Last day of 2007’s DST

Today is the last day of 2007’s Daylight Saving Time (DST). So tomorrow morning at dawn, 28.10.2007, there will be a repetition of 01:00:00 – 01:59:59 (referred from here) and the clocks are turned back 1 hour. It will be GMT+1 again here in Germany, which means the time difference between here and my home country will be 6 hours (Indonesia is GMT+7).

Initial meeting @Fraunhofer and B-IT welcome party 2007

I woke up this morning at about 7 o’clock, took a shower, had my breakfast, then went to the Bertha-von-Suttnerplatz’s bus stop and met with Elda, Mu Qiao, and Tanin there. We took bus #634 direction Schloss Birlinghoven to get to the Fraunhofer FIT at Sankt Augustin.

me in front of Fraunhofer FIT’s entrance

We had our initial meeting for the internship User-oriented System Design at C5 building, room #120. We duscissed mainly about the topics we’re interested in and made some groups (1 group = 1 topic) and the schedule of regular meetings. My topic will be Access-management for Shared Applications in Ubiquitos Computing. We were also given ID cards for the internship at the Fraunhofer FIT. One person got one ID card, and that’s all. But guess what? I got 2 IDs!!!!!! How come? My name was too long to be written in a card!!!!!! hehehehe….. Cool…. Have a look at them below

my 2 Fraunhofer FIT’s IDs

At the end of the meeting we’re asked to think about the possible scenarios of our topics and arrange the timeline to accomplish the projects. Then we went out, and I found a piece of junk at the entrance just in front of the door. Actually it’s kind of old unused terminal.

a piece of junk?

Then we went to Bonn’s zentrum, checked out some shops and had our lunch at China Wok fastfood restaurant. The food was OK, tasted much like Indonesin food After finishing my lunch quickly, I went alone to the B-IT building to meet Dr. Rapp to delivered my documents for a student semester ticket. Then I moved around a construction site near the B-IT building which I found interesting. And more interestingly, I found out that the site is under construction to become a world conference center at UN campus in Bonn.

the site’s masterplan I guess

There’s a big billboard at one edge of the site with a listing of involved companies developing the project. I didn’t know before that it’s going to be UN’s world conference center in 2009. I think it will be really cool when the construction is done.

the construction site of what will be a world conference center

At 17:00 I went to the main hall of the B-IT building where there was held a welcome party for new students. There were several speeches by I-don’t-know-who-yet, a presentation, an award given to one of the most talented M.Sc graduates, and of course some cookies There were 3 Indonesians too attending the event, and you can see them below

hey, why did I stand a bit too far from the others? (me, Vina, Eddy, Mr. Yanto)

Hurrayyyy…. I got the 1st Erasmus Mundus scholarship installment today….

Yeah, this morning I checked my Deutsche Bank account and guess what? The balance had changed Finally after waiting for weeks I got the 1st installment of the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. The amount is quite big for a scholarship, so that my Thai friend, Tanin, said that he had become a thousandaire….. hahaha…. Sounds unfamiliar with the term, but I guess he’s right

Then in the afternoon I decided to go to Deutsche Bank to pay for my Bonn’s student semester ticket. The payment system was a real high-tech, where I just put in my student ticket’s form to the machine at the bank, and the money was automatically transfered, no hassle, no queuing

Well, at last I would like to thank RWTH Aachen’s officers who had been involved in doing the 1st installment for me.

Be not afraid, don’t worry….

You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst

You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way

You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand

If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown

If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed

Those words I found today in a song during a mass I attended. Well, actually I used to know the song well, but haven’t heard it for a long time. I might not be a religious guy, but I like the words used within this song since it motivates me to live my life without worrying a thing. It sounds a bit extreme though to not worry about anything in this life, especially when I faced several problems at a time or in sequence, but somehow it gives me courage to carry on. Worrying hadn’t made things any better, instead it puts a tremendous burden within me and in such cases I’d always felt worse. But trying not to worry itself is easier being said than done.

My first lecture day at B-IT

Today is my first day attending a lecture at the B-IT for the bridging course (it’s not cumpolsory for EuMI students, but I managed to attend it anyway). It’s taught by Mr. Michael with a really different style than lectures taught in my previous university in my home country, Indonesia. The first class was started with everyone in the class introducing themselves. It was quite unique in a way that we were asked to write down our names and home countries at a card, then stick them on a board on the stage, but with regard to the geographical position of our home countries relative to other countries.

me on stage (yup, I’m from Indonesia…)

During the class we were taught a lot about Cryptography subject. Encrypting-decripting mechanisms of several systems and the mathematical computation behind them. A bit difficult to understand all stuffs, especially the mathematical notations which was a real nightmare, but it was one of the most unique lectures I’ve ever attended. I hope I’ll experience more beyond-Indonesian-conservative-standard lectures here at the B-IT. And I also look forward to my internship at Fraunhofer FIT St. Augustin.

in front of the B-IT building’s main entrance

One of several quotes that Mr. Michael said earlier today which echoes in my head is something like: “Knowing 50% of the data is already too much…”.Wow!

Congrats to Hanan Febriansyah!!!

This afternoon around 13:30 (GMT+2), one of my old ikugama02 buddies, Hanan Febriansyah, informed me that he was finally offered a position at PT. Chevron Pasific Indonesia as an IT engineer in Jakarta.

Congratulations Hanan!!! You’ve showed me how an opportunity, hard-work, persistence, belief, and being a low-profile person can make a big achievement in life. May your working days at your new employer company be filled with adventurous events and be joyful to you!