Michaela Mináriková - First PhD student in Jakarta!
Hello, my name is Michaela, today we are writing about my Erasmus experience in Jakarta since 15th of August 2016 till 14th of December 2016. Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, situated in west part of Jawa island with really hot weather, approximately 30 -35 degrees and more than 70% of humidity during rainy season, which is in period since September till March.
My experience started with 2 weeks long holiday in Bali, neighbour island, what is also called as touristic and surf paradise. Endless beach, beautiful nature with full of flowers and rice fields. For 400 thousands rupiahs (a few Euro) you can rent a surfboard with your own coach or for 100 thousands a motorbike and drive around the island. But be careful, police can easily recognise foreigners and fines are high.
After 2 weeks I arrived in Jakarta. 3 hours lasting journey to city centre from the airport was more than crazy! Tragicomically traffic jam with English no speaking driver, roads full of old fashion cars and poor cottages. Centre is surrounded by open canals which make excrement rivers and this is possible to see also from plane, Jakarta is easy said dirty and polluted city. Centre is clean and modern with a lot of skyscrapers, so you feel like in Dubai. Strictly Muslim culture and completely different language may be complicated for majority of European population. But not for me. I really love challenge and Erasmus at Trisakti University in Jakarta was that kind of opportunity, when you may test your physical power and adaptability. Imagine 30 hours flight to second part of world - dreams become true. Independence, fear, development, people, friendships... everything is waiting for me
Since first day at university was everybody very pleasant, professional and fully educated, completely different world from rest of Jakarta. During time at university I actively participated on education process. I taught two bachelor subjects: Managerial Economics and Public Finance. Every week I met my supervisor and discussed about my dissertation thesis and for approximately 3 months I become part of Slovak embassy in Jakarta like intern, where I met interesting people, participated during international conferences about economic and diplomatic development relationship between Indonesia and EU. During time in Jakarta I was on the traditional Muslim wedding together with my colleague from Trisakti University in Bandung and also made presentation about university and international relations in Masyarakat.
Because I really love sport, my free time consist from physical activities and also from travelling to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. I travelled to Bogor by traditional train and usually ate by hands, so many experiences. About hygiene practice in Jakarta rather do not ask me, but just in case I took vaccination against hepatitis before journey to Indonesia.
Spent time in Jakarta was really valuable with so many nice experiences, trips and new people. This time brought me personal development, improvement of my foreign language level, soft-skills and make friendships for a whole life. A big thanks to Erasmus program and coordinators for such an opportunity and a great attitude of coordinators from both countries.
