August 18, 2018
This is the time that have been long awaited because we finally fly to Manila, Philippines. That's very amazing for me. I am so excited because this is my first time taking an overseas flight. We decided to leave home for the airport at 7 am because we were afraid of congestion. Well, today was the opening of the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, afterall. Apperently, we had a smooth and safe road, it was not according to the expectations. Therefore, we arrived in the airport earlier than our prediction. It was better than being late to the airport. It was sad that I could not watch the opening ceremony of the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta, but I was glad for joining SEA-Teacher Program. After arriving at the airport, we saw the board information that our plane was delayed from 11:30 am until 13:30. I was very surprised, and confused about what to do in the airport. You know, waiting for 6.5 hours before flying was not short.
We decided to play some games in the airport. One of the games we had the play was mini soccer. We did not know about soccer but we had to try. Actually, this was very helpful to kill my boredom. I was defeated by Beauty and her cousin but it was okey, it was just a game. After feeling tired of playing, we met other students who would also participate in the SEA-Teacher to PSU, Philippines. It was nice that we had flight mates.
There were 13 students who had flight with me. After we met and talked much, at 12 noon, we had dhuhur prayer before flying. After all finished, we walked towards the gate to board the plane. Unfortunately, after we passed immigration, we looked at the information board that we were riding the plane that would delay until at 3 pm. Some of us had to wait until falling asleep next to the gate. After waiting and waiting, finally we could board the plane. I sat on the plane number 10B and there was a stranger sitting in 10A. When I would sit beside him, he smiled, and told me that his name was Sir Alfa. Apperently, he was American who would go to the Philippines from Indonesia. When he knew that this was my first flight, he offered me to sit next to the window. I was very grateful because I got a very good scenery, even I took some nice photos of the first flight.
He was very friendly, we were sharing stories to each other and information about our country. Turns out he was the CEO of a company. I know it after he showed me his card. And fortunately, he offered me to have an internship in his company. Woow that was amazing. I was so lucky. Very kindly, he gave some tips for me so I could get my dream in the future and I greatly appreciated it.
After, we arrived at the Ninoy Aquini International Airport, Sir Alfa offered to help us in immigration. We walked towards immigration. He run so fast that we couldn’t follow. I always lost his stride length. He told me that we had to hurry to go to the imigration because usually the imigration was very crowded indeed. After we were arrived in the imigration, Sir Alfa always helped us patiently to fill out immigration cards. When all of us already finished filling the imigration card, Sir Alfa and I splitted up because we had different destination. Actually, I was very grateful to Sir Alfa because he had helped us wholeheartedly. After all, the members finished with immigration, we took our suitcase and got ready to exit. Before we left for Manila, Beauty and I had initiatives to contact the Student Union of Indonesia in the Philippines to help us. After we went out from the airport, there were two Indonesian students in the Philippines who had fetched us and waited for us for almost 2 hours because of the delay. They were very helpful in assisting us to look for what we need in Manila for the first time. They also invited us to eat Indonesian cuisine at Warung Indo. I guessed it was near to the embassy of Indonesia in the Philippines because after we finished our dinner, we walked around the street to the Indonesian embassy.
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