By Stefanus Albert Wicaksono

Fun, excitement and delicious runs through my mind upon hearing the words cultural celebration. During cultural celebrations, there will be games, art and most importantly food! Life at Nanyang MBA has been thrilling and entertaining at the same time. I was thrilled to get to know 117 peers from 27 different parts of the world. Past 8 months have been an entertaining journey for me personally.

Nanyang MBA is very diverse in terms of nationalities as well as Industry and background. I was exposed to many different perspectives of thinking, strategies from different industries and various cultures which is the best part!!

There had been several celebrations of culture during my stay at the Nanyang MBA, such as German Beer Fest, Thai Loy Kratong, Deepavali, Christmas (of course), Chinese New Year, and many more to come in the coming weeks. How could I not be excited??Let me share my stories, photos and probably videos about interesting things that happened at these events. Yes, that’s right, some parts of these F.U.N. events are captured LIVE on HD video!! So tag along!! ;D

I’ll start with German Beer Fest, as you m
ay well aware of what the name implies; it involved a lot of beers and its many varieties. German beer festivals are among the largest beer festivals celebrated around the world, which in Germany is usually known as Oktoberfest. Many places have beer festivals style as “Oktoberfest’s”. Oktoberfest is a 16 day festival celebrating beer held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October.

In conjunction to the Beer Fest, it was Verena’s Birthday who is from Germany. Happy Birthday Verena! I had a great time tasting variations of beer.

 

Next celebration that was celebrated was Loy Krathong. Loy Krathong is a Thai cultural celebration. Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Loi means “to float”. While krathong refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which float on the water.-Wikipedia.

Loy Krathong can be translated to “Floating crown” or “Floating Decoration”.
Munchuga and Apiwat, my Thai friends, organised the event. Sumptuous Thai food was provided and we listen to soothing Thai songs. The highlight of the evens is to make wish and release the handmade loi krapthong float on the water.

 

Touchdown!! To INDIA!! Some say Indians are exotic, some say Indians are born to be dancers. You got that right! I experienced a Deepavali celebration, and guess what?? My Indian cohorts danced for Deepavali! And they live up to the expectations!! And Yes, it’s on HD resolution!! ;P starting from Art, which was to create colorful pictures out of colored powder debris (Pardon me, I’m not really familiar with the name :P. Below are the pictures of the team that created the arts.

Deepavali or Diwali is popularly known as the “festival of lights” which is celebrated by Hindu across the world. Deepavali is the celebration of good over evil and light overcoming darkness. During this festival, new clothes are worn and delicacies such as sweets and snacks are shared. Not forgetting temporary tattoos which are done using henna. Henna is a flowering plant used for dye skin, hair and fingernails as well as fabrics.

WAIT!!! I have one more thing to share with you guys… YES!! It’s the Deepavali video celebration!! You can access the video through this link: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151158200516819&set=vb.757321818&type=3

Hope you guys enjoyed the video!

Next Stop Will be Our favorite time of the year!!Chriiiistmas tiiime… time to share our love… Come and join… the tidings to the world… Chriiiistmas tiiime… the best time of the year… Yes, it’s Christmas timeee…

To get everyone in the festive mood, we decorated the venue (one of our classmates home actually!)  with Christmas ornaments, neon lights and Christmas trees.

After the decoration is done, we begin our celebration with Christmas carol. 4 of our classmates – ,Filipino John-Rae and Taiwanese Mimi were singing, accompanied by Malaysian Alex on Keyboard and Singaporean Jonathan on Violin.

Finally the “Secret Santa”!This is the fun part whereby we got to choose our gift from the santa sack. Nanyang MBA cohorts were so creative and out-of-the-box!! You need to expect the unexpected. The gifts were no ordinary gifts.

 

Quite recently we celebrated Chinese New Year. !! Before the celebration was done we did a lot of preparations such as grocery shopping, decorations and lastly food preparations. We started with our “reunion dinner” by having the traditional Chinese Hot pots. Definitely, it is not complete without beers and Chinese liquors. The food prepared was marvelous and delicious. After filling our stomach we have the Cheongsam competition-“Ms. Cheongsam” competition and voted for best-dressed Ms. Cheongsam.

 Unexpectedly none of the girls won… Guess who wins the competition?

 

After the contest, we started writing of Chinese FU Character to bring good luck and good fortune for everyone.

So there you are  – a sprinkling of various cultures – there is no substitute to these  experiences – and while you are doing your MBA!