reflection

in less than 24 hours, i will move on to 2008. wauw!!! i can still remember what happened about a year ago.

i just want to recap what happened during the last 365 days. in short, 2007 was a year full of turmoil. ups and downs. wounds. blessings. it was more colorful *sadly also more hurtful* than 2006.

i twice lost my world. first was in the beginning of this year. and the second one was a few days ago.

i met someone special, although quicky losing her. i went to indonesia for the first time after 3 years and 3 months. too bad, this was one of the triggers for me to lose her. but, i met my mom again. that was great.

and now here i am, behind my pc, typing this post. im going to paris the day after tomorrow. hope that will be a nice holiday and a memorable one.

in about 6.5 months from now, i will graduate from inholland; leave the netherlands; step out of my comfortable zone to begin a new journey. no need to look back again.

well, that's a short reflection of mine. happy new year everyone. wish you all a happy new year.

vion.

a simple way to please the Lord,

Being just and loving mercy while we walk humbly with Him (Mic. 6:8)

changi airport

it's me reporting from changi airport. after about three weeks staying in indonesia, im now on my way back to amsterdam. the itinerary is to fly from surabay to singapore and then to amsterdam. the transit takes about 9 hours, but, that's relatively short compare to the facilities here.

im now at terminal 2, blogging from a broadband internet access. there are apparently two types of free internet access here. one is free for only 15 minutes. the other one is free for unlimited time. the speed for unlimited access is impressive. i have no difficulties whatsoever in accessing any website. the panel is futuristic, supported by panasonic, so it seems.

there are plenty of shops here. this place is a heaven for those so-called shopaholic. they can find any kinds of goods, perfumes, tie, even traditional clothes at this airport. this is just so cool.

the owner of this airport also provides free entertainment. free xbox 360 corner and free movies. would you believe that? this place is indeed the seventh heaven for them who love going out and spending their leisure time.

the interior design of changi airport is incredibly amazing. you'll find a beautiful combination of modern and traditional design. it even has a garden inside the airport. one of the things that schiphol doesnt have.

for passengers who need to move from one terminal to other, a train sky is available. it is really helpful for us. so that we dont have to walk from one place to another at all times.

well .. it looks like i will have no difficulty to spend 8 hours transit here. a nice experience to have, before sitting for 15 hours on KLM and back to the cold amsterdam.

changi airport.
11 december 2007

(again) about malang

it's me again, still running from malang. what i want to review right now is about internet cafe in this city.

back then, i used to visit primanet. it is an internet cafe close to the heart of the city. back in 2004, i reckoned primanet as the fastest internet cafe in the town. even better, it also offered food and beverage (well that's a standard offer actually, but still) to its customers. the cafe also provided special section for smokers and non-smokers. that was another plus to stay there for a couple hours.

now, primanet still provides customers with the same offers. but, i find that its browsing speed is absolutely slow. you can only surf comfortably with only one tab open. once you open more than one tab, you wont be able to surf anymore.

fortunately, there is another internet cafe, which i consider very fast for indonesian internet connection. the speed is almost the same with my connection in the netherlands. it's called simply box, located nearby local museum here. in addition to its fast connection, simply bix offers soft drink, bread, and of course music to keep the customers companied. it opens 24 hours and has a special offer. it is called insomnia offer. the price is 8000 rupiah to browse the net between 9pm and 6am. too bad i dont have the time to utilize this offer.

so, im glad to find this internet cafe. i can at least browse the net with ease and do not get frustrated because of slow internet connection. more importantly, this place is quite cheap. i think around 4000 rupiah (about 0.5 euro cents) an hour. that's considerably cheaper than the rate of internet services offered by some five-star hotels, which reachs 2.5 euros for an hour.

well that's for now. i think this is my last post from malang, as im returning to the netherlands in the coming days.

vion.

back in indonesia

holland education fair ended last weekn. since then, ive been staying in my hometown. these days, it is about 2 hours driving from surabaya.

nothing much has changed since i left this place. well, there are two additional plazas here. the first one has been up and running for quite a while. and the other one is still on the building process.

i went to the first plaza yesterday. it wasnt as "wow" as i'd expected before. the interior layout was just too simple and didnt show an impressive design. i hope the other one would be much better than that.

what else? umm internet cafes. we indeed have some new ones right now. one of them even has an original vista os on each pc. to accommodate the need for original software, the cafes opted for open source programs, such as the products of sun system.

i do see some sign of economic downsize in this city. comparing to the situation a few years ago, the changes do not look promising. there are less theaters, several shops are closed, buildings with poor maintainances, and more. all these are quite worrying, in spite of the increasing number of housing and plazas.

well, this is all for now.

November 28, 2007

im now waiting for the boarding call of the flight to yogyakarta (if you don’t know where yogyakarta is, please check google map). together with me is a group of 30 participants of holland education fair. we are going to promote our universities in yogya tomorrow.

yogyakarta will then be our third city in the last few days to be visited. i have promoted inholland in jakarta and bandung. the result was okay. the only remark is the number of visitors in Bandung unexpectedly more than Jakarta. that was quite of a surprise, considering that there were not many potential students visited the fair in bandung last year. i was expecting a boring day. it was a busy one, instead. but, no complains about that. i like doing this job.

in bandung, i met fellow communication students from parahyangan university and also one of their lecturers. we did some brief conversation and talked about each party’s education system. it turned out to be interactive, energetic, and interesting talks. we had some good understanding, in spite of difference in learning communication. we ended up exchanging email addresses and promised of sending many emails in the coming days. well, this break was actually a blessing for me.

why was it a blessing? because, im currently involved in a project which in one part covers the area of comparative study of communication program worldwide. so yea .. i was lucky to be there and meeting them. it is 15.47 right now. im boarding in three minutes. so, see you next time in another entry.

v.