We See, We Dance, We Rolling On The Floor Laughin'

So two days ago I was in the city, coming back from Leuven. I was in the central station when somebody asked me something in french. I can recognized it because I heard  ‘Excuse moi’ or something in the sentences. And I was like *poker face* and sadly, answer it : “Je ne parle pas français (I don’t speak french) :( “

Well it’s not a big deal I guess. But the fact that now I’m living in Belgium (which speaks French as well as Flemish) makes it somewhat ‘matter’ for me. And the fact that I lived in the Flemish part is not the perfect reason not to speak french because in the reality some people here do speak french as the second language. And as everyone know language is the key of survival. So theoretically if I don’t speak french I won’t survive. Don’t make me tell you the story about how sucks I am in the French class. I don’t know why, previously learning new languages seems like a piece of cake for me but for French, one of the most important language in the world seems so hard for me to comprehend. I mean it still makes no sense for me. The grammar, the pronouncation, the CONJUGATION, everything about it. Well I can tell you that, just because you say ‘Voila’ everytime you finished something obviously doesn’t mean you speak french !

So I determined that ‘speak french by the end of my exchange year’ will be added to my to-do-list in Belgium. I don’t care what it takes. Time, money, sweat, blood (?). Bientôt, je vais parle français

So this is my first step I suppose. I guess this is the most clever thing I’ve ever done :

Quelle: kezianatasha

Months there was a show called “The Glee Project” on the TV and anyone who have wathced it MUST admitted that the show was super. I’ve gotten sucked into the reality series, which follows 12 contestants vying for a seven-episode arc in season three of Glee. There was a guy named Cameron Mitchell, you know, the nerd guy with glasses and guitar. In the audition he sang his original song ‘Love Can Wait’ and it’s really catchy song. And I loved it.
Then just right now that song played in my mind and I decided to download the song and share it. Enjoy !
By the way Cameron didn’t win the show.

Here you go: I am an exchange student. How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one. How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one. How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears. How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying. How do you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world? How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it. How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself? How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it. How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “ I am so far away”. How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends. How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “ I love my country” holding a flag in your hands. How do you know what is the true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one. How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one. How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished. How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast. How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones. How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally . How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours , to see what there was on the other side. How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home. How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?

(Copied)

So anyone who watch Hell’s Kitchen certainly know this dish. No, it’s not a New Zealand food. “Wellington” is sometimes informally used to describe other dishes in which meat is baked in a puff pastry; the most common variations are sausage Wellington, lamb Wellington and salmon Wellington.
Basically beef wellington is a some kind of preparation of dish that using meat as its main ingredients which wrapped with puff pastry and coated with duxelles (a hash of minced mushroom, shallots and herbs simmered in butter used to flavor soups, sauces and in this case to stuffing the pastry) and baked. The recipe below is the very basic of the beef wellington. You can always make your own choice for the meat or the duxelles. You can also add your own garnish such as salad or your favourite sauce.
Okay let’s skip the boring part and prepare your knife !

Ingredients :
- 500 gr beef fillet
- 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry (or you can made your own )
- 50 gr button mushroom, minced
- 2 large size shallots, minced
- 75 gr spinach
- 3 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 2 tea spoon of minced fresh thyme (doubble the measure if you’re using the dried one)
- 20 gr of butter
- 3 tablespoon of olive oil
- an egg
- salt and papper

How to put it together into a single dish :
So, start with preheating your oven to 200C. And then start making the duxelles : heat the butter in a pan until it warm enough. Use small fire. Then add the shallots and cook it for about 1 minute. You’re going to make duxelles, not fried shallots so keep the shallots soft and moist during the process. Add the butter if it start to dry. Then add the minced button mushroom and cook it for approximately 3 minutes. The next step is to boil the spinach in a pot of water until soft and tender, but not mashed. It takes about 5-7 minutes. Drain it. Then in a bowl, mix the shallots and musroom duxelles with the spinach. Season it with salt and pepper, then let it rest.
Next, heat a lightly greased large frying pan, add beef and cook until all sides are well browned, about 3 minutes on each sides. Set aside to cool. Brush with the Dijon mustard.
Then it’s time to assamble the beef wellington. Place 1 big sheets of puff pastry and then spread half of duxelles mixture in the middle of it, the size of the beef fillet, 1 cm thick. And then put the beef fillet above it. Add the the rest of the duxelles above the beef. Then use the second sheet of puff pastry to wrap the beef tightly. Use a fork to seal the pastry. If you have extra pastry, cut it long, 1 cm wide to make the lace pattern above it. Wrap it with alumunium foil and put in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. After that, brush it with egg. Then bake it for approximately 20 minutes. Always check the oven every 5 minutes, just in case. Then voila, here is your first beef wellington. No matter the result is, just be proud of yourself.

This is my first attempt to cook the famous beef wellington. This is how it suppose to look like :


And this is mine :

Not too bad for the first attempt :p
Remember there’s always room for creation. This is the basic version of beef wellington. You can always put your own touch in it. Use your imagination. Demi-glace sauce is a great idea ! Smakelijk !

Today is my 42th day here in Belgium. And last night all of sudden the flashback of my journey played like a movie. It’s still feels surreal to be honest that now I am here. The time just running so fast that yesterday I still have no idea about my departure, still waiting with no single clue when the wait will comes to an end. But now here I am, typing this note in Belgium. Sometimes it feels it’s too good to be true. But yeah, that’s life. Things happen.

I’d like to share you the story of my journey.

Thursday,September 29th, 17:00. Got a phone call from AFS Indonesia that I have to depart to Jakarta as soon as possible to fix my visa problem. They still don’t have any idea about the exact time of my departure. So me and my parents arrange a flight for tomorrow morning, the earliest flight. Then I have to tell all my friend that night that tomorrow night I’ll be leaving and probably not gonna come back if my visa is okay.

Friday, September 30th. Depart to Jakarta. My friend : Afdhal,Icha,Tami,Fapuw go to the airport to say goodbye to me (thanks guys XD)

Then I arrived in Jakarta. And the whole day we go like everywhere to solve my visa problem. We try every single thing to make it works. Thanks to Kak Alvien Bachtiar. To cut the story short, in the end of the day I’ve got my flight ticket to Brussels. Together with my friend, Indah. That night when I go to bed, I know that tomorrow evening I’m no longer gonna be in Indonesia.

Saturday, October 1st 2011, 18:30. Say goodbye to my parents for the last time. Then the last thing I could remember that me and Indah were sitting in the plane seat, traveling 12.000 km.

Bernorak ria di pesawat

We first transitted in Singapore, unfortunately we’re unable to do anything there since we only have to wait about 30 minutes before we have to go back to the plane. The next flight took 12 hour before we arrived in Istanbul, Turkey. After about 30 minutes of panic (we don’t know where to go and whare’s our luggage) we finally found our next flight to Brussels. We have more than 2 hours to spend. So we walked around the airport, finding new stuff, taking photographs, you know,the classic reaction when you arrived in somewhere new. We even tasted the famous Turkey ice cream ! Finally we took our last flight which is to : BRUSSELS !

It took 3 hour and we finally arrived in Brussels. Just when I stepped outside the plane, I think to myself : “Oh my God, this is the land I’ve been dreaming of. And I’m gonna live here for the next 10 11 month.” It’s just an amazing feeling though. 2 days ago I’m still clueless, waiting for my departure in my house in Makassar.  And the next thing that happened is my host family stand in the distance, holding the Belgium flag and called my name. And that’s just the way it happened :)

asanilta:

FOREVER POSTPONE (true story bro)

(via moicloset)

Cause me myself almost forget that I do. I haven’t check it since like six months ago. (Wait, where’s the ‘Blockquote’ Button ?)

Well, it’s good to come back and I expect to always write whenever possible.