Tag Archives: indonesia

Happy Moments

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The start of the semester was a little rocky with all of the snow days and power outages, but things are finally starting to look up! There’ve been a lot of things to love about my last semester of senior year, so I’d share some happy moments that have happened thus far:

  • I am going to Indonesia this summer! I was selected as a Critical Language Scholar so the U.S State Department will be fully funding me to study Indonesian language and culture for ten weeks in Malang, Indonesia. It was a tough decision because I now must give up other opportunities, but after talking with many people I trust, I feel I’ve made the right decision. The way someone put it to me was, “Once you graduate it’s easy to get settled and comfortable; take the opportunity to travel while you can!” I can’t wait to see my Indonesian friends, visit the bi-co students who are doing the same program I did in summer 2012, improve my Indonesian, make new friends, and see new places!
My friend Tiwi and I in rural Java, Indonesia

My friend Tiwi and I in rural Java, Indonesia

  • I absolutely love my classes this semester! I was originally going to take a class at each of the Quaker Consortium schools, but I made a last minute decision to take classes I was truly passionate about over ones that would have been a little more practical. I want to spend my last semester studying things that make me happy and having less commute time means I can spend more time with the people I love. One of my classes this semester is very unique. It’s called Writing Taste: an English class that explores the philosophy and sociology of food. Our class is co-taught by a Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr professor so we split out classes between the two campuses. Five of our classes are taught by a famous Philly food critic so we get to learn the basics of food journalism along with some amazing opportunities like receiving money to go to a restaurant of our choice to do a restaurant review and go to Fork, one of the best restaurants in town, with our class.
Cheese filled "gnudi" at Fork: so delicious

Cheese filled “gnudi” at Fork: so delicious

  • Making time to get off-campus! The upperclassmen spend so much time preparing for Hell Week for the first-years that we sometimes forget the importance of getting off-campus to clear our heads every so often. It can be hard to motivate yourself in the winter when it’s so cold, but it’s worth it! On Tuesday, I went to a local restaurant with some friends for delicious chips and strawberry jalapeno salsa and drinks. The next night I went to see Young the Giant with my friend Prianna at the Tower Theater, a convenient train ride away. It’s nice to remind myself that I’m adult and I can go out and have fun even on a school night!
At the Young the Giant concert

At the Young the Giant concert

  • I started my Teaching and Learning Initiative partnership! In this program, students are paired with staff members and we each get to teach and learn a skill (and get paid to do so)! I am teaching my partner arts and crafts that she can do with her three year old daughter and she is teaching me how to cook. It’s a wonderful collaboration and I’m thankful for the opportunity to get to know my staff partner so well since we may not have met otherwise.
Making savory crepes for our partnership

Making savory crepes for our partnership

  • Our newly elected President Kim Cassidy hosted a carnival pop up event! She has been hosting surprise one-hour fun sessions for the whole campus throughout the year. She has done everything from skee ball to lego building to s’mores and now a carnival! There was cotton candy, popcorn, games, prizes, balloon animals, and temporary tattoos administered by the lovely Communications staff. These events are a great way to bring the campus together and get to know our beloved “KCass” a little better!
My temporary tattoo from the carnival

My temporary tattoo from the carnival

  • I got to help make Filipino food with Barkada, the Filipino student club, this past Friday! I’ve never had Filipino food because Filipino restaurants are rare in Portland and Philly so I was excited to try something new. We made a sort of egg roll called lumpia, both fried with meat and not fried with vegetables. We also made a dessert called turón, a fried pastry with jackfruit, plantains, and brown sugar. We also got to snack on Clover chips and try different Filipino sauces to dip our creations in. There was also a Wii to play Just Dance so it was a fun afternoon for everyone! Afterwards, the Community Diversity Assistants hosted an event where students were able to write down microaggressions they had experienced in the classroom to help develop a diversity curriculum for faculty and staff. 
Homemade FIlipino food

Homemade FIlipino food

Now there’s only a week until Spring Break! Good luck with midterms, Mawrters! I’ll be spending lots of time in Philly in addition to visiting some friends in New York and DC and next week so I’m excited to relax next week.

Summer Internship Search 2013

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Searching for an internship for next summer has been a major source of anxiety for me ever since summer ended last year. Applying for summer internships is very much like repeating the college application process over again: sifting through numerous websites to find potential programs, having to ask for letters of recommendation from professors and supervisors, and using lots of “action words” to sell yourself to the people reading your application. It’s challenging to find the “perfect” internship/job/program that is meaningful, relevant, feasible, AND pays well. While it’s been a stressful process, it’s can also be incredibly exciting to find opportunities that allow you to do something you are interested in.

I feel like I’ve experienced both sides of the internship spectrum during my summers in college. My freshman year, my family was able to find a one way ticket home to Portland for the summer for only $89 dollars which was awesome but limited any sort of summer opportunities to ones in my hometown without buying an expensive, last-minute ticket somewhere else; plus I was very ready to finally be home for a longer period of time. I was fairly ignorant of summer funding opportunities and assumed I would go back to continue working at the art day camp and military youth camp that I have worked at last summer. I ended not being rehired for either job which was a big blow to my self-esteem and led to me frantically applying to every job I could find on Craigslist related to children or non-profit work, though none of them were willing to hire me for such a short period of time. I even was desperate enough to apply for a job canvassing for the environment though I backed out at the last minute after being freaked out by having to raise $300 dollars by asking others for money (I have a hard enough time asking my friends to borrow $5 dollars let alone asking anyone else for money.) I was a bit pompous by refusing to work any service job, after hearing so many horror stories about dealing with rude customers so I decided to take the plunge and work as an unpaid intern for Friends of Outdoor School, the environmental education non-profit that I volunteered as a student leader (camp counselor) and special needs volunteer ever since high school, after I discovered that the 6 day, 5 night program was being cut to a 3 day, 2 night program. If I had been on top of things, I could have received funding from Bryn Mawr but I didn’t start applying for things until Mid-June, which was much too late. Over the summer, I worked in the office assisting my boss with sending thank you cards to donors, managing volunteers, researching grants and potential donor organizations, and learning the ins and outs of non-profit work from an excellent mentor. When I wasn’t in the office, I was leading canvassing events (ironic right?) by going door to door and setting up informational booths at street festivals and events and helping other passionate volunteers manage their own fundraising events, everything from car washes to bake sales. Although completely exhausting, it was incredibly worthwhile experience to be able to work in the non-profit sector on both an administrative and hands-on level. It also was extremely useful in helping me acquire new jobs on campus and for incorporating my new skills into my dorm leadership positions.

My sophomore year I applied for several internships though Bryn Mawr and Haverford. I withdrew my applications from several of the programs I had been called back for interviews for when I found out I was going to be one of Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship Indonesia Research Program. This was a HUGE source of relief for me since by early March, I knew that I would be getting funded to travel in addition to receiving a stipend, and most of all, I now had concrete plans for my summer and no longer had to stress about what was going to happen. The challenges of things not working out the previous summer are what pushed me to apply and drive to do something meaningful and paid. In a way, I think it was meant to be because I met two of my best friends this past summer and it was the perfect way to prepare me to study abroad and to follow up after my 360 experience. I think I was much more mature this summer and had the skills to better process my experiences so it couldn’t have worked out better.

Finding an internship for this summer in particular has been stressful because I’ve felt a great deal of pressure to do something prestigious and relevant to my major since I’m a junior and the days of getting away with sitting at home watching TV and hanging out with friends have long past (that’s more of a winter break thing now). Along with preparing to write a senior thesis and starting to think about post-graduation plans, this summer internship is forcing me to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life, which I’m not sure I’m ready to do just yet.

At this point, I have been struggling with three career paths: clinical psychology, clinical social work, and non-profit management. Clinical psychology is the most prestigious and well-respected of the three, the best paid (average income of $70,000 dollars), and there are programs that would pay for me to complete my PhD with them. However, it also requires the most amount of schooling and I have recently begun to question whether I want to spend the rest of my life in academia doing research. Social work is something I’m extremely passionate about and is a much easier degree to obtain with more flexibility but social work is poorly paid and people often burn out after a few years due to the exhausting intensity required. Non-profit management is also a great interest of mine but one I know less about in terms of the the path one takes to get there so I am hoping the certificate in management course that I’m taking next week through Bryn Mawr will help me get an idea of how one works towards a career in non-profit management! The hard thing about being interested in clinical work of any kind is that therapy is so deeply confidential that it’s nearly impossible to gain any sort of experience as an undergrad so I am not sure if this is something I would even want to do.

Through all my summer internship searching, I’ve learned a lot of things as well. Here’s some tips I’ve discovered as a rising senior who’s been through the internship application process three times now:

1) Utilize your college’s career options. Bryn Mawr and Haverford offer career resources through the Career Development Office (CDO) where you can have your resume looked at, do mock interviews, do an externship (a weeklong internship over winter or spring break shadowing a Haverford or Bryn Mawr alum in their workplace), and utilize career and internship websites that require a password. One of my favorites is the Liberal Arts College Network (LACN) since the internships posted are only available to college students from the top 30 liberal arts schools so there is sometimes less competition for the positions posted. You can check out their site

2) Look for alternative forms of funding. If you find an unpaid internship, there are several sources of funding on campus that will fund you $3600 before taxes dollars to help pay for transportation, food, and housing. They are even offering new $4500 dollar funds for those doing international internships or those living in expensive places like New York. If you end up not finding something until the last minute, work a menial service job so you can support yourself while still doing what you love at your unpaid internship. This is often necessary to build up your skills and resume before you can apply to better paid jobs and internships.

3) Apply for programs and funding through your school. Bryn Mawr offers many different kinds of paid programs that one can apply for in addition to Bryn Mawr students being able to apply to Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship program as international interns. These programs are specifically for bico students so there is less competition than nationwide programs and you’re likely to meet other bico students with similar interests to you plus you will have a constant resource during the summer should you run into any issues.

4) Manage your time and start your search EARLY! With the craziness of the end of the semester during first semester, it’s easy to put off summer things since they seem so far away but some programs (especially for any sort of governmental program) have deadlines as early as November and most programs tend to be due in January or February. Many programs require a letter of recommendation from a professor so you’ll want to have finalized your list of which programs you are applying for before January so that you are able to ask your professors at least three weeks in advance so they have enough time to write you a recommendation. Sit down and have a conversation with said professor so they are familiar with your skills and interests and will therefore write a stronger, less generic letter of recommendation; this is especially important for freshmen who tend to be in primarily large lecture classes. If you’re like me and hate asking for favors, asking for letters of recommendation can be challenging but remember that it’s part of their job to write them, though thank you gifts are always a much appreciated gesture for their time.

5) Stay organized. Applying to internships and jobs can be overwhelming with so many options out there. What’s really helped me this time around is keeping an excel spreadsheet with all of the programs I am applying for, the compensation they offer, the location, the number of hours worked per week, the deadline, the contact person, and the professors recommending me for that specific internship. It’s helped me keep track of when things are do so I know what to prioritize and manage my time better.

6) Networking. Ask your friends for recommendations! All of us are hunting for internships, jobs, and programs so it’s very likely one of your friends has come upon an internship you might be interested in or a website with programs that fit your interests. They also might recommend you something you may have never thought of, which pushes you out of your comfort zone and you may discover a new love for something completely different than your previous experiences. I like to joke that I’m better at finding internships for my friends than for myself; help your friends out by sending them links to jobs or internships they might be interested in! Talk to Bryn Mawr alum, contact the CDO, talk to professors and bosses, anyone you can; you never know who might know someone who might be able to help you have a summer you never forget!

7) Don’t give up. My freshman year, I applied to be one of the Indonesia Research Program interns and was rejected. My sophomore year I re-applied and was accepted! If you are truly passionate about something, try, try, try again until eventually you succeed. Each rejection and feeling of failure helps us to reexamine where we need to continue working and encourages us to improve ourselves, as difficult as it may be sometimes. You might not get your dream internship this summer, and that’s okay. There will be other summers. Every program and job and application helps you to get your foot a little bit further through the door to eventually achieving.

8) HAVE FUN! Internships, jobs, classes, and programs are all ways for you to pursue your passions in a way you may not normally get to do when in the classroom during the school year, usually with lots of hands-on experience. Overall, don’t stress too much as well! These are the years of our lives when we don’t have to worry about paying back debts or taking care of a family. Go working on a fishing boat in Alaska for the summer! Save up during the school year and go backpacking through Southeast Asia! Volunteer at a local non-profit while working a service job on the side! There are countless opportunities out there, sometimes it just takes patience (and a lot of hard work) to find them.

For all you lovely readers out there: What are your experiences with summer internships? Where was your favorite place that you interned? Did any internships end up leading to job opportunities? Any tips for current students applying to summer internships?

Good luck to all of you out there applying for internships and the seniors applying for real world things! Remember that you’re not alone!

Looking Back on 2012 and Looking Forward to 2013

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This year has been an incredible year full of opportunities, adventures, and new experiences. I made my dreams come by finally having the chance to travel the world, four continents none the less. My love for learning was reignited through hands-on experiences and meaningful classroom discussion that taught me to critically think and problematize damage-based approaches. I met new people who changed my life and became even closer with friends from years past. I became self-sufficient and learned to value alone time.

Here’s a brief look at this past year:

January: New year’s was spent in Seattle watching the fireworks over the Space Needle. Winter break ended early for me so I could participate in an externship (a week-long internship that allows bi-co students to shadow alum at their jobs) with a Bryn Mawr alum who worked as a social worker with a hospice service in Jacksonville, FL. Once back at school, I started my Learning and Narrating Childhoods 360, an interdisciplinary cluster of classes, a psychology, education, and comparative literature class, focused on examining child development and literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa with a field study in Ghana over spring break. This month was also when I got into a car accident on the way back from a volunteer event. Although no one was hurt, it was pretty traumatic for me and I still feel anxious when driving. Later that same day, my friend Monica asked me to be her Heller by hanging internet memes on my door.

Finally getting a hellee!

February: Hell Week! From beauty pageants to trials to Goodhart Performances to the Duck Pond Run, Hell Week provides a much needed break from the monotony of the cold winter as freshmen run around campus completing tasks their Hellers have given them to help step out of their comfort zones and to give everyone on campus a good laugh. Some of my highlights of the week were having my Hellee stand on top of a table in Erdman and sing “Friday” by Rebecca Black and having her give me a gondola ride while singing to me in a boat on Rhoads Pond. As a sophomore, I got to see how much hard work goes into making the freshmen’s experiences so magical which made me appreciate the Bryn Mawr community even more.

My exhausted freshmen after the Duck Pond Run

March: Spring Break to Ghana! Although I had been to Canada for four days for a dragonboat competition during my junior year of high school, I had never been to a different continent before so Ghana was a pretty mindblowing experience for me. We traveled 10 hours to Accra, the main city, before taking a 14 bumpy bus ride to Tamale in the North and from there, we took a mini-bus to Dalun, the village where Titagya School was founded in part by a Haverford alum since there are very few pre-schools in Northern Ghana giving children a huge disadvantage when they enter school. There we got to observe in the classroom, attend a Ghanaian Independence Day ceremony, hold a conference with teachers and administrators in the area, and having fun by sharing dance, music, art, and food with each other. We flew back down to Accra where our professors presented along with other lecturers on women’s education and rights at the University of Ghana. We had the weekend to explore Accra where we saw W.E.B Du Bois’s grave, bargained for souvenirs at the traditional market, lounged on the beach, and took in the local culture. Saturday night, we had a great night of laughing, talking, and sharing stories over a delicious dinner with our classmates and new friends from University of Ghana. This was also the night I found out I would be going to Indonesia over the summer and by some incredibly act of serendipity, met a Mawrter who had graduated a semester early who had done my same program the summer before so I was able to pick her brain and hear about her experiences. We were supposed to leave that Sunday but something in the plane was malfunctioning and we got delayed for several days since it was so challenging to put all 18 of us together on a new flight so we didn’t end up getting back to the States until Thursday morning, making any sort of future traveling mishap seem miniscule in comparison. What was unfortunate for me was my two friends had come from rural Illinois to visit me over their Spring Break for that week so I had to make many frantic calls and e-mails so my wonderful friends back at the Mawr could help them get settled without me. Luckily my friends were understanding and flexible and even with our time together being cut in half and me getting sick with strep throat that weekend, we had lots of fun together going into Philly and getting cupcakes and seeing the Magic Gardens. They still can’t stop raving about how beautiful our campus was and how good our dining hall food was! This was also the month where me and three of my friends went up to New York City for a day to explore and show my friend around who had never been there!

360 Class and friends of Titagya School (photo credit: Peony Yiu)

April: Spring Festivals! From chocolate fountains at the awards ceremony to “Get Your Spring On” with jello wrestling to a baseball themed “Spring Fling” outdoor picnic to Holi at Haverfest, where we threw colored powder at each other in honor of the Indian celebration, to May Day; this was the month of taking in the beauty of the cherry blossoms and spending time outside in the sun with friends and food. The way the dates worked this year, May Day actually ended up being the last weekend in April this year. My friends and I woke up early to see our May Day gifts from the graduating seniors, get on our white dresses, put flowers in our hair, eat strawberries and cream for breakfast, and watch the parade (Philadelphia themed this year so I was introduced to Mummers!) The rest of the day was spent jumping in bouncy houses, eating cotton candy, getting our faces painted, and taking pictures with every person I knew. The night ended with Step-sing, where the whole school gets together to sing songs and when many tears are shed as we say good-bye to the seniors.

May Day sunshine happiness

May: Two weeks of finals before having to say some difficult good-byes since I wouldn’t be seeing most of my friends for over eight months due to studying abroad in the fall, before heading back to Portland for three weeks. I volunteered as a special needs volunteer working one on one with a sixth grade student at Outdoor School, the environmental education program I’ve worked with since I was in high school. I spent my limited time at home seeing friends and taking day trips around Oregon like to Cannon Beach on the coast, as well as getting ready for my 10 week trip to Indonesia.

Outdoor School student leaders and special needs volunteers

June: Indonesia! On the first of June, I was off on my next journey to Southeast Asia. After over 30 hours of travels, I met up with the other bi-co interns in Yogyakarta. The first two weeks were spent taking Indonesian for four hours a day and visiting our various NGOs. This was also the time we got to go sightseeing when we saw temples like Prambanan and Borobudur, fun weekend trips to the beach, organic farms, and karaoke, as well as getting to see Iwan Fals, the Indonesian equivalent of Bob Dylan, in concert with 10,000 other fans. After two weeks of getting adjusted to the culture, we jumped into our research methods class with our Indonesian counterparts and started our first research project. Mine was on educational opportunities and experiences of discrimination from Papuan students in Jogja.

Bi-co interns at Borobodur Temple

July: NGO time in Indonesia! July marked the finish of our research class and we had the chance to present our findings from our first research project. We had a few days off during this week so we visited our program coordinator’s village in rural East Java where we climbed a mountain and got to see the organic rice fields their family owned. After our research class, the six of us moved out of living in our wisma(home-stay, basically like an apartment) and moved into host families throughout the city to be closer to our NGOS. I, along with my Indonesian NGO partner Tiwi, moved in with Mas Ignas, a kind man who takes beautiful nature photography as well as owning a restaurant/indoor soccer area, and lives near Malioboro, the main tourist area of Jogja. He took Tiwi and me to his friend’s wedding in rural central Java which allowed me to observe traditional Javanese wedding traditions. We also took a trip with the other interns to a Javanese museum, saw Mt. Merapi, the active volcano near Jogja, and got to hang out Mas Ignas’s restaurant. Another weekend, Tiwi and I planned a trip to a white sand beach and a cave tubing adventure! We began our research on our 2nd research project with our NGOs. My NGO was not running due to Ramadan season but we were still able to interview families, students, volunteers, and teachers about the impact of social environment on children’s behavior.

Organic rice fields with Mt. Lawu, the mountain we climbed, in the background

August: Goodbye Indonesia, Hello Denmark! The last two weeks were spent finalizing our research projects, presenting our findings, buying last-minute souvenirs, and saying good-bye. Tiwi and I traveled to the 2nd largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya, where she goes to school to see a new side of Indonesia. It was hard to say good-bye to our tight-knit community where I had made some of my closest friends but it was time to begin a new journey! I was home for less than a week before it was off to Europe for the first time. The first week was spent doing orientation activities before jumping into classes.

Final night in Indonesia at our favorite restaurant Milas

September: Full throttle Denmark! The first month in Denmark consisted of a lot of exploring, sightseeing, and adjusting to a country completely opposite from my former Indonesian home. I visited museums, climbed towers, saw Of Monsters and Men in concert, and traveled to Western Denmark as a part of my short study tour, where we visited various sustainable organizations and got to visit Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (photo credit to Anna Sekine)

October: The Netherlands/Ireland/United Kingdom: My first travels in Europe outside of Denmark! I visited Amsterdam and Rotterdam in The Netherlands with my sustainability class for a week to take in the canals, Dutch art, stroopwafel, and of course, sustainability! Two weeks later, I traveled on my own for the first time to Ireland and England to experience Irish coastal cliffs, historical monuments, and adorable accents and to learn a lot about myself along the way.

Tower Bridge in London

November: France/Italy/Norway! Also the month of elections and a visit to an open prison! Two weeks after my trip to London and Dublin, I was off on my next travel break to Paris and Rome! I was fortunate to experience a different side of Europe (aka not just Northern Europe). I ate amazing food and desserts, took in breathtaking ancient ruins and exquisiteness monuments, saw some of the most famous art in the world for free, and got to throw myself into another country where I didn’t speak the language. The weekend after I got back, I got to make a life dream come true by seeing one of my favorite bands, Bon Iver, in concert which was extremely lucky because apparently the band will be on a hiatus for a while after this tour since they felt the music was getting to commercial. The next weekend, I took a mini-cruise (not as glamorous as it sounds) to Norway to admire the modern architecture and check out The Scream.

Pont de l'Archevêché (bridge where couples put locks on the fence and throw their keys into the river below)

December: Christmas and going home! December was stressful and dark and cold but I got to experience Christmas in Europe which is an incredible way to spend the holiday season. I got to eat Danish Christmas delicacies, hygge with my visiting family, and see the lights of Tivoli (which was actually rated one of the top ten places in the world to see Christmas lights). My friend Esther also visited so I was able to see last-minute sights before hopping on a flight back to the States. The rest of December back home has been spent catching up with friends and family, watching 2 Broke Girls and Lost, and trying to motivate myself to apply for summer internships.

Making marzipan creations for Christmas with my visiting family (photo credit: Lene Espersen)

Overall, this year taught me so much about myself and the world. 2012 has been the year of travels and now 2013 will be the year of going home (to Bryn Mawr finally after eight months) and being a real adult. This year, I will be able to anass (a Greek cheer that only seniors can start as a way of congratulating others), rush the senior steps, and run down senior row which is so unreal. I also will have to say good-bye to some of my closest friends who will be studying abroad in the fall and who are currently seniors which I already know is going to involve a lot of tears but it will make me appreciate the time I have with them even more and I am proud and excited for all of them for starting new chapters of their lives. After 20 years, I’ve realized setting concrete resolutions for New Year’s tend not to last but rather that I should aspire to be a certain kind of person. I aspire to learn new skills that I’ve lacked all my life (riding a bike, driving a car, braiding hair, learning a string instrument) and to develop skills and hobbies I haven’t had time to do in the past few years (reading for pleasure, art, etc.), to manage my time better by spending less time on the computer and more time on getting things done as well as spending meaningful time with people I care about, and most of all, to let go of things and to move forward, something I struggle with a lot but I’ve been slowly been doing this year. I hope to continue to live in a way that I did during my travels, taking advantage of every opportunity and pushing myself to see new places and have new experiences.

2012 was amazing but I can’t wait for all the new adventures 2013 brings and being reunited with the people who matter most in my life.

A Letter from the Past

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During my CPGC orientation weekend before my trip to Indonesia, they had us write letters to ourselves to read when we came back. I guess it probably came while I was in Denmark a long time ago but in a way I think it’s even more relevant now (plus it gave me enough time to forget what I had written so it really did feel like my past self was talking to my future self). Reading this was exactly what I needed and it’s almost scary how much I predicted came true. I’m going to be writing a long reflection soon, but for now here’s what I wrote verbatim to my future, pre-abroad self back in April:

Dear Amanda,

You have just finished the first leg of your journey of international travels. You’re probably looking forward to being able to drink the tap water, use a modern toilet, and no longer be called a “boule” [actually spelled bule: the Indonesian word for foreigner/white person] everywhere you go. You’re also probably sad to leave all your new friendships behind and that you finally were able to call Indonesia your home. That’s okay.

You have had to leave your home several times now whether it be Portland or Bryn Mawr. It’s never easy to leave a place you love, a place where you have built connections and community. Remember that you will always carry your experiences with you and they will continue to shape you wherever you go. The people you met will always care about you, somewhere in themselves. Even if you lose contact (which will likely happen due to time differences and access to a computer), the interactions you had together are what changed you and helped you grow.

You’re not going to be the same person you were when you left Indonesia nor will you be the same person once you come back from Denmark. This is going to be challenging because it will seem as if everything has changed once you return to Portland/Bryn Mawr. And it will have. But the change in yourself is what allows you to see a familiar place in a new way. It may seem as if no one can understand your experience, which is true. Your friends will be there to listen to you and support you however because they love you and don’t ever forget it! Make sure to talk with people who have shared your experience (Skype dates with Elizabeth, Alia, Colin, Alex, and Jacob!) They will be experiencing reverse culture shock as well.

Transitioning from Indonesia to Denmark isn’t going to be easy. You will go from being stared at on the streets to looking like everyone else. The countries could not be more radically different from each other. This will be a good time to Skype with others who have previously studied abroad (especially people like Duong who have gone through a similar experience of going directly from the Global South to the Global North.) Make sure to take advantage of your support systems and resources. I know it’s hard for you but it’s okay to ask for help.

Now that you have completed your experience in Indonesia, it’s important to remind yourself why you wanted to do the program in the first place. You wanted to travel, to try new things, to experience a new culture, to push yourself out of your comfort zone to discover new things about yourself, to do something meaningful with your summer, to empower communities, to get away from Portland, to challenge yourself to grow as a person, to meet new people, to form connections, to eat good food, and to use your academic discourse in a real-life setting (360 would be proud!) You also may be feeling like you didn’t actually make a meaningful contribution to your community. Remember that social action takes time so you aren’t always going to see the impact of your work, no matter how many tireless hours you put in. Sometimes making a difference expresses itself in more subtle ways. The fact that you do have power and privilege (as much as you may not like to admit it) can be used to your advantage as well as the advantage of the people you worked with. You can bring light to the joys and struggles you experienced together. Painting a more authentic image of a culture deconstructs media stereotypes and allows for a greater cross-cultural understanding. You can also go back at some point, even if that is not for many years. The lessons you have learned internationally will help you gain a greater perspective of issues at home as well.

Congratulations Amanda! You always wanted to travel the world and now you finally have! You earned your CPGC and deserved this experience. You have been exposed to extreme injustices while also developing the skills to critically assess the role of Americans doing service in a global context. Use this experience and knowledge as empowerment to help communities utilize resources to make changes within their own communities. I hope you learned a lot and had the time of your life! Be proud of yourself and get excited for your next adventure in DENMARK!!! You’ve finally become one of those people who can talk about their travels but remember to recognize not everyone has the same access to these opportunities. Keep calm and Brecon Fourth.

<3 Amanda Beardall

[On the back I drew a picture of an image I have considered getting as a tattoo and an important symbol in my life: an osprey (a bird of prey that lives near rivers, which was camp name and an animal we would often see when I did dragonboating in high school) with the text “Alis volat propiis” which is Oregon’s state motto and translates to “She flies with her own wings”; representing my connection to communities throughout my life and the independence I have developed throughout my experiences]

Let’s Backtrack a Bit Here: Indonesia

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It seems a bit unfair to talk about Denmark without first talking about everything I experienced in Indonesia and how this “year of travels” came to be.

Before this year, I had never been outside of the U.S aside from visiting Canada once. By the end of this year, I will have been to three different countries on three different continents thanks to Bryn Mawr and Haverford. I spent my spring break visiting a preschool in a rural village in Northern Ghana as a part of my 360, a program revolving around an interdisciplinary cluster of classes focused on child development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over the summer, I was in Indonesia as an intern through Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship. I did research with a NGO that works with youth in underserved communities. A week after I returned from Indonesia, I left for Copenhagen, Denmark for my fall semester abroad where I am studying sustainability in Europe, as a part of my environmental studies minor.

I am so grateful to be able to experience so many new things and apply everything I’ve been learning in the classroom to real-life settings. Bryn Mawr has not only provided me with the opportunity to gain new perspectives by traveling to new countries, but has also given me the tools to critically assess my experiences and my role in a global context. These experiences exemplify the amazing resources available at Bryn Mawr. The college provides all these opportunities because they truly have faith that Mawrters are the global leaders of tomorrow. It’s incredibly empowering to go to an institution that has so much confidence in its students. Coming from a low-income, single-parent household, I never had the ability to travel so this journey has been an utterly life-changing and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I’ve been extremely fortunate in that my travels have taken me to three different continents so I’ve been able to get a taste of Africa, Asia, and Europe and to explore issues such as gender, race, class, religion, and environmental justice through a cross-cultural perspective. I am going to dearly miss the Bryn Mawr community while I’m off exploring the world but I’m ecstatic to share all of memories with friends and bring different viewpoints to academic discussions when I return.

Indonesian students and bi-co students: Indonesia Research Program 2012

Indonesia was an amazing experience. The Indonesia Research Program is in its sixth year through Haverford College’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, a program that provides funding for students to complete internships that promote social justice. The past five years the program was in Yogyakarta for two weeks and Bali the rest of the time but we were the first year where the entire program was in Yogyakarta, allowing us to really become connected to the city. The five other Bryn Mawr/Haverford students and I spent the first two weeks taking Indonesian classes for four hours a day and visiting our different NGOs and sightseeing during our downtime. The next three weeks we continued to take Indonesian classes for an hour a day and took research classes with both American and Indonesian professors, where we learned how to conduct social science research while also having lectures on the culture, politics, and history of Indonesia. We were also introduced to our Indonesian student counterparts who collaborated with us on research projects during the research class and while working at our individual NGOs during the last part of the summer.

I learned so much about myself while in Indonesia, through both challenges and successes. In Indonesia, there is more of a focus on process rather than the finished product, in stark contrast to the U.S. I learned to be patient and persevere as I encountered frustrating moments of miscommunication, disorganization, and distinct cultural differences. I became more independent and able to laugh at myself as I struggled with the language and navigated issues of race and identity, most often while being stared at for being the only bule (foreigner/white person) in a crowd of people. I stepped out of my comfort zone, pushed my boundaries, and found happiness along the way. Throughout the summer I had so many unforgettable opportunities: climbing a mountain; dancing in the rain at a 10,000 person concert for Iwan Fals, the most influential political singer in Indonesia; seeing a traditional Javanese wedding; relaxing on a white sand beach with crystal blue water; painting batik; traveling to Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia; singing my heart at a karaoke; going cave tubing; visiting two organic farms; seeing my first drag show; eating lots and lots of delicious and cheap food; and creating tight-knit and lasting friendships with both the bi-co and Indonesian interns.

It’s still fresh in mind since I departed less than a month ago. I miss it so much. I loved it while I was there but I think you have to leave a place to truly appreciate and realize the impact it’s had on you. After I left Indonesia, I had less than a week at home in Portland, Oregon before jetting off again for Copenhagen. It’s been quite the experience trying to process all my experiences in Indonesia while concurrently trying to adjust to a completely new environment here in Copenhagen since the two places couldn’t be more radically different from each other.

It would be nearly impossible to sum up my experiences in Indonesia with a single blog post so if you’re interested, I documented my experiences, reflections, and photos from the summer on a separate blog here: I will never forget Indonesia and I am dead-set on finding a way to return one day. For now, it’s time to move forward though as I embark on the last leg of my traveling journey: Denmark!