The Pre Academic Story (Part 2 – The Friends!)

I’m pretty sure that I told you that in my Pre Academic Program, there were 28 students from 21 countries.

And yes, as you might have guessed, one of the best thing about this program is the friendship that come between us. And to add some drama on it, ada cinlok juga. Nyahahahahaha…

I won’t lie by telling that I made friends with ALL of them. Because the truth is, we cannot just win everyone's heart, some people are just annoying for us, and we can’t always be nice to every single person that we meet. But one thing for sure, there is always, something to learn from everyone.

Anyway, as people are coming from all over the world, saya jadi bisa melalukan pengamatan dan observasi singkat mengenai karakteristik orang dari berbagai negara (eeciee…bahasa saya…). I don’t mean to make stereotypes. But however, tetep saja ada semacam karakteristik yang umum ditemui pada beberapa orang dari negara tertentu.

Most of the people in the program are Spanish speakers. Colombia, Costarica, Paraguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Argentina,Chile and maybe some other countries. And believe me, para Latinos ini are those people who laugh and smile A LOT. They really do have that loud laugh and really really like to hug people. Bahkan salah satu temen saya dari Panama ngomong kok, “We are in fact, the happiest people in the world. We smile a lot, you know?”. Salah satu temen lain juga ngomong, “We laugh on everything. If we cannot find something that we can laugh about, we’ll create something to laugh about.”

This is me and Iris, who comes from Colombia. I just love her hug :)

Saya sama Iris udah kek emak dan anaknyaaa… . Oh, and there is also Juan, a very nice guy from Chile who has this warm, loud and infectious laugh. He’s just like a teddy bear, really.

yeah, the guy with that red shirt is our Teddy Bear, Juan :)

Sedikit berbeda, are people from the European countries. Bukannya mereka gak ramah sih, they are nice. But they seem to keep a distance. Bahkan salah satu temen dari Rusia ngomong kok, bahwa salah satu cultural differences that she found here is, “Here, people are always smiling. Back in my country, you don’t just smile to all the people that you meet on the street. You smile, but you smile to people that you know.”.
Ada dua orang dari Afganistan di kelas saya, and they talk a lot. Tapi waktu saya baca di buku teks untuk Intercultural communication, they do talk a lot, but its’ okay to interrupt them anytime. Which is different dengan budaya Indonesia, where it is considered to be impolite just to cut off when someone’s speaking.

I’ve told you about the roomates that I had, right? Here’s more picture of us, the girls in Room 205 :).

Diana, me, Yumi

With Diana, looking good for the graduation night ;)

Me and Yumi, when we did the charity for Habitat for Humanity

Las chicas of  205 :D!

Selain roommate, ada beberapa temen lain juga. Ada Mbak Dian, dosen UPH yang sama-sama dari Indonesia. Mbak Dian ini dulu S2 nya di Melbourne jugaaaa :D. Terus ada Megumi. Nah, Megumi ini…dari Paraguay. Iya, Paraguay, bukan Jepang. Bingung kan? Waktu pertama kali ketemu dan dia menyebutkan namanya, saya langsung yang dengan sok pedenya langung nanya, “From Japan?”
Dan langsung bengong waktu dia menggeleng, “No. Paraguay.”
Actually, her grandparents were from Japan and moved to Paraguay. Tapi dia sendiri bilang kok kalo dia juga sudah biasaaaa banget dikirain dari Jepang. But somehow, bagi saya her accent when she’s talking in English is still Japanese accent. Tapi pernah lho, dia tau-tau ngomong Spanyol, and I was like, “Huh? You really can speak Spanish!”

Mbak Dian, me, and Megumi

Dan tentu saja, temen seperjuangan nih:  Edgardo.

Dari Panama. Kenapa saya bilang seperjuangan? Karena sama-sama Ph.D di Purdue. Nyahahaha… Awalnya sih, sumpah ya saya selama 3-4 hari pertama gak nyadar that he even exists. Secara orangnya pendiaaaam banget. Tapi we had to do an assignment together. Terus waktu kegiatan charity, I did most of the work with him, memasang rumput gitu. Dan semenjak itu, jadilah saya bareng dia teruuuus kemana-mana.  We sit next to each other in the class, on the bus when we were having trips. Lagian ternyata, orangnya baik banget. Sampe selesai Pre Acad di UC Davis pun, I spent my first weeks in Purdue with him. Tahun depan his wife and his baby boy (yang umurnya baru 2 bulan waktu dia berangkat ke USA) will join him :D. Her wife seems nice, he introduced me once on Skype. And his baby is just suuuuper cute!

This is Susana, another friend from Panama. We had 4 Panamanians in the program, by the way. And just like all other Spanish speakers, she laugh a lot. She’s just such a fun person to be with =D.

Of course, there are more others :). Victoria from Colombia, Cecilia from Bolivia, Chau from Vietnam, Agustin from Argentina, Shahin from Azerbaijan, Mirgul from Kyrgystan, Avni from Kosovo, and otheeerrrsss… :D

this is one of my favorite pictures, Mbak Dian, Susana, Iris, Mirgul and me, in front of the Capitol Hill Building, Sacramento

ini sama Tata (yang jilbab ungu pake kacamata). Tata ini Fulbrightee Indonesia, dan Pre Academic di Monterey Institute for International Studies. Kita ketemuan waktu trip ke San Fransisco. Yang dua lagi itu temen Pre Acad-nya Tata, dari Vietnam :)

Me, Nasria, Susana, Iris, Mirgul

with Shahin, from Azerbaijan (ini gak tau kenapa tiba-tiba kita ngantri untuk difoto berdua dia. Saya juga heran lho kenapa begitu, kayak dia itu artis atau apa gitu)

Edgardo, Nasria, Susana, me, Megumi, and Stanley

 And surely, God makes me meet them so that I can learn a thing or two (or even more) from them :).