Highway Cleaning and Concession Stand

Cleaned highway, picked up trash :D

Today is a big day for me because this is my first community service in USA. I join HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) Club in Smithfield Selma Senior High School. I started my day with cooking some eggs and chicken for breakfast this morning. Then, I went to Mrs. Deese house with Mama and Shah at 08.45 sharp. I was very excited because we would clean the highway near Mrs. Deese house. We wore an orange vest and gloves with a trash bag.

Shah, Intan, Ashley, Kate and Miles. Here we go! :)

We walked along the street and took trashes in the sides of street. It was so fun. There were 6 people who cleaning the highway. It was my first role in HOSA. I was so pleasure if I could do something useful for my host community. Actually I saw something different here. I thought the highway was clean enough rather than in Indonesia. But, many people still take care bout that. They want the highway is perfectly clean. I like that kind of habit. Hopefully, Indonesian will do the same thing. I believe there are many Indonesian who still care with our beloved country especially for cleanliness.

Shah, Katheline, Laura, Alex, Intan. We sold foods and drinks. :)

After cleaning the highway, we went to football field at school for having concession stand. I was pleasure to sell hotdog, popcorn, nachos, chips, candies, soda, water. Although I was tired but I didn't feel it. From this activities, I could meet many new people and I wanna get more and more friends. Helping each other is important. Wait for the next community service :)

Roller Skate!!!

Yesterday was second meeting of exchange students. I waited for that day because we would have roller skate. How happy I was! Because it was the first time for me to have roller skating. I felt afraid a bit, but I wanted to try. I went there with my host mother, Christina, Ellie and Shah.
Exchange students who came was not really many but I still enjoyed it. Some of them just came a week ago. They were from Pakistan, Palestine, Bangladesh, China.

this was my shoes :)

I started to try roller skating. Actually, I was pretty afraid of that, because it was my fist time. And it was happened. I held the walls tightly. Laurie (my friend from Germany) and Shah (Pakistan) were afraid too. All of us laughed together because it seemed weird. I fell down one time. I just walked around twice because I was so nervous. And when we fell, it hurts much. The next day all of my body felt pain and sick because of that. But it was so fun at all :D

Welcome to North Carolina

Waw!! That was awesome day when all of CIEE students hosted in North Carolina met together in Pullen Park, Raleigh on August, 25. CIEE held this meeting in order to make all exchange students know each other. The meeting was started at 6.30. I was very excited because I thought I'll meet the other exchange student from Indonesia. Unfortunately I didn't meet anyone from Indonesia. I just realized that I was the only CIEE student from Indonesia hosted in North Carolina. There were about 20 students presented at that time. Some of exchange students hadn't been arrived in USA yet.

We are from Indonesia, Brazil, Germany, Czech republic, Spain, Ukraina.

We started the meeting with introduction of each exchange students. Proudly, I said "I am Intan Shafirra from Indonesia". When I said that sentence, I felt so proud. I was the only representative of Indonesia at that time. Other exchange students also introduced themselves. But, they spoke too slowly, without spirit and it seemed they didn't proud of their country. When it was my turn, I spoke loudly so that everyone laughed ang gave big appreciates to me. My host daddy said "you're the best speaker I've ever heard". hahaha.

Me at Pullen Park

Then, we ate pizza and coke together. I started to socialize with another exchange students. I wanna get more and more friends. O ya, we also came with our own host family. Besides socialize with another exchange students, I also got to know other host family. I really wanted to show that Indonesian are friendly and kind. I also met one host family and he said he went to Indonesia in 1991 and this is our conversation :
Mr. X : Hey, I used to go Indonesia in1991 for about 3 months.
Me : Sure? I'm glad to here that. Do you like it? Where did you stay?
Mr. X : I like Indonesia, especially for its beaches. I don't remember the name of the city.
Me : OOO.. that's fine (with smile). Indonesia is beautiful country.
Mr. X : But the most I remember is the traffic jam. It was so crowded at that time.
I was really sorry to hear that the most he remembered is "traffic jam". Subhanallah.. -___-
After having nice conversation, we went home. And my host family treated me to go to Krispy Kreme. They said it's the most delicious doughnut in the world. I tasted it. hmmm.,.. Yummmy!! :D

I hope when I meet another people who ever gone to Indonesia next time, they remember something nice about Indonesia. PROUD TO BE INDONESIA'S TEENAGER!