#884 - Welcoming Spring

ENGLISH

Spring, or lente or voorjaar in Dutch, is the season that officially started today in Europe. If people ask me if I was excited to welcome spring, well, the answer would be "yes, I am excited to welcome spring". However, the fact lately has been kinda contradictory to the "spring stereotype". These past two weeks, the temperature dropped to somewhere around 4 or 5 degree in average (before that, I think it was already somewhere around 10 degree). It was even snowing last week. Not that bad though, but it was snowing! However, it is true that days are now getting longer as lately the sun sets at around 6.45 PM. But still, even though officially it is spring now, I still kinda feel this is still winter in a way, lol.

Anyway, speaking of welcoming Spring, TU Delft decided to give its students a one week spring break. Awesome!? Of course!! Was it refreshing?? Well, it was supposed to be refreshing. However, people do not call TU Delft for nothing. I still had several assignments and projects to work on. And to finish them on time, I had to use my time during my spring break. Plus, my Dutch class was still held during the break, and there was one extra class for one lecture. So, yeah, even though it was spring break, I did not really have a break, until Friday.

On Friday, my friends and I decided to go on a short trip during the weekend to a neighboring country: Luxembourg. It was an awesome weekend trip. Just at the time I needed, I got a nice short trip. Luxembourg was a really nice country with beautiful scenery (and mountain. Well, the Netherlands is really FLAT so that seeing mountainous landscape is such a refreshing). But it was sooooo tiny. And also, I felt that it was so "quiet". I mean, on Friday evening at around 8 PM, literally noone was there and it was like there was no more life there. The traffic was like traffic in Bandung or Yogyakarta at 1 AM: so empty. But yeah, it was really nice and here are some photos of my short trip there:

::: A view of Luxembourg City

::: A view from Vianden Castle, Vianden

::: Vianden. You can see Vianden Castle on top of the hill.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Musim Semi, atau lente atau voorjaar dalam bahasa Belanda, adalah musim yang secara resmi dimulai sekarang di Eropa. Kalau orang bertanya padaku apakah aku bersemangat menyambut musim ini, yah, jawabannya tentu: "ya, aku bersemangat nih dalam menyambut kedatangan musim semi". Namun, fakta belakangan ini malah agak bertentangan dengan "stereotip musim semi". Dua minggu terakhir ini, temperaturnya turun ke sekitar 4 atau 5 derajat rata-ratanya (padahal sebelumnya sudah sempat naik sampai sekitar 10an derajat tuh). Bahkan, minggu lalu juga sempat bersaljut loh. Nggak parah sih, cuma aja, bersalju! Namun, bener sih kalau sekarang siang hari sudah mulai memanjang karena matahari sekarang terbenamnya sekitar jam 6.45 sore. Tapi masih aja sih, walau secara resmi sekarang ini sudah musim semi, tapi rasanya kaya masih musim dingin deh, lol.

Ngomong2 tentang menyambut musim semi, TU Delft memutuskan untuk memberikan mahasiswa2nya libur awal musim semi selama seminggu loh. Asyik?? Tentu saja!! Apakah liburannya menyegarkan?? Yah, seharusnya sih begitu ya. Cuma saja, orang tidak sekedar memberikan prestise pada TU Delft dong. Aku masih ada beberapa tugas dan proyek yang harus diselesaikan. Dan supaya aku bisa menyelesaikannya tepat waktu, aku harus menggunakan waktuku selama libur musim semi itu. Plus, kelas Bahasa Belandaku juga tetap jalan tuh di minggu itu, dan ada satu kelas tambahan di mata kuliah yang lain. Jadi yah, walau di libur musim semi, aku nggak terlalu menikmati libur yang beneran "libur", sampai hari Jumat.

Di hari Jumat, aku dan teman2ku memutuskan untuk jalan-jalan sebentar ke negara tetangga: Luxembourg. Perjalanan itu adalah perjalanan wiken yang asyik loh. Tepat berlangsung di saat aku membutuhkan liburan. Luxembourg adalah negara yang bagus dengan pemandangan yang indah (dan gunung-gunung. Nah, Belanda kan negara yang RATA tuh, jadi melihat gunung aja sudah serasa kaya cuci mata). Tapi negaranya tuh keciiiiil banget. Dan juga, aku merasa negaranya tuh "sepi" banget. Maksudku, pas hari Jumat malam sekitar jam 8 gitu, seperti nggak ada orang gitu deh disana dan seperti nggak ada kehidupan (lebay nih). Lalu lintasnya juga seperti lalu lintas di Bandung atau Yogyakarta kalau jam 1 subuh: lengang banget. Tapi ya, tetep aja negaranya bagus tuh. Di atas aku unggah beberapa foto dari perjalanan terakhir kemarin.