My nickname is Redy. I am from Indonesia. I came to AIU from Palembang to Jakarta, then to Kuala Lumpur. It was my first time to go by plane, especially to go abroad. I was very lucky to get chance to study abroad.
I arrived at AIU on 18th November 2010. At first, we stayed in the hostel near the gate of AIU. Then, we moved to another hostel. They said that the previous hostel was the hostel for staff. That was why we moved to the new hostel. In the old hostel, I was in the same room with my country mate, Wahyu. We only stayed in that hostel only for one day or two days.
By the way, I arrived at AIU at night. My first sight at AIU area was nice. I saw Giant Mall with lots of lights. It was looked so nice with its lights. Next, my country mates and I went to our rooms to take a rest. I got the third floor. It was very tired to move my luggage to the third floor. After I had finished putting all the things to my room, I walked around the hostel. I saw some students playing football on the road. The looked closed although they just knew each other. It meant that games could make them closed.
After having a look, I went to my room again. Then, I wanted to charge my phone battery. Unluckily, the electric plug was different. My plug was two holes and the plug in that place was three holes. Then, I went to another room to ask about this. In fact, they also had the same problem. They could not charge their batteries because of that problem. So, I could not charge my battery. Afterwards, I took a shower because it was very hot after a long journey. Then, I slept.
On the next day, I walked around the campus together with my country mates and two guys from Uzbekistan. They were my first friends. We had a look at football field, male hostel, orphanage hostels, and Albukhary mosque. At noon, we went to Albukhary mosque. We wanted to perform Friday prayer because it was Friday. We went there at 12.00 at noon. We waited there for an hour. We did not know that Friday prayer was around 01.00 o’clock. All of us thought that Friday prayer was around 12.oo at noon, because we normally did Friday prayer at that time. After praying, we went to the canteen. This canteen was the old canteen before Student Centre. We would like to eat here three times a day.
On the following day, we moved to the new hostel. It was our real hostel, not the staff’s hostel. I got the room number 106. It was in the first floor. I was the first student in that room. Other roommates of mine arrived in our room in the evening and at night. When my roommates were away, I felt lonely because I did not know anyone except my country mates. To delete that loneliness feeling, I listened to the radio. It was radio station with Malay language. At first, I could understand very well Malay language, although Malay language and Indonesian were quite similar. After some time, I could follow the sound of the disk jokey (DJ).
On the first day of the new hostel, there were many students coming from their countries. Once, there was a guy from Thailand. I wanted to have a chat with him, but I was shy. So, I just looked at what he was doing at that time. He came with some people. One of them could speak Malay. I got confused why someone from Thailand could speak Malay. Later on, I knew that some people from Thailand and Vietnam could speak Malay language. For people from Thailand, they could speak Malay because they lived in the area near Malaysia. That was why they could speak Malay language. For Vietnamese, I did not get the answer yet.
Next, I introduced each other with my roommates. We talked about many things, such as: religion, our culture, etc. However, my first feeling in the first week was loneliness. I tried step by step to decrease that feeling by being together with my roommates and other friends. Then, I did not feel lonely any more.
In the first week, we also had placement tests for English course and orientation day. In placement tests, I did not have many problems. For orientation days, we were informed about many things about Albukhary International University. After those orientation days, we normally had Friday meeting. It was from 02.30 PM to 03.30 PM. Then, after placement tests, we had a normal class from 08.30 AM to 04.30 PM, but we had lunch time for us to take a rest at 01.00 PM.
I did many activities together with my friends at AIU. We had Service Program activities, such as: cleaning the mosque, cleaning the kindergarten area, visiting the orphanage home, etc. We also had some fun activities, such as: trip to Penang Island, Tai Chi session, futsal competition, room competition, etc. Although we did not win the competition, we really enjoyed those activities.
Now, I am in the last program of the course before foundation. It is Research and Social Development Program. In this program, we learn how to write a proposal. To write a good proposal, we should do some research about it. So, we need to collect some data from internet or some information from people around us to support our proposal information.
Overall, I really enjoy living at AIU, because here I learn how to live far from our family. Here, I learn how to become diligent, that before this I was always depended on my family. I learn how to do many things by myself. I try not to let something was done by my parents for my daily needs. Then, I can get many friends from many countries. From them, I can know many cultures from many countries.
Ahmad Nuredy 