Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Finally, it was the AFS Selection test day! It was a really serious and formal test, we had to wear skirt,shirt, and formal shoes. I didn't have any skirt except school uniform's skirt, and i wasn't that rich to buy a skirt just for a selection test, so I wore my school's uniform to the test! When I arrived in the test's place (which was my high school), I was so nervous because it seemed that i was the most unprepared applicant there. The test consisted of General Knowledge test, English, and then Essay writing test. They were all written test. Everybody besides me was reading the dictionary of general knowledge or reading the grammar book, and i didn't do anything. I was just sitting there,watching other people studied.
After a while, i was assigned to a classroom to do the test. The first test was about the general knowledge. The first questions was so hard that i don't remember any of them. It is human nature to erase the bad memories from the brain to avoid us from pain to remember it. Haha. But there were some easy questions about the movie that was so popular back then, and about the author of a novel, about John Lennon, etc. There were some hard questions that i could answer too, for example about the olympic and the protest about the torch, and about myanmar (i was so glad that my mom talked about this in the car when i was on my way to the test. Thanks God). But still, the answers that i was sure would be right were only about 48 out of 100. I was so desperate, I didn't think i would be able to pass the test. But i had to move on, i couldn't be desperate for too long because i still had the next test waiting for me, which was the english test. To be honest, when i was still in Indonesia my english was the best in my class, so the test was very easy for me, i was pretty sure that i would get good score for this. And the next test was the Essay writing contest. The truth was, I had never written any essay in Indonesian. I only wrote essays in english for my english course. So I was confused in the beginning until i realized it was only 30 minutes left. I picked the topic about the reason why i would participate in this exchange student program because it was the easiest. There, i wrote about how my friends didn't want to apply because they said they love Indonesia too much that they didn't want to leave Indonesia, which was a really sad excuse. I remembered that conversation with my mom weeks before the test. We were talking about how her friends who lives abroad missed Indonesia so much. When they were in Indonesia, they took the nice weather, the delicious Indonesian foods, the nice and friendly indonesian people for granted. But after they left the country, they realized how important those things that we took for granted were. They love Indonesia even more than when they were there. Like there was a saying,"people realized how important a thing is when it's lost. it's not there anymore". So i wrote in my essay that i really wanted to become an exchange student, to be able to love indonesia more than I was. I wrote that i wanted to not only introduce about Indonesia to people in another country, i wanted to introduce another country's culture to Indonesian people too.For example, many Indonesian people hated Americans because they were mean to muslims, they attacked afghanistan, etc. But i wanted to see by myself, i didn't believe that every american is mean, i believed that there must be some americans who are nice, caring, and not as bad as we thought. This program is an intercultural exchange program afterall, so i have to exchange cultures anyway. I didn't finish my essay, there was 1 other reason that i wanted to write but the time was running out and i was the last one so i just turned that unfinished essay. I was confident about the essay because my arguments were unique and strong,although it's not finished yet.
Still i didn't think i would ever passed that test, because there were over 400 students from my city who applied, and they would take only 150 something for the next test. I waited for the announcement for about 2 weeks. On the announcement day, i had an english course after school so i couldn't come to the AFS office to see whether i passed or not, so i asked my friend to look it for me. I remember that i was watching a video in my english course class when suddenly my phone vibrated, which means there was a new text message. I was so nervous, i was afraid that i didn't pass, but i forced my self to read the message. I closed my eyes, and when i opened my eyes, i saw "146.Passed!" 146 WAS MY NUMBER! I PASSED! YAAAAAAY! I was so surprised! I was so happy! I screamed in that class! My friends asked me what happened,and i told them that i passed the test! They congratulated me, and i was so i happy, yet i still couldn't believe that i passed the test. it was just impossible for me. But the truth that i passed the test is real! My family was so happy too, eventhough they just knew that i applied for the program when i asked the for the recommendation things. They were shocked and mad at first, but then they forgave me, supported me all along, and was happy for me too. "Oh, hold on, don't be that happy! there were still other selection tests, still long way to go on!", I told myself.
-to be continued
Still i didn't think i would ever passed that test, because there were over 400 students from my city who applied, and they would take only 150 something for the next test. I waited for the announcement for about 2 weeks. On the announcement day, i had an english course after school so i couldn't come to the AFS office to see whether i passed or not, so i asked my friend to look it for me. I remember that i was watching a video in my english course class when suddenly my phone vibrated, which means there was a new text message. I was so nervous, i was afraid that i didn't pass, but i forced my self to read the message. I closed my eyes, and when i opened my eyes, i saw "146.Passed!" 146 WAS MY NUMBER! I PASSED! YAAAAAAY! I was so surprised! I was so happy! I screamed in that class! My friends asked me what happened,and i told them that i passed the test! They congratulated me, and i was so i happy, yet i still couldn't believe that i passed the test. it was just impossible for me. But the truth that i passed the test is real! My family was so happy too, eventhough they just knew that i applied for the program when i asked the for the recommendation things. They were shocked and mad at first, but then they forgave me, supported me all along, and was happy for me too. "Oh, hold on, don't be that happy! there were still other selection tests, still long way to go on!", I told myself.
-to be continued
Labels: AFS, Journey to the US, YES
a moment of my life, 4:57 PM.
Hello, there! Wow, it has been months since the last time i posted a blog here. Actually i wanted to tell you all about my life here in Nashville, TN now today, but unfortunately i haven't told you about how i become an exchange student from the beginning. So i decided to flashback for a while to tell you how i come here from the veeeeery beginning.
This started when I was in 10th grade,which was more than 1 years ago. In the beginning of 2008 (i guess), I heard from my sister's friend(who was a returnee from Japan as an exchange student) that an exchange program named AFS(American Field Service) was starting to open the registration for 10th grade students who were interested to be an exchange student to apply for this program. At first, i hesitated because a year before my sister asked my parents' permission to apply for this program but my parents didn't allow her because they were afraid that my sister was not religious enough and they worried that my sister might be influenced by other religions if she were abroad. But I've been dreaming about being abroad someday so I was very interested to apply for this program, so I bought the application by myself without telling my parents first. I walked to the AFS office alone and I bought the application for only Rp 25,000 (It's about $2.50). I was really surprised because the application was thick and i had to copies of it. I had to copy my highschool and middle school and elementary school report cards and legalized them, i had to ask my teacher, my parents, my friends, and my neighbor to fill the recommendation letters, and many other required documents. And i had this funny experience, i was looking for my school's headmaster of curriculum to get his recommendation, but i didn't know who he is, what he looked like, i only knew his name, Mr.Solihin. So I looked for him in the teacher's office,and someone said he's inside, so i entered the office, and i asked again to a man who wore Pink shirt, "Sir,do you know where Mr.Solihin is?" And he answered,"Oh,he's not coming today, he's playing." I didn't believe him, he might be kidding me, so i asked another teacher,and he pointed to a man who sat in the back of the room. I asked him,"Are you Mr Solihin?" Suddenly he bursted with laughter. He was still laughing when he finally spoke to me,"No,I'm not mr Solihin, Mr.Solihin is the one who wear pink shirt whom you talked to just now,ahahahaha" I was so embarassed. I felt so silly that I asked to mr Solihin where Mr Solihin is.
Ok,after 2 weeks or so, finally my applications were finished and i turned them in. The first selection test was coming in about 1 week, but i didn't prepare anything. Well i read some newspaper and read some news in the internet but only in the morning before the test began. And finally, it was the test day!
-to be continued
This started when I was in 10th grade,which was more than 1 years ago. In the beginning of 2008 (i guess), I heard from my sister's friend(who was a returnee from Japan as an exchange student) that an exchange program named AFS(American Field Service) was starting to open the registration for 10th grade students who were interested to be an exchange student to apply for this program. At first, i hesitated because a year before my sister asked my parents' permission to apply for this program but my parents didn't allow her because they were afraid that my sister was not religious enough and they worried that my sister might be influenced by other religions if she were abroad. But I've been dreaming about being abroad someday so I was very interested to apply for this program, so I bought the application by myself without telling my parents first. I walked to the AFS office alone and I bought the application for only Rp 25,000 (It's about $2.50). I was really surprised because the application was thick and i had to copies of it. I had to copy my highschool and middle school and elementary school report cards and legalized them, i had to ask my teacher, my parents, my friends, and my neighbor to fill the recommendation letters, and many other required documents. And i had this funny experience, i was looking for my school's headmaster of curriculum to get his recommendation, but i didn't know who he is, what he looked like, i only knew his name, Mr.Solihin. So I looked for him in the teacher's office,and someone said he's inside, so i entered the office, and i asked again to a man who wore Pink shirt, "Sir,do you know where Mr.Solihin is?" And he answered,"Oh,he's not coming today, he's playing." I didn't believe him, he might be kidding me, so i asked another teacher,and he pointed to a man who sat in the back of the room. I asked him,"Are you Mr Solihin?" Suddenly he bursted with laughter. He was still laughing when he finally spoke to me,"No,I'm not mr Solihin, Mr.Solihin is the one who wear pink shirt whom you talked to just now,ahahahaha" I was so embarassed. I felt so silly that I asked to mr Solihin where Mr Solihin is.
Ok,after 2 weeks or so, finally my applications were finished and i turned them in. The first selection test was coming in about 1 week, but i didn't prepare anything. Well i read some newspaper and read some news in the internet but only in the morning before the test began. And finally, it was the test day!
-to be continued
Labels: AFS, Journey to the US, YES
a moment of my life, 4:09 PM.
