Welcome to Snowland!!

Welcome to Snowland!!!

Helooo! I am back…  The time runs so fast, I’ve been here for 2 months, guess what, if you are an exchange student, The longer you stay in your destination country, the more experience you get.

In my first month, people might assume me as an exchange student, that’s the reason why they are entushiastic at me. But afterwards, they are not as enthusiastic as they were. In my opinion, it make sense, it means they already assumed me as their friend.

On the October 31^st I experienced my first Halloween. I came up to my friend house. Then, we brought our plastic bag, and we walked around the neighborhood to get candy as many as we can do. Hahaha. It seems goofy , but it was interesting, no matter if I am already teenager, you should ask for the candy brohh.

Halloween was done, I headed back to my house which is 1 hours away from where I was in Halloween party. I counted all the candy I got, it was so many, it could be countless haha. I shared a half of em either to my hostparents or myfriend. I ate all the rest and fortunately I am not getting fat yet, because I always try to do sport as often as I can do.

I used to be in soccer team here. But     I am no longer in soccer team, our schedule was over a week before Halloween. So, I decided to be the part of quizbowl team. Quizbowl is s group that refers to the student who are interested in math, English, and science. I will explain what quizbowl is like. We are in the room, and there are 2 Tv around us. We can see our opposite’s voice and listen what they are saying. They can do the same thing as well. The speaker will give the question, and your group only have approximately 15 seconds to answer each question. If you aren’t able, just say “please pass” and your opponent is going to answer it.  The game usually lasts for 1 hour. The team that has more point is the winner.

One of the most memorable moment is when I got my first winter on the November 8^th, It might sounds dramatic, but I was speechless how to describe it. Besides being the part of quizbowl team, I am also the part of crosscountry skying team. In my highschool, we have 2 different kinds of sky team, crosscountry and downhill. In downhill you start skying from up hill and go down until you touch the finishline. Both of them are very physical sport. In my first time doing crosscountry I struggled a lot, because I’ve never done that before. I fell down several times and get up, these are exhausting. But my coach’s motto is “if you aren’t falling, you are not learning.

They both are such fascinating activity. Talking about how my school is going so far, it is pretty good, I have to manage my time wisely. I always get up at 5.45 am, afterwards I take a shower, I never breakfast anyway, just my habit, hahaha.

I usually go to my highchool by school bus, our school provides school bus for those who don’t have ride to school, it might be because of either their parents are busy or another excuse.

If there was a student who hasn’t finished their homework, they don’t get a punishment, but they need to come to knowledge café. Knowledge café is an additional class for those who were either absent, sick, or not done with their homework. This class lasts for a half an hour. Our school is done at 3 pm. My ski practice starts at 4 am, we have 5 days practice in a week, so intense though, haha.

So, that’s the only thing I want to tell you, I still try improving my ability in writing an article. I am so glad to be the part of the town where I am living now. 

Thanks for reading my article :):):)

First time skyiiiing , This is unexplainable experience

I dressed up as a basketball player, even i don't look like basketball player haha

Rock climbing, It was in Lansing, Michigan

Madrigal Dinner, It is drama who tells about old american fairytale. I was the waiter on this festival by the way, 

Spanish class, We made the most delicious cookie ever, haha

Before skying :)

It was taken when i finished performing traditional dance from North Sumatera. I was so proud and hilarious, All the audience enjoyed my peformance :)

Halloween, before walking around the neighborhood to get candy!!

I pretended to be a scary person, But i am actually not that scary, haha

First month in USA

                                                   
Halo! My name is Dhani Alhamidi Lubis. I am from North Sumatera, Indonesia. This is my first newsletter. I am one of AFS students, who are send to US YP 2015-2016. I write this letter to inform you all about my experience during my first month in USA.

I have received the information about my host family a little late, it was about 3 months. I got the information 2 days before my departure. It was so sudden. I had have to prepare my suitcase and      all of the stuff less than a day. I was very exhausted. I arrived in US on Sept, 17^th 2015(US time), US time is 12 hours late than Indonesias. I stayed overnight in Chicago and I continued my flight to Duluth in the next morning. My liason picked me up at the airport and we drove 1 hour away to got Washburn. I was placed in Washburn, Wisconsin. Any way, I traveled alone and it was amazing experience for me.

Finally, I met my hostmom at night. She looked forward on me. I was very excited. After that, I took a nap until 8pm. My hostfather called for having dinner. Both of them asked me about my flight, my family, Indonesia and many other things. I started school on the next Monday. I had have to go to school although I was still in jetlag. On my first day school, everyone was very friendly and kind with me. I picked some kind of social class like Accounting, personal finance, and the other classes. I like all of my class so much. The next day, everything was going well at school. My school has a lot of new system that I have never known before, so I need to ask someone when I get a trouble with those, but it was good experience to know new system that you’ve never gotten.

In my second week, I went to the Apple Festival. It is the biggest apple festival in my town and many people come from another town to see Apple Festival. You could see many kind of  apple product like juice, apple caramel, apple jam and many more. I bought a caramel apple, but it was very sticky. I did some interesting activities every weekend. I sailed in the next week. We used our own boat, When I was at the lake the weather was too windy. Because I’ve never sailed before so I asked my hostmom “Are we going to sink?”, she was laughing at me. Hahahaha. I could see whole part of the lake superior, and we also went to the Madeline Island. It was not too far from the lake. I met my hostparents relative, and we stayed until at night and we came back soon.

On Oct, 15^th  I went to the South Dakota. The trip took 16 hour to got South Dakota. I visited a mini water fall there, and some amazing sand hill. The sand hill was very awesome because it looks like a desert in middle east. I took some cool picture on the top of the hill, it was creepy, hehe. We also went to the Mount Rushemore. It is one of the monumental symbol in USA. It has 4 president statue such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theoodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. I watched a short movie on the theatre and learned how did us government form.

During my first month, I learn how to communicate with people in my new environment, how to make a good impression, and many things. Actuallly I am not talk active person, that’s why I was very afraid when I talk to people. But as the time goes by, I could handle that by reading many books, it would improving my vocab. I just realized that it’s not as easy as I could imagine to start the conversation with the people. The people here taught me how to manage the time well. Hopefully, I would be better in language, school, personality. My Goals while i’m here in the US are to be a good person, improving my English and knowledge and surely for having amazing experiences.

Taken by: My hostdad
(Before we sailed,  Lake Superior)

(Devil's tower, WYOMING)

Perjalanan menjadi kandidat AFS USA YP 2015-2016

Semua ini berawal ketika aku duduk di kelas 3 smp. Kakakku memberi tahu aku tentang sebuah program pertukaran pelajar yang diadakan oleh Bina Antarbudaya yang bekerja sama dengan AFS (America Field Service). Kemudian aku mulai mengikuti seleksi program pertukaran pelajar ini ketika duduk di kelas 2 SMA. Pada tes tahap 1, materi yang diujikan adalah Pengetahuan Umum, Bahasa Inggris dan membuat Essay berbahasa Indonesia. Setelah selesai tes, aku hanya pasrah kepada Allah SWT. Dan... ketika pengumuman hasil seleksi tiba, ternyata aku lulus !!!.


2 minggu setelahnya, akupun mengikuti seleksi tahap 2, materinya adalah interview bahasa indonesia dan bahasa inggris. Sumpah, karena aku orangnya cenderung pendiam aku sangat tidak percaya diri mengikuti seleksi tahap 2 ini. Namun, aku tetap mempersiapkan diri dengan sebaik mungkin. Alhamdulillah, aku kembali lulus. Aku sangat senang.

Seleksi tahap 3 pun tiba, materinya adalah dinamika kelompok. Jadi seluruh peserta diacak untuk dibentuk menjadi satu kelompok, sehingga kecil kemungkinannya jika ada yang mengenal satu sama lain didalam kelompok. Biasanya setiap kelompok diberi sebuah projek oleh juri, dan yang dinilai adalah bagaimana setiap peserta bersikap didalam kelompok itu. Alhamdulillah, aku lulus lagiiii!!!! hehehehehe

Untuk seleksi tahap 4, aku tidak dapat bercerita banyak, karena tes tahap 4 ini materinya hanya diketahui oleh Binabud pusat di Jakarta. Aku lulus, walaupun sudah melewati 4 tahap, tetapi masih ada tesnya lagi loooo.. hehe


Seleksi tahap 5 mengenai pengisian formulir internasional. Jadi kita sebagai peserta diarahkan untuk mengisi form-form mengenai keluarga,teman,lingkungan sekitar,dll dan form ini berbahasa inggris.
Sewaktu mengisi form country preference (negara yang ingenue dituju) aku menderita galau akut. Aku sangat ingin sekali bersekolah di Jerman, karena aku ada fansnya Ozilllll. Tetapi setelah berdiskusi dengan keluarga akhirnya negara tujuan utama ku adalah Amerika Serikat, kemudian Jerman,Italia, Finlandia dan Swiss.


Berbulan-bulan pun berlalu, alhamdulillah aku terpilih menjadi kandidat ke Amerika Serikat. Dan pada tanggal 12 Agustus nanti aku akan berangkat ke Amerika. Program ini tidak akan aku sia-siain. Pasti!! insya allah.

Semangat buat kita semua.