We had a second Multicultural Day in uni, the week before classes officially ended. Multicultural Day is usually held 2 times a year - and there is usually one per semester. I went for the previous one and now here I am for this recent one!
Before we go on to actual details of Multicultural Day, I put up some pics of my recent Thesis Photoshoot. Yup - I have officially achieved some form of "temporary head damage". I actually went all out to take pictures of my bound, finalised thesis and its content. Ended up with quite a number of pictures, but anyway it's been quite a while since I last submitted it. It feels kind of unreal that I worked so hard on this document for 8 months and now it's in the hands of 2 examiners. I'm keeping my fingers crossed - that the 8 months of hard effort will pay off! Please (please please please!) let me get a good mark!!!!
Anyway, back to Multicultural Day.
I managed to wake up early that day and was one of the first photographers around at that time. The whole event was supposed to start at 10am and finish by 2pm, and I was pretty much there the whole time.
First stall I visited - the Indonesian stall. I know a couple of postgraduate students from Indonesia, and they've been really, really friendly to me. Met them through a postgraduate writing course and we clicked pretty well - maybe it's because we're kind of "neighbours"! Anyway I do have a few Indonesian friends including these postgraduate friends, and I do keep in touch with them. Their artwork, culture, sculptures etc are just so amazing! And not to mention, they brought traditional musical instruments for us to try!
Check these out:
The next stall I went to was the Indian stall, where they had lit their oil lamps and were busy entertaining peoples' questions. No food this time though. Last semester they provided food. They still gave good descriptions of their culture though!
Not too far away was a German stall, and there were people BBQ-ing German sausages! I love German food! Would love to go to Germany someday - especially to Bonn where Beethoven was born :) And of course, other parts of Germany. It's such a beautiful country.
Tasted some strong, yet fragrant Arabic coffee and a traditional Arabic snack from the Arabic stall. The guy in charge of the stall was really confident and knew a lot. Eventually I sent all these pictures to him.
There was a Brazilian martial arts troupe not too far away, and 4 of the members started performing some traditional songs for us.
Hung around some of the stalls for a while, before the official performances started.
The first performance - a bellydance solo. Can't remember what the girl's name was, but she was so good! She performed 3 items in total.
She then began to engage with the audience, and managed to get some of the girls to dance with her. One of the girls actually knew how to belly dance, and did a duet with her! There were 2 other girls who were really keen to learn too.
All the while, our DJ was providing awesome music, while she talked and laughed with audience members.
The Brazilian martial arts troupe was back - this time with more members! And they did demonstrations of their martial arts techniques. It was like mock fighting, but in a very artistic way.
They also got some audience members to join them...
After that they performed a few solo acts...and were coming closer and closer! One of them ended up (literally!) inches away from my camera! I was pretty scared that he'd kick it or something, but he did not. He was really, really skillful.
Our third performance - bagpipe solo by a Scottish player.
A quartet from New Zealand then came up and performed a few traditional Maori songs. They were from different parts of NZ - some were from North Island while others were from the South.
If I'm not wrong, the last song they performed was Pokarekare Ana, a traditional NZ song.
Left the event with some "mandatory" zoombursts of the flags. I did that last semester too!
Multicultural Day was kind of small this time round. There were fewer stalls, and the event was kind of confined to one area of the courtyard. Either way it was pretty enjoyable, and I was glad that I managed to wake up early for it.
And on the night before, I attended a really amazing concert and thoroughly celebrated my thesis submission. Well - the whole rationale of attending the concert was to celebrate my thesis submission anyway. It turned out...splendid. Just so awesome. Like what Millie D. from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967) would say, "TERRIF!!" :) Contemplating how to celebrate the end of exams now.
Ending off this post with some psychology signs! I took this when walking back to my flat.
Will be posting more pictures again in the near future! Till then, it's time to start mugging for exams!