AIESEC Exchange Experience (part 1) - by Fransiska Sonia

Mabuhay!

Hello Everyone!

Time flies so fast, and I've already been staying here in the Philippines for 10 days. Yeah, I still have 35 days remaining for my exchange. So, this will be my story about my AIESEC exchange experience, in the Global Youth Ambassador Program (GYAP).

My project name is Project Asenso, a project about micro-entrepreneurship. It's being held by AIESEC LC Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) Philippines from January 20th 2016 - March 2nd 2016.

Here are my reasons why I was interested to joining this program :

1. To improve my softskills

2. To improve my English (in listening & speaking)

3. For giving impact to the society in the Philippines, especially in micro-entrepreneurship

4. I want to have a lot of friends and relations from all over the world

5. To represent Indonesia to the world

6. Because Project Asenso is related to my study (since I'm a student in the Faculty of Economics & Business, and majoring Accounting in my university)

To get into this program, first I must apply an application form. I applied the form in batch 1, around October 2015. Then will be the Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and the last is the interview section. The interview section was about 45 minutes. Because I'm joining into the Global Citizen Development Program (GCDP), so all of the selection process (FGD + interview) would be in English. After following all of the selection process, there came to the announcement of the selection. You'll be passed the selection & can going abroad if your score is above 42. And my score was 60 from 70. Quite far from the minimum criteria I think. And after passed all of the selection from AIESEC LC UD Indonesia, I still had another selection from AIESEC LC AdMU Philippines. I applied in the AIESEC GIS System for the Project ASENSO, and still had such an interview from Skype with an AIESEC-er from LC AdMU.

In October 2015 until the middle of January 2016, I was preparing for my exchange needed, such as Paspor, Visa, Flight Itinerary, Insurance, etc. And I was also joining Global Citizen Conference in Semarang for 3 days. I didn't apply for sponsorship (although I already made a sponsorship proposal), because the time was already too short to prepare everything I need. Because I still had to take care of my school tasks, examinations, organizations, etc at that time. Luckily I got a cheap flight to Manila, only about Rp 4.500.000 for round-trip (SMG-CGK-SIN-NAIA on Januari 19th + NAIA-SIN-CGK-SMG on March 2nd). If I bought a direct flight to Manila, it can costs around Rp 7.000.000 for the round-trip. So yeah, this is the reason why I chose transit to Changi Airport Singapore first before flying to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila (because the flight ticket is cheaper lol).

This is my first time of going abroad, I did a lot of travelling before, but still in Indonesia. I've had already visited Bali, Kalimantan, Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung, Bogor, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Madura, and almost all of the big cities in Java Island, but I haven't going abroad before this. I went to the Philippines alone (because no one from Diponegoro University was choosing the Philippines as their destination country). Honestly at first, I was a little bit afraid. But yeah, evidently I found myself can do all of this alone. My parents were worrying about me before I left Indonesia. First I thought that there would be someone who will be pick me up at the airport. But unfortunatelly 2 days before I arrived, an AIESEC-er in the Philippines gave me an email that no AIESEC-er could pick me up because my flight was already too night. So I must went to the dormitory all by myself. She gave me an email, about a grab-car phone number (like a taxi). And I must call that number to get the grab-car.

After I arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila, I bought a sim-card at the airport. It was already at 10 pm. I called the number and reserved a grab-car for me. And I came to my dormitory at the midnight, at 00.30 AM the next day. Because I was waiting for the grab-car driver for about 1 hour, and the NAIA airport to my dormitory in Quezon City took more than 1 hour by car. 

Luckily my dormitory friends were still awaken, and they showed me where is my bedroom. My bedroom consists of 4 beds for 4 people. And I stayed here with Olivia (from Singapore), Lynn (from Kenya), and Kalinda (from China). There are a lot of people in this cycle. They are from USA, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Japan, Singapore, Kenya, Netherlands, and Vietnam. I share the dormitory with 17 people. And the other lives in the other dormitory. I was really happy because luckily I found Indonesian Exchange Participants too here, so I'm not alone again :D They are from Surabaya, Jember, and Jakarta. The exchange participants age range is from 18-24 years old. And I'm the youngest here (because I'm still 18 years old).

There are 3 projects in this cycle : Project ASENSO, LEGACY, and also REAP.

Here are the list of the exchange participants in AIESEC AdMU Philippines, this cycle (January 20th, 2016 - March 2nd, 2016) :

Project ASENSO :

Lisa Mareike Nelle (Germany)

Andre Giovanni (Indonesia)

Bui Thi Kieu Vy (Vietnam)

Fransiska Sonia Rickiyanto (Indonesia)

Ngo Quang Son Hao (Vietnam)

Almut Weigel (Germany)

Rumi Kuroda (Japan)

Luis Guilherme Silva de Lima (Brazil)

Maximilian Krebs (Germany)

Olivia Ong Siying (Singapore)

Phelipe Jose Leite Da Silva Ferreira (Brazil)

Kalinda Tong (China)

Farid Syah Putra (Indonesia)

LEGACY :

Vu Thi Quynh Trang (Vietnam)

Ho Wee Chung (Malaysia)

Elita Kurniasari (Indonesia)

Herlia Oktaviani (Indonesia)

Adam Keith Fennelly Inchley (Australia)

Lynn Chemutai Lang'at (Kenya)

Tran Thuy My Ky (Vietnam)

Nana Hirabayashi (Japan) 

REAP :

Lauren Elizabeth Coldwell (USA)

Caitlin Lara (USA)

Andina Agustia Dewanti (Indonesia)

Dewi Hapsari Ratna Muninggar (Indonesia)

Desy Anis Savitri (Indonesia)

Rebecca van Basten (Netherlands)

Quynh Vu Huong (Vietnam)

\Bruna Cavalini Ataide (Brazil)

Azusa Yamada (Japan)

Bao Chau Nguyen Tran (Vietnam)

Here are the pictures of my 1st week AIESEC Exchange Experience : 

Thankyou for visiting my blog, stay tune & enjoy the next posts! :3