Language Confusion

Here I am to come at the stage of language confusion. As you know, it's been approximately 4 months for me to follow an intensive Dutch language course. And of course my Dutch language skill has been improved. Much improved. But as my Dutch language skill improves, my English language skill deteriorates. So ridiculous.

Now I feel so strange to speak in English, let alone to think in English. And I kinda mix everything up. As the simplest example, when I wrote the first word for this post, I wrote HIER instead of HERE. And that came automatically out from my mind.

And I tend to apply the Dutch grammar of "inversie" in English. For instance, I say: Now will I go to the supermarket. Oh oh. In Dutch, everytime we have time/place/other things in the beginning of the sentence, the subject moves to the second place after the verbs. But we don't have this in English!

The other times, when I tried to think in English, I ended up in Dutch. For instance, here what came to my mind: "Now wil ik naar de supermarkt gaan." Yeah, the NOW word is English, but the rest of the sentence is again Dutch.

I'm not the only one to have this problem. Most of my classmates also have the same problem. But our teacher said that this is normal. Heel normaal. English will never diminish from our brain. For now, it's just that we're busy with the Dutch language and our English goes a bit behind in our brain. Now we have to concentrate on Dutch. Only Dutch. Someday we'll be able to combine everything together.

This language confusion becomes annoying when I feel so fucked up (pardon my words) learning the Dutch language, so I don't want to communicate in Dutch anymore, but on the other hand, I also feel so strange to communicate in English. When this happens, I'm just so fucked up, that I don't want to communicate at all. Haha.

Heel zielig.

I got tagged!

Woah, I got tagged by Dita!

Honestly, this is the first time for me to be tagged by somebody :D

And doing this is so much fun :P

Rules :

• Each blogger must post these rules
• Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog.

My 8 habits:

1. I'm a very orderly person. My brain just works in the same order, day by day. When I do something, for example, and I do it in the order of A, B, C, D; for the next time I do that something, I have to do it in the same order, otherwise I'll get messed up.

2. When I'm happy, I just can't stop laughing! I don't know why, or how, but sometimes I just can't stop laughing. I do want to stop, but I can't. And this is so embarrassing. Just imagine, when you're joking with some friends, and everybody's laughing. But after 3 minutes, everybody stops laughing. And you just can't stop. Oh gosh, this seems funny, but can be annoying, too!

3. I can be very 'double-sided' for some areas in my life. One time I can be a spoiled girl, the other time I can be mature. I can be a funny girl, but I can be so serious that I can't even smile. I can eat more than 5 meals a day, but I can also survive with only one meal a day.

4. I am stubborn. Yup. I know what I want, I know how to achieve what I want and I have to get what I want! Sounds arrogant, isn't it? But I do believe that we have to be tough to survive in this cruel world.

5. I have loads of hobbies. Cooking, baking, eating, digital scrapbooking, photo editing, singing, etc. When I was still in Indonesia, I also loved playing electone and piano.

6. I have to wash my face before going to sleep. It's okay for me not to brush my teeth at night, but I just can't skip washing my face. Attention, this statement doesn't imply that I don't brush my teeth at night!

7. I love dreaming and imagining, especially when I can't sleep at night. I have this habit since I was a child. And the dreams change according to my age. When I was still in elementary school, the dream/imagination was like 'there is a perfect princess, she's so beautiful, smart, beautifully dressed, etc.' Now, my imagination is like 'there is a perfect woman. She has a career as blah blah, she has a beautiful house like blah blah, etc.'

8. I'm scared of ghost. Hihi. That's why I hate being alone at house, especially at night.

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Since I don't have too many 'blogging' friends, I really don't know to whom I can pass on this tag.

An open complaint to Hogeschool InHolland

I am a fourth year student in Hogeschool InHolland (never say "InHolland University! It's NOT a university). My major is International Business Management Studies.

During my study in Hogeschool InHolland, rarely have I ever feel comfortable or satisfied.

The first reason for me not being satisfied is regarding the school's administration system. For instance: last year, during my third year of study, I never got a student card. And I waited the whole year for it. Damn! I believe this problem occurred to many other students as the school is now using another system to make the student cards.

Another instance, yesterday I was having an exam for Corporate Finance. The date for this exam was published just in 3 weeks time before! And the funnier thing is, the room for the exam was not known by the students! A day before the exam, my friend called the student administration to ask about the room number, and stupidly they said that there was NO finance exam on the following day.

And this thing happens again, as I am having Dutch exam on Jan 19 (the day after tomorrow) and NOBODY knows in which room it is going to be. Stupid, eh?

My second reason for not being satisfied is regarding the study subjects (modules) and the teachers.

During the first semester of this year, the subjects I got include European Business Environment (EBE), Corporate Strategy (CS), Corporate Finance, Professional Development (PD) and Dutch.

And now we will analyze these subjects one by one.

EBE: Honestly, I learned almost nothing from this subject. The assignments were divided into two main categories: individual assignment and group assignment.

For the individual assignment, the students were required to make summaries of business articles. Indeed, the articles were useful and related to the business environment, but until today I cannot find the benefits of making summaries. And this happened every week!

As for the group assignment, the students in class were divided into several groups. Each group was required to make a report of business environment, a workshop about the report, another report about the region analysis and another workshop to present about the region we had analyzed. Well, the first two assignments were quite useful. My group was asked to analyze about the European Common Policies. These assignments broadened my knowledge about European environment.

The third and fourth assignments were not really useful, I think. For instance, my group was asked to analyze about the country of Norway. So we analyzed the country's PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environment and Legal), their management system and so on. A week after submitting the report, we were required to conduct a workshop to present about this region. So my group decided to conduct a Norwegian Christmas Dinner, including the activities of story-telling, dancing together, eating Rice Cream, etc. Does not this sound funny? In fact, this looked like activities for kindergarten students. Every week, there were different groups to present their regions. And to make things worse, the students were required to make summaries of every workshop. Again I cannot find the benefits of making summaries like this.

CS: This subject was not as bad as EBE. Well, at least I got knowledge about Corporate Strategy theories and I could improve my leadership skill. The assignment for this subject include to conduct a group presentation to present business cases. By this assignment, the students would hopefully be able to improve their leadership skills.

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to be continued...

BTW, I'm thinking to delete this post after few days, because I'm afraid that if accidentally any of my teachers find and read this blog, this would affect my further grades.

And I'll be off to...

Announcement: on Jan 25, I'll be off to Indonesia! Yep yep yep, this time I'm really going home! Phew... after more than 2 years, finally I'll be in Indonesia again...

I do feel excited about this! Oh gosh, just thinking that I'll be in Indonesia in less than 2 weeks time makes me really want to SCREAM out loud... "Heeyyyy, Indonesia, I'm comingggg!"

"Nyaaakkk, anak lu pulanggggg!" LOL (literally means "Mom, your girl is going home soon!")

And I already make lists of delicious foods, things to do, what to buy, etc... LOL...So far, I have almost 40 foods that I wanna eat and almost 25 things I wanna buy... LOL... And I'm sure that these lists are still growing LOL...

Oh gosh, I'm feeling so excited for thinking about this... Can u feel my excitements by reading this post?

Geez, how's Surabaya at this moment? How's my house? How's friends? How's this, how's that?

Gosh, will I still be able to drive properly there? I want to drive again! But I'm not really sure if I'll be able to do this since my Dad has just bought a new car and I'm not sure if I dare to drive this. LOL. I'm not that expert at driving. But I love it so much!

Then, will I still be able to play electone (organ)? I hope that my organ is still working properly and Mom still keeps all my books and diskettes and partitures...

And this time, I'm not such a little girl anymore. LOL. Well, I hope so. The last time I went home, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't cook, I couldn't bake, I was so childish, I had never worked, etc. And now, hihi, I hope that I'll be a bit more mature than the last time...

Oh geez, finally I'll be home! In less than two weeks time!

Contrary to all these excitements, I also feel afraid. It's been two years for me not to go home. Not to meet my family. Not to deal with Indonesia.

The last time I went home, my sister was getting married. And now, she's expecting her second child. And yes, the due date is somewhere in February. So if I'm lucky, I'll be able to see my sister's labor. I don't really want this to happen, though. The last time I went home, everybody was soooo busy preparing my sister's wedding. And this time, if my sister's going into labor, then
I assume that everybody will be busy again with the new baby. Hihi, I sound so selfish, eh? Yes, indeed, I AM selfish!

My second fear is about people. What do they think of me after these two years time? Will they say that I'm fat now? Will they say this, will they say that? Geez... I know I know, I'm being so pessimistic here and it seems so stupid to think about this. But honestly, I'm not so confident about my current appearance and yes, in my family, having good appearance is SO important.

And I hope that I'll be healthy during my stay there. Almost every time when I was in Indonesia, I got sick. I had allergic and asthma that occur only in Indonesia. I hope that these are not going to happen again to me.

And I'm also afraid of being "machteloos" (a Dutch word, literally means "powerless"). Every time I'm in Indonesia, I'm so dependent to my parents. For example, since I live in a small city near Surabaya instead of in Surabaya itself, if I wanted to go to Surabaya, I had to go with my parents. And this situation is so different than my life here. Here, in The Netherlands, I'm used to do all the things and go everywhere without the needs to consult with everybody. I'm responsible for my own life. Yet, I'm not sure about this when I'm in Indonesia.

Furthermore, my family's lifestyle is so different than me, I think. For example, my sister and my Mom always love shopping. They love everything about malls, clothes, shopping centers, etc. And I'm not so fond about these things. Yes yes, sometimes I like shopping, but if I may choose, I'd prefer to stay home, browsing or trying new recipes or just watching TV. I look like a nerd, eh? Hihi...

I hope that I won't be that "machteloos" anymore in Indonesia. I want to CHANGE!

Well well... I'll try to enjoy my every single second in Indonesia.

Geezzzz...

I'm off to Indonesia in less than two weeks time...

I'm counting down!

8 days to go!

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Oh ja, as the last note, my parents are so excited about me going home. Today I chatted a bit with my Mom, and she said that everything is ready for me! The house is cleaned, all the baking utilities are cleaned (since I told her that I want to try some recipes there), etc. And what amazes me, I told my Mom that I want to play cards with my Dad, and she already bought a set of playing cards for me! Oh gosh, Mom... You're really thoughtful! This is beyond my expectation! I love you, Mom...

And my Dad, he has just bought a new car. And he said that this is special for me! And he's going to close his shop for a day only to pick me up at the airport. Daddd... I love you... I miss you...

And my sister, during her pregnancy, she "ngidam" or always wants to meet me! Isn't that sweet?

These things make me realize that I have the best family in the world.

I love them for who they are... Mom, Dad, Ce... I miss you so much...

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After reading this post, don't you think that I'm selfish and childish inside? :p

Wat zou ik doen na mijn studie?

Snik snik...

Zou ik hier blijven?

Zou ik naar Indonesie gaan?

Zou ik master studie halen?

Ik weet dat nog niet!

Kunt iemand advies geven om banen in Nederland te zoeken?

Europe trip: Frankfurt + Heidelberg + Cologne + Maastricht
My first post in 2007 :)


Day 1: Dec 30, 2006

Our day began so early. Me and him woke up at around 6am. We then rushed to catch the metro to Amsterdam Amstel station. We arrived at Amsterdam Amstel around 7am.

From Amsterdam Amstel, we took the train to Maastricht. We arrived at Maastricht at 09.35am.

At Maastricht station, we met Julius and Jessie.

We then took another bus to Aachen hauptbahnhof (Hbf). We arrived at Aachen at around 11am.
From Aachen, we had to take another train to Frankfurt Hbf.

We finally arrived at Frankfurt at around 4pm.

Phew, such a long journey, eh?

We then rushed to the hotel since the latest check-in time was 6pm. If we didn't check-in until 6am, our bookings were considered to be canceled.

FYI, we got a very nice hotel. The name of the hotel was Lindner Congress Hotel. It was a four stars hotel with the price only of 15 Euro per person per night. Crazy, eh? And the hotel was SUPERB!

After checking-in, we relaxed a bit at our rooms (we got two rooms).

Twenty minutes later, we left the hotel. We went to the Haupbahnhof to meet Anderson. Anderson is the high school friend of Okki and Julius. He currently studies at Frankfurt.

Anderson then brought us to Romer, which was the "city-center" of Frankfurt. It was already dark at that moment. At Romer, I bought two souvenirs: a "nutcrackers" doll and a small glass with the picture of Frankfurt on it.

From Romer, we went to the nearest supermarket (Lidl) to buy some breads, milk, croissants, jams, etc for the breakfast. Yup, although we stayed in a four stars hotel, we didn't got the breakfast.

Together with Anderson, we then had dinner at Magic Wok. It was the most famous Chinese restaurant in Frankfurt. Yet the dishes didn't taste really great.

After dinner, Anderson went to work, while me, Okki, Julius and Okki went to the Iron Bridge to take some night shots of Frankfurt. It was so cold, windy, and a bit raining at that moment. Fortunately, Okki and Julius could capture some beautiful pictures.

We then went back to the hotel.


Day 2: Dec 31, 2006

The last day of 2006 :)

We woke up pretty early since we planned to visit Heidelberg on that day. FYI, Heidelberg is a small beautiful town located in Baden province. In some travel books, the town is mentioned as the jewel of Germany.

And so after breakfast we went to the Hauptbahnhof to take the train to Heidelberg. The journey took approximately 1.5 hours.

We arrived at Heidelberg around midday.

We then took another bus to the town center. From the town center, we had to walk further to reach the bridge which offers the most beautiful scenery of the town.

It was such a long walk. If I'm not mistaken, we had to walk for 3 km to reach the bridge.

We actually passed many interesting shops during the walk: Mango, Lush, H&M, etc. Unfortunately, all the shops were closed.

After reaching the bridge, we took some pictures and enjoyed the scenery.

And since we were already hungry at that moment, we then walked down the town to have lunch. We bought four big doners which tasted yuck!

From the restaurant, we walked up again to reach the castle. Oh gosh, we had to passed 350 stairs to reach the castle!

The castle wasn't really great as it was kinda ruined by the world war.

From the castle, we walked down again to the town center. Gosh, we had to walked for 3 km again.

We then took the bus back to Heidelberg station continued with the train to Frankfurt.

We arrived at Frankfurt at around 7pm.

As we were hungry (again), we directly hit a Chinese imbiss to have dinner. For me, the imbiss was great! I ordered fried rice for the price of E3.8 and I got a big big big portion. In fact I couldn't finished it.

We left the restaurant at around 9am.

For the new year's celebration, we actually planned to go to Iron Bridge to watch the fireworks. And I hated that idea! I mean, what's the fun of watching fireworks? How if the fireworks moved to the wrong directions and hit us? OK OK, maybe it's kinda hyperbolic. But still, I don't understand why people love fireworks so much.

Fortunately, Okki, Julius and Jessie weren't interested either to watch the fireworks.

From there, we changed the plan.

We then went to the Hauptbahnhof to buy playing cards.

And so, we went back to the hotel and played cap-sa until 11.40 pm. Didn't want to be late for new year's celebration, we then rushed to the cafe located on the first floor of the hotel. Okki and Joel ordered beers, me and Jessie ordered cocktails.

At 12.00 we tossed ourselves and then went out the cafe to watch some fireworks.

At around 1am we went back to our rooms. We played cap-sa again until around 4am.


Day 3: Jan 1, 2006

Happy new year, everybody!

We woke up really late. Our plan was to tour around Frankfurt for a day.

After having breakfast, we wanted to go directly to the city. Unfortunately, it started raining. Being wise, we decided to play cap-sa again while waiting until the rain stopped. LOL.

Around midday, we finally left the hotel and caught the tram to Hauptbahnhof.

From the Hauptbahnhof, we walked around the city. We visited most of the tourist attractions of Frankfurt. There weren't many, though. During the journey, we stopped a while at Starbucks. Me and Okki shared Frappuccino and a cinnamon rolls.

We finished the tour at around 5pm. We then entered went to Anderson's place to have dinner. We had spaghetti bolognaise and grilled pasta (which I don't know the name). We played cap-sa again that night. LOL.

We left Anderson's place at around 12pm and we reached the hotel at around 1am. We then played cap sa again until 4am. LOL.


Day 4: Jan 2, 2007

Yup, as you can imagine, we woke up late again :)

We had breakfast and checked out the hotel.

We left the hotel at around 12am. We directly went to the Hauptbahnhof.
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Before taking the train, me and Okki bought 2 brradwurst at the station. Yummie yummie...

The plan for that day was to visit Koln (Cologne). So from Frankfurt Hbf we took train to Koln and we arrived at around 4om. FYI, we played cap sa again during the jorney. LOL.

By the time we arrived at Cologne, we directly hit the church since it was very close to the station. It was a big beautiful church with the artifact of 3 kings inside.

At around 7pm, we went to KFC to had dinner.

After dinner, we went back to the station and we took another train to Aachen Hbf.

At Aachen Hbf, we should take the bus to Maastricht. Yet the bus didn't come. We then decided to wait inside the station to take the next bus. Unfortunately, the next bus didn't come either. We waited waited waited outside, until finally the bus came after we waited for around 1.5 hour.

Since the bus was late, me and Okki couldn't manage to take the train back to Amsterdam. So we decided to stay in Joel's place for another 1 day. We played cap sa again that night. LOL.

We went to bed at around 5am.

Day 5 (Jan 3, 2007):

Yes... we woke up late again.

We woke up at around 10 and we just then relaxed.

We played cap sa again. LOL.

At around 1pm, we went out for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed. We changed the plan. We went to the supermarket and then went home. Joel cooked ayam rica-rica for us and it tasted sooo nice.

On that day, we actually had plan to go around Maastricht. But we were too tired (of playing cap sa LOL) so we just stayed home until 5pm.

At around 6pm, me and Okki went back to Amsterdam. We reached the Amstel station at around 9pm.

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So that was it. The journey of cap sa. LOL.

Aha,now I remember what I wanted to say.

Me in 2006

January 2006

I spent my new year celebration in Berlin.

I worked as an internee at Metso Automation BV (until July 2006).

I met my boyfriend's family for the first time.

February 2006

I went to Luxembourg for the first time.

I watched an international football tournament for the first time. It was Ajax vs InterMilan.

April 2006

I got my very first oven. It wasn't new but I still love it at this moment.

I got a new hobby: cooking and baking.

May 2006

I went to Barcelona for the first time.

I got an electric mixer from Tata.

June 2006

I built my first food-blog: http://ourpassionforfoods.blogspot.com.

July 2006

I got promotion at work. LOL. I worked as a full-timer during the vacation period.

For the first time, I could successfully bake a cake.

August 2006

My contract with Metso Automation was ended :(

I went back to school on August 31, 2006.

I got a new "huisart" (private doctor?)

September 2006

The first month being jobless :(
(and I still am)

October 2006

For the first time, I made a birthday cake. It was for my boyfriend.

November 2006

I found the topic for my dissertation: Foreign Direct Investment: A Strategy for Economic Recovery in Indonesia.

Me and my boyfriend didn't celebrate our third anniversary as I was very busy at at that moment.

December 2006

I am planning to go to Germany (Frankfurt and Koln) on Dec. 29.

I had Christmas party at Dita's place.

I watched "Holiday on Ice" for the first time (my boyfriend got 2 free tickets from his colleague).

What kind of employee are you?
taken from here

It is so true...

Taureans make some of the best employees. They are loyal,
hardworking, and no-nonsense. They work methodically and
follow projects through until they are complete. Some may
appear to work a little too slowly-usually because they are so
careful-but they will always finish what they start. They thrive on
structure, schedules, and routine. You'll find them doing the
same exact thing at the same time every day.

Taureans, however, are not exactly the malleable workers that
they often appear to be. If they have to work in a chaotic
environment, they won't be happy and will be prone to child-like
temper tantrums and stubbornness. They might react similarly if
they have to work around ignorant people or at a job where
there is no obvious potential for advancement.

Taureans will be very unhappy if there isn't a ladder for them to
climb. Even in the worst situations, they will find a way to
advance slowly, winning over the most difficult people who
may stand in their way of progress.

Taurus employees will only take so much patiently and happily
before they feel they are being taken advantage of. They will
gladly accept orders and do whatever dirty work needs to get
done, but they expect rewards. They want material gain, salary
increases, and the potential for more power.

To make your Taurus employees happy, be sure to give them
projects through which they will see tangible results-hopefully
something that will allow them to express their unique creativity
in addition to their practical side. They don't want to feel mired
in details for long periods of time.

Make sure to schedule regular performance and salary reviews.
This show of respect should keep them loyal to the company.

Wait...

I wanted to write something...

But WHAT?

*Thinking thinking thinking*

Can't find the answer...

Oh oh!

Recently, my appetite seems to increase so much. Oh no, it seems to increase TOO much.

I just can't stop eating. Thinking of the word diet could probably kill me. And I do feel hungry all the time, day and night.

To make things worse, I always have constant cravings for particular foods, mostly Indonesian ones. My brain is currently filled up with the words of nasi putih, rendang, tempeh, tahoe, petis, ayam goreng and other Indonesian foods. Note: nasi putih = white rice, rendang = beef in dark thick coconut sauce, tempeh = soya bean cake, tahoe = tofu, petis = shrimp sauce, ayam goreng = fried chicken.

Few days ago, I really wanted to eat tempeh penyet (tempeh served with chili sauce). But since I have no tempeh at home, I haven't got chance to make it :( I do want to eat it with warm white rice!

This afternoon, when I took a short nap, I suddenly got the urge feeling to eat pastel (I don't know the English term for this, but in Dutch we call it Indonesish pasteitje). Maybe I'll make this after the new year's day.

And today, I got the chance to make baso (Indonesian meatball). Horrayy... It was so yummie, I could eat the whole portion by myself. LOL. What a shame of mine! In fact, I ate approximately 20-30 balls (I used 300 grams of meat). LOL.

HELP! Anybody can give me advices to cope with this problem of uncontrolled appetite? I don't want to gain weight again!

Oh no, now I want to eat ayam goreng kalasan (fried chicken in Kalasan sauce).

HELP!