"Angelo! Where have you been?!"It's been a while since my last update. The longer I'm here, the more normalized my daily events become, and it's hard to remember to share! Not to mention, the school year really got rolling, and I've been pretty busy. (Gosh, it feels good to be busy again.) "Enough excuses, Ang! Updates!" Selamat Hari GawaiJune 1st was the annual Gawai Dayak celebration. This celebration has a long history, that I did my darndest to try and understand. It's somewhat of a mixture of the American holidays of New Years and Thanksgiving. Though a vast majority of the Dayak people have converted to Christianity, this festival has its roots in the not so long ago practices of animism and paganism. (Christianity reaching Borneo in the early 1900's and established as widespread, organized religion in a post-WWII 50's/60's). Traditionally, the festival is a harvest celebration in which offerings were made to the gods in preparation for a new season. Anymore, it's more of an admired tradition and excellent reason to celebrate the rich cultures of the different Dayak ethnic groups and eat and drink beyond your capacity. My totally awesome mentor took me and my roommate to his family's longhouse, where we were able to celebrate Gawai with some warm, welcoming people. Gawai Highlights:
SingaporeWith what was left of my June break after all the Gawai fun, I went to Singapore for a few days! What an incredible city and country. I hope to be seeing more of this little utopia in the future :) A Piece of HomeI was very fortunate to share my one week off of school for Hari Raya (or Eid), with Lauren. I got to show her my home, my school, and my town. Then we explored a bit of Chiang Mai, Thailand together. It was so great that she able to make the trip halfway across the world, and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to share a bit of my Malaysian life. We took too many photos to share, but I'll show a few highlights of our adventure! Excitement doesn't stopA few additional notable things:
It's difficult to update 2 entire months in one post (I'll try not to let it happen again). Surely I'm leaving out a whole slew of important events, but they'll have to wait for another day.
2 Comments
|
Details
Angelo SylvesterStories of my time as a Fulbright ETA in Malaysia for 2016 Archives
August 2016
Categories |