The 11th annual NPEDC in 2012 was held in Tual, Southeast Maluku. It was the first time ever in my life that I travelled to a place with different time zone. Tual is in east side of Indonesia, so the time is 2 hours faster than in west side. It is a beautiful small island. You can see and smell ocean almost every where you go. My team and our supervisor which was our lecturer went from Malang at dawn in the morning. The sun had not come up yet. We went by car to Juanda Airport in Surabaya. We took off from Surabaya to Makassar for a transit then from Makassar we flew to Ambon. Lastly, from Ambon we flew to Tual. The plane that we rode from Ambon to Tual was different than the other 2 flights. It was a smaller plane, a propeller plane. The passengers were only 72 with configuration seat 2-2. It was a little terrifying because we could hear the propeller sound very loudly😅.
At this event we arrived a day earlier before the technical meeting conference. During technical meeting there was debate exhibition and I was appointed as one of the exhibitionist. The committee appointed 6 participants from 6 different varsities. Sadly I don't remember who were my team mates back then. I just remember that we got to be the affirmative team and I was the 3rd speaker.
We did a round of debate under the motion This House Would Legalize Inter-Faith Marriage. I remember the motion because my team was lost and I didn't perform very well. I could have done it so much better, but there were no repeat and they never were. So I just took the lessons, used them to evaluate myself.
The competition went on for days as usual. We thankfully never lost a round since the beginning. Until on quarter final, we lost. It was shocking. Everybody were shocked with the adjudicator's decision. It was also controversial. Some people mentioned there was a play involved, like a certain group maybe didn't want my varsity to win again. However, my team didn't indulge on the gossips. We just took the result as it is. There were always something to learn.
After quarter final the competition continued to semifinal. But we didn't stick around for that and went outside instead. State Polytechnic of Tual was amazing. On the main hall you can see ocean. Just by walking around the hall building, we could reach the ocean. After the competition on that day finished, we were taken by buses to see the most beautiful beach I had ever seen in my entire life. I believe it is called Pantai Pasir Panjang. The view was like something out of a portrait; the water were clear with nice gradations of blues and greens, the sand were white as flour and the texture were very soft like flour. They were not like harsh grainy sands we commonly saw in another beaches. They felt super soft beneath our feet.
The next day was the final day. The grand final round was scheduled in the evening, so we spent morning until afternoon to go to the beach again. We were also taken to few recommended places to get souvenirs. We got back to hotel before dark and get ready for the grand final. The winner of NPEDC XI 2012 was State Polytechnic of Medan.
2012 was the last year of NPEDC. In 2013 until now the event was changed into National Polytechnic English Olympic (NPEO) where other competition were added which are newscasting, story telling, and speech. NPEO 2013 was hosted by Politeknik Perkapalan Surabaya. I could still involve in training and helped the representative from my college at that time. I heard the winner of debate contest were no longer State Polytechnic of Medan. If I'm not mistaken, it appeared to be different winners every year since my school lost in 2012. I might be wrong because I didn't really follow up on that anymore. By the end of 2013 I was already graduated and moved to West Java for a job duty.
I would say that in terms of friendship and connection, NPEDC XI in Tual was better than NPEDC X in Palembang. I don't know how but we really gotten closer with one another. We gained friendship from all around the country. We shared our stories of how we travelled from our hometown to Tual. I still remember one of the participant from Aceh mentioned that it took them a whole day to travel on the road from their town to airport. Everyone had unique stories. We exchanged gifts with some of them like bracelets, necklaces, and brooches. After the event wrapped, we created a Facebook group and continued our communication. We dispersed though sadly as time went on, but I am and forever will be grateful for the bond that we created.
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