University of Malaya Orientation Week Experience (Minggu Haluansiswa UM MHS)

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Samantha is currently a final year English major student pursuing the Bachelor of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Malaya. This 22 year old student enjoys shopping, spending quality time with friends and family over good food as well as blogging. You can contact the author of the guest post by email: samanthaque [at] hotmail.com

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Minggu Haluansiswa 2010/2011

Written by Samantha, first published on her personal blog

This post will be all about my orientation week in University of Malaya or well known as Minggu Haluansiswa or MHS.

The banner in Dewan Tunku Canselor (DTC).

MHS sucks. I don’t like MHS. I dislike MHS and I will not do anything to go back any one of the days of MHS. I hated MHS but I amazed myself each time I think back about what we did during MHS and how all of us, survived through that one week of hell.

MHS, is a whole week of torture. Each day, we only slept for a maximum of 4 hours IF we are lucky and nothing else more than that. Although I was somewhat prepared for MHS [Thanks to Angela anyway =P], but still, it felt like hell =.=… And to be honest with you, MHS made my National Service experience felt like heaven more than ever [My National Service experience has been an awesome one anyway =P].

Inside Dewan Tunku Canselor.

The whole week of MHS, we are made to listen to useless talks and we are made to do stupid things and sing songs every morning. The talks in Dewan Tunku Canselor is heaven because you can sleep and no one is going to bother you unless you sit right in front. The talks in the college/hostel is hell because they will make you listen whether you like it or not. But most of the time, my mind has dozed off to counting down to how many more days for MHS to end.

Opening prayer before any ceremony in Dewan Tunku Canselor.

Heaven during MHS is having enough sleep. Yea, that is the only wish you would want other than going home of course. During MHS, we were scolded and were stepped on like we are some germs [Germs hor... not ants] by the Pembantu Mahasiswa [PM] in our hostel. Pembantu Mahasiswa are seniors who stayed back in UM for at least 2 months I think just to help out during MHS.

The overview of half of Dewan Tunku Canselor from the second floor.

During MHS, most of the Pembantu Mahasiswa were rude and nasty to us. All that I remembered was, they woke us up in the middle of the night just to punish us for an hour. So yea, remember this, during my MHS, when you are happily asleep at home/online, I am being punished/half ragged in UM.

Every morning, we are made to sing the hostel and UM song, I don’t mind the UM song honestly [It's pretty cute! Totally reminded me of KHS school song hehe !] but I hate the hostel song because I can’t seem to remember the lyrics although they made us sing that song like everyday. Sorry la, I don’t like that song, that’s why.

Some of the first year students of 7th College singing either the hostel or UM song. Yea, I am one of them, somewhere in the crowd at the back.

Apart from singing songs everyday, they do spot checks everyday. Spot checks were different for every college though. As for my college, their daily spot checks include:

a) Switching off our handphone by ensuring that we take out the battery.

b) We are still having all the items that they gave us.

Yea, I know what do you want to ask next. What items? Right, these items:

File/Papers/Pencil/Pen whatever.

Yellow paper -___-…

The red bag.

Umbrella.

There are more items, like food container, pin badges, cap, name tag, jacket and all the other nonsense. And we are to carry them everywhere we go and when I say everywhere we go, that includes when we are forced to run from the hostel to our faculty or DTC. Yea, you carry all those stuff and run with you and mind you… it’s heavy and annoying!!

Vice chancellor, faculty’s deans.

The next thing you could possibly ask is… what if you don’t carry them along/around with you. Well the answer is simple, they’ll make you run all the way to your room to get it and then they will spot check again. And yea, the PM-s are not stupid, they will do a spot check before walking/running with you to your faculty/DTC.

That means, if you are staying at the highest floor and one of the last rooms, you run and get whatever you’ve forgotten to take and if everyone else if given 5 minute to do so, the one staying at the highest floor and one of the last rooms can prepare to curse and swear.

Now you want to know, what if you lost any item that they’ve given you. Well, that’s a good question. The answer is in the photo above. They will make you stand aside and question/interrogate you like some police suspect for a murder case [No la, maybe it's not that scary but you should see the PM faces].

And for one/a few idiots action like forgetting to carry their umbrella along with them [Even when the talk is in our hostel], you will lose your one or half an hour of sleep at night. Yea, so don’t do anything idiotic that will make you lose even a minute of your sleep. Sleep is super precious during MHS so don’t waste anytime whenever you can sleep.

Sam, Jennica, Melissa sleeping inside DTC.

The item that I like best during MHS is the umbrella, hehe! I love the umbrella because it has the UM logo printed over it and I feel so proud each time I use it =X… Okay right, I probably should get back to MHS =P.

During MHS, we are only given two orientation T-shirts and we were made to wear the same shirt for the whole week. So yea, don’t look at me like that. Everyone else stink just like me and let me know if other university do this to their students too.

Different colleges with different orientation shirt colours.

And I hate going to the Varsity Field. Because we will be made to sit down on the grass whether the grass is dry or wet and I don’t like grassy areas as well. It looks nice, but I don’t like it.

There are many sports event for us to participate but you can be so sure that I participate none because I hate sports and I don’t like playing any kind of sports so please, never invite me for a game of badminton or tennis unless you don’t mind me yawning all the time. But I do love swimming [Albeit I can't swim] and marathon run! =P

UM Cares; one of the go green event by UM.

Apart from disliking grassy areas, I hate sitting down and not doing anything at all. Although we did some cheers here and there, but still, it is nothing productive. And so… they do have other events other than sports such as choir, performances, debate and such.

There is no public speaking though so I went for the debate try out [To represent my college during MHS] as I’ve never joined any debate before so I think it’ll be pretty cool to be in a debate team for once =P.

The guy sitting next to me is PM zChuckz, the PM who is in charge of us for the Bahasa Malaysia debate.

I joined the Bahasa Malaysia debate and yea, we were lack of time to practice/find good points about the topic so we ended up brainstorming when they are playing sports. I don’t mind this though, at least I don’t have to sit down and do nothing.

Revati and I. We knew each other since standard 1 and we were schoolmates and classmates from 1997-2007. And now, we are in the same university! =D

Revati is one the PM for 6th College and I met her in 6th College when I went over for debate competition. Yea, this is what I like the most =D. I don’t have to sit at the nasty field and watch stupid games going on. At debate competitions, we were given chairs to sit [Ah the comfort!], and then got van to send us here and there somemore [Don't have to walk and that is also heaven]. And the best part is… refreshments are always provided =P !

Also… Honestly, debating was fun! I kinda regretted that I never had a chance to do it in secondary school and KHS T____T… But it’s okay, at least I get to do it in UM =P. Although we only won one round out of three rounds but I am satisfied because the one round that we won, was the one that I debated in. I was only given a chance because I am the only one without any experience at all as compared to the other three girls. So yea, I’m still happy nevertheless .

7th College Bahasa Malaysia debate team at 6th College.

You see la, you see la. You see for yourself la! This is us, in front of 6th College and you see la, you see la!

Clinical Students’ Hostel

WHY! WHY SO SPECIAL!! Hello! Do you know that, if one engineer or architect ah, forgot to draw a screw or whatever, and then the whole building can collapse and millions of people will die at one go. Not like doctors hor, kill one by one during operation [As told by my dearest Nano]! I do think that UM need to reconsider changing 2nd College into Engineering Students’ Hostel and my college to Language Students’ Hostel… Hehehe!

What?! Language can cause World War III… We just have to say something offensive at the right time and right place… and there you go… So UM… I demand a hostel for the Language faculty students! Please and thank you! =D Yea I know; dream on so let’s move on.

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I am kinda lazy to write now so I guess… the photos will do the talking now:

Silent cheers to sindir another college =P I like this one a lot!

The guy standing at the back on the most left, he does looks like my ex-classmate back in 6AF, Leong Kuan Yoke and throughout the whole time during MHS, I kept on calling him Leong and I couldn’t believe it that I miss Ah Leong so much T___T. Yea, that ignorant Ah Leong in class who is always sucking on a lollipop.

And there is another guy, who happens to be a PM of 6th College, he looks like Soon Seng and I actually yelled SOON SENG across the road just to get his attention because I thought he is Soon Seng until someone taps me and asked me on who am I calling, then I actually said:

My ex-classmate who is now in UMP.

T______T… But let’s not talk about embarrassing stuff …

This is Huey Ting and I and I do think that she looks a lot like my ex-classmate back in 6AE, Mok Li Suet =P.

Senior cheerleaders leading the Siswa UM cheers =P. This is, my favourite cheers of all time during MHS and it sounds so much better when the whole DTC is doing the Siswa UM cheers together =D.

And before I forget, we are ALWAYS given 10-15minutes to…

(Eat OR Take a bath) AND Wash the food container.

So yea, you either eat or bathe but you must wash the food container.

I forgot his name but we are all supposed to call him ayahanda =X… And it is only during his talks in DTC that I did not fall asleep because he is always telling us stories and sex jokes =D… Yea, I’m not joking with you and he is the one who introduced to us the full time PhD holder in UM or well known as the monkeys.

Walking/Running back to our hostel and I absolutely love it when one of the girls fainted because then they never force us to run anymore so more girls should faint so that they’ll provide us a bus. Do you know that because our hostel is one of the nearest one to DTC, they do not provide us any bus?! And Chui San’s college is all the way up the hill and buses are provided for them! Not fair lo!! T____T!!!

2nd College which happens to be Tat Joon’s college and one of their cheers =).

7th College and our Go Za’ba cheers~! =D

Stuff that Jennica, Melissa and I wrote in DTC =P. Hehe!

On the last day of MHS, they have performances from all the first prize winners for the events organized during MHS and it made me feel like I am attending a concert! And this girl, is from 9th or 12th college and she sings extremely well. The best part is, she sang one of the songs by Siti Nurhaliza and it was very well sung =).

Some other performances which are not too bad, but exceeded my expectations =P.

Back to the hostel, the PM-s had a performance for us, which is entertaining us with all the cheers! =D

And I shall end my MHS post with a happy photo of myself, Melissa and Jennica in DTC on the last day of MHS. Can you see our 1 gazillion dollars smile and everyone else standing up with their hands up in the air?!

Overall, MHS still sucks and I know, it didn’t seem so sucky in this post but trust me, it gives you all this sort of negative feelings at once. But now, looking back at it, I smiled because I lived through MHS, the hell of a time in UM.

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Must-Watch Video: UM Minggu Haluansiswa Residential Colleges' Cheers!
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