Graduation day (Part 1)

It's been almost 2 months since my graduation. Walaupun dah lama berlalu, memori indah tu masih segar di ingatan.Ecewah.I will never forget the moment. The moment when they called my name and I was on stage to receive my scroll. It's an honour to be in the ceremony. I feel blessed, lucky,excited and anxious to be given the opportunity to be back in Wellington. After all the hardship, terpaksa hutang dulu beli tiket, terlepas tiket murah where I ended up buying different ticket price than my friend, finally I manage to be in the ceremony.Yeah!

I thought it will be nice to share my experience here with all my lovely readers. Mind you, this is quite a long entry.

My graduation was on 12.12.12 in the evening. We were invited to join a tea party held by our faculty 4 hours before the ceremony. Basically, when you go to mat saleh tea party, don't even dream of having heavy meal as they will only serve you kuih or sandwich saja. Fortunately, we were very lucky to have a very understanding advisor who provides us with halal food. So, we did not have to be too choosy or hesitant as we can eat all the foods.Hahaha.So what they normally do during tea party is sembang sembang sambil telan air.That's what I observe la. They chat more than eat. Tapi kalau budak Melayu macam we'olls ni, we tend to eat more than chat. And we like to distance ourselves from them and make our own group chatting. Not chatting sangat pun, group eating I would say. Hahaha. Sangat tak berkembang. Sampai our advisor and lecturer yang kena datang and tanya khabar. See, baru setahun balik Malaysia, datang sini balik jadi tak reti nak adapt dengan mat saleh. Nak manis mulut, senyum all the time while u have to talk like normal English people, sometimes it is sooooo hard. You feel much more comfortable talking English to your Malaysian friends because they are like you. Broken English also accepted maaa..Try speaking broken English with the native speakers, confirm kening dorang bercantum jadi satu line! =D

Purple by accident.Look, I was trying to look intellectual in front of Anette. Trying my best to socialize in English. =P

Us with the lecturers. Above, Stuart Webb. He is so tall like a statue.Huhuhu.Below, with our beloved Anette.

Before the graduation ceremony started, we were given marshaling numbers where we have to queue according to it.Ikut sir name.So,merasa jugak la duduk in the middle of the row sebab nama bapak start huruf M. Hehehe. Kalau tak, asyik kena duduk paling belakang sekali pasal nama sendiri start dengan Z. Sobs..Tomey tak robe kitorang? Siap ada bulu mushy mushy lagi.Hehehe. Oh, By the way, the colour of the robe is different according to the courses that we take. So, budak TESOL dapat peacock green colour. Budak art dapat pink dan sebagainya. Ada macam macam colour. 

As we entered the hall, we could hear the Maoris chanting the Haka with so much energy you feel like they were possessed by some kind of evil. This is a welcoming performance.Tabik spring la kat dorang because they manage to pull it off. Bukan senang nak buat Haka ni. Tambah tambah untuk satu jangka masa yang panjang sebab dorang still chant sampai la semua graduan dah masuk dewan. And there were about hundreds of graduands entering in a very slow pace of walking.

What I found interesting about overseas graduation, particularly in New Zealand is that they do not place so much formality in the ceremony. One thing for sure, there is no code attire that you need to follow. It just said that "wear something that is comfortable". Simple as ABC. For the local, kebanyakkan pakai dress, short skirt pun ada for the girls. For boys, rileks je pakai jeans. But there's also people yang smart. Wearing suit like a corporate people. Itu one thing. Dan satu lagi benda yang unik, (I am not sure whether this tradition is also incorporated in Malaysian university, as I never been to any of it yet) is you cannot wear the hood in the hall till the Chancellor announce that you are finally a graduand. Then, baru boleh pakai hood tu. Time dia announce tu, there's one kind of feeling yang susah nak explain.Nak berlinang air mata pun ada. Macam tak percaya dah graduate. How I wish Mama and Abah were there with me =( If you can see in above's picture. I have to greet the first person and then continue walking towards the end of the stage where the second person will be giving out my scroll. Tak tahu la apa relevannya dorang buat macam tu. Huhuhu.

Our course is the second last to receive the scroll. Awal awal tu semangat la tepuk tangan kat orang yang naik atas pentas tu. Then makin lama, makin bosan dan makin mengantuk. Tepuk pun makin perlahan. Hahaha.Siap boleh terlelap kejap sementara nak tunggu giliran naik atas pentas. Another unique thing that happen during the ceremony is that the guests are allowed to cheer for their friends or relatives yang tengah ambil scroll tu. Kebanyakkan yang buat ni geng Maori la.Dorang sangat berbangga dengan keturunan dorang dan bila ada Maori yang terima scroll, dorang macam berdoa dalam bahasa Maori. And to our surprise, when the first person from our course naik pentas, the guests shouted "Malaysia Boleh!" for 3 times and the crowds were definitely awed and they gave us a round of applause soon after the shout ended. Oh myyy...That was spectacular. Bangga sangat sangat.Huhuhuhu.The guests were our friends jugak yang sanggup datang tengok kitorang graduates.Terima kasih korang. Kalau kat Malaysia buat macam ni kan best.Toksah la nak formal formal sangat.Bosan.Huhuhuhu.Diselitkan juga performances in between the scroll giving ceremony.Untuk hilangkan mengantuk.Hehehe.Tapi disebabkan dorang bawa ahli soprano mana entah menyanyi atas pentas, it makes me more sleepy. T____T Memang tak pandai nak value the beauty of soprano.Huhuhu.

The graduation ended at night. Lepas tu ada party lagi tapi kitorang tak join sebab tak konfirm makanan yang dihidang tu halal ke tak. Mind you this is a big party involving many English people.We are just the minority there.Lain la kalau dalam faculty kitorang which is education, dimana kami majoriti.We took so many picture in every corner.Hahaha.

With darlings and friends who came to see us graduate.Thank you so much!

Dah penat bergambar, perut pulak berbunyi. Masa tu dah almost 10.30 pm dan Cinta pun dah tutup.Tapi kami merayu kat tokey kedai untuk terima last customer malam tu. Begging punya begging, he finally allowed us to have late dinner there.Berkat buat muka sedih. Kaw time sama sama Malaysian.Hahaha.

It was definitely a day to remember. Part 2 coming soon =)