Exchange-Life Experience #8

Today, I cried because of receiving a letter. I was so melting because it so touched me. I have just been teaching here only for about a week, but there have already been two letters written for me. I love to know that the students love me :')

My two friends were a bit unsatisfied this morning of their classes. I just didn't know why I could be so patient like this. I had never liked children like this way before. Since I have been teaching here, I just love them so much. Making so many noise is normal for me. I just want to make them fun while being taught.

This afternoon, I really did not have my appetite. The lunch was tasteful chicken, but I just did not have any appetites. I left my foods and did online. You know? I, Anh, and Chui were doing so many crazy things. We just made a guess. Playing that kinda game. So funny!

This morning, I chose croissant for my breakfast. I just wanted to try. Yah, it's delicious but not more delicious than the burger that I and Anh usually order. Oh.. I miss the burger already :(

Tonight I have just finished my period and I start praying. I took a bath tonight. I was stuck to think the qiblat direction and the time tables. After I browsed on the internet, looked at the world map and also looked at the taiwan and saudi arabia location, finally I decided to face to the west. And lucky me to find the time table for praying. Thanks Ayu Pramesti! This blog is very useful: http://alindaagency.blogspot.com/ !

Tonight, I and Anh are so confused to decide the events in Aiesec. There are five events coming, and the events are so costy. Okay. We are in Taiwan now. We don't know when we will come back here. We have to have lots of fun here! Hmm.. Take all of the events!!!!! Yeay!

You know? If I take all of the events, the cost is about almost 2 millions rupiahs. So costy :( Okay. I'm gonna think about it later. But I think, I will definitely join and come! :D

Agama (?)

Hai, teman-teman!

ada beberapa hal mengapa saya menggunakan bahasa Indonesia untuk menceritakan hal ini. Saya mempunyai pengalaman menarik mengenai kehidupan saya yang berkaitan tentang agama.

Hari ini saya masih di Taipei. Hari ke 8 di Taiwan. Saya tinggal sekamar bersama teman saya dari Vietnam yang bersekolah di Australia, dan juga bersama teman saya (berbeda kamar, tapi masih satu asrama) yang berasal dari Brunei tapi bersekolah di Malaysia. Anh beragama katolik dan Chui dari Brunei keturunan China. Anh, teman sekamar saya selalu bertanya kenapa saya harus memakai jilbab, kapan saya bisa melepaskan jilbab saya, kenapa saya tidak bisa memakan daging babi, kenapa saya harus selalu bersih, kenapa saya mencuci baju 2 kali, kenapa saya harus ibadah 5x sehari, kenapa saya harus menghadap ke arab, kenapa saya harus banyak gerakan dalam ibadah, kenapa saya harus memakai pakaian kendur saat ibadah, kenapa saya harus mandi setelah mengakhiri period (datang bulan) saya sebelum saya ibadah, kenapa harus banyak aturan dan larangan di agama saya.

Saya jujur, saya kerepotan.

Saya bisa menjawab pertanyaan dia, tapi saya kesulitan menjawab semua pertanyaannya dalam bahasa Inggris. Kalian tahu? Terkadang, untuk memberikan penjelasan mengenai islam kepada teman sendiripun itu sulit. Padahal teman sendiri adalah sama-sama islam, dan saya menjelaskan dengan menggunakan bahasa Indonesia. Tapi jujur, itu sulit.

Saya memang pernah tinggal di pesantren dan belajar mengenai islam kurang lebih sekitar 5 tahun. Tapi, agama saya tidak sebagus yang kalian bisa pikir. Mungkin untuk diri saya sendiri, saya bisa memanfaatkannya. tapi saya masih kesulitan untuk memberikan pencerahan kepada orang lain.

Untuk menjawab semua pertanyaan teman saya ini, saya hanya menjawabnya dengan jawaban yang singkat dan umum. Mungkin tidak begitu memuaskan dia. Tapi minimal dia memiliki banyak gambaran mengenai muslim dan islam setelah bertemu dengan saya.

Berkat program pertukaran pelajar ini, saya sungguh merasa bersyukur tinggal dan dilahirkan di Indonesia. Kalian tahu? saya berpikir bahwa saya cukup tahu banyak mengenai Vietnam dan negara-negara lain yang juga anggota ASEAN. Ya.. saya pernah mempelajari detil-detil mengenai negara-negara di ASEAN sewaktu saya SMP. Saya rasa saya sudah tahu banyak, ternyata saya salah..

Masih banyak hal yang saya tidak tahu mengenai negara-negara tetangga Indonesia. Bahkan Vietnam sekalipun, negara yang saya pikir perbedaannya tidak terlalu banyak dengan Indonesia ternyata kehidupannya sangat berbeda. Di vietnam, jarang sekali ada muslim. Teman sekamar saya oun mengakui bahwa dia belum pernah melihat seorang muslim bersembahyang. Sewaktu saya tanya apa di Vietnam juga banyak daging babi seperti di Taiwan, dia menjawab iya. Bisa kita bayangakan, jika kita seorang muslim dan tinggal di Vietnam. Pasti akan sangat sulit. Mengapa tidak? Saya tinggal di Taiwan untuk pertukaran pelajar disini. Saya muslim dan saya sangat merasa kesulitan untuk sembahyang, makan tanpa babi, dan juga bersih tanpa anjing dan kotorannya. Disini hampir tidak ada masjid, setiap restoran disini pasti menggunakan babi di dalam hidangannya, dan anjing ada dimana-mana beserta kotoran-kotorannya. Bisa kita bayangakan betapa sulitnya kehidupan kita untuk menjadi serba suci dan bersih dari najis mughaladzah.

Tidak ada banyak yang saya ingin sampaikan. Saya hanya sekedar sharing mengenai pengalaman apa yang saya rasakan sekarang. Bersyukurlah kita seorang muslim dan lahir di Indonesia. Teman saya pun tidak tahu di negara mana saja yang memiliki popularitas muslim. Bahkan Turki yang dianggap sebagai negara islam sekalipun, penduduknya tidak banyak yang sembahyang walaupun mereka muslim. Yaa, karena mereka negara liberal. Mari kita bersyukur bersama-sama karena kita punya Allah yang Maha Kuasa yang telah memberikan kita jalan dan takdir yang terbaik. Percayakanlah segalanya kepada Allah. Niscaya hidup kita semua akan selalu baik dan damai. Amin.

Shadaqallahuladzim..

Exchange-Life Experience #7

Hai, guys!

How was your day? Mine is quite busy and tiring today. This day I had to teach 2 classes. The fourth and the sixth class. Anyway, this Wednesday I had to have an introduction in front of all the people in this school. I did the introduction in the student activity hall. The room is quite big. Not quite anyway, it's BIG. I just told them about me generally, and Candy, one of English teachers here translated it into Chinese to them. And this morning definitely I and Anh should wake up earlier because we had the introduction first at the student center.

At the office, we were just given our own pc's in our room. Ah, so convenient!

For the fourth class, I just gave the materials about classroom language. they are all so nice. And for the sixth class, I gave them the materials about daily routines. As usual, before teaching them English, I always teach and introduce them about Indonesia. At the end of my culture presentation, I just give them who can answer my questions two thousands Rupiahs. They all feel so glad.

This noon, after teaching all the class, I had my lunch at the office because there was still noodle there without pork. Yah, finally i could eat my lunch at the office. And just right after having lunch, I did skype-ing with Adrian. We shared a lot about exchange. i learned so many things this noon.

This evening we had a welcoming party at Taipei National university, so we went to dorm right after the bell rang. We met Chi Nee and she brought her friend from Poland named Veserk or something. Four of us had an early dinner together and took the bus together to Taipei. The bus number is 802 to Long Pu. From the station, we have to walk around 10 minutes to reach the university.

Taipei National University is superb BIG! Anh said that it is even bigger than South Wales University. Yah, and we went to the Aiesec office there to have a welcoming party.

I met about 20 people from different countries. Most of the ep are from Australia, same with Anh. I met them and it was so fun! The games are not that fun anyway. Sad to say.. Because in Aiesec LC Bandung is more interesting and crazier than this. HAHAHA. I miss my Bandung :(

Oh yeah. I got the punishment. the punishment that I always watched in Bandung and laughed at the people who got the punsihment, and now it was my turn to have that punsihment :( I had to move on a small coin on my body to someone's body. And you know? It's kinda sex style. Oh GOD :( why i said that, because the man's body was only about one centimeter above mine. I had to close my eyes. But over all, it was so fun!

Tonight, I arrived at dorm around 9.30 p.m. and I have a chicken pie. I bought it with milk tea bubble in Aiesec office, but now I have been full already ;(

Okay. that's all from me. I'm still tweeting tonight on twitter. I'm just waiting for someone to have a chat with me but I don't know who. Pfft :p

Good night, people!

Exchange-Life Experience #6

Hello, pals!

Ah, so reluctant to write on blog :( Maybe tomorrow or next day I will just simply write my experience twice a week or something.

Today I had nothing to teach. I went to school to do nothing. Lol. No, anyway. I had preparing so many materials for this week, but Tuesday I did not have the schedule for teaching. I should stay at the office from 8 o'clock till 4 o'clock. You know? when I was collecting the materials from browsers and preparing the presentation slides, I opened my youtube channel and I watched so many videos about Charice Pempengco. Oh my God! Her voice is so superb incredible! I downloaded her videos a lot this afternoon. I am so happy to have it.

This afternoon, it was the same with yesterday. Because the office provided lunch with pork so I should eat outside. I just chose my favorite one; spicy chicken. So tasteful!

Like list night, this evening I talked to Anh about loves and wedding, also tradition. Haha, kinda funny things because I have so many complicated love story as well :p it's interesting conversation, though.

I don't have so many story to talk to. Tomorrow , I am gonna teach four sections. It must be tiring. Also, there is a welcoming party tomorrow. I must be tired later. I have to take a rest earlier tonight. Good night, people :*

Hijabers In Fashions

Exchange-Life Experience #5

Good evening, people!

Now it's 7.30 p.m. here in taiwan. Yah. It's so early to write everything on blog. But I have a plan to sleep early this night because there is no class tomorrow. Gonna prepare for the materials just tomorrow.

You know. I'm soooo happy today! It's my first time teaching in Yu De Elementary School and it was super fun! I taught third grade medium level. They were always playing around but I think it was better than keeping quiet and saying nothing. They all did not really understand about what i said, but at least they could repeat what I have said.

There are two sections. First section, I taught about my own culture. It was about Indonesia. I talked about the location, the art and traditional clothes, the foods, the language, the currency, and batik. The second one, I used to explain about the materials. It was about classroom verbs. There are only six words that I taught; they were explain, teach, think, paint, count, and read. You know.. In the first section, I gave the question section at the end of my presentation about Indonesian culture. They are five students who could answer my questions well. They are Cindy, Andrew, Daniel, Amin, and the second Daniel. Anyway, Amin knows so well about Indonesia because he had been there since child after 8 years old. Then he moved to Taiwan till now, for about 3 years now. I gave them Indonesian money 2000 rupiahs. They were so happy and they wanted me to give them more. Lol!

I taught at about 2 o'clock one section after taking a nap section. Then it's broke up with the clean time section, then I continued teaching till 4 p.m. Even though I taught about 2 o'clock, I still have to come on time to the school. It is at 8.30 o'clock. So I had my breakfast about 8 o'clock, then going to school. i forgot, have I told about the parent, the mommy, who always help me and my roommate having our breakfast? Yah. I do not her name, but she is so kind. She had lived in Canada fro 3 or 5 years, so she can speak English well, so she can help me and Anh to talk to the sellers at the breakfast shop who prepare our breakfast. Thanks, Mom.

You know what the reason I always keep smiling today? when I was teaching one of my smart students named Cindy drew me a picture of mine. Me is so beautiful in her drawing. I'm so flattered that the students happy with me. It's kinda pride for me. She drew a picture on the used paper colored pink. So attractive, though. I am really happy. I am always happy to teach students. Ya Allah.. is this my real passion? Are You showing me Your best way to me?

Oke, now I'm just having online. I always did skyping before going to sleep, with Ardian, Yessy, or many friends. This evening I had a skype with Sandhy in KL, just talked about Taiwan briefly.

I think that's all, friends. Gonna catch you tomorrow. I will do prepare and download my materials for teaching. Paypay!

Exchange-Life Experience #4

Hi, guys!

This is my fourth day. How was your day, guys? Mine is not really good but I’m always happy here. Why was it not really good? Because now I’m typing here on my microsoft word, not on my blog. The internet somehow hasn’t worked since this morning. I don’t know why. Maybe there is something wrong with the provider or the signal. Yah, if in Indonesia it often happens.

Waaaa! Guess what?! When I wrote this, the internet connection started working! Bless me! Maybe the internet connection just wants both of us to have a nap first before doing and preparing for the materials. So kind! Yah, we had a anap for about 2 hours this afternoon. We were so tired but lucky us to meet new people this morning. I accopmanied Anh to go to the church in Shulin. We took the train, just passed one station, from Shianjia just go straight to Shulin directly. It only took about 5 minutes. We needed to have a walk a bit, then we finally found the church.

Actually I didn’t have my breakfast this morning because we were too late. Anh had to reach the mass at 11 a.m. and it was already 10.15 a.m. at that time and the breakfast hadn’t been ready yet so we just went directly to the train station.

This morning I woke up at 8 a.m. because I had to wash my clothes. So lucky me to have the laundry machine here. I just left it working alone :p I left it when I went to the church in Shulin.

Anh was in to the church and I just walked around it. I saw around and got in to the shops on the side road, had kinda window shopping. It’s a bit cheap there. I just got in to the jewelry shop named Easy Shop or something and I found so cute hat. I wanna but it for my sister. It costs almost 299 NTD anyway or 100.000 rupiahs. Quiet expensive L Well, maybe I will buy it next time.

It took about one hour waiting for my friend and I just finished walk for about 40 minutes only. So for the rest, I just waited for her in front of the building.

When she had done, she asked me to meet the priests there because there is one coming from Indonesia. We met nice people there. They asked us to have a lunch with them, then we ate together . The priest come from Indonesia really knows me that I don’t eat pork, so he chose the best foods that I could eat all. He comes from Flores anyway, and kind of hm to take us to our dorm. We had an interesting topic about Chinese and language in our dorm with him, and lucky me to have him that I can have the character of the chinese letter of the words ‘pig’ ‘chicken’ ‘dog’ ‘beef’ and ‘meat’. Hahaha. So funny. Yah.. I really need it because I don’t eat pork and I can’t speak chinese at all. His writing really makes me easier to buy something. Thanks! J

This nite, I don’t have my dinner because i’m so fuuuul! Yah! I ate a lot this afternoon. Because I didn’t have my breakfast this morning, I bought the noodle with the big portion and also the bread. Hmm.. the pudding also. Eventhough this morning I already bought the bread, I was still hungry :p

Well, now the internet connection is already on and I had already had a long nap so now I have to be ready in preparing the materials for tomorrow. Yah. Tomorrow is my first time to tach. Ciao!!!

Exchange-Life Experience #3

Hi, guys. Meet me again here.

How was your day, anyway? Mine is great. There were so many things happened here. This morning I had a plan with my friends to go out for having a short trip in the city. The plan was we have to get up early around 9 a.m. we should go, but we were late waking up here. I actually woke up at 7.30 a.m. but I couldn't do anything because I thought that we were in hurry to go out.

We were having our breakfast at 9.45 a.m. We ordered burger that is the same as yesterday. Then, we went to the train station to reach the bust at 10.18 a.m. Anyway, Chui has left the easy card home so she went home for a while then going to the station back as well. We went to Taipei City. And it took 4 stations to get there. It is Shanjia where we are, then we will pass Fuzhou, Banqoui, Wanhua, and Taipei.

We went to the big shopping center there and three of us were so excited seeing the city and the Christmas trees inside the shopping center when we were going in. First, we just took around and took pictures in the big shoes store. The clothes and everything there are soooo expensive. It is around 1000 NTD. Also, I think that the laptops here are expensive. It is aroun 40.000 NTD and it means that 12.000.000 rupiahs. After that, we were down to the B3 floor, because we were at F3 at that time. We were going there for having meals because it's already lunch anyway. You know what we found? There were soooo many attractive meals there and it all was SUPERB CHEAP! It all was around 100-200 only. I chose the huge package that included spaghetti, mixed corns, spicy chicken, salad, zuppa soup, and the tea. You know how much did it cost? It only costed 198 NTD, it means that it is around 60.000 rupiahs. Very cheap, right? and i'm so excited at cheap foods. Yah! I eat a lot!

After having lunch, we just went around for seeing the theater. It is at the highest floor which means about 4th floor. There were lots of cute Christmas decoration and the people there are soo stylish in winter suits. I love it. It seems that i was seeing korean movies or boyband and girlband members. Lol! I was in to the jewelry shop inside the theater there and I saw so many cute things there. I wanna buy it but it is too expensive for that kinda things I think. Well, just having a look first. After looking around the theater, we were out and having walk outside. We just walked for several blocks near the shopping center. Yah.. we were not that brave to go far from the shopping center because the shopping center is near the station. If we were afar, we couldn't get back home because of getting lost somewhere.

When we were walking, we saw many things there. One of them is I and Chui saw the SUPERB HUGE dog and superb cute! The dog is black and brown and the size is as big as human. I wanna touch it but the traffic lamp is red, so I couldn't across the street and the dog had gone :(

You know what I found something else? I found so many people are selling something in the street. But i think that it is quite cheap for things that are sold in the street. The price for the coat for example. It is NTD 1000 which means around 300.000 rupiahs. Expensive enough. I didn't buy anything as well. But you know.. the foods here were always cheap. I found a bakery and I found the cheese cake and tiramisu that was only NTD 20 which means only 6000 rupiahs. So cheap. I bought two slices :D

At 4 o'clock, we went to the shopping center again to reach the train downstair. We went home at 5 o'clock at Shanjia. We were back to the dorm for having a rest because I and Anh had a plan to go to the church. But unfortunately, Chui lost her easy card in the road, so we were a bit worried at that time. We just went back to the dorm and I was just doing online for uploading the pictures on facebook. I didn't have much time to do online because at 6 p.m. we had a plan to go for dinner.

In dinner time, I just remembered about the key and you know what.. we forgot to bring the key and the door had already been locked. BIG problem! after having a dinner, we just tried so many ways and were really worried about the door, especially when the supervisor had not answered the calls. At 8 o'clock finally we got the security and he got the key. FINALLY!! yeay! The supervisor asked the security to come to the dorm. Yah, thanks for all, ya Allah..

there were the happiness, there were the worries. So complete for today.

okay, see you later people!

good night :*

Exchange-Life Experience #2

hello again, guys!

Today is Friday and I'm free of teaching. I just came to the school to meet the supervisor for having an easy card to make us easier in paying the public transportation and also the sim card to have a phone number here. The school paid for our easy card but we have to pay by ourselves for the sim card. It cost NTD 299 or it is about 100.000 rupiahs. You know? the process is sooo complicated. You need the passport and need to be above 20, if you don't you have to have a supervisor to supervise you. Also, it needed almost 8 hours for the phone to be active.

I went to the school about 9 o'clock, yaa because I didn't have a class. I took the breakfast around 8.30 and you know.. I changed my menu into burger and I think Taiwan has the best bread ever! It's soooo tasty! I chose beef one. Yah, you should tell the cooker for that because they all here eat pork. For dinner, I eat it around 7 p.m. with the three of us. I got another roommate but different room, only the same dorm. Her name is Chui Nee from Brunei. Fortunately, tonight was not raining so after eating the dinner, we went around to look for the adapter to the electricity. I didn't bring kind of multifunction adapter, so I have to borrow my friend's for charging my laptop. And FINALLY I found it. Thanks Chui Nee anyway. You saved my life! Yah, because she is the only one of us who can speak Chinese. It costs about 34 or something. Yaa it's cheap. After that, we went around the dorm and bought something in the supermarket here. The price there is much cheaper than in Seven Eleven you know. It saved me so much money. Ya, I just don't want my money to run out before I buy the souvenirs. After buying something, we went looking for the stationary, and we found across the road of the dorm anyway and the three of us didn't notice it before. You know, how surprised I am to find Indonesian ketchup and noodle. It is the same! really. They are in Indonesian. I didn't buy it anyway, just bought some kind of crayons for my sister. It costs about 110 NTD or 35.000 rupiahs. Yah just time it with 300 rupiahs.

Now my life is getting completer. I just need my Indonesian friends to come to here. I can't wait for 17th December. I can't stand a lot on having the foreign language. I really want to speak Indonesian anyway :(

Oya, I already had the buddy anyway. Actually my buddy is Chui's buddy also. He is Alex, but he doesn't even know me. Well, just let him be. I don't want to think too much about that. I want to focus on my teaching because the school provide and treat me so well. I have to be a good very good teacher. Lucky me to have some presentations materials on the internet. I hope the students will like it :)

Okay maybe that's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'm having a walk with Anh and Chui to the New Taipei City. I hope it will be great. I really love taking pictures but I don't think that they do. I hope that we can take lots of pictures together there. Let me take a rest today. See you tomorrow, guys! :*

Taipei Day #1

Hello, all..

Long time no blogging. I'm pretty fine here :)

Guess what? I'm in Taipei now. I'm having a project. AIESEC exchange program. I have culture and education project here. I'm actually teaching English and promote my culture here. It's so interesting! A lot!

Yesterday I arrived around 9.20 p.m. in Taiwan time, and I had to wait for my roommate to come. She is Anh, from Vietnam studying in Australia. Then, we went to our dorm and arrived around 11.30 p.m. We just pulled the stuffs out and prepared for sleeping. However, anyway I went to sleep around 1.30 p.m. because I had a conversation first to another roommate from Brunei. We had an interesting chat last night, just some introductions. The weather last night is quite hot inside, but a bit cold outside. I slept with Anh, my roommate, in the same room with air conditioner on. Taiwan is not that cold I thought. LOL

Today I had no teaching in a class, just a little introduction in front of the students. I came to two classes. It's fun even though there is one class where the students can't understand English at all. However, another class was soooo interesting. They understood a lot about what I was talking about. You know? The kids asked me so many questions, sooo many. And the questions were funny. There was a question that I remember the most. It is about my hijab. They keep asking about my hijab. They really want to know what is inside my hijab and why I should wear this kinda thing. They want me to put my hijab off, as well. When I said that I could only put the hijab in front of females, the females just asked the males to go out. LOL! It is so random to wear the hijab here anyway. In addition, they asked me whether I felt hot or not of wearing this, and I said that it is warm :)

And now, in Taiwan here is around 4.22 p.m., just one hour faster than Indonesia. I have just had a rest because today I and my roommate has some problems about the dorm. We just moved to the highest floor which is the third floor, so we had to bring all the luggage up. Moreover, the water is running out, and we have no water till tomorrow. We kept asking and doing some complaints to the school, and how kind of them to handle us well here.

Anyway, we were gonna have an ice skating and a dinner but unfortunately we have not had a card for the public transportation :( so we cancel it and prefer staying in the dorm doing some things, and here I am now :)

Well, I think it's enough for today's blogging. I will do some reports on this blog tomorrow. Keep catching me, guys :)