Last day in Indonesia….

Today is my last day in Indonesia since tomorrow I will depart to Frankfurt with Lufthansa at 18:50 WIB and continue to Bonn-Aachen by car to pursue a higher degree of study in EuMI (European Master in Informatics) with the Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

I think I’ll miss my home and friends here in Indonesia as well as my country. Today I have played a quite famous national song Tanah Airku regularly before my departure tomorrow. I really liked it. I feel really nostalgic and melancholic

Here are the lyrics (in Indonesian of course):

Tanah Airku
==========

Tanah airku tidak kulupakan kan terkenang selama hidupku
Biarpun saya pergi jauh tidakkan hilang dari kalbu
Tanahku yang kucintai Engkau kuhargai

Walaupun banyak negeri kujalani yang mahsyur permai dikata orang
Tetapi kampung dan rumahku di sana lah kurasa senang
Tanahku tak kulupakan Engkau kubanggakan

I might not know where I’ll be tomorrow, next week, next year, next two years, and so on. But I do believe that wherever life might lead me to, there’s always a place called home. A peaceful home….

A Place Feels like home: KMKath….

On 21^st August 2007 night around 23:00 one of my former presidium comrades at KMKath FMIPA UGM: Andy Kristianto a.k.a. Ahong, who is now working at TOTAL E&P INDONESIE as a Petrophysics Engineer, came to my dorm surprisingly with a gift (a T-shirt gift from him and Lia, his girlfriend). We had a long chat that night and ended with a peaceful sleep.

In the morning of 22^nd August 2007, Teddy, one of my senior high school-mates, came to my dorm and the three of us had a breakfast together. Soon after packing all my stuffs, I said farewell messages to neighbors nearby my dorm and headed to Tugu train station. Ahong said goodbye to me and went back to his house somewhere in Kalasan.

 

Teddy dropped me in front of the train station, said his farewell messages, and went to his campus, since he had already had an appointment with his lecturer.

I went in to the train station, and suddenly my cell-phone rang for some times, and then I found out that Budi a.k.a.Budeg called me asking where I was. Soon after I met a bunch of KMKathers already hanging out waiting for my very presence. What a real surprise! They were: Agatha, Antok, Arda, Benno, Budeg, Dora, Edo, Endhi, Giri, Hugo, Nana, Niko a.k.a Jembrik, Nindya, Panji, Pinyonx, Widi a.k.a. Jejulo (that’s as far as I can remember). They gave me a gift: a cute little pink pig and a small booklet with farewell messages written inside.

 

My cute little pink piggie….

Thanks a lot dear friends, I felt really like at home….

On Saturday, 25^th August 2007, two of my ex-dorm mates: Ipoex (my ex-KMKath presidium buddy alongside with Ahong, also vocalist of the Flip-Flop band) and Denny (Flip-Flop band drummer) came to my parents’ house in Jakarta.

We had a quite intensive chat about life-activities. It’s a real nostalgic reunion for me which had never occurred for more than a year (?). Unfortunately Ayub and Moogie couldn’t make their presence at that very moment.

Thank you guys for the special moment. Hope we can gather together, all of us, Flip-Flop band members once again one day.

On Sunday, 26^th august 2007, some ex-KMKath members who has been living and working in Jakarta for some times came to my parents’ house to meet me. They were: Mr. Edo, Ms. Ayu, Ms. Endah, Ms. Lia, and Ms. Rosa. It’s also such a nostalgic event for me filled with long unstructured chat. And we had our lunch together.

 

From left to right: Mr. Edo, Ms. Lia, Ms. Endah, Ms. Rossa, Ms. Ayu.

Feels like home…. That’s all I can say about an organization called KMKath FMIPA UGM. I hope each and every member in the organization feels the same way too!!!

Happy 62nd anniversary, O my beloved INDONESIA!!!!

My beloved country INDONESIA, may prosperity and peace be with you!

The Erasmus Mundus Pre-Departure Reception 2007

Here below is the story of the Erasmus Mundus Pre-Departure Reception 2007 events, but might not satisfy the chronological order since I can’t remember them clearly.

 

It was on Thursday, 2^nd August 2007 that I was invited to attend the Erasmus Mundus Pre-Departure Reception which was held by the Delegation ot the European Commission to Indonesia at Le Meridien hotel, Jakarta.

I was dropped by my Dad in front of Le Meridien hotel somewhere in Jl. Sudirman around 10:15. I went straight forward to the lobby and after my bag was being checked by the security officer, I registered myself for the event. There I met other Erasmus Mundus scholarship awardees, including Mr. Danang, who had SMS-ed me earlier saying that he had arrived at the hotel around 09:30. What a punctual guy !!! We had a coffee-break and soon after we entered the main aula to attend the main event.

My Erasmus Mundus scholarship certificate

The event started with a photo-session with the press, including The Jakarta Post and several others. Yup, my picture was published in The Jakarta Post (unfortunately just ½ of my body was visible). Then the first speech came from Ms. Sheila Town, Attache for Education of the EC Delegation to Indonesia, and continued by Mr. Ramon Mohandas, representative from the Government of Indonesia (from the Ministry of Education actually). In his speech, Mr. Mohandas introduced the W-curve (introduced means I’ve never heard about it before ), which is the 2-dimensional graphical symbol of time-frame (X-axis) and one’s morale (Y-axis, I’m not sure if “morale” is the right word, but whatever!). He assumed now (at the pre-departure moments) we, awardees, are at the top left corner of the “W”, and as we go through our studies, our morale will slowly go down until our graduation day, which is in the middle of the “W”. But then when things aren’t as we’ve thought it should be after obtaining the M.Sc degree (or other same-level degrees), once again our morale will be reduced. But then, as our career paths get better and better, so does our morale, that is at the top right corner of the “W”. Interesting!!! I’ll find out whether it’s true soon

Me at the stage alone

Then Ms. Meilinda Wan and Mr. Salamun Sastrawikarta (representatives of student and scholar awardees respectively) had their speech (I forgot the chronological order), and then we watched a short film (testimonials actually) featuring Ms. Wiratna Sari Wiguna, alumnus of EM awardee in European Masters Program in Computational Logic. And then we had our lunch, where awardees who will go to the same country in Europe grouped around a table with the representative(s) from that particular country joinning the lunch. I joined the Italian group (Italy won’t be my first country in my mobility scheme, but I was forced to join them), with Mrs. Michela Linda Magri, Attache of the Italiano Instituto di Cultura, and Mrs. Rufina. The food was awesome with lots of varieties to choose. I was sitting right next to Mrs. Michela and we had a quite intensive chat. Actually earlier that morning at the openning session, she made a statement to all the audience that I’ve received the Governo Italiano scholarship but withdrew due to the Erasmus Mundus scholarship acceptance. I was a bit ashamed, but she told the truth

After lunch there came Ms. Tioria Silalahi to the stage with her presentation about the EU in general, and continued with open discussion featuring Mr. Muhammad Arief and Mr. Anggit, alumni of the EM awardees. That’s all for the formal event. But there was still a light discussion, along with tips & tricks for first-time-travelers.

Shaking hands with Mrs. Michela Linda Magri, Attache of the Italiano Instituto di Cultura Jakarta

Alright…. Ready to depart? Not until the 30^th August for me

Last day @ PSN PoP Yogyakarta, “farewell old Comrades….”

It’s quite late I guess to write about an event that occured more than a week old, but it’s better to make a log than not at all right?

It’s about my last day at my former office, PT. Pasifik Satelit Nusantara PoP Yogyakarta, 31st July 2007. I woke up early in the morning and as usual went to office at around 06:45 and reached the office around 07:00, had my breakfast (which I bought on my way), and started checking all updates that occured concerning my job through the company’s internal mailing lists. But things weren’t going as good as I’ve expected for a last-working-day (in technical terms of course). Around 13:00 something unexpected occured in the newly-installed customer’s site, and I have to go to the site and join my terrestrial transmission engineers comrades (Mr. Hanif & Mr. Mujib). Mr. Mujib fetched me at the lobby (it’s a hotel, one of the most well-known in Yogyakarta), and guide me along to the roof. I was really surprised to find out that the way up to the roof looks similar to dungeons We even had to go through air ventilation to reach the roof. But it was really exciting. At the roof, I took some pictures and help my comrades a bit with technical stuffs.

Mr. Hanif (left) and Mr. Mujib (right) at the roof of a customer’s site

Then we got back to office around 15:30 and had our lunch. My duty was over by then, and at 17:30 we gathered togehter (all crews) to have our dinner (?) and celebrate my very last day at the office.

I gave a short speech at my last working day, said some farewell messages, and gave a farewell present to the NOC department through Mr. Miko (as shown below).

Me (left) gave a farewell present to Mr. Miko (right)

I would like to thank everyone at the office for the great times we’ve shared together. It’s a real enjoyment to have worked with them. “Farewell old Comrades….”.