May 2004 I arrived in Freising, Germany, and stayed at a student house next to Altenheim (nursing mansion for old people), where eventually we always call it as Altenheim which is very absurd since no old people above 50 years old lives there. Freising is not a big city; even the train ticket counter in Germany generally does not remember the exact city location until they type it in his computer. Despite its size, Freising has been an important city in Germany, particularly for the Bavaria province.
There were only few Indonesian living there….one of them was this smart intelligent guy, who visited me on my second day in this city. We had a long chat which was very weird because I let him stand and did not offer him a chair to sit…., well it was my first time going to Europe and I just realized that I have no contact but one staff at Technical University of Munich during onboard while flying from KLIA, Malaysia to Frankfurt, Germany (calling myself stupid cause I went to Frankfurt to reach Munich where Munich in fact has their own international airport…..), so I was quite surprised when someone from Indonesia came to visit me (but now I fully realized the importance of visiting each other when you are away from your home country). He introduced himself as “Rhino”, a short name for Rhino Mukti.
Only in few weeks he had been making me obsessed with something far beyond my expertise, even actually I was very interested in this field when I was in my high school. It is chemistry, particularly involving the Chemical Engineering. Rhino’s research was about catalysis, which already becomes his desire since his undergraduate study at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), and extended to his postgraduate study at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). As a postgraduate student at Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Garching campus, he conducted research on sorption supervised under quite famous professor in catalysis field, which I forgot his name.. he…he…..
What make amazed at that time;
1. It was my first time visiting a campus with four Noble Prize winners.
2. It was my first time to see and touch an instrument which constructed with a simple formula that I’ve already known and used since high school; it was the formula of PV=nRT.
3. It was my first time to see and also touch liquid nitrogen and its storage.
Beside all of those, Rhino always challenges with a lot of stuff and often we end up with fruitful discussion and debate, even I did not realize that he was two stages above me, he was a postgraduate student, and me…., at that time I even have not finished my undergraduate study and what had been discussed, it is certainly not even my field of expertise….but he succeeded to brainstorm me with Nanoscience and Nanotechnology field, and at that time I definitely would like to change my subject to Chemical Engineering in which it creates a dilemma for me because at the same time I was doing literature study for my thesis in Forest Economics (as it was also rejected by my supervisor in Indonesia due to the level of the study which was too high for me, that topic usually fits in for postgraduate study…he…he…)
Remembering what he challenges me to do….he challenges me to:
1. Compete with him to win Noble Prize
2. Getting married at the age of 23 (I have failed to fulfill this one, because currently I am 25, and still not married)
3. Becoming secretary general of United Nations (UN)
For some people these challenges are ridiculous, but not for us….., I still want to win the Noble Prize and becoming secretary general of UN…., even tough my future achievement may not be linear with its desires..he..he…, the least was…Rhino made me dare enough to have those kind of dreams…
With his profile….which has been; well planned in a professional way…he always finds a detail in everything he does….everything have to be confirmed and precise…, intelligent; he made me stay in the computer room until late at night, and still he continued his works in his room…. I’m sure he will be having a bright career… one of the evidence; currently he is at The University of Tokyo for his Postdoctoral study, and still with his catalyst…..
Rhino is a provocateur in our community in Freising, he was one of them who have made me promise to go back to Europe…and here I am in Europe fulfilling the promise…. and few months ago he suggested me to go to Japan for undertaking the PhD…, another challenge??…..
The funny thing about Rhino is; I always call him Bro’, and he reply calling me Bro’ too…..weird it is, but I guess it is the sign of low profile of him…..
The most important thing I have learnt from him is, do not limit your dreams….those world that you know from the media, books, or website it is not that far…you can be that man who stands in the Nobel prize podium, that man who speak loudly to the whole world and they listen to you, that man who can make changes to how the world is run, that man who once you adore so much……, those man could be you….my friends, my inspirations…………..
(this writing has been edited by Rhino Mukti in the sense of its grammar)
She was somebody from another major in forest faculty of 
After her graduation its very rare for us to meet, she was in lampung and I was still struggling with my thesis….ffiiiuuuhh….but we always try to meet at least in the occasion of Iedul Fitri, we visited our field practise village and spent one whole day there, even she was in a hurry to go to Jakarta and then to Lampung, back to her duty…, and I was leaving to Germany for a short study as an exchange student…., after that we were never meet again…until one day in the university after I was finishing my study and received at a master program in Europe, I was very happy to hear that she also going to go to Europe for her master study….for me it was very cool to know that I will be having a chance to reunite with someone whose spent almost two months in the same house for the field practise…sharing a lot of fun, stresses, everything…. in some other part of the world and far away from home….
