Let the SUSI Begin! (",)

After 25 hours of travel time, we have finally met our graduate peer mentors, Drew and Cary. From the St. Louis Airport, we were advised that the university housing (dorm) will be a two-hour drive away from the airport. We ate at Diary Queen (more popularly known in the Philippines as DQ) before we reach Carbondale.

When we reached Southern Illinois University- Carbondale (SIU-C), we cannot help but be amused with its big campus. Drew and Cary assisted us unloading our luggage from the van, and they gave a little tour on our dorm. Initially, most of us decided to fix our things first for an hour so we can do something while waiting for the other participants from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Night Zero

Since we still have nothing to do, our group decided to see the area, and of course, to take some pictures that we can post in facebook. Unfortunately, we cannot access the internet because we are not officially registered as SIU-C students. We need to acquire our own IDs first before we can use the university services. To kill the boredom, we took pictures within the pictures. The Malaysians arrived after we returned to Boomer Hall 2 (our dormitory). Each of us introduced and exchanged our names and we welcomed them warmly.



According to our graduate peer mentors, delegates from Indonesia were delayed because they were asked to have a second inspection on one of the airports they went to. Everyone decided to rest because everyone was tired for one-whole day of flying through skies.



Day One

Strangely, I still feel tired but my body doesn’t want to sleep anymore. I realized that my body is still adjusting with the time zone where we are now- perhaps; maybe this is what they call jet lag. I woke up very early and made my morning routines.

We went to (Catholic) church to thank God for our safe arrival in US. Deisha, one of the delegates from Indonesia, joined us in attending the mass because she is from a Christian denomination as well. After the mass, a man approached us because he heard the priest’s acknowledgement of the Southeast asian participants for the summer Institutes. Surprisingly, he is a Filipino and he is working in SIU as a professor. Prof. Aldwin Anterola, who is a bio-chemistry professor in SIU, asked us about the purpose of our stay in Carbondale. He was pleased that he saw a group of Filipino in Carbondale because he was the only Filipino faculty within SIU-C. We separated with an assurance that we’re going to meet again because he will be joining us on the welcome dinner for the SUSI Participants.

Basically, day one was a day of orientation and introduction to SIU-C. We had a campus-tour where we saw the important places that we have to familiar with. And in the afternoon, we met with the program directors, Dr. John Foster and Dr. John Jackson. We were oriented about the do(s) and don’ts during the program. Moreover, it was an orientation on how the program will go. Academic program overview was not discussed because it was scheduled for Monday. Our program kits (which contain our books, notebooks, food guide and pen) were right on our chairs together with our name tags.



We visited an international store near Carbondale so as we can buy the things that we miss from our countries. No one from our group bought anything from the store because the goods where expensive especially if you’ll compare it with the Philippine price. Luckily, we went to Wal-Mart (an SM or Macro like supermarket) to buy our groceries since our initial allowance were given during the orientation.



We bought some of items for the group so that we will be able to save money, although most of us bought items for our personal use. Wal-Mart is a one-stop shop in most of the cities in America where you can buy almost everything you need. Well, this is not new for a capitalist country like Philippines 

Step One (",)

Just two days before our flight, I recalled that I have to pack my things already for our US trip. On that day also, we met our program coordinator (I don’t know what’s the label of his title), Mr. Tony Perez, for a short orientation about how will the program go and what are the things to expect. Primarily, we were given the basic information about the host school for this year Study of the Summer Institute for Student Leaders, and some of the few things we have to know about US (like the electric current on power outlets, implementation of rule of law, weather and climate, etc.). Well, one of the things that I always seek to learn is the culture of a particular country.


According to Mr. Perez, Americans are individualist by nature. At first, I was wondering how individualist Americans were and how will it affect our relationship with them as participants of the program. We were advised to be assertive as much as we could because that is the common nature of the Americans. They speak their minds- as reflected by foreign films we get to watch.

Well, they have lots of practices which are very familiar to me- as Filipino elites (people from the upper class ) adopt and practice them. Maybe it has something do with their exposure on westernized culture.



From Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), we landed at Narita International Airport in Tokyo Japan (at least we get to step on Japan’s land even for a 2 hours or so) for our connecting flight to Detroit. From Japan, we start seeing our American co-passengers from the boarding area and I was trying to sense how they act and behave.



In the past, I was able to meet Southeast Asian on what of the conferences that I attended in Thailand. I noticed that most of the Asian nationalities are accommodating and they are socially assertive. On my end, I was trying to assess if people from the West do it also. I start believing that films can really mold our perception to some people to a certain extent. On most of the movies that I have seen, Americans are fond of conversing with people most especially if it is a social gathering.

Like any other American movie consumer, it is safe to assume that most people will expect tall buildings from this place. Busy cars, strict police officers all over the place, heavy cost of living and other stereotypes we often see on movies.




Breaking the Wall of Expectation.

Well, there are still rural parts of the US. When we were on our way to Carbondale, I was wondering why are seeing cornfields and plains on our way to Southern Illinois University (SIU) . I realized, even though US is an industrialized country there are still place where they can shoot Jeepers Creepers etc.

For barely two weeks of stay in Carbondale is way far different than our molded perception to American people. Yes, their government represents their image in the global village but meeting them first hand is a different experience. Even though they are undeniably individualistic (not on a negative light), they also love conversing and accommodating people. Of course, it was not comparable with the asian accommodation because we grew from different cultures. Indeed, the orientation about the cheap electronics, expensive goods and big servings on fast foods were true. There are still days to come and a lot of learning will still be on our way. Good Luck SUSI 2010 Participants! LET’S GO!