weightloss and much more: January 2008

January 31, 2008

finally shall we

shall we do random ramblings, finally!

first of all - oh gooooooodddddd, am i cursed or what, the streets here are hilly and narrow and steep, my routines now involve walking for at least 15 minutes a day. a walk to the campus back and forth is 10 minutes; a walk to the nearest new world supermarket is, wait i haven't actually figured which one is nearer (the one in thorndon is probably nearer but the street is around 60 degrees steep which makes me feel like sir edmund hilary), anyhooo, it takes around 30 or 40 minutes back and forth; a walk to the beach is easy, also 15 minutes back and forth.

back home in jakarta i only do serious walking in malls and use my feet to walk only to perform other really normal daily activities, like, moving from my office room to the pantry to get more coffee, heck i even use the elevator/escalator whenever available and possible. i don't do walking to literally move from one place to another. we use car, our friend's car, taxi, bus, whatever but our own feet! i feel helpless :p

secondly - my cooking tasted like soil you've heard this already probably but it does_taste_like_soil. however now i am more creative in using soy sauce and pasta sauce and lately i am fond of garlic. so it still tastes like soil but now with a bit of soy/pasta/garlic-ish flavour.

not that i can't buy restaurant food (oh i can't on saturday and sunday because most of the restaurants are closed on those days but we'll get back to that later at number fourth), it just doesn't feel right hahahaha i mean here i am a student on a budget i have to live modestly (i can't believe i said modestly)

i think am losing weight ewww what a disgrace.

thirdly - despite my helplessness on walking and the good food that i can only eat in a limited amount, i L-O-V-E (all capitals) being here, so far so good. the weather, the view, my flat, the nice people of wellington, the smell of the coffee - they actually brew them - not using those instant coffees, the wines, the benches in the park that you can sit on for hours but don't feed the pigeons, and of course the beach.

so far my favorite moment is spending the afternoon in the beach watching the sun set accompanied by the inheritance of loss by kiran desai (soon to be replaced by macroeconomics in new zealand (......)). it feels eerily wonderful being alone.

fourth - contrary to us jakartans who gallivant around the malls on weekends, the people of wellington don't do that. most of the stores (and the restaurants) here do not open on saturdays and sundays, even if they do, they close earlier. my apartment is in the business district so i can really feel the difference - no smell of coffee, the chow mein cube and wishbone across the street are closed, no people around - even if there are, they are mostly tourists who are probably not familiar with the opening hours of stores in wellington.

fifth - somewhat related to shopping, i bought two pairs of woman shoes today (not sneakers), am so happy of being able to find my size, am a size 42-43, the size they have was 42 however, but it can still fit. you don't get a size 42 for woman in jakarta. another reason to love this place!

sixth - i've been reading my modules, am taking three subjects which are all mandatory: a) economics ewww, b) policy tools and practice and c) policy analysis and advising. the reading materials are thicker than blood ewwww again. there's going to be an NZAID student barbecue lunch tomorrow - must be interesting, would love to see other students as well.

click here for pictures!

oh and, i just found out that indonesians don't have to apply for a visa to enter fiji. am just saying.

January 22, 2008

first pictures wellington

the first pictures taken in wellington can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dianadoes/sets/72157603772065286/ - not much since am still settling in so they're just the pictures of my apartment and the sorroundings. god i love the weather.

before picture, taken on 2AM when i just arrived

after picture, taken on 1 PM after i woke up and unpacked

January 13, 2008

on letting go

at this time of the day i might be reading the thick GMAT/GRE manuals trying to brush up my score so that i could get into america’s finest public policy school under the fulbright scholarship that i might have gotten. or i might not.

until recently i couldn’t quite let go the fact that i let go my chance of a fulbright interview because i already received an NZDS offer.

i could sign the NZDS offer and have the fulbright interview afterwards, and if i then got the fulbright scholarship i could decline the NZDS offer. it didn’t seem right although i thought it could be done.

i declined the fulbright interview and signed the NZDS offer because the NZDS offer came first, and, i want to be responsible for my own actions and for the decisions that I have made.

looking back now i think i should not have applied for the fulbright scholarship at the very first place. but curiosity kills, and as a human being we always want to push our limit and to raise the bar, and see how far we can go, and get what we think is best.

for all my life i always think that holding on to what i really want is what keeps me alive and strong – but i realised this is not how life always works. because sometimes the thing that we want is not necessarily the thing that we need.

keeping our options open means that we should be willing to let go of the things we have planned, to accept anything that is waiting for us. perhaps greater things. i should have known better.