Intramurals

A couple of weeks ago, the University we are helping had its "foundation week," commonly known as Intramurals (or intrams, cause people here like to shorten everything! ha!) which commemorates the beginning of the University by having all the colleges compete against one another in various sporting events. It was a very welcomed break from classes, and a good chance to just hang out with students on campus, with no time restrictions.

The opening ceremony was held at a huge "gymnasium" in the city, so we traveled there Monday morning. The main event was a cheer dance competition. Even though most of them had lots of men in the group dancing inappropriately, I enjoyed this group's act because they used a lot more mechanics and technique instead of just being "sexy."



As we walked around campus that week, these are some of the sports we saw..





for the basketball games, they kept track of the score by hand, on a chalk board! Talk about old school! =)

I was really impressed by the number of sporting events that were taking place. The sports list included volleyball, track, baseball, softball, soccer, badminton, table tennis, chess, darts, and of course, basketball. It also included a national sport, Sepak Takraw. This sport is like a combination of volleyball and hackey sack. It is played with a bamboo ball about the size of a softball. There are 3 players on either side of the net, and they must use their head and feet only to pass the ball over the net. It’s actually really fun to watch.
 

one of our students playing Sepak Takraw

One day during Intrams, they also had an "open dorm" event. All of the dorm residents prepared their rooms, and judges went around to award prizes for the best decorated. The girls go all out for this event. I mean all out. One room was really creative, and turned a bed sideways to create a "throne" look.. (not sure if that'd be allowed in our dorms in the States, but it sure looked really nice!)

Almost all of the rooms also decorated their ceilings too. This one looked particularly cool.

 

In many rooms, girls prepared food to serve to any guests. We stopped and ate with one of our students in her room.

In addition to sports and dorm events, there were a lot of vendors who set up their table/shop on the campus, selling bracelets, food, drinks, and even offering karaoke.

I hope you enjoyed getting a small glimpse into University life here. I know I did.

Septem-berrrrr....

Earlier this year, I was told that people begin to celebrate Christmas in September.. why? Becuase it's the start of the brrr months... initially I thought that was really funny, and kinda cheesey.

Today, on September 1st, I still think that. But I love it. It just makes me laugh, because here in SE Asia, we live in a tropical climate. There are no real "brrr" months. The lowest temp is probably in the 70s..

At home, Christmas always happens in winter.. temps are probably in the 30s or 40s, and there could be snow on the ground. A couple of years ago, we pulled my nephew around in the snow that covered our front yard.

 

We also dress kids like this.


(yes, this is a shameless insertion of my niece and nephew into this post, cause they're so cute!)

But people here like to play with words and make puns a lot. And I know they see a lot of Christmas ads, hear lots of Christmas songs and see lots of christmas decorum involving snow and fireplaces and the weather being cold. They've probably seen gingerbread houses decorated of course with frosting that looks like snow..

So what do they naturally think about? The berrr months!

And what better excuse for extending the celebration of Jesus' birth. So a very Merry Christmas to you... in Septemberrrr!!!
(and Octoberrr and Novemberrr, and Decemberrr.)