Last Tuesday, my department, The Department of General Studies (JPA), hosted the monthly assembly of Politeknik Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin (PSMZA)... For your information, once a month, an assembly gathering all PSMZA's academic and non-academic staff, is held and all of the main academic departments take turns in hosting it... For this month, it's my department's turn to host it and in conjunction with Maulidur Rasul celebration, we chose the theme of Legasi Cinta Rasul... All staff was required to wear Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung that day... It was a bit like Hari Raya...

As the host, my department was responsible in preparing the hall and we're in charge of the flow of event... We prepared the hall, the MCs, sound system, event tentative, performance, registration, Director's speech and etc... We did everything...

Though the highlight of the day wasn't the assembly... After finished cleaning the hall, my colleagues and I went back to our office and suddenly the Head of Department made a grand announcement... That particular day was his 20th wedding anniversary and he wanted to celebrate it together with all of JPA staff! He brought cake!

It was a surprise by him for his wife who's also working in the same department... Before cutting the cake, he made a brief speech and told us a bit about how he met his wife and how they got together...

Apparently, they sort of met with each other when they were in school... His friends were always teasing him and his wife for their names are quite similar to each other : - Khairul Azaha and Khairul Bariah... They were together during their university years after he made a move on her... 

It was so sweet... His wife was so shy about it, she looked down since the beginning of the surprise until they finished cutting the cake... 

The course had two parts - theory and practical... In theory, a speaker from Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri Terengganu was invited to give a talk to students who participated on how to handle a dead person the Islam way... Then, in practical, students was given a chance to try out the steps explained during theory explanation... 

Some students volunteered to be the dead body and was wrapped in kain kapan and bathed... Interesting huh?

~ENGLISH DAY 2012~

Besides that, I was also involved in English Day 2012 at PSMZA where I got to be the project director... There were three activities held that day for the students to join - The Amazing Race, English Corner and Movie Watching...

In the Amazing Race, eight groups of students raced each other to search for checkpoints around the politechnic... At each checkpoint, they were required to solve puzzles and challenges using only English as their medium communication... Among the challenges are charades and phonetic symbols puzzle...

For Movie Watching, two movies were shown to the students and after each movie, questions related to the movie were given for them to answer... Those who answered the questions would get a prize...

Lastly, for English Corner, board games were prepared for students to try out and play against each other... Among the games available were Boggle, Pictionary and Scrabble... Encyclopedias, magazines and word puzzles were also exhibited...

At the closing and prize giving ceremony, as the project director, I had to deliver a speech and I think I nailed it... Here are a few lines of it - 

"You should not underestimate the power of English because it can take u far... Just look at me for instance, I'm 24 and I'm already a lecturer all because of my knowledge on English..."

By the time I revealed my age, most of the audience appeared to be mildly shocked... If I'm not mistaken, I'm the youngest staff at this polytechnic... My colleagues refer me as "Adik bongsu"...

Being the project director was not a burden for me as it was just a small event... It was a platform for me to get to know how the system works here in this polytechnics and for people to get to know me...

So far, PSMZA has been kind to me... The staff are all friendly and the place is beautiful... Here are some pictures I snapped out of boredom today... There were no students because it's the mid semester break and most of the staff take personal leaves...