Monday, January 22, 2018
5.47 AM, the sky was clear, i can barely saw the hills that surrounds Nueva Vizcaya, and the sun slowly rise from behind the hills plus the voice of the birds singing, how lucky i am, my dorm window view was heading to east, i can enjoy the beautiful view of sunrise between the hills everyday. I took a bath and wear my batik dress and alma mater, of course, don't forget the DSLR. All of my dormmate already prepared and we went to the campus, Saint Mary's University. Dr. Liberty told us to meet her at pavilion on 7.00 AM.
We passed the security guard, they already know that we are there for the students exchange program, actually, everyone who wants to go inside of the campus must tap their id card to the counter so the gate can be opened, or at least show the id to the guards, it was quite strict, but we don't have to go through the security check because you know.... students exchange, what a privilege. Later, we meet Dr. Matet near to the campus gate, and she took us to the pavilion. The campus was clean, and the building arrangement also good. Not for long, Dr. Liberty arrived by car, and then she accompany us to the pavilion after parked her car.
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| "...Beautiful day isn't?" |
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| The SMU's pavilion. |
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| Random snap: the campus chapel from the outside. |
Later, i found out that it was the very first day of the school semester, so they arranged a flag ceremony and also an initiation greeting for us. Everyone was lined up based on their faculty, me and the other were in the STEH (School of Teacher Education and Humanities) department. The flag ceremony was quick, just sing the national anthem and rise the flag, in Philippines, everyone must put their right hand to the chest while sing or heard the national anthem, while in Indonesia, we do the salute. After that, we sing the SMU anthem and there was another one, i believe it's the CICM anthem, i don't quite remember. While everyone sing the SMU and CICM anthem, they also rise some flag, i also believe it was the flags of some faculties in SMU.
After singing the anthem, then there was some kind of sharing from one of the lecturer in SMU, and continued with prayer. The ceremony was finished, and then continued with reports from some faculties, like the passing grade reports and other things that i don't quite remember, until then the report from STEH faculty, Dr. Matet goes to the podium and give some announcement and continued by Dr. Liberty to announce about the student exchange program, SMU send 6 students for the Sea Teacher program, and host 5 students (yes, us). She explained about our stay and the programs during our stay in Bayombong, and then she asked us to go to the podium to introduce ourselves. Well, i was kinda nervous, it's been a long time since the last time i speak in the front of the audience.
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| After the speech. |
I started my introduction with greetings, in Tagalog, just simple greets like "Magandang Umaga" for "Good Morning" and "Salamat po" for "Thank you" (in the formal situation), i don't know but the people are excited when i was greet them in Tagalog. After all of us finished give the greetings, then SMU give each of us a wooden tablet with as remembrance for our campus in Indonesia, unfortunately, i don't have the picture of us holding the tablet, a moment missed. After everything was done, then the ceremony ended and everyone back to their department. Dr. Liberty asked us if we already had our breakfast or not, some of my dormmates already had their breakfast except me, so i raised my hand, and she understand what i mean by, so she took us to the campus canteen. Later, we meet with two SMU students, it was Neil and Queen, yeah "Queen" i thought she was joking, both of them are part of the buddies who will assist us during our stay in Bayombong. Neil was one of the Sea Teacher participant in the 4th batch, they said that it was the first time SMU joined the Sea Teacher program. They also joined to accompany us to the canteen.
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| SMU's west side canteen. |
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| Some students are having their breakfast. |
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| Waiting for the food. |
There are like 3 canteens in SMU, but we went to the canteen on the west side of the campus. The canteen smells good, some of the booth sells fast food menu like burger. Later, Sir Moises came and asked us, which of the food we are allowed to eat, so i told Sir Moises that we can eat everything, except beef and other food that contains pork-related ingredients. Unfortunately, we don't get much choices, rather than "Silog", its a simple menu, just rice and fried egg, the same dish that my mom cook for breakfast at home. Sir Moises, Dr. Matet, Dr. Liberty, Neil and Queen sit together accompanied us while we eat our breakfast. Sir Moises showed to me some unique things around the canteen, for example, the ketchup that i put into the rice, it tasted sweet i think, usually ketchup tasted a little bit sour, Sir Moises told me that it was a special kind of ketchup that made from banana, rather than tomatoes, i was like "No Way...!", and then he borrowed a big jug of the ketchup from the booth and showed it to me, and yes, it's made from banana and has the "Halal" label. Okay, the ketchup, and then for the dessert, they served us some boiled bananas, but something was wrong with the banana, it was very small, it was the size of my index finger, a unique variety of banana in Philippines, unfortunately, i don't take a picture of the banana.
I moved from Sir Moises to Neil and Queen, and talked about basic things like activities, hobby and etc... small talks, just to get know each other. Then Neil gave us a form to be filled, for the id card. Wow we have our own SMU id card, they said it was very important, for security reason. After we finished our breakfast, Dr. Liberty and Dr. Matet leave us, with Neil and Queen, they will guide us to get our ID. The great part, we meet with the other buddies, there was Junabelle, and Briggs (it's her simplified name, because her actual first name was hard to spell), and Thea. All of them accompanied us to the staff room to register our name, and then moved to the third floor for the photo and print the card, the process wasn't that long.We went downstairs after we received our card.
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| Registration for the ID card. |
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| The counseling room also in the staff room, but each of the counseling room are in separated chambers. |
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| Oh, by the way, that's queen, the one who hold the green backpack. |
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| Right: Junabelle, Queen was next to her. |
Briggs, Queen, Junabelle and Thea are witty, they always making jokes each other, some jokes that a "bit" bully-ish, but that's how the friendship have to be. Later, all of the buddies take us for tour around the campus to see another faculty. We also meet with another buddies during the tour and some other students. There are another faculties like SEAIT (School of Engineering, Architecture and, Information Technology), SHaNS (School of Health and Natural Sciences), SAB (School of Accountancy and Business) and Law. Something that took my attention was the L building, the third floor was abandoned for a long time, Thea told me that some student encounter weird things like the sound of footsteps in the hall but no one was there, and also Neil said that when he was shooting some scene in the third floor, the neon bulb was fallen, you know that the neon bulbs are safely locked to the mount. I gotta go there sometime. Later, Queen came and give us an invitation for the Welcome Party in AVR 1, for us, i was like "A Party....? For Us...?" it was nice, really, i can't wait for tomorrow.
She also told us to prepare for our show, anything about Indonesia, okiedokie then.
11.50 AM, the tour was finished, and we went back to the dorm. Oh, the buddies also invited us to join with the review class at afternoon on AVR 1, and yes, we joined the review on the afternoon, it was like a speech from the lecturer and then we had a quick test. There were a lot of the other students joined the class. We went back to the dorm after the class finished and had some rest. Can't wait for the welcome party on tomorrow. (C/H)
