Skip to main content

My EFA Experiences

-->

My Teachers and my clasmates

Finally today is the end of semester for English for All Program (EFA) at Ohio University. For many people, today is the end of semester, but for me, today is the day that I will celebrate farewell party. I'm not a student. I just came to Athens for several months. At the end, it is difficult for me to say goodbye to Athens, friends, and my teachers.

I joined English for All Program since September 2012. It means that I already finish two semesters in this program. Since the first time I came here, I met new friends and new teachers. Last semester, I might not really close to all my classmates. We just met in class and did little conversation. We still keep contact on Facebook until now, even just comments a status or like a page. I also make a friendship with my teacher on Facebook, even though we never did lot conversations. Fortunately, I’m close with Jessica, one of my teachers. Once, she asked me to be her informant for her paper assignment. After that, we always say hello every time we met.

My second semester was started since January. The students from last semester took the same class with me, but there were many new students who just joined the program. If you compared to another class that had only 2 or 3 students every day, our class always crowded. I met new friends such as Ina, Tatiana, Gawlasyan, Helen, and Tugba. Among them, Helen and Tugba became my best friends.

Helen is a Chinese woman. Her full name is Helen Pang. She's very friendly. Because I thought that I was not good for starting conversations with the people that I just met, I was quiet in the class. Helen came to me and invited to discuss. She asked me about lesson in the class. Everything likes magic when I felt comfortable to chat with her. We discussed about anything beside lessons in our class. We became close friend. I made a friend with her on Facebook.

Helen, Tugba, and Me at Sakura Festival
Later, Tugba, a Turkish woman, joined us. She is a talkative woman. She always had topic to talk in our class. Helen, Tugba, and me attended many cultural events in OU. We went to international women's day, Sakura festival, and also Holi night. We became best friend.

The program was very flexible. Not every student came all days. One of my friends, Gawlasyan, just came on Wednesday and Thursday, because she has a young child. But the rest of students such as me, Helen, Tugba, and Tatiana attended class almost every day.

There were six teachers in my class. Three of them taught us in Monday and Wednesday, and the rests taught in Tuesday and Thursday. For Monday and Wednesday, Carly, Kristina, and Katie became our teachers. For Tuesday and Thursday, they will be replaced by Mary, Elen, and Ethan. They were good teachers. They taught us patiently.

Sometimes we didn't understand, but they always kept trying to explain the lessons. I believe that they faced difficulties to teach us because our mother languages are not English.

Today, we graduate. Finally, we finish this spring semester. We go to Baker Center for graduation. We get a certificate. I already have two certificates from this program. If I stay in Athens for many years and attend this program every semester, maybe I will collect many certificates. But, certificate is not the main point. The main point is friendship with many people. I’m so happy cause I met lovely friends and great teachers.

I will leave Athens soon. Someone told me that we never precisely predict what will happen in the future. Maybe someday, I’ll back to Athens and meet my classmates and my teachers. I believe there’s no an accident in this world. Every meeting has a purpose. Friends are those who meet us for a reason. They're meant to cross our path to enrich and to nurture our life with love and compassion to other people. Someday I’ll meet them for a specific reason. Maybe it is for love.


Athens,  April 28, 2013
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

jurnalistik siaran, pindah kost-kostan, dan "capek deh!"

Akhirnya, kembali bisa menyempatkan diri sejenak ke Teras Imaji. Sedikit berbagi kisah lagi dengan diri sendiri. Sekedar untuk sebuah kisah klasik untuk Saraswati dan Timur Angin kelak. Aku tak pernah menyangka bahwa aku bisa bertahan sampai saat ini.meski tugas kuliah menumpuk. Keharusan untuk pindah pondokan. Kewajiban lain yang belum terselesaikan.Problem hati yang menyakitkan. Serta kontrak yang tersetujui karena takut kehilangan peluang meski tubuh ini harus sudah berhenti. Siang tadi (15 nov 06) seharian ngedit tugas siaran radioku. Tak enak rasanya pada teman-teman, memberatkan mereka. menyita waktu yang seharusnya untuk hal lain. Tak enak hati pada Pak Anchu, penjaga jurusan. yang tertahan hanya menunggu kami menyelesaikan tugas itu. Dengan modal suara fals nan cempreng toh aku pun akhirnya harus sedikit PD untuk membuat tugas itu. Meski hanya menguasai program office di komputer, toh aku harus memaksakan belajar cool-edit (yang kata teman-teman yang udah bisa merupakan sesuatu...
78 comments
Read more

Asyiknya Berkirim Kartu Pos

Kartu pos untuk teman-teman di Indonesia. Beberapa minggu ini saya lagi senang-senangnya berkirim kartu pos. Membeli kartu pos di court street. Menuliskan nama dan alamat yang akan dikirimkan. Menuliskan pesan yang akan disampaikan. Dan membawanya ke kantor pos dan memposkannya. Prosesnya itu begitu menyenangkan buatku. Terlebih lagi ketika orang yang saya kirimi kartu pos mengabarkan kalo kartu posnya sudah sampai, rasanya seperti mission completed deh. Selain mengirimkan kartu pos ke teman-teman di Indonesia, saya juga bergabung di Postcrossing . Sebuah web yang menyatukan para penggemar kartu pos seluruh dunia. Saya menemukan web Postcrossing ini tak sengaja ketika sedang mencari informasi berapa harga prangko untuk kartu pos luar negeri. Caranya gampang, daftar di webnya, kemudian kamu akan menerima 5 alamat yang harus kamu kirimi kartu pos. Saat pertama join kamu harus mengirim kartu pos. Ketika kartu pos itu diterima, maka alamat kamu akan disugesti untuk dikirimi kartu po...
13 comments
Read more

Punya KTP Amerika

Akhirnya saya punya KTP Amerika. Sok pamer? Mungkin iya. Gaya juga masuk dalam kategori itu. Secara selama ini saya cuma punya KTP Bone dan KTP Baubau. KTP Makassar saja nda punya sama skali. Padahal hidup di  Makassar hampir 5 tahun. Nah, dapat KTP Amerika yang disini lebih dikenal dengan nama State ID itu penting buat kelangsungan hidup saya di Athens. Meskipun tinggal 6 bulan lagi, tapi untuk mengisi dompet dengan kartu berbahasa Inggris saya anggap sedikit perlu. Biar sedikit gaya dan jadi kenang-kenangan kalo pulang nanti. Ngantri bikin State ID Saya sudah lima bulan tinggal di Athens dan baru ngurus State ID. Ckckckcckck. Padahal saya nda ada kerjaan di rumah. Telat pasalnya yang harus nemenin pergi ngurus sibuk kuliah. Pas musim libur ini baru deh sempat ditemani bikin. Saya menganggap penting State ID itu hanya karena persyaratan untuk menjadi anggota perpustakaan di Athens Library perlu pake State ID. Saya sangat ingin membaca serial ketiga The Lost Hero-nya Rick Ri...
13 comments
Read more