Monday (22 January 2018) PENS welcome the arrival of three foreign students from Korea (named Isyana, Anisa and Yusuf) and two foreign students from Philippines (named Dean and Jude). The Philippines student majoring in Electrical Technology. While the Korean ones are majoring in Chinese Literature, Indonesian Literature and International History.
The event was organized by PENS International Cooperation Office (PICO) and supported by the PICO Volunteers. The five students came to the PENS at 10 AM, their arrival was greeted with joy by the volunteers. At this moment volunteers and foreign students share stories about their experience during in Surabaya since last Friday (19 January 2018). Some of them have visited the mall, watched movies and tasted traditional Indonesian food. When they tasted the Indonesian food, most of them don’t like it too much because most of Indonesian food has spicy flavor like a fried rice, spicy chicken and the other foods.
In the afternoon, the foreign student were symbolic greeted by the director of PENS and profesor from Busan University, Prof. Young Bong Seo, there was an interesting activity when they were greeted by the director. Before that they were asked to come forward to introduce themself and asked to share some experiences during in Surabaya. They were also given some interesting questions by the line of PENS director. One of the Korean students (Yusuf) seemed confused when trying to answer in Bahasa, but he still tried to answer it with Bahasa even though less smoothly. After that they were wearing a necklace of Batik cloth and pins from volunteer, the pin contains their own name written with markers.
The next agenda is the documentation session, this foreign student is invited to take a picture with the volunteers, line of PENS director and head of PENS department. They are very enthusiast when take a picture and worn traditional Indonesian property like Blangkon and flags from three countries (Indonesia, South Korea, and Philippines). Then they eat traditional Indonesian food called “Nasi Tumpeng”. the first Nasi Tumpeng pieces were awarded by the director to Miss Anisa, they seemed enjoy the food this time, because it is not spicy. So they can eat more than once. When they were eating Nasi Tumpeng, they also share some experiences with volunteers and also line of PENS director.
there are many interesting stories here and it was an unforgetable story for volunteers, foreign students, and the line of PENS directors. See you on the next PICO agenda. – Rachmad / Aldilla