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I’ve Finally

Luci Arrived in Aceh!

Ostheimer By: Luci Ostheime

Date & Place of Birth: Hello! My name is Luci Ostheimer and I am an and that BTS, One Piece, and Taylor Swift are
English lecturer at Pusat Bahasa and FKIP.
17 December 1998, Newark Delaware, USA H global phenomena in the purest sense of the
Origin: United States of America I want to share a bit about my first month word during office hours.
Status: English Language Lecturer at teaching at USK. My first year at USK in 2021 Being able to come to Aceh to teach in
Universitas Syiah Kuala, Language Center was spent in my “home office” (A.K.A. (also person has been a wonderful experience and
Email: lostheim@oberlin.edu known as) the guest bedroom of my home in I am so grateful to finally be here! It has been
Achievements: Oberlin College Shansi America). As I’m sure you are know, teaching full of surprises, from trying sambal for the first
Fellow to Universitas Syiah Kuala on Zoom is an interesting experience. Though time to seeing some of the most breathtaking
I could only see my students inside their tiny sunsets at Lhoknga Beach or on the road at
Zoom boxes, I was still able to get to know them, Lamnyong Bridge. I think the most powerful
and Aceh, through our check-ins, homework experience I’ve had so far is getting to meet my
assignments, and weekly office hours. students for the first time. It’s difficult to put
Landscapes came alive when Zilla wrote about the feeling into words. Although the fact that we
her grandmother washing clothes at a waterfall were finally together was momentous in itself,
by her village, or when Wahdina described the it didn’t feel bombastic or tearful, it felt like
peaceful rice paddies across the street from reuniting with old friends. We went shopping
her house. I heard pet birds in the background for stationary, out for tea at riverside coffee
of Denny and Salawati’s video feeds, the rush of trucks, and sat in the park and reminisced
traffic outside Dara’s house, the staticy cut-ins about how weird Zoom classes were, among
and -outs of mengobrol when someone forgot other things. One of my favorite “reunions” was
to mute themselves. Around Halloween, we going to a live music show with two of my Pusat
talked about the Salem Witch Trials and Hocus Bahasa students and being surprised to hear
Pocus, the word spooky, and all the things that one of my favorite songs, “I Don’t Love You” by
scared us. My students introduced me to the My Chemical Romance, a song I would never
ghosts that haunt Indonesia like kuntilanak and imagine to hear all the way in Banda Aceh. Each
pocong, entities that put western vampires and week has included adventures with new friends
werewolves to shame. I learned how to make and meet-ups with students, which has made
mie Aceh and nasi goreng from cooking video adjusting to living in a new place easier than I
finals, how issues like gender equality, labor was expecting. The welcome I’ve received here
rights, and deforestation are as important in has been amazing beyond words, and I am so
Aceh as they are in the US during presentations, excited to spend the next year here. []

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