January 12, 2019

Tour in Tsunami Museum with my Indonesian Friends

Hang out with my newly met Acehnese friends

This day I woke up at 9:00 of the morning to prepare myself because my newly met friends, they are Acehnese told me that they will pick me up at 10:00 and take me a tour in their city.
Imam, Yuli, Mery, Siti, Seri, and I first went in Tsunami Museum. It was a very good place. A place which everyone must see, It will remind you of all the experiences of Acehnese people before and after the very big tsunami on 26th of December 2004. That was the worst event in the history of the beautiful place of Aceh. This phenomenon really broke the Beauty of Aceh. Fortunately some nations gave help, they helped Acehnese people in reviving the beauty of their place. This place will remind us of how weak human beings are compared to their creators.
Then after that we had lunch then one of bang Toni’s friend named Yani arrived then we went to PLTD APUNG a wrecked ship pushed by the tsunami and been stranded in the middle of the city named ULEE LHEUE. This ship will make you realize how strong the tsunami was. Just imagine how 780 000 kilos of metal has been pushed by water. So how worst for the people and their houses, this disaster left Banda Aceh totally broken. But now it is one of the tourist attractions here in Aceh.
After visiting PLDT APUNG we went to one of the most beautiful beaches of Aceh the Lampuuk beach wherein we watched the sun goes down.

Tour in PLTD Apung

Exploring Lampuuk beach

January 13, 2019

A day to remember
It was Sunday morning I did wake up early because my newly met friends told me that they will pick me up at 6:30 and we will go to a place called car free day. And yes they did. Car free day is a place wherein many people hangout to do dancing, we call it Zumba in my country. Some are playing futsal or football, badminton, that’s what we did there we played badminton, and some are jogging. After we played badminton for about three hours my friends decided to bring me in a park. It is a beautiful park beside a river wherein you may take a rest and have a peace of mind. While we were there we did some sharing of stories and we ate together. It was like a picnic. After that they brought me home and they did go home. It is a day to remember because as long as I stay with them I keep falling in love with one of their friends name Mery.

January 18, 2019

The welcome ceremony
It was Friday, I was about to have my class in this day by 2:30 pm but unfortunately it’s been the schedule of our welcome ceremony. The university’s rector together with Dr. Hasan, vice dean of the university, labschool principal and some other teachers from faculty office and labschool as our mentors did welcome us in their university. In that ceremony they asked us some questions about ourselves and what do we expect in this program. We really felt that we are really welcome to be part of their university, it was really a very warm welcome for us. After the ceremony one of the teachers in Labschool, miss Natasha toured us around Aceh using transkotaeradja or the free blue bus. Riding with that bus was really an unforgettable experience. With miss Natasha we went to Lampuu beach and enjoyed the beautiful sight of the sea and sunset. Then after that miss Natasha brought as home.

January 27-29, 2019

Team teaching in Sekolah Sukma Bangsa Pidie

January 26, we were all in school. Surprisingly, we had received an invitation from a school, namely Sekolah Sukma Bangsa in Pidie. Sukma Bangsa is a private school located in Pidie 2 to 3 hours travel from Darussalam, Banda Aceh. According to the letter we, the Filipino exchange students together with our faculty buddy are invited to meet their 21 Filipino students and do team teaching related to our subject of specialization in their school for two days. We were so grateful to hear that for we will be meeting some Filipinos in Indonesia, have new friends and surely to be treasured new experiences. Then, it was afternoon of January 27 when pak Rio, one of the teachers in Sukma Bangsa together with their school driver arrived in Unsyiah to pick us, and we left Banda Aceh to start our journey to Pidie. It’s been a long but enjoyable ride. We had some snacks together along the way then finally we had arrived in their school. They gave us a very warm welcome, we had met their school rector pak Martonis together with some of their teachers and we had a dinner together. After the dinner they showed us the house where we will stay and it was really good. They did give us a very great accommodation. With our two days of stay in Pidie we had many unforgettable experiences and memories to treasure. We did team teaching with some of their teachers who are teaching the subjects that we are specializing. We did get along with their respectful and disciplined students especially their 21 Filipino students. We really enjoyed our stay in Pidie, in fact I am planning to go back in that school for voluntary teaching together with my co exchange students because we really fell in love with all of them.

February 6, 2019

A heart braking day

February 6, I will never forget this day it was the day when my heart has been broken. This day was my departure date. It’s the end of my stay in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, it’s my day of going back home. I had a mixed emotion. I was happy because finally I will be reunited with my family and friends again, but broken because this might be my last time of meeting and seeing my new family, my Indonesian family.