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.