SMKN 8 Makassar in London

One moth already we, Gumiq, Wenny, Nurbaity, Titik, Dolly, Fatma and myself are here in London. Sometimes we are imagining back to Indonesia, but we do not have home-sick. No, may be cause Mr. Franklin is calling us from time to time and we do also chatting, netmeeting with our parents through the facilities that our school, SMKN 8 Makassar has and all free of charge. I talked to my mother and daddy, also Nurbaity met her parents through netmeeting. How is this possible, sometimes I asked myself. Am I really in London? How could this happen? A dream? No this this real.....I am at Strand, I walk through the Pall Mall, Oxford, Piccadilly Street, then suddenly I am at Hyde Park and our first day we visit the Buckingham Palace and watched the Change of Guards and than as of July 3rd. I will move from Strand where we stay for more than a month to a house that is only 500 meters from the Buckingham Palace. We live in the first class neighborhood in London. God is very kind to us. Allahu Akbar, Praise Allah. This what we can say!

Me connecting to Makassar, we have all facilities here, on the back ground the flat-screen monitor

Sad, Wondering, Happy and Seriously watching the screen when doing netmeeting with my parents, instructors and Babe

In Singapore where I did also my hotel attachment training last year, was already a gracious opportunity. The school, I mean the SMKN 8 Makassar guided us to be mature and independent. And we prove it, we feel, and this is really what we feel: We are the Champignon .....like the lyrics of the a song broadcasted by MTv. We were very proud when we are having our training in Singapore and Malaysia, doing the same job as the students from Hotel High School from Bali, Bandung and while the students from the Tourism Academy of Makassar are only doing their practical training in the canteen hospital or at small cafes in Singapore. I start from the bottom as bush boy but within two moths I was than transferred and appointed as coffee shop waiter and room-service waiter. While those from higher educations institution from Thailand, Malaysia even from Japan are doing the same job as me. I am not proud of myself, but we are proud of our institution SMKN 8 Makassar, that dare to do this giant step. No other education institution in Indonesia has ever got this chance to Europe. I have been informed that there are some students from Jakarta Tourism Academy whom had their industrial attachment training in Holland, but in a restaurant, the same like our mates from SMK in Sumatera that were place at a Kentucky Fried Chicken and only get paid Mal $ 200.00 a month. In Singapore I was paid Sin $ 550.00 excluding over times and night duty, a month I can get around Sin S. 700,00 this is excluding the tips from our guests. While here in London I got £ 791.00 a month; after paying rental and taxes in had we have £ 535.00, and we work only 4 days and have 3 days off. This is a salary of a Commies de Potagier, Commies de Lardier, Commies de Garde Manger, Commies de Patisserie, we are not here as apperentisiers and the Management of hotel has promise us when we are working good than we can be promoted to Demi Chef de Partie de Potagier. I am very sure that only we from SMKN 8 Makassar know these terms, only at SMKN 8 Makassar these terms are use since the 1st year. We do not have any difficulties using the culinary terms here in London.

Now that we are here for a month, wondering the beautiful summer but still curious of what will happen in next autumn, winter and spring, we recognize the short comings, such as Fatma. She was the delegate of SMKN 8 Makassar to the student competition in Pare Pare. The judge of the competition, from a self service restaurant, refuse to have the explanation in English, that Fatma gave to him. Me myself has prepared the video for Fatma, but she doesn't get a number not even the third! And when I was following the School Council Meeting in preparation of the join education program at SMKN 6 Makassar, I knew than why this happen. Why Fatma failed in Pare Pare. SMKN 6 Makassar want to have it all, but they failed in Malang. So poor! And the actual result is that Fatma; who failed in Pare-Pare is now the star of a five star hotel in London! She and myself prepare Indonesian dishes. And what are the comments of the gourmets here? Excellent, delicious! So, who is dumb the judge from a silly small self-service restaurant and a small hotel in Pare-Pare without any gastronomical and culinary experience or those here the professionals who prepare the delicacies, classical gastronomique dishes and cuisine nouvelle? Often, as we are sitting at the veranda at our dormitory overlooking Strand, we discuss these things and looking back, the passed year when we are at SMKN 8 Makassar.

With these experiences we suggest to SMKN 8 Makassar to keep the competence program and the education system of today, as we have proven in Singapore and here in London that it is very suitable for us to prepare our self to be a professional in a short time.