Homecoming (Part 1)

Shoot! Ternyata udah berbulan-bulan sejak terakhir kali saya post tulisan di blog ini. My apology. Juga untuk konten yang seharusnya food blog, berubah jadi sharing tentang scholarship dan study plan saya. Kali ini masih tentang sharing my personal thoughts, which is still not any restaurant reviews, but I hope you enjoy it.

Maastricht oh Maastricht, yes, it’s the city where I have been living for past five/six months. Some people do not consider Maastricht as a city, it’s too small to be called a city, they say. But still it’s a city that I think is vibrant enough to live at. It has the centrum, suburbs and of course a fancy university (Maastricht University)

I do love this place, it is a decent place to stay. But then people start yapping about why I go home, if I, indeed, enjoy my time in Maastricht that much?

Am I lonely in this town?

Don’t insult me wkwk, in fact I am quite an introvert. Trust me being alone is a blessing in disguise. There is this Maastricht Syndrome which is so famous among new people around here. Maastricht Syndrome is associated with loneliness of new expats or foreign students here feel due to boredom of living in this city. Shops do close around five or six in the afternoon, and all you can do after that is going to bar or restaurants. Luckily I was surrounded by people who were willing and able to help me get through my early period in Maastricht.

My biggest reason is obviously my survival instinct. I am broke or you may call it bokek. Living in Netherlands is costly, especially if you decide to use the bus all the time to subtitute a few hundred meters walking. I’m not a royal highness, I go to Albert Heijn everyday and I go broke. It is no kidding that foreign students should save out of secondhand stuffs from fleamarket or horrible home-cooks haha. So, since I have this two months holiday I decided to book an Etihad flight to Indonesia.

Another reason is the temprature. You see, Europe is not all icy and snow. During summer it can get very hot like above 33-35 degrees celcius. While some may think it’s a perfect sunny day to unroll the sandwiches in the park, I would rather be naked at home all day. It can be very frustrating for me, also considering that I do not have air conditioner nor car here.

The first day of Ramadhan

Mon dieu, don't get me wrong though. I am still very in love with this continent, for a sentimental reasons. Apparently these last few days have been quite nice in Maastricht, it's been raining and the temprature goes down a little. 

I also love the fact that Maastricht is quite a destination for people who love to shop. There are bunch of shops to visit or to shop haha. At least you can always pretend to be neuveau riche and do window shopping at De Bijenkorf. You can find almost everything in this city, including the famous chain of Jumbo, HEMA, Albert Heijn and many many others.

The foods are not the best in my life, indeed, but they're amazing. Trust me, some Peking Roast Duck, Unagi Rice or Ramen here are very very good. I wish I had enough money to eat at those restaurants three times a day, ninety times a month. But I don't, I cook sometimes and eat kebabs too hahaha.

Last but not least, I love to roam the streets of Maastricht, especially those on the city center. Maastricht is not all techie and modern like other Dutch cities, it even doesn't have starbucks hahahahaha. Buuuut it is a lovely city in Netherlands where you can feel like you're not really in Netherlands, the buildings have character from either Dutch, Belgian and German touch. It is also convenient if you need a little escape, you just ride a train for 30 mins and you're already in the neighboring countries like Belgium or Germany. If you just want a selfie standing at the border of Netherlands and Belgium, you can bike your way for about 20-30 minutes. Like I said, it's an amazing place to stay, but I cannot wait to feel the taste of what's to come. I mean Rendang, Nasi Padang, Ajam Geprek, Nasi Gudeg, Soto and everything else woohoo!