Universitas Pelita Harapan: Jessup 2009...

It has been a few years, so it was nice to see some of these pictures pop up on Facebook.

My time coaching the Universitas Pelita Harapan (Pelita Harapan University / UPH) law mooting teams was a real pleasure for me. I am yet to meet such a dedicated bunch before or since. The core of this team was committed to learning and achieving. Ultimately, the year following this one, they did achieve their goal of winning the Indonesian National Round of the Jessup International Law Moot competition.

Many of them have now gone onto careers in the law, joined the diplomatic corps, or have opted for further study. I am proud of each and every one of them. I hope that over the years I will remain in touch with all of them. I am certain that they will all continue to achieve and excel in their chosen fields (so, keeping in touch might get me a sympathy job at some point in the future, right?).

These are photos from 2009. The second one is standing around in the cold Washington DC air. And, the first one is a "last supper" that we shared when we arrived back in Jakarta and before I left to come back to Australia. The bag contained an awesome little scrapbook of memories and kind words (which sits on my desk, and to which I look regularly). It also contained an iPod which I continue to use and enjoy!

I really enjoyed the opportunity. I hope they learned something useful about the law and about life. In a lot of ways I consider them to be family, especially seeing they all turned up to check out Will when he was born. And, we spent a lot, a lot, of time together working on research and memorials and oral advocacy over teh two years we dedicated to the UPH mooting cause.

Thanks to all of you!

A Small and Unexpected Surprise...

This post follows on from the earlier posts on the Jessup Competition. I have enjoyed, thoroughly, the past two years working with and coaching the UPH Jessup Moot Team (in the photo: Johan, James, Pricilla, Yours Truly, and Nenda). It is always nice to see a group of dedicated and committed students willing to go the whole ten yards and sacrifice a little bit along the way to achieve their goals.

A long story short, they invited me out to dinner last night. I am thinking this is just a chance to say our goodbyes as they are moving on to new and different things in their university careers and me and mine are pulling up stumps and heading back to Australia. This was very much how the evening was going. However, when we were about to call it a night, they surprised me with a cool little book that had photos of our journey over the last two years and a personal note from each of them.

This was a very nice gesture and much appreciated. However,there was more to come. They also gave me an iPod touch. Now, this was not just a nice gesture but also very cool. I am so technologically challenged that it is going to take me some time to work it all out. Yet, it will be fun in doing so. It also happens to be the first Mac thing that I have ever owned.

Now it is off to iTunes and download the necessary software to get started on this journey.