Malaysian Studies project

Earlier on this week (from Monday-Wednesday) my batch organized a food fair cum exhibition which served 2 purposes:-

a) for our Malaysian studies assessment ( I still don't understand why a future doctor has to learn about the history of Malaysia :p )

b) to raise some money for our convocation magazine

Earlier in the year- our Malaysian studiees teacher (who tells us stories in class) asked us what type of assessment do we want for the subject. She gave us a few choices of assessment:

i) the traditional paper format

ii) presentation format

iii) carry out a project

Option (i) was definitely out for me, I hate sitting for exams. The teacher also discouraged us from choosing that option, as according to her, as medical students, we already have tons of facts to memorize. She didn't want to burden us and overload our brain cells any further.

She encouraged us to choose option (iii) instead, as she believes that university life should not be all work and no play. At the end of the day, she said, it is these extra stuff we do that we would remember for life, and not studies. You get to mix around and interact with students from other races, quarrel a bit and learn from it, and basically just have fun...she said. I agreed with her then.

When the time for the project drew nearer, we all suddenly realized it was not such an easy task after all. Tons of preparations had to be done- in all departments..... Academics, food, music, decoration, publicity.... I initially put my name down under the food department, but then was told that department had too many people, and decoration department had too few people. So I ended up in the decoration department.

I learnt to make lanterns from angpows, tried to learn to make ketupats...:p

The Saturday before the big day, we returned to uni to set up all the decorations. Many people helped me to set up the flaglines and ceiling decorations....I was so grateful for the help!

On the 3 days of the project- we were all being kept busy.... stalls selling many delicious food were set up, and there were performances- martial arts, dancing and singing. I helped Ed to sell curry mee too on the first day.

Although the entire project- right from the planning to execution required lots of time, energy and effort, at the end of the day, we know that it was all worth it. To see people from other batches ( and also batchmates) crowding around the stalls to buy the food, and gathered at the atrium to watch the performances, there was this sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I'm not sure how much money exactly was raised, but I know it was a significant amount.

Besides getting our marks for the assessment, and raising money for the convo mag, we took with us life long lessons. Learning leadership skills, learning to take charge (like my housemate Rachel who had to choreograph the Chinese dance). And most importantly, we learnt to bond with people from other races, backgrounds and religions.