residuous activities inducing zealous actions meaning nothing
February 14th, 2008 — Current Events, Environment, Pictures, Thessaloniki GR
Today, (Wednesday, 13/02/2008), Greece is on general strike. The strike will last for the whole day, crippling the whole nation, as buses, trains, and airplanes were shut down. Schools are closed and hospitals are only dealing with emergency cases. Almost all public services, even news agencies join the strike. From the news, I know that the workers are demanding a better pension in their retirement system.
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February 12th, 2008 — Environment, Erasmus Mundus, Language, Thessaloniki GR, Travel
Tonight, while I was having my dinner in the university cafeteria (Greek students have lunch and dinner for free), I saw a man reading a French newspaper. After I finished my potatoes (my first serving) and beans (second serving, we can have as many food as we can, I’ve seen a guy had 4 servings!), finally I managed to say “Excusez-moi, Monsieur, vous etes francais?”
It turned out that he is a Moroccan. When we exchanged few words, I kept using “Ne” (Ναι), which is “yes” in Greek, instead of “Oui”. (Sigh) I must practice my French again.
Basically, we agreed that living in Greece is very difficult mainly because of the language. I told him that I am an Indonesian student and just arrived one month ago. He told me that he came to the cafeteria because the food is free (they don’t even check who you are, I can see a lot of people who I think most definitely not student). We talked for just a brief moment.
What amazes me is that, minutes before I finished my dinner and spoke to the Moroccan in French (and mistakenly used a Greek word), I listened to a learning Spanish podcast (from CoffeeBreakSpanish) taught in English with a heavy Scottish accent. So how’s that for an international environment?
(And I can still remember my IELTS teacher told me that I am too old to learn a new language)
August 28th, 2007 — Current Events, Environment, Nature, Pictures, Science
Today people in Indonesia was able to watch lunar eclipse. It is a quite rare (but not that rare) moment, last time lunar eclipse was also visible from Indonesia on March 4th, 2007, at around 04.00 AM (all time in GMT+07.00). I somehow expected the eclipse not to be spectacular or anything. But yet again, people talked about it and news concerning it was broadcasted through the day. As the time of the eclipse was not too late at night or too early in the morning like last time, I managed to get a glimpse of it and shot several pictures. Continue reading →