Odisseus’ Mom

Oke, this is still about you my dear sholeh boy, Ody, part 3.

29/12/2005 14:56, Auntie : Titipan suratnya udah diambil. Surat yang untuk Ody sama dia dijadiin terompet terus digigit-gigit. Dia lagi seneng jalan bolak-balik. Ntar kalo ditanya, “Ody nggak capek jalan terus?”, dijawab “kagak” sambil geleng-geleng kepala lucu.

04/01/2006 , Auntie : Ody dibacain sms dari Ibunya. Pas dibacain Ody nggak boleh nakal ya, eh dia nyeletuk “kagak”, ketawa semua deh kita. Dia lagi suka pake sepatu baru yang bunyi cit-cit. Dari tadi bolak-balik terus, waktu udah mau tidur dia minta pake sepatu lagi.

16/01/2006, Daddy : Tadi aku foto Ody pake blangkon, lucu

25/01/2005, Auntie : Ody dibotakin. Ditanya “waktu cukur nangis nggak”, eh dia jawabnya “kagak”, padahal tadi kejer waktu dicukur. Terus ditanya “Ody, ayah sama ibu mana?” dia jawab “gi ja”. Dia lagi seneng ngegeratakin apa aja, lemari piring udah bisa buka, terus tempat kue plastik diambil. Dia suka ngelihat mobil-mobil yang lewat depan rumah.

25/01/2006 20:58, Auntie : Ody kalo mau difoto susah disuruh bergaya lucu. Tapi kalo kamera belum siap dia malah bisa bergaya lucu dan manis. Tangannya ditaruh di dagu atau kepalanya ditaruh di atas tangan yang dilipat sambil bersandar di kursi. Belum lagi kalo dia lagi sibuk jalan mondar-mandir bawa tas, mukanya sok sibuk kayak orang mau mudik, terus tangannya dada. Dia nggak mau tasnya kosong maunya diisi apa aja, suka-suka dia, sibuk sampe keringetan kayak olahraga.

Dear Ody, your daddy is still in Malang right now, I hope he’ll be back at Wednesday, February 1st. Your daddy sent me some sms which tell that he feels lonely and empty being alone in Malang far from you and me. To be frank, I also feel very lonely, I miss your daddy much, and recently I’ve been thinking about him intensely. I miss both of you, sometimes late at night when I go to sleep I imagine how are you both,and I see your daddy’s face smile at me like he used to be. I also see you, walking ahead to me with your lilttle step, your chubby face smiles also. Right after that I fall asleep with a smile I feel in may face. May Allah SWT bless our little family and gives us strength to be patient until the time we’ll be together again as one complete family. Luv u Ody, luv u honey.

I think time won’t be enough to tell all your stories Ody, but I will keep trying in doing so. so, where were we yesterday? I am sorry I had to stop updating my blog due to bad internet connection I had last night, I decided to watch a movie in the tv while read a book about Child, Family, School, and Community wrote by Roberta M. Berns. Perhaps you may be ask why do I read such book? The answer is beacuse in this term I choose an optional course on Children, Youth, and Development, the professor is Ben White, an anthropologist. I think this is the time I have to go beyond economics things. First of all I was registered for the Economics of Globalisation class, but when I gave it a second thought, I think it won’t very interesting anymore to study economics again and again, what for? We already have a bunch of economists in our country? I have had enough with it. I hope your daddy can understand my reason and won’t get offense by this.

I was begun interested in  another issue, especially Children and Youth and how they give such an enourmous effect of development, and how development might have already benefit or indeed jeopardize their rights and presence as a wholly human being. I thought by studying such issue It”ll give me a new perspective and horizon about development and it’s various issues. I hope I’ll be enjoying it soon, and I will try to be. Yesterday I borrowed a bunch of books about children and education, on the first thought I was thinking that I’d like to begin to search a topic for mey next essay as soon as possible. The sooner I find the topic, the better and hopefully the easier it would take to compose one good essay, just like Professor White said.

Well, I think I already gave much of chit chat here talking about me, now is the time to talk about you and I’d like to continue to up date your development, Ody my dear soleh boy.

19/12/2005 12:34, Auntie : Ody baik-baik aja. Lagi lucu, ngocehnya ga jelas, kedengerannya cuma :ta da ga da apa” kadang-kadang “ma ma ba pa”. Sekarang kalau gw di deket ibu ga boleh sama Ody, Ody takut eyangnya diambil gw, jadi Ody peluk ibu duluan.

20/12/2005 17:45, Daddy for Mommy : Halo Sayang, jangan bersedih ya. Just be my ordinary Endah and the mother of Ody who could survive anywhere.

20/12/2005 20:13, Auntie : Tadi Ody sebelum tidur bercanda sama Ibu, ketawa ngaka lama. Ody ditanya, “cukur di mana?”, dia tunjuk kepala, “pijat di mana?” dia tunjuk kaki, tapi pas ditanya “yang kena pilek mana?”, eh dia malah nunjuk kuping. Lucu deh, bulet.

21/12/2005 19:30, Auntie : Ody udah tidur, tadi dikelonin Ibu, eh cuma 10 menit terus bangun lagi dan seger lagi matanya. Sekarang lagi makan roti, padahal kita udah bilang “nggak ada roti”, eh dia malah ngeyel bilang “ada”, ya udah akhirnya kita kasih roti deh. 20:30 : Ody udah tidur sekarang, gaya tidurnya lucu meluk guling padahal kakinya belum sampe. Ody tadi ditanya “Ody nakal ga?”, dia jawabnya “kagak”. Terus kalo misalnya dia kejedot terus ditanya, “siapa yang nakal?”, Ody malah pukul pintu.

23/12/2005 19:59, Auntie : Ody udah bisa utak-atik gerendel pintul pagar depan. Kalo yang tengah nggak bisa dibuka, dia pindah ke yang bawah. kalau dua-duanya nggak bisa dibuka, sama Ody pagarnya digoyang-goyang. Tadi lihat gambar kucing tidur dia ngikutin, gayanya kepalanya ditaruh di bantal.

24/12/2005 15:19, Daddy : Ody udah bia dorong keranjang berisi pakaian lho. 19:46 : Ody sudah di Johar, sekarang jalannya udah seimbang. Ody udah jalan keliling rumah di Johar sambil bunyiin alarm mobil.

Like I should and always do, I usually keep in touch with my son’s development, what he does, what he eats, his new ability, and so on. And like I always did also, I usually up load those news in my blog. My dear sholeh boy, Odysseus, I’d like to say I am truly sorry for not keep udating news about you in my blog. I don’t know exactly for how long I haven’t done this maybe a month, maybe more than just a month. What I exactly know is that you have already make a big change, development both in your physical being and your motoric ability, I might not recognize you if I would be able to see you now. The last time I saw your picture I was crying to know and realize how you have already changed into a fine and beautiful young boy. You have already be able to stand firmly on your foot, to walk with balance, to search and observe with a lot of couriosity about all the things around you, and to speak few simple words.    

Here are some news I received from your auntie and daddy about your development:

25/11/2005 09:36, Auntie : Ody lagi diurut. Sekarang dia agak galak lo. Dia emut botol minyak telon dan waktu diminta botolnya dia marah, tapi masa’ dia nggak kepedesan. Terus kepala orang dipukul pake centong atau botol aqua. Mba Ria pernah kena pake kaleng. Ampun deh. Sekarang ody udah nggak bisa dipura-purain. Kan dia suka makan pisang, kalo lagi makan nasi kita bilang ada pisangnya, ntar Ody bilang “ta da’ sambil melengos. Cat tembok yang pada ngelupas malah suka dikeletekin sama dia. Giginya semua ada 8.

26/11/2005 15:08, Auntie : Ody lucu deh, sekarang dia lagi suka bilang “ma ma pa pa”, dan kalo disuruh bilang Ibu, Ody malah bilang “ka gak ma ma”. Akhirnya kita bilang ya udah nanti bilang Ibu ya kalo Ody maunya panggil Ibu “ma ma”, eh dia malah jawab “iya”.

3/12/2005 15:44, Auntie : Ody lagi main nih. Kalo lagi ngoceh panjang suaranya kucu. Ada kata-katanya ketangkap ada yang nggak. Waktu jalan-jalan kan nggak ada tukang roti, eh Ody bilang “ya ta da”. Dia seneng denger suara tukang roti.

06/12/2005 12:54, Daddy : Ody udah bisa jalan 7 langkah sambil taruh ho di telinga. Hari ini Ody dua kali naik tangga ke lantai 2 sampai habis tangga. Terus jalan 10 langkah sendirian.

07/12/2005 16:27, Auntie : Ody diajak ke Alfa udah ngerti barang yang harganya mahal. Maunya mainan kentang Pringles, terus tiba-tiba aja tangannya udah gondol jeruk, dan tenteng Sari Roti. Waktu di sana dia jalan sendiri sambil digandeng tangannya.

11/12/2005 22:50, Auntie : Jangan marah ya, Ody lucu banget mukanya imut waktu kita iseng pakein jilbab, mukanya bulet gendut. Dia seneng naik di punggung main kuda-kudaan. Eyang dipanggil “enyak” sama Ody.

12/12/2005 23:37, Auntie : Ody tadi mau tidur rewel banget, nangis kenceng dan lama. Barangkali dia mimpi. Tapi sekarang udah tidur mudah-mudahan nyenyak sampai besok pagi.

15/12/2005 17:33, Daddy for Mommy : Luv u. Your good health and news are my biggest present.

17/12/2005 11:08, Auntie : Ody suka njot-njotan di perut orang. Ody digodain, “Eyangnya punya Tante ya”, sambil peluk Ibu, eh dia ngambek karena nggak mau Eyangnya diambil atau dipeluk orang lain. Tapi kalau kita diam, Ody yang malah godain duluan sambil peluk Eyang dan mukanya senyum-senyum iseng. Waktu lihat mobil ambulans dia seneng banget, pas mobilnya udah jauh dia dada sambil kiss bye. Bangun tidur nonton tivi serius sambil senyum-senyum. Kadang kalo lagi makanmasih suka dilepeh.

17/12/2005 11:47, Auntie: Ibu beli gambar-gambar anak kecil lagi wudhu, solat, dan huruf hijaiyyah, Ody seneng lihat gambar anak kecilnya, kalo disuruh belajar solat, sujud, dia nunjuk-nunjuk gambar itu, dan nunjuk-nunjuk pecinya si anak kecil, ternyata maksudnya dia mau ngasih tau kalo dia juga punya peci dan mau pake.

Living in another country, far from family and closest friends needs an extra skill of mingling with others from different culture, background, and so on. I have been living in one of  the family room at Dorus hostel for almost one month. I share the room with my Indonesian mate, Herni. The reason we are doing this is to save extra money, to make our life more cheerfull since we have not only one but two persons in the room, not to mention our cute dolls collection, and to be able to study and discuss our course more intense as well, hehehe… hope you are going to believe my last reason.

I am going to live with my roommate for another 11 months ahead, hopefully both of us (to be frank, not only both of us, but also the rest of our batch) will be able to finish our study at time. There are some positive and negative things about sharing your private and daily life with another person. I think I need a certain kind of art to be able to manage our relationship so that we are going to be just fine until the time we finish our study. In my opinion, basically every people has a tendency to averse the conflict especially with the one of your closest being. That is why I say we need some sorts of art of being well manage and behave with our close friend(s) in order to achieve such condition. Kind of arts that I am talking about is, art to know when and detect your friend(s) bad mood, thus be patient it,  deal with it,  and also be able to say something to encourage your friend when s/he is in bad/low condition, how to understand your friend’s character, how to tolerate each other, and so on. This kind of understanding should  be adapt by both side, me and also my peer(s), to achieve one success in the relationship.

So from now on, I have to keep this in mind and I hope not only my room mate but all my friends here would also apply the same when we interact with each other. I think, that is how our new life here will be flow.

Tour Eiffel means Eiffel Tower in English. I bet there is nobody who doesn’t know about this famous tower, Paris landmark. We walked to this symbollic landmark, it took about 20 minutes walking from Champ Elysees. From a distance we were able to see a blaze of its light. Some people say that the best time to visit this landmark is at night when its shines a lot of lights. I think this suggestion is true,  could only held my breath when I saw Tour Eiffel at night. It is very beautiful, poured with lights at night Tour Eiffel without no need to argue become a very romantic place in Paris. 

As we already planned before, we wanted to go up until the top of Eiffel, but since this part is being under restoration, our plan no longer became possible. We have to be satisfy to catch the view of Paris at night from the second platform. The air was cold and the wind made us chilled more, it kept us enjoying the hold-breath-taking view from the second platform of Eiffel a little bit longer. Such condition made us could not take a very good picture as well.  

Dear Ody my soleh boy, here I give you a very brief history and description about Tour Eiffel:

The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of England, opened the tower. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, Gustave Eiffel’s was unanimously chosen.

However it was not accepted by all at first, and a petition of 300 names - including those of Maupassant, Emile Zola, Charles Garnier (architect of the Opéra Garnier), and Dumas the Younger - protested its construction.

At 300 metres (320.75m including antenna), and 7000 tons, it was the world’s tallest building until 1930. Other statistics include:

• 2.5 million rivets.
• 300 steel workers, and 2 years (1887-1889) to construct it.
• Sway of at most 12 cm in high winds.
• Height varies up to 15 cm depending on temperature.
• 15,000 iron pieces (excluding rivets).
• 40 tons of paint.
• 1652 steps to the top.

It was almost torn down in 1909, but was saved because of its antenna - used for telegraphy at that time. Beginning in 1910 it became part of the International Time Service. French radio (since 1918), and French television (since 1957) have also made use of its stature.

During its lifetime, the Eiffel Tower has also witnessed a few strange scenes, including being scaled by a mountaineer in 1954, and parachuted off of in 1984 by two Englishmen. In 1923 a journalist rode a bicycle down from the first level. Some accounts say he rode down the stairs, other accounts suggest the exterior of one of the tower’s four legs which slope outward.

However, if its birth was difficult, it is now completely accepted and must be listed as one of the symbols of Paris itself.

Ecole-Militaire seen through the base of the tower.

The tower has three platforms. A restaurant (extremely expensive; reservations absolutely necessary), the Jules Verne is on the second platform. The top platform has a bar, souvenir shop, and the (recently restored) office of Gustave Eiffel.

From its platforms - especially the topmost - the view upon Paris is superb. It is generally agreed that one hour before sunset, the panorama is at its best.

Source: http://www.paris.org/Monuments/Eiffel/

I’d like to add something, from the base of the tower we can see not only Ecole-Militaire, yet from the opposite direction of it we can see a very beautiful park, which is known as Jardin de Trocadero. Our sight will be very spoiled with a very picturesque view if we take a look at Tour Eiffel from this spot, be it in day light or night.

Dear Ody and daddy, I’ll continue my story about my holidays in Paris, one week ago. I haven’t write for sometimes, and it makes me a little bit clumsy in expressing my feeling and thought with words. One thing for sure is that I had a memorable time in Paris and the only oneI have in my mind is that I want to visit Paris again with both of you, someday I believe we will.

We spent our first morning in Paris walking through some parts of the city, Bastille, Seine, and Notre Dame, then went back to the youth hostel where the boys stayed, to pick up our luggages. Since we stayed in different place, me and Herni were stayed in Etap Hotel La Vilette for one night, we had to go to La Villete. We got one room and put our luggages there, relaxed ourselves for a while. What a break we had, after one uncomfort night on the bus and very tired body walking around Paris, a clean and warm bed was good enough for us to fix ourselves.

Our plan for the day was going to visit Louvre, Champ Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel. Unfortunately Louvre opens just until 6 pm, therefore we had to change our plan, and focused our first day in Paris visiting Place de la Concorde, Champ Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel. 

Here a story about Arc de Triomphe, Paris:

Commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon, shortly after his victory at Austerlitz, it was not finished until 1836. There are four huge relief sculptures at the bases of the four pillars. These commemorate The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot); Resistance , and Peace (both by Etex); and The Departure of the Volunteers, more commonly known by the name La Marseillaise (Rude).

La Marseillaise by François Rude; One of four reliefs on the pillars of the Arch. The day the Battle of Verdun started in 1916, the sword carried by the figure representing the Republic broke off. The relief was immediately hidden to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired associations or interpretations as a bad omen.

Engraved around the top of the Arch are the names of major victories won during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. The names of less important victories, as well as those of 558 generals, are to found on the inside walls. Generals whose names are underlined died in action.

Beneath the Arch is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and eternal flame commemorating the dead of the two world wars.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Here every Armistice Day (11 November) the President of the Republic lays a wreath. On 14 July - the French National Day (refered to as Bastille Day everywhere except in France) - a military parade down the Champs Elysées begins here. For important occasions of state, and national holidays, a huge French tricolor is unfurled and hung from the vaulted ceiling inside of the Arc.

Source: http://www.paris.org/Monuments/Arc/

Me in front of Arc de Triomphe just before the sun went down. This landmark is like Bundaran HI in Jakarta Indonesia, from it’s view from the top of it we can see Paris with its many directions, centered on this spot.

Me in the middle of Paris busy hour, in  front of Arc de Triomphe at evening. On my left side is Champ Elysees.

From the roof of the Arch there are spectacular views of Paris. Looking eastwards, down the Champs Elysées, toward the Louvre, there is the Place de la Concorde,, the Tuileries Gardens, and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. In the opposite direction - westwards - in the distance is its larger and newer cousin, La Grande Arche de la Défense.

View from the roof of the Arc de Triomphe toward the Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse.

Assalamu’alaikum wr. wb.

My dear husband and my soleh boy Odisseus, I am very sorry to be very late in updating my blog. Perhaps both of you have already known that after fininshing my exam for term 1 B, last week me and another three friends were going to Paris for holidays.

Basically we already bought three tickets for two-way trip Den Haag-Paris-Den Haag using Thalys train, unfortunately our exam schedule which was supposed to be in the morning was being changed to the afternoon. It made us no longer be able to use our tickets, therefore we went to Paris by night bus. It took 7 hours for going to Paris form Den Haag by bus. The trip was quite okay, though I was could not sleep well,  we arrived in Paris exactly at 6 am in the morning.

We took metro–in Paris everybody uses metro subway as their primary transportation medium, it is quite cheap, 1.4 euro for one trip all across Paris, and not to mention it is also a fast transportation medium since Paris is a very crowd city–from the bus pool. We went to Ledru Rollin, near Bastille to find a hostel for the boys. For me and Herni, I already booked one room in Etap Hotel at La Vilette, it was a very nice hotel, clean, and very comfort. Since we could only check in after 10 am, we took a walk over the city to enjoy our first morning in Paris. 

First we took a walk to Bastille, we ate our breakfast here, it was still early in the morning, yet people were rushing doing their daily activities. Finished with our breakfast,  we walked to the side of Seine River, it was very beautiful, the air was fresh, the cloud was clear, the river was calm. I noticed something about Seine, it cross and separate one land in the middle of Paris, we walked through the side and then crossed it until we got to the other side. I took some picture there with the Seine as background. Then we continued our morning going to Notre Dame–a famous cathedral in Paris, one thing I remember about this dome is a movie from Disney “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. I was thinking, hmm… so this is the place where Quasimodo the Hunchback might had lived one day in the past. I guess, no one knows whether Hunchback was ever really lived there or no.

At the Seine-side

Look how the river is branched, on the background is Notre Dame (left).

In front of Notre Dame Cathedral

Latest pic was in front of Place de la Concorde, Paris, afternoon walk head to Champ Elysee and Arc de Triomphe

To all muslims, readers of my ordinary blog, I wish you all:

A Happy Iedul Adha 1426 Hijr,  May Allah SWT bless us with His merci, love, and light.

Herewith, I enclose one interesting article from IslamOnline, 10 January 2006.

World Muslims celebrate Eid ul Adha

1/10/2006 8:31:00 AM GMT

Muslims all over the world are celebrating today the annual festivity of Eid ul Adha, which coincides as a religious injunction with the climbing of Mount Arafat by Muslim pilgrims to the Holy Land Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Muslims kill rams; symbolic of Prophet Ibrahim’s obedience and strict compliance with his promise to the Allah the Almighty to use his only son, Ismail, as a sacrifice to Him. Just before carrying out the covenant with Allah on using his son, Prophet Ismail (PBUH) as sacrifice, Allah the Almighty sent Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) a beautiful huge white ram to sacrifice instead of his son. Allah did this in acknowledgment of our Holy Prophet’s faithfulness and obedience to Him. And since then, Muslims commemorate this great and historic incident by killing rams. What Muslims learn from this incident is that it is not enough to slaughter rams to mark such monumental Islamic anniversary, but to follow such obedience exhibited by Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) in his dealings with Allah, and to express it in our individual and collective lives in a time where mutual suspicion has become the order of the day, where wives barely trust their husbands. This allegiance showed by Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) to Allah, is now lacking between the government and the governed, between the people and the Almighty Allah, and between families as well. Relationships between families are devoid of this type of trust between Prophet Ibrahim and his family. May the fruits of obedience and trust, which the Eid ul Adha teaches, prevail and continue after celebrating this blessed day. Source: Vanguard

Di tengah perjalanan kereta yang kembali ke arah Den Haag, aku membayangkan bahwa kami harus kembali menempuh perjalanan berat di tengah salju untuk kembali ke rumah. Tidak mungkin kami memaksakan diri untuk berangkat malam itu juga ke Rotterdam karena hampir semua bis dan kereta api tidak beroperasi. Kami tidak mengetahui ini karena kami tidak sempat mengecek kondisi transportasi melalui web site. Setelah berkomunikasi dengan teman-teman lain yang juga hendak menuju Rotterdam, akhirnya kami memuruskan untuk pulang ke rumahku dan menunda rencana berangkat keesokan harinya.

Jadilah, kami bertiga yang menamakan diri tim Tour de Holland berjalan kaki kembali menuju rumah. Alhamdulillah hujan salju yang cukup lebat sudah agak reda, namun salju yang tebal tetap membuat kami agak repot berjalan. Sampai di asrama, kami bertemu seorang teman yang sudah kami pamit, dia agak heran melihat kami kembali ke rumah, namun dia sudah bisa menduga kalau cuaca yang buruk jadi penyebabnya.

Ya sudahlah, nggak apa-apa batal berangkat, kita tetap punya acara seru di rumah. Sambil minum teh kami saling bertukar cerita dan gurauan sampai lewat tengah malam.  

Temanku Hana, kuliah di Univ. of Amsterdam ambil medical anthropology, yang satu lagi Salwa, aku baru aja kenalan, dikenalin Hana, kuliah di sebuah college di Leeuwarden (Ibu kota Propinsi Friesland–yang bikin susu Bendera/Frisian Flag), di sebelah utara Belanda, Salwa ambil jurusan Service atau tepatnya Tourism.

Malam itu rencananya kami mau berangkat sama-sama ke Rotterdam untuk ikutan pesantren kilat. Duh… kita kan anak-anak soleha… jadi malam tahun baru ceritanya mau diisi sama kegiatan sanlat. Berhubung hari masih sore jadinya mereka mau mampir dulu ke rumahku. Senang donk aku dikunjungi, biarpun kamar baruku masih bener-bener mirip kapal pecah. Sampe rumah, eh malah mereka bantuin aku masak makanan untuk buka puasa, kebetulan hari itu aku shaum sunah, kita makan malem bareng, sebenernya cuma aku yang bener-bener makan malem, maklum abis puasa, si Hana dan Salwa cuma makanin sayur dan lauknya doank dikit-dikit, “Masih kenyang, tadi baru makan doner kebab”, begitu alasannya.

Jam 7 malam ceritanya kami mau berangkat ke Rotterdam, berbekal alamat sebuah masjid di Ridderkerk (kota kecil di pinggir Rotterdam). Karena internet di kamar belum lagi tersambung karena belum sempat memeriksa jaringan di kamar baru, kami dengan penuh keyakinan malam itu berniat menembus hujan salju yang udah mengguyur sejak sehari semalam.  Bertiga kami berangkat dari rumah sekitar jam 7.15 malam. Kami pamitan pada teman-teman yang kami temui di sekitar asrama. Tiga perempuan dengan backpack besar berbalut baju tebal berjalan menembus salju lebat dan dingin. Pelan-pelan kami berjalan ke halte bis. Di halte nggak terlalu banyak orang, tapi nggak lama aku dengar ada sapaan, “Mahasiswa Indonesia ya?” Kami menoleh, dan melihat sepasang lelaki dan perempuan yang memakai pakain tebal pula. Dasar perantau, nggak bisa nggak menyapa kalau ketemu saudara sebangsa setanah air. Akhirnya kita kenalan, yang laki-laki namanya Lambok kuliah di Hamburg, dan yang perempuan namanya Lina kuliah di Utrecht atau Groningen ya? Ah lupa lagi deh.

Mereka sama-sama mau ke arah stasiun central Den Haag dan nunggu bis pula. Di tengah salju, seorang supir tram dari arah berlawanan berteriak pada kami bahwa tidak ada tram maupun bis yang beroperasi saat itu karena cuaca yang cukup buruk (untuk ukuran Belanda). Akhirnya dengan tekad membaja namun lupa berpikir bahwa mungkin saja kereta juga tidak beroperasi kami berjalan kaki menuju stasiun. Di saat normal berjalan kaki ke stasiun central membutuhkan waktu 30 menit. Kami nggak sempat lagi menghitung berapa lama waktu yang kami butuhkan untuk sampai di stasiun dengan berjalan kaki di tengah hujan salju, mungkin hampir satu jam. Seru juga, dingin, tapi jadinya malah bisa menikmati salju.

Di stasiun kami segera naik ke kereta yang seharusnya membawa kami ke Rotterdam. Dengan nyaman kami duduk di dalam menunggu saat kereta berangkat. Di stasiun Den Haag HS kami berpisah dengan Lambok dan Lina, mereka turun karena akan kembali ke hostel. Kami menanti kereta membawa kami sampai di Rotterdam. Di Stasiun Delft, dengan agak bingung aku bertanya kenapa kereta malah berjalan ke arah Den Haag kembali? Ternyata, malam itu pun tidak ada kereta yang berangkat menuju Rotterdam. Kami pun bingung dan segera menelpon teman-teman di Rotterdam, ternyata mereka juga mengalami masalah yang sama, tidak dapat menuju lokasi dan malah ada mobil yang membawa rombongan terperosok ke dalam salju. Wah jadi bingung dan panik.