Dear Ricardo Morales,When it was announced that I had won the scholarship to study in Australia, I leaped with pride and joy, and felt like I was in seventh heaven. But then before departing, I had a lot of trepidation, apprehension and nervousness of going there. I was only a "kampong" boy, suddenly going to a strange foreign big city. I did not know what to expect. I had never met a "white man" before, and now I would be expected to live amongst them. It was a scary thought. It would be a gargantuan cultural shock when I arrived there. To top all of my anxieties, I had only 5% mastery of English language. I would be totally lost when I arrived in Australia.
Armed with only a pair of tailored made suites and a small briefcase containing my documents, I boarded the "Qantas" airplane from Jakarta to Sydney, where I would be undergoing a 6 months training in English language. After a brief stop over in Perth, the plane approaching Sydney around 11 night time. It was a scene that I had never seen before, glowing lights everywhere, it was like in seventh heaven alright, with stars twinkling from horizon to horizon. It was just sheer beautiful.
Checking at the customs, I was very grateful that a representative from Indonesian Consulate came to greet me when I arrived. He said that I would be taken to a hotel and picked up in the morning to go to the office. True enough that I was taken to a hotel and picked up in the morning to be brought to the office at downtown Sydney. There were 4 other new students there. And this beautiful Australian woman from the office took us for the tour of the city. Something like she showed us how and where to catch transportation, shopping, gave us a few telephone numbers and addresses and treated us to lunch.
It was with great relieve when I met these 2 Indonesian students at the English class. Apparently they started a month earlier: Wahban Wibisono from Jogjakarta and Sugeng from Banyumas, both from Java Island in Indonesia. It was an enjoyable situation for me ever since, "no more worries". We were placed in separate accommodations in Sydney, so that to learn English and Australian way of life quicker. Luckily we were not too far apart from each others. I stayed furthest away at Lennox St in Newton with Mrs Blauw, a room and board accommodation. My place was not far from railway station, so I took the train everyday to class at downtown Sydney. Whilst they stayed in separate places in the Darlington area near to The University of Sydney and had to come to class by bus. There were 6-12 students in the class coming from different part of Asia: Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Langka and India. The student numbers kept changing, as some students graduated and later on some more coming in to join. We learnt mostly about conversation English from 9 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday.
I was so much impressed about the city of Sydney, that everything seemed to be very orderly. The houses and buildings were all nice and beautiful. All the streets were wide and smooth. The traffics were very orderly including the pedestrians. There were a lot of luxurious cars on the roads, and surprisingly very few honking noises I could hear, unlike back home. And most of all about the people, they were all very polite. The women were all very beautiful, and the men were all very handsome and all of them wore nice clothes. I could not help but admired all the things I saw and experienced. After a few months in Sydney, I met more Indonesian students, and got informed that 9 students altogether including me would go to Perth Western Australia to study. I felt more and more at home, and felt confident to go around by myself, getting to know and learnt about the beauties and intricacies of Sydney.
The three of us most of the time went for lunch at Hyde Park just next from the classroom building. It was a shock for us when we saw for the first time young people at the park kissing and necking during their lunch break. So many of them, oblivious to everything in their surroundings. Many passers by seemed to be ignoring them too. But for us it was just incredulous amazement.
We also got to know what "fair dinkum" Australians doing during the weekends. That they liked to watch their Australian football rules, went to the racecourses and bet, stopped at the pub and drink lagers. And most of all they liked to go to the beaches. They were sun worshippers, and all the beaches were always crowded. The smell of suntan lotions were everywhere. We went to Bondi and Manly, the most popular beaches a few times with fully clothed, because the weather was still too cold for us and we felt more decent and comfortable. We saw these swim suits these Australian girls wearing, like wearing nothing. Another incredulous amazement. But it was with awed and admiration when we watched the surfers for the first time, on how they managed to stand on the tiny surfboard and glide on top of the waves with such skills. It was like a dance, displayed in wonderful beauty and grace. It looked like a lot of fun and excitement.
We went sightseeing every weekend, particularly we liked the ferry ride to Luna Park and to Taronga Park Zoo from Circular Quay ferry terminal. We also liked to go for a walk at Royal Botanic Gardens just next to the Sydney Opera House. One thing I was beginning to notice that most of the young people carried portable radios with them and I could hear the same song played over and over again. Later I learnt that it was "The Beatles" that was played over the radio day and night. It was not really my type of song, but got the hang of it later and like it a lot.
There were many Dutch population in Sydney, mostly evacuees from Indonesia during the second war and becoming permanent residents. There was and Australian-Indonesian Association (AIA) in Sydney that really good for new students to join. We could meet some Australians and practise our limited English without too embarrassed about it. I found it that English was the hardest language to learn, compared to the 3 local dialects I learnt back home. Sometimes I wondered out loud how these Australians managed to understand each other when they talked so fast. We met this nice lady Helen at one AIA meeting one time. She invited us to go for a picnic one day to Lyne Park at Rose Bay about 40 minutes drive from my place. She picked all 3 of us up, and we brought along some lunch. There she showed us on how to play cricket, a very popular sport in Australia.
There was an Indonesian language lecturer at The University of Sydney who gave an open invitations to Indonesian students one weekend to come to his residence in Katoomba near Blue Mountains National Park. We hitched a ride with an Indonesian student who already had a car to go there. It was about 1 1/2 hours drive away, and we met quite a number of students there. After lunch we went for a hike to the National Park and saw "The Three Sisters", a three peak rock formations that had legend in them.
As the time for the conclusion of English language was nearing, Helen invited us to come to her place in Ashfield for a farewell party. She said that it was not far from railway station. We came by the train and sure enough that we found her place quite easy. She stayed with her parents that were also members of AIA and were there to greet us. Helen was a divorcee and had one daughter that stayed with her too. They were very friendly toward us. They were the Dutch evacuees that now called Australia home. We cooked Indonesian food with the ingredients she already bought. We made a mess of everything there as most of Indonesian way of cooking, but we cleaned them after lunch. We probably put too much chilly in the food, but they said it was lovely. They also had a swimming pool at the back, so every body except the parents went for a swim. We entertained them with Indonesian songs later in the afternoon, and also sang the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" together. To close the day off Wahban sang his favourite song "Santa Lucia" solo with his booming tenor voice, that I am pretty sure Luciano Pavarotti would be envious to hear. I was. The six months in Sydney passed by very quickly.
Top lr: Me, Wahban, Sugeng near Hyde Park.
Bottom: Helen's place in Ashfield. Me on left holding guitar. Standing lr: Hasan Basri, Bachtiar Abbas, Helen, Basita Ginting, Ryantho, Wahban Wibisono and Sugeng.
Sitting lr: Mustakim Abdurrauf and Sunoro.
