Home

About me

Documentary Film

Indonesian Photos

Study Abroad Resources

Wow… for me, April seemed to be the fastest month so far in Indonesia. However, this semester seems to be going on forever… I’m used to 10-11 weeks in a quarter than compared to 18 weeks in a semester.

The month of April consisted of mid-terms from 12^th to the 20^th and trip to Jakarta on 19^th, 20^th and 21^st. The week of mid-terms consisted of mostly papers and just two exams which was nice. : ) I enjoy writing over test taking. In my cross-culture communications class my group and I needed to interview someone who isn’t originally from to Surabaya. Thus, asking them how their experience is in adapting to the Indonesian Culture. This interview was interesting because we discussed with an American Teacher about the struggles she has faced while in Indonesia. Many of her struggles seem to be similar to my own, such as dealing with indirectness in addressing situations.

My other class consisted of a paper analyzing either a film or television show applying cultural theories. Fairly simple. I also had two exams…one focusing on tourism, geography, cultural aspects and history of two islands in Indonesia, Sumatra and Java. It has been an interesting class so far, however, it is also challenging because it is conducted entirely in Indonesian. Also, my Indonesian Tourism class consists entirely of Indonesians; therefore, they typically know the geographical location and culture emphasis better than what I do. Haha…

The second exam was my most challenging which consisted of the economic competitiveness of 6 Asian countries, the exam focused on China and India. The class is geared towards IBM (International Business Majors) and economic situations. The class is interesting because we discuss the competitiveness of each country. It is based on their belief and how it influences their politics, education and economics. At times I feel like I understand the subject…but at other times it is difficult because of the emphasis and analysis of economics, but also the teaching style is different from what I’m used to in the U.S. Also, the IBMers in the class are on their 3^rd year and have had prerequisite courses that I haven’t taken. So, it makes things challenging… but I have been learning a lot as well. : )

In the second week of exams I had the opportunity to go to Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. (My exams and papers were already finished, Yeah!). So, one of the international program directors, myself, Adam and the other international student left on 3^rd week in April. The trip was an interesting and difficult experience. We didn’t know the schedule of events or why we went to the places we did because our director did not inform us of many things and left us by ourselves most of the time.

Day 1: It was interesting because we missed our original flight. I’m still not sure why this happened but perhaps it has something to do with “jam karet”… However, we were soon scheduled for a new flight that left a few hours later. Upon arrival in Jakarta we soon began to noticed the immense size of Jakarta, -/+10,000,000 people. We found a taxi and began our trip to the hotel. However, in Jakarta there are many traffic jams and they normally last for hours. For example, we were in a traffic jam for 3 hours, from the airport to hotel. So, we played traditional games from Germany, America and Indonesia. It was fun! : ) As time went by, we started to become nervous because our taxi driver was falling asleep. Personally, I found this sad because he had probably been working all day for maybe a few dollars.  :( After arriving at our destination we met professors from other universities, watched traditional ceremonies from foreign students who danced, read poetry and sang.  However, we were not given much time here and soon were on a bus to our next destination. We arrived at our sleeping destination but were soon all separated and ended up in separate rooms consisting of approximately 20 bunk-beds, mosquitoes and people we didn’t know. It was a little intimidating at first because we were not expecting this type of situation because no one told us before hand, so we didn’t prepare accordingly such as having mosquito repellent or bottled water for drinking or brushing teeth, or clothing that would be ok in this type of situation (with mosquitoes). This soon changed when we asked our director about the situation. She found us a different room but didn’t tell us anything while we were waiting for our new room… other things happened that I don’t want to blog about…

Day2: Upon waking we ate our breakfast. Then we were left to ourselves most of the day, because our coordinator wanted to be with other people. The three of us then met a guy from the U.S. who better explained what the program was about and showed us a brochure of the events for that day. The second day was much better than the first because we had the opportunity to see and play with traditional music and instruments, such as the gamelan. Then we also had the opportunity to watch a man from Papua make traditional woodcarvings and a few groups from Java and Sumatra make Wayang Kulit, Batik and traditional types of rugs. Others did different dances portraying the Indonesian culture.   :) All of these things we interesting opportunities that we plan to post videos, pictures and footage! After this we visited a museum that consisted of replicas of traditional dress, houses, instruments and other interesting artifacts. Later that day we then went to the closing ceremony that consisted of more dances, traditional instruments and gamelan playing. At this ceremony there were many people and they represented more than 60 countries! How cool!!!

Day 3: Our day started very early because we needed to be on the taxi by 4:30 a.m. to prepare for our flight that was to leave at 8:10 a.m. On the way to our hotel it took us 3 hours, however, on the way back it only took us 45 minutes to arrive at the airport. No traffic jams! When were arrived back in Surabaya I needed to be ready for my class that started at 1:45. So, I was pretty tired during that class…

Well…..that’s all for now…I plan to blog more soon and post pictures, videos, etc!