Hi! I’ve written about my homeland in the previous post and now I want to write about place, where I live right now. Yeah Russia. Here is it!
“I want to Study abroad”
So why I decided to move from tropical sun shine to cold climate ? The answer is to reach my dream. Really simple answer but it means a lot for me. Since I was a small child. I had a dream to study abroad but I thought it was impossible for me. It must be really expensive to make it come true. So I tried study harder, in order to get scholarship to study abroad, In my opinion the possible idea for me to continue my study to higher education, if I would get scholarship, because in our country we need to pay tuition fee if we want to continue studying to higher education.
In the last year at school I applied scholarship to 2 different countries. I crossed my finger to accepted in Lund University in Sweden . But I need to admit,that I couldn’t study there because they closed the scholarship for bachelor degree. I was so confused and terrified enough at that moment because some of my friends already got decision where they continued to study. Last but not least I got a letter from Northern Arctic Federal University, That brought me to the new stage of my life. I remember, It was the best memory, that cannot fade.
“Stand my feet in Red square”
On 11 September 2013 my fate brought me to Russia. I couldn’t wait to see, How’s there? How people live there? I’m really curious to know it. Most of my life I spent in equator and there we don’t have winter moreover snow. Maybe it is one of the most Indonesian’s dream to see snow. So I was so excited to arrive there. Finally I arrived safely. And I couldn’t believe, here I am in Russia. When I arrived in Moscow it was autumn, though it was 10 c but it was absolutely making me freezing. I felt really excited, and I’ve never felt excited like that before. For me Moscow is beautiful city with its colourful sights but somehow Moscow is too crowded for me maybe I’m from hectic city so I’m looking for silent and clam place, regardless of it I like Moscow. When First time my feet stepped in Red square I can’t even forget, how it felt. Kremlin, that I just saw in my geography book, now I’ve been standing in front of it for several times. Since that I believe, That dream can change my life and if you hard work enough, you can make your dream become a reality. but Moscow was not my finish line. I need to through more than 1000 km to arrive in the city, where I would be studying. That is Arkhangelsk.
Arrive in Arkhangelsk
So it was Friday morning. We arrived in this city and no one of us could speak in Russian at that moment . We were standing and looking for a person from our university and finally she came with her beautiful smile and gave us warm hug in this cold region. She removed our fears and picked up us to our dormitory. New home at least for 5 years toward. New page of my life was opened and now I’m still writing in that adventure. Now I’ve been living in Arkhangelsk more than 2 years and I love this city endlessly small but so homiest for me. People here are really friendly and welcome to me. I always feel warm in their company. The language is not a border for me to communicate with them. They always try to understand me and never get bored to explain me simply, in order for making me understand .
So many good opportunities I got, while I live here, for example I saw aurora borealis several times. I couldn’t explain how beautiful it is but I feel my world became a fairly tale for a while, When I saw it. Study abroad also give me a chance to meet so many interesting people from different countries. Now I have so many friends from different parts of world. I could know the way of living people from many countries and nationalities. I got some opportunities to attend conference and workshop, But the greatest one was the workshop in Norway. That was the first time I flew to Norway and saw another European country.
Russia is a huge country so many beautiful places you can reach here. I’ve been travelling to so many beautiful sights of this country. I did a such great movement in my life like travelling from Arkhangelsk to Sochi alone via Saint Petersburg and Moscow. I even couldn’t imagine how I did it. But it was a fantastic trip ever. Not so many places I have been here. Still in the process to make the list become longer.
I love to try something new that, I’ve never tried before. In Russia they have traditional sauna called banya, I already tried it and it was super, So hot but it was fantastic, even though I’ve never been there more than 10 minutes however I like it. I love russian village because I always found myself in emptiness there.
I’m studying at the university and I’m a future ecologist. I love Arctic and the way of living in cold climate makes me interesting to observe it more. Even though natural characteristic in Arctic region totally different with ours but it’s an admiration for me to learn it. One of my dream is to visit Arctic as an ecologist observing ecosystem in Arctic see polar bears, walrus, beluga whale and narwals in their habitat. It will be my treasure trove ever in my life. for me nothing more interesting than learn about phenomenon in nature. I love nature, and to protect it is my pleasure.
I also had some sad stories also here but the worst story gratefully I didn’t have them so many. But the most unforgettable was the story of car incident, that happened last summer and the driver wanted me to pay car damage 52.000 rub damn!, Just know the rules if the car insurance couldn’t cover his car damage, because they said it’s my fault even I couldn’t remember what actually happen. Yeah it’s so funny but this story changed my life a lot. How to see a person more carefully. In that hard time of my life I still have some friends, who want to help me. So I always hope, That story never happen in my life again and meet such that guy, who wanted money from a student like me. Just see human but I don’t see humanity.
so now I’ve been writing, everything that I’m feeling right now and it’s my impression of my life in Russia. Totally I’m really satisfied with my life here and I also really enjoy with my life and I love everything, what I do here.
marianovsaragi 