The Highlights of the Second School Week

New exchange students have just experienced the first couple of weeks in Bali and they still have so much time left in this awesome island. That's why I'm quite jealous of them: my flight back to Finland leaves from Bali this Friday. I only have a couple of days left here but I'll try to make most of them :) It's a shame that I don't have an opportunity to see the whole semester of this new student group because they seem to be really great guys and it would've been nice to stay here with them.

Anyway, last week was the first actual school week of the new semester and I promised to write a quick recap of it. Because of the public holiday on Tuesday, students had one extra day off but on the contrary they had quite a long school day on Wednesday because the workshop was held then after lessons. As I already wrote earlier here, the workshop went well :) Other than the workshop, students had their first lectures of all of the subjects they're going to study here in Bali. I bet there were plenty of new things (especially in Indonesian language) but hopefully at least most of them were also interesting.

The school week ended on Thursday and the rest of the week was great for relaxing. On Friday we went to Serangan Beach which is located in the eastern side of Bali. Actually Serangan is a really small island just side by Bali but nowadays there's a bridge between Bali and Serangan (because they're so close to each other) so it's really easy to go there. During the rain season the beaches of the eastern Bali are in much better condition than those near to Kuta area. There's also really good waves in Serangan though they're not too easy :D After the day at Serangan Beach we had a nice party (the first real villa pool party among these students) and on Saturday there was another party! All in all the weekend was great and I had a lot of fun - which is exactly what I was hoping from my last weekend here.

The First Week Has Gone So Fast

One picture is worthy of one thousand words so these pictures should pretty much tell the story about what our students have been doing after the official program of orientation week ended in the beginning of this week. Still, here's a quick recap of the whole week also in the form of text.

MONDAY was the first school day which started 9AM and ended around 3PM. Students got to know each other, their teachers and tutors and also got pretty much useful information about Udayana University, Bali in general and especially Asia Exchange. The first day ended with a visit to Seeds of Hope Children's home which is basically just an amazing place (as I've mentioned before).

TUESDAY was the second day of orientation and students got more information about their courses, classes and all in all about their upcoming months. Also they were informed about the possibilities about tropical diseases ;)

WEDNESDAY was the day of rest since during the orientation week there was school only on Monday and Tuesday. Normally the school weeks last from Monday to Thursday but the first week was an exception.

THURSDAY was the first day of the so-called unofficial program. We had a really fun Beach Day where students first got a great chance to learn surfing with Pro Surf School which simply is the best surfing school in Bali and which provides the best student discount to Asia Exchange students. After the surf lessons ended around midday, we had pretty fun beach activities (look pictures above) and then had a lunch together. Pretty nice day, I hope we're going to have more similar free-time activities during upcoming weeks.

FRIDAY was then the so-called main day because we had our Ice-Breaking Party at Beach Lounge near to Kuta Beach. The party started around 7PM and lasted untill... well, very late. Beach Lounge is such an amazing venue and everybody seemed to have fun there :) After the place had to be closed down, we continued to other bars in Kuta, the most of the night was spent in a club called Eikon. All in all, the night was really fun and I hope that students thought so too.

After the rough studying and partying we have had well-deserved rest-period during the weekend. Tomorrow's going to be the first real school day and I can't wait for that! I'm going to write about the first real school days at least at the end of next week :)

The First Videos of the New Semester

Today there's going to be the one kind of a highlight of the orientation week when students get a great change to get to know with each other better in the Ice-Breaking Party. The party will be held in Beach Lounge which is located near to Kuta Beach and it's a perfect venue for this kind of event. It's only a couple of hours before the party starts so I'm pretty excited! :) I'm pretty sure it's going to be a great night.

Before the party of this night I wanted to make the day better especially for them who can't be here in Bali right now. Here's two video interviews that I made this week with our new students. They tell about their experiences about the first days here in Bali and their expections for the rest of this week and for the whole semester. Hopefully there's going to be more video interviews in the blog during next weeks.

New Week, New Article

It's a new week once again. During the weekend we for example celebrated the Finnish Independence Day in Balinese style and went paintballing, both were great experiences. Still it's a little bit sad because the weekend was the second last that we're going to spend with this exchange student group: some of us are leaving Bali straight after the semester ends in 19th December so that they'll make it to home for Christmas. Of course some of the students are going to stay in Bali/Indonesia longer and some are going to explore Asia. It feels so weird that this school week is the last normal school week. Next week there's only exams and the closing ceremony in Thursday. New students are coming here only in a couple of weeks and luckily I have a chance to meet them all because by job here in Bali ends only in January. Still, I feel a little bit sad right now.

But let's still focus on the current semester. Because it's a new week, it's also time for a new article that I've written :) I interviewed Saara a couple of weeks ago. She is one of our many exchange students in Udayana University. Before arriving in Bali Saara had been traveling around Indonesia for a couple of months and she's going to continue traveling after the semester. After the semester new students also can contact Saara with their questions because she's going to be our new online ambassador.

Saara has enjoyed the exchange student time in Bali really much

The End of Mid Term Tests

Yeah, that picture pretty much sums up the agenda of this week. It's a picture of my Indonesian test that I took basically just to check if I have learned anything about Indonesian during last two months. As I've already mentioned many times, I don't study in Udayana University (I'm just hanging there to observe the everyday student life and of course try to help the students) so it's no use for me to do the actual test because I'm not going to get any credits from the courses.

The situation is of course completely different for our exchange students who had in overell six exams during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They really had to try their best during the exams because the results of mid term tests are a big part of the grade that they're getting from their courses. Of course the other big part are the final tests that take place in the end of the semester in December. So yeah, studying in Bali isn't just partying and surfing: students have to show that they've also learned something. There were two exams in Indonesian language and one in other courses (literature, tourism, Indonesian history, business law and economy). I heard that especially business law and economy were quite though but many students seemed to be quite satisfied with their answers.

Anyway, there were a lot of happy faces around campus area on Wednesday afternoon when the mid term test week was over - especially because there was no excursion or workshop on Thursday so the students had an exceptionally long weekend ahead :) On top of that there was also some pretty nice Halloween pool parties on Thursday (even though Balinese people dont celebrate Halloween, the culture has arrived here because of the Western tourists). There's even more pool parties coming up during the weekend so yeah, I have to say: studying in Bali can be pretty fun even though sometimes you have to put some effort on your studies.

Articles and videos from Phuket

Hey guys!

Here's some stories to read and videos to watch from Phuket :)

Articles

Alexandra has much more experience of South East Asia than an avarage exchange student
Florian has a great business idea which can help Acia Center Foundation
Helery Homutov is Asia Exchange study abroad ambassador

Videos

Phuket, part 2

Hey!

Sorry for the short update from really rainy Phuket. Thank you for the rainy season, I really hope that I don't have to keep enjoying it straight when I go back to Bali. But this post shouldn't be about the weather. Instead I wanted to share with you the first two videos I've made here in Phuket. I promise that there's still more coming soon :)

I already wrote a lot about the orientation week but you don't have to believe when I say that the first week was awesome. Here's one video where our students tell their feelings about the orientation week and about the trip to the Phi Phi islands. In the other video the Vice Chairman of Asia Center Foundation Roelien Muller describes their important work. You really should watch that to know more about ACF.






So that's all this time. I'll post more material soon!

Phuket, part 1

Hey! This is Phuket calling :) Or writing, anyway. As I mentioned in my previous post, I arrived here on Wednesday and after that I've been very busy. Although I'm not the only one who can say that. Asia Exchange students' semester (actually their orientation week) began here in Prince of Songkla University on Monday and their whole first week has been full of program both in the campus area and outside of it.

I joined the orientation week on Thursday but luckily the co-founder of Asia Exchange Harri has been here for the whole time. Actually Harri is staying in Phuket until November which I think is great thing for our students here in Phuket :) But anyway, even though I wasn't able to be here for the whole orientation week, I've hear a lot about it from Harri and especially from the exchange students. For me it's been once again great opportunity to get to know many new awesome people.

Almost every student has said that the orientation week has been very busy but on the other hand also very interesting. So I guess and I hope that the business of the first week hasn't bothered too much because the time has been well-spent. Many students told me that one of the highlights of the orientation week was a great lecture about Thai culture and traditions that was held on Tuesday. I'm pretty sure that the advices that were given in that lesson will be very useful in the near future.

For me one of the greatest moment during last week was the visit in the Asia Center Foundation (ACF) children's home that Asia Exchange has been supporting since 2010. It's a little bit similar compared to Seeds of Hope children's home in Bali but it also has some differences compared to SOH. Both are non-profit organizations that do everything they can to help the children from problematic backgrounds and it's been an awesome opportunity for me to visit both places and see how well the children doing in both places.

One of the main differences is that there's only younger kids (from 3 to 6 years old) in ACF's building in Phuket but in Seeds of Hope in Bali there's also many teenagers. Asia Exchange makes a donation of a specific amount per each of our student to support the work of ACF. Still maybe even more important than the money is the fact that every student can visit the place and see a completely different side of Phuket. I think the visit was a very touching experience for our students (and also for me).

So, the visit to ACF definitely was one of the biggest highlights of the orientation week and it can't he compared to any other experience. Still there was one more great experience for our students as we held the official ice-breaking event in the Phi Phi islands which are located near to Phuket and which are one of the most beautiful place in the whole world.

So we went there on Friday and came back on Sunday. Of course there was some awesome beach partying both on Friday and Saturday nights (partying even included jumping over a flaming jump rope). I think the parties were as well-deserved after the orientation week as they were in Bali. But the parties weren't only reason to go to Phi Phi islands. We also did an awesome boat trip to the other near islands on Saturday. We even visited the beach from the movie 'The Beach'!

So what can I say in general about the second orientation week I experienced here in Asia? Well, it was at least as great as in Bali. The students here in Phuket are great and I think they'll have an awesome semester after they have completely survived from the after effects of partying two nights in a row in the Phi Phi islands. I hope everyone has done that because today has been the first real school day of their semester.

The third week in Bali

Hi guys!

It feels like it was just yesterday when I arrived in Bali but actually I've been living in the paradise island almost for a month! And after I've said that, it's good to note that I'm leaving Bali for over two weeks only days after I've learned to think my villa as my new home. Still I can't be bitter at all because next two weeks are going to be at least as interesting than my first weeks in Bali have been.

You see: I'm visiting Bangkok, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur because there's Asia Exchange's exchange students in all those locations. So for the next two and a half weeks this blog actually isn't going to about the student life in Bali because it's a little bit difficult to write about it when I'm not here. As compensation I try to write few short updates about the student life in Bangkok, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur during next weeks :) After that I'm flying back to Bali and then I'm reporting only about the student life in Bali until the autumn semester ends in December.

But the end of semester is not an actual topic yet. There's still lots of great experiences ahead both in the university and outside of it. One of them is coming already on this Sunday: Snoop Lion himself is playing in Seminyak in the beach party! I'm really excited about going to Bangkok but I'm still a little bit sad about the fact that I'm sitting on the plane when Snoop Dogg would be playing really near to my place. I hope many of you (who are now in Bali) are going to see that show :)

That's all about the future: I'm also supposed to write something about this week in the university. The beginning of the week (from Monday till Wednesday) was already pretty normal. It's a kind of funny to see how quickly everyone has adopted to the everyday life in Balinese university which has to be at least a little bit different than own school in the home country. Although I have to say from my own experience that the lessons I've been able to attend have been really similar compared to the Finnish university's lessons. Especially the Business law lesson reminded me really much of the Finnish ones. Bahasa Indonesia lessons on the other hand are pretty much shame than any other language lessons. I've enjoyed the Bahasa lessons a lot because it's so rewarding to learn more and more every time. Now I can already communicate with people in the restaurants and stores in Indonesian :) Or at least I can try to do that.

The most interesting moment of this school week was on Thursday, when Asia Exchange's students had their first workshop. For the most of the school weeks our students are going to have either a workshop or an excursion on Thursdays. Most of the workshops and excursions are about local culture but some may also deal business etc. I think the workshops and the excursions are really interesting part of the studies because there's no way you could otherwise get so good chance to get to know new things about local culture. In the first workshop the students made some nice palm leave ornaments with the help of the local students. The ornaments are used in Bali for example for decoration.

So that's everything about this week in Bali! ...Or actually not completely everything because there was of course more than just studying also in this week. Especially on Thursday there were some good full moon beach parties to complete this school week. And now it's a weekend again! Tomorrow I'm going to see the northern Bali before I leave this island for two weeks. What plans do you have for the weekend? Are you going to Snoop Lion's show?

There's some pictures from Udayana University's campus area in Jimbaran and some from Thursday's workshop:

The first weekend and the week after that

As I said in my previous post, there was a huge ice-breaking party for new students after the first week of Autumn semester. Actually the whole ice-breaking happening lasted two days: the first party was on Friday night and the second one on Saturday night. Between those two parties there was also a special surf lesson for our students in Saturday morning. All in all, the weekend was full of action, meeting new people and maybe also drinking few Bintangs (which is the famous local beer).

I think that most of our current students agree with me that the parties were well-deserved and greatly needed. The first week was really busy and also a kind of stressfull so it was extremely nice that for two nights we could just relax and enjou good music, company, food and drink. At the same time everybody could forgot their culture shocks and other little problems that they had had during first days in a completely new place.

Friday's party was held in Wingdome, located in Kuta, which is the biggest party (and also beach) area in Bali. The place was really nice: in the upstairs there was a big outdoor area where you could sit and enjoy the great view of dark Kuta area. Me and many others also liked Wingdome because on Friday they had a special offer: Bintang (the local beer I already mentioned) costed only 6 000 Rupias, ergo approximately 0,40 Euros. The offer was so popular that Wingdome ran out of beer during that night.

Besides the speciality of the place was very hot wings. Few of our students accepted a challenge where you had to eat extremely hot wings in a short time. Two of them succeeded but the feeling that came afterwards may not have been worth it (or then it was, maybe I'm just so sissy that I can't understand that kind of glory). After the beer had ran out and the wings were eaten, parties continued in many bars in Kuta. Most of us went to some of the Kuta's most popular places like Alley Cats, Engine Room or even Skygarden. 

So, Friday's party didn't end early but still 15 of our students were in Kuta Beach already on Saturday morning, when the surf lesson was held. The lesson was held by Pro Surf School that has been chosen the best surf school in Bali for three times. Bali's one of the best surfing places in world so you really should try surfing even though you wouldn't have done it ever before. Even I tried it this week and it was so much fun! I have to go surfing again next week.

The main event of the weekend was the pool party in Pro Surf School's Beach Lounge and it started on 5PM. The place was unbelievable. There were a huge swimming pool and you could jump into it from the second floor (the drop was maybe 3 metres). I guess I don't even have to tell that many of us made some crazy jumps during that nights. However, the pool wasn't only thing there. The place was huge, there was a great dj and cool lights. The feeling was like straight from some American movie.

So, in overall I would say the weekend was great. There's no better way to start new semester like a good party or even two :)

 

Also I should say that the second week in the university has went well. It's also not so stressful any more because the routines have started and there's not so many problems with practical arrangements any more. Also the courses have began properly. I still haven't had time to visit other courses than Bahasa Indonesian but those lessons have been really interesting and rewarding, as I already told last time. It's so nice to really learn something new every time.

Also this weeks has been a good time for students to plan some own activities, because there was no excursion or workshop on Thursday so the students had a really long weekend. There was a bonfire on Wednesday evening near to Uluwatu and also many students are planning their first trips to somewhere in Bali or even other islands. I'm going to see the Gili islands but it'd be nice to hear from your weekend trips!