Not An Ambitious Traveler (1)

Europe. Never knew I would finally step on this continent. Guess you can never underestimate the power of dream and effort or in my case... impulsiveness. Started from falling for a quiet small city in Germany: Hannover. I met my lovely cousin (but I will refer her as my sister nonetheless) and lived with her and my brother in law for a week.

It felt so magical when I traveled and pretended to be a local there, rather than being a mere visitor--despite of the language barrier though. Somehow I wish this world only spoke one language. But well, every single mother tongue speaker would always want the same thing whenever they were being a non-native-speaker abroad.

In Hannover, I also met my friend from Ann Arbor. It was so unreal when he stood in front of my sister's apartment. It was also fascinating when I witnessed his life in his hometown. A life 'before' and maybe would soon to be 'after' Ann Arbor. Seeing him in his atmosphere--so glad that I had the chance to do that. Especially to feel the genuine welcome gesture vibrated around me when I was introduced to his dear friends. They even kind enough to overcome the language barrier. It made me feel like an insider--for that I forever felt grateful for. Yes, being an outsider because of language barrier was sucks. Trust me I had been 'trained' so hard to face that kind of situation.

After Germany, I continued my trip to a very familiar country called the Netherlands. I referred it as 'familiar' because of the  strong relation between Netherlands and Indonesia. I formerly did not want to visit this country. However, since the foundation of this trip was impulsiveness then I decided to visit my dear friend in Netherlands anyway. It turned out to be the funniest experience one!

I would always remember the gloomy weather that blanketed a city. A city called Leiden. A city where Edward Cullen should live (LOL) because sunny day was always count as a bonus.It was cloudy and soft showering almost everyday. The canals were so beautiful there nevertheless.

Leiden also kept many phenomenal histories. Started from the Einstein cafe--a cafe where Einstein found his famous E = mc2 formula. This lovely town was also the home of the oldest university in Netherlands--where a lot of Indonesian heroes and Dutch royals studied.

I also would always remember the night where I danced around with my good friend like no one was watching. It was just me and him and our favorite songs. In case you were wondering, they were XO by Beyonce and Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande. It was sooooo much fun! We wish our close friends in Indonesia were joining us though.

Yes, a perfect dance in the middle of the night! Until we both happily collapsed in the end. Go go go Arians! Oh and he also the one who persuaded me to continue my second Master or even Phd there. Hmmm... interesting thought, wasn't it?

And there was Den Haag. A city that soon became my new obsession after DC. I think I always have a soft spot for governmental cities. They made me feel at ease and secure.

You know what epic? I also celebrated Indonesia 70th Independence Day there. Yes, we celebrated the freedom from Dutch Colonial in their own land. I knew it's been a while, and maybe we're already forgotten all of those black histories but well, one could not help herself but said 'In your face!' privately. Yes, I said it privately because we wouldn't want to upset them, would we?

Luckily, we also met a very generous and talk-active Madame. Her grandpa was a hero for our freedom. Hence, she took all the independence ceremony by heart. Oh I also wanted to share my a little about how I almost cried when I sang "Indonesia Raya"--it's been a while indeed. Ah Indonesia, whatever your flaws are, deep down I still wanted to be your game changer.

Going back to the kind Madame, She gave us a lot of lessons about being an international person. She criticized a lot about what was happening not only in Indonesia, but also in any other places. She was so smart and also married with a UN officer--yes, she had been living from country to country. She was also so humble, it amazed me. She spoke what she thought. I felt that there was no pretentiousness and falsity in her bones.

Further story about Den Haag: the governmental buildings were awesome. My friend told me even the Prime Minister was walking around in the parliament's yard and were so approachable. There was no tight security upheld in there--no sense of arrogance at all. You could walk around the palace's grounds without any scary security officers closed by. Yes, they got a lot of cameras here and there but please, it was more than okay to just walked around and took pictures.

Ah I thought it was the pleasure of living in a country where public officers were really realizing their truly place as public servants.