Studying and Living Experiences in Aceh
Studying in an Islamic country was my desire till I got an opportunity and scholarship to study at Universitas Syiah Kuala, Aceh, Indonesia. Now I am an International Student taking the English Education major. There are many stories and experiences about study and living that I have gained while I am living in Aceh for almost one year.
Firstly, let’s start with my studies at this university. I am a third-year student in the teacher training faculty (FKIP) in English education major. Unfortunately, throughout my first and second years, I had to rely on online learning due to the pandemic of covid-19. Although the language barrier sometimes took me a long time to learn new things, in the end, my online learning went well. In my third year, I had the opportunity to study offline for the first time, something I had been looking forward to while studying online. The first day of offline classes made me a bit nervous, I was afraid that I couldn’t get along with my friends due to the language barrier. But everything turned out to be unpredictable. Everyone here was very kind and ready to help me with everything both in my studies and socializing here.
Secondly, I will tell a story about living in Aceh for almost a year of my stay here. During the first period of my stay here, I had to adjust to the language, food, and traffic. The hardest is probably the food because I am a person who cannot eat spicy food. Once many of my Indonesian friends came to recommend food that is not spicy and that I should eat. My favorite dish right now is chicken Soto, especially the one at the university. It is delicious! As for the language, at first, there might be some problems because of my familiarity with the Melayu language communication but now I can use Bahasa Indonesia to communicate quite well. Another is about the society and environment of Banda Aceh City. Aceh is an Islamic province, so many things are very similar to my province, which means that I do not have to adjust much in this area. Last but not least, Aceh has many tourist attractions, which made me fall in love with the nature of the city very much and experience great moments.
My life and learning in Aceh have been challenging and have given me many things over almost a year, both in terms of living in the university as a student and living in this society as a foreigner. Both of these show that no matter who we are and where we come from, people here are ready to help and love us as a human friend can give. I would like to thank all readers who read this line. Hope this article is more or less useful to everyone. See you again next time. Thank you!
