Tag: Culture

“How You Made Them Feel” – #AgEd2Malaysia Thoughts from Kaitlin Liszka, @TeachAgPSU candidate!

Kaitlin LiszkaPost-Trip Thoughts

Little did any of us really know how much of an adventure this trip really would be!

From the moment we grabbed our baggage we were greeted with a warm welcome and show of hospitality that would last through out the entire adventure.

I knew before this trip that we as Americans were not always preceded with the warmest stereotype, but this trip has really made me step back and realize why we can perceived as rude. I was truly blown away by the hospitality shown to us for the month that we were in Malaysia.

I took a unplanned detour from our itinerary and spent a day in the hospital (talk about unplanned adventures!). While I was there, three different professors from UTM came to visit me and make sure I was okay – one even brought some donuts 🙂 ! To me, this was very unexpected. I’m not saying that professors in the United States would not have been concerned about me if the countries would have been flipped and I was hospitalized in the United Statess, but the chances of one stopping in to physically make sure I was okay is pretty low, let alone three! For them, a simple phone call for a status update would be enough, and this is just a small sampling of the hospitality shown to us.

The little things they did while we were in Malaysia have reminded me of how I should treat others so that they too can feel more welcome.

The small gifts we got everywhere we went, along with the “refreshments” that really provided enough food to count as a meal, the constant help carrying your bags, we were even welcomed in to the homes of teachers from the schools we visited and the lectures from UTM, the conversations we had, and I could keep this list going until everyone was bored of reading.

Truthfully, I learned so much on this trip, that one blog post could not even begin to unpack it, but I think that this quote shared with me by one of the teachers on the Malaysia adventure before we stepped into a classroom to teach sums up the experience for me:

The reality of life is that I don’t remember all the little lessons and cool facts that I learned while on this trip, I will, however, always remember how welcome and loved the people in Malaysia made me feel, and I hope that someday I have the chance to make someone else feel the same way.

 

Ms. Kaitlin Liszka (@KaitlinLiszka) is a  pre-service agricultural education candidate (#psuaged20) at The Pennsylvania State University (@TeachAgPSU).

Day 21: Meandering Around Melaka!

Kaitlin LiszkaCulture

We were given a nice break from our routine this weekend when we traveled to Melaka and were set lose to travel and explore the city to learn what we specifically were interested in. The group collectively went on many different adventures including touring different museums and historical sites, going shopping, eating food, touring the river, exploring the Shore Sky Tower, and even catching a movie at the theater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my first adventure of the day, I somehow was talked into climbing the Shore Sky Tower. With the observation deck 43 floors up, the Shore Sky Tower is the tallest building in Melaka, at 163 meters or 535 feet. From the top we got a beautiful 360 view of the city, making for some great pictures. I kept my distance from the edge though, and definitely did not participate in the picture on the glass! I wasn’t afraid to check out the cool fish they had for you to feed though!

 

 

After finding some lunch, my group headed to some museums, like the Baba and Nyonya Musuem, where we learned about Chinese wedding ceremonies. Our fascinating fun facts included:

  • Seeing the chair that the bride and groom would sit in to meet each other for the first time at the beginning of their 12 day wedding ceremony.
  • Having a young male with a compatible horoscope to the couple roll around on the marriage bed so that the couple could have many children, and the oldest be a male.
  • That the couple essentially played footsy at their first official meal together, and whoever got their foot on top first was the head of the household.

Then we saw the ruins of St. Paul’s church. Originally built on the hill in 1521, it is the oldest church building in South East Asia. It received the name, St. Paul’s church after the Dutch took over Melaka in 1641, and was used as a church until 1753. In 1824, when the British took over the city, they used the church for ammunition and gunpowder storage, allowing it to further deteriorate to the ruins that it is in today.

What we thought would be the wrap up our evening was a boat tour down the river where we saw a traditional Melaka village, murals, and many beautiful bridges.

It really was getting caricature pictures drawn though and attracting a crowd of people because of the music we played and were singing/ dancing too while we waited for the completed artwork.

 

Though I didn’t ride one, I have to mention, a large part of the culture of the city included bikes with carts to two passengers that were all decked out to a theme with light and music. Some of the popular themes included, Hello Kitty, Frozen, Minions, etc.

 

Ms. Kaitlin Liszka (@KaitlinLiska) is a  pre-service agricultural education candidate (#psuaged20) at The Pennsylvania State University (@TeachAgPSU).