Summer 2008 Recap.....part 5

So, I know that I skipped one post and I did not keep my promise to update my blog every 2-3 days but I tried my best hehehe

This time, I want to talk about my friends that I met and I did not met during this summer holiday. Well, it's really hard to tell all my friends that I met and I didn't met, but I will mention one or two I guess.

When I was in Singapore, I met with Natalia (or Nut2). I met her for the first time when she came to San Jose to visit her boyfriend, which is my friend. She took me to a place in Singapore called Clarke Quay (please correct me if I'm wrong). It was a really beutiful place and I can imagine myself hang out in one of those cafe with my buddies.

I would not forget to meet with Patty. She is my friend since we were in kindergarten. We had a dinner in Yuraku, buffet place, with her boyfriend, my girlfriend and of course her cute sister (9 years old) whose name is Prisila. Oh I love Prisila so much that I consider her as my own sister hahaha even though I'm pretty sure Patty won't agree with me to call Prisila "cute" hahaha. I really feel bad not to take pictures with her this year *sigh*

Even though I went to Singapore, I did not have a time to meet with my "sister' Sonia and Wendy. Those are two people that I usually hangout with if I go to Singapore, but oh well since they already work and I came during weekdays. Maybe next time.....

I also did not have a chance to meet my other "sister", Lindy. Even though she was on holiday too, but I guess my schedule and her schedule just did not fit. Btw, she has her own blog, littlebalerina.blogspot.com.

I'm still so happy to meet my colleague from UCV (Ursula Canisius Voice). Especially the one from my badge, Nico OB, Ervin, Asima, Deta, Monic hohoho so happy to meet them. Here, I post our picture. We have Soprano (Monic), Alto (Asima, Deta), Tenor (OB, Ervin), Bass (me) hahaha. We missed Siska, TS, Dyah, Dian oh well but happy enough. Ooohhh FYI, Deta was my partner when we were the president of UCV hohoho, she was a really good partner to work with.

Hmmm there are more people that I'm happy that I can meet and also feel bad not to meet them, but I guess we will always have other time, right?

Entrepreneur Strenghts Test

Hi All,

I got a website from my sister www.estrengths.com. It's a website where you answered 80 questions and it will assesed your entrepreneurship strengths. This test was developed by Ken Blanchard, the author of "The One Minute Entrepreneurship". So, if you are interested in becoming an entrepreneur or just want to know about yourself, I think it's a good test. It won't take long.

I was quite surprised actually, because they can quantified strengths abilities. Here's my results:
Needs Development:
Resourcefulness (self score: 3.5 / norm: 3.8)
Purposeful (4 / 4.2)
Risk Management (3.75 / 3.8)
Problem Solving (3.5 / 3.9)
Optimistic (3 / 4)
Integrity (4.2 / 4.5)
Adaptibility (3 / 3.8)
Self-Motivation (4.25 / 4.5)
Determination (3.5 / 3.7)
Curiosity (3.7 / 4)

Developed:
Focus (4.2 / 3.6)
Salesmanship (4 / 3.9)
Visionary (3.8 / 3.8)
Leadership (4.2 / 4.05)
Ambitious (4.2 / 4.05)
Innovation (4.5 / 4.3)
Communication (4 / 4)
Strategist (4 / 3.95)
Team Player (4.2 / 3.9)
Balance (4 / 3.6)

I got none for high developed :( Well, what do you think? Are the results agreed with what you think about me?

Summer 2008 Recap…..part 4

Ursula Canisius Voice (UCV)

I already mention about UCV on my previous post. UCV is a high school choir part of the join effort from Santa Ursula Senior High School (girls chool) and Canisius Senior High School (boys school). I was a member of this choir from 2001 until 2004, and fortunate enough to become their president in 2003-2004.

UCV does not only mean Ursula Canisius Voice, but it also has deeper meaning. UCV means U C Voice (You See Voice) which becomes the spirit of this choir. We do believe that music is not just meant to be heard, but also to be seen.

So, this year, UCV finally made their first, after 3 years of banned, Open House in Santa Ursula Senior High School. When I entered the school that morning, I said to myself “hey it’s been a while not to enter this girls school during their busy time.”

Between 7-9 AM, the 10th grade with their parents went around the school to visit various clubs so that they can decide which clubs that they want join. So, my job was actually sing, but more often I just stand there in front of the room and “push” people inside so that they can talk and get to know UCV better.

At the same time, my girlfriend opened a new club. I think they called it “tating”, something to do with hand (see the pictures on the left). She is the teacher of this new club. I was quite surprised actually, never thought that my girlfriend will be a teacher, but I think she’ll do fine.

Well, this is all I can say about UCV this summer, but I really do remember all the memories that I had during my 3 years in UCV. It was really unforgettable memories. Because UCV, I started my hobby of singing and choral music and until now, I never thought of stop singing, even though my voice was kind of suck right now. Oh, and don’t forget that the fact I met my girlfriend here :).

Hope that the new-born UCV will keep growing and can reach what they had reach years ago.

Summer 2008 Recap…..part 3

Vides Vocem

So, this post will be about Vides Vocem (ViVo). It’s a choir where most of the members are Ursula Canisius Voice (UCV) alumni. I’ll talk about UCV on my next post, but for now I’ll talk about ViVo first. If you haven’t know yet, my voice is BASS.

This year, as my first duty, I sang in Rindra’s wedding ceremony. Rindra is actually one of the founders of UCV. She was so gorgeous on that day, can’t really believed that it was Rindra. I’m just so happy to be able to sing with them songs that I will never sing in US. Well, it was a good ceremony, except that fact that Father Baskoro, the one who lead the ceremony was absolutely nuts!! Hahaha but I guess everyone anticipated that already. After the mass, I went back to Bonaventura Parish to join the WE Team of Antiok Bona.

My second job was to sing on a regular Sunday mass at Canisius Chapel. It was so early, 7.30 AM, but it’s ok. We sang with some of the new members of UCV. It was a good nostalgic time to sing in a regular mass and sing songs from Puji Syukur, songs book in Jakarta. Again, you’ll never ever find songs from Puji Syukur on any of American songs book, such as Breaking Bread or Gathering. After the mass, I went for a brunch with my girlfriend’s family at Soto Madura near the Chapel, and it was pretty good haha at least it made me craving Rujak Cingur for the next 2 months.

I also helped ViVo when they helped UCV for their first, after 3 years, Open House at Santa Ursula High School. I’m going to talk more about this in my next post J

For my last job, I sang again on another regular Sunday mass at Canisius Chapel, but this time we did not have UCV members, so it was a smaller group, maybe around 12-13 people. What I remember, I really asked Abi to come to this mass and sing with us, well she did come but she did not sing, but oh well, I’m happy enough to see her again. So, after the mass, I went to a brunch with my family, but this time with my girlfriend too, so kind of a trade after last time I went to a brunch with my girlfriend’s family. I remember when I left the chapel; it felt so sad, not being able to sing with them again for a long time.

My voice really did not blend too much anymore with the rest of the choir, so I feel grateful that they still let me sing with them. I really want to sing with them all the times, but I know it won’t happen. I wish them good luck and keep singing, because that is what really make us still together after all these years, right?

Summer 2008 Recap…..part 2

Antiokhia Paroki St. Bonaventura, Rawamangun

So, it is make sense that after I wrote about @ Gading then I wrote about @ bona. It is the same type of group with @ gading, it’s just different parish and different members too, but geographically they are neighbors.

This year I had a chance to become the team for the summer retreat. I was so surprised during the first meeting that I went. I totally forgot the name of the team that joined @ bona last year hahaha. There are CD, Novi, Nopi, Indah, Calista (sapi), but I do remember Grace, Regi and Ocha. But it’s ok haha at least I remember them all by the time the retreat started.

In this retreat, I also had a chance to make a presentation with the title “Mengikuti Kristus” or “Following Christ”. So, me and Ratih, who talks about “Bekerja untuk Kristus” or “Work for Christ”, got 60 minutes to talk, so logically it’s 30-30 minutes right hahaha but it ended up 55-25, so I talked around 55 minutes haha can’t really help myself to talk a very interesting topic and besides I did not even feel that I had talked for 55 minutes. I really need to work on my time management when I had a presentation haha.

After the retreat, we had our first Follow Up (FU) meeting. It was ok, not really much of a preparation and also the one that run the meeting were new members, so can’t really control the meeting, but it’s ok.

That’s one of the weaknesses of @ bona, since their age was just 2 years old (compare to @ gading whose 10 years old), the members were still not used to the routine of Antiokhia. Fortunately, some of seniors of @ Gading still help them to run the group. So, I’m pretty sure that this group will keep growing, even though it might need 2-3 years until they can stand alone without needing guidance or help from @ Gading.

Well, can’t really tell much about @ bona, but I do have more heart and attention to this group compare to @ gading, even though I was origin there. Maybe it’s just because @ gading had already more people while @ bona still need people that can guide them. Just like a baby who still needs their parents to help them walk. I feel that I can contribute more to @ bona rather than @ gading.

Summer 2008 Recap…..part 1

Antiokhia Paroki St. Yakobus, Kelapa Gading


For those of you who do not know Antiokhia, I’ll give some descriptions. Antiokhia is a youth catholic group range from 14-22 years old. Their main event is a summer retreat with 13 presentations and sharing are their main points. On the last night of the retreat, there will be a closing night celebration which they invited all Antiokhers in Jakarta. Currently, Antiokhia exists in 9 parishes in Jakarta.

So, you might thinking that why I choose @ Gading (to make it short) as my first part. Well, as far as I remember, this was the first group that I came first during my holiday haha not a really good reason.

I came on one of their WE Team, some kind like a “dress rehearsal” for a youth retreat at St. Yakobus parish. The expected members are about 14-20 years old. I just came for a while and listen to some of their presentations. One thing that I thought was interesting was that really only few of them prepared for their presentations. It was really hard to talk about they way they execute their presentation, since they did not even prepared for the content of their presentation. I do not really know what is the problem, is it the lack of effort they put for their presentation, or simply just because they never make a presentation? Well could be both, right?

Well, I also came to their closing night. I think it was one of the most crowded closing night celebrations ever, since @ gading are the last parish that held a retreat. When you seat, you can barely move around hahaha can’t blame the room if you get sweat all around your body. I heard that the presentations during the retreat were good and that makes me a little bit happy, especially with bad preparations just like I mention before. It was an OK celebration since I’m not totally like they way they run their event, but nevertheless everyone is quite happy…I guess.

One last event that I came was a 10th year celebration of @ Gading. I would say that, during that event I feel completely not there. I mean, that night was also the last night I would have a dinner with my parents on weekend before I went back to USA. So, I came for a while and met some old friends, especially Marcel, Bayong, Andi, Naldo. I really want to be there the whole event, but what can I say after one hour, I have to go with my parents. I thought the event was not a meaningless event. Just like on any xxth years old celebration, there will be something that really reminds you of who you are and what you have achieved, right? But the event was only about “having fun” with your friends. Not that I don’t want the event to become boring and not fun, but I think fun and meaningful could go along together.

@ Gading is a group that I think I really want to do much for them, just because the group help me so much to develop myself. I love their songs, the friendships and especially the idea of sharing your faith to one another. But, this time, I feel that my time is over and I should not exist anymore. My girlfriend said that I have to move on because @ gading will not give you anything again and besides somehow I don’t feel really connected with them, even though I think it’s just because that I’m half way around the globe.

Overall, I thought there was no significant progress in @ Gading. What I saw was members just having fun while they tend to forget what the meaning of being an Antiokhers is. What’s important for them is to have fun with their fellow friends but not doing the thing that they should do. Unfortunately, this situation was helpless with the condition of irresponsible job of KorPar (@ Parish Coordinator) whose job is to keep @ Gading to progress to become a better servant of God.

Nevertheless, I’m quite happy to be able to come and see and help them a bit.

Summer 2008 Recap Series

Hi All,

I just went back from my summer holiday for three months in Jakarta. Yeah!! exactly 3 months, I arrived at Indo on May 11, and went back to US on August 14 (three day difference is ok lah). Another thing is that, last year, I also went back to US on August 14, what a coincidence.

So, for the next few posts, I will recap my holiday based on different groups that I was involved in and also some places that I visited.

Hope you enjoy reading it :). I will post new recap every day for this series. Oh yeah!! comments are appreciated :).