A huge reason that I wanted to live in another country was to experience cultural exchange. I wanted to learn about another culture, and I wanted to teach about my own culture. At SMA (senior high school) 10, I live in the dorms with the students. This means that I get to be with students constantly, and it is my favorite part of being in Indonesia. I love learning about Indonesia through the eyes of my students, and I love answering their questions about my life in America. Whenever I am able to, I try to bring a piece of American culture into the dorms. One of my favorite memories was Halloween. My students had never celebrated Halloween, and so I tried to think about how I could bring the holiday to them in Indonesia. I dressed up as a witch for school, and I walked around with a pumpkin that I made out of construction paper. I taught my students to say “trick-or-treat,” and I explained to them that they needed to say it if they wanted candy. For class, my students worked in teams to compete in a costume competition and during one afternoon, my co-teachers and I bought a bunch of watermelons and taught my students how to carve them as if they were pumpkins! On the evening of Halloween, I invited a friend of mine to my dorm.
