Asean in Today’s World 2020 (ASTW20)
Kuala Lumpul, Malaysia
February 23 – March 6 , 2020
By Desy Chrisna Delfia, Indonesia
ASTW20 is the third program I have ever attended during my college days. Where I’ve participated in student exchange activities in 2017 and participated in the MUN program (Model United Nation) in Malaysia in 2018, but so far I can say that ASTW20 is a program that is very imprinted in my mind and feeling because only in this program I feel something so different because for the first time i dont want this program to end.
Although the situation was very chaotic because it started preaching about COVID19 and there is a possibility that this program will be cancel , but we can still run the program well. Here, I began to think how lucky I was because thanks to this opportunity I was able to meet various people with different views and personalities, as well as befriending various people from different countries.
The learning was very useful and upgrade my knowledge about ASEAN especially I was from one of the founding countries of ASEAN and was very pleasant to learn it while befriending and sharing opinions with friends from other countries even from Japanese friends who are not part of the Southeast Asia country but have a deep history in the Southeast Asian country itself. Although many people say that the program is not as crowded as the former program ( In 2019) and the Committee must implement maximum security for us in accordance with COVID19 security rules but still can not make me say that the program is meaningless and unpleasant to me in fact, the program is beyond my expectation. Because we not only learning something in the classroom but go out to like goes around in Kuala Lumpur such as Masjid raya , Hinduism Temple , Chinese Temple , etc and after that we go to Malacca too.
But the most memoriable memories for me is how we get close to each others, all the participant blend in so well in this program because we have a lot of time to get to know each other , like after lecture we can go get some dinner outside and this is our time to spend with others participant or just go around to the places (we never go before ) in Kuala Lumpur. Don’t forget to mention how friendly the Buddies (committee) are and always there for us.
I can’t say it much about it but what i can say about this program is , i have a lot of fun memories and friends i get from this program i hope can stay keep in touch so someday we can meet again somewhere we dont know. And there is some of photos I took and the buddies took in this Program :