DIATRA Zulaika seemed in high spirits, a big smile stretched across her face as she explained her 'holiday schedule' in Jakarta last August. "I'm always happy to be home," said Zulaika, now a singer at the Opera Choir at the Hagen Theater, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

For a moment, she forgot the difficulties of living in a foreign country, where she still faces cultural challenges. "[There are] things that are so European," the 26-year-old said.