SEA-Teacher 5th Batch Project: My First Week

Hallo guys, i make this blog just to shared my experience when i’m join the SEA – Teacher Project 5th Batch. I’ll tell you my story how my 30 days during this project. But, i’ll introduce my self before. My name Hasnawati, you can call me Ana. I’m a 3rd year student at State University of Makassar, Indonesia. State University of Makassar send 12 delegation to go to Philippine and Thailand and i’m going to be one of practice teacher in Vigan, Philippine. Maybe my story is not the same as the other stories because everyone has their own story and maybe my story will be very boring but I hope you can take the positive things from my story.

January 20, 2018 

The day that I've been waiting for, where I'll start my journey for a month. Early in the morning, I was prepared to go to Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport to have the first flight to Jakarta with the other delegates from the State University of Makassar who are following this project. When we arrived in Jakarta we have to check in for the next flight to Manila, Philippines. in 4.5 hours we arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila. We the delegates from the State University of Makassar are going to the Philippines don’t get any constraints during flights or trips to Manila, Philippines. after we picked up all our stuff, we went out to meet the coordinator of each university who accepted us. And of course i went to my coordinator, he was Mr. Jimmy Soria. Mr. Jimmy Soria or commonly called Mr. Jimmy is the coordinator of University of Northern Philippines he is one of the guys who will guide us during this project. The students who are delegated to the University of Northern Philippines amounted to 8 people from two countries, 6 people from Indonesia and 2 people from Thailand. But on that day only 4 delegates from Indonesia who arrived in Manila including me, 2 others from Indonesia are stuck delay 24 hours and 2 people from Thailand just going to Manila in the next week. So Mr. Jimmy decided to wait for 2 other delegates from Indonesia at the home of one of the University of Northern Philippines staff in Manila. Finally we went there to rest while waiting for the next delegation tomorrow.

January 21, 2018

Delegates from Indonesia are already in the house we were at that time to rest. I will introduce to you 5 other delegates from Indonesia. They are Kak Cut and Kak Rika from UNSYIAH, Dinda and Eli from UNS, and the last is Uka from UNM. Well, finally the delegation from Indonesia is complete. We are getting ready to go to Vigan City where the University of Northern Philippines is located. To get to Vigan City we need 7-8 hours drive using the bus. The trip is very tiring but we enjoyed it because it's part of a story that probably will not happen again. When we arrived at Vigan City, we headed straight for the dormitory we were staying, the dormitory located at the University of Northern Philippines. we arrived in the dormitory and there was already Mom Rin, Mom  Digna, Father Randy (i call them father and mom because they want it haha), and many more. They all greeted us very well. They are really know if we hungry so they served fried rice and chicken as our dinner. After eating, we were directed to the way to the room that we will occupy during being here. Inside the room there are 2 pieces of bunk beds in this will be occupied by 4 people. We chose our friends and finally selected who will be my room mates. I will share that room with Uka, Dinda, and Eli. While, Kak Cut and Kak Rika will share that room with Thai delegates.

January 22, 2018

The sun was welcomed back and we were re-served food by Mom Ros (she is the English teacher one of who picked us up), before we have been told that is very difficult to get the halal food in Philippnes including at Vigan City. So Mom Ros just cooks the food that Muslims can eat like noodles, fried rice, chicken krispi or eggs. Because at the dormitory did not have enough food, so after eating we decided to go shopping. Mom Digna and Mom Rin who will accompany us to shopping. After we were ready to go, mom rin and mom digna took us to the main entrance of the University of Northern Philippines to drive a public vehicle in Vigan. the public vehicle was named Tricycle. Tricycle is almost similar to public transportation in Indonesia especially in Makassar, if in Vigan have a Tricycle then in Makassar have Bentor just that the difference is the location of the bike. We only need to spend 10 PHP per person to board the Tricycle. We went to the supermarket in the city center. We do not buy much there because mom digna and mom rin said there so expensive, it will be cheaper if we buy in the traditional or local market. There is a traditional market in front of the supermarket. After shopping, we just go back to the dormitory. When we got back to the dormitory we tidied up our groceries and went back to our rooms to rest because we would both prepare dinner.

January 23, 2018

Well today is education day in Vigan City. People in the City of Vigan celebrate the day with a festival and a parade. That morning we prepared to see the parade at Plaza Burgos, Vigan. Many schools participated in this parade from the elementary to high school levels and of course lab. schools by the University of Northern Philippines will participated. The parades and festivals will be held for about a week and schools will be closed for the day. Before I went to Vigan City, I had time to find out a little about the city of vigan and according to one blog that I read the best time to go to vigan city is in november to april. That's because at that time vigan city have lot of festivals, parades, or other important days are held in the span of time. I feel very lucky to be able to visit the vigan city in that time. There are so many festivals and parades to be held that it’s really attracts tourists. And this is what makes our sea-teacher activities belatedly, the vigan city is very busy preparing for their important days. After seeing the parade we went back to the dormitory for a break and would go back to Plaza Burgos to see the education night festival.

January 24, 2018

Today we were given time to rest. Civitas in the university of northern philippines is very busy to preparing for a parade and festival to be held tomorrow morning at Vigan City Hall (again). Because we were given free time and we just decided to go to the super market to shopping. Nothing special in that day. We just shop and go back to the dorm.

January 25, 2018 This morning we were surprised by a call from mom rin. Actually yesterday mom rin told us that today there is a parade and we were asked to participate in the parade but we forget it. We immediately get ready to go to Xentro Mall Plaza which became the starting point of the parade. Arriving there we directly invited into the row of parades and predictably we follow the parade to the finish line. During the parade the teachers of UNP lab school are very friendly and kind to us, they are also very funny with their jokes.

January 26, 2018 

Today we are going to the UNP lab school teacher's office during our observations in the classes we will teach. My mentor teacher is Miss Christa, she is one of the teachers who teaches biology and I feel very lucky to be mentored by her because she is very friendly, kind, cheerful, and seemingly loving. Btw, miss christa is busy to attending a seminar outside the city and she will be back on Monday so I have not done any observation but I have enter some classes and see how my friends doing the observation. After the observation we were asked to meet the president of UNP but there was a miscommunication between the teachers and the dean there, because the president also wanted to meet with the delegation from Thailand as well and finally we did not meet the president and so we just go back but decided to out go to Xentro Mall, Vigan city hall, etc.

Come seek a peak my picture below~