Climbing to the Top of Mount Sinabung

Since arrived in Berastagi, I had been fascinated to beautiful scenery of jungle and mountains. So, I always felt that I wanted to go into the scenery. Therefore Illia, jan,Mickey and I  who were members of interns finally decided to climb Mt. Sinabung because almost Interns also wanted to experience the mountains of Berastagi. Sinabung is one of the highest and has extremely steep course to tracking so Brahma, staff of summercamp and Ikhsan, participant of summercamp and his friend decided to go together as guides.

Mt. Sinabung at Dawn

We bought enough amount of water, chocolate bar and prepared equipment like shoes and jacket perfectly on the previous day. 20th July, we departed from our villa at 5AM and we took a car. After about 40min, We arrived to a small town and our journey was started.

Actually, There are a lot of mountains. So I usually hike the mountain as a hobby. That’s why I was full of confidence before the journey. However, It was totally my misunderstanding. Ikhsan and his friend Sepri climbed the mountain rapidly even all the interns could do, but on the other hand I was exhausted and dropped out of line. Because rough jungle area and steep rocks area were too hard to climb to me, and It’s environment was so different with Korean’s mountains.

The climbers: Jan, Me, Ikhsan, Illia, Mickey, and Sepri

 

 

My pride was hurt because Mickey was so good climber even she is woman and smaller than me. However I already couldn’t chase their pace, so I decide to climb just with Sepri, separated with them. Sinabung is wild and extremely difficult to climb but It is also truth that It is beautifuls and mystical mountain. Forest is so deep, a lot of trees make shadow so It seems like covered with green carpet. Because of the steepness and temperature, There are only small plants and some kinds of moss, and It make picture with white colored rocks, and cloud above the middle of mountain. After 4.5 hours from the begin, I could arrive to the top. It was my first time climbing  the active volcano and smoke between the peaks was so interesting. Below my feet, I could see the wide flat ground and on that, villages and small rivers make harmony. All the things I could see make me realized that I am in Indonesia.

Finally, at the top of Sinabung

We took pictures with best surroundings joyfully and ate rest of foods. And then, tiredness came suddenly so we slept just on the ground of top. “I slept with smoke and strong sunlight on the top of active volcano… Oh God..” Time was already delayed so we had to hurry to prepare to go down from there. During trip down from the top, the steepness was more dangerous, so I was very proud to myself about success climbing. After 3hours, we could arrive in laukawar and could see sunset from there. I thought “I can sure that sinabung is one of the best mountain. And It was so exciting and great experience. Yeah… but If someone suggest to me one more hiking in here, I will refuse it. Just once Sinabung in my life…”

written by: Gilsang Kim (South Korea)

The reason why I come to Indonesia is that I really want to explore the culture here; to me it's a very mysterious country that full of passion and fantastic culture. Besides, I would like to experience the local life in person and put myself into the colorful culture.  It's my inner desire to experience and feel the beautiful and fabulous The first temple we went is almost the same in Taiwan's but the money paper is different.  We only burn yellow paper for the gods.  It's makes me feel good to see it here. Then the second place, the palace, is novel to me, I never saw this kind of palace before, the decoration and patterns are really really fabulous.  The final one, indu temple is also novel to me because there isn't any of it in Taiwan and few of us are Hinduism.  In addition, I didn't know the temple's design also base on the class, it's a really special experience to me.  In conclusion,  the culture of Indonesia is wonderful and the people are very hospitable and nice even though sometimes we couldn't communicate well.

lots of loooove

Mandy <3

Teaching in the high school

Back to when I was a high school student, a really naughty girl. So I kind of wonder how high school students are like in Indonesia. Here came the answers on 24^th, July and 31^st, July.

My first presentation experience was quite funny. In my class, the students were all girls - this shouldn’t be a problem ‘cause I like the lovely girls so much. However, it was Illia the handsome who was standing by my side, and then, the girls totally went crazy about him (Ooops, fortunately not totally ignoring me~).

Since my major is accounting, I started with introduction about accounting every time, which is kind of boring, frankly speaking. But I was so glad to find that the students were always so curious about everything and always listened to me with great concentrations.

Also, there are really talented and smart students that impressed me a lot. There is a pretty girl in SMA 2 Kabanjahe, who once won the national speech contest, and is going to take a Mandarin competition soon. And gladly I can give her advice about learning Mandarin.

Personally speaking, high school is one of the most important periods for a person to develop his or her values and kind of determine the rest of life. Therefore it’s essential to educate the students in a way that can stimulate their true interests and help them fully enjoy their life in the future.

xoxo 

Mickey

Before Summercamp Started

Behind the Scene

The idea of Summercamp firstly and initially popped up in my mind when my ex intern’s manager from China wrote me her gratitude to me. On February I had two Chinese girls having exchange in my house under My tuition program, Serdika Tutorial. She said that according to her intern, I provided very good internship. Therefore the manager expected to maintain long term relationship between my entry and hers. The Chinese was actually the third batch I had interns in my tutorial house. The first was on August-September from Poland and Germany. The second was on November-December from The Netherlands, and the last was February-March from China.

Both of us corresponded to each other. In her mails she stated that there were many Chinese students planned to visit Indonesia and have exchange program. I thought about it and actually my capacity under Serdika Tutorial only could handle maximum 2 interns,  and not both of them from China.

I was in the between either to refuse or accept. Meanwhile, I referred her to my exchange manager and my LCP. However, her offers wanted to send 2-3 interns from China really intrigued my mind especially when she addressed it directly to me.

I found my self thinking. If I accept her offer, I can’t guarantee I will be able to provide the best internship for her because during may, june, july, until beginning of august the activity in my tutorial house will be very low.

In my town there is only one private university, Universitas Quality. I know the chairman of the foundation supporting this university. That random thought came to my mind: “why don’t I propose partnership with this university?”

One day after a crusade event in Berastagi, I saw the chairman came and at the end of it I came to him. I knew he’s very busy so I just asked him his email address and told him that I wanted to offer him something about exchange student.

Back home, nearly 12 Pm I sent him an email about it. And just in one day I received respond from him.  He invited me to do presentation in the university, but in medan campus. I accepted it and I prepared y presentation.

The presentation consists of how I have been involving in international affairs with students from many different countries. I took students to overseas as well as invite from other countries to Indonesia. I also mentioned how my tuition business has been a host for international students to do their internship program. And at the and, I stated that we could work together to establish an international exchange  portal in Berastagi/Medan.

The chairman accepted my suggestion happily. Soon he introduced me to other colleagues who became my partner in work. He also recommended me to two guys in Berastagi to help me: Ganda and Wirza which are my friends.

Before the summercamp..

This is the point where I didn’t know what to do and what to plan. I had no idea about local students as I went to university in Jakarta. I didn’t know anything about their culture. I was a blank! So, I conducted a research among the students. The research was divided into two schemes: questionnaire and focus group discussion. The correspondents were around 50 random students.

The objective of the research was to understand how university students spent their semester break which was for about 3 months, their interest if there’s an international learning atmosphere conducted during the break, and their interest to join if such event was going to be conducted.

The result was very interesting. Most of the university students don’t really have plan what to do. This is sort of contrary to my experience when I was in university. I had part time job, internship program, and even I went to Europe as exchange students. Other finding was the students show interest on event conducted during the break.

After studying the research, I made the report and handed it to the chairman. And once again I was asked to present the result in front of the academic staff in Medan. But before, my partners, which from now I will call as ‘committee’ started to develop the program.

Screening Process.

Honestly, screening process was started around 2 months before the event  took place. As the head project, I actually hadn’t had clear picture of how the program will run instead of just a mere idea. I took an initiative and started selection process. I received so many applicants from around the world, not to mention Egypt, india, Pakistan, china, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, south korea, and others. They showed interest on this project and their CVs were very impressive. So, as I got their CVs into my email, I started to select them into interview session. We discussed when the best time to interview and in general the interview took place for 15-40 minutes. I interviewed everyone and at the end there are 8 interns accepted: An Tran (Australia), Kevin Tam, Yixian Pan, Jennifer Liu (China), Mandy Li (Taiwan). Agnieszka Witkowska, Jan Grudenzki (Poland), and Talha Farooqui (Pakistan). Among them, only Talha didn’t manage to come to Indonesia.  The last intern from South Korea, Gilsang Kim, didn’t go through interview session but by sending his audio recording answering all the questions sent to him as a substitute for interview.

Hatching the Idea

Hmm.. among the whole step of developing this program, the most difficult thing is developing the idea, the thing is, none of the committee had any experience making such project. It turns out that Summercamp is the first international event consists of university students from 7 different countries in North Sumatera and Aceh area. We had long brainstorming creating the concept and develop it into detailed program. We arranged every program as well as the budget, consumption, and even the transportation. Most of the meetings were held in Medan so many times Ganda, Wirza, and I must leave Berastagi around 7.30 AM to Medan. We could have one day full meeting discussing about the project and so on.  Sometimes, we were stuck on the same problem. When we tried to figure it out, we met another problem.

Personally, I had big responsibility. I must in touch with the committee and discuss the whole program planned well. I also must take insight from the university students, the potential participants. And, I was the only person whom the intern candidate could talk to regarding the projects and stuff.

Quite often I encountered difficult times during the hatching period. We tried to make something out of nothing. I must met others expectation in accordance to this project. I dealt with many people. Did it hurt? It did. Was it tiring? It was. It felt like I wanted to scream on top of my lung. But we all must go on. The only comfort during those hard times was the scripture from the Bible says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Just two weeks before opening ceremony, the general concepts had been settled down. Everyone knew what would happen. We had well written agenda. It was such a big achievements but it was far from enough. The real battle was the actual event of the summercamp.

Arrival

There’s nothing more excited than meeting the interns. Before we all met, we had intense communication through emails , facebook, and sms. And among all interns and I, we even have facebook group, There we met each other online, posted idea and stuff.

Exactly on 1^st July 2013 our first intern arrived, An Tran from Australia. Ganda, Wirza, and I fetched her up the airport. We were very excited to meet her. After we fetched her we went back to campus medan and there An had a chance to see other committee. Before we left for Medan, we went to Hermes Place and had dinner together.

Second interns arrived was Agnieszska, and followed by Gilsang Kim on 11^th July. On 12^th July we had Illia, Jan, and Mandy arrived. The last was the team from China on 14^th July: Kevin, Yixian, and Jennifer. Among all of the interns, again, Gilsang Kim from Korea has the most unique experience. A day before he came, he emailed me that his flight was rescheduled. He was supposed to arrive at 7 PM, become 9 PM. On the day he arrived, the biggest prison in Medan was burnt and hundreds of prisoners escaped away and some of them were terrorists. Medan was in chaos. Everyone’s panic. We had a notice from the chairman and other committee that we should go straight to Berastagi after fetching Gilsang.

Around 9 PM, Gilsang arrived in Medan. We didn’t have any idea how his face really looked like, But my intuition was right, from the departure gate I recognized him. I noticed that he was in worry. I told to others and we assumed he must lose his luggage. I took an initiative and got into the departure hall which I wasn’t allowed to. I straight talk to him and we saw the officer of his flight. We asked the officer and after intense discussion, we found out his luggage was left behind in Kuala Lumpur when he transited there.

Almost 10 PM and we planned to return back to Berastagi. I asked Gilsang if he was hungry, He said he was so we went to fast food restaurant and grabbed something for him to eat. Then we went back to Berastagi.

On the way back to Berastagi, we encountered heavy traffic jam. W e wonder it must be because of the jail break. All around North Sumatera was in alert. Just 10 KM before getting into Berastagi, there was a big inspection. The policemen patrol around and checked everyone’s ID cards, especially the men to track down the escaper. Unfortunately, Ganda didn’t have his ID card with him. Therefore, the policeman had take him with other people without ID card. Of course, we must wait for Ganda to be processed. It was cold, tiring, and in panic. But we tried to cheer up. We were thinking how to solve this and finally Ganda said that if the driver and wirza go to his house and take his ID card from his house it will be fine. So, Wirza and driver went to his house but meanwhile Ganda  and others must move to the police station. Aga, An, and I followed him to the police office and there also we met Wirza, Gilsang, and the driver with Ganda’s ID card.

Even though Ganda was able to prove he was innocent citizen, still we all must wait and finally we could go back to interns villa around 3 AM. What a long long day.. Ganda, Wirza, and I decided to stay in interns villa that night.

Our Trip to Lake Toba!

On Sunday the 7th of July, Euthalia, Ganda, and their friends took us on a road trip to Lake Toba! We had our first breakfast in the Berastagi markets which consisted of a corn cob each, then from there we met up at Euthalia's and began our adventure. We were lucky enough to have Euthalia's friends Octa, Ipoh, Egi and Edna drive us to our destination. The trip took over an hour, with a lunch break along the way where we both ate "bapi" (barbecued pork) and rice with our hands for the first time!
As soon as Lake Toba came into our sights we were in awe, we had never seen such an amazing view! We were told that we were very lucky to visit Lake Toba on a day where the weather was warm and sunny. Because of the beautiful weather, we were able to take plenty of beautiful photos (see below), frolic around in the lake's warm water, engage in rock skidding competitions and just generally enjoying each others company.
For dinner (or more accurately our second lunch), we drove along the lake to a restaurant which sat right on the water and enjoyed freshly caught fish that was grilled to perfection! Once again, we ate with our hands and sat on the floor to eat (rather than on chairs, around a table). This was very new to both of us.
Our next stop was Sipiso-piso Waterfall. We were only able to see it from a distance but it still was an impressive sight. As it was beginning to get late, we decided to hop back into Edna's four wheel drive and make our way back to Berastagi.
Along the way, we stopped at Octa and Ipoh's aunt's farm and saw her strawberry fields and mandarin trees. She was very generous and encouraged us to pick the fruit from the trees to eat - we had never tasted such sweet mandarins before! Afterwards, we drove to Edna's house to drop her off and then we continued back to Berastagi. The night however was not over...Because our Pink Villa did not have hot water, Ganda had to spend over half an hour trying to fix it as we absolutely HAD to have a hot shower!! Despite his hard efforts, we ended up sprinkling ourselves unwillingly with cold water for yet another night (we now have had cold showers for four days in row) :(.
Hopefully tonight the hot water comes on!!

Till next time,
- An & Aga!

A Long, long, looooong way from Poland

My journey took about 38 hours and I travelled more or less 13 000km. It was really exhausting. It started on the 2^nd of July and I was in Berastagi on the 5^th of July in the evening. I was really glad to finally reach my destination. My route was WarsawàLondon (where I was waiting in the airport for 16 hours!)à Singapore àMedan. I have never travelled this far before, so I was a bit scared. When I landed in Medan I knew that it was going to be fine. Everyone around there were very helpful and very nice (it was the first thing that drew my attention! Everyone here is extremely kind and polite!)

My first night was spent in one room with An at Euthalias house. I was sleeping like a baby – I even didn’t hear the alarm clock in the morning! But the next day was amazing. Everything here is new for me, everything here is different from the things I know in Poland. For example traffic… In Indonesia it’s very chaotic… but still it doesn’t seem to be a problem, no one is shouting, no one gets  hurt. In Poland it’s totally different! Everything is in order, everyone reads the road signs, everyone waits patiently in a queue, and no one overtakes when there’s a car driving in the opposite lane!  I almost got a heart attack because of that at first J. Now it’s fine, I’m getting used to the local way of driving.

The next night me and An stayed in our Pink Villa. It’s a quite big house with a lot of rooms. We decided to sleep in one room, because there were just us two and we thought that it would be more self-assured.

We spent Saturday meeting new people, shopping and admiring the city. We met Euthalia’s friend – Daisy and her family, then we went to the market and bought some fresh fruit. Everyone calls us ‘bule’ – it means “foreigners’. Kids are waving and yelling ‘Hi’, it’s funny, because when we reply they became very shy ;).

On Sunday we took a trip to Lake Toba and it was amazing! It’s the biggest lake in Indonesia, it’s about 100km long and 37km wide, and there’s an island in the middle of it. Daisy’s husband said that this island is bigger than the whole Singapore City!

Today the work begins. An started working about week ago, so now she is explaining to me everything. I can’t wait for other interns to join us, to make Pink Villa full of people. I feel the next few weeks are going to be amazing!

- Aga (the intern from Poland)

From Australia to Berastagi...

On the 1st of July 2013, I departed Perth, Australia for Berastagi in Indonesia to begin my role in Universitas Quality's Summer Camp Program. After six hours of experiencing gruelling turbulence, four and a half hours waiting in the KL airport (with only mediocre airport food as good company), and another 50 minutes of airborne travel I arrived in Medan. Tired and excited, I was greeted with a strong wave of humidity followed by a warm welcome from Euthalia, who was holding a place card with my name printed across it. Luckily enough, I was able to skip the Medan airport queues and was led straight to the baggage collection area, making a swift exit from the crowded airport.
From Medan, it was a two hour car ride to Berastagi. Faced with busy traffic, darkening skies and up hill roads that seemed to have continuous bends, we finally made it to Berastagi where the air was refreshingly chilly and foggy. By this time, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. When we got dropped off at Euthalia's house, I was led to my room I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day, work had already began! Euthalia and I woke up early and went for a walk around the city for some sight-seeing. Berastagi is surrounded by amazing forests which hold uncanny similarities to the forests which make up the scenes in the twilight movies. We then walked to the university to begin what seemed to be our sky-high workload. By the evening, we decided that it was hometime. On the way back, Euthalia showed me the famous fresh fruit and veg markets of Berastagi, which was loaded with so many different types of fruit and vegetables as well as clothing and jewellery.

As we continue to prepare for the Summer camp program, I am getting more and more excited for all the activities that lie ahead and for all the new people that I will be meeting.
This was just a little post to get this blog rolling, I assure you more interesting posts will be uploaded soon, when the other interns arrive and the Summer Camp begins!

Till next time
- An (the intern from Australia)