After I had graduated from Ambulu State Senior High School, I came to Pare to study English two years ago. It is located on Kediri, East Java. Commonly, people might know that Pare is special for English. Actually we can study other languages such Arabic, Mandarin, and Germanic. There are some courses which have good pograms for our progress on studying languages. Furthermore, they also give us low fee for the classes. Many people said that all citizens in Pare always speak English, including food sellers, but in the fact it is not. Pare is now different from previous time. You will have a difficulty to find those who speak English. If only you find them, do not hesitate to speak English with them, because they would talk to you conveniently.
In Pare, I stayed in a dormitory with other students. We had rules which obligate the members to speak English every day. Every student had grade depending on how long they stay in it and their ability to speak English. If we spoke Bahasa Indonesia, we would get punishment. The punishment was that we had to pay five hundreds rupiah. Every sunday morning, all of dormitory students played football in a field. Our opponent was Arabic students from other course, but we often won almost all games. After that, the next schedule was cleaning dormitory together. Cleaning Ministry had usually arranged job description for each member in previous night. In evening, we hold a speech contest delivered by all students at boy’s and girl’s camp.
When I stayed there, I was once to be a President of Dormitory. I had staffs helping me to manage my programs as the president. We had meeting forum at weekend to evaluate our occupation. Then, we planned programs for next week. Its period was just a month. In the end of period, the president had to make a responsibility reporting of his programs on final meeting forum. Henceforth, we had election for next president.
One of memorable moments is when I became a sudden tutor. Once upon a day, there were some junior school students who had a vacation in Pare. Unfortunately, the dormitory was full so that they stayed in another dorm. However, my tutors could not accompany them with the result that I became the tutor. I gave my students a vocabulary class in each early morning. They stayed in Pare just for a week. Nevertheless, I am so glad to be able to help them.
Talking about Pare is very interesting. Moreover, several tourism places are available there. Once I and my dormmates visited them. In early morning, we gathered to have a trip. Then, we cycled about 15 minutes to get Surowono temple, our first destination. We sang songs a took pictures together. Next, our second destination was Surowono Cave. It is under bamboo clusters and quite narrow so that we need a guide to pass it. The last was Surya swimming pool. We had a different excitement there. Thus, we had spent our day by enjoying an amazing trip.
The midsummer madness
When I took a course in Smart Intenational Language College, my days were so busy. There were three meeting a day. It was all about grammar class. I started my class at 06.00 till 07.00 am. Then, I got breakfast and return to dormitory to take a bath and brush up my lessons because I had a class at 09.300 am. In this class, I faced a written test and the class ended at 10.30 am. Nevertheless, the main class still began at 01.00 am and there was an oral test in this class. Each student must explain the lessons wich we had got in previous class. At 04.00 pm I finished my classes and went to dormitory to prepare my presentation class on evening.
Once I got a class late because I fell asleep. It rarely happened to me. When I came in, everybody welcame me happily. There were rules in my course which had to obey. If we got the class late, we must treat all of students of the class including the teacher. I had to put my signature on the bill. The rules were not just for students,but also for the teachers. There was other rule which we must obey. If the student or teacher had birthday, they must treat all members of class at least three thousands rupiah. One day my teacher had it. then, he was thrown on a river. After that, he treated all teachers and the students in the course. The rule also happened if the student got lowest score.
I felt enjoyable because the teachers were very friendly and helpful. The class were simple and funny. We always made jokes every time, but still stayed focus. There was no rule about uniform. We could wear Sarog or just undershirt. Sometimes the teacher did not wear any clothing. It sounds rather strange, but really happened. :D
I will not be able to forget my experince when I was in Pare even though I stayed there just five months. Pare is a small village as place of great knowledge. Someday, if I have vacation, I will visit Pare again and make reunion with my old friends. I am missing its atmosphere.