The Church..

In Delft, I go to International Student Chaplaincy. This is an ocumenical church near Delft Central Station. There are not so many attendees for this church. It's about 40 people I guess.. or less..

There are some other international church service, such as The Levend Water and Delft Christian Fellowship (part of FullGospel Mission Church).

There's a choir for every Sunday service in ISC. But this choir is not like most of the choir I know. The members are so few. Less than 15 people. Actually average 8 people per rehearsal. I would call it a vocal group. Not even a vocal group, since not much of harmony in singing. Just a group, singing together. With guitarists, flute player, and gendang player (also plays something Maracas-alike).

But then, I chose to join the choir last Thurday because I wanted to take part in the service. Today's service is my first service in ISC. I do hope that this small singing group could grow larger and could do much more in singing for God.

Babel..

There's an invitation for International Student of TU Delft to join a Friday Movie Night.. The film was Babel, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

So, today at 21.00, we gathered at the Cultural Center, got our free popcorn and prepared to watch. Tadaaaa.. It seemed like we, international students, experienced the essence of Babel itself. Laughters here and there because we couldn't understand the film. Apparently, the film would involve the use of different languages.. And what we got as subtitle was Dutch, d'oh..


It's so funny that we were a bunch of international students, with different languages, gathered and could not understand the film Babel. As Babel is well known for the attempt to build the Tower of Babel that had angered God who made each person involved speak a different language which ultimately halted the project and scattered and disconnected the people across the planet. What a scene!

Finally, the commitee tried to find another movie with English subtitle. So, we watch Inside Man instead.. Fortunately, the film was quite enjoyable..

My New Choir..

Sesudah lebih sebulan ga nyanyi di choir, akhirnya aku bergabung dengan choir di TU Delft. Namanya Krashna Musika. Latiannya tiap hari Rabu jam 19.30 sampai 22.30 di room 232, Cultural Center di Mekelweg 10.

Rasanya sayang aja ga nyanyi di choir lagi. Kalo ga latian kan lama-lama hasil latian 7 taun belakangan ini bakal ilang pelan-pelan. Sempat bingung karena ga nemu choir yang bisa dimasuki. Di gereja ISC, choirnya belum berbentuk choir beneran, karena anggotanya juga masih minim.

Akhirnya pas ngobrol2 lewat YM dengan Kak Rino dapat pencerahan kalo ada choir yang bernama Krashna Musika (KM) di Delft (hehehe, K' Rino malah lebih tau padahal ga di Delft. Thanks ya Kak). Setelah lewat 3 minggu kuliah, karena masih adaptasi dan ada Introduction Week di luar kota dari jurusanku, baru aku kirim email nanyain tentang cara masuk KM itu ke board-nya. Oh iya, sekalian nanya apa aku boleh telat ke latian karena ada kuliah malam tiap Rabu sampe jam 19.30. Ternyata ceunah open registrationnya udah tutup. Tapi aku boleh datang aja dulu Rabu, 26 September 07 ke latiannya. Di akhir latian akan ditest/audisi dan kalo lulus baru boleh ikut gabung.

Datanglah aku ke latiannya itu kmaren. Untung kuliah Economics-ku kelar lebih cepat, jadinya bisa sampe di tempat latian KM cuma telat 10 menit. Dari jauh dah kedengaran suara orang2 vocalising.. Deg-degan dikit pas ijin masuk, lalu ambil posisi di kanan belakang. Ternyata itu gerombolan Bass, lalu pindah ke bagian Tenor, hehehe..

Abis vocalising, latiannya mulai. Ternyata lagunya Brahms dengan not balok (gyaaa...). Syukurlah agak2 bisa ngikutin. Tapi oh noo, conductornya ngasi instruksi dan penjelasan make bahasa Belanda. Akhirnya orang di sebelahku (Stephen? not sure about his name) dengan baik hati menawarkan terjemahan ke Bahasa Inggris. Rata-rata suara dan tekniknya bagus. Tapi ada satu Tenor yang suaranya menarik banget. Baguus dan proyeksinya juga bagus.. Enak banget didengar. Mereka rata-rata bisa dengan mudahnya mencapai nada tinggi (yang bagiku dah tinggi dan perlu konsentrasi mengkoordinasikan organ-organ tubuh *aiyyaah* untuk mencapainya). Apa karena emang tipikal suara orang sini emang tinggi-tinggi ya? Rasanya pernah baca suatu tulisan tentang itu. Jadi rada minder, hehehe..

Abis latian, akhirnya dipanggil untuk audisi (ada 1 orang cewek juga diaudisi). Untung yang lain udah bergerak keluar ruangan karena emang ada acara pergi bareng ke suatu kafe. Audisinya biasa aja sih, nyanyiin beberapa tipe rangkain not yang dibunyiin pelatihnya pake piano dan bergerak up and down the scale. Tapi ada satu melodi yang agak2 aneh dan ga biasa (agak gagal pas awal-awal, hehe).

Trus pelatihnya nanya apa aku pernah ikut vocal training dan apa aku pernah gabung di choir sebelumnya.. Tentoenja! (ya, ga gitulah jawabnya, hehe ). Dan repertoir seperti apa yang biasanya dinyanyiin.. He said he could recognize that my vocal is built and that he liked the sound. Waaa, senangnya...

Setelah deg-degan karena udah ngedenger bagusnya anggota2 yang lain, akhirnya aku diterima di Krashna Musika. It's good to know that what you like and do a lot is appreciated by others. Not that the appreciation is the most important, but it just... feels good..
It's not that I wanna boast or something.. I know many people around me that can sing better than I do, and I love their voices..

Aku juga senang bisa nyanyi di choir lagi. Emang betul-betul kerasa beda dengan kalo nyanyi sendiri ato di vocal group. So, let's see how far I could involve in this new choir..


Ini logonya Krashna Musika. Tadinya aku heran ngeliat logonya itu... Kok kayak setan gitu ya, hehehe.. Pas kutanya sama pengurusnya, ternyata itu gambar Faun, dari mitologi romawi yang suka main musik gitu deh. Di film/buku The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe-nya C. S. Lewis, ada Faun yang bernama Mr Tumnus, yang pertama kali ditemui Lucy di Narnia. Krashna itu sendiri artinya Beautiful, aku lupa dari bahasa apa.. Slovakia? Jadi kira2 arti namanya itu Beautiful Music.

NB: Sengaja nulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia, supaya orang KMnya ga bisa baca, hehehe..
NB lagi: Untuk Soprannya, aku rasa Soprannya PSM-ITB lebih bagus deh, hehehe. Tauk ya, siapa tau yang kmaren ini Sopran KMnya blom full formation.

At the begining..

Yeah... I'm at a new begining.. Starting my new life as a student again in TU Delft, Netherlands.. A new life in Delft, a small yet very nice city. A new life in learning Management of Technology.

Some friends and I left Jakarta on August 24, 2007 around 15.00 WIB using Cathay Pasific. The flight was nice. Transited in Hong Kong for about an hour and left for Heathrow, London using Cathay Pasific as well. The flight attendants were from Europe and it turned out that they're not as nice as those from Asia.

Arrived in Heathrow (btw, Heathrow is such a huge airport..) and went through a strict check up.. We could only bring one cabin baggage no bigger than 56 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm (more info). There's a dimension checker (I don't really know its name, but it's some kind of construction where you could put your bag in if the dimension fits). We had to open our shoes/sandals and socks as well.

Passed the check up crew, we need to get my boarding pass of British Airways. It took a small plane to take the passengers to Schipol Airport, in Amsterdam.

We arrived around 9 am local time on August 25. When claiming the baggage, it turned out that most of the baggages of my friends were missing.. There were about 11 people in my group and only 2 got their luggages. Fortunately they were Richo and I. The others got their luggages somehow left in Heathrow (later we learned that this was not uncommon for British Airways flight from Heathrow to Schipol. Actually I had that kind of bad experience in this trip).

Out of the baggage claim area, we were greeted by some guys from PPI Netherlands: Rizli, Andy, Chris, Baqir, Anggara, Ahmad (my fellow for taking care of Depkominfo's requirements. Arrived earlier) and some others I couldn't remember (sorry).

Anggara took some of us to our temporary staying house (because the housing from DUWO was not available yet, until August 27). I stayed at Andrew and B'Tigor's room (thanks a lot, pals ) for 2 days at Hugo de Grootplein, near Delft Central Station.

I felt really sorry for leaving Bandung and all those great activities I've joined. I couldn't finished the rehearsal for Magnificat Church Choir Studio's Nelson Mass concert until the concert itself on September (Aarrgh.. There's "Credo" song there.. hehehe). I couldn't join GII Dago's 1st Choir Festival which will involve a Choir Master from Singapore. I couldn't join ITB Choir's Brahm and Mendelssohn concert. I couldn't continue my work with Alfie for Elechant's product. Fortunately I could do the home concert with Cherubim Choir on July.

I know, I have found comfort in Bandung. I love the city and all things in it very much. I once thought that I would spend most of my life in Bandung. I know I would miss the city and the activities a lot. Especially all my beloved friends there. But there's a certain point when I knew I have to move on. I have to leave Bandung for now. But I will certainly come back.. Either for staying or for only visiting..

So, welcome my new life..!