St Petersburg was…. not like anything I’ve experienced. I missed Singapore (and Jakarta) so badly but at the same time was charmed by the city.

I will tell you more in the next posts, but right now I want to finish my last year’s duty : to talk about last year’s Europe trip.

You know I think I’ve found a reason why I’m too lazy to blog about last year’s trip. Because in every photo album I published in Facebook, I always included captions to explain the photos. Blogging about the photos was a redundant process, as a result.

So here I’m gonna give you all the links to my photo albums on Facebook. They’re open for everyone, so you should be able to see them even though you’re not my friend on Facebook. Sorry, no random friend requests will be accepted on my Facebook though

Enjoy, and please sit back for a while before my Russia write up.

Last stuff from Poland

Ship at Gdynia

Poland 24th and 25th of May

Went around Sopot once again and visited Gdynia, a beautiful seaside city

View from my hotel room in paris

Last day in Poland, one night in Paris

A very short album, just a “bridge” to the next days’ photos.

Rome :), Italy

Me in Vatican city - amazing ceiling

Rome day 1 part 1 - Vatican City

Met my friend Maegan who was on exchange in Rome. She took me to Vatican City on day 1.

Castel d'Sant Angelo (yes, the one in the Angels and Demons movie)

Rome day 1 part 2 - Vatican City, Castel d’Sant Angelo, awesome dinner.

Still containing photos from Vatican City trip, some of Castel d’Sant Angelo and other buildings around Rome, then I had an awesome dinner with Maegan in a fantastic (cheap!) place called Carlo Menta in Trastevere.

Btw, this is how (authentic) Italian pizza looks like…

Me with Colosseum

Rome day 1 part 3 - Colosseum

Do I really need to explain?

Me at Trevi Fountain, Rome

Rome day 2 part 1 - I Love Fountains

What’s Rome without fountains? Visited the ever so popular Trevi fountain and numerous other fountains. Spanish Steps and Pantheon are inside.

Il Vittoriano

Rome day 2 part 2 - Rome here Rome there

Saw the remaining must-see landmarks in Rome. Cathedral of Rome, Foro Romano (Roman Forum), Il Vittoriano, Aventine Hill.

Rotterdam/Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Me, just arrived at Amsterdam

Rotterdam/Amsterdam

Quirky architectures at Rotterdam. And of course ever so notorious Amsterdam. Amsterdam is actually quite pretty and serene! But then I didn’t come at night, so….

Paris, France

Me in front of Notre Dame church

Paris part 1 - excluding Eiffel Tower

Truth be told, I didn’t really like Paris. To me it’s dodgy, old, and uninteresting (especially area outside the touristy stuff). I much much prefer Rome. But then I visited Louvre and Eiffel Tower - and I’m glad about that! No photos from Louvre, no Mona Lisa photo, because I didn’t bring camera that one fine morning! Krishna asked me to go to a flea market so I didn’t bring my camera. And unexpectedly he brought me to Louvre. Oh wells

Info for anyone planning to go Paris : the first Sunday of every month is always free entry to Louvre! (Yes I got the free entry! :D)

Lights on Eiffel Tower!

Paris part 2 - Eiffel Tower

How can you ever visit Paris without visiting Eiffel Tower right??

I have a story about the trip to Eiffel Tower. Krishna and I thought that it’s not really far from this area called Chatelet (we were watching a musical in French with Spanish subtitles - needless to say we didn’t understand anything. Visualization was superb though). So we walked along the Seine river. Turned out that… Eiffel Tower is ENORMOUS, so even if it looks near from Chatelet, it’s not. I think we walked for almost half an hour hahahahha.

Then we reached, and we found out that the ticket to the top was out! So we had to be contented with just a visit to the 2nd highest point (2nd floor).

However at 2nd floor we noticed a queue at a box-like room. Turned out it was the ticket machine to buy a ticket to the top! There was a guy inside who tried to buy tickets, but his credit card got rejected. Some others tried too, but rejected as well. Krishna and I finally got to use it, and Krishna’s card got rejected as well. Just for the sake of trying, I pulled out my card and tried to buy 2 tickets to the top. And guess what! It got accepted!

So Krishna and I finally got to the top in the end…

And that’s the end of my Europe trip stories (photos)! Haha. Watch out for Russia trip stories. I promise it won’t take a year. Really.

If you’re my friend on Facebook, jump the queue and take a look at my photos. I’ve posted them all up

A teaser….

St Isaac's Cathedral, St Petersburg

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I’M SO EXCITED.

Yup. Last year my choir SMU Chamber Choir went to Sopot, Poland to participate in a choir competition. (I know, I haven’t churned out the blogposts! Please search for my photo albums on facebook)

This year we decided to go even further : St Petersburg, Russia! This time to participate in Festa Musicale. Last year we had a choir from the Philippines as our “fellow Asians” but this year I heard that the choir will be the only choir from Asia. That’s gonna be cool

Photo by neiljs

Yes. Russia. The land of onion domes and vodka. And matryoshka. And blini. And so many others.

It’s not exactly a tourist destination, especially when their visa requirements are quite strict and tight (btw I got my visa for free, courtesy of the embassy. How nice!). But every stories I read just made me even more eager to see this very country. Mystic, magical, that’s how I picture it in my mind. Let’s see whether my prediction is correct.

Now before going, I have to pack (a lot of things), and later have to endure a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong flight. Okay so I depart from Singapore, 13-hour flight to Amsterdam, 6-hour long transit in Schiphol, and then another 3-hour flight to St Petersburg (and who knows how long will the bus ride to our place be).

Nevsky Prospekt at night, photo by Geir Halvorsen

We’ll be staying near Nevsky Prospekt, a big road in St Petersburg which I found out to be the St Petersburg’s Orchard Road. Since it’s June and it’s Summer, St Petersburg will experience what they call “White Nights”. Simply saying, there will be no night! The sun sets very late (as late as 11 PM) and rises very early (as early as 4.30 PM) and in between there’ll be no darkness. It’ll be very beautiful!

Ok I’m off to packing (and this year I’m not bringing my huge suitcase - no thanks). I leave you with beautiful pictures from St Petersburg I found on Flickr. Thanks to all the photographers! Awesome works

White Night in St Petersburg. Photo by Becky Sullivan

White Night in St Petersburg (10 PM). Photo by Becky Sullivan.

Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood. Photo by chillihead.

Church of St John Baptist at Chesme Palace. Photo by Dystopos.

Peter the Great's Winter Palace. Photo by Edwin Land.

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On my way to the doctor, on my way to the airport, on the way back from the airport, I was always afraid to cough. Because I was afraid people will think bad things about me (like OH NOES THE GIRL IS COUGHING I MIGHT GET SWINE FLU HOW HOW HOW???)

Seriously, I think this paranoia thing is a bit too much. I found out that the H1N1 flu’s fatality rate is low (just slightly higher than usual seasonal flu). Even the patient zero in Singapore is recovering well. Oh by the way, just because I’m an SMU student doesn’t mean I have increased risk of H1N1. The SMU girl went to the doctor in Bedok area, I didn’t go on the BSM NY trip, so no. Seriously.

Perhaps in Singapore they were already scared about what happened with SARS several years ago?

And by the way, I’m seriously irked by how a newspaper revealed the patient zero’s name (who has requested not to reveal her name - at least in her statement to SMU). Cut it off, will ya. It’s not like she intentionally wanted to contract the virus.

Anyway, I’m quite contained in home right now. I only went out to eat (at the famous Whampoa makan place no less!), then went back to home to gulp down my medicine. It’s a partial home quarantine, I guess.

Hope I get well soon. I’ll need to shop for some stuff for my impending trip to Russia!

Oh and by the way, contact me or e-mail the choir at chamberchoir@smu.edu.sg to get your tickets for the choir’s fundraising concert! $15 each! (details at picture below)

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I stared at this boring “Write Post” page for so long, not knowing what to write. So I killed time by talking to my friends via MSN (something I rarely do after Plurk came, but then Plurk is getting boring nowadays). Then my friend Owen gave me this idea to write about how thankful I should feel.

I feel thankful that I still got an internship.

My internship time is not an easy one. I work in an agency where clients keep coming with new work (via my supervisors) and tons of other things to do. Of course, I bitched and moaned, I broke down, I felt like giving up. Seriously I feel physically and emotionally tired everytime I go home. (speaking of home, I have already moved to a spanking new place!)

But Owen told me a number of our friends who still don’t have an internship. And let me tell you, they are the fabulous ones, the ones with high GPA, the highflyers. Me, I’m a mere neither-here-nor-there SMU student, with pathetic GPA. (and please don’t say “Oh come on, you say it’s pathetic but it’s 3.+++ right?”. No it’s not.)

And so I’m blogging this. To remind you. If you are the ones who have jobs but hating every single minute of it. That your job is something you have to treasure, to be thankful of. And also to the ones who are still struggling to find jobs. It’s ok, there will be a fit for you somewhere. Probably not in an MNC, probably not in a big bank with fat check, probably not with a super cool package and long leave days. Don’t stop trying.

Remember to say the simple word. Thank You.

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I remember years ago I chanced upon this particular story. It was titled “What’s Inside Your Bible?”. So inside the story was a little boy who was asked by his Sunday School teacher about, well, what’s inside your bible. The answer should have been obvious. Words of GOD. Or perhaps rather 66 books of scriptures (with 1189 chapters and 31101 verses in King James version. I’m pretty sure the Indonesian version has loads more than that). The boy answered “There’s my Mom’s shopping list, a picture of my sister’s boyfriend, Dad’s stuff, Grandma’s stuff” (can’t remember what the other stuff was).

As I’m going through my stuff to pack them up (I’m going to move out in a week), I found my bible. Somebody (I think it was one of my parents - Dad or Mom, I’m not sure. It could have been my then already-Catholic uncles too) bought me this Bible on February 12th 2000 (yes I wrote it in the Bible along with my name, my address, and my phone number). As per Catholic tradition, the Bible was supposed to be blessed by a priest. To anticipate that the 11-year-old me wrote “Date of blessing:” just below the “Date given:”. To cut my “lost period” stories short, I never got the bible blessed.

When I was in junior high school too, there were always daily bible and reflection readings everyday. It was a Christian school so yeah. Students took turns everyday. Everyday there would be a group of students that are responsible for that day’s daily tasks, including cleaning up the whiteboard and the readings. One student will do the opening prayer, one student will read the bible, one student will read the reflection (we read Saat Teduh, Indonesian version of The Upper Room), then one student will do the closing prayer.

Everyday, there would always be one highlighted verse of the Bible. Each day, for about 2 or 3 years (I think I stopped after a while but I can’t remember), I would highlight those verses in my Bible. As the result, the pages of my Bible now are gleaming in different shades : blue, pink, yellow, orange, etc. depends on what colour of the highlighter I owned at that time (or the highlighter I borrowed from a friend).

I attempted to read the Bible from front to back once but failed. I think I stopped at Genesis 27. Really low motivation that time, I guess. As I was reading, I highlighted a lot of verses along the way too.

Not only highlighted verses, I also found a lot of bookmarks. Bookmarks that were given to me in Sunday School, a bookmark that I made myself at an arts and crafts class (I guess), and some handmade bookmarks I made from scrap papers - containing mostly mushy messages about my love for my boyfriend that time.

My point -and the story’s point is : a Bible is not only a book containing words by GOD or a collection of 66 scriptures. It’s a part of your life. Too often a bible is seen as the holy book, decorated nicely and left untouched. Or it is only used at special events. What good can unheard words of GOD do to you then?

Take your Bible and make it yours. 

So what’s inside your Bible? (Or Koran, Tripitaka, Weda, etc.?)

Photo by nyello8 available under CC BY License

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photo by Leo Reynolds. Available under CC by-nc-sa 2.0 license

Yes I finally left the teen years and I’m in the 20 something club now! Say hello!

Thank you GOD Almighty for all the blessings throughout the 20 years, and hopefully even more years.

Blessed be the 20th year.

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There are a lot of things people use to call me and similar people : a person of Chinese descent/ancestry who was born and raised in Indonesia.

But in English-speaking world, I always choose to call myself “Indonesian Chinese”.

Sometimes I don’t use it at all, fearing discrimination or sorts. But most of the time, I’m proud of using it. Really.

Never mind about the grammatical rule or anything. Perhaps it should have been Chinese Indonesian, since an adjective should be placed in front of a noun, yes? But then both Chinese and Indonesian can be both adjectives or nouns so.. I don’t know. I’ve found at least two books in SMU Li Ka Shing Library about people like me using different terms : Chinese Indonesian or Indonesian Chinese.

But I chose to use Indonesian Chinese because of this : I’m always an Indonesian first, then a Chinese. Chinese is merely my ancestry, my heritage. Granted, I grew up in a Chinese culture too, being always pushed for the best and punished for being ordinary. But above all, I consider myself an Indonesian. Always. And will always be. (okay honestly I should see in some years’ time, that if they continue to make it difficult for me to travel overseas just because of my citizenship, i’ll seriously consider changing citizenship for practical reasons)

I know May 1998 incidents might have supposedly made me against my country and the so-called indigenous people (how can you say I’m not indigenous too when I was born on the same land as you?). But I didn’t. I don’t know why. I can list a lot of cheesy reasons like how Indonesian nature captivates me, how I love Indonesian food, how Indonesian people are so friendly, and the blah. But no. I love my country, and just like any other type of love, does it really need a reason?

So to so-called native/indigenous Indonesians that refuse to recognize me and others as Indonesians, remember. Indonesia is a melting pot. Living in a melting pot is not the same with, say, a cupboard? In a cupboard you sit and live together with other things, but in a melting pot, we become one. OK I know cupboard is a silly analogy but you get what I mean (I hope).

Whatever happened to Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, man.

Oh and, no, not all of us are rich. Believe it or not, at my very first room in Singapore, the maid employed in the apartment is an Indonesian Chinese.

And where else did you think your “mi ayam” and “siomay” come from?

photo by Midori

photo by Chandra

I know. Yum.

And to people who think that I’m not Chinese because I can’t speak or read Mandarin or because I don’t do things in a Chinese way, this post is my answer. I’m always an Indonesian first then a Chinese. After all I don’t wanna be a Chinese that demeans and teases other people like you.

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Surprisingly, I don’t feel that ecstatic. Perhaps because I’m down with flu. I ALWAYS get down with flu around exam time. Sigh. According to the Psychology textbook, it’s called something like somatoform disorder. Your body becomes sick because of your psychological distress. (and if I’m wrong in referencing this, you guys can guess my exam grade then)

Not a lot has happened this term. This term just zoomed by. Architectural Analysis was deep and fluffy at the same time, Advanced Data Management was hard and complicated, Science Exploration and Society was…… unexplainable. Lab sessions were interesting and we (my group project) did a skit for our final presentation. Haha. I took Introduction to Psychology this term and I think it was fascinating. Heavy reading with plenty to remember (90 MCQ Exam!!) but really interesting. It changed the way I think and look at humans and urged me to be skeptical and critical about many things (no, it’s not a bad thing). Negotiation Skills for Business was useful. I can say that with pleasure, because so far, honestly, I haven’t found a course that I find useful. Perhaps enriching, or rather dreading, but never useful. Negotiation Skills for Business taught me, well, negotiations. But I think the most important thing is how to do it well. And that I should prepare before negotiation, and negotiate well.

For SMU students’ reference, here are the course codes.

Architectural Analysis - IS303
Advanced Data Management - IS410
Science, Exploration, and Society - STEC207
Introduction to Psychology - PSYC001
Negotiation Skills for Business - OBHR.218 

Oh I also got accepted (I think, I can’t fully confirm yet actually) for internship this summer. And of course, after that, Russia trip beckons! WOOHOO!

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Of course we do. Things don’t always go our way. Right?

Sometimes I find myself in a situation so depressing, I feel crippled to do anything. It’s all so impossible, and I’ll feel helpless.

But now, I think, sometimes I depress myself. It’s not the situation that depresses me, it’s me. Me myself and I. I let the situation depress me. I let the situation bring me down.

I remember one time when there was a CEO giving a talk in SMU. Gah, I forgot his name and his company. But I remember one quote, just that one quote from him. “If you start blaming other things but yourself for your failure, perhaps it’s time for you to do self instropection”.

Ok anyway, let’s just cut this short. I got this idea of “doing yourself a favour” after I finished cleaning up my room yesterday.

So, I finally cleaned up my room. (because a new tenant is coming to view the room) A spring cleaning a year too late. Yes, I have a very dirty, untidy, and disgusting room. (Ok not as bad as this room, but still) It’s a miracle how my boyfriend didn’t complain about it.

The (amazing) truth is, I’m actually a very neat freak person. Ok not as OCD as people who can’t bear see their things move one cm to the right, but I like to keep things in order. Ask people who have travelled with me and ask them how many ziplocs/containers I brought. One for electronic things, one for medicine, one for toiletries, one for make up, you got the idea.

So yeah. I got myself depressed by the state of my room. Things spread everywhere. Dust everywhere. Cupboards covered with dust and whatnots. I can’t find things anywhere. The best thing was I kept blaming the not conducive room for my not effective studying/learning/whatever thing I do inside the room. And also for my insomnia.

But as you might have realized…. The problem is in myself. It was my room, and it was ME who didn’t clean it up. It was me who created the not conducive environment. It was me who caused my own insomnia.

So I did myself a favour. I cleaned up the whole room. Set aside 2-3 hours (per day, for two days) just to make them squeaky clean. I cleaned them from dust. I rearranged my books and my other stuff. I threw away everything I didn’t need. 

The room is now clean, neat, and homey. A bit ironic, though, since I’m moving out next month (and I haven’t got a room because the ones I call always say it’s a bit too early to “promise” me the room).

But anyway. That’s not the point. So please, guys, next time when you are in a depressing situation, think again. Was it really the situation, or was it you that did not do anything to get rid of it? Face it, sometimes it’s really you, and I know it’s hard to accept the truth because having a responsibility to change a situation is daunting. Do yourself a favour. Work to get rid of the situation.

You are in charge of your own pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction. I have nothing to proof this statement but seriously, if it’s not you, then who/what?

Again. Do yourself a favour.

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