by Putri Pamulani, Indonesia 09-10
hosted in Florida
International Education Week was done in last November. I did 4 presentations for Human Geography Class and 1 for a a church community. They were pretty good, because I had no big audience. Just like a couple of small classes which was really nice to have a discussion or even live conversation.
So, I thought my duty was done, because to do a presentation in English took a lot of courage for me at first. However, it ended up being really fun. But, one day one of my teacher from JROTC class, First Sergeant Mike Braccio, told me that he heard about my presentation last November. Then he said that if I want to, I could do the same presentation in JROTC class. I was surprised and wondering how did he know about this. Anyhow, at that time I was excited, too. Because, if I take this opportunity, I will share the Indonesian cultural things to more people. It means good for me, my country, and definitely American. I didn’t have to do that, but I had a desire and it just told me that I should do this.
On Wednesday, January 27th, I did the presentation from 1st period all the way through 5th period (Now I know how tired being a teacher is, speaking the same thing for the whole day!). I made the presentation like a tour to Indonesia. I brought them across the islands. The first period was warming up for me, followed by the 2nd, the 3rd, 4th and the 5th period which were more interesting. And I was fired up for that. Not nervous anymore. Just like talking to friends and they are actually really nice and respectful. I realized that I can speak English much better and fluently than when I first came to USA.
JROTC is my favourite class in high school. As the cadets, we learn about leadership, self discipline and work with a team. I have two teachers, they are Lieutenant Colonel McGlamry and First Sergeant Braccio. We are not only doing class activities, drill and reading book, but also a lot of fun things. I like doing outdoor activities, and they have Camp Flaming Aero coming up, orienteering and some competitions. In my first semester, I didn’t do a lot of things in this class, only marksmanship (which is really cool). But I will try to come up with some of those things for this semester.
I have a lot of nice friends there. I learn about America from them. I really like JROTC. I also would like to say thanks a lot to Colonel McGlamry and First Sergeant Braccio for the opportunity to attend JROTC, also for the presentation things that I did. Hopefully you enjoyed it (I know you did) and I believe this would be really beneficial for all of us. One more thing, this presentation really motivates me to be a better citizen (To motivate young people to be a better citizen is the motto of JROTC).
Until now, as an Indonesian citizen, i have never been in the provincial or state government buildings in Surabaya, the capital city of East Java, such as the legislature, including representative, judicature building and governors office. But here i have gotten that chance.
When i was at the Washington State Capital, i also met with the Senator and Representative from Shoreline district. We went to that district’s representative because no one from our district showed up there. The Senate and Representative welcomed us kindly and we were talking a lot about islamophobia and low income housing which are some of the major issues nowadays. Also we talked about the new mosque that is being built in Shoreline by an imam from Bosnia Herzegovina and the Representative said that they will be visiting the mosque soon.
They also said to me, “you’re a lucky boy because you have been here for only 5 months and you got this opportunity to come down here.” Even though we just talked for 30 minutes each, because there were still a lot of people waiting in line to meet the legislature. And that was a great experience here.
Not only meeting with the senate and representative, but i also got a little tour of the legislature building including the House chamber, Senate room, hearing room etc. although on that day, there were no hearings going on there. So i still have a plan to go back down there to attend some hearings.
And the things that i learned from this point is that Democracy is a system to create an ideal society.
by Amber, YES Abroad to Turkey 09-10
On December 17th, all of the AFS scholarship students and I met in Konya, Turkey for a celebration of Rumi or Mevlana in Türkish. Rumi is a well known poet around the world, as well as a major figure in Islam. He died on December 17, 1273 and was the father of mysticism. The main event of us coming to Konya, home of Rumi on his death day, was to watch a special performance of the religious ritual Sema- or the swirling dervishes. Read more
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Photo: Tomb of Rumi
by Monica Permata, Indonesia 09-10
hosted in North Carolina
Since I saw my host sister play soccer, I was so interested to try it. I do know about soccer, but I’d never played on a team before. So I joined with a soccer womans club in my school and decided to tried to join indoor soccer for the winter season. That was so much fun, I made many new friends in the team, and also learned how to play soccer well. American girls play soccer really awesome. “It was mind blowing!!!”
I hope I can play soccer better and better, I will keep practicing because I love it, and it will be one of my great memories of my exchange year.
Photo courtesy Monica Permata (4th from right)
by Paula Aprijanto, Indonesia 09-10
hosted in Texas
Howdy y’all !
my name is Paula. I’m an exchange student from Indonesia, hosted in Richmond, TX. It’s been 5 months since I’ve been here. Since then, I experienced lots of things, making unforgettable memories, and learning something I’ve never learned before.
Talking abput Texas, the first thing most people have in mind is Cowboys (don’t you think that at first too? because so do I). Honestly, I think I’ve been having a prejudice. My host mom said there are some cities/towns that exist until now for historical purposes (in this case : COWBOYS). Anyway, one of them is Tombstone.
Tombstone is actually not in Texas. It is in Arizona. Last Christmas my host family took me there. It was really cool. Tombstone is like an answer that I’ve been questioning this whole time. We watched some cowboy movies, with the horses, the guns, the old saloons, and the cactuses, etc. Tombstone depicts all that. Maybe if you guys have some time, just google tombstone.
It is so … WESTERN !
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