Moving
to Delhi from Jakarta was not an easy thing for me to do, as I was leaving
behind friends and teachers whom I had known throughout most of my life. As far
as transitions go however, my transition form Jakarta International School to
the American Embassy School has been remarkably easy, mainly because the two
schools are alike in nearly every respect. From curriculum to facilities, even
the teacher’s personalities are mostly the same. The transition wasn’t hard
because AES is an international school, and most international schools on that
scale share pretty much the same ideas/curriculum/activities, so for me, it was
like going back to JIS, just smaller.
There
are differences however, the most obvious being the size of the two schools.
JIS has 3000+ students, while AES in total has something like 1000. AES also
possesses a gym, with treadmills and everything, which I use twice a week. The
respective curriculums, as mentioned above, are pretty much the same, although
AES offers a few more extracurricular activities.
The
two cities share their similarities and their differences. Jakarta is as
polluted, noisy, and chaotic as Delhi, but much less crowded. There’s also
better infrastructure, which allows for the predictability of traffic jams,
thereby making them easy to avoid with a bit of planning. It also rains much
more frequently in Jakarta (Heck, there are only three seasons, semi-dry, wet,
and very wet) and overall, Jakarta is a little cleaner than Delhi. Delhi is
much, much greener, with trees found nearly everywhere and boasting many parks.
Jakarta is somewhat green, but most of the trees are found in neighborhoods,
while in Delhi the greenery is found pretty much everywhere.
The
big problem that I have with living in Delhi is that it is much more noisier
than Jakarta, and there is SO MUCH HONKING DEAR GOD! Aside from that, there is
also the fact that Delhi is super crowded, and, unlike Jakarta, traffic jams
are just as likely to pop up on neat, state of the art roads as they are on the
less state of the art roads. It also gets freezing cold in the winter,
something that I’m experiencing now. Delhi is actually a much nicer place to
live than other Indian cites, chiefly because of its environmental regulations
and the sheer amount of greenery that can be found.
Moving
is never easy, especially not for someone like me, who is not the best at
making friends. I think that Delhi and AES were the right places for me, as I
have fit in very comfortably and easily. While I still do miss my old friends,
the wonders of email and the like have allowed me to remain in touch, so that
even while I’m far away and making new friends, I still have a tangible link
with my past.
