The National Camp

So, continuing the story about before I come here... No, I didn't just end up being on the airplane to USA, I still had some other new tests.

In Indonesia, in case you're not Indonesian, we have so many, many students wanting to go abroad as an exchange student. That's why AFS made some strict tests for the students applying, and yes, the tests in our country are much more difficult than how they do it in another country. If you want to compare the number of students from Indonesia with other country, we were the majority of the arrival orientation held in USA. I'll tell the story later, though.

The National Camp is indeed a part of those strict tests. They collected students from all over the country in Jakarta; they made the camp for about a week but they divided the week into three batches according to our regions, and my region, Bogor, was included in the first batch.

I remember clearly it started on Thursday and I had to not attend school - leaving my Biology test aside until Monday - and it was really fun meeting students that were also fighting to experience being an exchange student. I was in the same room with Ninis who is also from my school, Tias who is from Karawang, Shinta who is from Jakarta, and Nina who is also from Jakarta. The Bina Antarbudaya organization committee, which runs AFS related business in Indonesia, collected all of our gadgets on the first day. They said it was for safety so that nobody loses any gadgets, but I really think it's to keep the students to focus on the test rather than tweeting about it all day. LOL.

The First Day

The first day was fun. In the afternoon we had River of Life; it's a test where everybody were divided into small groups, and there will be an alumnus to guide the group, then you will draw something that describes your life on a paper - even including things that had not happened yet. After that we got some papers to fill in - all about our own personality. There was a question about who is the person you admired most, and my answer was my own friend. He is only a little bit older than me, though, but I thought he had became an amazing person already. I don't really admire famous people I don't actually know; I love people around me the most.

Before the second test, we had some free time after dinner. It was raining outside and Shinta was sitting beside the window when she said, "It would have been perfect if we had our gadgets that we can listen some music from!" Then I said yes to that, and I realized how addictive technologies can be...

At the evening, we were told to collect it. Then we had a really fun game where everybody was divided into small groups again. We were given some cards that had been cut off, and they gave it to us like randomly and we had to make it all one piece of perfect card again. We were not told the criteria of that "perfect card", so we tried hard to guess; we tried mixing the hearts with the diamonds, mixing the king with the queen - but it turned out that we were doing it wrong. We were also told that we weren't allowed to ask or give help to another groups because we were competing each other, but we found out that it was impossible to make the cards perfect only by what we have, and we realized that we just had to work with everybody.

And we did. And we all passed that test.

The Second Day

The second day was a day of interview test. Yeah, interview test once again for us. This time, the interview will be to investigate our personalities; are we qualified enough for the program? But, this time, the interviewers will mix Indonesian and English, so we have to be prepared for both languages.

The committee divided us into two big groups: Group 1 will begin at 8 a.m. and Group 2 will begin at 2 p.m., and I was assigned to group 2. Tias and Shinta, my roommates, were also assigned to Group 2, while Ninis and Nina were assigned to Group 1. I stayed together with Tias and Shinta at our room, and before long Mona also joined us.

"Did you realize?" I asked Shinta, Tias, and Mona, "I think there is something basic for how they divided us into these two groups."

"Yeah, I also think so," Shinta said, "Did you guys realize?"

"I think they divided us by our personalities," I said, putting out what I had been thinking about since the morning.

"Yes, I think there are some similarities of personalities for each group," said Shinta again, completing what I had been wanting to said. Yeah, I think Tias', Shinta's, and Mona's personalities resemble mine better than Ninis or Nina. Not only them, but also the rest of other students.

At first, we thought the personalities of Group 1 members are the best. But then, something began to arose to my mind: no, there is none of our personalities that is above the other's, we are just different. That's what it is.

After that we finally talked about anime.

Later that afternoon, the Group 1 members began to come back to their rooms. Nina and Ninis were back again, Mona came back to her room, and I leaned to my bed thinking about all the stuff the interviewers might ask. Relax, that was what I was capable of thinking about when it came to soothe my own mind. It did nothing, though.

Suddenly someone knocked our room, "Is Larasati in this room now?" someone said, "I need her to come to the interview room now."

What?

Wait, what happened?

"Laras," one of my roommates called. My mind couldn't help to think about anything, so I just marched to the door and said, "Yes?"

"The interviewer wants you. Now," said the young lady abruptly, "follow me."

And so I did. In the lift, I asked her why in the world the interviewer called me before Group 2's session started. She said she didn't know, so I asked no more, except when I asked where did she go as an exchange student (she went to USA) and where did she go to high school in Indonesia (she is my school's alumna).

When we arrived at the interview building, I was told to sit and wait a little bit. It made me more nervous, of course. Apparently Mona and Wina (my other friend) were also told to come earlier and were told to wait with me. The bad part is, we didn't get to eat our lunch first because they called us so suddenly. I starved along the wait to be called in. Oh, well...

Then the young lady called my name. I went in, anxious about everything, and sat down in front of them with big smile while praying for them not to read my anxiousness. They asked a few questions in Indonesian; I remember they asked something about me selling traditional cakes in my school back then. Yes, I worked like that. Before going to school, I always took a detour to a traditional cake market, riding my motorbike to there and then to my school. I also brought my friend, Sintia, and I gave her a ride every morning to school for some money to buy gas. Why? Because I didn't want to starve. Not that I was starving, but there were always some months when my needs exceeded the amount of money I had. I never, ever was able to ask for more money to my parents; I know it was really hard for them to gain money, so my only choice was to gain my very own money. I explained to them, and they seemed to be listening very carefully for what I said. Then one of the interviewers asked, "May we start to speak English now?"

"Yes," Of course, I knew there was no other answer to that question.

I stuttered along my answers in English. I wasn't used to speaking English back then, and I didn't want to prepare, too. I don't know why; it just feels unnatural and unfair if I practice before a personality test. After all, that is a personality test, so we are supposed to be honest, right?

Seemed to me like the interviewers didn't mind my stuttered answers. They went along just fine with it, and I finished the interview. "You can have your lunch now," said the interviewer, but I didn't have much appetite anymore.

"How was it?" My friends urged to know what happened. I explained what I could. I really didn't feel like eating lunch anymore so I just waited there for my friends to come and finish their interviews. Oh, one thing I waited is the afternoon snacks! We always had delicious afternoon snacks waiting after doing activities in that building.

Eventually the day ended, leaving our minds anxious for the result of that interview.

The Third Day

The third day is the day we have to come back home. But before that, there was one big obstacle before coming home: the SLEP test. SLEP is an abbreviation for Secondary Level English Proficiency test, it was a test created by ETS and administered by American middle schools and high schools for students whose first language is not English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_Level_English_Proficiency_test). This test were used to determine our level of English skills, so if we passed other tests but we didn't achieve the AFS' minimum SLEP score, we will be told to study English more.

That day was a very big day for me. Everybody else brought their books of TOEFL exercise tests, or had studied before the National Camp begun, or had already been used to speaking English very fluently. I'm really screwed I'm not going to pass this, that was what I could think about.

This is my big problem: as I mentioned, I don't want to prepare for tests because if I prepare it feels like I'm not honest with what I'm really capable of. I don't know if it's the right way to view things, I don't know if it's weird or what, but I don't think it's worth to "lie" on tests; especially that one. We were going to be sent out of our country for one year without anyone else we knew around. Of course I didn't expect it to be easy, and if I weren't really capable to overcome it, then they will knew and they wouldn't send me so nothing bad would happen. But if I was really capable to overcome everything lies ahead, they would send me. Both were the best choice for me.

But I was anxious about my own ideals. Really, really anxious.

The listening part is the most unforgettable part. It was hard as a shell that won't open no matter how hard I crack it; no matter how hard I tried to listen, I wasn't able to hear at all. So I just made up everything according to what I heard - even though the record sounds like bees buzzing around on my ears - and wrote it down on the answers paper. Whatever, I will pray so Allah will give me a chance. A chance to be an exchange student, and enjoy the life of it...

Finally we got our gadgets back. We realized one thing: the National Camp tests are over. And, we will miss each other until the next phase come: The Orientation Camp.

To be continued on the next post!

From Brewster, NY with best wishes for you all who read this thing

Larasati Tanjung