16 Feb 2008

This was the week after the exam. I set a new-house party today. I cooked ‘rice noodle stewed fried with chicken and basil’ [ก๋วยเตี๋ยวผัดขี้เมาไก่] and ‘stewed fried rice noodle with vegetarian soup’ [เส้นใหญ่ราดหน้ามังสวิรัติ] for this occasion.

Making an appointment at 6 pm., however, Thai students were late as usual, ha ha ha. Anyway, at least they came [around 7 pm.]. I had more time for cooking even I started cooking at 3 pm. Actually, I had to wait for about 1 hr. in order to make fresh cook for them.

Finally, there were 15 people coming. That’s a lot!!! I didn’t expect this much so food was a bit too little. I was so sorry for that …. T_T.

The party was over around 10 pm. N’Imron was so nice cleaning pots for me. J

25 Feb 2008

This week was the spring break and I had no plan to go anywhere. N’Fon invited me to go to Thai temple in Tilburg with her. I had nothing to do anyway so I decided to go.

We met at Centraal station at 9am. [they came at 9.10 am., anyway … I thought I remembered the wrong date ha ha ha]. Then, we arrived Tilburg around 10 and took bus to the temple and arrive there around 11.30 am. It was very long way.

N’Fon and N’Nang took some food for monk. I didn’t expect to have lunch there actually, but people there, including monks, invited us to have lunch. So, we, as younger, could not refuse … ha ha ha ha. And we eat a lot. We also had a little chit-chat with monks there.

Before we went out, monks gave us lot of snack and instant noodle people brought for donation!!! [As Thai student studying abroad, we received so much of generosity]. Generosity is a very distinct characteristic of Thai culture.

We went out from the temple and took a walk in centrum of Tilbury. Finally I got one table ha ha ha …. It is handy table advertised in bestofshopping.nl and also on TV shopping program. It was sold for more than 80 EUR though, but the shop, Blockker had sold for only 10 EUR … WOW!!!!

Then, to go back to the station, we took a bus ….. BUT!!!! We took the wrong direction!!! The right bus, bus going to the wrong direction. And we took a long time to realize that [about 20 mins].

So, we have to go back to the centrum again. We waited for the next bus for about 10 mins. Since it was just the time student finished their school, the traffic was jam. It took about 30 mins for us to go back to station.

Finally, we got back to Rotterdam around 5 pm. I spent 8 hours outside room today.

3 Mar 2008

I went to Antwerpen today, as Herre invited us to his house in Antwerpen, Belgium. I and few friends departed Rotterdam around 4 pm. and arrived Antwerpen around 5 pm. it is not very far.

The train Station of Antwerpen is really beautiful and elegant, has old architecture but the modern feeling. I like it. Herre came to pick up us at the station and we walked to his house. The city, at the centrum, was quite crowded and lively; a little bit busy, but it is better than quiet city, isn’t it?

Herre’s house is quite big, I think; bigger than any houses in Netherlands I have seen. Ploy told me that one thing is that the housing tax in Belgium is very much cheaper than in the Netherlands. Herre told us that it used to be the mansion, and then his father renovated it. He first moved here during X’Mas, 2007.

Herre let us stay in the room on the top floor, under the roof. It gave me a feeling like Harry Potter … ha ha ha ha. … we need an owl then. Then we meet Herre’s father and younger brother. His father is still looked young and his brother is looked very lively and funny; he is looked handsome too … a little bit more than Herre I think, ha ha ha

In the evening we went dinning at Italian restaurant. We ate a lot and I think the taste is different from restaurants in Italy I ate. I had pizza and we drank 2 bottles of wine [there were 6 persons, anyway]. It was a big meal costing €25 each !!!!! *o*

We went to cocktail bar before going back home around midnight. We had chit-chat till 1.30 am., then went to bed.

This was the heaviest day I had in Europe; I had 1 bottle of beer and 1 glass of Champagne before getting out. I had 3 or 4 glasses of wine during dinner and 1 Tequila at cocktail bar. Finally, I drank another bottle of beer before going to bed. Everything was crashing each other inside my head … ha ha ha

It was fun and Herre was very nice host.

The day after, 4 Mar 08, we [at Herre’s house] got up around 10 am. and went to see the city … it was really the shopping city I think. My brothers would like it. Then, we joined the class in the afternoon to go to Coke Distribution Center … there was nothing much about it. We went back to Rotterdam at 8.30 pm.

11 Mar 08

There was graduate ceremony at RBS today. It was set for Master student [Sep 06] and Pre-Master [Sep 07]. There were many of Pre-Master students, but only 5 Master students. That made me nervous a bit that there were Master graduates that little!! Although, it was explained later that that also depended on the thesis defence schedule; as each student defended thesis at different time and had to wait for supervisor’s approval before submitting the thesis and other conditions, I still felt a bit nervous.

About the ceremony, to be honest, I think it was really informal and SMALL. It just set in a big classroom and students was wearing just normal dress. There was noting to present that “memorial” time. It was good that there was a little drinking party afterward at the school’s café [from 3.30 pm till 4.30 pm … or after teachers went back!!!]; that there was a section for chit-chat and personally congratulate. But still, it was just a little event and not special as I perceived.

However, the good thing was that I met Thai student graduated for Master in Logistics there. He is P’Kwang. I met him the first time, but he reminded me that I used to send him and email asking about RBS once … ha ha ha  myself had forgot. There were also about 10 Thai Bachelor students went to congratulate him … the party became a little Thai party then … ha ha ha.