I had no idea how would I live my life in that new city, but they've been saying that it's nice to be there and you would learn lots from it. And I had no regret. I experienced many things for the first time, learned how to be a responsible person, met new people with different background and language, learned about respect and many things.
Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, or we usually simplify with UKSW, is located in Diponegoro street, and at the back of the campus in where most civitas academia stay when they are pursuing their education in Salatiga. You can find students from different ethnicity, skin color, native language, and social status roaming around Jalan Kemiri Raya every day. You can also find them hanging out in 'burjo' (it's like a food stall where you can eat Indomie or bubur kacang ijo, mung bean paste) or small cafes around that street. Many call it 'Indonesia Mini'.
Living in this city for around 5 years has taught me to be humble. I live in one of the old boarding houses on that street. Little did I know, I learned many things about my sisters from others ethnicity for the next five years on my staying in Salatiga. I got to know those from different cities such as Toraja, Makassar, Biak and Ambon. We bring out differences, learned from each other. I got to know how funeral become one of many events that being celebrated in Toraja, to taste papeda from eastern Indonesia, I finally able to catch phrases from different languages, experience many different culture in my five years in there. As many people from different background and age living together in one place, we did not always get along well, but I learned a lot about how to respect the differences, to cooperate with each other, and to be there in happiness and sadness.
While studying in UKSW, I did quite a lot of activities from joining choir, drama performance, reader's theater (for a year only) and even became a member of student body for two years. In my fakulty, we had our annual LoVED and Talent Night, where every batch compete each other to get the title of 'The Best Angkatan', EDO (English Department Olympic), drama performance and many others. I met new friends that some of them became my favorite people. From every day engagement with them I learned how to speak Javanese, where most of time they asked me not to because I have a strange accent and they prefer to communicate to me in Bahasa Indonesia. I learned their traditional dances, that really tiring but exciting. After all day activities, we tended to spend our time around Kemiri to eat and hang out, to talk about many things and release our stress. One of the best phase in my life.
All in all, thank you Kemiri for everything. You've been very nice to me.
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