La Vita e Bella

I miss Leonardo, the TV that was given to me last year by Kang Nur. It has been there in the corner of my room, accompanying me the whole year, including the World Cup season. So sad that few weeks ago suddenly it didn’t want to display anything, all went black and no sound, hiks hiks…

I remember watching Netherlands vs Portugal with Yoshi, Marcia and Kristian – and laugh about van Basten’s shirt that seemed to be too small for him hihihi…

I also miss the time when I would come home and watch Ally, Grey’s Anatomy, Smallville, then all the sitcoms that follows: Friends, Will and Grace, Dharma and Greg… huhu….

And now, I found myself missing those annoying Dutch commercials.

Oh well, you never know what you have ‘till it’s gone.

Last weekend I had a drink with some of the new batch after WGD welcome party. We got into a conversation about my research, and Oil asked me a question: how did you do it? Ummm…. I have to think really hard for answering that question, especially because the process of doing my research has been rolling so fast that I didn’t realize that I’m here already; had presented my RP and now working on the second round of writing. How did I do that? I don’t have any idea. All I do is just work and work each day, trying to make it grow. I remember the most difficult time for me was around June, where I have to decide the kind of seed that I want to grow, plus the fear that maybe I don’t have the right soil for it to grow, worry about the kind of tools should I use to help me cultivate it, and oh… what if the sun don’t shine, what if there’ll be too much rain, and so on.

Though sometimes can be so frustrating, it turns out to be a nice experience (wakaka!!!) since I came across a lot of new things. For example, I found some of amazingly long Dutch word such as Behandelingsovereenkomst (I just find it funny how one word can contain 25 letters, hihi….) Also, I met many people that I have never known before; those who help me by giving the materials I need to grow it.

Now I think the root is much stronger, compared in July when I had my RPD seminar. It has branches and leaves already (although some need to be further identified, whether they are leaves or branches hihihi…). Some also need to be trimmed (oh I don’t like that).

How did I do that? I still don’t know. I can only say that it’s impossible for me to make it this far if not because of His mercy. He provides me with all things that I need. He helps me get through each day. Sometimes I can make it productively, but there are also times like tonight where I spent most of my time looking at the ceiling, waiting for the inspiration to come hehe…

ps. Im sorry that i have to use that Dutch word as the title, i just have a feeling that putting ‘Research’ as my title would sound so borring, hehe…

With a big grin she showed me her new keychain hanging in her black ‘Cool Cat’ jacket. Though small, I can see that the keychain is good in describing her.

First, it’s in her favorite colour (green) and has that short statement in it: ‘born to shop’.

Yeah, first thing that I would remember from girl is her shopping spree. Gosh… it’s super!

I’ll never forget how she made all of us waiting for her in that huge book fair in Brussels (it was in October last year so I just knw her for about a month). Finished shopping for books and other stationeries, I went straightly to the entrance gate since we’ve agreed to meet there at 4.

Agnes was already there. Cates and Rommel too, also Jason. Oh I hope I’m not late. But she’s not there yet. Hmmm…. It’s ok, we decided to take a look at each other’s treasure. I like Agnes’ Cleopatra, but it was just impossible to go back in as the lines were really long. Maybe she’s trapped in one of those lines for paying, I wonder. So I checked there.

Bayu was the only person I could identify from the crowd. That means…. Yeah… that means she’s still in there, shopping!!!! Jason took the initiative to go back inside – to stop her. Yeah, it was a good decision.

From then on I know that this girl was born to shop! Shop… shop… shop… I bet that was all in her head. She forgot the time, plus didn’t think about how to carry all the stuff that she bought. All of us were carrying bags, but she has to put her things in a box!! Ok, it doesn’t matter – we have Bayu to help her carrying the box. But alas, it only last up to the train’ stairs. Everything fell down from the box since it was not strong enough to carry all the stuffs that she bought. It made a ‘boom’ sound, everyone was looking at us, and even Policeman with a dog came. Hahaha…. That was a real funny moment. In the end she made us carrying an extra bag for her stuffs. Oh my…

But yeah, that’s her. A part of her personality, I may say, that we all manage to accept. Visit her room in Seinpost sometimes and you’ll find the evidences. Too bad I didn’t have lots of chance to do so since we are all so busy. But she’s still one of my favorite friends. Looking back, I think she has helped me enjoy my stay in here especially during the first weeks. We would go to open market together without stamping the strippenkart, or go biking to the beach with Budi and Kristian, and spent the night chatting in YM about our love life.

Yeah, she has become my big sister…. She’s Dina.

Summer is departing; the cold grey clouds now are covering the warm blue sky.

I had to pack my skirt, short sleeve shirts and my orange summer shoes, and take out those thick jackets from the closet, plus my scarf…

Got to get used to carry the lights for my bike again, since now the sun likes to go bed early, no longer stays there until 10 o clock at night as it was in June.

Today i decided to say goodbye to summer. And today i also realize that soon i may have to say goodbye to my ISS friends as well…

Sitting in our classroom 3.01, watching some of my friends presenting their research paper draft made me realize that the end is near. After these series of presentations, we will be dealing with the research on our own again, and we’ll be together only for farewell parties… some may not even stay that long. 

At lunch, some of us were remembering the times we had as a class - all the funny moments and the struggle to wake up for attending those 9 o’clock classes… Talking about how serious the new batch are - which actually reminded us to ourselves when we just got here, and we laugh about it. We also discuss about places where we want to stay after the graduation, jobs that we hope to have… No more discussion about group assignments - things are just different.

Well, life keeps on turning.

All i can do now is welcoming the autumn which I believe, has it’s own beauty.