The SEA Teacher guidebook reflects the three most important objectives or purposes of the practicum: 1. To enable the student teachers to develop their teaching skills and pedagogy, 2. To encourage the student teachers to practice their English skills, and 3. To allow the student teachers to gain a broader regional and world view. From my perspective, these objectives were acknowledged and significantly realized. Throughout the practicum, I deepened my comprehension of scientific content, expanding my teaching horizons to endless possibilities. Moreover, I successfully encouraged Indonesian students to engage in English conversation, breaking linguistic barriers and cultivating an appreciation for a culture beyond my comfort zone. This experience contributed to the evolution of my global awareness and a more enriched worldview. 

Aside from these, I have also experienced the culture of a typical practicum /experiment inside the Indonesian Chemistry Laboratory. I saw how different it is from the traditional way of doing it in the Philippines. I saw how it is done systematically and I know for sure that I will be adapting some of these practices when I become a future educator myself.

The maximum stay for us inbound students is 28 days including the departure and return. We departed on October 24 from the NAIA airport and landed on the soil of Indonesia on October 25. 

The activities followed suit as we had a courtesy call and small visit to the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (FKIP), a campus tour, learning Bahasa Indonesia with Pak Sukemi, Welcome Program and Homecoming for the Outbound SEA teacher students, seat-in on the English course with the Physics Study program, and for the next weeks, my teaching immersion in SMA Negeri 10 Samarinda.

My stay in SMA Negeri 10 Samarinda is the peak of my SEA Teacher journey. Here, I have achieved almost half of my goals for the program. We had a welcome program for the SEA teacher immersion, a series of observations, assistantship, demo teaching, and reflection and evaluation with my Study Program Supervisor and cooperating teacher. Throughout my stay in the school, my cooperating teachers did not fail to look after me. They have also taught me a lot in terms of classroom management and time management. 

After my internship at the school, we did a series of sociocultural activities wherein we visited famous landmarks in East Kalimantan.

The main challenge that I had to conquer was the adjustment to the surroundings. This includes the culture of Samarinda. There may be several things I did not expect especially the volume of people at night. This is something that is not common in the Philippines. I was also amazed at how every Indonesian student had motorcycles. Which in turn resulted in sometimes a dense road. Another one is the food. I think that Indonesians have the highest tolerance for spice, which means I have to expect a bite of it too. Fortunately, my buddies always see to it that I do not order the "default"  dish (a dish with a set level of spice) since my spice tolerance is at level 1. Overall, it's undeniably a memorable challenge that I still smile at this day.

While navigating through the inevitable culture shocks during my teaching experience, the primary challenge I encountered was the language barrier with my cooperating teacher. Thankfully, we managed to overcome this hurdle with the assistance of translation applications like Google Translate 

It has been an exhilarating journey filled with laughter, experiences, and learning. I am grateful to the collective individuals who have helped me out during my stay as a SEA Teacher. To the Universitas Mulawarman, especially to the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, to my home university, the University of Northern Philippines, to the Chemistry Study Program headed by Bu Farah, to the Elementary Study Program with Bu Khusnul, to the SMA Negeri 10 Samarinda and my intern buddies there, to my cooperating teachers Pak Sukemi and Pak Sri, to my fellow SEA teacher buddies especially to  Angel, Lisa, Choi, Ihsan, Dela, Limuel, and Dominic, and to all I cannot name one by one, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My heart is filled with nothing but gratitude and longing for all the time I've spent in Indonesia. For sure, this program will forever have a  special place in my heart for its learnings and experiences I've come to meet.