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About us
We are Indonesian-Dutch couple, married in 2002, resident of Utrecht - The Netherlands, have one spoiled dog named Milo and one "gonna be spoiled" baby Isabelle.
This webpage mainly is use to share our story and pictures to our family and friends. But of course we always welcome for new friends.
The idea of this webpage is to share our story and pictures to our family and friends.
Since Ira's Dutch language is far from perfect and Dimitri's Indonesian language is even worse, we decided to use English as the main language in this blog,
eventhough lately due to the laziness of Ira, Indonesian language seems to take over.
Please feel free to browse around and give us your comment.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Arnhem
Last week we went to Arnhem to have dinner with Dim's best friend. I love Arnhem!!! Well, I love Utrecht too  , Utrecht is a mix between old and modern city, kind of little Amsterdam while Arnhem has the atmosphere of an old city. We used to lived there for awhile before we move to Utrecht.
 We lived in little appartment in the centre of Arnhem, on the fifth floor on the top of the shops which is means the fourth floor in Netherland  . What we used to say first floor is called ground floor, dus 2nd floor is 1st floor here... hehehe how confusing is that
From our balcony we can see people busy with their shopping, the shops, the church... all my favorite shops are there....  Claudia Strater right in front of my nose, Bijenkorf in 3 minutes away, Hema is right on the corner, V&D, Esprit, Mango... it was heaven......
 Right at the end of our street there is an old church from somewhere in 17th century or maybe 16th  . It is not being used for church anymore but more for tourist and exhibitions. Dimitri said that this church is also bombed by Germans but now is already renovated. The church is located in a square with some water fontain on it.
Dimitri said Arnhem is one of not so many cities that survived from German's bombing during WW II. German's border is quite close from Arnhem, about 20 minutes by car, probably that's way they choose Arnhem as base.... close to home in case they miss bradwurst.... 
Close to where we lived, there is a famous bridge, there is even a movies being made about that bridge. The movie called A Bridge Too Far starred by all the top Hollywood stars; James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford.
The bridge it self named after Lt. Col. John Frost, a British soldier that defend the bridge agains Germany. Of course with Dutch languange, the bridge became Johan Frostbrug.
Here some pictures from our balcony that we made in 2003. It was rain in the middle of hot summer day.... good thing we remembered to take our digicam and took some shot... isn't it beautiful? 
   
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
No.1 on my birthday
I found this website.... The UK pop charts & the US charts on the day you were born?
Mine is Without You - Nilsson
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Rode Kruis
 After 2 months summer holiday, yesterday Rode Kruis Boe(k)tik is open again. I've been helping there as volunteer since 2003. Oya, fyi Rode Kruis is Dutch Red Cross. The branch in Utrecht has a brilliant idea to collect money. Instead of just open a bank account and asking for money on the public places, they open a second hand shop.
Rode Kruis Boe(k)tik is located in branch office in Koningsweg 2 in Utrecht. They sell secondhands book, clothes, shoes, bags, toys, cd, videotape.... you named it..... You know how difficult it is to ask people to give their money for donation but if you asked for old stuff, they usually eager to give it. Especially on spring, good way to do your spring's cleaning....
Rode Kruis usually received old stuffs, old books and old clothes, things that people doesn't want to use anymore. Some of the stuffs are being sent to the third world, some other being sell. From all the stuff that they get, Rode Kruis resell it. Money from this selling is being use for people with chronish disease and invalids.
 When I start on 2003, it is only once a month and we don't have fixed place to do it. We have to do it in the garage of Rode Kruis. Put on all the stuffs on the table early saturday morning and clear it again in the afternoon and keep it for the next month. Since early this year, we were given a fixed place in the corner of the garage for all the stuff to sell so we don't have to clear it all the time. It is just like a real shop. This way we are able to open every saturday from 10.00 until 12.00.... yes, we are not open the whole week.... and also on saturday it is not open the whole day. We are all volunteer there, no one being paid..... and there are lots of work to do beside selling it.... you still have to put them on shelf, clean them, choosing them, which one can be sell, which one should be thrown.
Since most of their customer and volunteers are senior citizen, chairs are available for them to rest with a cup of coffee and tea. Actually Soes (my Indonesian friend in Netherland) and I are the only volunteers that under 40 years olds. I don't mind it really, all the grandpa's and grandma's there are nice and they are nice to talk to... when I start volunteering I don't have job and I don't meet many people. I thought this is a good way to meet lots of people and practice my Dutch....
Here are some picture I took, some of them taken when we still preparing the stuff so it looks very quiet
  
  
So please guys, next time you do your spring's cleaning or winter's opruiming.... don't just throw them away, send it to the nearest Rode Kruis eventhough I'm not sure if other Rode Kruis also doing this. Or if you live around Utrecht, send it to Koningsweg 2.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
life is.....
Today is one of those days...... 
Friday, August 05, 2005
My lastname
Since moved to Netherlands three years ago, I'm "officially" have a last name. I said "official" because the goverment here just took Armelia as my last name (which not true 'cos I don't have lastname at all) and wrote it on every legal documents that has my name on it. They can't understand how come that I don't have last name. Since we got married In Indonesia, our marriage certificate was not yet finished translated to be submitted to goverment here when we registered me in the cityhall. I don't have all the official papers that proffed I'm married to Dimitri so I can't used his last name. Dus, Armelia it is.....
Now that our marriage is registered, I can officialy using Dimitri's last name but we haven't done it yet. Too much paper work, changing all the documents with the insurance, bank accounts, my verblijfsvergunning (permanent resident permit)
Anyway, about lastname, the concept of not having lastname is so uncommon to western people, it is confused my in-laws family and lot of other peoples arounds me. But for us Indonesian it is just normal, especially for woman. We, woman in Indonesian, always assumed that we are going to get married someday and therefore we are going to get our husband lastname so we don't need last name... as simple as that
I found some more info about it while googling...
Indonesians do not generally use the Western naming practice of a given first name and a family last name. The majority of Indonesians do not have family names as the West would understand them but, such names as are given, are geographically and culturally specific. Hence, names such as Supomo, Soeprapto, etc. beginning with "Su, Soe" and ending with an "o" are usually Javanese. In general, Indonesian names fall into one of the following categories (in order of popularity):
A single name, such as Sukarno
Two (or more) names without a family name, such as Rudy Hartono
Two (or more) names with a family name such as Abdul Haris Nasution or Liem Swie King
Two (or more) names with a patronymic family name, such as Megawati Sukarnoputri
Indonesian naming system
Most Muslim Indonesians do not have family names. Usually, men and women have a given name and take the name of their father. Some married Indonesian women take the last/family name of their husband, but not all, and this name is usually added after their own 'last' name. Therefore, it is not uncommon for married couples to have different last/family names.
Naming also differs around the country, with many Javanese having only one name; Sumatrans have clan names instead of family names; and some Chinese Indonesians have Chinese-style names. It is interesting to note that Indonesian telephone directories names are listed under first/given names, not under family names.
Occasionally, the father's name will be used as the surname. This is considered unofficial, since it does not match what is on the birth certificate. Despite being different from the official name, this format sometimes appears on government documents.
source: wikipedia
Me, in my case, my complete name is Fransisca Maria Ira Diah Armelia, all my own name, no father's name or family name..... Dutch authorities just stated Armelia as my last name.... now, everywhere I'm Mw (Mrs.)Armelia
Actually right now I'm considering to take Dimitri's last name to be added up on my passport since my passport almost ended and need to be renewed anyway.... but I still not sure about it... what's the use? Considering all the paper work that follow..... Any suggestions???
Monday, August 01, 2005
Snoop Doggy Dog
For such a white pale man Dimitri has a really black taste. He likes R&B/Hiphop/Rap... he knows all the names... he knows all their songs.... he even know how to sing them.... Dr. Dre, JaRule, The Game, 50 Cent, Tupac, BIG and hunderds more are his best friend. He collected most of their CD... and my self??? I'm a real asian, we like pirates stuffs hehehe.... why buy if you can download them but for Dimitri that's not good enough because most of the download stuffs are already compressed so the quality not as good as the original. But hey, as long as you can sing along with it, who cares???
 Anyway, Dimitri has been looking the new CD from Snoop Doggy Dog: The Masterpiece. But it is not as easy as it seems, cos it always sold out, indeed a masterpiece. Last saturday when we were in the city after doing our weekly groceries, we went to Free Record Shop one of the biggest CD store in Netherland... again they were sold out. But Dimitri is determined to have this CD now now now... last option is to went to the market and buy on the independent/underground sellers.
We went there. It is just a regular tent on the market, they just put their stuffs on the table and boxes. Two guys were there, one with rasta look and the other with rapper look. Dimitri doesn't want the waste time by looking, he just went straight to the rasta guy to ask if they have Snoop.
The look on his face is hillarious. He looked alert and confused. My guess is that the only white man that ever come to his tent is either policeman to do some cheking or junkies. He even asked two times to Dimitri to make sure he heard right. I'm almost sure he is going to escort Dimitri to section where Frans Bauer CD stand . Luckily he has Snoop, and that's the only one left. We paid and left. We can't help but laughing hard after. Until now, it still put a smile on my face when I remember how surprised he looked
Dimitri is happy now.... my Snoop Dimi Dog
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