I always enjoy reading how other international students experience(d) living in Indonesia, since we all seem to face the same culture shocks. Even though I already live in Jogjakarta for 8 months, I still don’t get, just like Petra, why people feel the urge to say “hello mister!” whenever they see me. I also have the feeling that once they go further and actually try to start a conversation, the only things they seem to be interested in are: where you’re from, what your religion is and whether you have a girlfriend or not. To be honest, often I just make up the answers. Mostly because I am bored giving the same answers over and over, but once it comes to religion, I just say that I am Christian, since they seem to get really confused when I say that I am actually atheist. It might seem that I think negatively about this, but this is not the case. Because just like Petra says, I am sure that once I have to go back home, I will miss everything I experienced and did here in Indonesia.
The blog that Petra made is somehow a generalization of foreigner's experience here in Indonesia. I read her latest post about her last week here. The post shows how she enjoyed staying in Indonesia. This is proven by how she wrote the post and how observant she was with her surroundings. A thing that really caught my attention is when she describes about the people and culture here. She observed that Indonesians are very modest, where we don't have a lot of expectations and are very happy with what we can achieve. Other than that, I am very happy how she can see that togetherness is key here in Indonesia. Truthfully, our nation is standing right now because of togetherness. Our founding fathers' and warriors were joined together with the feeling of togetherness, in a way wanting to make the land that they were born in independent. It is also why our 3rd principle in Pancasila is " A unified Indonesia" where it acts as a motivation towards the whole Indonesian citizens that we have to emphasize unity.
This blog post has really touched my heart. It touched my heart because I realize that even foreigner really love Indonesia for all it’s speciality, but not all Indonesian love their own country. It is sad because as a citizen of Indonesia, we should be proud of our own country, more than foreigner does for Indonesia. Indonesia is a very special country. It has so many speciality, it has so many culture, beautiful extraordinary places, delicious foods, and everything you can imagine. Since our country is very special, why don’t we, as an Indonesian citizen, love and protect our country more? One of the way to love and protect our country is to make our country proud with our achievement. If we can not make an achievement for our country, at least we don’t talk bad about our country and support our country. Therefore, we can make Indonesia a better place.
I just spend one whole hour reading all her posts and I have to say, this Blog touched my heart. I like her way of writing and how she tells about every trip she has made. I have been in Indonesia since January and, luckily, I have also got the chance of traveling around in Indonesia. Therefore, I found myself in her stories. Indonesia is a beautiful and unique country with so many different atmospheres. My best experiences in the last months have to be: the Jungle trekking in Sumatra, Diving in the Komodo Islands and the beautiful paradise in Raja Ampat. There are so many places I still want to visit in my last months here and Petra has some nice posts about those destinations. I am talking about Karimunjawa, Bromo and Ijean. Writing in a Blog is an excellent idea for sharing your stories with others but if I am honest, I am not that fan of writing. So I prefer to take pictures and save this amazing moments in my heart.
Marcela wrote: "I just spend one whole hour reading all her posts and I have to say, this Blog touched my heart. I like her way of writing and how she tells about every trip she has made."
Yes. I have to agree. Blogs like hers remind me that the exchange students who come to FEB have this whole other thing that they are experiencing while they are in this country and that their lives aren't only about this campus and this city. I used to have more "foreigners" in my classes and sometimes I had to remind them that life is good here for them and that, when they get a bit tired or frustrated or bored with the humdrum of academic life, they should comfort themselves by thinking about all the opportunities to travel and see things. Petra's absorbing blog reminds me of all that.
After reading Petra's article, I felt that there were many foreigners who were proud of Indonesia. This archipelago has a lot of beautiful natural wealth. But what happens is that there are a lot of Indonesians who cannot maintain this natural beauty. There are so many tourist attractions that are damaged, animals that are tormented in zoos, and the worst is the accumulation of garbage in the sea. This shows that Indonesians are not grateful for the natural wealth of this country. Petra, who is a foreign student, has a huge love for Indonesia, but why do we as genuine Indonesians find it very difficult to protect this nation. In addition there are also positive characteristics of the Indonesian people, people in this country are known for their friendly with other people. When we meet other people, the person will greet us politely and gently. This is the best part of Indonesian people.
Raja wrote: "This archipelago has a lot of beautiful natural wealth."
Maybe so... but I think what you meant to say was: "This archipelago has a wealth of natural beauty" or maybe "This archipelago has a wealth of beautiful nature"...
...unless, of course, you were talking about the "beautiful wealth" it has in the form or iron ore, oil, rubber etc.
If a foreigner like Petra Gruber can love and adore Indonesia, why can’t Indonesian adore and love Indonesia too? Technically, as Indonesia citizens, we should be the one that love Indonesia more than foreign people does. But, in fact, there are still a lot of Indonesian that is love Indonesia less than foreigner does. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons, maybe they feel that Indonesia is not good as other country and etc. It is always true with the saying “The neighbours grass is always greener than our own grass”, it means that other country always seems better than Indonesia. What have to be kept in mind of Indonesian citizen is that Indonesia is a beautiful, full of culture country that has so many prospects, if, the citizens are willing enough to build it. So, as an Indonesian, we will be proud if we have a modern adored country, then, what we have to do is to build our Indonesia and make Indonesia proud. Therefore, we can make Indonesia a better place for ourselves.
From Petra’s latest article that she wrote about her study trip in Jogja, I can tell how much she loved and enjoyed staying here in Indonesia especially in Jogja. Same like Petra, I love almost everything about Indonesia, the traditions, the cultures, etcetera. At first, I thought I would hate living in Jogja. I was really sad to leave Jakarta. The first two weeks was kind of tough to me. I still missed Jakarta and had to adapt with the neighborhood, learned to live and do all the chores alone. But today, I have stayed in Jogja for almost two months and I can prove to myself that all of the bad judgements I had made before I left Jakarta were completely wrong. I love staying here in Jogja. People are very kind and polite here especially Go-Jek drivers. And other thing that I love about staying here in Jogja is the food is very cheap rather than in Jakarta, so I can save more money.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading how other international students experience(d) living in Indonesia, since we all seem to face the same culture shocks. Even though I already live in Jogjakarta for 8 months, I still don’t get, just like Petra, why people feel the urge to say “hello mister!” whenever they see me. I also have the feeling that once they go further and actually try to start a conversation, the only things they seem to be interested in are: where you’re from, what your religion is and whether you have a girlfriend or not. To be honest, often I just make up the answers. Mostly because I am bored giving the same answers over and over, but once it comes to religion, I just say that I am Christian, since they seem to get really confused when I say that I am actually atheist. It might seem that I think negatively about this, but this is not the case. Because just like Petra says, I am sure that once I have to go back home, I will miss everything I experienced and did here in Indonesia.
The blog that Petra made is somehow a generalization of foreigner's experience here in Indonesia. I read her latest post about her last week here. The post shows how she enjoyed staying in Indonesia. This is proven by how she wrote the post and how observant she was with her surroundings. A thing that really caught my attention is when she describes about the people and culture here. She observed that Indonesians are very modest, where we don't have a lot of expectations and are very happy with what we can achieve. Other than that, I am very happy how she can see that togetherness is key here in Indonesia. Truthfully, our nation is standing right now because of togetherness. Our founding fathers' and warriors were joined together with the feeling of togetherness, in a way wanting to make the land that they were born in independent. It is also why our 3rd principle in Pancasila is " A unified Indonesia" where it acts as a motivation towards the whole Indonesian citizens that we have to emphasize unity.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post has really touched my heart. It touched my heart because I realize that even foreigner really love Indonesia for all it’s speciality, but not all Indonesian love their own country. It is sad because as a citizen of Indonesia, we should be proud of our own country, more than foreigner does for Indonesia. Indonesia is a very special country. It has so many speciality, it has so many culture, beautiful extraordinary places, delicious foods, and everything you can imagine. Since our country is very special, why don’t we, as an Indonesian citizen, love and protect our country more? One of the way to love and protect our country is to make our country proud with our achievement. If we can not make an achievement for our country, at least we don’t talk bad about our country and support our country. Therefore, we can make Indonesia a better place.
ReplyDeleteI just spend one whole hour reading all her posts and I have to say, this Blog touched my heart. I like her way of writing and how she tells about every trip she has made. I have been in Indonesia since January and, luckily, I have also got the chance of traveling around in Indonesia. Therefore, I found myself in her stories. Indonesia is a beautiful and unique country with so many different atmospheres. My best experiences in the last months have to be: the Jungle trekking in Sumatra, Diving in the Komodo Islands and the beautiful paradise in Raja Ampat. There are so many places I still want to visit in my last months here and Petra has some nice posts about those destinations. I am talking about Karimunjawa, Bromo and Ijean. Writing in a Blog is an excellent idea for sharing your stories with others but if I am honest, I am not that fan of writing. So I prefer to take pictures and save this amazing moments in my heart.
ReplyDeleteMarcela wrote: "I just spend one whole hour reading all her posts and I have to say, this Blog touched my heart. I like her way of writing and how she tells about every trip she has made."
DeleteYes. I have to agree. Blogs like hers remind me that the exchange students who come to FEB have this whole other thing that they are experiencing while they are in this country and that their lives aren't only about this campus and this city. I used to have more "foreigners" in my classes and sometimes I had to remind them that life is good here for them and that, when they get a bit tired or frustrated or bored with the humdrum of academic life, they should comfort themselves by thinking about all the opportunities to travel and see things. Petra's absorbing blog reminds me of all that.
After reading Petra's article, I felt that there were many foreigners who were proud of Indonesia. This archipelago has a lot of beautiful natural wealth. But what happens is that there are a lot of Indonesians who cannot maintain this natural beauty. There are so many tourist attractions that are damaged, animals that are tormented in zoos, and the worst is the accumulation of garbage in the sea. This shows that Indonesians are not grateful for the natural wealth of this country. Petra, who is a foreign student, has a huge love for Indonesia, but why do we as genuine Indonesians find it very difficult to protect this nation. In addition there are also positive characteristics of the Indonesian people, people in this country are known for their friendly with other people. When we meet other people, the person will greet us politely and gently. This is the best part of Indonesian people.
ReplyDeleteRaja wrote: "This archipelago has a lot of beautiful natural wealth."
DeleteMaybe so... but I think what you meant to say was: "This archipelago has a wealth of natural beauty" or maybe "This archipelago has a wealth of beautiful nature"...
...unless, of course, you were talking about the "beautiful wealth" it has in the form or iron ore, oil, rubber etc.
If a foreigner like Petra Gruber can love and adore Indonesia, why can’t Indonesian adore and love Indonesia too? Technically, as Indonesia citizens, we should be the one that love Indonesia more than foreign people does. But, in fact, there are still a lot of Indonesian that is love Indonesia less than foreigner does. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons, maybe they feel that Indonesia is not good as other country and etc. It is always true with the saying “The neighbours grass is always greener than our own grass”, it means that other country always seems better than Indonesia. What have to be kept in mind of Indonesian citizen is that Indonesia is a beautiful, full of culture country that has so many prospects, if, the citizens are willing enough to build it. So, as an Indonesian, we will be proud if we have a modern adored country, then, what we have to do is to build our Indonesia and make Indonesia proud. Therefore, we can make Indonesia a better place for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteMedina wrote: "If a foreigner like Petra Gruber can love and adore Indonesia, why can’t Indonesian adore and love Indonesia too?"
DeleteMaybe they just have to wait until Indonesia qualifies for the soccer World Cup.
From Petra’s latest article that she wrote about her study trip in Jogja, I can tell how much she loved and enjoyed staying here in Indonesia especially in Jogja. Same like Petra, I love almost everything about Indonesia, the traditions, the cultures, etcetera. At first, I thought I would hate living in Jogja. I was really sad to leave Jakarta. The first two weeks was kind of tough to me. I still missed Jakarta and had to adapt with the neighborhood, learned to live and do all the chores alone. But today, I have stayed in Jogja for almost two months and I can prove to myself that all of the bad judgements I had made before I left Jakarta were completely wrong. I love staying here in Jogja. People are very kind and polite here especially Go-Jek drivers. And other thing that I love about staying here in Jogja is the food is very cheap rather than in Jakarta, so I can save more money.
ReplyDelete