Love life

I was wondering - supposedly a little worry.....

Silently sitting on my bed, mused about my relationship w/ Benny

In my morning post, I already mentioned that time flies and I just realized that I did not talk to him at all for some while. I do not even have a single video chat as of today - my second month in holland.

But we feel ok by far, nothing wrong..not until this morning when I was questioning if this is normal.

Blog walking then I came across this post where relationship was nicely worded by Diana Rikasari

I just think there's always a way to balance things out, and we just simply should. I cannot imagine that I used to spend time with my best friends, and suddenly stopped doing so just because I have a boyfriend. I enjoy having my friends and boyfriend together, and I am very much relieved that S thinks the same way. We never mind having our Saturday nights shared with our friends, because we like the idea that friends are family, and families grow bigger, not smaller and get replaced.

I am in love with S, but he is not my whole world. He is metaphorically, but in real life, I need my friends just as much as I need S, my family, my work and self-being.

I am very much grateful to have Benny, we are on the same page. We see relationship from the other side that most people may does not see.

Again, I thank God to send him who completely understand that we still need a self-being, have our own work, friends and family besides our love life. Beyond a lovey-dovey, we're good partner and mutually beneficial.

So, then I came to the conclusion, this is normal - at least for us... me: Happy!

West Sumatra and its Nature Perfection

Just talked w/ my-Benny bout poster design and some other small things...(well, I then realized that I didnt talk to him at all these days)

one of the things, he mentioned bout his weekend planning: Paragliding

sounds interesting.

Benny is now based in Padang West Sumatra which offers a lot of fabulous spots and adventure options. Last time - just before I left for holland, I spent a weekend w/ benny in Lembah Harau, just for sightseeing....we had perfect companies at that time, a number of his colleagues in UN-office who were going to do rock climbing.

We had a breakfast in this nice restaurant of Echo Lodging.

In spite of the earthquake misfortune last year, West Sumatra still holds it's magnificence.

Squash (pre)beginner first experience :p

I've never played squash before. not sure whether back home in Bogor there is any squash facility.

This afternoon, a friend came to my room and snappy asked me to play squash w/ her. She already reserved one of the squash courts in my univ's sport center. We always do any reservation and registration for the sport facility through this link:

http://www.sportscentre.wur.nl/UK/

All are well managed here, I did the same thing for tennis couples of week ago, reserved the court and we were eligible to use the court for an hour. To be able to access all sport facilities, new students have to register for a sport right once we've got our WUR card. The sport right costs 69 euro and paid annually.

am so excited w/ this, it's a lot of fun! already look forward to the next try.

Dutch Language Course

In addition to the busy administration process, during my first week of arrival, I also registered to the Dutch language course.

The language service unit in my university offered some language courses i.e English, Spanish, French and for sure Dutch. I found some detail on the courses list and schedule here:

http://www.languageservices.wur.nl/UK/Courses/default.htm?page=coursedetails&courseid=32

I registered online by filling the form on the web then I was also required to hand in the form to the language service office while paying for the course fee - 90 euro for one period (approximately two months), plus more 34 euro for the books.

Last tuesday was the first meeting for this period, hihi..it's sooo difficult to pronounce Dutch words.

But gladly to say, am happy to join this class, this is fun. Even I could not pronounce the language well but hope soon I can understand what people around me are talking about :p

,

Advance Statistics and SPSS

am taking the Advance Statistics course this period and required to work w/ SPSS.

This is my second day playing around w/ the installation of SPSS on my Mac

I happened to find that SPSS is no longer allowed working in Mac system by Apple, Inc

*phewww*

Sooo, am playing around w/ the command-prompt in Mac Terminal

a little manipulation in Java Machine Preferences and now am hoping the damn-tricky-complicated SPSS installation will be working well

Thank you Benny-boi! you are SUPER-helpful.

he told me to

1. Get the previous Java version in Leopard (mine is Snow Leopard now)

cd/tmp/

curl -o java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/isdal/snow_leopard_workaround/java.1.5.0-leopard.tar.gz

tar -xvzf java.1.5.0-leopard.tar

2. Move it to my System Java folder

sudo mv 1.5.0/system/library/frameworks/javaVM.framework/versions/1.5.0-leopard

3. Tell OS X that java 5 actually is java 6

cd/system/library/frameworks/javaVM.framework/versions/

sudo rm 1.5.0

sudo ln -s 1.5.0-leopard 1.5.0

sudo rm 1.5

sudo ln -s 1.5.0 1.5

4. Change the properties to use Java 5 32-bit by default

and try to re-run the installation...

Listed as BSc student :p

hehe, am not sure whether am too cute to be considered as a master student or this just happened due to some typo.

I just realise that am listed as a BSc student in WUR student database.

I found this out when I was looking for the courses available in the next period/semester. then I clicked my personal data, ow - am listed as a BSc student :p

I really appreciate the good work of wur student service, only takes less than a working day to fix this problem - no long bureaucracy or any other delay.

I sent an email to student desk right after I found the mistake, there is a reply from student desk couples of hour later which informed that my problem has been traced and reported to the IT and database service. In the next hours the IT service sent a notification that my database has been revised.

Indoor Biking class

If you think that biking anywhere all day long is enough for Dutch people, you are completely wrong....

sport center in my campus offers an indoor biking class and....this is one of the most favorite classes, I can't believe it. I've been interested to join and decided to do so. Last monday was my first time to come to this exercise, another surprising story --> this exercise is literally "sweaty" sport.

I really can't believe it was that difficult to ride the above-pictured bike, I was already covered by sweat in the first 5 minutes of exercise.lovely.

Jong Indonesia Online Magazine

quick update on my recent activities, am now joining Majalah Jong Indonesia as one of editorial staff, specifically am working on its weblog maintenance.

http://majalah.ppibelanda.org/

Majalah Jong is an online magazine published twice a year, just started, around end of 2009. It mostly tells bout student life in the Netherlands, tips, essay and/or book review, there is also traveling article. Some articles for the 4th edition have been posted on the web but some other are still in editing process, so the full version of 4th edition is on the way.

new and interesting experience :)

18 September

nineteenth of August, that was my arrival day to holland and tomorrow supposedly I complete my first month here

half piece of moon far in the distance and the iTunes tracks are my company now to get through the last minutes of september eighteen..

hi baby, listen to me carefully

come and sit besides me I will tell you everything about me

hi honey, listen to me carefully

eight is just a number

it wont be any trouble at all

stay...stay w/ me, I will be your best friend..I will be your guiding light

stay...stay w/ me, I will be your lover..I will be your everything

(Mocca - Listen to me)

Iko Uwais

just watched Merantau and saw a heart robber Iko Uwais :p

so typical of Indonesian face. not handsome maybe, but somehow manly, especially because of his gesture as a martial art performer

Merantau was actually released end of 2009 but I just had a chance to see this movie, here he is in one of the scenes:

I went through some internet browsing and got a teaser from his new project - Berandal

it is also good to know there is a new talent in Asian action movie, we've been boring to always see chinese stars in Asian action movies

Oh ya, one more thing, his bucktooth is also one of my favorite :p I dont know why but I always have a special interest to someone w/ bucktooth hihi

Bornseteeg 1

the Y-shaped building is my flat :D right across the sport center...

Books for you boiboi!

I had a chance to come to a booken festijn last week and ended up w/ a huge carry, most of them are popular sci --- your fav Benny! :D

Today there is an Ied celebration, conducted by Indo student association...great food, great time! pics are coming up

First Ied ul-Fitr abroad and my room pics!

I just back to my lovely room when I write this notes.

After the Ied ul Fitr praying in the morning, I did my daily activity normally. No special holiday for celebrating Ied ul Fitr, and even not so many people care about. The situation that definitely would never happen back home in my country.

Yesterday and today have been tiring. am drained and sleepy. Anyway, after two classes and dinner w/ friends I finally back to my room. Hehe, this has been almost a month here and I havent posted any pic of my room yet. here they are. this is my working space, computer time, study. working at nite would not be perfect without staring out of the window. Feel the wind blows, glance the lovely houses and tress down there (well my room is on the 12th floor), street lights..

another fav corner, my dining and cooking area... (Even I already have some space for you to sleep when you come visit Benny! I bet this sofa would be good enough for you wkwkwk :p)

and...bed time is here :)

Verblijf Kaart en Gementeelijke Basis Administratie

Become a new resident is always associated w/ a number of obligation. As a new resident of Wageningen, I have to report my arrival to the City Hall within the first week, process my residence permit/Machtiging tot Voorlopig Verblijf (MVV) so on and so forth.

When I was notified that I successfully obtain the scholarship, WUR started to apply for my provisional residence permit/VKV (Visum Kort Verblijf). VKV is aimed for the foreign nationals that is going to stay in the Netherlands within the period of 1.5 - 6 months. As an MSc student, I need to stay in the Netherlands more or less 2 years, so I need a longer residence permit called MVV.

In addition to that, I also have to register my arrival to the City Hall/municipality office. This registration aims to keep my arrival and departure tracked and makes me eligible to the obligation and benefit as a resident of Wageningen. For this, I have to bring:

a. My passport

b. Proof of residential address (I provided my room rental agreement)

c. Birth certificate*)

*) the certificate must be original and recent --- less than 5 years

all docs need to be legalized by ministry of foreign affairs and verified by Dutch Embassy

all docs should be in Dutch, English, French or German

Documents in other languages need to be translated to those above languages by a certified translator/sworn translator

The municipality office provided a fruitful information here

So within my first six months, I have to apply for VTV, register to the municipality office and voila! end of the story would be a-what-so-called Verblijf kaart and BSN number.....

Teh Giju

I've never thought that I would easily find almost anything here, in a small village called Wageningen

am a typical of tea-person. I need at least a cup of tea per day. and surprisingly I happened to find a box of tea made in Cirebon -- my hometown in the northern part of Java, Indonesia -- Teh Giju! yayyy....

the story begins w/ an Indonesian food dinner w/ friends at my flat. I have to buy some vegs and spices. I was told that I can find them in Toko Indrani. Biking for a few minutes and checking the map twice led me to this famous Toko. This Toko poses as a small grocery but esp for the typical of Asian and African necessities.

as a tea-person, I was quite curious to see if the Toko has a nice-to-try tea. I went around and found Teh Giju :D

I bought it then! In my room, I spent more than five minutes looking at the tea and with a silly grin I pictured it out. Wageningen is seriously a global village, try to be a home for dozens of nationalities :p

Ied is coming

Back from the class today was so relieving. These days' activities are consuming my time ineffectively. I don't know why.

I realize that I haven't been writing much lately, not because I have nothing to tell but actually have too many things am concerned bout and nearly don't know how to channel them out. the weather. the system. the ramadhan fasting here. so on and so forth.

it is already three weeks away from my first day in holland and am getting use to the situation. well, this is my everyday life now.

I recall, just before I left Indonesia I was worried about the ramadhan and fasting for more than fifteen hours per day in holland. I must admitted that it is not easy. On my arrival, I had nothing in mind but tired and hungry like a wolf.

But these days are different story. Despite the good smell of coffee, cakes and lunch meals in the canteen, I managed to keep fasting...until today when my body choose the nice time to drop. Bad weather these last 2 days bring me some flu and bad cough. I cant stand w/ the pain in my throat and decided to break my fasting and take some pills. Well...and I almost unnoticed that Ied Mubarak is coming shortly.

No opor ayam, no ketupat, no fam around but I hope I can still have a blessed and happy Ied ul Fitr...