Take A Step Ahead
Faisya Rania Yusfiani–INA KL-YES to USA YP 23/24
Hi, I’m Faisya Rania Yusfiani, awardee KL-YES Year Program 23/24! It’s been a few months since I got here, in California, USA. I still clearly remember the day when I got my placement report. I was at school, giggling and talking with my friends. They do know that I will have to get a host family first before I go to the United States. They were as worried as me. An email notification popped up on my phone. It said that I got placed in Red Bluff, California, USA!! Excitement was the only word inside my mind at that time.
Red Bluff is not a really big city, everything is so simple here. The people, the society, school, and the foods too. They were not my expectations at all. The only thing that I could survive with at that time was the hot weather hahahahaha. But after all, I was so excited to face all of those new things in front of me, I feel like it is the new fun challenges that I have to deal with. People here are so nice, they are more like a country person that loves to ride horses, have a bull, and have goats as their pets. They are animal lovers. You can see deer walking across the street if you’re lucky!!
Everything has changed ever since I stepped on my foot here. I became used to being around animals, I became a bread person, and I started to love sports. I was in my school’s field hockey team as a manager and player, which at the summer time, was a pretty new sport around Tehama County. It was super fun. Moreover, I have never really played sports before. It was all new to me. My teammates were the one who helped me
adapt to this new school environment. We played a lot of games, either home or away. After August and summer passed, I convinced myself, “It would be spectacular!!!!”.
One of my top-notch classes is floral design class. This class is super fun and really taught me well on how to make a pretty floral arrangement. Every month, we could make an arrangement with seasonal themes, such as halloween, valentine, mother’s day, and etc. Until now, I already made five different arrangements and I am so proud of it. The reason why I chose this class is because there is almost no course or class that can provide this kind of skill in Indonesia, especially my home city. The most interesting part is that we could make the arrangements by ourselves and with our own hands, it is such a dream for me.
Christmas and snow. Both are the words that all exchange students really wanted to try. Unfortunately, in California itself, they almost have zero snow if you’re not living in the mountains. But still, the weather gets very cold in winter, they have dry wind, which is very cold for me living in a tropical area haha. In the middle of December, my host family and I went to Mt. Lassen to see snow. It was incredible. The texture, coldness, view, snow clothes, everything was memorable. I was so excited to make a snowman. We were there to cut our own christmas tree and the interesting part is you have to get the permit to cut a tree in the mountain, they do really care about the environment. Before we went home, my host sister played in the snow together. We were having so much fun. I am really hoping to be able to touch snow again because that thing is pretty.
For me, these past few months were going to become a core part of my life, even my mind. Everything was my first time. I got a chance to try every little thing that I couldn’t find in Indonesia and that makes me become very grateful for this opportunity. Only here, I feel like Indomie is the most precious item to me hahaha. All of these things make me realize how awesome and great life is. They make you reminisce every moment and appreciate even the tiniest things around. I’m so glad that I am able to tell you about my adventure here in California. I cannot wait to see what will happen for my next journey…!
