Thursday, August 09, 2007
[.a.little.looking.back.]
Picture one fateful evening when you bumped into an old friend you hadn’t seen for more than 10 years, and then that meeting-by-chance led you to a reunion with other old friends from the same group. Brought to that follow-up meeting were pictures from your event 17 years before. And you sighed, “gosh, that was so long ago I looked so crappy there!” You certainly wouldn’t want to go back to those years but you still giggled and couldn’t take your eyes off those pictures of crappy young you. You just couldn’t erase the memories of the days where your life was about to change, with all those funny and ridiculous things preceding a year long stay and adventure in a foreign country. Look at you now. You can’t deny what a better person you’ve become when you came back. And our friendship, despite the fact that with some of you I haven’t seen for as long as 14 years (after the reunion in 1992), is still going strong. Probably even stronger. Just look again at these pictures…
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Hi everybody!!
Haven't written in this blog for some time, it is true (blush); but here is what I have been up to lately... but I always followed the blog =)
Thanks for your entries and e-mails ;)
This is me giving an oath (saying I would use my knowledge only for the good of mankind etc.etc blablabla) during the academic celebration for gaining the Mag.iur. degree at the University of Vienna =)
The speakers had nice furry dresses, and this one here even a sceptre =D
As for the studies in political sciences, I have absolutely no motivation at all to finish, but it would be unwise to quit now, since I could be finished pretty soon... Presently, I am compiling literature etc. for my thesis, which will most likely be about peace and nation building with a view to democratization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from the peace agreement up to the presidential elections there (sound interesting? =P ). However, I will still need a professor willing to supervise...
Seeing the end of lazy student-life coming, I wondered what to do next and had the gread idea of doing some more studies, to keep me from working ;) so I applied at the Vienna School of International Studies, and yes! passed the entrance exam in Mai =) . This is good because the school is somewhat of a good preparation for the entrance exam (the reeeaallly BIG one!) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, it is only a one-year programme, and there is still a lot of catching up to do, mostly in languages (french =P ).
This year after the one in Sweden was all in all quite stressy, that is why I was not able to travel,
really. It even prohibited me from visiting my brother in South Africa (who is doing his Ph.D. there and will be returning in one year), and I do not want to go there in winter (i.e. now =). I am sure there will be opportunities to come, at least that is what I hope. The only thing of interest was the Geneva International Model United Nations (let's play the UN game) in Geneva (you might have guessed). There, we played International Court of Justice and elaborated on a fictitious case of Israel v Lebanon. It was really funny, the organizers ran a very exhausting programme of working sessions and party... =)One very nice feature was that the whole thing took place at the "real place" - the Palais des Nations.
I almost got used to going there every morning .... but who knows =)For now, I have to do with Viennese activities such as nightskating =)
Apart from that, I am looking forward to a French course (3 weeks) in Strassbourg. They said I had to impove my French before the school even starts in October. In other news: I became even some sort of uncle recently, as one of my cousines had a girl, named Anna-Lena. Sounds very Swedish, no? =)
I would even write sth about my private live, if I had one =P , I keep you informed, if things change =)
Have a great summer, all of you who live in temperate climate zones ;) have a great time all of you, stora kramar, W
Friday, April 27, 2007
.one.fine.friday.
This entry is also posted in my :graphic blog:
One fine Friday afternoon in Göteborg, Sweden [.30.3.2007.] this sight caught my attention, I took the picture from across the street, somewhere on Linnégatan.
Certainly time passes by, sometimes so nicely like this tram I spotted in front of the central station in Göteborg. I just don't have any idea why this image makes me think of that. Or probably I just love the design, so retro.
Well, each time is unique, can it be stylishly unique like this clock at the Göteborg central station? If there's a copy of it I'd love to have one...
[.more.to.dream.on.-.for.this.weekend.]
[.stockholm.sweden.25.3.2007.] If I could have this day back..:
I'd have café latte and carrot cake for my breakfast, at a café in Gamla Stan - Stockholm's old town.
And then at lunch time had another cup of coffee and a bowl of corn soup, in the garden café at Rosendal
...and the bread
...and the olive oil and marmalade
...and the flowers and the pots
...I'd grow my own lettuce
...no I won't forget this place. Even the sign is so nicely designed.
...and it's part of beautiful Stockholm.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One fine Friday afternoon in Göteborg, Sweden [.30.3.2007.] this sight caught my attention, I took the picture from across the street, somewhere on Linnégatan.
Certainly time passes by, sometimes so nicely like this tram I spotted in front of the central station in Göteborg. I just don't have any idea why this image makes me think of that. Or probably I just love the design, so retro.
Well, each time is unique, can it be stylishly unique like this clock at the Göteborg central station? If there's a copy of it I'd love to have one...
[.more.to.dream.on.-.for.this.weekend.]
[.stockholm.sweden.25.3.2007.] If I could have this day back..:
I'd have café latte and carrot cake for my breakfast, at a café in Gamla Stan - Stockholm's old town.
And then at lunch time had another cup of coffee and a bowl of corn soup, in the garden café at Rosendal
...and the bread
...and the olive oil and marmalade
...and the flowers and the pots
...I'd grow my own lettuce
...no I won't forget this place. Even the sign is so nicely designed.
...and it's part of beautiful Stockholm.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monday, April 23, 2007
[my graphic blog]
...is now up! :-) Here's the link to the blog. As the name is 'Amreta's Graphic Blog', there I will be talking about mostly graphics and sometimes crafts and designs. For more 'adventurous' notes and my time with friends...certainly I'll keep up with this blog ;-)
[.a.m.r.e.t.a.]
[.a.m.r.e.t.a.]
Friday, April 13, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
And from Sweden...?
And probably you are all expecting my 'report' from Sweden ;-)
I'm sitting in a 'sidewalk internet café' at the central station in Gothenburg at the momemnt. The sun's shining so nicely I had good time strolling along the canal and took some 'not so nice' pictures. What can I say, I'm not in the mood of taking pictures. I'm supposed to be in meetings but my programme has been changing all the time and it gave me some headache and confusion. None of my friends in town is available, of course, I already told them that I would be busy today. I took the tram and went around town sight seeing. A lovely town any way.
How I miss Stockholm (though I like Gothenburg, too). I have had a very heavy week in the middle of the cold (including two days of light snows!) and besides the very interesting and hectic program I managed to meet with lots of friends - a few hours each ;-) But Stockholm is very beautiful. I've been there several times and even now (and even when the weather was not really nice) I'm still fascinated by some parts of the city. And the book stores, and the home decoration stores, and the souvenir shops ;-)
Now I believe what they said in our meeting last week: a great programme is worth more than a plane ticket. I want both of them ;-)
Ok hopefully my next meeting in 1 hour will take place as planned.
I still have a lot to write, I'll check my notebook later. This stop at the internet café was just unplanned: I was tired of walking in the sun (o-ho! now I love the cold weather!), just checked my luggage at the central station and spotted this sidewalk internet café.
My boss just sent me sms reminding that a few busy weeks are waiting for me in Jakarta after my arrival. I'm tired, but I'm looking forward to having these few busy weeks...
Cheers!
Amreta from an internet café in Gothenburg, Sweden
I'm sitting in a 'sidewalk internet café' at the central station in Gothenburg at the momemnt. The sun's shining so nicely I had good time strolling along the canal and took some 'not so nice' pictures. What can I say, I'm not in the mood of taking pictures. I'm supposed to be in meetings but my programme has been changing all the time and it gave me some headache and confusion. None of my friends in town is available, of course, I already told them that I would be busy today. I took the tram and went around town sight seeing. A lovely town any way.
How I miss Stockholm (though I like Gothenburg, too). I have had a very heavy week in the middle of the cold (including two days of light snows!) and besides the very interesting and hectic program I managed to meet with lots of friends - a few hours each ;-) But Stockholm is very beautiful. I've been there several times and even now (and even when the weather was not really nice) I'm still fascinated by some parts of the city. And the book stores, and the home decoration stores, and the souvenir shops ;-)
Now I believe what they said in our meeting last week: a great programme is worth more than a plane ticket. I want both of them ;-)
Ok hopefully my next meeting in 1 hour will take place as planned.
I still have a lot to write, I'll check my notebook later. This stop at the internet café was just unplanned: I was tired of walking in the sun (o-ho! now I love the cold weather!), just checked my luggage at the central station and spotted this sidewalk internet café.
My boss just sent me sms reminding that a few busy weeks are waiting for me in Jakarta after my arrival. I'm tired, but I'm looking forward to having these few busy weeks...
Cheers!
Amreta from an internet café in Gothenburg, Sweden
Sunday, March 25, 2007
time to say something
I think everybody is expecting from me to write something about my recent trip to Indonesia. :) And I'm so bad in writing... And I go sick right after the arrival (well, it's winter here) and have just started my new job. I'm not a good writer anyway. Well, that's not an excuse... :)
Monday, February 05, 2007
The February flood
Again, the city of Jakarta was hit by the big flood, in February. Just like the ones in 2002 and 2004. Only this time, it was 2x worse. The water started to 'invade' our house on Thursday night, and that it would go up until (at least) 1.60 meters inside the house (and about 2 meters outside) was quite unexpected. It happened very quickly, and certainly the electricity was cut off very soon after.
That night Fina, Elis, Kadek, Ocha, Irza and I were 'camping' on the balcony. We put everything we managed to save upstairs, so it's a complete mess! We thought we had learned from the previous big floods, and certainly we thought that our things on the top shelves would be safe. And so that night we just said "wait and sleep" hoping that the next morning the water would go off already and well, another houseworks.
WRONG
The water went up and up and up. When we woke up very early on Friday morning, the water was still very high. We looked down from our balcony, saw people 'swimming' in the flood, we could only see their heads above the water. Turned out they're guys from our neighborhood, working very hard hand-in-hand to put ropes along the streets so that people can hang on them since the current in that particular junction (just below our balcony) was very strong.
Some rescue teams on rubber boats started to operate, going around the neighborhood picking up people to go to the unflooded street which is located higher than our area. Some of our neighbors were stuck in our balcony waiting for their turn to be rescued, due to the strong current. Finally the rescue boats came, after the ropes were readjusted. The water was already almost 2 meters high at that time, and the small kids were quite frightened, because they had to step on the edge of our balcony and then jump to the boat. One of the rescuer on the boat had to bend so that people could step on his back, another rescuer helped holding them, while others just kept hanging on the rope. Everytime the boat reached the other end of the street, there were cheers and hurrays from everyone on the boat and those who were watching from the roofs around. There are several Mosques who quickly organized shelters, 'emergency kitchens' and health centers, as well as provided the neighborhood with fresh water. No electricity so we spent sort of 'candlelight' nights, talking with our neighbors who also stayed on the rooftop of their houses. Sometimes it could be cold and lots of mosquitos. But thanksfully we have stove and gas on the balcony. We could have coffee and cook instant noodles, the guys from the mosque would go around and deliver food (rice, fried egg and vegetables) to everyone stuck on the roof. Still, all we wanted was the water to goes off, and that we could start to clean up (and no more balcony camping...)
Sunday night...finally the water decreased, at least one meter, and we could go downstairs and see the damages the flood had cause. I almost cried. We saw the refrigerator and furnitures floating. And this is the hardest part: the bookshelves had collapsed, and my books...drawn in the muddy water!
My house mates and I tried to save the books, some of them were still in shape but wet and muddy, but most of the 'pretty' books (designs, interior, cookbooks...) were destroyed already. Some books were saved, though, my housemates managed to save them upstairs while we still had the electricity on, and some of them were on top of the tall cupboard.
Well, I'm very sad but what can I say. I think this is a big lesson in letting go. My mother, with her cheerful voice as usual, told me on the phone what she believes: every loss is a sign that something better is on its way to us. "It's an excuse to restart your life", she said - and giggling "a simpler one, because you have less things now". Thanks Mom! :-)
Some pictures taken from our balcony
Us the girls staying on the balcony
Never knew it could be nice to have a coffee time on the roof...
The water recedes. Let's go downstairs to see the situation
Couldn't believe what I saw...
I had to say goodbye to many of my books :-(
To go out buying brushes and cleaning products, Fina and I had to cross the flood. Felt like a girlscout again.
That night Fina, Elis, Kadek, Ocha, Irza and I were 'camping' on the balcony. We put everything we managed to save upstairs, so it's a complete mess! We thought we had learned from the previous big floods, and certainly we thought that our things on the top shelves would be safe. And so that night we just said "wait and sleep" hoping that the next morning the water would go off already and well, another houseworks.
WRONG
The water went up and up and up. When we woke up very early on Friday morning, the water was still very high. We looked down from our balcony, saw people 'swimming' in the flood, we could only see their heads above the water. Turned out they're guys from our neighborhood, working very hard hand-in-hand to put ropes along the streets so that people can hang on them since the current in that particular junction (just below our balcony) was very strong.
Some rescue teams on rubber boats started to operate, going around the neighborhood picking up people to go to the unflooded street which is located higher than our area. Some of our neighbors were stuck in our balcony waiting for their turn to be rescued, due to the strong current. Finally the rescue boats came, after the ropes were readjusted. The water was already almost 2 meters high at that time, and the small kids were quite frightened, because they had to step on the edge of our balcony and then jump to the boat. One of the rescuer on the boat had to bend so that people could step on his back, another rescuer helped holding them, while others just kept hanging on the rope. Everytime the boat reached the other end of the street, there were cheers and hurrays from everyone on the boat and those who were watching from the roofs around. There are several Mosques who quickly organized shelters, 'emergency kitchens' and health centers, as well as provided the neighborhood with fresh water. No electricity so we spent sort of 'candlelight' nights, talking with our neighbors who also stayed on the rooftop of their houses. Sometimes it could be cold and lots of mosquitos. But thanksfully we have stove and gas on the balcony. We could have coffee and cook instant noodles, the guys from the mosque would go around and deliver food (rice, fried egg and vegetables) to everyone stuck on the roof. Still, all we wanted was the water to goes off, and that we could start to clean up (and no more balcony camping...)
Sunday night...finally the water decreased, at least one meter, and we could go downstairs and see the damages the flood had cause. I almost cried. We saw the refrigerator and furnitures floating. And this is the hardest part: the bookshelves had collapsed, and my books...drawn in the muddy water!
My house mates and I tried to save the books, some of them were still in shape but wet and muddy, but most of the 'pretty' books (designs, interior, cookbooks...) were destroyed already. Some books were saved, though, my housemates managed to save them upstairs while we still had the electricity on, and some of them were on top of the tall cupboard.
Well, I'm very sad but what can I say. I think this is a big lesson in letting go. My mother, with her cheerful voice as usual, told me on the phone what she believes: every loss is a sign that something better is on its way to us. "It's an excuse to restart your life", she said - and giggling "a simpler one, because you have less things now". Thanks Mom! :-)
Some pictures taken from our balcony
Us the girls staying on the balcony
Never knew it could be nice to have a coffee time on the roof...
The water recedes. Let's go downstairs to see the situation
Couldn't believe what I saw...
I had to say goodbye to many of my books :-(
To go out buying brushes and cleaning products, Fina and I had to cross the flood. Felt like a girlscout again.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Mr Flower Power. The start.
Joanna is soon coming to Jakarta so I did some clean-up at home ;-)
After returning from my trip to Singapore for volunteering with the Swedish ship Götheborg’s stopover there, I went back to work the next day, and started working immediately on the next project: the 300th anniversary of Mr Flower Power, Carl Linnaeus.
Carl Linnaeus, painting by J.H.Scheffel, 1739
Carl Linnaeus, father of taxonomy, the classification of plants, is possibly the most celebrated Swedish scientist of all time. The more I study about him, the more I find him fascinating. Tantus amor florum – such a love of flowers. I guess Linnaeus was obsessed by the beauty of nature. Travel was also his method, and later he sent his students around the world to collect plants. Some of them travelled with the Swedish East India Company’s ships. The ‘nostalgic’ voyage of the replica of the East Indiaman Götheborg from Sweden to China and back 2005-2007 has also scientists onboard the ship, in the spirit of Linnaeus. I think, since now I also started to become obsessed about everything Linnaeus, maybe the keywords: nature, beauty, love, flowers, plants, science, creativity, curiosity, travel…will dominate my journal. It’s just amazing that when I had those keywords in my head while walking home from work yesterday, suddenly there were plenty of beautiful little things that caught my eyes along the way. Luckily I armed myself with my camera and I instantly thought to give the hunt for nature’s little beauties a start. In the spirit of Linnaeus.
My first pick of pics
The Götheborg on arrival in Singapore on 31 December. Now she's already in her next stop in Chennai, India, until 10 February. Isn't she beautiful?
About Carl Linnaeus and the 300th anniversary celebrations : www.linnaeus2007.se and www.linnaeus300.com
About the trip in Singapore? .......I'm still trying to make a summary from my journal ;-) Not as easy as I thought...hehehe.
After returning from my trip to Singapore for volunteering with the Swedish ship Götheborg’s stopover there, I went back to work the next day, and started working immediately on the next project: the 300th anniversary of Mr Flower Power, Carl Linnaeus.
Carl Linnaeus, painting by J.H.Scheffel, 1739
Carl Linnaeus, father of taxonomy, the classification of plants, is possibly the most celebrated Swedish scientist of all time. The more I study about him, the more I find him fascinating. Tantus amor florum – such a love of flowers. I guess Linnaeus was obsessed by the beauty of nature. Travel was also his method, and later he sent his students around the world to collect plants. Some of them travelled with the Swedish East India Company’s ships. The ‘nostalgic’ voyage of the replica of the East Indiaman Götheborg from Sweden to China and back 2005-2007 has also scientists onboard the ship, in the spirit of Linnaeus. I think, since now I also started to become obsessed about everything Linnaeus, maybe the keywords: nature, beauty, love, flowers, plants, science, creativity, curiosity, travel…will dominate my journal. It’s just amazing that when I had those keywords in my head while walking home from work yesterday, suddenly there were plenty of beautiful little things that caught my eyes along the way. Luckily I armed myself with my camera and I instantly thought to give the hunt for nature’s little beauties a start. In the spirit of Linnaeus.
My first pick of pics
The Götheborg on arrival in Singapore on 31 December. Now she's already in her next stop in Chennai, India, until 10 February. Isn't she beautiful?
About Carl Linnaeus and the 300th anniversary celebrations : www.linnaeus2007.se and www.linnaeus300.com
About the trip in Singapore? .......I'm still trying to make a summary from my journal ;-) Not as easy as I thought...hehehe.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
dreaming...
Sometimes it's scary to dream... as the dreams come true. I still can't believe I've got my ticket to Jakarta... :D
Monday, January 01, 2007
2-007
Happy New Year, dear Friends! Let all your dreams and secret wishes become true. :)
I'm happy the 2006 is over :D
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