Stereotyping, who doesn’t do that? When we meet a person we often stereotype that person to guess where they’re from based on several things such as the color of the skin, the language they are talking, the accent of how they speak, and the names they have right!?
Well, what do you think about me when you see my name and my face at the top of this blog?
If you see me based on my face, you would probably guess that I’m from China or somewhere in that area. Well, you are not the only one. I have several experiences when some Chinese people talks to me in Chinese during the first lectures of a new class. In return, I had to say, “Sorry, I don’t speak Chinese…”, and what they usually replied was, “Oh, I thought you were from China.” Well, I’m not from China and unfortunately I don’t understand Chinese.
If you have only access to my name, you would think that I’m from Greece, or at least some Greek people do. I’ve been told and asked that several times by Greeks. One time on my exam day, I mentioned my name for the absent list to the examiner and he also asked, “Are you from Greece?” “No, I’m also not from Greece,” I replied.
So who am I then, and where am I from?
I am actually from Indonesia, the country with 4th biggest population (around 230 million) and 15th largest area in the world. Never heard of it? Well, do you know Bali? If you know Bali, you then should know Indonesia, since Bali is one of the popular tourist destinations in Indonesia. However, I do not come from Bali, but from the capital city of Indonesia, called Jakarta.
I have completed my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering/Telecommunication back in Indonesia and have worked afterwards for a few years. Now, I have the opportunity to open a new chapter in my life: studying the master’s degree. I have received a scholarship from Erasmus Mundus for doing my master’s program in Master of Research on Information Communication and Technologies (MERIT) from 2011 until 2013. I know the name of the program is too long; therefore I used to say that I’m doing a master’s in telecommunication. I will study my first year here in KTH, one of the top universities in the world and move to Italy in my second year.
I have stayed here for around 4 months and experienced some of the Swedish habits which I will share with you in the upcoming months. Also, I will update you with my life as a student and what it’s like to study at KTH. Not to forget, I believe my life as a student should be balanced between study and fun, so in between I will also post some of the daily activities that I experienced and places/events that I visited during my stay in Stockholm, so that you can have a general idea what it’s like to be here.
ur surname is greek:) makarios!! i thought that maybe one of ur parents is greek..