Hi guys!!
I'd like to share my experience on International Ursuline Youth Day (IUYD) 2015.
This event was held in Regina Pacis Surakarta in the first week of September. And I wasn't alone, I was with my friends and teachers. There were 29 other students from my school joining this event.
So we arrived at Balapan Solo station after a long tiring 8 hours journey. We were greeted by the service team from Regina Pacis Surakarta. And what makes me really happy was.......to my surprise, there was a Japanese school joining this event! My weeaboo heart activated right away lol.
So other than that Japanese school, there was also school from Taiwan, Thailand, and Ursuline schools from all over Indonesia.
On the first day, my friends encouraged me to talk to the Japanese students. And so I just introduced myself and my friends in front of them and I just went on with my mechakucha Japanese skills and they looked....really confused. And they were really silent. It seemed like they didn't want to talk to us T^T Okay maybe in their mind, it was like "who in the world are these freaks" lol.
In this event, all the participants were divided to some groups. I was in one group with 2 students from St. Maria Jakarta, a student from St. Ursula BSD and a student from St. Ursula Ende. And luckily they were quite talkative so we got along at that moment we met lol. And to my surprise (again), one of them loves anime, one of them loves J-dramas and one of them just....loves Japan? And they were planning to get that Monbu scholarships just like me. Wow I was so lucky to meet such (weeaboo) friends in my group lol ^_^
On the second day, my group and some other groups were visited by Thalassemia patients. Thalassemia is a blood disorder and the bearers of Thalassemia should go to the hospitals and get some blood like every 2 or 3 months. It's a very sad situation but they manage to live their lives normally.
On the third day, we went to visit a village where there are a family that works as brick maker. We were explained about how to make the bricks and some of us try to make the bricks. Their lifestyle is so simple but they are living happily.
After those visits, we were asked to do a presentation in front of all the participants in English (in my case, it's broken Engrish not English TT--TT). Sorry to say but the presentation session was getting very boring. I sat in front of the Japanese students. My schoolmate who were sitting beside me actually had took a liking to one of the students and he told me to try talking to her and asked her if she liked anime or not.
I hesitated at first but........to my surprise (again and again), she likes anime lol. Her name is Yuka. And then my schoolmate and I started to tell the titles of animes we had watched and we sang some anisongs. And guess what, she likes Love Live just like my schoolmate. I was surprised that she was surprised when my schoolmate and I knew so many things about Japan and anime. Like...she was surprised when I told her I knew Morning Musume (they are quite famous worldwide, aren't they?) and Ore Monogatari. Maybe she thought that we foreigners only knew Naruto and Dragon Ball and Doraemon and so on.....
On the fourth day, there was another presentation session again and once again, we talked to Yuka about anime. It was really exciting and I was quite happy to have got a Japanese friend and practiced my broken Japanese.
And on the last night of IUYD, there was a cultural night event. And the Japanese students were really cute dressing in yukata.... And Yuka asked me to take a photo together with her. Of course I took a photo too! I was wearing kebaya. My school performed Betawi dance since we're from Jakarta.
And so, on the last day of IUYD, Yuka gave me a clear file holder and a very cute letter and asked me for a hug. Luckily I also got her e-mail address (and we are still exchanging e-mail by now ^_^) Like I knew, Japanese girls are so so so cute but I didn't know that things like this would happen in my real life. I felt like I could die from cuteness that day lol. And in the evening before I went back, my schoolmate and I spent our time talking to Yuka and her schoolmate a lot. And as we were going to the station by the bus, Yuka sent us off by waving her hands and standing on a higher place(?) --- cuteness overload again.
Overall, IUYD was a memorable experience for me and sorry for turning this post into such a weeaboo post lol.
Excuse my broken English ^_^
