Enjoying My First Intercultural Lebaran



August 30th was Lebaran (Idul Fitr/Eid Mubarak), Muslim New Year based on lunar calendar as well as the biggest day Muslim celebrate. As an exchange student finally, I felt so lonely without any celebrations here. So I decided to grab some items with my mom in the Asian Store located in Appleton. We worked so hard to make Indonesian cuisines for supper, and our sweat turned into something amazing! We had the supper with shimmering candle lights in a dim surrounding. A wave of warmth penetrated my heart, making a strange, comfortable feeling that I really enjoyed. Moments of laughter melted my loneliness. That was something that triggered my mind to move on to the next level, convincing my logic to give up this time for a little while just for enjoying what was taking place.

Somehow I didn’t feel what my friends felt. Being here eliminated my homesickness that maybe I had already had but I didn’t realize it because of my activities. I had a fabulous moment that couldn’t be compared with any Lebaran moments I had in Indonesia. Surely they hadn’t known how beautiful a moment it could be if they tried to Indonesially celebrate it here. Enjoying the splendid moments of intercultural learning was something new to me. Having Lebaran here taught my heart to appreciate my past Lebaran memories in Indonesia. There was neither better nor worse than both. It was just different, and the differences create the whole-new phases of my next ten months here. It will be fantastic, I believe!

Risqika Edni Doni Achsan


Essay ini merupakan tugas "Snapshot" dari mapel English 12 di sekolahku. Cerita harus diambil dari momentum paling berkesan dalam hidup dan harus dalam waktu singkat (snapshot, cuplikan), dan Alhamdulillah mendapatkan nilai A+ (33/35 + 5 early points = 38/35). Somehow I'm really happy that my struggle in "dictionary & thesaurus battle" ended in a nice way.

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