It was 7 AM and I AM LATE. I usually took the 7.30 train and it was 7 AM when I woke up. There is only 30 minutes to go for praying subuh (Praying at 7 AM??? God forgive me for this one), take a shower, preparing my stuff that places everywhere and breakfast. Life is all about choosing one thing and leaving another. So I leave my breakfast as a trade off for other things. Preparing the stuff and get dressed with messy suit. Don’t ask me about shower. But I do wash my face and brush my teeth (honestly). The two most important things, I guess. I said leaving to my mom then run for the train. My house is about 15 minutes walking from a train station or 5 minutes running. Thank god the train arrived late so I could take my time for breath. I should arrive at 8.00 AM to prepare some report. I pray my boss will be late too.
Lucky me, the train was empty then I took my time to find a nice position. I got my seat and then tried to continue my fastidious dreams that have taken by the alarm this morning. I am heavy-eyed and cannot hold this. My mind come fade away. I fall asleep while thinking about an email from Erasmus Rotterdam informed me about study programme for master degree. About 6 months ago I went for an education expo and I put my email address in their guess book. Hoping to get some information about their study programme. Then they sent me the information. The question then is not about whether I am interested about the programme but whether I can afford for it or not. This question drives me to search information about scholarship to study in Netherland. Hence I spend the whole night googling for scholarships. Then I fall asleep in the train. Sleep like a baby in his folding bed.

Suddenly a noisy sounds wake me up. I thought that it was an alarm. But it was not. It was a bell ringing from some place notifying arrival and the officer shakes my shoulder. Sir, your ticket please. “Uhh.. Where am I?” Suddenly I see stranger around me. None of them are Asian. Wait I am the stranger here not them. Am I dreaming? “its Amstel Sir” said the officer. Am I dreaming? I look ahead and I saw Amsterdam Central Station.

I leave the train station to a city hall. And I see Dam Square the city central square. And there is a lot of store there from antique stuff store to a Koffie shop where you can smell the space cake & mushroom. I look around to find something to eat. But how can..? I can’t even speak Dutch. Hmm..but wait a minute Holland is the place where most of the people are speaking English aren’t they? Lucky me.  I am in the middle of the global community. No need to be worried how to ask where  the restaurant is.

I take my step to the street. I look around to talk to somebody and I met this foreign student who looks calm and nice. We talk in English. Her name is Olga Muravjova, Lithuanian and she took BA in Liberal Arts, at Utrecht. I took the chance for asking about her experience in studying in Netherland. She said that the first time she knew about University College Utrecht was when she came to visit her brother who was also studying here several years ago. She decided to study at UC because it offers a perfect combination of quality education and gives an opportunity to combine several disciplines.

After having a nice conversation with Olga I prefer to have some travel in this flat country. I went to Aalsmeer, to see the largest flower auction of the world. Daily, said one of the seller, over 45 million of flowers and plants are sold here. What a big market. Then after windows shopping for flowers, I took a train to visit the beautiful medieval city Delft, to visit a delftware factory. From Deft I went to the international port Rotterdam. It used to be the largest port of the world. Although it isn’t anymore, it is still extremely impressive to see how ships as large as a block of flats call in at this international port and imagining how VOC start their international trade here.

From Rotterdam I went to The Hague by train to visit the Royal Palace Noordeinde, the Vredespaleis (Peace Palace). Of course, I will not skip Madurodam, the smallest city of the Netherlands, in this Grand Holland Tour. In Madurodam they have precisely copied a part of Holland on a scale of 1:25. A kind of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, but in small scale. I can touch the top of The Dutch Parliament, Schiphol, the Rotterdam harbor, the Amsterdam canals, the mills of Kinderdijk, and it was a great experience. Feels like Giants walking around the Netherland. I met my college mate here. She went to VU Amsterdam for her Master degree. We talks about an opportunity for getting scholarships and she said that no need to be worry of that. That’s a plenty of scholarships offered by Stuned, Huygens and a lot more.

After long travel through Holland I feel like that I just had travel around the world. Holland is a global village where people from all around the round are interacting. No need to go around the world (a song by Gita Gutawa “Tak Perlu Keliling Dunia”). I don’t need to go around the world to sense the global community if I could study here. A ticket to global community is here at the Netherland.

Ticket…ticket…ticket. “Sir, your ticket please….”. I suddenly woke up and back here in the train when an officer is asking a ticket. “Gosh. Am I dreaming???. Yes You are I guess”, said the train officer.

Sources:

http://www.hollandtourguides.com/locations/rotterdam

foto taken from private collection & maps (neso CD ROM)

Link to my blog:

http://mind-flow.blogspot.com/2009/04/from-neverland-to-netherlands-dream-to.html