My Travel's Journal

a girl in a shell

2009-12-28T05:38:00.000-08:00

Life is started from a dream, but what my dream is? what am i really looking for in my life? i only have a lil bit more time here in france, i could stay longer, if i really want it, as an au pair but that's a big no no, this family is really great but then i don't want to stuck as au pair the whole life.

Just months ago i met this girl, a 19-years-old girl from germany who just finished her high school, she was an au pair in Geneva and she already had all the year ahead with all the plan of traveling. She was staying for 4 months in Geneva as au pair after, christmas in Germany, 2 months after christmas she'll stay in new zealand then traveling for 6 months in south america before actually continuing her study in the university.

Others girls that i'll tell you about are my best friends, about my age as well, 21 and 22 years old. Two adorable girls, Both have already done their university degree and they are planning to continue their master degree, but before that they wanted to travel around first, to see the world, they worked their ass very hard to fulfill that, work as much as they could possibly do, one in united states and other in france, in their homeland. Once they get the money they will go to South America for 6 moths.

I was so jealous of them all, I envy them all, The german girl, she is only 19 but she already knows where to go, she takes a year to actually know what she wants to study in university, learning languages, seeing the world, i am sure that she'll make a wise decision. Others girls, they also now what do do, they already have their bachelor degree and the don't want to stop learning, they travel and they want to see the world as well. I am feeling like a girl that still in the middle of the road, i am traveling, of course i am seeing the world, but i didn't know what i really wanted to do in my life, i couldn't see myself anywhere in the future!

Then i met this girl, she is 21 years old, She has her family, friends, and a lovely boyfriend around her who always take care of her and love her as she is. She is now asking herself what she really wants to do in her life, what kind of work that she really wants to do, bref, all the questions that we could probably ask in that age, the age where we want to start living on our own. her case is a bit different from others, she stays in her comfort zone, she wants to learn english but she doesn't want to go to english speaking country, not even for a week-end if it is not a holiday with her friends or family, the people that she already knows. She doesn't want to meet the people that i suggested that could probably help her with her english, she said that wouldn't be enough, she wants to speak fluently!

she is living just in France which is like 2 hours from england, her family is there, if something bad happen they will always be there, but still, despite of all that facts, she doesn't dare to take any chance!

Then i am feeling so lucky, because at least even i am still really confuse with my future but i know that i have achieved something. at least i see the world, even if i hadn't traveled that much but i always love to meet new people and i always love to take any chance that i could possibly take.

During my journey, i have met lots of people, but of course i mostly met people that are curious about others and open minded people, then i met her. It opens my eyes that those kind of people exist as well, and it's not like i don't like them, on the contrary, i envy them, they have their comfort zone and they don't mind about being in their shell, they are happy with it!

I found it just such a pity that they don't use the opportunity that they actually have, see people like me that are craving for the chance that they have, but i didn't realize that as long as they are happy with their life, nothing else doesn't really matter.

We don't have to go around the world to pursue happiness...

We don't have to get a high education level to be succeed...

We don't have to speak 5 languages to be the happiest person in the world...

People are made to be different...

Me... i envy my best friends when i saw them planning their travel, their studies, their life, i envy the 19 years-old-girl when i saw her bright eyes telling me her plans, her dreams which i am sure that she'll get that, seeing how positive she is, but i also envy the girl in her shell, the one that doesn't want to go out from her comfort zone, because she is happy for what she has, and she feels enough.

What do i want to do in my life? what do i want to achieve? i'll have to start making list, i'll find it out! sooner or later,,, i'll find my place in the society!

catching my dream, i'll be like the 19 years-old-girl and my best friends, plus i'll be as happy as the girl in her shell.

icha

Les dernieres nuits sur Annecy

2009-12-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hallo Semuanya!

Annecy is the city where i lived months ago. It is known as one of the most beautiful (and also most expensive) cities in France. The city itself is quite small but it has almost everything that we could probably need. It has lake which is also the cleanest lake in Europe, for summer and mountains for skiing during winter. Annecy is also known as the city of bourgeois or rich people and from my experience living there for few months, it's so true... Anyway, Annecy sees me, an oriental girl from Indonesia, trying to survive from lots of different cultures and stuffs which wasn't easy at all at first, but despite all, I still love Annecy, with all the snob reputation. Annecy is indeed a very beautiful city to live in.

The feeling that i have for this city is kind of hard to express, i have an impression that Annecy is my home town in France, i always want to go there just to see what has changed, what the city has become without me there. I miss Annecy, my home town in France, the city that sees me growing up. Last time i was there i had a bizarre feeling as if i hadn't seen the city for ages though it was only like 2 months ago.

Before leaving Annecy for a crazy travel with my friend Kanthy, we decided to take some kind of photo session in the street of Annecy, so we took lots of pictures during the night of summer, it was so much fun. There were nobody on the street since it was like 4 am, so we could make lots of pictures without worrying about anything. It was awesome!!

Here are some pictures that we took that night ...

Here are the artists ...

But i still had to leave Annecy anyway ...

Bisous!

Icha

Vendange

2009-12-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

Les Marches

Hallo Semuanya!

Vendange is French word for grape harvest and it signals the excitement and promise of the annual vintage. centuries ago vendange was a big celebration of the people in the village that had vineyard, they all harvested the grapes and made it into wine together with the family and it ended by a good diner and party.

All get on the tractor!

Nowadays wine production has become a big industry and there are less people that do the old fashion vendange. My host family in France has a small vineyard in the village in Savoie called Les Marches, they still keep vendange as a family tradition, last week-end of october, once a year all family go together to Les Marches to do the vendange. We picked the grapes together, put it in the big drum and made it into wine in a traditional way.

When the grapes had been put in the big drum, the children from about 4 to 8 years old started dancing on the grapes to make the juice, after we added more grapes, the older people started dancing on the grapes until the grapes transformed into juiced, i was dancing on the grapes until the juice got over my knees, it was so much fun!

Children times

That kind of tradition is now very rare in France, In Bordeaux, the city of wine in France, this has become a commercial thing, they make it kind of spa for beauty treatment and it's so expensive.

Les folles :p

Anyway, the vendange that i did with this family was super great. After few hours of working with all the family members, we prepared diner together and ate choucroute, a food from Alcase and partied with relatives and close friends. Even the children were dancing like crazy that night, but after less than an hour of dancing they were all really tired and felt asleep, it meant that it was time for the adults to have fun ;)

Preparing for diner

Salam,

Icha

La fête des lumieres

2009-12-11T04:19:00.000-08:00

The spectacle in the place des terreaux

Hallo Semuanya!

La fête des lumieres, festival of lights is held in Lyon, once a year on December 8. The festival expresses gratitude toward Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Lyonais (the citizen of Lyon) believes that she had saved the city from a pest hundreds years ago. This uniquely Lyonais tradition dictates that every house puts candle along the outside of all windows to produce a spectacular effect throughout the street. Nowadays this religious festival has transformed into a commercial festival that attracts so many tourist from all over the world, which includes other activities based on light, usually lasts 4 days, with the peak activity occurring on the 8th.

The garden of flowers

This year, i had an opportunity to see the famous Lyon festival of lights during the week-end of december 5 to 6. It was simply amazing, just like i've imagined before, and even better! It's good to have this kind of animation during winter because normally during winter there are almost nothing to do due to the cold weather.

The giant wheel in the place bellecoers

Just like the name of the festival, this year the lights are everywhere in the city, there were the garden of flowers, the spectacle from the projector that we could see on the old buildings. It was super plus there were also some music that we could enjoy. I enjoyed the brasilian music that i heard last time i was there for the festival of music. Thus it's still not the same during the summer and winter, but still it was super fun!

Brazilian music which brings back good memories during summer

Last year, in 2008 there were about 4 millions people that visited Lyon for this festival, this year, i am sure that the numbers of people wouldn't be less than last year, because people were everywhere. When my friends and i walked from place des terreaux to Bellecoeur, it took us about an hour because it was difficult to walk in the crowded.

The funny thing is, most of the Lyonais themselves never bother to go out to see the festival because there are too many people, my friend who lives in Lyon and hosted me and my friends during our days there had a look to the schedule of the festival because we were there, otherwise he would have just went out without seeing the schedule, and the relatives of my host family who are living in Lyon just preferred to stay at home rather than go out in the middle of people. But anyway, i am just a tourist ;)

Thank you for the amazing week-end with you guys!

I stayed at my best friend's place, Sébastien in Croix-Rousse, Lyon, it was very kind of him to welcome me and 4 of my friends at his place. Heather (canadian), Marina (german), Alexandra (French), and Lukas (brazilian) enjoyed Lyon together with Roberto (panamanian), Séb's roommate. As always, we talked about the culture of the country where we all came, how we enjoyed France etc. It was a really nice week-end in Lyon, the city that i'll never get enough to discover!

Salam,

Icha

Somebody to Love

2009-12-11T03:06:00.000-08:00

Hallo semuanya!

Somehow i just think that this song sings about me, and i really think that this picture of mine represents the song, *lol, anyway, it's just me who is in love with this song!!!

Somebody to Love

by : Leighton Meester

Paris, France to Michigan
London town and through Berlin
I can’t believe this place I’m in
Everywhere and back again
Porcelain and China dolls
Give me one and I’ve seen them all
Got my back against the wall
Wonder where I’ll be tomorrow?

But wait, now how long could this take?
It’s hard to find a man,
When you’re gone before he wakes.
They say it’s hard to achieve
But can’t a girl believe?

(Chorus)
Is there somebody who still believes in love?
I know you’re out there
There’s got to be somebody
I search around the world
But I can’t seem to find
Somebody to love

(Robin Thicke)
Baby girl, there you at
Looking at me like a putty cat
Wondering where that thing is at
Wondering where your ring is at
Nobody ever did it quite like this
Nobody ever did it quite like you
Do your hair, I bought you shoes
We can hit the town like superstars do
You fall in love? Then let me show you love
Give me the key to your heart
I can give you what you want
When you’re waiting for love
And you’re lookin’ for someone
I’mma turn this gossip girl into a woman

[Chorus x2]

Je t’adore, Je t’adore (I love you, I love you)
Make a move, do the thing
Turn around, strike a pose
Je t’adore, Je t’adore (I love you, I love you)
Make a move, do the thing
Turn around, strike a pose
Ooh, I like it
Ooh, I need it
Ooh, I want it
Hey Hey

I know it’s hard to achieve
But can’t a girl believe?

[Chorus x2]

(You say hello, I say goodbye) x2
Somebody to love

Salam,

Icha

La Fête de la musique

2009-12-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

Hallo Semuanya!

Festival of music is one of french tradition that is held every once a year, on June 21st because it is also the longest day of the year. This summer i had an opportunity to celebrate festival of music in Lyon, one of the biggest cities in France. I had heard about this festival when i was in Indonesia, they said it was a really nice day when people played music everywhere on the street, and it's so true ...

From electro music

Lyon itself is a very nice city, the second largest city in France, so we really had lots of choices about where to go and what kind of music that we wanted to enjoy, plus i was there with some good friends that had a good sense of humour, so the festival was just perfect, i had a really great time dancing and enjoying the music with my friends.

All that i heard back there in Indonesia was so true.. music was everywhere in the city, everybody was dancing through the music and since we had the longest daylight that day so the party on the city street took all night long.

To brazilian music

We sang, we danced, and we did it all night until the sun rose to get us to sleep ;)

Salam,

Icha

Hitch hiking to Paris

2009-12-11T02:08:00.000-08:00

Hallo semuanya!

Here are some pictures of mine that i've edited a bit, i mostly played with color and i have to admit that nothing is really special with these pictures, it's just me who loves the dark color that i adjusted.

Apparently, it makes a story of one of my travels with my friend Kanthy summer 2009. We hitch hiked from Lyon to Paris. It was our first experience of hitch hiking that far, about 460 km so it wasn't easy at all. We were stuck in a gas station in the middle of highway for like 3 hours because we didn't know want to do, we just waited in front of a grocery store with a paper marked Paris, please! in french and nobody took us.

Few hours later, a hitch hiker from Belgium came and he asked EVERYBODY that passed by in the gas station, like 15 minutes after, he got a ride! So i decided to just asked randomly people that also passed by and in 10 minutes, we got a ride to Paris!

Hitch hiked to Paris From Lyon

When we were stuck in the middle of highway

Yeah.. we made it! we're in Paris!!

Tips from me, don't hesitate to ask people when you hitch hike, but of course you have to ask people that you might feel safe with. Asking people is so much better than just waiting for people who are willing to take you!

Salam,

Icha

We Made it!

2009-09-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

Coucou Tout Le Monde!

After months of preparing my trip, i've finally made it! My plan was to travel all by myself but then at the very last minute, Kanthy, one of my au pair friends from Indonesia decided to go with me and take a chance after few times asking me the same question :

Kanthy : "Are you sure about the budget? will 500€ be enough for 2 months? are you sure about that?"

i took a very deep breath and said to her "i'm sure, i've got to be sure, i have only that"

The last things to be done before going was to contact all the host that i'd contacted before. Confirming that i'd finally go with a friend instead of being alone. i managed all the schedule back which had to get some changes and bought some bit of pieces which we needed for the travel et voila! tout est prêt...

The travel that we'd done was ...

France : Lyon, Biarritz, Paris
Spain : St. Sebastian
Belgium : Ghent, Antwerpen, Brussels, Bruges.
Netherlands : Breda, Midleburg
Germany : Cologne, Giessen.
Italy : Bologna, Verona, Venice, Casale Monferrato.

It started from july, 10th and ended august, 27th. We did as much hitch hike as possible and we spent nothing on the accommodation by doing couchsurfing and wwoofing. That's why we did only 6 countries in almost 2 months. We got a lil bit sick of the travel since it was bit too much actually but then we finally made it! We met lots of wonderful people during our travel, had the best chit chat about lots of wonderful things, learned about others cultures, etc. All those things made a great experience that we could never forget and that open our mind about everything.

Bisous

Icha

Au Pair

2009-01-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hallo Semuanya!

Lots of people asked me about how i got here, in France. So i will answer it here in my brand new blog, right away. I am here working as an au pair girl. Many people do not know what au pair is, au pair is a foreign-national domestic assistant working for, and living as a part of host family. typically au pairs are young women who take on the share of the family's responsibility for child care as well as some housework, and receive a small pocket money for personal use. Before you all get really attract by this kind of job after reading this post, i have to warn you that being an au pair is not an easy job at all! but i will help you by giving some tips and tricks which will be very useful.

I am very lucky because i have a great host family here in France. They speak at least three languanges. At home they speak Italian, english, and french. I found this great family because my friend used to work here before me and also by the help of this site aupairworld, just simply fill your account there, make it as attractive as possible and the next step is : wait and be patient! wait until the family who needs au pair contacts you. Fyi, it is not an hour or even a day kind of waiting but it can be six months of waiting or even more. Based of my experience, i waited for three months. Do not make any hurry decision. Once a family contacts you, read carefully their profile and make a detail questions about your job. I suggest you to at least ask these questions :

1. Your salary (try to bargain a little)

2. Job description (as detail as possible)

3. The facilities that you'll get (at least you'll get room, internet, daily need)

4. Airplane ticket (at least share)

5. Holiday

6. Working hours

7. The languange course

The most important thing that you always have to keep that in mind is : THE FAMILY NEEDS YOU! so never be afraid to bargain because there are thousands of family who need an au pair. The salary (which is called as pocket money) is nor really big, it is around 60 - 150 euros/week, depends on the number of child that you have to take care of. I highly recommend you to look for a family who at least wants to share the airplane ticket, the languange course, and offer you daily needs (soap, shampoo etc).

I know some au pairs who didn't get a nice family and their life is like a real nightmare. So please think wisely before you make any decision. Read carefully the profile of the family, the agreement, the contract, etc. Make sure that you will be really safe there and they will treat you well. One of my au pair friend even said that " au pair is not a real job, i won't put it in my CV, i never proud being an au pair" and that was because she got in to a really bad family.

So good luck for you who are looking for a job as an au pair. Hope this post will help you to get a good host family!

Bon Recherche!

Salam,

Icha

About Me

2009-01-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Hallo Semuanya!

I welcome you all to my brand new blog. First of all i'd like to introduce myself, my name is Icha Ayu Zatmika, indonesian girl who currently lives in France. Here i am working as an au pair girl in a host family. In Indonesia, i took french literary as my major in university. Yeah.. i knew exactly what you all guys think, how come? what kind of job can you choose in the future? isn't it difficult? bla bla bla... it's just like all the people here and there had asked me before.

For me personally, the most difficult question to be answered would be the WHY question. In fact, until now i don't think that i have already found the answer yet, probably that was because i always wanted to go abroad, to discover the world, to create a better me after discovering the world, to see all that i'd only seen in the magazine and TV.

Now i am already here, far away from my hometown. was it like what i'd always thought before? was i satisfied?

Honestly i am not satisfied yet. The more i reach my dream, the more i want. I am just an ordinary human and human will never be satisfied, Greedy what i've become! But for me, being here is the best experience in my whole life. me, meeting new people with totally different culture, having conversation in 3 different languanges. Sounds really cool, doesn't it?

Okay, stop talking about me and my dreams. Now lets talk about the reason why i made this blog. This blog is me, sharing about all my experiences, what i've seen, what i've done, what i've become, what i've learned etc. Hoping you all can enjoy my blog. I write in english not only to get more readers but also to train my english writing (which is not really good *lol*). So i hope you, readers can understand if my grammar is not perfect and i also welcome all the critic, comment, and advice.

Enjoy...

Salam,

Icha