[Apret, B.Bus (Honours)]

Copycatting from my dearest’s blog =p, since I am not creative enough to write serious thing XD.

Alhamdulillah, that long and winding journey ends here. So this is just an acknowledgment for some parties that have been so helpful during these three years :

• Allah SWT, for everything you have given me until this moment. I do believe that you have planned the best thing for me throughout my life. Alhamdulillah, and I know that You are the most merciful, the most compassionate, so I won’t stop to ask You for everything, since human beings like me are so fragile and powerless

• My parents, for every support and prayers. My parents never ever asked me about how my Exam was, or how did I perform academically, instead they only told me to “eat more, rest more, pray more”, coz they understand how hard my effort was, so they disinclined to pressure me by asking questions that made me distress =).

• My sister, who always scolding and mocking me when I were home, and tell me about how clumsy I am (but I know that deep down inside she is admiring me *big grin*).

• My Applied Research Projects partners, Adilla Anggraeni and Abdullah Rubaet Chowdury. I am so sorry for overwhelming you with this, ever since I flee to Copenhagen, both of you have tried hard to accomplish those mundane tasks without my presence. Thank you for all of your understanding, we are a perfect team indeed (according to MBTI test =p).

• My wonderful and talented NBS fellows who always encourage me to work hard and chase them, Karin, Wewoen, Melissa, Ronal, Nancy, Fieda, Anes, et cetera, et cetera.

• My NTU fellows especially 2004-2005 batch (my batch)

• Superbatch Sixtyfivers, we entered college at the same time, but I am so sorry that I will be out 1 year earlier than all of you. The truth is, I don’t want to graduate, I want to still enjoy school-life. I don’t want to enter the dreadful corporate life =(.

• Those who killed my boredom by entertaining me via msn every night, Otaku-sama, Rizaldi, Bhro, my roomie *grin*

• Fellow bloggers in my friend-list =).

• And you, yes, you, who are currently reading this! I would like to thank everyone but you (who I haven’t mentioned before). I am very sorry since I have limited ability to memorise

And after hearing insightful conversation in Canteen 2 last night, with him and him as main speakers, I got the conclusion that, no matter how bad your grades are, you are still a holder of bachelor degree *grin*, as you will only see this in the name card :

Apret Cantik dunkz, B.Bus (Honours)
Desa Sukamakan
Kecamatan Sukamiskin
RT 5 RW 3
Phone : 0809999999

And not like this :

Apret Cantik dunkz, B.Bus (Honours)
(With First Class loh, hore hore hore yeyeyeyey!)
Desa Sukamakan
Kecamatan Sukamiskin
RT 5 RW 3
Phone : 0809999999

Or like this :

Apret Cantik dunkz, B.Bus (Honours)
(First Class loh, EUREKA pula! Keren khan?horeee horeee)
Desa Sukamakan
Kecamatan Sukamiskin
RT 5 RW 3
Phone : 0809999999

-_-“

Anyway I ought to sleep right now, since I feel like my brain doesn’t function normally.

HOW CAN I AM NOT TANNED?

My roomie scolded me for not paying extra care attention to my skinface (now it was horrible, I think =S). And I assume that this is because of my Greece trip =(.

It was burning in Acropolis! Burning HOT! Anyway, this is the famous Pantheon

It was (again) super duper HOT! HOT! (and stupid me wearing black T_T). Taking stairs to hilly Acropolis

Aegina Island, pretty small island nearby Athens (see how i look like, PHANTOMED DARK!)

In case you didn't notice, the sun here is super STRONG and FIERCE, though it seems gloomy

Please look at my hand and voila, see the differences!

Give me back my Copenhagen-fairness T_T...

Pardon Me for Being Random…

Apratz is back to her habitat, the small red dot country of Singapore!

I reached Singapore on the evening of 28^th June, being picked up by Dhana and Rizaldi (gazillion of thanks!). Honestly quite disappointed with lesser number of people coming down, since I want to take MRT instead of calling a cab. Too bad my deadly-bulky luggage didn’t allow less manpower to carry them, so in the end I still took a cab *huge disappointment*. Well, I couldn’t really blame people though, since people are busy (but still cannot ease the disappointment, since almost half of my luggage consists of my gifts and souvenirs to people!).

Now I don’t really feel like doing anything. I am so lazy throughout these days *bleh*. I urgently need to weep away this viruses since laziness is one of the seven deadly sin *sounds of thunderbolt*. I left with jetlag, and am currently unable to sleep in the proper time. I need to brutally apply for jobs, since I really intend to go working right after graduation ceremony. Most tutors said that this year is the “employee market”, so average monthly salary is increased significantly and market will be overwhelmed by employers seeking for talent, but the fact now is a lot of people are still jobless (not to mention me, huhu).

Anyway, before taking a flight back to Singapore, I spent a night sleeping in the Kastrup airport since I was homeless in Copenhagen, really no place to stay and I am not exaggerating! It was so cold at night and I didn’t anticipate the hostile weather that time (I thought it was already summer and people craving for wearing one layer clothes). I slept nearby the emergency stairs, lying pathetically just like a penniless vagrant. Now my back really hurts and my hands both look jumbo since I used to carry the 40++ kg luggage here and there. Another bad thing is I got very very very tanned, this is the result of non-stop traveling for one semester T_T, especially in Greece, Austria and Bratislava, when the sun was super strong (I heard that recently the temperature in Greece reached 46 Celcius and people are taken to hospital because of its warm).

I’d like to tell you a bit about my latest trip so far.

Paris (France)

Paris was (surprisingly) an utter disappointment and I am not joking =(. I am not a harsh grader myself, but Paris is an exception. The place is super touristy so people there gave a bad service for the budget tourist like us, students.

People are hardly speaking English, and even if they did, they seem unwilling to help. People are simply not too friendly, just because we couldn’t speak French =(. We have rejected few times when entering a small restaurant to drink coffee (they said “go McDonalds!” O_o). Everything in Paris means money, and shall be used by people to generate money as much as possible =(. Because of the bad service, we need to pay more, just for changing hostel rooms. And I didn’t go to Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France, because the train ticket price went extremely crazy! (Actually I want to see the area further down from Paris, such as Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Loire Valley or Marseille, but I really CANNOT afford!).

Nevertheless, I was a France geek when I was in Junior High School, and am super familiar with our deficit-Madam Queen Marie Antoinette. I was so happy that I can visit Versailles even though there was a lot of construction held there which made the building less pretty. Interesting thing is, the Sun-King Louis XIV was probably the most narcistic person on earth, since every corner of the room has his portrayal or craft -_-“.

And, I was enlightened of how inspiring the France Revolution is! It was very fantastic when I stepped down in Plaza de Concorde, a place whereby guillotine sadistically chopped off more than 11,000 people ranged from aristocrats and commoners (including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette). In the other hand, the time when Napoleon made an incredible comeback from his exile was very thrilling. I will explain later when my pics are ready to show, hehehe.

Meanwhile, the interesting thing about my second insightful city, Berlin and the gorgeous Stockholm will be shown later on, since I do believe that people are reluctant to read when they spot no pictures amongst the paragraph.

Lastly, welcome back myself in the lifeless land of Singapore, the place where my breadwinning-activities will take place for the next few years =(.

The Return of Apratz!

Apratz is back from her so-called Bohemian and Mediterranean trip. Internet connection in Dorm is super lousy, so I am not be able to show you more pictures =(. Okay readers, fasten your seatbelt (but not too fast), since I will only demonstrate a flash glimpse.

Prague (Czech Republic)

In my very first impression, Prague seems very mysterious and mystifying. I have no idea about the style of the buildings in Prague (I know that Austria mostly adopts Baroque style, and Italy has mainly the gothic and renaissance style, but not for Prague). But trust me, this is probably my best city after London! Czech’s history sounds bloody, though not as horrid as the London’s Tudor era. Czech Republic in the past became the proof of glory of Hapsburg dynasty in Austria, until they change into communist country before the Velvet Revolution occurred. Nowadays after the so-called commotion they turn into Republic from.

Me and Ian, stepping out the Prague Castle (courtesy of Terri)

Good thing is, everything in Prague is super cheap, especially for food. I always eat extravagant meals in Prague, since the price is almost at the same level as Singapore, but you got the mystic ambience of Eastern Europe feeling!

And I went with super insightful companions, Terri and Ian. Terri is a Law student from NUS and Ian majors in International Relation in London, so I can understand how critical they are. We talked a lot about both the uprising and falling of the socialism idea, Marx the extreme Utopian, the flaws of human-made system, and so on and so forth. This trip is very enriching my inner mind, until so long I can barely talk with people about this kind of issues (since most people will hinder to talk about this matter). I could only remember that the last moment I pay much attention about these was when I joined the English Debating Team in my high school^^.

Bratislava (Slovakia)
Slovakia is one of the countries that mark the fallacy of communism. Perhaps people will be bored when they visited Bratislava, but I agree with Terri that it can be very enlightening for some people.

Small and tranquil town, but very charming (courtesy of Terri)

At the first time I stepped out from Bratislava central station, it brings a heavy reminiscence of Jatinegara Station in Jakarta because it is sooooo similar! The busses remind me of Metromini and the interior of the train resembles me of the economy class train in Indonesia XD.

At night at Danube river (Courtesy of Terri)

Slovakia is even cheaper than Prague and cannot be compared to its neighbor Austria. Good thing is, the place is less touristy so it is very calm and tranquil, unlike in Prague whereby the sights of people are dominated by 25% Japanese and Korean tourists and the rest wears shades and grabs map T_T. I want to see the locals and taste their genuine culture and disincline to see tourists here and there!

Vienna (Austria)
Vienna is the magnificent capital of arts! If you remember Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. Schubert, et cetera, et cetera, then you must know that they came from Austria (or at least had stayed in Austria). Austria is a student-friendly city –I guess. I watched musical ‘Othello’ in Vienna for just 3.5 Euro =p. I should have gone to Austria for an exchange *grin*.

Vienna the capital city remarks the grandeur of Hapsburg dynasty (with its famous Empress Maria Theresa, mother of Marie Antoinette). It seems that the Hapsburg family loves arts and music so much, since musician and artists were always appreciated with great splendor. The whole city is very pretty, after being overwhelmed with gothic (and neo gothic style), now I am fully enchanted with Baroque and Art Noveau!

Compare Klimt's and the one in Elfen Lied's opening, I love BOTH!

Klimt's "The Kiss" (my favourite) and Elfen Lied's

And, have you ever heard about Gustav Klimt? Now I adore him so much after seeing his works. If you watch Elfen Lied anime, then the opening song plagiarized Klimt’s works. But both of them is super pretty, so I won’t blame the maker of Elfen Lied’s opening =p. I love Vienna so much that I can hardly explain by words. I will spoil all of you with pictures in Vienna later on.

Athens (Greece)
I once a Greek mythology freak and still a Saint Seiya die hard fan, so I have gigantic expectation about Greece, but what I can mostly get is RUINS T_T.

I saw the Parthenon in Athens, and I felt like screaming, where is the majesty statue of Athena, the patron of the whole land? I went to Acropolis, and I felt like going berserk, where is the temple of the 12 zodiac as portrayed in Saint Seiya? Where is the temple of Poseidon? Statue of Hades? (I am about to trance).

Anes and I planned to go to one of the island called Mykonos (but I was oversleeping so we didn’t go at the end. I knew Anes was a bit pissed, I am so sorry T_T), instead we went to one of the island called Aegina, which is less touristy but not lessen the prettiness.

And Greece was super hot! It was about 33 Celsius but the sun was damn-strong. I felt dehydrated and almost fainted in Thessaloniki. Now I lose my Copenhagen-fairness and became super tanned though I applied sun-block ointment for every 2 hours T_T.

Anyway I am going to France on the 12th – 19th of June, and my last stop will be Stockholm and Berlin on the 20th – 27th of June. I will be going back to Singapore on the 27th.

Is anybody free on the 28th of June? If yes, please please pick me up from Changi airport, since I don’t feel like taking a cab to go home (and go by MRT instead) but I still need to carry super duper bulky items. I don’t want to have any unnecessary spending afterwards T_T.

28th of June, arriving Singapore on 17.10, British Airways from London Heathrow.

Thanks in advance ^o^.