Petra Exchange Program (PEP) Journal

1st meeting
The Petra Exchange Program is a very interesting activity for me to join. During the preparation, I was so excited and couldn’t wait any longer to start. In this first meeting, I felt really nervous, especially when it comes to speaking. I knew that confidence is the most important thing when we communicate to others, but to be honest, today was not as good as I expected. I actually wanted to be friends with the DHS students, understand them, and share everything with them like what I used to do. But then, I found out that I was not that active. When I tried to speak up my opinion, they didn’t answer me immediately. Instead, they looked a little bit confused and giggled most of the time. This made me think that my speaking was very bad and unclear. Even though they sometimes tried their best to communicate with us, asked us about the topic, I already felt unconfident. 

This doesn’t mean I didn’t like this program since today. I know this is just a beginning. It can be hard at first, but as long as I work with them, I’ll understand them better. The positive side is that I feel like being urge to study more deeply, so I won’t say anything wrong or embarrassing. I hope I can perform better and contribute a lot to this group.