A letter from England:

After experiencing United Kingdom for almost two weeks, I feel beyond bless to say: I can’t stand how much I love being here. I live in a beautiful, new and well-decorated house in Newingham Cresent, Cambridge. Living with British family, a kind young couple, Peter and Diana Pearson, really gives me a first-hand-experience to feel both of the British culture’s nuance and ambiance. Diana is a Lithuanian. My roommate is a 20-year-old nice curly Italian girl, named Dalila di Tanno. Luckily, Diana working as a chef, she always serves us delicious food and dessert. In my first weekend, we had a family picnic in the afternoon then we went to the horse racing and saw a concert in the evening. For sure, it was amazing!

Cambridge, which is widely known of the river Cam and one of the oldest universities in the world, is a grand old dame of city, dripping with ancient architecture, soaked in history and tradition and many ways oblivious to the passing of the time. Everywhere you go, the sheer weight of achievement seems to seep from very walls. Along the side of the road, you can see there are so many historical sites. In my framework as a student, I feel that Cambridge is really a great place for studying and also enjoying your youth-life. You can indulge both million of fascinations and also passion for study in here. This is a centre of mixture of multiculturalism where you should try to put yourself in the other frame of references so that you can easily get along with others. Obviously, I have so many fun times in here.

In Cambridge, many students go to school by riding bicycle. The University of Cambridge has lots of ancient and magnificent buildings as their colleges. I can guarantee that you would imagine studying in the castle or cathedral rather than in the college. One of the sites of the college had been used as the place of Harry Potter’s scene. At the right of Trinity College’s gatehouse, there is a tree which is reputedly a descendant of the one that dropped an apple on the head of Isaac Newton. The students often come to the park to study to avoid tedious feeling studying in the library. You can see the exquisite view of the backs of the college when you go punting in Cam river.

Now, I’d like to share some tips what  I’ve done in my first week in Cambridge to accelerate the process of getting well-known to each other: Firstly, I tried to reduce the use of social networks, such as: facebook, twitter, so on and so forth in order to avoid bogged down with my fellows and colleagues in Indonesia. On the other hand, I often went out with my new acquaintances who came from different nations across the globe. I avoid to be hooked on intensively with other Indonesians.  Secondly, I tried to keep my eyes on every single thing happened to prevent misunderstanding between each other. For instance: it was a common for Venezuelan and people from some other countries to greet someone with kiss on cheeks or chin *even in the first meeting* instead of saying hello or hi.

On the first day of the course, a Japanese girl was shocked by a guy from Venezuela who suddenly came to her and tried to kiss her. She automatically pulled her body to another side whilst the guys still felt awkward. He kept trying to figure out what happened to her. After a few minutes, he realized what has already happened. After the awkward moment, they had a chit-chat and finally, both of them were laughing.  The guy said, at first, he still didn’t understand why a nice girl whom he met and already had a chit-chat in the morning, immediately tried to avoid him when he tried to give warm greeting to her in their second meeting. In contrast, the Japanese girl felt very shock indeed when there was a guy suddenly coming to her and trying to kiss her! Therefore, I don’t feel strange when my friend, Antonio *Sneak peek:  pssst…he is a gay* encountered me in city centre and suddenly gave me a kiss.
I’ve many more stories to tell but I can’t share it all in this notes. So, keep on waiting 

Cheers,
Pradita Astarina

Waking up from a tired, uncomfortable position can become a devastating thing to do in the early morning. Your happy day could easily ruined by this thing, however when this thing happens in the end of your long-flight trip from Jakarta, Indonesia to Heathrow Airport, London via Dubai one of the seven emirates that founded UAE, happening of this thing can be ignored right away.

As soon as I descend from the Emirates EK007, I rendezvous with Pradita Astarina, and Clarissa Pascalia, both are dispatched by EF, in the baggage picking zone. The three of us busy searching for any lifeform from EF picker, and luckily I saw a tall man bringing a big sign with “EF: Kenji Wijaya, Pradita Astarina” written on it. We came over him and we now know that he is an EF guy named Nigel.
We were hurried by him, me and Dita even didn’t had a chance to take a photograph for BC, he told us that all of us must arrive in Cambridge on 9 o’clock, he said that on 7.42 o’clock. Because I am a pure guy I don’t realize how far Cambridge from Heathrow Airport, until he told me that usually from Heathrow to Cambridge takes about 45 minutes by car. We get into Volvo car with nice GPS pop ups thingy, and I noted that he is not an EF guy, he is a public car hire.

A nice guy Nigel is, he told us many things about UK and about Cambridge in particular. He is a typical perfect type of man, not judge a person by his/her cover, never trust what someone say without seeing it first, tell us to be careful of thief, and also he is a romantic man, he calls his wife and keep saying love, love, and love, he even asked his wife to go for dinner, how sweet isn’t it? I wonder, does all UK man is the same specimen as Nigel. Of course I can’t say that now because I was in London for about 2 hours.

So, after we reached Cambridge Nigel accompany Dita to her host parent which apparently still asleep, thus made us wait outside in the Cambridge’s 11 degree cold climate for about 10 minutes. Nigel said to me that it was common for UK citizen to still sleep in 9 o’clock in the morning. Due to UK’s trade regulation that all businesses should be open only 10am to 4pm on Sunday, most of UK citizen sleep all day long on Sunday. Luckily again, Dita’s host parent got up and open the door before the three of us frozen to the death. It is my turn then to go to my host parent which is on the other side of Dita’s street. 98 Minerva way the sign said, I already afraid that both of the O’Boyle still asleep also. However I don’t need to afraid because Mike O’Boyle an Irish Man welcomes me inside. He is a good man, and then he woke up her wife Julie. Julie then greets me also and tells some rules that mostly about the usage of bathroom, and no night hour limitation. She also gives me key of her house.
 

After some chit-chat with her and Mike, they told me that there are other EF students currently living with them, Mason-Chinese Man, and Gabrielle-Brazilian Man. Mason currently visiting his sister so he won’t be available till Monday. Gabrielle however already adapted UK culture and he still sleeps also. So I spent my day on Sunday by visiting my friend in London. London is another story, I won’t tell you about London in this part, thus we skip Sunday and get to Monday. Monday is my first day at EF.
First day at EF means induction and city center tour with Arash-Activity Personnel from EF. Induction in EF tells us about rules, school staff, and school activities. In the afternoon all of new students got city center tour, so we follow Arash, whom I had said earlier, to the city center. Cambridge’s city center holds many sightseeing location.

From King’s College, St John’s College, Round Church, Trinity College, punting activity, cambridge leisure, and much more. Arash took us to King’s college, Trinity College, and St John’s College whom are parts of University of Cambridge. He also told us about the history of the college. King’s college is the oldest College among those 31 colleges. Trinity College has 31 nobel prizes thus that make the Trinity College is the strongest among all 31 colleges.

Trinity College also had grand-grand-grandson of Isaac Newton’s legendary apple tree. They call it grand-grand-grandson because it is not the original tree, but part of the original tree brought here by University of Cambridge to memorize Isaac Newton’s succesful invention of Gravity. Arash also told us that students of University of Cambridge really rocks. Aside from their intelligent, they also do everything properly, they study properly, and they even party properly. They had done 48 hours of party! Those cool colleges make me want to continue my study here. Hopefully I can do so by the help of British Council.
 

On Tuesday, I walk alone in the city center, exploring the street, small passage, and the market square. In the market square there are many fruits, vegetables, and some unique things. I don’t have time to explore anything there, so I just buy two apples and continue my adventure. On my way in the city centre, I found an old man wearing a royal navy uniform and I see some people giving him coins. I suppose that he must be some kind of beggar, so I come near him, give him two pounds coin and have conversation with him.

The man’s name is John (J), and Me (M):
 J   : Thanks a lot young lad, may God bless you.
 M : Thanks also sir! Do you mind if I ask you some question?
 J   : Why not?  It is nice to have someone to talk to.
 M : May I ask why you stay here?
 J   : Hahaa, can’t you see I am begging for coins?
 M  : Sorry no offense, I…
 J   : Hahaha, I was joking lad, I was a royal navy back there, serving the Queen
      : But after I retired, the government told me that I’m not a navy because
    : my name is not on the list, thus I don’t get my retirement money.
M : Ow… I am sorry to hear that
J  : No it’s okay, I have been years doing this, but the goverment never pays me.
     : Scotland Yard luckily supporting me, they never treat me like other beggar, they  : trust me. People around here also gives money often. I never blame the Queen or  my country. People wearing suits are the one who stole my rights.
 M : Yeah it’s true, most of the government in every country corrupts from the inside J : Right, but remember lad, you must never hate your country.
 M : Agree with you sire, sorry but it’s about time to went for me. See you later okey J : Okay! Godspeed!

My conversation with John above is not the exact words, but hopefully you understand what me and John were talking. UK is not different so much with Indonesia in terms of beggar, however beggar in UK is not as much as beggar in Indonesia. John is one of the beggar, but this one is unique. However he had been thrown by his country, he still loves that. This is what I love of the British, they have great nationalism. Flags hanging on window of most houses, how different it is with people from Indonesia.
 On Tuesday evening I also visit a local pub. Pub here in UK is not like Pub in Indonesia, UK people goes to pub to have conversation with others whose had same hobby. The atmosphere in the Pub that I visited was like a living room. With slow music, warm because of the hearth, cozy sofas, and books! Imagine you are sitting on a cozy sofa, accompanied with an Earl Grey Tea, a book about history of University of Cambridge, and another person with same hobby to talk to. It is such a great experience in the pub. This is one of many unique cultures in UK. Maybe other students prefer Theatre, but me myself, I don’t enjoy theatre, I enjoyed socialize in the pub than sitting in the theatre. Maybe next time I’ll visit the theatre. Pub is a must if you are going to UK!

Rekan bloggers,

Kenji (second from left) and Dita (third from left) when receiving the award

Beberapa waktu lalu kami mengumumkan dua nama yaitu: Kenji Wijaya dan Pradita Astarina, sebagai dua orang yang berhasil keluar sebagai pemenang penulisan esai lokakarya EducationUK yang kami adakan bulan November 2009.

Hadiah yang diterima Kenji dan Pradita adalah mengikuti kursus singkat di Cambridge, persembahan EF Indonesia, selama satu minggu.

Kami meminta Kenji dan Dita untuk membagikan catatan perjalanan mereka ke Inggris untuk rekan blogger semua. Oleh karenanya, selama beberapa hari ke depan, kami akan menampilkan catatan perjalanan tersebut dalam blog ini.

Semoga tulisan-tulisan itu nantinya dapat memberi inspirasi untuk rekan blogger semua.

Selamat membaca!