Peter Krause
Mr. Harley
11 English Honors
2 May 2008 (English Project)

"It has been a very great pleasure to make your acquaintance"

I certainly have met a lot of great people in my life. I have met people that formed me with their wisdom, I met people that taught me tolerance and respect and I met people that go or went through their life with unbelievable energy and power. All those people made an impact on me. But living in a new culture abroad, I met a person that I will never forget in my life and that taught me so much about myself and about prejudices and that with her openness gave me the chance to do so. Kartika Nurhayati was exchange student with me in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 2007/2008. I first met her after we both arrived in August 2007, she from Jakarta, Indonesia and I from provincial Germany. When I first saw her I had an inner conflict, although I certainly would have never admitted it....... On the one hand I came to the United States to meet new people from different cultures and I certainly really wanted to do so. Kartika was also the only exchange student I met at the beginning that had already good English language skills and so the communication was easier to her than to others. She had gotten a full scholarship as I had and all those things should have made me very close to her from the beginning on. But there was something different. She was the first Muslim wearing a headscarf I met. I had seen them before on TV and even some on the streets. But I had never talked to one. And yes, in the back of my head I had prejudices. When we got our schedules we found out that we had 3 classes together and so I would see her every day. And so being exchange students and having lots of similar experiences we talked to each other a lot. She was very open about herself, about her culture and she openly practiced her religion. She got to know so many people from the beginning on and I was stunned how she did that. Obviously she faced prejudices being the only kid with a headscarf in the school and it I was so impressed how quickly she moved people to see her as Kartika instead of “the kid with the headscarf”. Evenly quickly she had moved me. We were talking hours on the phone laughing and chatting, we were hanging out and we shared problems, like the question “How to find a Prom date”, together. She became such a great help in many situations and she changed my point of view in so many things. Thank her I truly and not just in theory understand to respect and tolerate the Muslim faith and her culture. She so openly shared her ideals about life with me and we found so many similarities between us. Her goals for her life like getting to college and get a high level job in a developing are what I understand as future. And it showed me so clearly how modern religion, especially Islam, and followers of that faith can be. I was so impressed by her work ethic and I oftentimes wished more people in my culture would work so straight for their goals and I myself would like to be as focused as she is and still have so much fun in life. All in all she greatly opened my eyes in so many ways and she became a great friend I’m going to miss when I am back in Germany. And I can say, it has been a great pleasure to make her acquaintance.

Oh my God....... This is very touching.... Rasanya terharu sekali hati ini membacanya. Kok bisa-bisanya Peter yang super gokil itu menulis seindah ini? (Biasanya dia kan kalo ngomong ngeledek mulu bawaannya...) Tapi jujur dalam hati, this confession makes me stand more firmly to let the world knows that I am a Muslim. How beautiful it is... that an atheist German like him think about me this way... Now I can say too, that it has been a great pleasure to make his acquaintance.