synagoge

This morning I went to visit the service in this synagoge. I came knowing I'm not going to understand.:p (Everything is in Hebrew; except the sermon, it was in Dutch.) Nevertheless, I was determined to come. So there I was, sitting upstairs (men sit downstairs, women upstairs).

It was 5 of us, 3 male and 2 female. Woehoe, up till 2 days ago I thought I will be going alone, and I've convinced 4 others to join!:p They have Hebrew-Dutch, Hebrew-English, Hebrew-French prayer book, so we were quite contented. Every now and then a lady came to us explaining where we are.

I especially like the way they sing from Psalms. It's beautiful! And it was read from the scroll (means: without vowels nor notes as in the book-version). I was enjoying myself looking around, watching people and reading the translation.

The people there are quite friendly. It's nice to visit when they don't mind you visiting.:p

It definitely is a nice and rare experience. Glad I had the chance. I was speaking to a man about me having been wanting to visit a synagoge for several years and he was so glad to hear that. He even asked whether I'll come again next week.:p Ok, it was just that he was not at ease when I said I don't think there is a synagoge in my country and he wanted to check (and tell me the answer) with his 'handbook for Jewish traveller'.

Shabbat Shallom!

heat wave

Been experiencing heat wave these past few days. In the office it was torture: seeing people installing Air Conditioner right when you really need one!

A heatwave means five days of temperatures warmer than 25 degrees and at least three days of 30 degrees or above.

Yet another strike

Yeah, it's not over yet. After the two strikes I mentioned, last week (Friday, 17/6) there was no train (ProRail, the one that gives service on railing and signaling went on strike - the result? Of course the non existence of train for that day! How can you run train systems without signals?)

Next Wednesday regional public transports will go on strike again. So, again, there will be no public transportation in Amsterdam. Positive side: my bike is fixed! Yippie, I can bike again!

mooi weer

Wow, the weather is very nice for these few days - the type of weather that sends everybody outside. Heel mooi!

I was in Enschede on Friday, Volendam on Saturday, and biking around Amsterdam on Sunday. Volendam - now I have a picture of me dressed up in Dutch traditional dress!:p

Sunday, I went to Christ Church, after that we went to visit a synagoge. A real one, they have an open day today. It was interesting (of course, I have been wondering whether I'll be able to see one for years!). So, after seeing the ruin of synagoge (and trying to picture how the building was), visiting an museum that used to be a synagoge, now I'm in a real synagoge. Hmm ... how about visiting one during a service?:-/ Sounds interesting.

afdelingsuitje

--- Corrected, according to suggestions. More corrections? ---

Vandaag hebben we het afdelingsuitje. Eerst gingen we naar Schiphol Oost - om oude vliegtuigen (Cessna, Dakota) te bekijken. En daarna, midgetgolf hier, 18 holes. Ik had 'hole in one' in #7 (de labyrinth) - woehoe! Mijn groep heeft gewonnen! - het cadeautje was balletjes, drie balletjes (golf balletjes) voor iedereen.

En het avondeten: barbeque op een restaurant boot!

Hahaha ... Dutch readers, feel free to correct mijn zinnen ... there must be maaany errors.;)

------------ ENGLISH VERSION ----------------
Today we have 'department outing'. We first went to Schiphol east - to see some aircrafts in their hangar. These are old. We first went to the laboratory. There are two old aircrafts there. One is Cessna, very small, even I couldn't stand inside.:p It was my first time inside cockpit. Someone explained how things work there. After that we visited DDA - Dutch Dakota Association. Those Dakotas are still flying! I just checked, Seulawah, RI 001 is indeed DC-3, the same as 'Sleeping Beauty' I saw today!

After then we went for midgetgolf - mini golf with 18 holes. My first time golfing - with 3 or 4 holes that I couldn't do up to the maximum strokes, I did one 'hole in one' in the labyrinth. And to make the day, our group won - each of us got three golf balls with the company logo.

Dinner was barbeque on boat, the boat was sailing - we passed the windmill in Rembrandt's painting.

Strike, again???

This Thursday there will be another strike - no public transport for 24 hrs. Again???

Where have I been?

visited countries map

Countries I have been:
Indonesia - India - Israel - Jordan - Netherlands - Germany - Italy - Vatican City - United Kingdom - Singapore - Spain - France -

Cities I have lived:
Pattobong - Surabaya - Bandar Lampung - Jakarta - Bandung - Enschede - Amstelveen
Also, one could add Boja - Kediri - Batu - but NOT Medan:p

Indonesian provinces I have visited:
JaTim - JaTeng - DI Yogyakarta - JaBar - DKI Jakarta - Banten - Lampung - SumSel - SumUt - SulSel - Bali - NTB.

Dream

I had a dream I thought I'd given up. But it kept on coming. Part of me say, 'get over it' while another part wants to keep on dreaming.