Being the only Indonesian in my international middle and high school, I never really thought of anyone at school being even the slightest bit interested in Indonesia. The truth is, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

First of all, my Social Studies teacher used to teach at Jakarta International School and he seems to be very, very fond of Indonesia. During class, he’s always talking about his experiences in Indonesia whenever possible. Whenever I’m wearing batik, he always seems to point it out to other students, which makes me both embarrassed and proud at the same time. But most of all, he’s always gushing about how great Jakarta International School is!

Just now, I found out that my band teacher is moving to Jakarta to teach at the same school. He seems very excited, too, and I spotted an Indonesian-English dictionary on his desk—the same one that I have at home!

Additionally, right after our winter break, I overheard quite a few people talking about their trips to Bali. The same band teacher mentioned above went surfing and came back with a story about a bunch of Indonesian who started to help him because of a gruesome surfing injury. A classmate of mine was wearing a Hard Rock Café Bali t-shirt while telling me that he went there. I also overheard the French teacher talk to another teacher about his trip to Bali. My geometry teacher was also asking me about Bali—apparently, he’s planning to go there for the next break.

This doesn’t just stop at my school—my dad’s work friends love talking about Indonesia, too. A lot of them lived in Indonesia before and they’re always eager to talk about their experiences around us.

So I guess the point of this article is… If you think Indonesia is not that famous internationally, think again. A lot of expatriates in Asia are very fond of this country, and we should all be proud of that fact!

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