Arrival in Melbourne

Hello…..my name is Anna Yohanna but you can call me Anna. I am one of the year 3 teachers at Sekolah Global Jaya, Indonesia. I have been working at Global Jaya since July 1998. This is a great opportunity for us to join the Teacher Exchange Program and this is the second year of our school involvement in this program. We would like to share something about Indonesia especially our cultures (foods, costumes, beliefs, languages and many things). I brought some special things from Indonesia, such as “blangkon” some kind of traditional hat from Central Java, pictures of the characters in “wayang kulit” (shadow puppet), books about Indonesia and “wayang golek”(another type of puppet from Sundaness -West Java), ‘kebaya ( a traditional blouse for woman) and kain”(some kind of sarong for woman).

Endang (my other friend in this program) and I arrived on Friday night after 7 hours on the plane. On that day back at our school they were still doing the second day of Student Led Conference. We met Ibu Jane Lukaitis and Ibu Bernadette around 10 o’clock.

This is the first time we have been to Australia. We keep wondering what the people are doing and why this city is so quite. It is different, totally different to Jakarta where we live. In Jakarta we can see many people and cars on the road. It is always hot in Jakarta especially in the dry season.

I am staying at Ibu Jane’s home in Brighton. She has a wonderful family.

On the 17th of March, the first day the weather was a little bit cloudy. Ibu Jane took us to Healesville Sanctuary (the weather it was like one of the places in Puncak, Bogor – a close city to Jakarta) and she walked us around Melbourne city too.

In Jakarta we have a place that looked similar to Healesville, we call “Taman Mini Indonesia Indah”(Mini Garden of Indonesian) in East Jakarta. There we can see different kinds of traditional houses, native animals, plants, types of Indonesian flower, traditional dance performances, museums and many things. The TMII opens on Tuesday until Sunday (they close on Monday).

Endang and I were impressed and enthusiastic to know everything about Melbourne.

The second day, Sunday morning the sky was bright. It made me feel a lot warmer than yesterday. Ibu Jane took me to Ibu Bernadette’s place.

The three of us walked along the beach then we had breakfast on St Kilda Pier. On that day Melbourne had the FINA International Swimming Competition and Grand Prix Race.

After we had breakfast Ibu Bernadette took us on her brother in-law’s yacht. I was so lucky because he let us try driving the yacht. It was an unforgettable moment for me. Unfortunately I am afraid on the water and afraid to drive a car but I drove the yacht to the West Gate Bridge. It meant I became more of a risk taker and confident person. I have tried many new things here and I might try something else too.