RI students abroad have mixed-emotions at Christmas

RI students abroad have mixed-emotions at Christmas

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): The first time John A. Utomo spent Christmas in
the United States four years ago, he had mixed emotions.

"New friends, new environment and first Christmas with snow
gave me a lot of excitement, but it was not easy spending
Christmas with my family thousands of miles away from the U.S.,"
said John, an Indonesian student in the Department of
Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, in Cambridge, near Boston.

Many Indonesian students who celebrate their first Christmas
far away from their families and friends share the same feelings.
They are excited with the new surroundings but also feel blue as
they miss home.

Aryo Pratomo Kresnadi, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, did not
even know what to do during his first Christmas away from home.

"I just stayed at home since I did not know where to go. It
was quite sad and I felt lonely even though I had an Indonesian
roommate," he told The Jakarta Post through the Internet.

In his second year, he felt much better. He gathered with his
Indonesian friends and they cooked dinner together. This
Christmas is very special for Aryo as his parents have come from
Indonesia to visit him.

Aryo graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department at
Ohio State University in September. He is moving to Pittsburgh,
where he will pursue his masters degree.

Aryo estimates that there are between 500 and 600 Indonesians
in Columbus right now. Most of them are students. At Ohio State
itself there are 400 Indonesian students. The university is the
largest in the country, with 60,000 students. When Aryo first
arrived in the U.S., there were only 150 Indonesian students at
the school.

There is no Indonesian church in Columbus, but the Indonesian
Christian Fellowships and the Indonesian Catholic Youths are
active at Ohio State. The Indonesian Students' Association, which
is found on many U.S. campuses, also organizes Christmas
celebrations in the town.

About 400 Indonesian students live in Madison, which has a
population of 250,000, according to J. Rufinus, another
university student.

"Every year, the Indonesian Students' Association holds a
Christmas celebration, which is sometimes attended by our
Consulate General in Chicago," he said.

The Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago also has its own
Christmas celebration.

"I've just returned from the party. They served good
Indonesian food," an Indonesian consulting company employee on
the Net, said.

In Boston, Indonesians also get together to celebrate
Christmas with the help of the local Indonesian Christian
Fellowship.

"We had just celebrated Christmas here, we sang and had a
potluck... Well, that's good to share our feelings of being away
from home," Darmadi Darmawangsa of the Department of Civil
Engineering in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said.

Darmadi is one of 500 Indonesians who live in Boston. He has
been in the U.S. for six years. In the first two years he was in
California, which is relatively warm compared to the East Coast.
He recently went to New York and took a walk around the city to
enjoy the Christmas spirit.

"I felt the glittering atmosphere, especially along 5th
Avenue. All shops are decorated with colorful ornaments. In
Rockefeller Center there is a Christmas tree which is about eight
to 10 meters tall. There is also a place where people can go ice
skating, just like what you can see in Home Alone II," Darmadi
said.

Katarina, who has just graduated from Boston, works for Cirrus
Logic in Fremont, less than an hour's drive from San Francisco.
Last year, she spent Christmas with an American family and went
to an American church. This year she will celebrate Christmas
with other Indonesians. Her Christmas programs started yesterday
when she celebrated Christmas with her friends at the Indonesian
Gospel Church. She plans to attend church today and will have a
Christmas potluck dinner tomorrow.

Ariawan, a computer engineering who is taking business classes
and also works in Fremont, said there are plenty of Indonesian
churches in the Bay Area. He usually goes Christmas caroling with
his Indonesian friends and has a sandiwara Natal (Christmas play)
on Christmas Eve.

The biggest Indonesian community in the U.S. is found on the
west coast. Raymond R. Tjandrawinata, a biomedical scientist who
is doing a post-doctoral research at the University of California
in San Francisco, estimates that there are between 2,000 and
3,000 Indonesians in the city. Raymond himself is a member of the
Church of Indonesian Catholics in North California.

Raymond has been in the U.S. for more than 12 years and he
feels "this is home for me". Most of his friends are in the U.S.
and his uncle and aunt are coming over to celebrate Christmas.
Yet, he feels sad because he can't get together with parents, who
live in Jember, East Java, and his siblings, who are in Jakarta.

"Do I miss home? Yes, because I am close to my parents and my
brother, my sister, sister-in-law, and my nephews," he said.

Steel Town

The Indonesian Christian community in Pittsburgh is quite
small, compared to San Francisco or other cities in the United
States. Jimmy N. Manan, a Catholic student in Pittsburgh said
that the Indonesian Christians in the city meet only once every
two weeks, not every week.

Nicodemus Welliken, another student in Pittsburgh, said the
Catholics and the Protestants held a joint Christmas mass on Dec.
16.

Usually, Indonesians celebrate Christmas with other
Indonesians, which is a good way to deal with homesickness. But
some, including Ciauwindarto Anggara, an Electrical and Computer
Engineering student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
spends Christmas with American friends.

"My roommate last year invited me to his family and we
celebrated Christmas together. There was a lot of good food
during Christmas. It is true that the best food of the year is on
Christmas Eve," Anggara said, adding he plans to see them again
this Christmas.

He does not miss his family back in Indonesia.

"I still can call them up on Christmas Day," he said.

Vallery Wisanggeni Anom, a high school student, celebrates
Christmas with his host family, who lives in Algona, a small town
in northern Iowa. He arrived in the U.S. three months ago under
the American Intercultural Student Exchange.

"This is my first Christmas away from my family and friends,
which makes me sad. But at least I have a host family," he said.

Welly Tanamas, a student of University of Lincoln, has been in
the U.S. for four years. In the first six months, he stayed with
an American family. After moving out he kept in touch with them
and has always celebrated Christmas with them.

"But this year I can't join them for Christmas. Well, I feel a
little bit uneasy. But I have plans to celebrate Christmas with
my girlfriend," he said.

Welly, as well as many other Indonesian students in the U.S.,
don't go home for Christmas because they only have three weeks of
holiday.

Australia

Many Indonesian students in Australia return home at Christmas
because they have a long summer holiday, from mid-December to
February or March.

"It's quiet here, especially in a holiday season like this,"
Asteria Made Memorianti, an Indonesian student who lives in
Canberra, said.

Since many of them return home, there is no Christmas
celebration organized by the students. They join other
Indonesians who live in town and celebrate Christmas together at
the residence of the Indonesian ambassador.

"On Dec. 9 we had a Christmas celebration at the residence of
the ambassador, even though he was not here," Made said.

Earlier this month Zainal Lie, a post-graduate student of the
School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney, celebrated Christmas with teaching and faculty staff
members on campus. He is going to the Indonesian Protestant
Church in Petersham at Christmas. This is his second Christmas in
Australia.

"Even though I am alone, I always try not to feel lonely. Last
year I went to church and also joined the Carol by Candlelight,
which was organized in almost every suburb in Sydney. I plan to
do the same this year," he told the Post last week end.

Zainal got a Christmas surprise last year.

"I was walking alone on Christmas Eve. It was around midnight.
I was approached by several people. I could not figure out what
they wanted. It turned out that they shook my hand and said
'Merry Christmas'," he said.

It might have been because he was wearing a Santa cap, which
he bought for A$2.

"I still keep the Santa cap and I put it on my head when I
take a stroll in the city," he said.

Zainal bought a lot of Christmas cards and received some from
his friends in Indonesia.

"It's moving. If you are abroad and you receive cards from
Indonesia, you have different feelings," he said.

Germany, Japan

Christmas celebrations are not as exuberant in Germany as in
the U.S. or in Australia. Most people in Germany celebrate
Christmas with their families at home. The cities are almost
"dead" at Christmas, according to Yanuardi Gatot Soebiono, an
Indonesian student in Koeln.

"I felt lonely and empty on my first Christmas," he said.

Yanuardi goes to the Koeln University of Gummersbach. There
are 2,500 students in his school, but only seven of them are
Indonesian. He said there are about 200 Indonesian students in
Koeln. Fifty of them joined the Indonesian Christian Association.

Yanuardi, a former executive in the association, has been in
Germany for almost nine years. He recently attended a Christmas
celebration organized by the Indonesian community in Koeln.

"I was delighted as we had the ritual in Indonesian with an
Indonesian priest," he said.

In Japan, Indonesians also have their own Christmas services,
which involve Protestants and Catholics.

"The Indonesian Christian Community has just held a Christmas
celebration, which was attended by the Indonesian ambassador in
Japan," Wen Roland, a student in the Department of Information
Science at Utsunomiya University, said.

Around 500, mostly Indonesians, were there.

It was Wen's fourth Christmas in Japan.

"When I was in Indonesia, after the celebration of Christmas,
I returned home and talked about Christmas with my family or my
friends. But here, as I return to my apartment, I feel lonely."

"But well, I am used to it," he said.