The Land of Two Continents Journey: a story of IISMA awardee in Turkey

Experiencing education abroad is the dream of almost every person because apart from gaining insight, we can achieve life lessons in social and expand the networks. An interesting story came from an IISMA scholarship awardee; she is an English Language Education student of Universitas Islam Indonesia batch 2018, her name is Mehrunisa Ani Mufti.

Meher was thrilled and excited to get the opportunity to study for one semester at Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. However, when she came to Turkey, she struggled with the cold weather, but she became used to it over time. Additionally, she was nervous when she appeared at METU directly because she took offline courses and met friends in class after two years of online learning. Some courses she took while at METU are culture and psychology, culturally responsive in early childhood education, which was taught face-to-face, and maternal and children health taught online.

Her daily activities are attending lectures at METU. Still, if there were no classes, she read books, sports, culinary hunting, and conducted a discussion with Turkish Muslim friends. Three weeks ago, she practiced traditional dance to show at the Indonesian exhibition, one of IISMA’s events. Besides, she joins Taekwondo extracurricular, but it has not started, so she spends the time reading books and socialising with Turkish friends.

Her life in Turkey taught about adaptability, communication and tolerance because during her life in the dormitory with two Turks and a neighbor room was Spanish and Dutch. In addition, outside of lectures, she learned about Islamic history in Turkey by visiting Anitkabir (Mustafa Kemal Attaturk’s grave), Ankara Castle, Anatolian museum, Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and Safranbolu.

Finally, Mehr hopes to apply the knowledge gained during her lectures in Turkey to become a good teacher. She also advised students who will participate in the IISMA program to maintain a good quality of learning during college because the GPA will be considered in passing the awardee. In addition, it is also necessary to learn English, write essays in English because writing skills will be tested when writing an IISMA essay, knowing the reasons for applying for IISMA and what contribution will be made for IISMA.