#888 - One Week and DST

ENGLISH

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.

#887 - Ten Things of the Week

ENGLISH

1. 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.


2. 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!


3. 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).


4. 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??


5. 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 :-)


6. 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...


7. 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!


8. 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!!


9. 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!


10. 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

1. 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.


2. 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!


3. 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).


4. 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??


5. 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 :-)


6. 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...


7. 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!


8. 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!!


9. 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!


10. 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! :-)

#886 - 2010 Year-End Trip : Italy (Part III)

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 :-)

TO BE CONTINUED

#885 - First Week of March

ENGLISH

The first week of March has been okay for me. I got some new informations regarding my study here in TU Delft and I think I have to make some adjustments in my study plan to compensate with that, but overall it is not really a problem. Regarding my study, I got (finally) a good news: I got 9 in one of my class!! I am SO happy because I really worked hard for it! :-) Getting good grade here in TU Delft requires a lot of super f**king hard work! And I also decided to take a resit exam in one of the class that I took last semester, even though I have passed the class :-) Wish me luck!

Anyway, this early March has also been exciting for me as new season of three of my favorite American reality shows were premiered: The Amazing race 18, American Idol 10, and The Apprentice 11. Even though The Apprentice is switching back to my less-favorite version of it: the celebrity one. Along with several other non-reality shows that I am currently following now, well, my tv-shows watching activity is getting busier now. Hopefully I can manage my time really well! Amen for that!

Btw, I don't know why but lately, I am getting hungry easier than usual. Is it because of the season change? Well, I think it is not because of the cold because in the winter, my appetite was just as usual, hmmm. And I noticed this after I came back from Luxembourg. Does it mean that going to Luxembourg for just three days somehow dilated my appetite? Come to think about it, it makes sense though because meals in Luxembourg were HUGE!!!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

::: A surprisingly delicious minced meat steak (or bistik) with barbeque sauce that I made as my dinner yesterday.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Minggu pertama bulan Maret sejauh ini masih baik-baik saja untukku. Aku mendapat beberapa informasi baru mengenai studiku kini di TU Delft dan aku rasa aku perlu melakukan sedikit penyesuaian di rencana belajarku karena informasi baru ini, tapi secara keseluruhan ini bukan masalah besar sih. Tentang studiku, aku (akhirnya) mendapat nilai 9 loh di salah satu kelasku!! Aku SENANG sekali nih, soalnya aku beneran belajar ekstra keras untuk ujiannya! :-) Mendapatkan nilai bagus di TU Delft itu membutuhkan kerja yang sangat amat keras dan ekstra! Dan aku juga memutuskan untuk mengambil satu ujian resit di salah satu mata kuliah, walau sebenarnya aku sudah lulus sih di kelas itu :-) Doakan aku yah!

Ngomong2, awal Maret ini juga mengasyikkan untukku karena musim baru dari tiga reality show favoritku akhirnya dimulai juga: The Amazing race 18, American Idol 10, dan The Apprentice 11. Walau sebenarnya The Apprentice justru balik ke versi yang aku kurang suka sih: versi selebriti. Bersama dengan beberapa acara tv non-reality show yang sedang aku ikuti sekarang, yah, kegiatan nonton tv-ku menjadi semakin sibuk nih. Mudah2an aku bisa mengatur waktu dengan baik! Amin!

Btw, nggak tahu kenapa tetapi akhir-akhir ini, aku koq lebih gampang lapar dari biasanya yah. Apakah ini karena perubahan musim? Yah, aku rasa sih bukan karena dingin soalnya waktu musim dingin kemarin, nafsu makanku juga biasa-biasa saja, hmmm. Dan aku menyadari hal ini setelah kembali dari Luxembourg. Jangan-jangan jalan-jalan ke Luxembourg selama hanya tiga hari tuh membuat nafsu makan lebih besar ya? Kalau dipikir-pikir masuk akal juga sih, soalnya porsi makanan di Luxembourg tuh BESAAR banget!!

Selamat berakhir pekan semua!

#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.

#883 - 2010 Year-End Trip: Italy (Part II)

Previously on 2010 Year-End Trip: Italy : Zilko and his friends went to Italy over the Christmas break. They spent their Christmas Eve eating Japanese food for dinner with a good (free) red wine and cake.

The thing was, we had been a bit worried about our agendas on the Christmas Day itself. Well, it is true that Rome (Vatican City to be precise) is the center of Catholicism and that is why Christmas is supposedly nothing to worry about. Well, the truth was quite the contrary. Because people there did celebrate Christmas, ALL places were closed on Christmas Day! By ALL, yes, I mean ALL: including Vatican City, ALL museums in Rome, Colosseum, etc. To make things worse, that day ALL public transports were inactive for some period of hours (three hours if I am not mistaken, from around 12 or 1 PM until 3 or 4 PM) because the government decided that public service people should spend those time with their families on Christmas Day. To make the already worse things even "worser" (from visitors' point of view), December 26th is also a national holiday in Italy! So people, do really think about your trip to Rome if you plan to go on these dates!

Luckily, we were not stupid people. We still planned to get what we could get that day: the city of Rome itself. It was true that many museums in the city were closed, but it did not mean the city was "closed", right? Even though we did not get in into something, we still could enjoy the city by going around it. Another luck was on our side, we had a friend who came from Rome and that day he was back home for the Christmas break. And he was really nice to offer to walk us around the city in the afternoon.

Anyway, you might wonder why we did not attend the famous and glorious Christmas Mass Liturgy in Vatican City on Christmas. Well, we had several reasons for that: (1) We did not have the "tickets" (yeah, to attend the mass, apparently we had to have the so-called tickets. Well, the tickets were free though but to get them, there were several procedures we had to follow. Plus, the procedures should have been started like months before); (2) I am not proud of this, but I was not really a morning-type person. To attend the mass liturgy, we had to get up like really early and somehow found a transportation to get there. FYI, we stayed in a different side of the city where it took us around 30 - 40 minutes to get to Vatican City; (3) The weather in Rome the past few days had not been nice. Drizzle constantly fell from the sky; Well, not that I do not want to attend the mass liturgy, but it seemed that in this trip it was too troublesome for us. But still, I might plan another trip to Rome someday in the future with the main agenda to attend the liturgy.

::: Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, Italy. It did look like the White House :-)

So, while waiting for our friend, we spent the morning pretty much around the Ancient Rome, a spot in Rome where the ruin of the old Rome were preserved. We did not (yet) enter the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (simply because they were closed) but we managed to get a glimpse of the old Rome (even though it was nothing compared to what we would see the day after when we entered the Roman Forum). Anyway, then we met our friend and we walked around the city. We had a nice coffee break in a cafe in front of the Pantheon (and yes, we did not enter the Pantheon this day because it was Christmas).

Having a friend who really knows the city around is always great, for many reasons: (1) There is no need to worry about getting lost. Sure; (2) He/She knows which places should be in our priority list to visit, as if you browse the information yourself, you might get confused and sometimes the information in the internet is just exaggerated (to attract people to come, of course); (3) He/She knows which restaurants we should go to, to have a nice, local, and decent meals; (4) He/She (supposedly) speaks the local language so just in case there is something involving locals, we do not have to really worry about the language barrier; and the most interesting one: (5) He/She can tell us many (interesting) stories about the city and some spots that we visit. Just like when our friend told us the following story when we passed this structure:

So once upon a time, there were two famous Roman architects: Bernini and Borromini. They were rivals and they hated each other. One day, they got jobs which employed them in Piazza Navona. Borromini's job was to build (and design) a church while Bernini's job was to build (and design) a fountain in front of it. Bernini decided to build a fountain sculptured with four gods circling it. The funny thing was that one of the god was in a position as the church would fall towards him! (you can see in the picture). It could be interpreted that Bernini did it on purpose to mock Borromini as he basically said: "I think your building is really badly-designed and it will fall apart", LOL.

We ended the day having a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant in Rome. I had a nice pasta and one of my friend had a really nice meal (I forgot the name).

The next day, many of the main interesting sites were open for public again. We dedicated this day for an Ancient Rome Tour, starting with THE Colosseum. People had been reminding us that we should get there really really early to avoid the long queing line as Colosseum was a really popular destination (no question why). But here was the thing: Travelling with someone in a wheelchair apparently had its own perks: (1) sometimes we could get an extra discount; (2) we could SKIP the queing line! The second one is my personal favorite, honestly :-) So we did not really bother about getting up that early to beat the line.

::: Just outside the Colosseum.

Anyway, when we arrived at the Colosseum, the warning was true. There was a ridiculously long queing line to the ticket booths. Then, some salesguys approached us trying to sell their guided tours to us. Of course the total price was a bit higher than if we bought tickets from the booth, BUT with this tour we got a guide who would tell us all interesting stories and history of the Colosseum (and the Roman Forum). Even, one of them said that because we were travelling with someone on a wheelchair, we could get some price reduction. Thinking that the price still made sense (we had to pay 16 euro each), we decided to join the local tour.

::: Inside the Colosseum

The tour was really fun. The guide was an Italian guy with heavy Italian accent with a really good sense of humor. And yeah, Colosseum was awesome! I do not know how to put it in words, but I felt SO happy that finally I stepped my feet in the Colosseum, a place that I had wanted to go for so so long time. Yes, finally I could check one site in my "must visited places before I die" list. The guide told us many interesting stuffs of the building, making the visit even more enjoyable as I soaked myself in the history of the structure.

The package of the tour we bought was including a visit to the Roman Forum. For this site, we had another guide, a Canadian lady who had lived in Rome for 9 years. Roman Forum is a site with the ruins of ancient Roman buildings. We even got access to get into the Palatino Hill, a hill which in the Roman Mythology was the place where Romulus and Remus were found by the wolf. The best place of this hill was the small garden on top of the hill overlooking the Roman Forum (and the city of Rome in the background).

::: A view from the Palatino Hill towards the Roman Forum.

This part of Rome really offered a different side of the city which was not related to the religiosity of the city. Even, in a way, some of the structures there (including the Colosseum) represented the non-religious acts the old Roman people did centuries ago. Seeing this side of the city was really interesting.

Later that day, we had some time to kill and we went around the city. We managed to get in the Pantheon, in where I think I met Margaret Mountford, one of Sir Alan's advisor in the tv-show: The Apprentice UK. I am so regretful now that I did not ask her to take a picture with me, hahaha. We also visited several spots in Rome, and the nicest one was the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is also a must-visited place in Rome, IMO.

::: The Pantheon.

::: Trevi Fountain. I did the ritual of throwing a coin to the fountain :-)

Anyway, that night we had dinner at another Italian restaurant in Rome. And I had one of the best pasta I have ever had in my life: bucatini carbonara! It was for 8 or 9 euro and I think it was meant for a share between two or three people, but I managed to finish it myself because I was soo hungry and it was soo delicious! I definitely want to eat this meal again when I come back to Rome!!

::: A very delicious Bucatini Carbonara in Rome.

TO BE CONTINUED...

#882 - Three Thought of the Week

ENGLISH

1. For the last six months, I have been familiar with the power and awesomeness of one popular website in the internet, whose power and awesomeness was pretty much underestimated back in Indonesia: youtube. One day, I somehow wanted to listen to oldies songs (well, by "oldies", I mean the songs that I used to hear to when I was a kid, somewhere in the 90s). I then put the title of those songs in its "search" box, expecting nothing, really, nothing! But then, most of them showed up! Even some oldies Indonesian songs! (well, the success rate for Indonesian songs is much lower than English songs though, obviously, but its rate is not that bad either). One time I also wanted to see the opening/closing of some cartoons/animes I used to watch when I was younger, and I could also find them in youtube! See?? How amazing is that!?!?
   
   Well, now I fully understand the phrase "youtube procrastination" though, hahaha.


2. One of the hottest topic in Indonesia this week was the halt of foreign films import to Indonesia. Well, many people have been whining about it (as I observe in Facebook) as now they cannot watch "high quality" films, but I do not think they should worry that much. I somehow feel that this is just like a "game" they play in this business. One side is trying to "bluff" the other side and see how they react as it might establish their position in the negotiation. In a way, it is like "bluffing" in a poker game.
   
   The thing is, Indonesia is a really big market for films. Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world in term of population and there are cinemas in every major city in the country, which implies that watching movies in cinema are (easily) accessible for most Indonesians. That is why I do not think those film producers will let Indonesia go "that easy", without any means of necessary measures done.
   
   I predict that in the very near future, a "deal" will take place and this problem will be resolved.


3. Sometimes, I just like to skip (or procrastinate) visiting one place because that place is so close to where I live. This was the case with the Delftse Hout, a recreational public park just in the outskirt of Delft. Today, somehow I felt like going out somewhere new and I decided to bike around. I thought this was a good chance to go to Delftse Hout as I had never been there, and it was quite far (in term of biking distance), thus it would make a good exercise, right? So, there I went today.
   
   And I saw something good! It was a countryside, definitely not a city nor a town, and I think this was the reason why this place is such a popular place for relaxation. Well, I definitely should think about going to this place when I need refreshment as it is just practically next door and it is good for exercising! hahaha
   
   And it is quite a shame that I went to this place the first time after living in Delft for six months now, lol.

Okay, I do not have many thought this week as my week was full with me preparing for the oral exam that I had last Friday, in which I did really well on it (and I am so pleased with that). Btw, I have also decided to go to Luxembourg next week. Yeaah! I can't wait!

::: A canal near Delftse Hout.

::: A tiny lake in Delftse Hout. This lake was so tiny that after some minutes biking around the lake I was like: "hey, I was here some minutes ago" :-D

::: A nice house in Delftse Hout.

::: Leaning trees in Delftse Hout.

BAHASA INDONESIA

1. Selama enam bulan terakhir, aku sudah lumayan kenal dengan kekuatan dan kekerenan dari satu situs populer di internet, yang kekuatan dan kekerenannya agak kurang terapresiasi di Indonesia: youtube. Suatu hari, entah kenapa aku koq ingin mendengarkan beberapa lagu lama (yah, maksudnya "lama" itu adalah lagi yang biasanya aku dengar waktu masih kecil, di era 90an gitu deh). Aku kemudian iseng memasukkan judul lagunya di kotak "pencarian"-nya youtube, tanpa mengharapkan apa2. Eh, tapi kemudian beneran muncul loh! Bahkan lagu lama Indonesia juga sebagian ada! (yah, tentu tingkat kesuksesan pencarian lagu lama Indonesia lebih rendah daripada lagu Barat yah, jelas deh, tapi ya itu pun sudah lumayan lah). Satu kali juga aku tiba2 ingin nonton adegan pembukaan/penutupan beberapa kartun/animes yang biasa aku tonton dulu, dan aku juga bisa menemukannya di youtube loh! Nah, keren kan!?!?
   
   Yah, sekarang aku ngerti deh istilah "youtube procrastination", hahaha.


2. Satu topik yang sedang hangat diperbincangkan di Indonesia saat ini adalah berhentinya impor film asing ke Indonesia. Yah, banyak orang sudah mengeluhkan tentangnya (seperti yang kuamati di Facebook) karena mereka jadi nggak bisa menonton film "berkualitas tinggi" lagi. Tapi aku rasa sih mereka seharusnya tidak perlu sekhawatir itu deh. Entah kenapa aku koq merasa kejadian ini hanyalah seperti "permainan" yang dimainkan para pelaku bisnis di dunia itu yah. Satu pihak sedang berusaha "menggertak" lawannya dan menunggu reaksinya karena ini akan menentukan posisi mereka. Yah, mirip sama "gertakan" di poker gitu lah.
   
   Yang jelas adalah, Indonesia adalah pasar besar bagi industri film. Indonesia adalah negara terbesar keempat di dunia dari segi populasi dan terdapat bioskop di semua kota utama di seluruh penjuru Indonesia, yang artinya nonton film adalah suatu aktivitas yang (mudah) dilakukan oleh orang Indonesia. Makanya aku rasa produsen film itu tidak akan melepaskan Indonesia semudah itu deh, tanpa segala macam upaya untuk tetap memasarkan produknya di Indonesia.
   
   Aku duga sih nggak lama lagi, "deal" akan tercapai dan masalah ini terselesaikan deh.


3. Kadang, aku suka untuk melewatkan (atau menunda-nunda) kunjungan ke satu tempat karena tempat itu dekat dengan tempat tinggalku. Ini adalah kasus yang terjadi dengan Delftse Hout, sebuah taman rekreasi umum yang terletak di luaran kota Delft. Hari ini, entah kenapa aku merasa ingin pergi keluar ke tempat yang baru dan aku memutuskan untuk keliling sambil naik sepeda. Nah, aku rasa ini adalah waktu yang baik untuk pergi ke Delftse Hout karena kan aku belum pernah kesana, dan lokasinya lumayan jauh (dengan ukuran sepeda), yang artinya lokasinya cocok kan untuk olahraga? Makanya aku kesana hari ini.
   
   Dan aku melihat sesuatu yang bagus! Tempatnya memang terasa di luar kota, jelas nggak kerasa deh aura kotanya, dan aku rasa inilah alasan mengapa tempat ini adalah tempat populer untuk refreshing. Yah, mulai sekarang aku harus mempertimbangkan tempat ini deh kalau aku butuh refreshing karena kan tempat ini bisa dibilang berada di sebelahku, dan juga tempat ini ok buat berolahraga! hahaha
   
   Dan agak payah juga ya aku baru mengunjungi tempat ini untuk pertama kalinya sekarang, setelah enam bulan tinggal di Delft, lol.

Oke, memang aku nggak ada banyak hal yang terpikirkan minggu ini karena minggu ini full aku konsentrasi untuk satu ujian lisan yang diadakan Jumat lalu, dimana aku menjalani ujiannya dengan sangat baik (dan aku sangat senang karenanya). Btw, aku juga akhirnya memutuskan untuk pergi ke Luxembourg nih minggu depan. Yeaah! Udah nggak sabar!