Early in 1958, when I was already in the third year of High School, The American Embassy, announced to every High School in Yogyakarta (around 40 HS in total) that soon there will be an open contest/exam conducted by the AFS Foundation to select a few students to win a scholarship to study in the USA and while there live in American Family. I was lucky that I had a good English teacher at the High School, and this teacher and my classmates urged me to join, since they were convinced (I did not know why) I would win the scholarship.Â
I found the exam very tiring, because besides the written English test, we had to pass interviews with native speakers, and the hardest part was writing a short paper. I did all that, still not sure about the prospect. There would be several months before we know who among us won the contest. And to my surprise and delight I was selected as one of 3 students (one other male and one female) from Yogyakarta High Schools who would be sent to America for one year study. While waiting for the departure I continued my education at SMA Muhammadiyah 2, and did the Government final exam, but until my departure to America, the government had not announced whether I passed the High School final exam or not.
Before departure all three of us were trained by an American couple who were visiting professors at Gadjah Mada University at that time, on American culture including food and bed keeping routine. The couple was very kind to me, they gave me a brand new suit and traveling bag for the trip.Â
The trip was something new to me, I had never been in an airplane before, so the first trip on an airplane was the international flight from Jakarta, Tokyo, Guam, Wake Island, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Cleveland, Ohio. We had two stopovers, one in Tokyo, and another one in Hawaii. The airplane was a constellation of 4 propellers driven, as no jet was yet available. Because of the stopovers we had to spend 3 days to reach our destination.
In Cleveland Hopkins International Airport I was greeted by my American Family, father Bob Senior (an executive in an oil processing company), mother Merril (Housewife), brother Bob Junior (sophomore or second year of High School), and sister Judy (Freshmen or first year of High School, At home I shared bedroom with Bob Junior. All three of us kids went to the same high school, the Thomas W. Harvey High School, and we live in the same town with the high school, called Painesville, Ohio.Â
The hardest thing to get used to when you live in America is the traffic, you must take the right instead of left. It took me a while to get used to, especially during class change. In American High School, the teachers wait for students in their classrooms. So, during class intervals all the students are milling around to move to their next class. At first I always bumped into an oncoming stream of students, but after a couple weeks I got used to it.
I took a full course at high school including the compulsory and optional courses. In the second semester I took the driving course. At the end of the school year I graduated successfully, and at the graduation night I sang the Indonesian National Anthem - Indonesia Raya, and another Indonesia song. It was fun.
After finishing the school year, I had to leave Painesville for a two months trip to 11 States in the northeast of the USA, ending in New York City, before departing back to Indonesia. When I arrived in Yogyakarta, I visited my old High School, and was happily greeted with a formal High School Diploma. So, now I have an American High School diploma as well as Indonesian High School diploma.Â
