Week 5 and onwards….

It’s been more than a month since my last post. I would give 2 excuses
1. I’ve been so BUSY that I don’t get the time to write about anything..OR
2. I’ve been so LAZY to do anything :).

I guess it’s a mix of both excuses.

Anyways, masters program hasn’t been the easiest as J.Boone said “DBU has spoiled me!”. Speaking of Joseph Boone…Yes, he called me from the Brig train station on Monday. Totally surprised me, but it sure was good to see a familiar face again. We had dinner together, introduced him to the people here, and ended up going go Scala bar to chill (on the night of midterm tests). Boone left yesterday noon towards Geneva…and I guess he’s already in Paris by now.

The past 5 weeks have been a real new and interesting experience for me. Being a waiter once a week has been a wonderful experience…..still, it’s always been stressful but somehow I’ve been able to go through every Wednesday night just fine. Last week, I had the opportunity to cook in front of the guests. Never thought I’d be doing that, especially cooking a flamber with the cognac burning the flame all over the pan…OH YEAAA!! :D….will get to do that again tonight with crepes suzette (will tell ya’ll later how it goes tonite) :).

Health: well, I’ve been doing fine so far. Keeping my meds once a day. I went to the doctor today, had a blood test and will go back on Friday to discuss the results…hope all goes well. Thank God! I really hope I’m alrite coz I’ll be playing for the school’s basketball team against the rival school next week (so yeaaahh, that’d be interesting! :p)

Other than that, I just feel so blessed to be with such awesome friends….Jeab, Jonny, Kenny, Larry, May, Andy, Guido….EVERYONE!….well, until the next post….ciao!

First Impression: Turbulence….

UPDATE: Brig pics on my flickr (use the link on the right column to get there) 

Hello everyone! I know I haven’t updated the blog in a while…mainly coz I was so busy preparing for the trip. Nevertheless, I am here, all well, and currently surfing from my new dorm room for the next few months….

Let me explain why the first impression of this place is a ‘turbulence’. To start with, I don’t know where Qatar Airways bought their 5-star airline award from but they may need to work some more to reach that stage. Honestly, who on earth allows only 1 suitcase with 20 kg limit to travel? UNBELIEVABLE!…A tip for the Qatar Aviation Service: Train your employees to be humble and smile might help! I wouldn’t go into details about this but yeaaahhh…

Anyways, I got on the plane just fine. Had to go through the usual flight-to-US security check though…I’m glad they allowed me to keep my pants on :p The flight was alright until we entered the Swiss area. May I just say that I have never seen so much snow in my 4.5 years in Dallas :). Right as I was enjoying the view, the plane decided to dance a little. The turbulence caused the plane to shake to the point where if I didn’t have my seatbelt on, I would have jumped out of the seat. Scary stuff, but thank God I made it through.

New area, new faces, new languages (yes, more than one language….2 or 3 new languages). I made it on the train towards Brig….the scenery was just amazing. Mountains with snow, Lakes, old school buildings….definitely different than the usual for me :). I got to Brig around 7pm on the 1st, made my way to the hotel, cleaned up a bit and took a walk around town for dinner….It’s just amazing! I will be uploading pics to prove ya’ll how amazing it is hehehehe… :p

Anyways, it is the 3rd…I went to the University Center this morning. Met up with the some student workers, program director, and the school director. Real nice people (good start!) Right now, I am updating this blog from the comfort of my new dorm room….small but cozy! :)….It is almost 12pm and time to look for lunch…..I will be updating ya’ll regularly while I’m here and do wait for pics…

Take care everyone (wherever you are) and God bless….

My contact info
Phone number for sms: 0041 763132110
Phone number for calling: 0041 275577110
It’s the same cellphone, except that by calling to the ‘calling’ number, the charge will be for land-line not cellphone (meaning cheaper! :p)

a Post from Indonesia….

For those who’s been keeping up with my blog, I’m real sorry for not updating it in a while. The reason is coz I am currently in Indonesia (surprised?) yea, I was too for a lil while. It’s been a while since I’m here…well 4 years is quite a while for me to be back here..and it still feels just as weird as ever…but I think I’m getting used to being Indonesians around me again :)..

I flew here on March 1st from Doha..and got here on the 2nd…the best thing was that nobody knew that my mom and I were coming so it was good to surprise all the relatives…but more importantly, the reason we’re back here is coz both my grand dad/mommy are sick…first, my grandpa was hit with a mild stroke…few days after my mom and I got here, my grandma’s blood sugar went up to 600…and she has a stroke close to where her memory is located in the brain…so she didn’t really recognize me wen I first got here…she was admitted 2 days after I got there…it was a really difficult nite for us all at home…seeing her going into seizures several times…but we can only thank God that it seems like He had things in place to ease my grandma’s transport to the hospital, etc….she’s back to normal now…and my grandpa is still not able to walk but I’m sure he will soon….please keep them in your prayers (I appreciate it!!)

Anyways, Indonesia…well what’s new for me:
1. I got to spent some time with Raymond ‘Emon’ Sukmadjajajajajajaja hehehehe…it’s nice to finally meet him again..and I got to meet his gf, Jennifer. We had dinner and coffee together…good times…hope to see them again sometime before I leave…
2. I met with old friends and relatives from all over the place….twas good to show up at Sumber Kasih, the Church I gew up in, and met up with so many old friends…I only wish I can spend some more time with them…maybe next time (whenever that’d be!)
3. The reunion of the ‘Sons and Daughters of the Sahidi’s’….it’s amazing…it’s so nice to see them all together after a while and being successful people..so happy for them…just hope they’ll bond with each other more and more….
4. Meeting up with new friends and relatives…. i.e., people from om Obe’s office….t’Dewi, etc….Cecille.Calvin….so many more lah….

Well, I think that’s the update I have from Indo for now…lets just say it’s ‘to be continued’…..prolly as soon as I get back to Doha this Sunday :)….in the meantime….will be praying for everyone!!! and hope u will do the same too….God bless!!

ps: no worries…pix from Indo will be uploaded to Flickr!! :D….

Valentine’s Day & Camp AGAPE :)

Happy ‘late’ Valentine’s day to everyone!! Hope ya’ll had a good one! Even singles deserve to have a fun and enjoyable valentine’s day, don’t you think?

Anyways, over the weekend we had 3 couples that dropped their kids at our place coz they went to Dubai for the shopping festival.  Papa and mama were supposed to go but they ended up not going and stayed home with us.  3 couples = 6 kids stayed home with us…A LOT OF FUN! Starting from the youngest to the oldest…..we had a valentine’s party with other ‘bachelors’ too….Vanessa decided to call it ‘Camp Agape’ and arranged all the room placements…Daniel, Jeff, Ryan, Talenta, Daniar, Ataya, Utari, Vanessa, and I, all in one room….Vanessa and I got to sleep on the bed…the rest, on the floor :p…Party was a lot of fun with fun games and a fun and entertaining white elephant, except for Daniel coz Vanessa stole his disposable camera and Winnie the Pooh photo album :p…but, before that we did get to have a lil short message brought by Vanny…and some singing too so there was a bit of ‘holiness’ for the night :p..anyways from the white elephant,  I got a camera case (which I really don’t need!) and a spaghetti fork that swirls automatically…YAY! =D We didn’t sleep till really late playing game…Konami cup…and ended up sleeping at 4 am.  Later that morning, everyone woke up to continue playing the game pretty much :p…Om David came later on to grill some sherry….and we went later that afternoon to corniche. It was good except that that place was packed with people…but we did get to eat dinner there before the dust started to spread….

That morning though, Evan (1 year, 3 months i think) started liking me…surprise surprise….he stayed with me a lot…wanted me to carry him and didn’t even want mbak Narti to take him away…it was good, except for the fact that he is REALLY heavy for his age. Oh well, twas fun nevertheless….the weekend was definitely a real blessing to be with the kids, play with them, started rumours, etc :p….

Latest health update: I did go to the doctor last Wednesday, waited for 2 hours.  When we got it, it was a different doctor (not Dr. Mustaq…it was a lady instead). She said that my blood results weren’t in the computer so I have to go again this coming Wednesday (typical!) But the Qatari lady, Zaina, was nice enough to tell mama to call her first so she’d give us a number before getting there….so I’ll post the latest update again here…

Prayer requests:
- My grandpa was in the hospital for light stroke. He’s back home now but finding it hard to get his rhythm back…so please pray for healing…
- My hermano…I know he’s facing a difficult time but please pray that he will be able to go through it just fine…Prov 17:17
- Prep for Easter for AGAPE.
- For Vina in  Dallas with her studies…as well as all the friends there….

Until next post….

Since then…

So what happened since the last post? Well, not a whole lot other than I told more people about this blog.  I guess this means that I will need to keep updating it now.  Anyways, all this happened since then:

- Check out masacamera.com.  I’m sure most of you can guess who’s site it is.  Masa asked me to put his porfolio website on here and I am honoured to do so.  Mainly coz he’s got some amazing shots in it. Don’t believe me? check it out yourself.

- Vina’s bday! Oh son, happy bday! and thanks to all my friends, bros, and sistaz that went through the troubles to celebrate her first bday away from home.  I hope she likes the fender too :p.  Anyways, the bday pix are on april’s flickr.  I guess I’ll ask her if I can link it to this blog.

Other than that, I’m still just chillin here at home…not a lot of things to do.  Well, there are tons of things to do but it’s just the hardest thing to get crackin on it but I figure I’ll come around pretty soon and get’em done. By the way, I updated a couple pix on the Images  & Words page….more will come.

Health update: went for USG a couple of days ago…all good…they mentioned something about ‘multiple minute size bumps’….I assume that’s not a serious thing but I’m gonna go see the doctor on the 13th and find out more about that. I’ll keep everyone posted!

Another day….

Another day to go through today….one thing to be thankful though is my health. Flu sucks! There you go! But thank God, I’m feeling so much better now…still hurts a bit to swallow but definitely not as bad…hopefully it’ll get better from here on. Although, pics from the welcome party definitely helped me to get better….vina’s pic…the band’s pic…Max’s face….Marty’s hair….PERFECT!

These past few days, I seem to have more time to catch up on a lot of stuff but of course the whole flu thing didn’t help that much. Hopefully the next few days, I’ll be able to catch up on these stuff to do:

1. DiverseCity DVD (sorry masa! I promise I’ll get it going ASAP)
2. Prep for next month’s Bible study/PA (Feb. 9th?)
3. Prep for Easter (skit? kids?)
4. Francais? and German too? (whoa..!)

Anyways, I finally got to post some pix I’ve been wanting to post…so check them out on me flickr.

First words….

A random chiqui: “Well….well…well….look who finally decided to set up a blog. Why?”
Esa: “It is actually a difficult question to answer but I suppose I’m doing it coz I want people I love to know my whereabout, and etc. And I sure want them to keep me up to date with their whereabouts.”

A random chiqui: “That’s it? You’re committing yourself to this just so that people can stalk on you?”
Esa: “Well, this way they will know where I am, what I’m doing, and blah blah blah….besides, did you know that I was admitted to the hospital 3x in less than a month? and that I was admitted twice within a week? and that I am diagnosed with hyperthyroid? and that I’m on meds for about 2 years?…did you know that?”

A random chiqui: “Uuummm…”
Esa: “EXACTLY! Now, why don’t you go get me some mango juice.”