Phoebe's Live Report from USA!

1st Wednesday: Next Lectures, KFC, and Pizza Dinner!

As usual, we started today by having a “check-in”. Afterwards, today we got the 3rd Lecture: “U.S. Constitution and 1st Amendment” by Prof. Mark Rahdert. He is a very famous law lecturer here. He was so fast explaining the national constitution but it was very great to know and ask to the right person about the constitution and government in US.

I’ll later explain to you about it.

We had free lunch for today and so I went to some of my friends and we chose to go to KFC which also had the other name, KGC (Kentucky Grilled Chicken).

I was sooo happy because they also had vegetables as one of their side-dishes menu!

So, I had bread, chicken (of course it was the white one), green beans, and orange soda. :D

We then had to go back to Temple to have our Leadership Development session and some surveys.

At night, we had PIZZA DINNER! The pizza was very different. I took broccoli pizza and spaghetti. It was a bit strange but since I love vegetables so much so it was okay for me :D

So, that’s all for today! See you guys!

1st Tuesday: Water Problem, “Check-in”, 1st & 2nd Lecture, Trolley Tour!

Water stopped working today. Luckily I had taken a bath.

Then, we knew that there were a problem in North Philly. Kinda pipe leakage. The man in front desk shown us the video posted in You Tube.

Some of my friends couldn’t take a bath so they went to the lecture without taking a bath! Haha! But, actually it was okay here because the cold and dry weather. If we take a bath too often with hot water in this kind of weather, our skin will be so dry.

Anyway, this was the first day we got the 1st lecture! :D

But, we started our program today by having a community meeting. They called it “check-in” :p

In this session, we had to express our feelings about yesterday and what we expect from today.

It was a new thing for me that here, we did some reflections about what had happened the day before and shared hopes for the upcoming days. :)

One thing that I learned today is when Dr. Barbara, one of the staffs who is a psychologist, told us that the staffs here wouldn’t like to know that we were smart. They would like to know if there is any development from our personality and capability day by day until the end of the program. :)

It was very wise! :)

Anyway, if I sat in a class when I was in Indonesia, I would like to touch the bottom part of the chair I sat upon. But, I always found that there will be an already-chewed bubble gum stuck on it. Yucks! People who did that were very irresponsible. -.-

I also bring that habit here in the States. I was so happy that there is nooo single bubble gum stuck in the bottom of the chair! Hurray! *not so important story, though. LOL

So, all of our lectures will be taught either at Tuttleman Learning Centre or Anderson Hall.

Our 1st lecture was “Introduction to Democracy in the US and American Government” by Mr. Grant Cadler. It was done at Tuttleman Room 300AB. We also learned about American history . He was very good at teaching and I could say that he was the best history teacher I had ever been taught so far! :D

Then, we had rawon for our LUNCH! Yippie! I think everyday will be passed by eating meat at least once per day because vegetables are moreeee expensive than meat here as I have posted before! :D

We then went downtown Philly by school bus to have a trolley tour. We stopped at National Museum of American Jewish History and waited for the schedule to get on the trolley. So, we used the time to take pictures around the museum.

National Museum of American Jewish History

A statue that is dedicated for Religious Pluralism in America

We then got into the trolley and had a trolley tour around Philly and saw many  many many historical sites, statues, and buildings! This city is so much full of history!

It shown us that American people really appreciated their history! It was a great thing! I hoped Indonesians could also do that! :)

After having so much fun from the Trolley Tour, we got back to Temple to have our 2nd Lecture: “Brief Introduction to the Origins of Religious Pluralism” by Prof. Leonard Swidler. He was a famous person and a friend of Gus Dur! :D

It was so much of philosophy. Hehe.

We learned about modernity and its four characteristics according to him, which are freedom, reason, a sense of history, and pluralism.

You have to know that pluralism is different with plurality. The former one refers to respect while the latter refers to many.

So, that’s all for today. See you toms! *toms = tomorrow, that’s my word LOL

1st Monday: Posters, Tour d’Campus, Walmart, and many more!

I was so happy today because I found a Holy Bible in the drawer next to my bed. :D

Anyway, I had a black toasted wheat bread for today. Really black! Hahaha.

Too bad.

But then, Stuart, one of the staffs, asked for that black toasted and told me a little story about why he would like to eat that. He told me about a family who always had black toasted for the meals because the mother was always busy to do her job as a housewife. So, the kids in the family became accustomed to eat that black toasted and he also did when he lived together with them.

After having met with staffs, got to know deeper, and talked a little bit about the program, we were asked to have a quiet moment due to the Arizona shooting incident which took civilian victims. Too bad :(

In class, we had a session to be in pairs and asked questions to our mates about their personal life and goals. We then asked for making a poster to promote our friends and present it in front of the participants and staffs.

My mate is Ratna (IR-Jember University).

This is the picture of us making posters about each other :D

Here are the results:

Funny, isn’t it? :p

Then, we had pecel, tahu bacem, empal, and soup for our lunch! LOL

Indonesian meals again but I loved it because I could eat vegetables! :D

They said that actually kangkung or other vegetables were more expensive than meat! -.-

We then had a tour d’campus led by Abby, one of seniors in Temple. Here she is! :D

We started it by going to the Student Centre and Paley Library.

The tour then led by Peer. He is one of the staffs, too. He had a daughter named Rakel. I will post their pictures later!

We went to Fitness Centre and it was awesome! :D

There were students working out there when we were there.

And actually, there are 2 fitness centres! LOL

At night, we went to Walmart because some of us would like to buy boots and other stuffs. Dr. Julie explained to me about dollars before. So basically, 1 dollar = 4 quarters = 10 dimes = 100 cents. LOL

Got it? Hehe.

Clockwise: Quarter Dollars - One Dime - Five Cents - One Cent

I got my first boot in Famous Footwear then, not in Walmart becaue they didn’t have the number I fit with, which is about 8,5.

So, some of us went to Famour Footwear and got our boots there. My boots is USD 30. It’s cute actually but when I got back to hotel, Mbak Yenni said that it wasn’t waterproof so it’s useless. -.-

But, she said to me it was okay because in this country we can return all the stuffs we buy as long as we don’t use it. So, I planned to return it in the weekend and got my USD 30 back! LOL

It was quite cute, though!

That’s the story for today! Keep reading! :D

1st day: Sunday!

Sunday

Jan 9th, 2011.

I woke up this morning and still felt a little bit strange because I found myself lied down not at my bed in Indonesia. I am in the States! :D

I am soooo excited of what I will face today with other partiipants!

It has been already told to us that breakfast would be served at Conwell Inn so we don’t have to find our meals ourselves. I took a bath and soon knew that my breakfast everyday would be the same:

Toasted wheat bread with butter and jam. Yoghurt. A glass of milk. A glass of orange juice.

Hahaha.

There are other options though, such as cereals or oatmeals. But, I prefer to choose toasted wheat bread. :p

We had some surveys about what we know about America and this program for starters. Then, we had SOTO AYAM for lunch! LOL

The chickens were all ‘white’ so I could eat that! Hoho! The cabbage was a little bit bigger than usual. But, the others were just the same.

We met with several Indonesians here and got to know with them! It was so grateful to know that Philly is one of cities in the States where many Indonesians live at.

Next schedule, Introductions.

As I told you, we had so much to learn from this ‘Introductions’ program.

We, including the staffs, played some games to get to know each other better and deeper. In this session, we also taught to listen carefully to others. Dr. Rachelle, one of the staffs who led this session, said that her mom was so grateful to be born as blind person. She could listened carefully deep into people’s heart and not to distracted by the gestures, situation around her, and other people. Dr. Rachelle then asked all of us to close our eyes for a couple of minutes and then she asked one of us, Gugun, to say something. We then tried to listen to him with our eyes closed. It was different, really different. We could be more focus. :) It was like we listened more with our heart rather than our eyes.

That was one lesson to learn.

Then, we played “Rafting in the Oceans”. It was like we are all rafting in our own raft in the ocean. Raft symbolizes the ultimate value that we uphold. Everyone in the group could choose their own value. Me myself chose INTEGRITY. Some others chose FAITH, LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, COOPERATION, and other values.

It was stated that it would be such a better world if we always try to uphold our own values in our everyday life! If the oceans were fulfilled with the values, the oceans would never be the same. Its surface would covered by the values and there would be spaces for everybody. :)

The last game was to make two circles of people, inner and outer one. The inner would rotate clockwise while the outer would stay at their place. I was in the inner circle and there would always be a person in front of me. The person would change if we in the inner circle were told to rotate clockwise. We had to share our experience (e.g. the most embarrassing moment in your life) to the person in front of us. The theme would also change as the inner circle rotated. It was nice because it made us closer and knew each other better and deeper. I felt free to share my experience. So did the others.

I was so overwhelmed with those sessions and couldn’t wait for the upcoming days ahead! :D

We closed our day by having Indonesian meals again as our dinner at the hotel! LOL The caterer came from Surabaya. Hahaha.

That’s all I think for today! Keep reading! :D

Finally Philadelphia!

Jan 7th, 2011.

The day has finally come!!! Gee, it’s too fast! Sooo nervous!

It was arranged that we had to have a briefing at U.S. Embassy at 09.00 am-12.00 pm. In that session, we met many important people working at the embassy who were behind the selection process. It also became the first time for the participants from Jakarta, Bandung, Central Java, and also Yogyakarta to meet and know each other! It was so fun and exciting because we only knew and interact with each other before only from Facebook! LOL

Later on, we also went to Ted Osius’s residence. He is the DCM of U.S. Embassy. We had dinner there with people from U.S. Embassy and previous SUSI participants. We had to use this moment well because it is our last chance to get some tips from our ‘seniors’ who had been there before.

At 7 pm, we left and went to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. As I have said before, our flight will depart at 11.50 pm and arrive at Narita Int’l Airport, Tokyo, Japan about 7 hours later. I was sitting next to Hamli. We both were feeling not so good. It was just like we having an airsickness. :(

Moreover, the meals didn’t taste so good, hehe.

Anyway, we arrived safely. It was Jan 8th, 2011.

The time in Japan is 2 hours faster than in Indonesia. Actually, we had 6 hours transit time but there’s nothing to do because we can’t get out of the airport. Hehe.

The toilet was very cute! Haha! It has buttons on its side which can be pressed and produce sounds! :D

We also found out that we have to pay 100 yen for 10 minutes internet! LOL

Anyway, we also took cute pictures in some spots in the airport to spend the free time.

We then got on the plane and I started sleepy so I slept! But one hour later, I woke up and found out that we still hadn’t flown yet. —.—

We eventually departed about 20 minutes later.

The one that I loved being in that flight is that the meals were great! I enjoyed everything! There are three kind of meals that we had on our 8 hours flight which consisted of First Service, Mid-Flight Snack, and Pre-Arrival Meals. Yummy! ;p

I sat between a woman and a man which I thought that both of them were in the same age. Eventually I got to know each other. Her name is Riya. She lives in Japan with her Japanese dad and Indian mom. Cool, isn’t it? :D She is in the second year in Faculty of Medicine in the States. The man sat next to me is Yi Cun. He comes from China but studies at the States also pursuing his Ph.D in Chemistry! Awesomeee! :D

We talked about a lot of topics but unfortunately we didn’t take any photograph.

It was a little bit late than the scheduled arrival when the pilot said that we would soon arrive at Minneapolis International Airport. People sat next to the window (I always got seat in the middle. —.—) started to open the window curtain and I could see it snows everywhere! I’m not trying to be ‘ndeso’ to say this thing, but it my first time to see the snow indeed! Hahaha!

I was so excited and started to jiggle! :D

We then arrived at Minneapolis International Airport. Once we stepped out of the plane, the cold weather (colder than in Japan) felt so terrible! It was really cold out there! Every time we exhaled, we could see the air coming out from our mouth. Hahaha.

So, we have been told before that some of us would be randomly got the secondary inspection. But, finally all men in our group did get the secondary inspection! Hahaha. But, it was fine at all. There was no problem. It was just an official regulation.

Unfortunately, there was a problem for my baggage and some of my friends’ because we didn’t get the baggage check claim tag so we didn’t know where our baggage would be sent to. We soon took care of that case and thanks God it was okay! :D Our baggage would be sent also to Philly.

So, we continued our journey to Philadelphia. Actually, we had planned from Jakarta to spend our transit time by having some walks to Mall of America, as being told by our SUSI seniors! LOL

But, because of the limited time due to several problems we had at the airport, we decided not too do that. It was too risky, we think.

We finally got on the plane, our last flight this time, to go to Philly. And, 1 hour later, we arrived!

We were sooo excited despite the cold weather which is of course below 0°C! The wind made us freezing! Brrrrrrr!

The time in Philly is 12 hours behind Indonesia’s so it’s just like we are still in the past and you guys in Indonesia are in the future! LOL

We were welcomed by SUSI on RPA (Religious Pluralism in America) team which were represented by Dr. Julie and Mbak Yenni.

When we all got our luggage, one of our friend, Mas Asep, couldn’t find it! We didn’t know that he had the same problem as I did before. We asked for help to the officers and they told us to wait for about 5 days, giving time for them to find the missing luggage. Fiuuhh..

We went out from the airport, waiting for our bus in the street. We were freezing!!! But, we still dared to play with the snow! Hahaha!

One of my friend, Hamli, even ate the snow! LOL

Anyway, it was arranged by the team that we would stay at Conwell Inn during our study here in Temple University. It is a boutique hotel and it is soooo nice! :D

It is located at:

1331 Polett Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Then, if you want to send me a postcard or mail, you can send it to that address! :D

Here are some pictures that I took:

 

I had Fajrin as my roommate! :D

She is from Surabaya, and English Education is her major at university.

We took picture together with our new outfits! :)

Actually, when we arrived, we were asked for to go to 209 which had been arranged as our meeting room. There, we could choose our own coat, shawl, gloves, and hats. The girls were so excited choosing their outfits and took more time than the boys! LOL

Here is the picture capturing the situation:

So, this is my report for today! It is quite hard for me to report to you guys because I don’t bring my laptop :(

I still make a plan to buy a laptop here. Will report as soon as possible! :D

Philly!

This largest city in state of Pennsylvania is located in the eastern coast of USA. It is also called as “City of Brotherly Love”, “The Birthplace of America”, and many more!

The latter one is given because Philly is the first capital city of USA before it is being moved to Washington, D.C.

Here is the map:

It’s winter there rite now so I’ve brought some thick clothes to warm me up. Last time I checked, it is 4°C! (Gee, it’s so cold! But, it’s better than the days before, below 0°C!)

I found this lovely picture on Google Images Search Engine:

Winter in Philly! Snow snow snow! :D

I’ve checked about sunrise and sunset in Philadelphia for this week on timeanddate.com and it surprised me a bit!

The sunrise will take time at about 07.20 am and the sun will set at 04.50 pm! Wew! The day is far shorter than I imagined before!

Anyway, here is the thing: When I typed the word Philly (not Philadelphia) and one space on Google, Google’s New Search took me to these results: “Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich”! (wow!) Very excited to taste it! Hahaha!

I don’t know which one is the original one, but I chose this picture below because it has ‘Philly’ label on it! Hahaha! Seems so yummy! (So scared of being fatter there!)

Here is some sceneries and landmarks in Philly that should be visited!

From top left: the Philly skyline, a statue of Benjamin Franklin, the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia City Hall, and Independence Hall

Sooo excited to be there soon! :)

The Program

For you whom I still haven’t told the details of the program, here is it:

The name of the program is “SUSI on Religious Pluralism Winter Program 2011”. As has been said, the theme is “Religious Pluralism”. It’s a great theme, rite? Since religious diversity in the world today is given, but not with the pluralism, as Diana L. Eck has said. You can read more on the website. It is one of the reading materials that I should read before I arrive there! (there are still so many of them, and i’m still trying to ‘eat’ it! Hahaha!

Let’s strive for a more peaceful world!

Simply start by religious pluralism! LOL!

Our flight!

FYI, there will be 20 of us. Most of us have never meet each other before! LOL

We are divided into two groups. First group will depart from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta on Friday, Jan 7th, 2011 at 11.50 pm and transit in Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Japan (素晴らしい！ラララ…) for about 6 hours.

The other one is going to depart from Surabaya at approximately the same time. But, before they transit in Narita, they will transit first in Changi Airport, Singapore.

After meeting up with the other group and gather as one BIG group (sooo excited!), we are going to fly to USA! We will transit once again in Minneapolis, MN before being transferred to our final destination (boo!), which is Philadelphia, PA :D

Here is the picture of the transfer flight between the two cities in USA:

It is planned that we will arrive at Philly on Saturday, Jan 8th, 2011 at 11.00 pm (seems so tiring, uh? hehe)

Yeah, since I have been slept lately at night for a couple of months, I think I will have no big deal with the jet lag. Haha!

So, stay tuned and get the live report! I will report it as soon as possible! :D

See yaaa! :D

I’m going to USA tomorrow!

So, this tumblr is made special for reporting my activities in USA!

Enjoy!