WEEK 4: The Incline

The last week, the shortest week, the most memorable week for my one month of stay in UPI. I am back to normal, I feel better, I am physically and mentally ready to start the new week, to finish this journey I started, but deep inside me is an emotional crying baby starting to cherish and missing the thoughts I had at Bandung Indonesia.

This week, I had my final teaching demonstration in my three classes under the observation and guidance of my mentor, and cooperating teacher. With the full cooperation and active participation of the students, hard work bore a sweet fruit of success. It was a good job and well done Miss Joy! I think I just fulfilled my purpose and objective for this practicum, of course it will not be possible without the help and supervision of people around me.

With this success, Ma'am Lissiana, our loving cooperating teacher, rewarded us with a trip to Tangkuban, Perahu which is a volcano crater, and with all the places I've been through in Bandung, this is the best place ever for me! How natural, how beautiful, how breathtaking, how scientific is this place for me! I let out my inner child and let her enjoy the moment she's craving for, and that became the best day for me. Another overwhelming thing happened is that, our mentor, Dr. Eka gave us a compilation of his own hardbound book about scientific research. I was near crying when he handed it to me, and he even signed it for me. Truly, I am so blessed that they are the ones who became my guide, light, and anchor in this special journey of mine in my chosen profession. I really hope we can meet again, someday. 

Seems like blessings are on our side on this last week of the program, for we also experience the birthday of this prestigious university, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. As an international student, we were told to experience and participate in the 69th Founding Anniversary of UPI. We freely wore our national clothes to represent our respective countries, such as the Philippines, USA, China, Korea, Uganda, South Africa, Japan, India, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Egypt, Malaysia, etc. On that day you can see the amazing, vibrant and delicate national clothes of different nations. On that day, despite the differences in races, culture, beliefs, and status, we felt like we are all one in sharing warm smiles, thoughts, handshakes, pictures, and even values. We also witnessed the different performing arts of UPI, from singing, to dancing, costumes, interpretation, and other skills and talents showcased during the said celebration. We also met the people behind every success of UPI and bid them some greetings on how grateful we are being part of their success.

My highlight for this week is the time I met new found friends. Aside from Filipino SEA Teachers, I also had the chance to meet the UPI SEA Teachers sent to the Philippines, they arrived one week earlier than us. It feels good meeting people who had the same experience as you, it seems like we had our buddies since they are very approachable and jolly, they even offer to accompany us in having some tour around Bandung and UPI in our last week. What makes the conversations between us more mutual is that these Indonesian students are really good at speaking English and they are also trying to communicate with us using Tagalog and Bisaya dialect they learned during their stay in the Philippines. So the last few days became more memorable and joyful because of these people that made us feel heavy leaving UPI.

Since it's our last week in the university, a closing ceremony was held for us. In there, exchange of heart melting messages from us SEA Teachers, and from the University's director, faculty, staff, our respective cooperating teachers and mentors. Even though there is a language barrier between the two nations, it didn't stop us from fully expressing our heartfelt gratitude to the university and people who guided us during our stay that made this project memorable for us. Having personal speech using each other's local language, sharing experiences as a foreigner, tourist, teacher, student, and bystander in Indonesia. We were given certificates of participation, tokens from the university itself, and in return we also gave them a plaque of appreciation, and gifts from our respective university itself.

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