keep believing

Some people change their minds like they change their clothes. I probably change my mind more often than I change my clothes. I’m that fickle minded (and unhygienic).

(Swiss Folk Melody)

I want to walk with Jesus Christ
All the days I live of this life on earth
To give to Him complete control
Of body and of soul

Follow Him, follow Him, yield your life to Him
He has conquered death, He is King of kings
Accept the joy which He gives to those
Who yield their lives to Him

I want to learn to speak to Him
To pray to Him, confess my sin
To open my life and let Him in
For joy will then be mine

I want to learn to speak of Him
My life must show that He lives in me
My deeds, my thoughts, my words must speak
All of His love for me

I want to learn to read His word
For this is how I know the way
To live my life as pleases Him
In holiness and joy

O Holy Spirit of the Lord
Enter now into this heart of mine
Take full control of my selfish will
And make me wholly Thine

It’s my last week in Zurich. But no, I’m not flying home as yet, because I will be travelling around Europe for one whole month, before I return home to meet the people who have been missing me ;) and to start on my Final Year Project.
BUT beside an exam that I need to take on Wednesday, and a project repot due Friday, I have travel plans (all the itinerary/hostel/transport/must-visit-places-research), packing up, souvenir shopping, FYP topic selection, and a room contract that I need to settle, and I’d probably love to squeeze some time to cook for my subtenant, bake cake, visit Jungfrau (!!) and play tourist in Zurich (I LOVE ACTING TOURIST IN ZURICH!). All in a week’s time.
Well, to think of it, I do actually have enough time, if I stop procrastinating..

And my room will be hosting a number of guests throughout this whole week. We would probably have EIGHT people in the room for two nights! We’ll work this out. It’s too bad that people come to visit when we’re having exams, we’re so much a better host when there’s no exams.

To extend or not to extend. Stockholm or Bangkok. Decisions, decisions..

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Meet Abigail :)

I sleep in her room whenever I stay over at Solothurn. We have the Indonesian Reformed fellowship that meets there every other week on Saturday. This picture was taken last Saturday morning, after she successfully woke me up from my sleep. Which explains her standing hair.
She’s so adorable, she has this baby toy bear which changes name every time I visit her house.

We did strawberry picking under the scorching sun in the afternoon. Warm and very sweet (and free of charge), definitely the best strawberries ever! We only paid for what we brought home, and at a cheaper price. But when you don’t pick them properly, they’ll get bonyok very fast.

Nightmare came true. My worst exam nightmare took place on Friday. It was a highly anticipated oral exam on this mathematical module, my hardest module of the semester. The exam itself wasn’t supposed to be hard, in fact it was.. easy. The nice but intimidating professor just asked a few basic questions and requested some simple derivations, which were all taken straight out of the lecture notes, if not simpler, and made up just a minute percentage of the whole module. And I seriously have no idea how I TOTALLY SCREWED IT UP. I couldn’t think at all, I had problems even in calculating determinant of a matrix and solving a quadratical equation. I worked things very very SLOWLY and with a lot of MISTAKES I couldn’t believe myself. I was sure disappointed with myself, but I’m glad to think that I’ve studied all I could, understood (most of) the concepts, I couldn’t have prepared better.

But he told me I passed. Oh well.

On another note, I’ve found a Swiss girl to rent my room in July and August, which means I don’t have to pay an extra CHF 620 for nothing. And she told me that she’s very very happy to get this perfect deal, and she thanks me so much. The feeling is mutual! I was so glad to have met her and very thankful indeed..

Work, labor, endure.

We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Thes 1:3

So here are a few things that I learn and love from my Shit and Trash module:

1. If we stop eating ice creams, we may save some two millions of lives each year.
Basically ten billions dollars are needed each year to save two millions people suffering from depravation of drinking water and basic sanitation. And that’s the amount of ice cream Europeans eat each summer.

2. You are blessed to bless others, and be grateful.
So Switzerland is called God’s playground, has high quality of life and almost everything you can think of that would make up a utopian country. But ..this enormous wealth constitutes an obligation to support struggling communities elsewhere.

3. SODIS.
Go Google. I’m pretty amazed at how simple yet powerful this thing is.

4. You don’t help people for the sake of helping people. You don’t help people to feel good about yourself. You help people to give them what they need and not merely what you can give. You help people to help themselves.

5. Address problem at its source. And there’s no one solution fits all.

6. The Indonesians should help Indonesians.

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I had problem finding the way to the exam venue. I joked that the exams’d start at the train station, and well if it really did, I would have failed miserably. It was indeed very tricky! You know I’m so used to getting lost, but it can get very frustrating when I can’t seem to find the right way, especially after walking for three hours plus.

And I seriously, sincerely, thankfully thank God. For the kind souls who tried their best to help me with direction. To be able to take the exams smoothly. To survive twenty three years screwing up here and there in one piece.

There are villages, in which men fish and women weave cloth, and villages, in which women fish and men weave; in both cases the work done by men is more highly evaluated…
When men cook, cooking is considered an important task, when women cook, it is simply housework.
- Margaret Mead, from my Human Resources Management lecture notes

And how well it is reflected in our daily life here. The guys are actually the ones who bother to take the time and effort to cook nice nice, while the girls prefer simpler cooking, enough just to get us full and satisfied. And their food is good!

“next time i hire u to become my toilet cleaner la”

“u knw
i tink i am so sweet
tat ants come to visit me”

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So sweet and definitely didn’t see them coming!