Once Upon a Dream

This writing is inspired when I was youtube-ing Lana Del Rey and finally heard she sings ‘Once Upon a Dream’ for Maleficent soundtrack.  I repeated that song for many times, and she sings creepily beautiful. Sounds magical, she puts her soul on it. The story of Maleficent itself, is a reversal, it is a story about the villain in the sleeping beauty – that makes this song and the movie much better!

As we grow older, we will realize that our life is far from the fariy tale princess as we taught to be when we were a children. Finally found the disney movie that is not all about princess makes me feel secretly pleased. As I may share this, the real story of Sleeping Beauty from Grimm’s Brother is far from the Disney has been shown: Found the princess that fell asleep in the castle, the prince is not woken her up with the true love kiss, instead he raped her until she got pregnant and gave birth to twins. One of her baby, sucked her fingers and the needle fell and she woke up. The prince himself, already has a wife in his kingdom.

You might not believe it, but you may start googling about some disney movies that has been adapted from Grimm’s Brother stories, this is a story about sleeping beauty that I quoted from Huffington Post:

“In Giambattista Basile's tale (which is the actual origin of the Sleeping Beauty story), a king happens to walk by Sleeping Beauty's castle and knock on the door. When no one answers, he climbs up a ladder through a window. He finds the princess, and calls to her, but as she is unconscious, she does not wake up. Well, dear reader, he carries her to the bed and rapes her. Then he just leaves. She awakens after she gives birth because one of her twins sucks the flax (from the spindle) out of her finger. The king comes back, and despite him having raped her, they end up falling in love? However, another big problem: the king is still married to someone else. His wife finds out and not only tries to have the twins killed, cooked, and fed to the king, but also tries to burn the princess at the stake. Luckily, she is unsuccessful. The king and the princess get married and live happily ever after (despite the fact that he raped her).”

More on : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/the-real-story-behind-eve_n_4239730.html

Back to the song, if some of you may know, Lana Del Rey, who sings this re-make song, has a dark past, She is being raped when she was just 12. Idk, if she knew the real story of Sleeping Beauty, that make she sings so magical in it.

Here is the lyric:

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream

But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once
The way you did once upon a dream

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream

One Day Trip to Amsterdam

On our 2nd week in The Hague, we decided to have a one day trip to Amsterdam, we kept it simple : it was just having lunch and drink, strolling around, and took picture on I Amsterdam :)

We bought weekend retour ticket, means that we can go on saturday and going back on sunday with the same ticket

Getting off from the train - Amsterdam Centraal

One Fine Day with the warm and good weather outside Amsterdam Centraal

Already felt the vibrant from Amsterdam : From grannie to youngster,everyone have their own style

 Tourist Office across the Amsterdam Centraal, we bought a map there and asked some info about direction to the I Amsterdam sign near Rijksmuseum

Before we arrived, we had lunch in -idk-where-it-is- but we walked through the narrow street and there are some nice shops, so I bought a sneakers :)

 So....Hungry...

We also found the oldest pub in Amsterdam, good catch! :)

 I Amsterdam....checked ! ;)

 Enjoyed the evening before going back to the Hague

So that was it! :)

-Ririn Mustika-

Another broken promises

Another broken promises.
I remember a year ago, I promised that i'll post all my adventures in Europe. That was until I became an event manager and committee for PR Festival 2013 in my uni. This is an annual event that will be held for Public Relations Major, is kinda big, that the vice of governor came, some of important people from non-profit org also participated. So, I didn't even had a time for myself.

After the event was finished, there is an internship thingy, it is compulsory for the last year student. So I joined with Praxis PR consultant for 3 months, where I got a chance to learn PR 'in the real world', also involved in some clients, such as : Tigerair, Tigerair Mandala, Citibank, Putera Sampoerna Foundation, Bank BTPN, Jafra Cosmetics,etc... I learnt that every clients need different approach (eventhough still PR) it depends on what their business is.

Seems like an exhausting works are not enough, I'm also doing my thesis, this is very drama, that I got thesis advisor that famous for "smiling killer". He might be smiling at you, but then, he might be the one of the reason that you failed on defense. BANG!

After the drama, I decided to change my thesis subject, and do the research in Forbes Indonesia. Also I throw my luck applied as intern there for my observation. When I was being interviewed, I said that I want to do a research for my thesis here, andddd.. I accepted.

Working in forbes indonesia is like working with family there, they were so funny and I learnt a lot from there. I worked for 2 months, even though I was being asked for extend, I decided to focus on my thesis and the graduate first.

So that was my February 2013- December 2013 like. Now, i'm doing my thesis, I think this is the lowest point in my academic related so far. Idk, if I can't get along with my thesis advisor or what, but I try to. I want to graduate!

So, that was my excuses. Sorry I spilled out my story, promise that I'll post something useful or entertain later. Fyi, i just got back from Singapore, will try to write if I have time ;)

Bule in Bule’s Country

We put name tag and met with the groups. We were (Indonesian team) in one group with French, Russia and Australia, and our tutor from Germany. As I can see around and on the lists the Asia continents are only from South Korea, India, China and Indonesia.

I pitied myself how our great great great grandmother could chose Indonesia as they’re hometown. We’re easily recognized here!! Short,black hair, brown skin,black eyes. So pity,what genes it is, people around me was like as you can see in the Hollywood movies.

We’re in the middle of bule. But now,we’re bule in bule’s country.

As I wondered around, I heard myself called

“Ririn!!!”  that sound not from Joice, Alfona, Lidya or Tata (The only Indonesian Team)

I looked at her whose called my name, that look that exactly look like mine (Short, black hair, brown skin,black eyes)

“Orang Indonesia ya rin?” She greeted me. See- I’m easily recognized here :D

“Iyaa.hahaha kok tauu” Replied me as surprised

“Iya, keliatan lah terus lo namanya Ririn (pointed to my name tag) Gw juga liat di list kalo ada orang Indonesia, mana lagi orang Indonesia nya?”

“Oooh, gitu. Lah ini sebelah gw juga orang Indonesia.hahaha” (Joice, Alfona and Lidya have Chinese blood, but Tata idk why she couldnt recognized her)

“Lo orang Indonesia juga, exchange juga?” As I curious about her

“Iya, tapi gw complicated.haha. Gw kuliah di Turki, terus ikut exchange ini, jadinya gw ditulisnya dari Turki”

I dont know why, but the first time I saw her, I knew that we could be friend easily.

As we chatted, the photographer wanted to took a picture of whole Exchange Students Falls 2012

And...as night goes on

It was my first party there. You can easily find me the “indonesian look” still handing the coat.

I didn’t know there was a locker room to put the coat. Hell, how could I know! In indonesia , we already came with backless, tank top, shorts, and mostly of the fancy clubs are in the malls. In here malls are closed at 6 pm. Well, so it must be in the seperate building, and the weather outside was like 18 degree at night. You could “masuk angin-as I say it” if wearing the party clothes without coat.

The interesting thing that I found that we didn’t have to wear formal clothes to party, yeayyyy!!! We can use sneakers, jeans, shirt. If you see me on that pict, I used white shirt,legging and wedges. That’s enough :D

There are some clubs that has rules we should wearing formal, no sneakers, no cap, etc etc.. 

But for now, the schedule was on club seven. Schedule? Yesss, it was on orientation schedule!!!

So different but yet so close

After lunched and had a shower and another quick nap again.haha. We decided to look around this city, since it was still 4pm, and the sky at 8 pm was still shining. Another 'wow', compared to Indonesia, the sun goes down at 6pm, and that wasn't the only difference ;)

The traffic lights near my apartment, NO CAR!!! Mosly bikes!!

and special red light for bike

City Center area, the red street is for bike or scooters, 

while the walkers are happy enough with black street

hi, madame!

just wondering if there is a woman using the beautiful hat and cute dress in Jakarta street

you will hear "Neng..neng mau kemana?"

In the sidewalk of city center, found the sculpture that really 'south east asian'

more modern sculpture

look alike - ketika kegalauan melanda

break for a while, when headed home

really relaxing!

passed my university for a half year :")

IMY

I miss you
I miss you when you texted me "what are you doing tonight"
I miss you when we walked home at 3 or 4 in the morning
I miss when you always try to pick me up when i said "I can't see" because i'm too short
I miss you when we chat until midnight on facebook
I miss your silly dance
I miss your gluhwein
I miss when you kept saying that you want to visit me in indonesia
But i hate the time difference
I hate the distance
I hate that I don't know rather you miss me or forget about me.

Hi Europe, ups.. I mean Netherlands :)

Visa, Baggage and Camera. Modal2 yang dibawa untuk merantau

The first time I arrived in Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. I already felt the big gap between Asia and Europe, seeing people with coloured eyes, hair,skin. Speaking with dutch, english, french, spanish, and another languages that I didn’t know what was that. So diverse, I felt like being in the part of Hollywood movie. In the busiest airport in the world, I had lost and seperated with others but then I met them again.heheh :P

Even when I took cart for my baggage, I was fucking confused, because the cart just stuck at the place, but when I looked around, I realized that you should push the handle in the cart so it can goes. Hmm, interesting, so the handle it’s like a brake for cart, it won’t be going anywhere if there’s no people who push it

We were picked by the representative from The Hague University, Mr Len & Mr Barry. They said we were going to Den Haag by train and will meet Cynthia & Amber (Dutch girls, whose been to my uni for exchange before) Once again, I prepared for taking the 30 kg’s of my baggage and 5 kg’s of my gym’s bag to go to the train station. Hufhhhtt. And for how many times I felt amazed in less than a day...for go to the station we just go downstairs by lift, and here you go, you were in the train station :’’’’)

Barry said, “If you think Netherlands is Europe, you get it wrong, Europe is so diverse, so different for each country”. We got into the the train, in the journey I saw the land with cows, felt so peaceful. High tecnology country but still maintain their nature.

Looking tired in Den Haag HS with Mr Len

In Den Haag, we met Cynthia & Amber in Den Haag HS (Holland Spoor), they kissed us at cheeks 3 times,yes 3 times, in here they do it 3 times instead of twice like in Indonesia :D

Amber (left) & Cynthia (right)

The university is right behind of Holand Spoor, so tempted to visit the new uni for a half year, but we should go to DUWO first, to get the key from our apartments. They gave us map, alien map about our apartment,goshh i’m so blind at direction!!!

Anyway, we lived seperately, but me & Joice lived in one building but different room. Cynthia & Amber help Alfona, she got the farthest place, so she had to take tram from here!

Me, Joice, and Lidya were starting our first adventure in Den Haag, not even until an hour....we lost.

So Lost....

We lived in Asstraat, asked the local people about it, and no one knew. (until months, we knew that we pronounced it wrong, it should be like “ash-strhaat’ instead of “astrat”)

We walked until we met with Chinese girl, I asked her

“Hi, do you know where Astrat (wrong pronounced) is?”

She replied, “Yes..I know”

TERIMA KASIH YA TUHAN

“Eh, dia tau dia tauuu” I almost yelled with happiness to Joice & Lidya

“It’s right there.” Pointed to the next block.

“Aaaaahh, thank you so much”

“Do you want me to take you there, because I live there.”

With excitement I said “Wow, really?? Me and my friend (pointed at joice) will live there as well, which number are you”

“Really ? I live in 37” She replied

“37!!!! I also will live in 37!!!” I almost yelled

“Aaaah, so you’re my roomate”

And that’s how I met with my first roomate J

My bed, still didn't know how to put the bed cover thingy

Stil empty

After put my luggage and took a quick 1 hour nap, we had lunch near uni with Mr Len, Mr Barry, Cynthia, Amber, and the exchange girls

The waiters are so handsome and beautiful with blonde or brown hair and coloured eyes, I was being served with buleeeee!!! I felt like inversed, which one is the guests and the waiters  :P

 I ordered chicken noodle, with the expectation of mie ayam until when it arrived it was like strange noodle with salad

Chicken noodle and salad, my first meal in Europe :)

-tips: if you’re an asian,never order asian food in dutch restaurant ( well, it’s not a smart tips anyway,  just simple stupidity that I did :P )

They sell kip bali (Bali’s chicken) in here as well! But see the ‘useful’ tips before :P

When I back to my room, I said to my roomate

“Thanks for saving me, I should buy you a drink sometimes”

Which is sadly never been happened, I still owe her a drink!!!