Fish Ponds in Java
Yolanda Bonita
Personal essay
Oct 6st 2009
SCHOOL TRIP
In my busy life, I barely had time to relax. I woke up in the morning, went to school, came home, did my homework, and so on. I never thought that I had a monotonous life. At least, not until I went on a school trip. A school trip sounded ordinary to me because every year there would be a school trip. For me, a school trip was just something that could help me to skip class. Apparently, most of my friends also had the same thing in mind. But, I was wrong. We were wrong.
Yogyakarta, a city with strong culture, was my destination. There was a small village in the suburb. Let’s say it was The Village. I didn’t know what “The Village” was going to look like because I’d spent my whole life in Jakarta, a big crowded city. We were supposed to live with The Village people in their house. In my home country, Indonesia, there were big social-economic differences between people who live in the big city and the village. So, what I thought was I was going to live in a very ugly house made from wood and eat rice with vegetables only-no meat. Once again, I was wrong.
So there I was-in The Village. It took us about twelve hours to get there by bus. I was so tired, but as soon as I got off the bus, I didn’t feel tired anymore. I remembered very clearly the feeling I had. It was different. It was something I’d never seen before. It felt like seeing the other part of the world or maybe going to another planet. The weather was cold and the air was fresh. There weren’t thirty stories buildings. There wasn’t any traffic jam. There wasn’t a single sound of a horn. There was barely a car. I thought even “astonished” wasn’t enough to describe it.
The whole village thing was new to me. I remembered looking around like a child who had gone to the amusement park for the first time. I was flabbergasted and amazed. It was a very beautiful village. All I could see around me was trees and a two stories building. It just never
Personal essay
Oct 6st 2009
SCHOOL TRIP
In my busy life, I barely had time to relax. I woke up in the morning, went to school, came home, did my homework, and so on. I never thought that I had a monotonous life. At least, not until I went on a school trip. A school trip sounded ordinary to me because every year there would be a school trip. For me, a school trip was just something that could help me to skip class. Apparently, most of my friends also had the same thing in mind. But, I was wrong. We were wrong.
Yogyakarta, a city with strong culture, was my destination. There was a small village in the suburb. Let’s say it was The Village. I didn’t know what “The Village” was going to look like because I’d spent my whole life in Jakarta, a big crowded city. We were supposed to live with The Village people in their house. In my home country, Indonesia, there were big social-economic differences between people who live in the big city and the village. So, what I thought was I was going to live in a very ugly house made from wood and eat rice with vegetables only-no meat. Once again, I was wrong.
So there I was-in The Village. It took us about twelve hours to get there by bus. I was so tired, but as soon as I got off the bus, I didn’t feel tired anymore. I remembered very clearly the feeling I had. It was different. It was something I’d never seen before. It felt like seeing the other part of the world or maybe going to another planet. The weather was cold and the air was fresh. There weren’t thirty stories buildings. There wasn’t any traffic jam. There wasn’t a single sound of a horn. There was barely a car. I thought even “astonished” wasn’t enough to describe it.
The whole village thing was new to me. I remembered looking around like a child who had gone to the amusement park for the first time. I was flabbergasted and amazed. It was a very beautiful village. All I could see around me was trees and a two stories building. It just never