About Me

I grew up in a small town called Sungguminasa in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. When I was about 6 years old my dad received the Australian Development Scholarship (now called the Australian Awards Scholarship) to study in Adelaide, Australia. Thus, I moved to Adelaide with my parents in 1998. In the beginning, I legit thought that I was just visiting for a short period of time. But then I ended up living in Adelaide for nearly 3 years! So for my education, I first went to Gilles Street Junior Primary School and then moved to Highgate Junior Primary School. We came back to Indonesia sometime in 2001 with a new family member, my little sister Aulia who was born in Adelaide.

I was a bilingual child cliché, I guess. My Indonesian was messed up, but my Makassarese was pretty good. Makassarese is my native language, which my parents continued to use even when we were in Adelaide. So I had to get a lot of help to 'reacquire' my Indonesian from my teachers. Eventually I became more fluent in Indonesian (Yeah, it sounds weird). But I've never been really 'comfortable' speaking purely in Indonesian without some Makassarese dialect in it. I'm very attached to my Makassarese dialect you see.

I spent the rest of my K-12 years in my regency, the lovely Kabupaten Gowa. I did go to a boarding school in the mountains (literally in the mountains), but it was still in that area. Most of my fondest memories were of living in the dorms. 

Imagine waking up to this beautiful view every morning!

Even after we have graduated, we still hang out together pretty often. It's like, having a lot of sisters and brothers :) I'm especially close to my roommates. I think they literally know everything about me.

This was taken after a 'Music Festival' in our third year. It looks like a cover of an album :)

I didn't go that far for college. I went to Hasanuddin University in Makassar, which is a city an hour drive (without the crazy traffic jam) from where I live. I majored in English language and literature but leaned more towards English literature. College was fun too, although I was a bit too nerdy for my liking. I wish I had joined more clubs and organizations. 

I can't believe that this was six years ago!

I graduated a semester earlier. If you've read my article 'My Fulbright Journey - Part 1', you'll know that my 'ambition' was to continue my studies in Australia. But things didn't go as planned, it rarely does you know, and I'm grateful for it! I didn't get a scholarship right away. In fact, my application for the Australian Awards Scholarship was rejected three times, plus a rejection for my application for the BPRI scholarship. Contrary to popular 'belief' that I always get what I want (seriously guys, where do you get these rumors LOL), I couldn't continue to postgrad studies right away. Instead, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for two years at Hasanuddin University, and a year at Muhammadiyah University of Makassar. I also taught part-time at Interlink teaching TOEFL IBT and IELTS to individuals looking to study abroad. I was plenty busy after graduation! Though my dreams to study abroad never wavered. I continued working on my scholarship applications :) Where there is a will, there is definitely a way.

Two years after graduating from Hasanuddin University with a B.A. in English Language and Literature, I received a Fulbright scholarship to study for a masters degree in TESL/Applied Linguistics at Iowa State University. I've been writing about the whole process, and still continuing to write about my Fulbright experience. This blog is largely about that experience, but in the future I would like to share more about some personal 'life experiences' which I hope would not bore you out of your minds, and posts on the area that I am currently studying and look forward to pursue after graduating with my masters degree.

Beautiful Iowa State University in Spring

This blog is in no way intended to be used as a means to brag about my achievements. Honestly, I hope it can provide the readers with useful information or just something fun to read about. If you have any comments or suggestions for the content of this blog, please feel free to email me at ananda_astrini@yahoo.com