The feeling of a cup of coffee

Bismillah.

There is another four weeks left before I go back to Malaysia. But another two weeks to be spent in this office. My very first office, my "Teloptic d.o.o." Honestly speaking, I don’t want to leave this office, nor this Sarajevo. It’s not that my life here is perfect or flawless. No, it’s not. My office life of intern is not perfect. There are hard times. I guess every place has its own disadvantages. That is something I have to deal with. I guess. So, I take that as a challenge. Alhamdulillah, I managed to sustain to four months now. =D  I guess, that is the bitter part, I called it as the “coffee powder”.

Coming to Bosnia probably would be my last place to visit. That was the idea before I came here. After four months, I feel ashamed to admit that. It’s funny when the last place you would want to visit turned out to be your top place now. How, then?

I never thought that I would get the opportunity to live abroad. I almost gave up when I didn’t get to further my study abroad. And I like to travel. To see thing beyond from where I stand. I want to look at them with my bare two eyes. Until this miracle thing happened in my life. Alhamdulillah. I got to live abroad. I have got to see so many places which I never have imagined to go. I have got the chances to improve soft skill and language. I had once prayed to Allah, to let me live abroad, so that I would speak English better as well as getting the chance to practice it constantly. Because I only have the courage to write and I don’t have one when it comes to speak. Even though Bosnia is not an English speaking country, generally English still plays an important language as a medium of conversation. You know how environment can really get you to speak, I mean, the right environment would force you to speak. You have to speak to get direction, to ask for help. To make a few mistakes of grammar or accidentally using inappropriate words to describe won’t hurt as the important thing is to get the message across. Along the way, you will gain confidence. You know how good it feels when you are confident. And now, Allah heard me and gave me this overseas internship.

To live abroad as a student, experiencing different culture and weather, to be independent on travelling matter. All in one. I am learning so many things, business ethics here, Bosnian language, culture and local celebrations, and most importantly to learn how to take care of solat. With so many things differ, to take a full responsibility of solat won’t be any easier. Now, I am taking this as a challenge. I always think that,

Allah has given you this dream of yours, so, why don’t you give back to Him? 

There is so many ways to show your gratitude to Allah. One of them, is to obey or ta’at to Allah. I would feel so bad to abandoned solat, not to cover aurat (body part which is forbidden to be revealed to public eye) or being dishonest or to disobey other obligation when Allah has given you countless gift, such as a healthy body, loving family and a house to live in. I feel ashamed if I was not able to fulfill the obligation as a slave to Allah as He has given me so much. So, I’m trying my best here to be a good Muslimah. Let us all be a better Muslim and Muslimah. J

I feel like I am living my dream right now. I mean for this intership period. Now, this part I called the “sugar”.

Therefore, this two substances that I mentioned earlier, coffee powder and sugar, could make good and aromatic coffee. You have to face hard time in your life. It’s normal. You have to have that bitter, but do not emphasizing too much when there are so many great things to see apart from that, which is the ‘sugar’ part.

Look at the bright side and that brightness will make the bitterness disappear. Sip the coffee, one sip at a time. Swallow the bitterness as in the end you will feel the pleasure of drinking it. Like when you sip Bosnian coffee. =)

Oh, Allah. How would I thank you for giving me this chance? =’)

Syukur, Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. I love you, Allah.

p/s: Sekarang ni dok pening fikir macam mana nak bagi ole-ole dari Malaysia yang terhad kat kawan-kawan Bosnia yang ramai ni. =L

The Real Winter

Bismillah.

Maybe this looks so waaahh, cool

Remember that everything comes with two things, the pro's and con's. You might like snow, wanting to play snow fight, build snowman, and excited when you could see fog comes out from your mouth each time you exhale. Okay, I can say that's what I did when it was winter. But, let me tell you another story of winter or snowing. The so many other things you need to do to be prepared for the winter:

1. You have to get yourself a winter boots.
2. If you have a car, you will have to change the tyres for a winter tyres.
3. You need to wrap fire hydrant (pili bomba) so that the water in the pipe won't freeze.
4.  etc...




The street would be dirty...see the brownish snow on the road..



At first we walked very slow in this snow as we afraid we might slipped off and were wondering how fast Bosnian walk in the snow. Maybe they are used to it. And usually during this season, do not expect your shoes to be clean okay because it won't be.

Careful as this might be slippery.

You can hardly recognize your vehicle

And also, when you enter any shops, you will find that it is dirty and wet especially at the door or entrance.

Some fall at the entrance because of this . It was really hurt when I fall at the company's entrance door. Ouch!

That was just a few disadvantage of winter. There is more.

So,do you still want to be in snow?

Welcome Spring

Bismillah.

It is officially spring now. Actually, it started yesterday, 21^st of March for every year.

But, looking around, yesterday was still snowing. Lightly. Today, it is predicted to be snowing again. I checked on the weather forecast for the week, next Sunday will be snowing again. It’s not that I am tired of snow. Just that I can’t wait to see how spring would look like. Afterall, I have got only a month and a half more here. So, please please. Let the flowers blossoming. Let the field green. Let everything be colourful.  Let the dark, gloomy day past.

Srebrenica, cry from the graves

Bismillah.

Last weekend, we went to this unforgettable memorial in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srebrenica Memorial.

This place is located in Srebrenica, about 3 hours driving from Sarajevo. Actually, I have been waiting to go to this place as they said this place gathered about eight thousands or more graves of Bosnian Muslims which had been killed by the Bosnian Serbs just in a week in 1995.

I was told told that, during the war which started in 1993, Srebrenica is the only place which is considered “safe area” by under United Nation (UN) protection as they made an agreement with the Bosnian Serbs not to ‘touch’ Srebrenica as other villages around Srebrenica are being constantly attacked. But then, in 1995, Serbs broke the agreement. They attacked Srebrenica and carried out the mass killing. They separated the male Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim), from the old man to the young children of the age of 15, military or civillian, prisoned or not, killed them all. They put them in a building and shot them all. Sometimes they put them in a building and bombed down the building with living human in there. They also raped the women and killed babies. Some women were raped in front of their family members and other people who were in the same concentration camp.

The Serbs also caught UN protection forces.

Women lost their husbands, sons and fathers. A woman lost his husband and three sons of age 19, 17 and 15. She even has hard time to remember if she had sons.

You see the last three names of Saranovic? The Saranovic is the family or surname. The person's name who died is the third. The word in the middle referring to each of their father. The years is when they were born.

After they killed them, those bodies were buried in mass graves. And the worst part was, when the Serb thought that the war was going to end, they exhumed the graves to somewhere place secretly as an attempt to conceal evidence of the mass murders.

NATO launched a bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina to undermine the military capability of the Army of the Republika Srpska which threatened and attacked UN-designated “safe areas” in Bosnia. This bombing campaign lasting from 30 August until 20 September. The war ended after the effective Dayton Peace Agreement in November 1995.

How tragic it was to see how human can do such inhuman thing to other human =’(

Their graves at the back.

With the systematic killing of the men, the entire family lines were simply erased. The Serbs killed the man since that is the only way to erased the Bosniak. The family name won’t get to be passed down to new generation since the male family members had been all killed.

As another result of the removal and reburial of the bodies, making it difficult for the forensic investigators team to positively identify the remains and analyse DNA since some parts of the body were separated like 30 km away from other parts. This gives the Bosniak difficulties to find their family’s corpse and subsequently make graves.

Serbia = Aggresion = Genocide =Dayton Agreement = Republik of Srpska.
Also means that the existence of Republika Sprska in Bosnia and Herzegovina today is the result from this genocide.

How is the respond of the Serbs to this memorial of Srebrenica? I was told that the Serbs are denying that the event was a genocide or ethnic cleansing. They claimed that it was just a crime. I personally don’t think by killing up to eight thousands people were just a crime. And because they planned to kill all the men makes it clear to me that this is some kind of massacre or ethnic cleansing.

Now, they built this memorial as to remind the world on the ugly and terrible event that happened to them and that this is NOT to be forgotten, forever.

~AL-FATIHAH~

Cergam: When in Venice

Bismillah.

Cergam(cerita gambar): When in Venice

Three siblings, Kak Long, Kak Ngah and Sha Lan were walking in Venice.

While having sight-seeing, those sisters learnt that their youngest brother, Sha Lan is nowhere to be found.

They got panicked and quickly look for their brother, Sha Lan.



The sisters were wondering where could he be. "Maybe he is somewhere there. Let's go that way.", said Kak Ngah.






Kak Long was very worried and could not walk properly.



Meanwhile, Sha Lan was waiting for his sisters at a corner. He got lost after went into some dvd shop. Not knowing that his sisters were looking for him.



Kak Long and Kak Ngah  weres still looking for their one and only brother. They search everywhere.



Sha Lan keeps on waiting for his sisters to come and look for him. He waits for hours.



After waiting for such a long time, Sha Lan decided to make a move eventhough he doesn't know where to go. He stretched up and loosen his muscles a little bit.

Just when he about to make a move,..



He saw Kak Long just right behind him! And Kak Long was shocked,abviously..

So, did him! Both are surprised to see each other.

Finally, they meet their brother.

Kak Ngah was the one who is very excited.

However, it's different story for Kak Long. She was really worried and still upset eventhough Sha Lan has been found.

Sha Lan apologizes to Kak Long and promise he won't wander around without telling them. He also offered Kak Long his precious mask.

But Kak Long didn't  accept his apology. Kak Long insisted that everyone get into their car to go home since they are late like 3 hours for family photo session.

The photo session went  on once they arrived. But it didn't went right...



Kak Long could not smile for the camera. And Sha Lan kept on apologizing. This spoiled everyone's mood to have a photo session.

Kak Ngah who has been silent all this while, suddenly speaks, " Kak Long, Sha Lan enough you two, please. We should not be arguing when we should be happy and grateful that we found each other. Now, let's not waste more time and smile as we are family"


Finally, everyone agree and smileeee.....

Selamat Hari Raya dari kami.(tak pasal-pasal)

*cerita ini tiada kaitan dengan yang hidup sekarang ni.

Shopping in Vienna, Austria

From Budapest, we headed to south west, exiting Hungary, entering Austria which took us two hours driving. The first destination that we had been waiting for is the factory outlet there, Parndourf.

If you already know, factory outlet is where you can shop branded stuff with a prices way cheaper than usual price.

And this area of factory outlet usually consists of hundred famous brands.

As in Parndourf, there are 600 brands such as Nike, Guess, Swatch, Timberland, Levi’s, Lindt, Aigner, Burberry and the list goes on with every one of them has discount up to 70%! Okay Okay. Hold on there. Let me finish. For those who are shopaholic like to shop, you will go crazy and think that with 600 stores, a day won’t be enough. But trust me ladies, some of you might feel four hours is like a long day. =)

Just imagine, I went there with another seven ladies, five of us were so excited to shop. So, the following were the ‘result’ after four hours end:

“There was Burberry store but none of the item attracts me to buy them..”

“I found this Timberland shoes, so nice! But there is no size for me…”

“I don’t buy anything!”

So, girls, don’t get too excited about factory outlet. Yes, you may find what you have been looking for but sometimes, when you found something that you like, it could happen that the size that you wanted is not there, the choices of item is limited or even because it is too many shops that you go blank! Rambang mata dibuatnya sampai tak tahu nak beli apa! Hehe

The next day, we were kind of hurry since we should be leaving Austria around 1pm. So, we only got the morning to go for sight-seeing in the city. We hurriedly shop for souvenirs. Waaah, everything looks so nice. The souvenir comes in variety and unique way. Everything was made very neatly. It feels like you wanted to buy every single thing.  

Oh boy! How expensive this tiny thing? A small fridge magnet costs like 6Euro! And some up to 9.90 Euro! Which will be around RM24-RM40. Fridge magnet nak sampai 40 hengget lah?! Baik beli lauk ayam ikan sampai RM40 letak dalam peti ais!  Hehe

Maybe the saying is true about how expensive to shop in Vienna. Their price is pretty much like in the UK even though both are using different currency.

Right in front of this souvenir shop is H&M store.

I did not have any idea of this store until my friend, Amalina told me that the design of clothing, begs and accessories are too good for the price offered. They are affordable. Some more, this UK well known outlet has not come to Malaysia. In Asia, only China's region including Hong Kong have them. Without wasting any minutes, each of us grabbed at least 2 items from H&M .=)

The Best of Budapest!

The 14 of us started the journey at six in the morning, riding a mini bus and a car.

The main reason of this trip is to re-new our visa to stay another 90 days in Bosnia. This is one of the way, to go out from a country and re-enter Bosnia. The perfect thing is that, we got to travel to other country. Yeay!

Heading to Hungary, we went through Croatia. The journey from Sarajevo to Budapest took 8 hours driving. So, we arrived in Budapest around 3pm.

"Welcome to Hungary" in three different languages, Germany, Croatian and Hungarian. Don't happy, be worry as Hungarian words are known for its longest word in the world. So, tell me which one is in Hungarian?

If you spot the word "Magyar", that's the other word for Hungary.

 Searching for the apartment was tough. According to GPS, we are already at the right place. But the thing is we still couldn’t find it. There is no number or any sign of it. We tried to contact the person who was in charge but our mobile phone could not be used to call local number and to use public phone, we don’t have any local coins since we haven’t got the chance to change our Euro cash to Forint money.  Catastropha! We wondered around again and again to see if we took the wrong road. But, every GPS (we had two GPS since there are two cars) pointing to the same direction and same spot. But why on earth haven't we found that apartment???

After like two hours going around the place in a circle, we asked help from a local people to make a call to the apartment. And Alhamdulillah, we managed to communicate with the landlord of our apartments. Finally!

That night we went to Heroes Square. Just hearing that name would give you a hint of what kind of place is that.

Yup. Some sort of “Tugu Negara” of theirs. I was so excited when I came here because this place had been chosen as one of reality TV show, "The Amazing Race Asia" Season 2 for its task.

So, this is how this long word comes to relate with the task in the show. Those teams have to pronounce those heroes' name correctly as local people would check if it’s right. Hahaha..Don’t forget to catch your breath,dude!

The next day, we went to House of Terror. It is located in the city. The entrance fee is around 5.5 Euro.

It is originally a building for military headquarter and for collection center and prison during the occupation of Nazi Germany and Communist by Austrian-Hungarian. The building was never modified by its various owner. Basically, inside the building is the show room where they place an old tank, videos on the war and how was life back then, statues, the meeting rooms for the army, army suits for both Nazi and Communist and the most scariest part is in the underground floor which is the old prison. I got to enter and see many kinds of prison. From the tiniest prison that forces the prisoner to only stand in it to the mentally sick prisoner rooms with all the cushions covering the floor and walls. We also entered room where they hang the prisoners. One of us said that he can still smell blood scent. Alhamdulillah, I only smelled stinks.

After done with an indoor activity, we walked through Budapest city. We bumped into a morning market where they sell food, accessories and the most interesting part is we got to see a traditional dance on street! Wuhoo.  

The currency for Hungary is Forint. For instance, if you read something like this, “450 ft”, to get the value in Euro, you will have to divide with 270 as I Euro equal to 270Ft. So, it will be 1.67Euro. Most of the stores don’t accept Euro cash but to try at non-local shops is absolutely worth trying.

We make a couple stops at Mozart Chocolate Shop and few souvenir shops.

 Comparing to Bosnia, Budapest absolutely offers variety of international food, from Chinese, Indian and Japanese and food franchises such as McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks etc. But here, the only thing that they lack is the availability to find halal restaurant. It is limited unless you go into Turkish restaurant. For this reason, I miss Bosnia already. =)

That night, we visited Fisherman’s Bastion. This place is extremely beautiful for me! Looks like the palace from Disneyland just even better with the lights all over! MasyaALLAH!!

The history of this so called Fisherman’s Bastion is because in the old times, fishermen were protecting this area which is near the river and after them the place received its name. There are seven towers symbolize the tents of the seven tribe leaders that lead the Hungarians into their nation by the end of 9^th century.

Since the night was still young, we made our way to the next destination. Here is the view that could stop anyone’s breath!

The parliament and the chain bridge. MasyaAllah like million times!

Random tips I want to share. Dear bride and groom to be, if you guys are reading this, I tell you, Budapest would definitely fit to be your place for honeymoon. It really does! See for yourself. Love is in the air haa…=)

For those who are still have a long way to honeymoon, just enjoy the scenery like us, the wicky wicky wacko Malaysian students. We were crazily snapping pictures that we had this feeling that people can easily recognize where we came from. =P There is a saying that Malaysian crowd is loud and crazy no matter where they are. We proved that it is indeed, true!