wrap up

it’s a wrap up post.

it was less than 36 hours away from the departure for indonesia. and i had a BIG problem. my luggage was 33 kgs urgh. how was that possible? those books seemed to be heavier than i expected. urgh …

anyway, i mentioned how that departure would effect my tribe in w17. well, it turned out that i would still hold the duke position for a longer time. i didnt expect it, but that looked to be the most feasible plan for the tribe sake.

i couldnt imagine my time in the netherlands was almost over. everything went so fast. and without even realizing it, i almost arrived at the end of my stay in this country. i had been gone through ups and downs, joy and sorrow, good and bad the last few years. so … it was nice to spend the last few days with friends.

what made the last few days beautiful was all the comments i heard from friends, (former) colleagues, and families here.  they gave one lovely and sweet memory for me to remember in the rest of my life. i thanked them all, and of course the heavenly Father, who let me to experience this wonderful period.

btw, i just found out this post. sweet memories back then. and btw (again), i just discovered something interesting:

in about 6.5 months from now, i will graduate from inholland; leave the netherlands; step out of my comfortable zone to begin a new journey. no need to look back again.

that was taken from this post. i eventually fulfilled all of them

one special night in amsterdam

my days in the netherlands were numbered. that sunday was my last time attending the sermon at Gereja Utusan Kristus in osdorp (amsterdam), the netherlands. after four years, i eventually had to say goodbye to the members of the congregation. it wasn’t as easy as i expected, as i realized that the members there had become my second family here.

the last sermon i attended was rather quiet, since a fifth of the members were on a tour in israel. the sermon itself ended as usual, around 2pm. thereafter was “the goodbye session”.  saying goodbye was apparently hard, especially after staying for so long in the church. one memory after another came in mind every time i said goodbye to the members.

later on, a few youth of the church and i were having dinner at new king, a famous chinese restaurant in amsterdam. the restaurant was located in the red light district area, nearby amsterdam central station. it’d been a while since our last dinner together. there were eight of us (including me) having some of the best chinese dishes in the city.

my friends gave me several gifts during the dinner. the first gift was a typical dutch cookies, stroop wafel. the second gift was dutch candies. the third one was an iamsterdam t-shirt, signed by the youth of the church. i’d definitely hang that one up on my wall, once im back in indonesia.

around 7pm, we decided to end the dinner and walked outside a bit, although it was showering outside. we headed toward the dam square, where the kermis was going on. we thought to grab some coffee at coffee company, but we opted to have some at the majestic cafe (next to de bijenkorf). we were there for almost 1.5 hours.

a few minutes past 8.30pm, we left the cafe and walked straight down the street to the station. once we reached the station, we went on each own way. two or three of us would meet again the coming thursday at schipol airport to say goodbye for the very last time before i catch my flight to jakarta via hongkong.

that night was certainly memorable and going to stick in my memory for a very long time. it was a special one. i could only thank Him for letting me to experience such warm company from my friends here in amsterdam.

anyway, i’ll come back with another entry on how my decision to go back to indonesia affect my tribe on tribal wars

p.s.: the songs attached here represented what i was feeling while typing this entry.

juventus vs madrid – champions league 2008

just finished watching the juventus vs madrid game, and had a few comments to share. first of all, i was obviously happy, more into relieved actually, that juve won the game, thanks to goals from alex del piero and amauri. the latter continued his goal streak with one powerful header to the left post of iker casillas. alex’s goal was also beautifully taken. his curling shot beat casillas in the opening part of the game.

despite the outcome of the game, juventus looked shaky at times, especially in the midfield. the assessment of lack of creative midfielder was justified, as juve barely kept the ball for more than 8 seconds. that was just horrible. no wonder they suffered a humiliating defeat from napoli in the previous match.

and then, where was giovinco??? wasnt juventus supposed to be composed of young players? i wonder why he wasnt given a chance to change the game in the last 15 minutes when juventus were under immense pressure from madrid.

anyway, this result practically prolonged ranieri’s tenure in juventus. earlier today, rumors had spread that he’d lose his job, should juve fail to beat madrid. im hoping this would be a turning point of juventus’s thrive this season.

being picky

urgh. call me picky, but i dont care. i somehow still dont know where i will eventually end up working for. the thing is, i dont see myself working 9 to 5 (although i can). that’s just boring. but then, where am i gonna work? urgh … *confused mode on*

tribal wars tactic (iii)

it’d been more than a month, imo, since my earlier post on tribal wars. many had happened in between. i had become a leader of #1 tribe in W17, and we had, arguably, won one of our longest war in CHE!!! (the name of my tribe) history.

having said that, i’d argue that diplomacy holds important roles in keeping yourself (or your tribe) survive others’ pressure. troops alone wont do it. low-rank tribes might ensure their survival by merging together to form a bigger tribe. another way to do it is by merging into a bigger tribe. the latter might also be the case for medium-rank tribes.

top-rank tribes, on the other hand, might do recruitment. this has to be carried out strategically, so it will result in holding a strong grip in certain part of the world. some factors that should be considered while recruiting new members are points, opponent defeated as attacker (oda), opponent defeated as defender (odd), noblement pattern, and obviously loyalty issue. the latter is especially important to prevent information leaking out to other tribes, the enemies in particular.

planting spies in other tribes is a “must-do” action. at certain point, this will give our tribe in advantageous position, especially when at war. additionally, we might also cause havoc inside other tribes by using these spies. i’d call the tactic as “divide at impera” , which is actually used by the Dutch in Indonesia in the 18-19th century.  when done properly, we might inflict injuries, especially morally, among enemies’ members and even a riot. and when that happens, our troops must be ready to demolish their strongholds.

imo, organizing this tribe is just the same as organizing an organization or department in the real life. a lot of skills are needed in order that the greater goal is achieved. management, interpersonal communication, decision-making, negotiation skills are among others required to be successfull in carrying this role. im obviously still learning how to be a good one. and therefore, im open to suggestions, especially from fellow tribemates.

rainy amsterdam

yeah, what would you expect from amsterdam in early october other than rain, wind, and whole chaos in public transportation it was sunday, october 5 2008. the city had been showered and hit with constant wind for several days. no sign of the weather was going to be better that day.

i was standing at the tram stop at koningsplein (see the map below) in the middle of the rain. people were stranded. one minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes … 15 minutes but there was still no tram heading central station. urgh as the validity of my “strippenkaart” was ticking, i decided to walk through the rain to waterlooplein metro station and take metro no. 53 direction gaasperplas.

walking fast passed the rain. it wasnt that bad. but, the wind was so strong. yet, many people still took their chances of bringing umbrella and actually using it. readers, one tip for you. umbrella wouldnt be useful when you are in amsterdam. you would only leave yourselves with a wrecked umbrella.

finally i arrived at waterlooplein. but again, as usual, there was a delay for metro 53 due to incident somewhere along the traject. pff .. that was so amsterdam. a chaotic public transport when bad weather hit the city. luckily, i didnt have to wait that long and manage to bring myself safe and sound home.

oh yeah, if you wanna know the map of amsterdam tram and metro, here you go. hope it’s useful. remember, never bring an umbrella in amsterdam.