Minggu Haluansiswa University of Malaya 18/19 (ASTAR)
Greeting reader,
You're probably here today because you (like me), have been accepted into the University of Malaya for your undergraduate studies. This post will be about my experience throughout the orientation week as a "freshie" of the first residential college, Kolej Kediaman Tuanka Abdul Rahman (ASTAR). A little bit about me first, I'm currently taking my Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) at UM and I did my pre-u studies at the University of Malaya (PASUM).
Day 1
So the day finally came. It was time for me to return to my beloved university but this time as an undergrad. I was thrilled to have a gotten a seat in UM's medicine program but wasn't totally thrilled about being placed in the First Residential College, KK1 (AT FIRST ONLY, later sumpah I thought KK1 was the best college). I came to KK1 with my dad and friend to register. I really wanted to share a room with my friend from Sarawak who was taking law but apparently, medical students and dental students have to share rooms with their own course mates. In the end, I ended up in a room with a PASUM friend who was the smartest of our batch (starting to feel the pressure now). I have to be frank, the room isn't spectacular but I did learn to see the silver lining in this old old old room. Thankfully, I'm on the second floor so I don't have to work out too much everyday. For medical students, ASTAR is not too far from the Faculty of Medicine BUT, the faculty is on top of a hill so everyday we have to walk uphill to class.
After registering and saying our goodbyes, most of the rest of the day was used up on handing in the documents. By the way, MHS is facilitated by seniors called Pemudahcara Mahasiswa's (PM's), the PM's of ASTAR we're super nice and welcoming, always smiling and willing to lend a helping hand even though they were super busy with registering us and collecting our documents. The only con I have about the day is the fact that we had to sit on the floor for 5 hours straight, I swear I almost cried because my butt was aching, my muscles were sore and my legs were dead. That night, (yes, orientation runs from the early morning, 5:30 a.m. till 12 midnight) we had a session with the management of the college, i.e. the master and fellows. The master of ASTAR is SUPER DUPER cool, Dr Firdaus is so amazing and he's so admirable being a dentist, having done MBBS and also being the master of TWO residential colleges, props to you Dr. The other fellows were cool too and I felt most welcomed here at ASTAR.
We spent the rest of the night learning cheers. Cheers are actions and words celebrating your college or the university. It's kind of like hakka but some are like what American cheerleaders do. It's a tradition of UM to do cheers everywhere and anywhere, some hate it, some love it. I'm neutral, it's fun but there are times when I'm too tired to "open banana, open banana". We went to sleep at 12.15 that night which WAS NOT the latest we went back (I love you PM's but I love my sleep more).
Day 2
We had to wake up at 5.30 a.m. which was expected of us every morning even with minimal sleep. I swear I felt like a zombie this week due to my lack of sleep. Compounded with the back, butt, leg and forearm pain from sitting down too long, I was not my usual cheery self. The morning's were pretty much the same the whole week, we prayed together or had a spiritual session for those who didn't pray, had breakfast (no comment on the food, just going to appreciate free food) and did 'senamrobik', kinda like Zumba, which I have to admit was really fun. Then we made our way to Dewan Tunku Canselor (DTC), the central hall for UM where important functions and convocations are held. We were then subjected to hours of talks about volunteerism, STEM, finance department and etc. Most people will take this time to recharge and sleep but I felt bad for the speakers who had to prepare for these talks so I paid attention, no matter how boring some of these were. We had lunch and prayed, btw there are about 4000+ freshies in the DTC so you can imagine how packed it was and also having to get everyone in and out in an orderly manner. I swear the PM's need an award! The afternoon continued with more talks from the student affairs unit. After all the talks were over, we made our way back to the college and had dinner.
The night resumed with a session with alumni from UM who had resided at KK1 previously. My 'cell' (all freshies in the college are divided into groups called 'cells' to easily manage everyone and do group work together), had a lawyer (Ms Mai) and a dentist (I'm so sorry Dr but the emcee didn't mention your name and I feel really bad because you were awesome). Ms Mai and Dr Dentist had really great advice on living in the college and their experiences as working adults and what they took from UM/ASTAR. The rest of the night was spent learning more cheers and practicing a dance for MHS's theme song.
Day 3
Wake up at 5.30 am, pray, breakfast, senamrobik go to DTC, just the usual. Today was the "perasmian" of MHS which basically meant doing cheers, dancing and clapping. The afternoon was more talks by the student affairs unit and etc. Activities in DTC are honestly boring and if you don't listen it's fine (don't quote me) because later there's a QnA session and this is when all those sleepyheads ask questions that have been answered during previous talks. You can be on of these sleepyheads but be prepared to earn the ire of the other freshies (including me) on social media! In the evening, at ASTAR, we had Sukan Rakyat.
I'm normally not one who gets involved in sports and things like this but I let out all my stress and tension during this session in the form of cheers for my cell and doing my best in the games. All that tiredness and aching muscles translated into a try hard freshie who's cell came second! (Bangga sikit). At night we had a session called "Say NO to D.A.R.T.S." which stands for drugs, alcohol, relationship issues, time wastage and smoking. The session had good intentions but the scenarios totally didn't fit with the current generations problem with DARTS. The rest of the night was spent learning more cheers (ASTALALA ASTALALA ASTALALA VISTA!) and dances (Bagaikan nadaku masih bersuara!). Another late night.
Day 4
You know the morning grind by now. Once we were at DTC again, we were subjected to MORE talks. This time about the credit system which isn't relevant to the medical and dentistry system because we use a different system. Then we had talks and performances from SUKSIS and PELAPES which is kinda like the university's student police body and student army body. Definitely not my cup of tea but for those interested in becoming police officers or army men/women, these can actually help in your career. They also give generous allowances to their members and you get a guaranteed college placement. After lunch we were suppose to have a tour of the campus but it rained. As an ex-Pasumian, I didn't mind because I'd already explored the campus for a whole year. So while it rained we just relaxed at whichever faculty/college our groups had stopped at. Finally some rest! During this time I actually got to know some of my cell members because all this while we hadn't even had time to meet each other and introduce ourselves even though we sit together in the halls.
After dinner, we had our first LDK (Latihan Dalam Kumpulan) session, basically a team building session while learning about one of the themes of MHS. Tonight it was "Meritokrasi". It was fun and I suppose it did illustrate what meritocracy meant quite well. Shout out to PM Faye and PM Putra for being amazing PM's during the session! The rest of the night was more cheers and dancing. You'd be surprised how many cheers one can memorize with less than 6 hours of sleep a night.
Day 5
Day 5 was a bit different because it was finally time for us to visit our respective faculties! I was finally excited to get some exposure to what being a medical student would feel like.
*For those taking MBBS only*
We had a talk from the most amazing dean of the faculty, Dr Adeeba. I had always admired Dr Adeeba for her work championing AIDS treatment and prevention in Malaysia, such an amazing and successful lady. Her welcoming speech was indeed most welcoming and set a standard for us MBBS students on what we should aspire to be. Next came a talk from the head of the MERDU department (Medical Education Research and Development Unit) which basically oversees the MBBS students. Very informative talk but at the same time quite scary as the head is a scary lady but I understand she means well for all of us. We then had a tour around the faculty. Nothing much really happened after that, we just sat around and bonded with each other till it came time for us to leave.
Once we were all done with our faculty visits we all returned to the college. Apparently, all the other kids had to register for their courses and had already set up their timetables. After dinner, we had another LDK session, this time with the theme "kebebasan akademik". The activity was fun and stimulating but by now most of us were too tired to really give our all. Some did but fatigue was a huge problem for most of us. Can you guess what happens next? More cheers and dancing!!!
Day 6
The day had finally come, the last day of MHS! Don't get me wrong I loved MHS but god forbid it to be too long, I needed my sleep, I needed my rest, I needed my sanity. Today was suppose to be the closing ceremony, usually we would have a big closing ceremony at the DTC but this time it would be small scaled ones at each respective college. However, we still had to go to DTC that morning to receive yet another talk, this time from the MPP (Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar) which is like the student body. They had good intentions trying to give us advice and having a forum but I don't think many of us got much from it. We were just too tired and they were rushing due to time constraints. Then out of nowhere, a Malaysian celebrity came to give us a talk. Now, at first I was skeptical, what could this rapper provide to incoming undergrad students. He's a celebrity, we're academics. Boy was I wrong, Caprice (the name of the rapper), gave AMAZING advice. I had no clue who this guy was before today but he gave terrific advice on being a student, chasing ones dreams and being yourself. His story was inspiring and I was really amazed with his charisma. Then we had a mini closing ceremony (because this would be the last time all the freshies from all 12 colleges would be in DTC together) by cheering and singing songs. There was also a cheer competition and even though ASTAR was amazing, we didn't win (kinda bummed because we spent a lot of time every night practicing cheers, but where there are winners, there are also losers).
After friday prayers, we had our college closing ceremony at Balai Ungku Aziz. Astar and KK6 did our closing together because Dr Firdaus was master for both colleges. Dr Faiz Khaleed, Malaysia's second astronaut to space was invited to participate in a forum for our closing. Great man, great advice. Thanks Master for inviting him!!!!!!!!! We ended the ceremony with, again, more cheers and dancing! Now this was officially the end of MHS. That night there was a dinner session with our PM's but I skipped it cuz I really needed to eat food other than rice hehe.
Overall, MHS was an okay experience. Though some people hated the experience, didn't enjoy the cheers and thought the whole thing was bullshit, I actually enjoyed it. Call me an optimist but I think that MHS is to relax the nerves of some students who are stressed out about starting their degree life and need a distraction. It may not be for all but it did make us get closer to one another and develop a strong university spirit. UM is One! HOWEVER, I would not want to live through MHS again, just have memories of it. It is an extremely tiring process which you have to be mentally and physically ready for. If you do get through MHS, you'll be fine and ready for your degree. That's all I have for now but if you have any questions, just comment and I'll answer to the best of my ability.
P.S. So I wrote this a few weeks after MHS (around September of 2018) and I left in my drafts for about a year. Now I'm about to post it since it's nearing MHS for the upcoming year. I'd like to apologize for the horrible crap I call a 'blogpost' above. A lot has changed since then, my personality, views and even grammar has changed since then so reading the post above was a struggle in itself but I hope you enjoyed it and for those reading it with a purpose, I hope I helped achieved that goal of yours.
P.P.S I won't write a post about my faculty orientation because it was quite boring but I may write a post about transitioning into medical school when I actually take this blog seriously.
You're probably here today because you (like me), have been accepted into the University of Malaya for your undergraduate studies. This post will be about my experience throughout the orientation week as a "freshie" of the first residential college, Kolej Kediaman Tuanka Abdul Rahman (ASTAR). A little bit about me first, I'm currently taking my Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) at UM and I did my pre-u studies at the University of Malaya (PASUM).
 |
| Here Again |
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| ASTAR is not just a hostel, ASTAR is a home |
Day 1
So the day finally came. It was time for me to return to my beloved university but this time as an undergrad. I was thrilled to have a gotten a seat in UM's medicine program but wasn't totally thrilled about being placed in the First Residential College, KK1 (AT FIRST ONLY, later sumpah I thought KK1 was the best college). I came to KK1 with my dad and friend to register. I really wanted to share a room with my friend from Sarawak who was taking law but apparently, medical students and dental students have to share rooms with their own course mates. In the end, I ended up in a room with a PASUM friend who was the smartest of our batch (starting to feel the pressure now). I have to be frank, the room isn't spectacular but I did learn to see the silver lining in this old old old room. Thankfully, I'm on the second floor so I don't have to work out too much everyday. For medical students, ASTAR is not too far from the Faculty of Medicine BUT, the faculty is on top of a hill so everyday we have to walk uphill to class.
After registering and saying our goodbyes, most of the rest of the day was used up on handing in the documents. By the way, MHS is facilitated by seniors called Pemudahcara Mahasiswa's (PM's), the PM's of ASTAR we're super nice and welcoming, always smiling and willing to lend a helping hand even though they were super busy with registering us and collecting our documents. The only con I have about the day is the fact that we had to sit on the floor for 5 hours straight, I swear I almost cried because my butt was aching, my muscles were sore and my legs were dead. That night, (yes, orientation runs from the early morning, 5:30 a.m. till 12 midnight) we had a session with the management of the college, i.e. the master and fellows. The master of ASTAR is SUPER DUPER cool, Dr Firdaus is so amazing and he's so admirable being a dentist, having done MBBS and also being the master of TWO residential colleges, props to you Dr. The other fellows were cool too and I felt most welcomed here at ASTAR.
We spent the rest of the night learning cheers. Cheers are actions and words celebrating your college or the university. It's kind of like hakka but some are like what American cheerleaders do. It's a tradition of UM to do cheers everywhere and anywhere, some hate it, some love it. I'm neutral, it's fun but there are times when I'm too tired to "open banana, open banana". We went to sleep at 12.15 that night which WAS NOT the latest we went back (I love you PM's but I love my sleep more).
Day 2
We had to wake up at 5.30 a.m. which was expected of us every morning even with minimal sleep. I swear I felt like a zombie this week due to my lack of sleep. Compounded with the back, butt, leg and forearm pain from sitting down too long, I was not my usual cheery self. The morning's were pretty much the same the whole week, we prayed together or had a spiritual session for those who didn't pray, had breakfast (no comment on the food, just going to appreciate free food) and did 'senamrobik', kinda like Zumba, which I have to admit was really fun. Then we made our way to Dewan Tunku Canselor (DTC), the central hall for UM where important functions and convocations are held. We were then subjected to hours of talks about volunteerism, STEM, finance department and etc. Most people will take this time to recharge and sleep but I felt bad for the speakers who had to prepare for these talks so I paid attention, no matter how boring some of these were. We had lunch and prayed, btw there are about 4000+ freshies in the DTC so you can imagine how packed it was and also having to get everyone in and out in an orderly manner. I swear the PM's need an award! The afternoon continued with more talks from the student affairs unit. After all the talks were over, we made our way back to the college and had dinner.
The night resumed with a session with alumni from UM who had resided at KK1 previously. My 'cell' (all freshies in the college are divided into groups called 'cells' to easily manage everyone and do group work together), had a lawyer (Ms Mai) and a dentist (I'm so sorry Dr but the emcee didn't mention your name and I feel really bad because you were awesome). Ms Mai and Dr Dentist had really great advice on living in the college and their experiences as working adults and what they took from UM/ASTAR. The rest of the night was spent learning more cheers and practicing a dance for MHS's theme song.
Day 3
Wake up at 5.30 am, pray, breakfast, senamrobik go to DTC, just the usual. Today was the "perasmian" of MHS which basically meant doing cheers, dancing and clapping. The afternoon was more talks by the student affairs unit and etc. Activities in DTC are honestly boring and if you don't listen it's fine (don't quote me) because later there's a QnA session and this is when all those sleepyheads ask questions that have been answered during previous talks. You can be on of these sleepyheads but be prepared to earn the ire of the other freshies (including me) on social media! In the evening, at ASTAR, we had Sukan Rakyat.
I'm normally not one who gets involved in sports and things like this but I let out all my stress and tension during this session in the form of cheers for my cell and doing my best in the games. All that tiredness and aching muscles translated into a try hard freshie who's cell came second! (Bangga sikit). At night we had a session called "Say NO to D.A.R.T.S." which stands for drugs, alcohol, relationship issues, time wastage and smoking. The session had good intentions but the scenarios totally didn't fit with the current generations problem with DARTS. The rest of the night was spent learning more cheers (ASTALALA ASTALALA ASTALALA VISTA!) and dances (Bagaikan nadaku masih bersuara!). Another late night.
Day 4
You know the morning grind by now. Once we were at DTC again, we were subjected to MORE talks. This time about the credit system which isn't relevant to the medical and dentistry system because we use a different system. Then we had talks and performances from SUKSIS and PELAPES which is kinda like the university's student police body and student army body. Definitely not my cup of tea but for those interested in becoming police officers or army men/women, these can actually help in your career. They also give generous allowances to their members and you get a guaranteed college placement. After lunch we were suppose to have a tour of the campus but it rained. As an ex-Pasumian, I didn't mind because I'd already explored the campus for a whole year. So while it rained we just relaxed at whichever faculty/college our groups had stopped at. Finally some rest! During this time I actually got to know some of my cell members because all this while we hadn't even had time to meet each other and introduce ourselves even though we sit together in the halls.
After dinner, we had our first LDK (Latihan Dalam Kumpulan) session, basically a team building session while learning about one of the themes of MHS. Tonight it was "Meritokrasi". It was fun and I suppose it did illustrate what meritocracy meant quite well. Shout out to PM Faye and PM Putra for being amazing PM's during the session! The rest of the night was more cheers and dancing. You'd be surprised how many cheers one can memorize with less than 6 hours of sleep a night.
Day 5
Day 5 was a bit different because it was finally time for us to visit our respective faculties! I was finally excited to get some exposure to what being a medical student would feel like.
*For those taking MBBS only*
We had a talk from the most amazing dean of the faculty, Dr Adeeba. I had always admired Dr Adeeba for her work championing AIDS treatment and prevention in Malaysia, such an amazing and successful lady. Her welcoming speech was indeed most welcoming and set a standard for us MBBS students on what we should aspire to be. Next came a talk from the head of the MERDU department (Medical Education Research and Development Unit) which basically oversees the MBBS students. Very informative talk but at the same time quite scary as the head is a scary lady but I understand she means well for all of us. We then had a tour around the faculty. Nothing much really happened after that, we just sat around and bonded with each other till it came time for us to leave.
 |
| An amazing dean and medical professional |
Once we were all done with our faculty visits we all returned to the college. Apparently, all the other kids had to register for their courses and had already set up their timetables. After dinner, we had another LDK session, this time with the theme "kebebasan akademik". The activity was fun and stimulating but by now most of us were too tired to really give our all. Some did but fatigue was a huge problem for most of us. Can you guess what happens next? More cheers and dancing!!!
Day 6
The day had finally come, the last day of MHS! Don't get me wrong I loved MHS but god forbid it to be too long, I needed my sleep, I needed my rest, I needed my sanity. Today was suppose to be the closing ceremony, usually we would have a big closing ceremony at the DTC but this time it would be small scaled ones at each respective college. However, we still had to go to DTC that morning to receive yet another talk, this time from the MPP (Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar) which is like the student body. They had good intentions trying to give us advice and having a forum but I don't think many of us got much from it. We were just too tired and they were rushing due to time constraints. Then out of nowhere, a Malaysian celebrity came to give us a talk. Now, at first I was skeptical, what could this rapper provide to incoming undergrad students. He's a celebrity, we're academics. Boy was I wrong, Caprice (the name of the rapper), gave AMAZING advice. I had no clue who this guy was before today but he gave terrific advice on being a student, chasing ones dreams and being yourself. His story was inspiring and I was really amazed with his charisma. Then we had a mini closing ceremony (because this would be the last time all the freshies from all 12 colleges would be in DTC together) by cheering and singing songs. There was also a cheer competition and even though ASTAR was amazing, we didn't win (kinda bummed because we spent a lot of time every night practicing cheers, but where there are winners, there are also losers).
 |
| Classic example of don't judge a book by it's cover, this guy was amazing |
After friday prayers, we had our college closing ceremony at Balai Ungku Aziz. Astar and KK6 did our closing together because Dr Firdaus was master for both colleges. Dr Faiz Khaleed, Malaysia's second astronaut to space was invited to participate in a forum for our closing. Great man, great advice. Thanks Master for inviting him!!!!!!!!! We ended the ceremony with, again, more cheers and dancing! Now this was officially the end of MHS. That night there was a dinner session with our PM's but I skipped it cuz I really needed to eat food other than rice hehe.
Overall, MHS was an okay experience. Though some people hated the experience, didn't enjoy the cheers and thought the whole thing was bullshit, I actually enjoyed it. Call me an optimist but I think that MHS is to relax the nerves of some students who are stressed out about starting their degree life and need a distraction. It may not be for all but it did make us get closer to one another and develop a strong university spirit. UM is One! HOWEVER, I would not want to live through MHS again, just have memories of it. It is an extremely tiring process which you have to be mentally and physically ready for. If you do get through MHS, you'll be fine and ready for your degree. That's all I have for now but if you have any questions, just comment and I'll answer to the best of my ability.
P.S. So I wrote this a few weeks after MHS (around September of 2018) and I left in my drafts for about a year. Now I'm about to post it since it's nearing MHS for the upcoming year. I'd like to apologize for the horrible crap I call a 'blogpost' above. A lot has changed since then, my personality, views and even grammar has changed since then so reading the post above was a struggle in itself but I hope you enjoyed it and for those reading it with a purpose, I hope I helped achieved that goal of yours.
P.P.S I won't write a post about my faculty orientation because it was quite boring but I may write a post about transitioning into medical school when I actually take this blog seriously.
Halo... i wanted to further medic in um but my BMAT score is quite low...is there still any chances for me?
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