Author Archives: cutisyana

Ga Ada Noda, Ga belajar (No Stains, No Learning)

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Yesterday after dinner, suddenly this tagline of one of the most famous detergent brand in Indonesia couple years ago popped up in my head. No stains, no learning.

My junior high school friends used to toy with this tagline and relate it with free sex. It sounded like this:
Mom: hey, where have you been?
Daughter: from my friend’s house.
Mom: then what is it on your skirt? is it blood?
Daughter: yes.. because no ‘stains’, no learning.

I know it sounds wrong and stupid. But by the way, I kinda agree with the tagline, sometimes if we didn’t do something fool, then we wouldn’t learn from it.

In 2008, me and my friends in university decided to go to a beach in Garut, West Java. You know, my mother is a typical woman who can change anything into the source of disaster. When I asked her permit to go to a mall, for example, she would say, “Oh, mall?? be careful honey, there can be a bomb!” or if I wanted to go to a mountain, “don’t do hiking okay? I’m scared there will be avalanche!” and when I told her that I would go to that beach, she told me not to swim because I could be drowning, “just stay away from the beach..”
But how could I?? hahahaha..
One of my best friend, Ade, also has the same typical mom with me, “don’t go near to the beach, please.. it’s dangerous.”

But we were so happy there and forgot about those advises. We played a lot in the beach and also played banana boat which had the crazy drivers who always tried to make the banana boat fell into the sea. (Sorry, Mom..)
The very first time it fell, I accidentally kicked Ade’s rib when we were trying to reach the surface. And then after that I accidentally (again!) knocked Ade’s head with my butt. Really, I didn’t mean it, De. Then, Ade was sick from the last day we were there until the next 1 month.
So, no stains, no learning. We finally both knew that we shouldn’t ignored the advises of our parents.. Probably they already felt something. Maybe for my Mom, what she wanted to say was, “don’t go to the beach, you will harm your friend.” And what Ade’s mom really wanna said, “please, don’t go there, your friend will do something bad to you.”

Back to a year ago when I was driving with my friends in Bekasi. At that time I just learnt how to drive and I was really happy every time my friends asked me to drive for them. By the way, the road was really crowded, with cars, motorcycles, public transports, and people who wanted to cross the street without looking for the vehicles (!!!).
I was trying to move to another side of the street at that time because it was empty, but suddenly one public transport hit our car from the back and insisted to outride even the space was small.  We were so shocked and I turned back to the other side. The driver from the public transport screamed and ordered us to stop the car. My heart was beating so fast. Then I went to the driver while praying basmallah and put the best smile of mine.

Driver: Hey, lady! You hit my car! why are you so stupid??!!
Me: So sorry, how’s the scratch?
Driver: Can’t you see it?? It’s terrible!!!!
Me: (still smiling and calmly talking with him) But, pardon me, Sir, as I know, you’re the one who hit my car. Don’t you remember, I was the first one who took that side of the road then your car tried to race mine.
Driver: (thinking) but.. still you have to pay for this!!!
Me: I won’t, because I didn’t do something wrong to you. And could you please talk calmly? Because this is Ramadan. I think it will be too bad if you couldn’t continue your fasting if you had this anger.
Driver: (just staring at me without saying anything)
Me: By the way, my car also had some scratches because of you..
Driver: Um… okay, then I think it’s finish. You shouldn’t pay anything.
Then he went away. Ha!
What I could learn from that experience is if you’re facing an angry person, don’t respond him with anger too, but with smile. He will confuse and start talking in the lower voice. Hahahaha.

Anywaaay, I had a lot of ‘stains’ that changed me. But I think sometimes it’s better to have no stains before we can learn something right, because we can also learn from other people experiences.

Ciao!

My Eid Fitr

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So, I thought I would celebrate Eid Fitr in Blaricum with my family by skype or Indonesian people there or in Den Haag with Indonesian Embassy (and after I calculated the cost of the train, I didn’t think I’d go there. Oh Holland, why does your transportation cost so extremely expensive?).

But this evening I knew the answer.
Me: Ma’am, how long we will stay in South of France?
Ma’am: Oh, a week! A big week!
Me: (calculating the days)
Ma’am: We’ll start our journey to Blaricum next Sunday.
Me: oh.
Then I checked the calender on my handphone. Yes, it’s Eid Fitr! I’ll spend my the big day on the road, 6 hours. And 6 hours again on the next day.

Suddenly I feel so gloomy. I spend whole Ramadan alone this year, so I wish I could do something in the end of Ramadan with people who also do fasting.

And today my dad texted me by Yahoo Messenger said that he was missing me so much and would like to do a video call with me. Then I replied, “we can do it on Eid, and we should do it. Love you.”
And now we should do the video call maybe on Tuesday (3rd day of Eid for me and 2nd for my family in Indonesia)

But I know someone will say: yeah, just make it as one of the story to your children. Now you have a lot of different stories to tell, right?

Aku au pair, kalau kamu apa?

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Banyak temen-temen yang nanya, “au pair apa sih, Nya?” “Au pair tuh jadi pembantu ya??” “Ih, lo jadi TKI ya?”
Maaf, saya super au pair yang elegan dan tetap terlihat cerdas setiap saat.
Jadi ini dia definisi au pair:

Istilah Aupair berasal dari bahasa Prancis au pair yang berarti saling memberi dan menerima.
Program Aupair ditujukan kepada anak muda, baik pria maupun wanita, dari suatu negara tertentu yang ingin tinggal dinegara lain dengan tujuan untuk mempelajari kultur dan budaya dari negara yang dituju dan ingin memperdalam bahasa negara tujuan yang telah dipelajari sebelumnya. Ada batasan usia untuk menjadi seorang Aupair. Hal ini berbeda pada setiap negara. Tempat tinggal peserta aupair adalah dalam suatu keluarga di negara tujuan yang disebut  keluarga tamu selama kurun waktu tertentu. Keluarga tamu juga harus memiliki keinginan untuk mengenal kultur dan budaya dari negara asal Aupair.

Jadi gw di Belanda ini bukan lagi iseng jadi pembantu atau baby sitter ya sodara-sodara.
Karena kalau dibilang sebagai pembantu pun kerjaan gw sangat ringan dan gw cuman ngebantu kerjaan rumah yang ringan-ringan aja.. Ga sampe heboh kayak si bibi nyuci baju pake penggilesan, ngulek bawang, ngejemur baju di atap. Ga. Gw ngebantu light house work (istilah kerennya) semacam: beberes dapur (ngeluarin perkakas dapur dari mesin cuci piring, elap-elap meja dapur, sama kompor), ngevacuum cleaning + ngepel seminggu 2x (ga usah dibayangin gw ngesot-ngesot dilantai sambil elap peluh ya pas ngepel karena rumah Nyonya dan Meneer ini dari kayu dan banyak ditutupin sama karpet, jadinya gw ngepel bagian yang keliatan aja.. hahaha), beresin tempat tidur (kasur bule mah yah selimutnya tebel sama sepreinya kayak nempel gitu di kasur, jadi gw cuman ngebentangin si selimut aja ke tempat yang bener). Udah selese. Paling sejam juga kelar. Sisanya gw ngurus 1 bayi umur 6,5 bulan dan anak kecil umur 5 tahun.
Dan sebagai au pair, ada batasan jam kerja. Buat gw 30 jam per minggu. Lebih dari itu gw dapet uang extra yang lumayanlah bisa dipake buat beli baju di ITC 2 biji.. hahaha.. Gw juga libur setiap sabtu dan minggu, dan pada saat gw libur itu sang anak2 kecil itu dilarang sama orang tuanya klo mau ngegangguin gw. Oiya, gw juga boleh nginep entah dimana asalkan selalu ngabarin sang ortu au pair dan pas lagi weekend.

Gw ngurus 2 anak, berikut profilnya.

Nama: Flip
Umur: 5 taun
Hobi: Gelantungan di badan gw dan joged-joged girang setiap gw nyanyi Twinkle – twinkle little star (klo lagi good mood); dan klo lagi bad mood sukanya nyakar dan jambak.

Nama: Bel
Umur: 6,5 bulan
Hobi: nyengir dan ngunyahin jari tangan, bahu, hidung, dan dagu gw dengan tampang datar.

Tanggung jawab terbesar gw adalah untuk Bel.Gw ngasih dia susu, ganti popok, dan ngajak main. Klo Flip dia sekolah dari jam 9 pagi dan baru pulang jam 4 sore, baru abis itu gw main sama dia sedangkan Bel dijagain sama baby sitter lainnya yang didatengin sama Nyonya dari deket rumah. Intinya untuk memudahkan gw, dia jarang banget ngebiarin gw ngurus 2 anak sekaligus. Karena selain dua-duanya posesif sama gw, biar gw juga bisa lebih tenang ngerawat mereka.

Untuk tempat tinggal, gw dikasih rumah kecil sendiri yang masih satu pager sama rumah utama. Di rumah itu ada tv gede, AC dan heater central, kamar mandi, lemari, leptop dan internet (tapi gw bawa leptop sendiri biar lebih keliatan mahasiswanya hahaha). Dan juga klo gw butuh apa-apa gw tinggal rikues aja ke Nyonya dan Meneer, dan tring! rikuesan gw dipenuhin. Mungkin nanti gw bakal nyoba buat minta dibeliin iPhone Siri, semoga dibeliin juga.

Oiya klo gw salah mereka juga ga marah, cuma kasih tau yang benernya aja, dan selesai. Dan lucunya, mereka penasaran banget sama hal yang gw suka. Kayak waktu itu gw bilang gw suka Chips, akhirnya tiap mereka belanja gw dibeliin Chips. Hahaha. Waktu itu mereka bikin pizza dan enak jadi otomatis gw bilang gw suka pizza (selain gw juga emang pemakan segala yang enak), jadilah gw dibuatin pizza terus buat buka puasa. Dan sekarang mereka tau gw cuman bisa hidup dengan internet, jadilah selama liburan ini (oiya kita lagi liburan di desa terpencil di Prancis) mereka heboooh nyariin internet.. ahahahaha!

Begitulah kehidupan gw sebagai au pair yang hanya 2,5 bulan karena gw harus balik ke Rende buat lanjut kuliah. Tapi menurut gw udah cukup lah ya jadi au pair sekali ini aja. Kalaupun nanti gw harus ngurus anak kecil dan rumah, itu karena gw ngurus keluarga gw yang mungkin akan ada 2 taun lagi. Ahay!

Si Kolom Cari Jodoh

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Ceritanya gw lagi ikut plesiran keluarga Au Pair gw ke Prancis. Tepatnya ke desa di Prancis yang jalan masuknya ga jauh beda sama jalan bus pas gw pulang kampung ke Sumatra dulu, belok-belok, bergajulan, kanan-kiri ilalang, dan jarang ada lampu. Dan begitu sampe rumahnya, beeeuuuh, bentuknya desa Prancis banget! Dindingnya dari bata merah yang udah pudar dan rumahnya berdiri gagah di tengah-tengah padang rumput. Ternyata dulunya rumah ini adalah kastil dan memang yang paling besar di daerah desa ini (lupa nama daerahnya. Hahaha). Di dalam wilayah si kastil, ada beberapa bangunan: guest house yang terdiri dari 2 kamar, dapur (lengkap sama semua bumbu, kulkas isinya nyaris penuh, mesin cuci piring, dan microwave gede dan kecil) 3 kamar mandi , ruang tamu; gudang super besar buat alat-alat peternakan; ruangan besar lainnya buat binatang ternak; dan rumah yang bentuknya kayak benteng yang katanya untuk ruang makan. Dan yang punya rumah ini orang tua angkat bapak au pair gw yang juga orang Belanda, tapi udah lama menetap disini.

Anyway, gw lagi nunggu timing yang tepat buat internetan di kastil, karena sekarang kita (gw dan keluarga au pair) tinggalnya di guest house dan ga ada akses internet disini.

Tadi pas lagi ngelakuin ritual cuci muka di kamar mandi, tiba-tiba gw keingetan sama kolom cari jodoh di Kompas yang dulu selalu ada setiap hari Minggu, sekarang masih ada ga ya?
Dulu gw selalu ngebacain satu-satu kolom itu, karena banyak yang lucu, dan kemudian gw ngebayangin seandainya ada Mas-mas yang tertarik sama salah satu Mbak dan kemudian akhirnya mereka kopi darat tapi ternyata deskripsi si Mbak tentang dirinya terlalu tinggi dan ngebuat si Mas ilfil. Apa jadinya coba?

Tapi namanya juga pencitraan ya. Pencitraan jaman sekarang banyak banget medianya, mulai yang dari paling simple (dan sekalian nyari jodoh) Kolom Cari Jodoh, SMS, blog (gw kadang pencitraan juga loh di blog ini ahahaha!), FB, Twitter (gw ga bisa pencitraan disini, sulit, isinya jeritan hati semua. Halah!), dan media-media lainnya.
Dan pastinya banyak pencitraan tersebut yang sedikit berlebihan dari yang asli, jadinya pas kita akhirnya ketemu seseorang yang awalnya kita adore karna, misalkan di Fbnya selalu posting tentang artikel-artikel ilmiah dan statusnya tentang ayat suci Al Qur’an, tapi ternyata kelakuan aslinya super jauhhh dari si pencitraan, jadi ngebuat jomplang dan ilfil. Hahaha. Tapi alhamdulillah selama ini gw emang selalu ngebatasin diri buat ga terlalu percaya sama pencitraan orang di sosmed sih.

Nah, apakah yang terjadi kalau misalkan gw iseng nulis kolom jodoh? Apakah yang akan gw tulis biar pencitraan gw tetep oke tapi ga jomplang sama aslinya?

Mungkin kira-kira kayak gini:

“Wanita, 24 thn, 158 cm, berat yang pasti masih ideal walaupun sedikit berlebih di pipi,kulit sekarang lagi tanning karena kebanyakan ngejar bocah 5 tahun di taman tapi aslinya ga kuning langsat juga tapi intinya warnanya terang, di bagian tangan ada beberapa bekas cakaran bayi dan balita. Menurut testimoni banyak orang, sebelum mereka benar-benar kenal saya, saya terlihat sebagai wanita yang keibuan, kalem, dan sangat anak baik-baik. Lulusan S1 di Indonesia dan akan lulus Master di Italia. Hobi: jalan-jalan gratisan atau dengan budget cekak, baca buku-buku menarik (bukan buku pelajaran pastinya), dan denger musik sesuai kondisi hati.
Mendambakan pria yang bisa menjadi imam dunia akhirat (subhanallah sekali), siap ngebiayain jalan-jalan keliling dunia (dan ditemenin juga) dan rutinitas massage dan spa setiap weekend. Harus lebih cerdas dari saya karena saya banyak nanya (cerdas bukan berarti IPKnya harus 4,00), pernah sekolah diluar negri lebih diutamakan. Sportif, berpikiran terbuka, ga lenjeh, harus lebih tegas dari saya, suka anak kecil, dan jago masak lebih diutamakan. Bagi yang tertarik dan memenuhi syarat silahkan datang ke pedesaan di Prancis, atau ke Blaricum (Belanda), atau ke Rende (Italia). Terima kasih. Assalammualaikum.”

A Solo Journey..

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(16.15) Rotterdam – Amsterdam Centraal Station

So here I am, sitting on the train surrounded by many Surinamese who just visited the Rotterdam Summer Festival. Now I’m going back to Amsterdam to meet my friends, Cecil & Thomas. We met before in Amsterdam but they couldn’t find cheap ticket for 1 day journey by train but I have one (thanks again!), so I went to Den Haag, Delft, and Rotterdam by myself and will spend a super hot night with them again. So exciting!

Solo journey always be a moment of truth for me. It makes me thinking about anything, about the journey which I always get lost and do something stupid (ha!), how to get more money to go traveling, how I miss my family but I should chase my dreams before I can go home, about my best friends who will do iftar (eating dinner after fasting on Ramadan) together in Indonesia and Rende but I’ll always do it alone during this Ramadan, and about someone who has been playing on my mind since I don’t know when..

For me, sometimes this journey is bored. I can’t talk with anybody, yes I can, but it just accidentally when I meet someone who interested to start conversation with me. And the most important part that I missed while I do this kind of journey is I don’t have someone to take my pictures. So it’s either I should take it with timer (and it’s kinda difficult because I don’t have tripod) or ask someone to get my picture.

My friends always say, “It’s your chance to get acquainted with handsome men!”
Yeah, but I always ask an old woman or man to do it.
Ohya and the last thing is: I will get lost a lot! I can’t read a map.
I always rotate the map to see it, but it never works. I always get lost anywhere.

Just like today in Rotterdam, I ran so I could see the festival. I didn’t ask anyone because I thought the festival would be on the road in front of the station, so I just followed people who walked quickly to somewhere I don’t know. Aaaand, voila, nothing on the street, just cars. So I walked a little bit and jumped to the bus and asked to a woman who worked on the bus,
“excuse me, do you know where is the summer festival?”
“Oh, it’s across the station..” “Ow, so I shouldn’t take this bus?”
“Hahaha.. no, you can walk through the tunnel on station and find the festival, it just started..”
I was just blinking my eyes and really wanted to jump from the bus because my time was tight, but the bus already moved.
“Hey don’t worry, we’ll come back to the station after a couple of minutes..”
Yes, 15 minutes! And I was alone on that bus, all people go to another part of city to see the festival.
Oh why??

And I will never separated with stupid things.
I was so thirsty when I was in Den Haag. My bottle was empty and I couldn’t find any free water (!!!), so I tried to find it in Delft, but still nothing. So I decided to go to supermarket. The mineral water there is 1,5 euro for 150 ml. Yahhh, so expensive! Then I found a carton of juice, 1,5 L with only 0,6 euro. Wihiii!
So I bought it and would pour it to my bottle. Oh gosh I was so thirsty, I really wanted to drink it directly from the carton (I wasn’t fasting yesterday, by the way), I tried to open the carton but it locked. Ahh!! I wanted to force the lock so it can be opened but if it broke it would be difficult for me to bring it. Then I decided to find someone who were smart enough to open this bottle. And there was a mother with her kid just bought something from saturday market, “Hallo Mrs, could you please open it for me?”
She looked at me, and, “ah, yes.. it’s easy..”
And then she laughed with the seller because of my stupidity. Oh why…

By the waaaay, single journey is also fun..
I have time for myself only to do anything. To just wander around or do nothing to enjoy the time.
When I was in senior high school I had a routine every saturday after school to go to Naga (the little but very crowded supermarket in my town, because its prices always cheap) just to see the price of the foods or buy a dark chocolate (I always love dark chocolate more than any other chocolates!) or going to the little mall of Pondok Gede to see the clothes or books, but as always I never bought any of those.

When I was working in biscuit company, I almost never had time for myself. I worked from monday to friday, from morning and arrived at home so late. And sometimes I went to other cities on weekend to organize my events. It was really nice of course because I loved my job. So what I could do was enjoying myself-time on the plane or taxi or bus, on every quite big and comfortable transportation, to think, to talk with myself, to make some plans..

Like now, I’m thinking about a lot of things, and one of them is about someone, about this awkward feeling, which I don’t want to feel it but too bad I can’t resist.
Well I don’t know what will happen next. I mean, it’s easier for me to make plans about my future related with education, travel, or work, but not with relationship. It just so sudden, unpredictable, and needs a lot of things to think about.

Okay, so I will be in Amsterdam in 2 minutes. Better to prepare myself and continue this ‘deep thought’ on another train.
Ciao!

So, being single is good, eh?

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I asked my best friends this question today: so, being single is good, eh?
One of them replied: “shrug like Italians,” or it means, “yeaah, so so..”
And another one said, “YES” with capital letter. Hahahaha.

I’m single, so that’s why I never wrote anything about relationship on my blog, because I don’t have any object or subject to write about. I can write about my past relationships, but what for?

I’m single and happy. Yes, I repeat it, I’m happy. I don’t have any terrible changing mood and emotion anymore because of boyfriend. I won’t mention about, “I shouldn’t buy more credits to call my bf,” because I used to have free call package, so  it doesn’t matter whether I have bf to call or not.

For now, to be honest, I’m so fed up with sad love songs. Seeing the rain doesn’t make me feel gloomy or sad, but happy. I feel little bit happier day by day. I love cheer-up song and falling-in-love song, I don’t know why, I don’t think I already had feeling with someone special.

Someone might say, you need to have partner to share. But I would say, I have my best friends to share with.
And they might say, you need someone to protect you. Yeah, I have my family and my best friends who will always protect me no matter what.
And someone crazy might say, if you have boyfriend, he will give you presents. I can buy nice presents by myself, I think. And if I want to act little bit spoiled, I can ask my friend to buy me something as a little gift. Hehe.
And one of this blog reader might say, wait until your parents read this blog! You’ll got 2 hours non stop lectures about the importance of having serious relationship with a man so you’ll get married not too late and they will have their grandchildren soon and blablablabla.. And I would say, yes Mom, Dad, I know, someday if I decided to have a relationship it will be with the real one, not with someone I wanna ‘try’ to have the relationship. Just someday, when I meet the right one.

So being single is good, eh? Yes, it is. But I’m also ready to fall in love again..

Nivelles – Brussels – Paris – Brussels – Nivelles

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January 2012.
“Oh gosh! I’m fed up with books and assignments! I want my holidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”
“Let’s find cheap tickets then..”
“Okay, what’s your passport number, your birthday date, and your name in visa? So once we find cheap ticket, we can buy it at that time.”

Nah, it was January, our full of exams month. So exhausted like always. And we planned our first trip at that time hoping the cheapest airlines in Europe generously give us its good prices.

February 2012.
“R*an Air offers cheap ticket to Brussels, 7 euro! How??”
“Take it!!!!”
Then we rushed to our friend’s house. She didn’t go with us but she has credit card, something that we don’t have until now. Hahaha..
“It (R*an air website) asked us whether we want to have an insurance or no.”
“Just click no.”
“And it asked us again ‘are you sure you won’t take the insurance??’ hahaha!”
“Just say YES  we sure! we’ll pray harder from now..”

Just like that, we finally had tickets to go to Brussels for 5 days and we also had a plan to go to Paris from Brussels by bus, so we searched for cheap tickets (again!) and luckily we found bus ticket discount! Woohooo! Seemed like the world told us to go around it!

March 2012
We still had exams from January until March and we had our holiday right after that! But we still should found some places to stay. We tried to find cheap hostels, but Paris and Brussels are so expensive. We couldn’t find hostel below 19 euro/nights even the room is for 8 persons. So we tried Couch Surfing. We sent 20 applications and waited everyday for the reply. Most of them said NO (hahaha), some of them replied: I think you didn’t read my profile! You didn’t follow my rules to send an message. (Yeah! Why should make something complicated if you want to help other people?).
2 weeks before our trip, I got a message from CS member, and she said that she wanted to help us, willingly to pick us up from the airport, and she knew that we would use R*an Air (so the airport wouldn’t be at Brussels but Nivelles). And I wondered was it really clear from my picture that I’m a kind of the limited budget traveler?
So it just left Paris, we still didn’t get anything. I tried to ask a help from my friend, Gema, who stays in Paris, but his apartment is really restricted and small. One room is just fit for 2 people max and we should pay 10 euro / night. Oh. No.
4 days before our trip, “we finally found someone who wants to help us in Paris!!!” Her apartment located 20 minutes from Eiffel by train. And even her room is small and she just have bunked bed (the under bed can be folded and made as a large sofa), she’s nicely offered us her place.

So here it comes, the D day!
By the way, who were we? Emon, Me, and Unyil. And also Udi and Henny (but we separated once we arrived in Nivelles, and met again in airport when we came back to Italy).


Our plane was in the afternoon, but because we live quite far from the nearest airport (Lamezia Terme) we left the university at 10 am (we live in university). My ‘grandma’, Eka, accompanied me until Centro, and she checked my bag. “Where’s your passport? Permesso di sorgiono? Plane and bus tickets? WHAT IS IT???” She founded white flour in the plastic glass in my bag. “Oh, it’s flour to make Bakwan.. We promised our friends in Nivelles and Paris to make something Indonesian,” I replied.
“But really, you’ll bring it?? You’ll be arrested at immigration because this thing looks like heroin. So, I’ll throw it away. You buy flour there.”
Okay it was my first trip lesson: don’t ever bring anything looks like narcotics. Seriously.

Because of her I landed in Nivelles and met Ilham and her sister. They’re Maroccan and have really good house. Ilham and her siblings are very friendly and nice, and not to mention their parents who are really generous. Her mom can’t speak English but she sat next to us in the living room tried to communicate with us.
Ilham and her sister asked us to go around Brussels at night because they knew tomorrow we would go to Paris. Suddenly her mom said something to me. I didn’t get it and just stared at her. She replied with gesture, “Ah, pray? Okay, I’m going to pray now. Hehe..”
In the next morning we rushed prepare for our next trip to Paris. Yes I know it was a really short trip in Nivelles and Brussels, but we had to follow the cheap tickets, and we still had another 1 day to wander around Brussels at the 4th day of our trip. Ilham’s mom called us to have breakfast with Maroccan tea, baguette, many kinds of jams, and Ilham’s big sister who was really panic about our next trip to Paris. “Most of Frence can’t speak English. Can you speak France??” We shook our head, “how if you guys get lost??” She chewed her bread faster, “okay, so, you should bring this and show it to the Metro officer when you get there. Okay?” She wrote our French friend’s address on a piece of paper. Hahahaha.
So that how it went. We jumped to the bus from Brussels to Paris for 5 hours and we arrived at 6pm and felt soooo hungry.

By the way, our favorite food during our Brussels – Paris trip was: 1 euro burger from M*D. We ate it almost everyday. And after we arrived in Italy we felt so fed up with that food. Hahahaha..
And our favorite drink was: free water! From everywhere as long it’s free!

It was tuesday and Amelie (our French friend) already went to her office. We were ready to see Paris! We jumped to the train and felt so excited. When we looked up to the window, Eiffel! We could see Eiffel!


Then we wandered around Paris by walking. It was the cheapest way and also the most efficient way to see whole Paris. We went to Sorbonne (but we couldn’t enter the university because only students who have the id card can go inside), Notre-Dame, Musee de-Louvre (we thought the ticket would be very expensive, but actually it’s free for students until 25 yo who have European stay permit card, and sadly we didn’t know about that..), Versailles castle which has a very large and beautiful park, Seine river, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and many other places until our thumbs got painful. Hahaha..
We stopped at M*D for lunch (again) and Emon asked me whether he can drink my water or not.
“Just drink it.”
He drank and his face got weirder, “Where did you get the water?”
“From toilet.”
“That’s why it tasted like toilet water! I felt dizzy now and I think my stomach is not okay.”
“Ah, don’t be so spoiled. I drink it almost everyday and I’m still healthy.”

At night we went to the bar, hung out with Amelie’s friends until midnight. Oh don’t worry, I just bought a glass of juice.

I also met up with my senior high-school friend, Gema. So here’s the funny story about us: he was my classmate in 12 grade. Then we went to the universities in Bandung, me in University of Padjadjaran and him in Institute Technique of Bandung. We just met once at that time, at our first year in Bandung. Then we never met for almost 5 years. 2 months before I went to Italy, he found me in Indonesian students group mail. He said to me he accepted on Erasmus program and would be in South Italy also. Then we met in Italy after that and after he moved to Paris, we also met there. What a small world.

On wednesday we prepared to go back to Brussels again, another 5 hours in bus. Huft! At first, our plan was: we will wander around Brussels then go to the airport at the night because we should catch the plane at 7 am on the next day to go back to Italy. But everything was change. After wander around Brussels and went to the chocolate stores just to taste them without buying (ok, it was me and Emon, Unyil bought some for her families in Indonesia :p), we went back to Ilham’s house and she asked us to go to her other sister’s house. We had dinner there with Maroccos noodles, sooo tasty! And we made them bakwan, and thanks God they loved it! Once we finished cooking and serving them at table, they gone. Then we cooked again, and gone again.. hahaha..

We slept at 1 am and Ilham’s sister got so busy prepared everything for us; pajamas, aromatherapy lotions, pillows, blankets. She was an angel.. Then we woke up at 4.50, ate breakfast (Maroccan Kebab!). With Ilham and her sister, we went to airport to meet Henny and Udi who spent a night there.

My second trip lesson: prepare Indonesian food for your new friends, they might love it!

The flight went smoothly, no turbulence at that time, and we arrived tiredly at 10 am.

It was a really nice trip. We found new friends and family in other countries :)

Selamat ulang tahun, Ma..

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Assalammualaikum Mamaku yang terbaik, tercantik, tertembem, terlucu, terkuat, terhebat, ter-rajin berdoa buat Nyanya, selamat ulang tahun ya. Tadi Nyanya udah berdoa ke Allah biar Mama selalu dilimpahkan rahmat, diberikan umur panjang, dan selalu disayang Allah.

Insya Allah akhir tahun depan kita ketemu ya Ma, nanti Nyanya masakin pasta ala Nyanya. Enak deh, sekarang Nyanya udah bisa masak. Dan nanti pas liburan kerja, kita jalan-jalan ya terserah Mama mau kemana.. Mama kan udah selama ini kerja keras buat Nyanya dan Ade setiap hari, ga ada libur, nanti saatnya Mama jadi Permaisuri kami. Apapun yang Mama minta, Nyanya kasih ya..

Maaf ya Ma, Nyanya selalu pergi jauh-jauh dari Mama, sejak kuliah di Unpad lalu di Itali sini, mana duitnya ga cukup buat pulang ke rumah jadinya baru bisa pulang abis lulus. hehe..

Nyanya masih inget pas Mama tau Nyanya diterima di Unpad, Mama seneng banget tapi pas malem-malem dan semua lampu rumah udah dimatiin, Mama berdiri sendirian di ruang keluarga ngeliat keluar jendela, pas Nyanya dateng ke Mama, Mama lagi nangis, “Mama seneng banget Nyanya diterima di Unpad, tapi nanti Mama sendiri, Mama ga ada temen di rumah.. ga ada yang bisa Mama curhatin lagi. Hati-hati ya Nak di Jatinangor.”

Dan di hari Nyanya berangkat ke Italia, selama di mobil kita duduk berdua di bangku belakang, dan maaf ya Ma Nyanya waktu itu ga meluk-meluk Mama selama di mobil cuman megang tangan Mama. Nyanya lagi  menguatkan diri untuk ga nangis soalnya. Nyanya tau, klo Nyanya nangis, Mama akan lebih khawatir.

I love you Ma, Terima kasih untuk semuanya. Untuk semua waktunya, pengorbanannya, keringatnya, kasih sayangnya, nasihatnya, doanya, ciumannya, pelukannya, semuanya.

Terima kasih Allah telah memberikan hambamu ini bidadari terbaik. Tolong jaga beliau ya Allah.

Anakmu yang selalu tembem,

Nyanya

 

Wish I…

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I just heard to Aqua’s song – turn back time, and I used to have some wishes after hearing that song: I wish I could come back to…, I wish I didn’t do…, Wish I didn’t choose…

But now I learn that wishing something you should be done in the past is useless. And actually without doing it probably you already got better things than you ever wished for. Or probably you just on the way to those best things, you just don’t realize about that because you’re stuck with: Wish I..

August 2006 was the second times I knew that I failed to be a doctor, I didn’t pass the entry test again. I was so down, and I wished. Wish I studied more, Wish I chose another university maybe I could pass, I wish I prayed harder, and many other wishes, but they didn’t make me feel better, just made me suffer even more. Then my friend texted me:

“Isyana, I’m so sorry to hear that, but you have to  know that sometimes God won’t give everything you want, but believe me God will give you everything you need. Maybe being a doctor is not what you need.”

And time passed by, and when I think about that again, she was totally right. If I were a doctor, I wouldn’t meet my very best friends, I wouldn’t work in the biscuit company and meet my other best friends, then I wouldn’t apply the scholarship to Italy and couldn’t travel around Europe and meet Indonesia-Rende family here.

Well, I don’t know either if I were a doctor I would have great experiences also or maybe I would go to jail because I gave a wrong medicine to my patient hahaha..

I do feel so grateful with ‘failed to be a doctor’. I’ll keep move on and chase whatever in front of me without feeling sad with something I never had.

Well, today I’ll have my last exam for this semester. Wish me luck 😉