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Salam sejahtera! My name is Dwiki Febri Ristanto. People call me Dwiki (it’s pronounced ‘doo-wee-key’—I know it’s hard to pronounce my name) for short. I was born and raised in a truly amazing country, Indonesia, but I currently live in Iowa, United States for my exchange year experience. J International Education Week has always been so challenging for me. To learn, to explore and to discover everything that I have to represent my country and share it to people in my new community was hard, and yet, was a lot of fun to do. This is my reflection and evaluation my works, what I have learned, what I thought and felt, throughout the week. Hopefully, this can gives you a better glimpse on how amazing b a part of the people who celebrated this amazing a-week-of opportunity to learn, explore and discover more about my self, my country and, of course, the cultural diversity in the world.
IEW or International Education Week is an event created to promote different cultures in schools across the U.S. and the world. However, I have my own idea of what IEW means to me: IEW is a week of celebrating the opportunity for learning, exploring and discovering the vast diversity from all around the world. Through IEW, I learned more about my homeland Indonesia, I explored more my ability to be an ambassador, and I discovered more of who I am in this world. So, basically, I think IEW is beyond just doing presentation. But rather, it’s bridging mutual understanding between two different nations.
WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL
LINN COUNTY INT’L ROUND TABLE
NORTH TAMA ACTIVITY CENTER
I call the plan that I wrote for IEW as IEW master plan. This was a plan that I made 2 weeks before the IEW started. I wrote all the possibilities—so I could have options—and to-do list—so I could keep my work on track and to avoid procrastinating.
My main focus in this presentation was “Indonesia” and the difference between Indonesia and America. I simply want to present them anything that they can actually relate to Indonesia. I also taught them how to say “I love you” in my homecountry’s language: bahasa Indonesia and show them Indonesian traditional dance: tari saman (these two were my favorite parts during the presentation). At the end of my presentation, I opened question and answer session. The question they asked me included: my opinions about America and Indonesian school compared to American school.
This was a more informal and an easy-going way to present Indonesia to people in the town of Traer. This “cultural fair� was held by exchange students in the same cluster as me. Given a table, I decorated the table with Indonesian clothes (batik), national flag and provide a laptop with interactive power-point presentation. I greeted the people who visited my table and introduced myself and where I came from. Then, I asked them what they want to know about Indonesia with the interactive power point I have prepared. I also made Indonesian food named perkedel that every visitor can try. I’m glad to hear that the perkedel was good. This food is the one that I considered as the easiest way to cook. I kind of underestimated to make this (which I kind of regret) because, this was my first time to cook this, and I did not try cooking the food. I just cooked it right before I leave to the fair. I kind of failed to make this food and only succeed making a few of them.
I basically shared the same thing like the earlier presentation on November 13. I also open question and answer session at the end of my presentation. This was a more exciting presentation for me. My favorite part was probably when I told them that you can eat rice in McDonald in Indonesia. There was one girl who really wants to go to Indonesia after I told my audience that rice is the main meal in Indonesia. She loves rice so much, she said. I was glad I could get their attention that I got quite many questions which I think fun because their question is always funny and fun to answer. For example: What can you buy with a dollar in Indonesia? Do girls in Indonesia also crazy about One Direction or Justin Bieber?
There was an event called International Round Table where all exchange students, student journalists and representatives of student senate in Linn County were invited to attend this event. Through this event I basically shared all about Indonesia (without power-point, but rather with a small group discussion and more like a talk-show) to not just with the students of Xavier High School, but also with exchange students which represent the four continents in the world: Asia, Africa, America and Europe. It means I reached an even broader audience.
I have done my best for this IEW. My plan mostly was running as how I expected it to run although some were running out of my expectation—like my perkedel which was a kind of failure. My presentation were all, for me, a huge success. I’m also happy that I decided to make an interactive PowerPoint for the cultural fair, so I didn’t have to print all photos which actually environmentally inefficient and cost much money. In addition, I realized I procrastinated a lot during my preparation for IEW, despite the fact that I have made a to-do list to avoid it–my to-do list somehow didn’t work. Apart from it, I’m happy with all my work. J
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