ENGLISH
At around 13:30 today, a Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200ER reg code 9M-MRD took off from runway 09 of Schiphol International Airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur as MH 17. This flight today brought my brother on his way back to Indonesia, which marked the end of his three and a half week trip to Europe at the end of 2012.
Flight MH 17 on January 17th as it was taking off from Schiphol Airport.
***
So, now, a little bit story of this week while my brother was still here in Delft.
I worked all day Tuesday in my office while I suggested my brother to go around the city center of Delft on his own. I am not sure what exactly he visited though, but I guess it would be somewhere in the centrum. We met after I finished my work and after about one hour we finally decided to have dinner at a Subway restaurant (yes, we took that long to come with the decision, lol 
).
I had another busy day on Wednesday. I had a meeting to go to in Utrecht which started at 9:00. So I was asking my brother to go along with me to Utrecht and so while I was having the meeting, he could wander around the city. We got up at around 6:00 and left my apartment at around 7:20.
Obviously we took trains to go to Utrecht. Because of the snow, NS executed its winter timetable which was equivalent to less frequent services between cities and a little bit longer journey time from one point to another. While the demand was still pretty much the same, and it was also during the rush hour, the train was so crowded (if not being ‘overloaded’). Long story short, we arrived at Utrecht Centraal Station at around 8:45. My brother went to the city centre while I went to the office where the meeting I was attending would be held.
During the meeting, I realized that my Dutch listening proficiency was not that bad. Some of the presentations were held in Dutch and I could understand the main story line the presenter was trying to say 
. The meeting was held by the, sort of, R&D department of the company to gather all researchers they funded so everyone knew what others were doing. This was a great initiative in my opinion 
. The meeting ended at around 12:15 with a lunch.
I met my brother at Utrecht Centraal Station at 12:45. As I said above, I had a busy day yesterday where I had to go back to Delft right away after the meeting. At first I proposed the idea that my brother went to Rotterdam for the rest of his day. But then he told me he kinda felt tired that he might better just go back to the apartment and took a rest. Okay, so we came back to Delft. The train was not nearly as crowded as in the morning, so it was alright.
We arrived at Delft at almost 14:00. My brother went back to my apartment; I went to my office and one of my professor’s office to take a letter (for paperwork stuff) that I needed. I had another meeting with my supervisor at 15:00 to discuss a little bit about my research. The meeting ended at around 16:00 and then I decided to go home.
In the evening, as it would be my brother’s last evening of his trip, we decided to have dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant in Delft city center. It was an all-you-can-eat menu for €21.50 per person; quite a reasonable price for a nice restaurant in Delft.
Okay, I mentioned in the caption of one picture here that I did not like sushi. Because it was an all-you-can-eat restaurant, my brother ordered some sushi and insisted me on trying some of them. Interestingly, now I think I could like some of them! It was not that bad! I mean, I don’t think I can say I like sushi now, but at least I am not that much ‘repulsed’ anymore eating the raw fish 
.
Anyway, as indicated in the ordering form, we ordered in four rounds. We went crazy in the first two rounds, ordering a lot of stuffs, lol . But then we slowed down significantly during the last two rounds, ordering just ice cream and a bowl of edameme in the fourth round, lol . Speaking of edameme, it was the first time I tried ones. And it was so delicious!! You should all definitely try ones!!
We finished dinner at around 21:00 and went back home right away.
This morning started quite roughly though. The bus we planned on taking to go to the station was early by three minutes causing us to literally miss it in front of our eyes (we were still walking towards the bus stop when it went passing it and didn’t stop 
). So, we walked to the train station. At first I thought we would not make it but “luckily”, the winter schedule was still in place and the train was late for ten minutes at Delft that it actually gave us enough time to catch it. The train to Schiphol (which went all the way to Amsterdam) was also very crowded! It was late for about 20 minutes at Schiphol but it did not really have any effect on us as we were still quite early for his flight anyway.
After my brother went to the immigration desk where we split, I went to the Panorama Terrace before going back to Delft catching another Intercity. Lucky this Intercity was not full so I could sit comfortably along the way.
Sandwich I had at Subway
What we ordered during our dinner at the Japanese restaurant.
BAHASA INDONESIA
Sekitar jam 13:30 siang tadi, sebuah Boeing 777-200ER berkode registrasi 9M-MRD milik Malaysia Airlines lepas landas dari landasan pacu 09 Bandar Udara Internasional Schiphol untuk terbang ke Kuala Lumpur sebagai MH 17. Penerbangan ini membawa adikku dalam perjalanannya kembali ke Indonesia, yang menandai berakhirnya perjalanannya selama tiga setengah minggu ke Eropa di akhir tahun 2012.
Penerbangan MH 17 di tanggal 17 January ketika ia baru saja lepas landas dari Bandara Schiphol.
***
Jadi, sekarang, sedikit cerita tentang minggu ini ketika adikku masih berada di Delft sini.
Aku bekerja sepanjang hari Selasa di kantor dan aku menyarankan adikku untuk berkeliling pusat kotanya Delft sendiri. Aku nggak yakin juga sih apa saja yang ia kunjungi, tetapi aku duga ya paling tempat-tempat di sekitar centrum deh. Kami bertemu setelah aku selesai bekerja sorenya dan sekitar sejam kemudian, kami memutuskan untuk makan malam di restoran Subway (iya, memang lama banget membuat keputusan ini, huahaha ).
Hari Rabuku adalah hari yang amat menyibukkan lagi. Aku harus pergi ke sebuah meeting di Utrecht yang dimulai jam 9:00. Jadilah aku mengajak adikku untuk ikutan pergi ke Utrecht dan ketika aku sedang meeting, ia bisa berkeliling kotanya gitu. Kami bangun sekitar jam 6:00 dan berangkat jam 7:20.
Tentu saja kami naik kereta untuk pergi ke Utrecht. Nah, karena salju, NS mengimplementasikan jadwal musim dinginnya yang berarti ada lebih sedikit layanan di antara dua kota dan perjalanan dari satu titik ke titik lain akan memakan waktu sedikit lebih lama. Karena permintaannya kurang lebih masih sama, dan juga karena waktu itu adalah rush hour, kereta yang kami naiki ramai sekali deh (kalau nggak mau dibilang ‘overloaded‘). Singkat cerita, tibalah kami di Stasiun Utrecht Centraal sekitar jam 8:45. Adikku pergi ke pusat kota sementara aku pergi ke kantor dimana meeting-ku akan diadakan.
Di pertemuan itu, aku menyadari bahwa kemampuan listening bahasa Belandaku lumayan juga ya sebenarnya. Beberapa presentasinya kan diadakan dalam bahasa Belanda saja tuh dan aku mengerti loh jalan cerita utama yang dicoba disampaikan presenter-nya . Meeting-nya diadakan oleh, semacam, departemen R&D-nya perusahaan untuk mengumpulkan para peneliti yang mereka danai sehingga setiap orang tahu apa yang orang lain kerjakan. Ini adalah sebuah inisiatif yang bagus menurutku ya . Meeting-nya berakhir sekitar jam 12:15 dengan sebuah makan siang.
Aku bertemu adikku di Stasiun Utrecht Centraal sekitar jam 12:45. Seperti yang kubilang di atas, hari ini aku sangatlah sibuk dan aku harus langsung kembali ke Delft setelah meeting-nya berakhir. Awalnya aku mengusulkan adikku untuk jalan-jalan di Rotterdam aja di sore harinya. Tapi kemudian dia bilang bahwa dia merasa lelah sehingga sepertinya lebih oke kalau ia pulang saja ke apartemen dan beristirahat. Ya sudah deh, kembalilah kami ke Delft. Keretanya tidak sepenuh paginya sehingga perjalanannya lebih nyaman.
Kami tiba di Delft sekitar hampir jam 14:00. Adikku kembali ke apartemenku; aku pergi ke kantor dan kantornya salah satu profesorku untuk mengambil sebuah surat (untuk urusan paperwork gitu deh) yang kubutuhkan. Aku ada meeting lain dengan pembimbingku jam 15:00 untuk sedikit mendiskusikan risetku. Meeting-nya berakhir sekitar jam 16:00 dan kemudian aku pulang.
Malamnya, karena ini akan menjadi malam terakhir adikku di perjalanannya kali ini, kami makan malam di sebuah restoran Jepang yang oke di pusat kota Delft. Menunya adalah menu all you can eat seharga €21,50 per orang; sebuah harga yang masih masuk akal untuk kelas restoran yang bagus di Delft.
Oke deh, aku sebutkan di caption satu foto disini bahwa aku nggak suka sushi. Karena ini adalah restoran all you can eat, adikku memesan beberapa sushi juga dan memaksaku untuk mencobanya. Yang menarik, kayaknya sekarang aku jadi menyukainya lho! Nggak segitunya ternyata! Maksudku, rasa-rasanya aku masih belum bisa bilang bahwa aku suka sushi ya sekarang, tapi setidaknya aku nggak terlalu horor akan pikiran makan ikan mentah gitu .
Anyway, seperti yang terindikasi di formulir pemesanannya, kami memesan dalam empat ronde. Kami memesan dengan gila di dua ronde pertama, memesan banyak banget maksudnya, muahahaha . Tapi kemudian, kami menurunkan kecepatan secara signifikan di dua ronde terakhir, hanya memesan es krim dan satu mangkok kecil edameme saja di ronde empat, lol . Ngomongin edameme, ini adalah kali pertama aku mencobanya loh. Dan ternyata enak banget!! Patut dicoba deh!!
Kami selesai makan malam sekitar jam 21:00 dan kemudian pulang ke rumah.
Pagi ini dimulai dengan cukup menyebalkan. Bus yang kami rencanakan untuk kami ambil untuk pergi ke stasiun datang terlalu cepat tiga menit dong sehingga kami jadi ketinggalan busnya di depan mata kami, dalam artian sebenarnya (kami sedang berjalan ke arah halte busnya ketika busnya lewat dan nggak berhenti ). Jadilah kami berjalan ke stasiun. Awalnya aku kira kami tidak akan sempat mengejar keretanya tetapi “untungnya”, jadwal musim dingin dipakai lagi hari ini dan keretanya terlambat sekitar sepuluh menit di Delft sehingga kami masih sempat mengejarnya. Kereta ke Schiphol (yang berlanjut sampai ke Amsterdam) amatlah penuh pagi itu! Keretanya tiba dua puluh menit terlambat di Schiphol tetapi ini tidaklah terlalu menjadi masalah karena kami masih cukup awal untuk penerbangannya.
Setelah adikku berjalan ke arah meja imigrasi dimana kami berpisah, aku berjalan-jalan di Teras Panorama sebelum kembali ke Delft naik Intercity lagi. Untungnya Intercity yang kali ini nggak penuh sehingga aku bisa duduk dengan nyaman deh.
The temperature has started to rise, and the snow has started to disappear slowly. With this rate, it should all be gone by tomorrow. We will see 
. Ah, thank you Sinterklaas! 
