Keeping up with me

Hi, you!

I am writing a post now, finally, five months after my last entry. Was I too busy to stop doing activities and write here? Hmm not really, but the facts are; last June was full of deadlines before summer holiday; July and August were spent in delightful Indonesia; September was tensed because of .. a lot of things. It is mid-October already when life is at last adjusted with Universiteit Utrecht's pace-rhythm for a moment, just before the exam period is waiting in the corner of the month. Well, my bigger problem is, finding a thesis-internship, which is not difficult but definitely not easy. I am 80% excited with all these possible developments for my near future, and the rest of it is a mixed feeling of anxiety and desperateness hahaha.

Also, still in the realm of college life, I feel like my confidence (not that I usually have enough of it) is falling free stylishly from a cliff. As everyone knows, my academic English skill is not decent at all, but I feel like it becomes worse lately than ever. I guess, the perfect combination of two comments on my research proposal that said 'your grammar is lacking' and endless days of speaking that language made me even more inferior. Last year, I realized that I got so many back-ups with group projects (there would always be a final editor before report submission) that make my shortcoming stayed off the radar. However, now, with constant individual assignments (esp. with peer review), I need the urge to proof-read my paper before clicking that send/submit button. I also signed up for premium Grammarly and new academic writing class by PPI Utrecht, all in all for my Achilles heel.

Enough with the rambling, maybe I will just spam the rest of this post with pictures. Yes, pictures always cure!

Too much pictures? Indeed! The first one is what left from the Ramadhan dinner with Utrecht Moslem group (as Andri calls it), the second is my beloved family, the 3rd and  4th pictures are typical Indonesian tourist spots, 5-6-7th are the memory of visiting amazing Disneyland and Studios!  8th is the garden of Palais Het Loo (the one full of  Late Queen Wilhemina's vibe), while the rest are just me showing off my friend and I, strutting along Hoge Veluwe  

What else can I say here? Too many stories I want to share but my limited brain capacity to write in English won't take us any further. Oh, and I am going to Schiphol today, to bid a farewell to Puti, one of my closest friend in Utrecht :'( She is finished with everything and will fly back to Indonesia for good (at least for now). I'm losing my friend one by one.

Till we meet again,

Noya

Rubbish as usual (just from different IP address)

Hey october!

Reading this blog all over again, I realized that I always made the same mistake. Promising to write regularly then poff.. gone! That is the same bullshit I tried last march, which is more than half year ago. I guess it best if I dont make any promises because who knows in that way can turn me out into "more productive" owner here.

So what happen in these past 7 months? Well, the biggest change is now I already live in utrecht for almost two months. Crazy eh, when last year it was only all dream. Frankly, living here is not easy (duh) in a good way, it drag me out from my comfort zone. The city is quite big (number 4 of largest city in netherlands after amsterdam, rotterdam, and den haag) yet it doesnt get crowded so much thus make it much calmer. I bike 35~40 minutes to the university everyday, usually early in the morning because all my classes start at 9.00. Anyway last week was uber cold, it hit 0'C (with real feel temperature around -3'C) in the morning.. and it just mid-october; guess I wont take my bike out during winter. Nevertheless, I love living here, the city is vibrant and serene at the same time. The one thing that challenges me so much is.. ta-dah.. the campus /slash/ academic life. Not intended to bring down my beloved GFM or IPB or Indonesia education system in the general, but obviously, studying ethic here is so different. You cant just come in and sit with empty head and expect to be feed by knowledge. You cant just skip homework or copy paste your friends' answer to yours. You cant just lying around every other night and depend on one night study before exam day. Wait I make it so terrifying lol but indeed its true, but those thing are bad in a good way, right? I currently attend two course for this period (exam on oct28 and nov6, wish us luck!) which are both interesting. I expected my self to love this theoretical/opinion based course and suck at technical/mathematics one but it is the other way around. Can you believe if I get more excited now to meet numbers than words? No? Neither do I ;) And how about social life? Well, utrecht is unpopular between Indonesia student, only six of us came to Universiteit Utrecht this academic year. We hang out together during weekend (its a must! you have to prepare your mind for another weekday) and thankfully utrecht located in the middle of netherlands with busiest train station (imagine manggarai). I havent had a chance to get together with classmates yet, except for the first time during orientation day. We meet outside the class almost only for work/study group, or simply biking together when class is over. They are all really nice.. and bloody brilliant, I am such a lower outlier.

Well, my life just started here so I cant complain much (I shoudnt, right). I still have bits of my regular life back then.. watching doctor who every sunday (this season is better than last year, thankfully), going to the cinema sometimes (it's so damn expensive to watch a movie here, but I registered as a subscriber so.. yayness), having two cups of coffee a day, and hanging out to somewhere new in every chances (well.. hellooo, youre living 11000 miles away from home). Like I said million times before, being here is exciting and challenging at the same time :)

I hope to fulfill my promises to write about sawarna, gunung padang, and PK28, but not sure when and how. A lot of things going on my mind (yea you're not the only one). 

One day, I should manage to get to top of that :p

Ehm, so see you later, and good luck in life?

Het beste,

Noya