Embedded Files
Pre-Departure Preparation
Pre-Departure Preparation
Farewell Event
Farewell Event
Departure Day
Departure Day
I prepared the requirements and things that I will bring to the Philippines. I had to prepare a passport, parents’ consent and students waiver. I also had to prepare to have interview with Saint Louis University. It was Ma’am Dr. Teresita who interviewed me and my friend, Undo. Ma’am Tess actually just asked about our preparation to go there in Baguio City. She also asked if we had allergy to food, our sickness and other things that are related to our preparation to go.
2 days before our depature my University held a farewell event for 12 students would participate the program. There were head of majors and faculties, and even thewe was assistant principal from academic. They shared a lot of things for us as long we stay in Philippines.
Our departure day was September 16 2023. We met at Sokarno-Hatta airport, Jakarta at 10PM WIB, and we flew from Jakarta at 2 AM WIB and arrived in the Philippines at 07:30 AM Philippines time.
Arrival and Immersion
Arrival and Immersion
After 4 hours flight from Jakarta to Manila, Undo and I at 7 am on September, 16. Then we were waiting for the representatives of the partnership university to come and pick us up and wait the other students from different universities from Indonesia, total there were 6 students just arrived from Indonesia. We were picked up by Ma’am Baay at Bay/Gate 6 then we got into the car and headed to Baguio. On our way to Baguio, we stopped at Jollibee to eat. It was our first meal in Philippines. And we also tried Tupiq, it’s tradisional food from Philippines tasted sweet and smoky.
After about 5 hours of travel by car, we finally arrived at the men’s dormitory. That’s where we stayed for 28 days. There were students from SLU, students from University of Haluoleo and students from Dhong Thrap University welcomed us and took us to our room. My room was in 207 on the second floor with my friends Meri and Hana and the other friend Hilya in same room with Puja who arrived first in room 205 while Undo and Reza room was in 504 on the fifth floor. Puja gave the wifi password of Men’s dorm then they left us to rest. After they left, I rested my body for some minutes and unpacked my luggage. I didn’t finish unpacking it completely because I decided to take shower first. When I was about to leave the room to the bathroom, Ma’am Baay came to asked to went to McDonalds to brought our late lunch, then we went to Mcdonald’s to got some burgers.
After took a rest for a while, at 5 pm Kenneth and Kurt the students from SLU asked all students just arrived from Indonesia to ate dinner together. The taste from food kind of strange for us, but over all we can ate and made us full. Then we brought sim card for us as long stayed here and then went back to men’s dormitory.
Shawarma
Burham Park
Sky Ranch, SM City
Day 1 in SLU Laboratory Senior High
WEEK 1
We arrived on Saturday, September 16 and we had our rest that day. We woke up with breathing the fresh air of Baguio City. Kenneth just informed us to rest until Sunday first but Ma’am Dorothy gave us extra day to rest until Monday. Not knowing what to do on Sunday, we had our breakfast first at the dormitory canteen and met students from Dong Thap University. At 10AM all students from Indonesia included Puja and Kevin who arrived first decided to go around Baguio City. We visited Session Road on Sunday morning, Burnham Park, Grocery store, and tried Shawarma for the first time.
We saw Burnham Lake and few people were boating there. There were also benches and plants that complete the beauty of that place. We were just walking around Burnham Park that time and we saw that there was fun creation go kart ride. It comes in various numbers of people in it. You can rent for a single person to five people. Not only that, it also facilitates you to rent a mountain bike that you can use around Burnham Park. We didn’t try any of the game inside the arcade game and decide to continue walking around Burnham Park and took many pictures there.
Next day, Monday, September 18 Indonesian students who just arrived still had 1 more day to rest. We decide to went to Sky Ranch and SM City. We tried Baguio Eye and saw beautiful landscape of Baguio City it cost 150 pesos each person. And also we saw beautiful landscape at SM City.
After having a long rest day for three day straight, Kenneth informed us that we would went to Navy Base Campus on Tuesday, September 19 morning by our buddies. We prepared and had our breakfast in the morning and met our buddies at the lobby, we went to Navy Base Campus by walking and driving Jeepny. After 10 minutes walked and 15 minutes drove Jeepny, we arrived and took a rest for a while at Attic building. We met Ma’am Sheila and some teachers, they took pictures with all students exchange infront SLU Navy Base Campus. And then, the buddies introduced us to some places and buildings, like Canteen, Reacher’s room, Laboratories, and Library that is located on the different floors.
When we were at the attic, we’re waiting for the announcement of our deployment. We soon would know about who would be our critic teacher and where we would be deployed, whether it would be in junior high or senior high school. After waiting for some moments, Kurt announced to met assistant principal Ma’am Lucas. For my major economic, it already taken by Kevin that’s why it turned out that my coordinating teacher was Mr. Jeffrey Sison, he is teacher for Trends, Network, and Critical Thinking in 21st Century. I was actually glad that time because my buddy and I, Jeyhella shared the same critic teacher so we would observe in his classes together. We also happened to meet our Critic Teacher that day and observe right away that day and repeted until Friday.
WEEK 2
The second week was full of observation. My coordinating teacher asked when I will teach and asked to started made lesson plan for lesson Critical Thinking for 12 Humss A, B and UCSP for 11 STEM E, F, G, H. While observation I tried to understand what topics were about becase those were not from my major but still social science. I found differences every each classes. There was class very active and amazed me, there was class very sensitive and there was class not really into participated with discuss.
Welcoming and Farewell Ceremony
On September 25, we had welcoming ceremony for Indonesian students who just arrived and also farewell ceremony for Puja and Kevin from Indonesia who arrived first here, they came back to Indonesia on September 28. Also for students from Dong Taph,they came back to Vietnam on October 1.
In that event, all the exchange students performed their cultures. Vietnamese students sang Vietnamese song, while Indonesian students were divided into two groups. First group of Indonesia opened performance with reading a poem in Indonesian and performed the song ‘Pambatangan’ which is a song from Kalimantan and it’s in Banjar dialect. For my group, Meri and I opened performence traditional dance compilation, and next was Javanese poem and song. Then, for closing performance, all of the exchange students from Indonesia performed ‘Maumere dance’ and invited all the audience to dance too, it was such a great closing performance. Besides cultural performance, we also gave tokens to SLU which was accepted by the president of SLU himself. SLU also gave us souvenirs. The event ended with lunch break then we went back to our dormitory to rest since we had to go for cultural tour the next day.
Culture Tour
We finally happened to visit some historical and cultural places in Baguio City. There were 4 places that we visited. The places were Botanical Garden, Wright Park, Mines View and Bencab Museum. We commuted by jeepney together with Mam Sheila, Mam Soliba, and Sir Bryan. The first place that we visited was Botanical Garden. It is located along Leonard Wood Road. It offers beautiful views of plants and historical areas. There are 16 spots to visit in Botanical Garden, such as Japanese tunnel, house of cacti, Filipino Chinese Friendship garden, elephant statues, etc.
After exploring historical spots and beautiful nature in Botanical Garden, we went to Wright Park and took a long stairs. When we were finally arrived at the top, there was a taho seller that offered us to buy it. It is one of the Filipino street foods. It’s warm taho mixed with varieties of flavor, like caramel, ube, and strawberry. It also contains sago pearls that are chewy in our mouth. I tasted it from my friend’s taho and I didn’t really like it because it’s warm. We continued to walk around the Wright Park but I saw ice cream, Meri and I bought the ice cream. It was good with ube and strawberry flavored. Then we continue walk and we could see the view of Baguio from the top. There was also pasalubong store where we can buy souvenirs to bring back home. We also happened to see the Mansion. It’s where the president of the Philippines stays and has meeting or conference in Baguio City.
After a long walk, we were waiting for the jeepney in front of the Mansion. We continued our cultural tour to Mines View. On the way to Mines View, we stopped by to eat Egg Mami. The taste is actually similar to an Indonesian delicacy food which is Bakso, except that Bakso contains meat balls while Egg Mami doesn’t. After finished it, we went to Mines View by walking. There were a lot of pasalubong, too there, just like in other tourist spots. A lot of people were visiting Mines View that time. They’re simply just enjoying the view of the mountains and Baguio City or taking pictures, just like what we did. Finally, we went to our last destination which was Bencab Museum. It’s little bit far from Mines View. Bencab Museum contains a lot of cultural and artistic items. There were a lot of paintings from famous Filipino painters. There were also many historical items like Bulul statues. Aside from those items, there is also fish pond with ducks inside too. It offered us view of beautiful nature. And we ended this culture tour with ate at Good Taste Restaurant. Ma’am Sheila ordered a lot of foods for us and I ate 5pcs chicken and the others menu. Then we back to dormitory.
WEEK 4
WEEK 4
Workshop
Workshop
October 4 we had workshop. Undo and I choose water color for that workshop. We and our buddies learned how to draw with water color technique, it was fun. The located was in Tam-Awam Village, there was a lot of arts, culture, and many things about Philippines. We also tried Loom Weaving or in Indonesia we called Menenun. It was great experience. Then we ate at restaurant with delicious food and visited Stone Kingdom near from Tam-Awam.
On Friday this week has Teacher’s Day and that day was day off so I have long weekend for this week. The memorable things were they sang or gave gifts for their teachers on Thursday. The class I was observe 12 Humss B sang a touched song for sir Jeffrey Sison, I was recording that moment. Check it on my Instagram highligts :D
My friends and I spent long weekend with tried Egypt restaurant and we ate Chiken Briani and it was so delicious, then we went to grocery store, pasalubong and we bought souvenir, and the night market. I miss a lot of Indonesian food because at the night market there a lot of foods but mostly pork.
WEEK 4
On first day this week, finally I have schedule for my teaching demonstration in 11 STEM G and H. I was actually nervous but excited at the same time about it because it would be my first time for me to interact directly with the students in the class. I was not feel satisfied in my first class, but I felt better in second class I teached.
Next day on Tuesday I still had schedule for my teaching demonstration but suddenly Kenneth told Indonesian exchange students should also participate in Teacher’s Day event. I felt guilty to my coordinating teacher because I couldn’t join the class and finish my teaching demonstration. The event located in main campus SLU, so my friends and I went to the main campus directly. We enjoyed the perfomances from the STELA. Then after that event finish we went to SLU’s store to bought merchandise, all of us decided to buy Hoodie.
Finally I finished my last class to teached in 12 Humss A at October 11, I was nervous but exited to finished it. The class respons was great, they followed and payed attention to me. They one of the best class I have been observe, even my buddy also said that. There were also my friends watched my teaching demonstration. In this class I feel bad because I was out of time and spent more about 30 minutes to finished the lesson.
For our last week, Indonesian exchange students and our buddies have plan to eat Inihaws together and switch gifts each others on Friday. And of course in the same day we have to packing our things to go back to Indonesia. We will pick up by fan on Saturday, October 14 at 9AM. I’m so excited to go back and I will eat a lot of Indonesian foods again, but I will miss my friends, my buddy Jeyhella, and the other stories here in Baguio City. I would like to come back here if I have opportunity or event study for magister in Saint Louis University one day.
By taking a part of SEA Teacher program, it really added the value of my life and opened up my perspective more about life and education. I experienced a lot of things that I’ve never had before. With this program, I was able to visit other country and learn a lot of things, specifically about education, culture, society and the environment of the Philippines, especially Baguio City.
Instagram : @qnaffff_
e-mail : nafisah28@upi.edu
Page updated
Report abuse