum at around 5 PM. But we realized a paper on the ticket booth saying something "gratis" ("gratis" is a very common word in many European languages as it means exactly the same as in Indonesian :D) after 7 PM that day and we suspected it was the entrance fee. Of course we opted to wait for two more hours (it would be a free entrance for God's sake! :D) and we could explore the city a little bit more. Well, after Vatican Museum, this museum was just fine for me, a little bit verging on boring even in a way. Anyway, that evening, we had dinner at one of the recommended restaurant to eat the famous Florenzian Beef Steak! It was kinda unique as we ordered not based on how many portions we wanted, but how many grams of steak we wanted, lol. And the steak was nice! It had a bit of raw taste, and that is why if you love medium-cooked steak, you will also like this Florenzian steak! :-)
::: Ponte Vecchio in Firenze.
::: Firenze as seen from Ponte Vecchio.
::: Florenzian Beef Steak!
The next day, we visited the Accademia Gallery as my friend really wanted to see David. We could skip the lines (because my friend was in a wheelchair, lol). There was a funny incident happening when we got in. Before getting in, we had to get through the security check first. Just like at the airport, we had to walk through a metal detector. I forgot to take my keys off my pocket and the detector beeped. I took my keys off and walked through the detector again. And the security guy was like: "Signore, this is a metal detector and these [pointing at my keys] are metals". I was like "Okay" since technically what he said was something too trivial, wasn't it? And I had no idea how to react to that. Feeling the awkwardness, that security guard even restated what he just said, making it even more awkward. I said "Okay" again and then he was like "Well, these are metals that is why it beeps!". And I was like "Yeah, of course, so?". Tired, he let me go in, lol. Probably he was trying to be a bit funny but he put a damn serious face, making me unsure whether he was joking, playing around with me, or was in fact serious! hahaha.
The statue of David was so magnificent! It was HUGE (all this time I thought it was small. Well, not small "small", probably 2 or 3 meter in height, but in fact it was 5+ meter!). Michaelangelo also sculpted it in a unique way in depicting David's victory over Goliath (in Indonesian, David is "Daud" and Goliath is "Goliat" :-D). But that was pretty much it in the museum. The other arts were just okay, but not as outstanding as David.
::: Firenze's Cathedral.
After the museum, we went to the cathedral. Well, again, after St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, this cathedral was just "okay", even though I am a bit sure that HAD we entered this cathedral BEFORE St. Peter's Basilica, we would have been "wow"-ed by it :-) We then went around the city and went to the open market.
::: Delicioius Gelato in Firenze.
I was looking for a water proof shoes as our next destination was Venezia (Venice) and there was a rumor that it was flooding there. I was thinking buying a pair of new shoes didn't hurt as I could use those shoes also as my winter shoes back in the Netherlands. I found a good pair of shoes with reasonable price. However, I had a problem with the color (yellow) as I did not see myself wearing yellow shoes, lol. The seller tried to provoke me to buy them (of course) by saying I could color the shoes MYSELF using a polish or something and I also had to buy that polish. Well Sir, if I would not buy new shoes whose color I did not like in which I had to "recolor" it myself with some polish that I also had to buy! If he would recolored it for me with no charge, well, I would be considering the offer and it would depend on how the shoes looked like after the process. I ended up not buying those shoes :-)
ENGLISH
BAHASA INDONESIA
