#843 - Fun Week

ENGLISH

Another week is coming to an end and here I am now, two days short from the month of September. Well, according to my university's schedule, my first day of lecture is supposed to be tomorrow. However, because there will be an obligatory event that my faculty will hold (the "Masters Kick Off" (MKO) event), there will be no classes next week (MKO will take four days and I still have no idea where it will be held). I am really looking forward to it!!

Anyway, the university's Introduction Week officially ended last Thursday, and I stupidly missed the closing party where we could eat and drink anything for FREE and the attenders also got backpacks. Damn fatigue!! Had I known the closing party would be like "that", I would not have left early, LOL.

Last Saturday, my friends and I had a trip to Rotterdam, another big city located not far from Delft (just about 12 minutes with train from Delft Station). We departed as a pretty big group but split up once we were in Rotterdam as there were so many preferences among the members. Anyway, Rotterdam is very different from Den Haag. Rotterdam is more "modern" with all the skyscrapers while Den Haag is more "classical" with all the classic European architectures. As a place for tourist, I think Den Haag is way more interesting than Rotterdam.

In Rotterdam, we visited the Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge), then we walked all the way to Euromast, a tower in Rotterdam, which was a really long way. Having made all he efforts, of course we MUST get into the Euromast and climb up to the deck. After paying 8.90 euro pp, we all boarded the elevator which brought us up to the deck at 96 meter above the ground. It was really cool up there (both literally and figuratively)!! Well, I do not know how to describe it (as mainly we saw the city of Rotterdam and its neighborhood up there) so I put a panoramic picture below. There was also an extreme and daring thing to do: rappelling down a rope to get to the ground. I still love my life and so I did not take that one, LOL. Anyway, there was also a "Space Tower" up there where we could embark on a spinning observatory room and got an "extra" 85 meter of height off the ground. After spending about 45 minutes up there, we decided to get down.

Our next destination was the "Kubushuis" but there was a problem: Euromast and Kubushuis were located in an opposite direction from Erasmus Bridge. We came to a decision to put Euromast as our first destination, then caught a Metro (subway) to go to Kubushuis. OOT, owning an OV-Chipkaart is a must when we live in the Netherlands as to get to a Metro, we must have this card. Back to topic, after walking to a Metro Station (the name of the station was cool : Coolhaven"), we arrived at the kubushuis. Kubushuis is a unique housing with "oblique" cubes as the "houses". And that was it, nothing else really special about this place.

Then, we walked to the centrum (some friends bought so many snacks, like tapas, haring, etc on the way) and had dinner there at an Italian Pizzeria. After dinner, we walked back to Rotterdam Centraal Station and got a train back to Delft (and I realized that I stupidly lost my return ticket and I had to buy another one :-( But lucky my friend owned a kortingkaart (discount card) so I still got a 40% off). At Delft, it was 7.30 PM and the weather was so shiny (in the summer, the son sets at around 9 PM here) and (seemingly) good. We decided to go on another impulsive ride to: Scheveningen (in northern Den Haag)!! However, typical Netherlands, the "mood" of the weather somehow changed and it rained! F**k!! Once we arrived at Scheveningen, it was raining and so windy!! We got wet but survived to make it to a bar where we had nice hot drinks. After chit-chatting, it was already 9.45 PM and we gotta get back to Delft using a tram. At Delft, we narrowly missed the bus number 40!! Damnit!! It only departed once in one hour on Saturday so we had to wait for another hour or chose another line. We picked the latter, and finally I arrived at my apartment at about 11.30 PM.


L : The upper-deck of my train to Rotterdam. I was so excited to ride this train as I had never been on a double-decker train before, LOL.
R : The city of Rotterdam, as seen just next to Rotterdam Centraal Station.


L : De Stadhuis op Rotterdam.
R : A classic steamboat at an exhibition.


L : Richard Krajicek, a Dutch tennis player who won Wimbledon's Gentlemen's Singles in 1996.
R : Vanessa Williams.


L : Bon Jovi.
R : Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge)


L : Euromast.
R : They put this hole in the spinning observation room at the "Space Tower:


Panoramic Views of Rotterdam taken from 96 meters above the ground at Euromast.


L : Each person can choose his/her way back down, and they chose this way.
R : Inside the Metro in Rotterdam.


L : Kubushuis, unique buildings.
R : Four Italian Pizzas.


L : Scheveningen at Night.
R : Scheveningen at Night.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Satu minggu telah berakhir lagi dan disinilah kita berada, dua hari sebelum bulan September. Hmm, berdasarkan jadwal universitasku, hari pertama kuliahku seharusnya adalah besok. Namun, karena akan diadakan sebuah acara wajib yang diadakan fakultasku (acara "Masters Kick Off" (MKO)), minggu depan ini nggak ada kelas (MKO akan berlangsung selama empat hari dan aku tidak tahu akan diadakan dimana). Tapi aku sudah bersemangat nih!!

Ngomong2, acara Minggu Perkenalan dari kampusku akhirnya telah resmi selesai Kamis lalu, dan aku dengan bodohnya melewatkan pesta penutupan dimana mahasiswa bisa makan dan minum apa pun dengan GRATIS dan bahkan yang datang juga dapet sebuah tas punggung. Dasar rasa capek sialan!! Kalo aku tahu acaranya akan seperti "itu", kan aku nggak pulang duluan karena capek, LOL.

Sabtu kemarin ini, aku dan teman2ku jalan2 ke Rotterdam, sebuah kota besar lain tidak jauh dari Delft (naik kereta cuma sekitar 12 menit). Kami berangkat sebagai grup yang cukup besar tetapi kami memisahkan diri di Rotterdam karena ada beberapa keinginan untuk dilakukan disana.Ngomong2, Rotterdam benar-beanr berbeda dari Den Haag deh. Rotterdam itu lebih "modern" dengan semua pencakar langitnya sementara Delft itu lebih "klasik" dengan semua arsitektur gaya klasik Eropa-nya. Sebagai tempat tujuan turis, aku rasa Den Haag lebih menarik daripada Rotterdam.

Di Rotterdam, kami mengunjungi Erasmusbrug (Jembatan Erasmus), kemudian berjalan kaki menuju Euromast, sebuah menara di Rotterdam, yang letaknya lumayan jauh juga. Karena sudah berjalan sejauh itu, tentu saja dong kami HARUS masuk ke Euromast-nya dan naik ke atas kan. Setelah membayar 8,90 euro seorang, kami naik lift deh menuju dek pengamatan yang terletak 96 meter di atas permukaan tanah. Di atas sana keren banget tuh, juga dingin soalnya anginnya besar banget!! Yah, nggak tahu juga cara mendeskripsikannya (intinya di atas sana ya kami melihat pemandangan kota Rotterdam dan sekitarnya gitu) jadi aku kasi foto panorama di atas sana yah. Ada juga hal yang ekstrim dan menantang untuk dilakukan: turun ke tanah dengan menggunakan tali. Aku sih masih mencintai hidupku makanya aku nggak mau deh naik tali itu, LOL. Ngomong2, ada juga yang namanya "Space Tower" dimana kita bisa naik sebuah ruang pengamatan yang berputar dan akan naik 85 meter "lagi" ke atas. Setelah di atas selama sekitar 45 menit, kami memutuskan untuk turun.

Tujuan kami selanjutnya adalah "Kubushuis" tetapi ada satu masalah: Euromast dan Kubushuis berada di lokasi yang berlawanan dari Jembatan Erasmus. Oleh karenanya, kami memutuskan untuk pergi ke Euromast dulu, kemudian naik Metro (kereta bawah tanah) menuju Kubushuis. By the way, memiliki OV-Chipkaart itu adalah suatu keharusan loh kalo kita tinggal di Belanda karena untuk naik Metro, kita harus punya kartu ini. Balik ke cerita, setelah berjalan ke sebuah Stasiun Metro (namanya keren juga: "Coolhaven"), kami tiba di kubushuis. Kubushuis adalah perumahan unik dengan kubus "miring" sebagai "rumah2nya". Dan itu saja sih, nggak ada yang terlalu spesial sama tempat ini.

Lalu, kami jalan ke centrum (di perjalanan, beberapa teman beli banyak snack, seperti kentang goreng, ikan haring, dll) dan makan malam di sebuah Rumah Makan Pizza Italia. Setelah makan malam, kami berjalan balik ke Stasiun Rotterdam Centraal dan naik kereta balik ke Delft (dan aku kemudian sadar kalau aku dengan bodohnya menghilangkan tiket kembaliku ke Delft jadinya harus beli tiket lagi deh :-( Tapi untungnya temanku memiliki sebuah kortingkaart (kartu diskon) jadi aku masih dapat diskon 40% deh). Di Delft, jam menunjukkan pukul 7.30 malam dan cuacanya masih cerah (kalo musim panas matahari kan baru terbenam jam 9 malam) dan (sepertinya) bagus. Kami lalu memutuskan untuk pergi dalam perjalanan implusif berikutnya ke: Scheveningen (di Den Haag utara)!! Namun, tipikal Belanda banget nih, tiba2 aja cuacanya berganti mood, dan tiba-tiba jadi hujan deh! A******!! Begitu kami tiba di Scheveningen, hujannya deras dan sangat berangin!! Untungnya kami selamat hingga bisa mengungsi di sebuah bar dan minum minuman hangat disana. Setelah ngobrol2, tiba-tiba sudah jam 9.45 malam dan waktunya balik ke Delft deh naik tram. Di Delft, kami secara tipis ketinggalan bus nomer 40 deh!! Sial!! Bus ini cuma berangkat satu jam sekali di hari Sabtu jadi kami harus menunggu satu jam atau naik jalur lain. Kami memilih naik bus jalur lain, dan akhirnya aku tiba di apartemen jam 11.30 malam.

#842 - First Entry in Europe

ENGLISH

Well, here I am. I am already in Delft, the Netherlands and now I am writing my first entry written from outside Indonesia, and even more spectacularly, outside Asia! At first, I planned to write in more details about my trip and my first week here in Europe, but then I realized that many things have been going on and I have to catch up, right? Thus, I canceled the detail-ic entry. So here we go.

1. I caught Garuda Indonesia's flights from Yogyakarta to Amsterdam. I caught GA 211 (with Boeing 737-86N reg code PK-GEI) and continued my trip with GA 088 (with Airbus A330-243 reg code PK-GPI) which transited in Dubai. I had 5 hours to kill in Jakarta and lucky I found a lounge which accepted my credit card. Well, I had a slight minor problem about my baggage and luckily I was able to solve it. By the way, I went on this trip with several other friends.
   
   Anyway, I think Dubai International Airport was really cool, but we did not have that much time to explore it as we only had one hour of transit and in between, when we got off the plane, we had to exchange our boarding pass with a number, which triggered a long line in the air bridge.
   
   The trip took 17 hours in total (from Jakarta) and it was damn tiring, no kidding!! Lucky Garuda served good foods and the new entertainment system definitely helped a lot!! Anyway, so we finally landed on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 9 AM LT at runway 27 of Schiphol International Airport, in Amsterdam.
   
   The problem had not ended yet. After taking all our luggage, we went to the "Welcome Desk" of my university to register ourselves and waited for the bus to come for us (yes, this is such a cool service provided by my university, TU Delft). There were several problems: we arrived late (GA 088 was supposed to arrive at 8 AM), the bus was trapped in a traffic jam, and another bus was broken; and this forced us to wait for another 3.5 hours at Schiphol Airport! Well, at 1 PM, we our buses finally came and I could directly go to my new apartment at Delft.


2. My first impression about this country was : it was so cold! During our 3.5 hours of waiting at Schiphol Airport, I decided to look around and walked outside the terminal building. The crazy thing was that it was much cooler in the outside than the inside, and (supposedly) it was in the summer!! Crazy!!


3. The weather in the Netherlands has also been really crazy. Having been here for one week, I think I have experienced many kind of weathers. I have experienced shiny day (nice one), cloudy day, rainy day, and the worst one: windy day. Well, windy day might be okay if the wind is just a "normal" wind. What I have experienced was that the wind was so crazily strong and it literally almost flew me away!! It was kinda hard to walk as we had to fight against the wind!! Wow, crazy!! I think I have to get used to it.
   


4. Well, enough for the downs, I have also experienced so many ups here and I do enjoy it!! I have not really been going around the country because I also have to settle myself down first at the moment, but I have had trips to go around Delft and also Den Haag. Den Haag is a much bigger city nearby Delft. The city is really touristy and it is really nice!! Totally love it!


5. Living in the Netherlands makes me feel like a villager from a secluded village who just moved to a big metropolitan city with all the development. It is so awesome here!! The public means of transportation is really cool (even though it is a bit confusing at times), the internet connection is incredibly super fast, the technology fascinates me (just like a "clicker" we all had for conducting a real-time polling during a Plenary Session of my Introduction Week earlier today), and the people are really professional.
   


6. I have also found several things in the Netherlands which are in a complete difference with the exact same situation in Indonesia. For instance, after having meal, we have to put the tray, plate, spoon, fork, knife, etc on a determined place. Another example, when we buy something in the supermarket and we need to weigh it, we have to weigh it ourselves and press the button to get the price label. In Indonesia, there is an employee who does that for us. Still in the supermarket, here we have to put all our stuffs we purchase on the table before we get to the cashier, then put the shopping basket on its place, and put a separator to separate our stuffs with other people's. In Indonesia, all of these do not take place, hahaha.
   
   Well, at first it was kinda confusing but this is one thing I WANTED to experience when I live in a different part of the world. It is interesting!! :-)
   
   In other hand, there is also a funny story. There was one Introduction Activity called the "Indonesian Dinner" where the participants would have Indonesian cuisines as the dinner (and I joined it, hahaha). It was an open activity and most of the participants were non-Indonesian (it made sense, because there are only (relatively) few number of Indonesian students here). Anyway, of course these foreigners were not used to eat Indonesian style, and thus they ate rice using fork and knife. Well, it was not such a big deal actually and it was okay because they did not know anything about it, but still it was kinda funny, you know.


7. Living in Europe is costy, of course, compared to living in Indonesia. I have to adjust myself so that I am financially fine. One thing I did to cope with that was cooking. Well, it is true that I did some cooking when I was in Bandung (you can find in several old entries), but it is different now. Back in Bandung, I cooked unhealthy and instant meal all the time, like corned beef, ma ling, instant noodles, ham, etc. Now, I cook something A LOT healthier. For example: real meat, eggs, veggies, spices, tempe, tofu, and also olive oil.
   
   The problem is that I do not know how to cook that kind of meal, at all. So, I just basically put anything in a frying pan, put some random spices and saucing without knowing how it will taste in the end. The result? It is not that bad, I think I like my random cooking, hahaha...


8. Talking about my university life, well, the class has not started yet but some introduction activities have been held. So far, the activities have been so much fun!! I got to know many people from every corner of the world (but I have not met anyone from Australia though). I also gotta work together with them as a team working on a project. It has been super fun.
   

Well, that is all I have for today. In the end, I am LOVING my new life in Europe and I think I will have a great time here!!


L : Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737-86N reg code PK-GEI which brought me to Jakarta as GA 211.
R : Taking off passing the city of Yogyakarta.


L : On board Garuda Indonesia's Airbus A330-243 reg code PK-GPI.
R : Dubai International Airport.


L : Taking off from Dubai Airport. The Palm and Burj Al Arab are visible.
R : Cool cloud in a cool formation.


L : Somewhere above Europe, Cool!!
R : Waiting for the bus.


L : A Very Typical Windmill in the Netherlands
R : A Canal in Delft.


L : Another Canal in Delft.
R : The famous Beestenmarkt in Delft.


L : The New Church in Delft.
R : The City Hall in Delft.


L : In My Campus.
R : Delft Railway Station.


L : Den Haag Centrum.
R : Trams in Den Haag.


L : Den Haag HS Railway Station Spoor 4.
R : At Hofvijver, Den Haag.


L : Binnenhof, Den Haag.
R : Binnenhof, Den Haag.


L : A cool sculpture made from sand.
R : A really honest and funny sign :-)


L : The Oostpoort in Delft.
R : The Oostpoort in Delft.


L : A Double-Decker Train!!!
R : The Hambrug in Delft.


L : My Cooking
R : My another cooking

BAHASA INDONESIA

Halo, disinilah diriku sekarang. Sekarang aku sudah berada di kota Delft, di Belanda dan sekarang aku sedang menulis posting pertamaku yang ditulis dari luar Indonesia, bahkan yang lebih spektakuler, di luar Asia! Pertamanya aku berencana menulis perjalananku dan minggu pertamaku di Eropa dengan lebih detail, tetapi aku kemudian sadar bahwa ada banyak sekali hal yang terjadi dan aku harus segera menuliskan semuanya kan? Makanya nggak jadi nulis detail deh. Mari kita mulai.

1. Aku naik penerbangannya Garuda Indonesia dari Yogyakarta menuju Amsterdam. Aku naik GA 211 (dengan pesawat Boeing 737-86N kode registrasi PK-GEI) dan melanjutkan penerbangan dengan GA 088 (dengan pesawat Airbus A330-243 kode registrasi PK-GPI) yang transit di Dubai. Aku memiliki waktu 5 jam untuk dihabiskan di Jakarta dan untungnya aku menemukan sebuah lounge yang menerima kartu kreditku. Btw, aku mengalami sedikit masalah dengan bagasi dan untungnya semuanya bisa beres. Ngomong-ngomong, dalam perjalanan ini aku bertemu dengan beberapa teman.
   
   Ngomong-ngomong, aku rasa Bandara Internasional Dubai sangatlah keren, tapi kami nggak memiliki banyak waktu untuk berkeliling karena kita hanya memiliki waktu satu jam untuk transit, ditambah lagi selama waktu itu, ketika baru saja keluar dari pesawat, kami harus menukar boarding pass dengan nomor gitu, yang menyebabkan terjadinya antrian panjang di gabarata.
   
   Perjalanannya memakan waktu total 17 jam (dari jakarta) dan itu sangatlah melelahkan, nggak bercanda nih!! Untungya Garuda memberikan makanan yang enak dan sistem hiburan yang baru benar-benar membantu sekali tuh!! Yah, akhirnya di hari Kamis tanggal 19 Agustus 2010, kami mendarat jam 9 waktu lokal di landasan pacu 27 Bandara Internasional Schiphol, di Amsterdam.
   
   Masalah belum berakhir. Setelah mengambil semua barang kami, kami pergi ke "Welcome Desk" yang disediakan universitasku untuk mendaftar dan menunggu bus untuk datang menjemput kami (yup, ini fasilitas yang super keren dari universitasku, TU Delft). Namun, ada beberapa masalah :kami tiba terlambat (GA 088 seharusnya mendarat jam 8 pagi), busnya terjebak macet, dan bus lain lagi rusak; dan ini memaksa kami untuk menunggul selama 3,5 jam lagi deh di Bandara Schiphol! Akhirnya jam 1 siang, busnya tiba dan mengantar kami langsung ke apartemen di Delft.


2. Impresi pertamaku tentang negara ini adalah: dingin banget sih! Selama menunggu 3,5 jam di Bandara Schiphol, aku memutuskan untuk jalan-jalan keliling dan keluar dari gedung terminalnya. Hal gilanya adalah di luar ternyata lebih dingin daripada di dalam, dan padahal (seharusnya) sekarang ini kan sedang musim panas!! Gila!!


3. Cuaca di Belanda juga gila nih. Sudah tinggal selama seminggu disini, aku rasa aku sudah mengalami banyak macam cuaca. Aku sudah mengalami hari yang cerah (asik nih), hari berawan, hari hujan, dan yang paling buruk: hari berangin. Yah, hari berangin masih nggak masalah sih kalau anginnya itu "normal-normal" saja. Masalahnya, aku sudah merasakan angin yang sangat kuat sekali dan secara harafiah hampir menerbangkan diriku loh!! Susah banget untuk berjalan dalam kondisi kaya gitu soalnya kita harus melawan kekuatan anginnya!! Gila deh!! Tapi aku harus membiasakan diri nih.
   


4. Cukup ah sama hal yang menyebalkan, aku juga sudah merasakan hal menyenangkan dan tentu saja aku menikmatinya!! Aku sih jelas belum terlalu mengelilingi negaranya ya karena kan aku juga harus membuat diriku nyaman disini dulu dong sekarang, tapi aku sudah berkesempatan untuk berkeliling Delft dan juga Den Haag. Den Haag adalah kota yang jauh lebih besar di dekat Delft. Kotanya sangat cocok untuk turis dan asik banget tuh!! Benar-benar suka nih sama kotanya!!
   


5. Tinggal di Belanda membuatku merasa seperti orang desa dari desa terpencil yang baru saja pindah ke kota metropolis sangat besar dengan segala kemajuannya. Disini keren sekali!! Angkutan umumnya sangat keren (walau kadang-kadang agak membingungkan juga), koneksi internetnya cepet bukan main, teknologi2nya mengejutkanku (misalnya "clicker" yang kami dapat tadi yang berguna untuk mengadakan polling dalam waktu sebenarnya di Sesi Pleno dari Minggu Perkenalan siang tadi), dan juga orang-orangnya sangat profesional.
   


6. Aku juga menemukan beberapa hal di Belanda yang sangat berbeda dengan situasi yang sama persis di Indonesia. Misalnya saja, setelah makan, kita harus mengembalikan nampan, piring, sendok, garpu, pisau, dll ke tempat yang sudah disediakan. Contoh lain, ketika kita membeli sesuatu di supermarket dan ingin menimbangnya,l disini kita harus menimbang sendiri dan memencet tombol sendiri untuk mendapat label harganya. Di Indonesia kan ada petugasnya untuk hal ini kan. Masih di supermarket, kita harus menaruh semua barang yang kita beli di mejanya sebelum sampai ke kasir, trus menaruh keranjang belanjaan di tempatnya, dan menaruh pemisah untuk memisahkan barang kita dengan barang orang lain. Di Indonesia, semua hal ini tidaklah terjadi, hahaha.
   
   Yah, awalnya sih agak sedikit membingungkan tapi ini adalah satu hal yang aku INGIN alami ketika aku tinggal di sisi lain dunia. Menarik kan!! :-)
   
   Di sisi lain, ada hal lucu juga. Ada sebuah kegiatan pengenalan bernama "Indonesian Dinner" dimana peserta akan makan malam masakan Indonesia (dan aku ikut, hahaha). Pesertanya terbuka dan kebanyakan orang asing yang ikut (iyalah, mahasiswa Indonesianya (relatif) cuma sedikit sih). Nah, orang asing ini kan tidak biasa makan masakan Indonesia, mereka makan nasi dengan menggunakan pisau dan garpu. Yah, nggak masalah sih dan wajar karena mereka nggak tahu dan nggak biasa, cuma agak lucu saja melihatnya.
   


7. Hidup di Eropa itu mahal, tentu saja, dibandingkan dengan hidup di Indonesia. Aku harus menyesuaikan diriku agar kondisiku "masuk" secara keuangan. Satu hal yang kulakukan adalam memasak. yah, memang benar bahwa aku memang memasak sedikit ketika aku berada di Bandung (bisa ditemukan tuh di beberapa posting lama), tetapi sekarang berbeda. Di Bandung, aku hanya memasak masakan instan dan tak sehat, misalnya cornet, ma ling, ham, mi instan, dll. Sekarang aku memasak bahan-bahan yang JAUH lebih sehat, misalnya, daging beneran, telur, sayur-sayuran, bumbu-bumbu, tempe, tahu, dan juga dengan minyak zaitun.
   
   Masalahnya, aku nggak tahu cara memasaknya, sama sekali. Jadi, aku cuma memasukkan asal aja semua bahan di wajan penggorengan, memasukkan bumbu dan saus dengan ngawur, tanpa tahu bagaimana rasa hasilnya. Hasilnya? Lumayan juga, aku rasa aku suka masakan ngaco-ku, hahaha...


8. Ngomong-ngomong tentang kehidupan universitasku, yah, kelas masih belum dimulai tetapi beberapa aktivitas perkenalan sudah diadakan. Sejauh ini, aktivitasnya sangat menyenangkan!! Aku berkenalan dengan banyak orang dari setiap penjuru dunia (walau aku belum ketemu orang dari Australia sih). Aku juga harus bekerja sama bersama mereka sebagai sebuah tim untuk mengerjakan suatu tugas. Menyenangkan deh
   

Yah, ini dulu yang aku punya sekarang. Pokoknya, aku SUKA BANGET sama kehidupan baruku di Eropa dan aku rasa aku akan menjalani waktu yang sangat menyenangkan disini!!