A Relaxing Time: Going International

It is Tuesday when I was invited by Regina to go to a Warung with Dinde and Dafaa. This Warung is a little bit different compare to other place as it is located near the hill peak and only opens during the night. Once we arrived the kitchen of the Warung is placed outside so you can see the dishes the chef is currently cooking. When we arrived I decided to choose this shrimp dish and a milk based drink. After ordering, I went outside to look at the food being cook. Regina told me about the food she ordered (the plate in the middle). She pointed to a pot filled with hot oiled, Regina then added that that is her dish, the chef then poured scrambled egg into the hot oil to fry it. It is very similar on how the street vendor cook the egg roll last week. After taking a video of the kitchen, I come back to our table and wait for our dish to arrived.

We have a lot of fun time talking and sharing jokes with each other. Once the food has arrived, we took a group photo together before starting eating. While eating, Regina told me about her friend and that she wanted to meet me at a cafe near UNMUL. She added that she is the inbound student that went from Vietnman. Of course, I told her that I was excited and happy to meet her in person.

Group photo with Alya

A couple of days pass by and I was able to meet her. Her name was Alya and she just arrived from Vietnam a couple of days ago. She told me about her experience while staying their and how difficult it is as they are super strict with their time. When Alya arrived 3-5 minutes late in school her teacher got mad at them, she say to them that they are sorry but their teacher replied, "Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to yourself" which is a bit scary when I heard it. On the other hand, she also said that it is quite difficult since most of the food in Vietnam were pork-based, so she need to find a way to eat that is halal. She also bring out her phone to show me some of the photos she took, and then ask me about my experience here in Indonesia. I told her that the climate here is colder than in Manila, and that it has the same atmosphere and feeling to a province in the Philippines.

We continue to talk about our experiences in each country while eating a bowl of "high class" Indomie (the noodles are expensive, man). Later, they told me about the outbound student from UST. I ask them if they will return back sooner and later, and they answered that they will be arriving in a couple days. Hearing those news made me a little bit excited to meet them.