As I say in the beginning of the article, going abroad is not just about travelling. It can be in form of study program as well. There are many opportunities to go abroad by education connections  including student exchange, conference, or research sponsored by your school/universities/office. Though, the matter of education also depends with the quality of institution you choose, somehow in any ways, for your portfolio, it will be very good since it indicates you are more experienced in facing different way of learning and having valuable international background.
Aren't those enough to motivate you? okay let's see one by one the most general reasons that become the reason people do not want to go abroad. You can see the solution that may inspire you.
1. Being Afraid of Cultural Shock
Though everything can be learned and solvable, many people are still afraid to get involved into something that is totally new for them. It is especially addressed to teenagers. Their parents are often afraid how their children can survive with foods when they undergo student exchange program in India, they are worried if their child is sick because of the winter in Germany. Hi, guys, keep believing in your mind that cultural shock can be exotic experience your life. You will be enriched by various knowledge that makes your future life more profound. You can solve it by being more ready before going abroad by reading the profile of the country, asking friend or relative who have visited the same country, joining the discussion in social network focusing on travelling such www.couchsurfing.org. it is like Facebook, with special subject of travelling. You can start making account, connecting with international friends, and having discussion. You can ask advices from friend you know in forum about what else you can see in Singapore after visiting the famous Merlion statue or to ask what is the best time to come to Thailand to see the big Yipeng lantern  festival. In that social network, you can even ask the information about the cheapest place to stay, place to eat, and place to visit. You can also ask whether you can ask to stay in your couchsurfing friend's house. Off course, it will reduce much your travelling budget plus you can have home-stay experience. You can get advice how to find Halal restaurant in China, how to survive with weather that you are not accustomed with, and many else. Once again, remember that experiencing something new is interesting and can give you the new passion of life, as well.
2. Money Problem
Sure, it is the most popular reason to not travel abroad. If you are students, it can be easier to get opportunity. Students can ask the embassy, teacher, local universities, and friends for information and possibility. This year (2011) Indonesia Ministry of Youth and Sport opens the opportunity to young people to have program in south east Asian countries for program "Ship for South East Asian Youth Program", in Canada for program "Indonesia-Canada Youth Exchange Program", in Malaysia for program Indonesia-Malaysia Youth Exchange Program. You can ask the information in your region. For example in Central Java, the audition will be done in March 28, 2011 and information can be accessed in www.pcmijateng.wordpress.com. Students can also join AFS Intercultural programs. For Indonesian students, you can visit  http://bina-antarbudaya.info/. If you are not students, there are still many ways to do such as join other country's tourism board competition that give the winner to travel in that country. World traveller will never forget when Queensland Tourism Board made the competition "Best Job in The World". Thousand of applicants registered from all over the world. The winner got the job to report about Queensland with the award of memorable experiences to travel along Queensland with one more friend. If you pay attention, there are several writing competition or "just" voting participation contest with the prize of travelling abroad. Yes, it is bit opportunist, but why don't you try. Good point is you can learn to make best application with international level and compete with thousand people from many countries. The last suggestion and I think the best solution is "Save Your Money".  Undeniably, as I state before, most of us do not have "culture" of travelling, thus we also do not have "culture" of saving money to travel.  By doing so, you can also have time to learn of how to manage money well. Good news is, if we are aware, many airlines often offer flight promotion with very low price of ticket. Imagine, when you are lucky, you can get promotion ticket from Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur by only paying IDR 15,000. It is not more expensive than your fried chicken menu for your launch.
3. Wasting too much times
Though it seems funny, from my little survey, some students are afraid to join student exchange program because they have to leave the class for 6 months or 1 year. They are lazy to face administrative stuffs that must be fulfilled to ask permission to skip from class.  For high school students, they are afraid if they have image as stupid students or being so late to go to the next grade compared to their classmates because they have to extent study one more year after they come back to Indonesia after student exchange program for one year.  Parent and teacher have the big role to build the confidence of their kids to have bravery to do so. After knowing that the program in other country is beneficial for the students both in hard skill and soft skill, parent and teacher have to encourage them that learning one year in one country can be something that cannot be compared with anything else because it may once in a life time opportunity; and the most important thing is they can have one of the most valuable experience in their life. For working people, actually it has to be no matter, they can arrange time to travel for tourism during holiday. It will not disturb the job, even more it can recharge the energy to have bigger passion to work since they can leave for a moment to leave routines.
So what are you waiting for? Observe the opportunities, take your bag and go. Guys, dare to explore the world, dare to see the places that you never imagine before, dare to love Indonesia by implementing positive side from other countries you visit that are appropriate for our own culture and relevant for our improvement. Happy travelling!
[caption id="attachment_108718" align="aligncenter" width="476" caption="Sonny Hendrawan Saputra and Horia Diaconescu. We both have hobby of travelling. Photo by Rizky Adi Yanuasari"][/caption]
