No one will truly invest in you but you
-Tasha Eurich
With this quote in mind, I need to do something valuable rather than just attending class and doing pretty normal things as what undergraduate students do. I want to participate in something with international vibe, and create friendship with other foreign students. Then I know this program, EDMAT-38.
University Malaya (faculty of Engineering) has organized this camp, and this year is the 38th, pretty old huh? And I am proud to be one of the participants this year! In November, there was a selection to become Undip Faculty of Engineering delegates, and I did the process so me and other 9 friends joined this camp. But actually, besides us, there were many more Undip students join this camp (I am not sure about the number). Nevertheless, I am only going to tell me and my 9 friends' experiences during the whole process.
So from November, we planned pretty much everything, registration, paying process, buying flight tickets, sponsorship, until our itinerary for travelling post-EDMAT-38. The first thing we did was making sure everyone applied/register to secure our place in the camp. Then we had to pay for 200 MYR since we are international students. After that, we are officially EDMAT-38 participants ☺ It was not easy thing to buy the flight ticket, though. We tried to get the best deal for the ticket but it was not what we were expected. But actually, from the start, I really wanted to try KLM, because it uses wide body plane for CGK-KUL-(AMS) route, is a flag carrier, and most importantly, the price is just the same as the low cost carrier one. So, I tried my best to convince everyone to buy KLM ticket instead haha. Finally, we bought KLM ticket for CGK-KUL and AirAsia for KUL-CGK (we wanted to stay in KL as long as we can, so we bought the last flight ticket by AirAsia).
KLM Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur
…
(Jump to January 18th) Finally it was our flight to KL! I was personally so excited. For me that day, I had my breakfast in Semarang (yes, still in Semarang T_T), had lunch in Jakarta, and had my dinner in KL *grin* Since we arrived at KLIA at night, we decided to sleep in the airport and waited until the next morning. It was a quite unpleasant experience, but to cheer myself up, I just thought about it as a new experience that not everyone can have.
January 19th:
The next morning, we went to Kolej Kediaman Tuanku Bahiyah in University of Malaya by Grab. Right after that we registered and were given our room keys. I was in room A116 with Ayun and Angel. All Indonesians. I still had 2/3 hours free before the session so I spent it really well haha. That day, we got our own team and I was in Group 8 or Group Better, consisting of Agung (Indonesia), Lia (Indonesia), Iqbal (Indonesia), Faaiz (Indonesia), Milo (The Philippines), Giba (The Philippines), Ken (The Philippines), Ong (Malaysia), Chiew (Malaysia), RJ (Malaysia student from Yemen), and me. Oh, don’t forget about our faci, Lay Cheng. At the beginning we were so awkward to each other, well, it’s a classic thing in the first meeting. Just let it flow and time made us together. We had our motivation session that day by Globalknox. Then at night, we had the cashflow game aka EDMAT country.
EDMAT Dollars. Yup, just like playing Monopoly.
January 20th:
In the morning we did the opening ceremony in a theater hall (it’s a classroom) of Electrical Engineering UM (cmiiw). It was pretty fast than it was scheduled, actually, so we got plenty of free time. To tell you, I think the 2nd day is our laziest day, because there were so many free time. Besides the opening ceremony, we did the 1st part of Nobel Session. Wait, what? To put it simply, in this session we had to make a catapult that was able to launch a pingpong ball with newspaper. Pretty challenging, huh? Then, we supposed to do EDMAT ball which was a sport session, but unfortunately it rained hard that day, so the committes decided that we did EDMAT Country instead. After that, also free time for at least 2 hours. Oh, we used our free time to prepare for the next day’s debate and presentation session.
Group Better at Opening Ceremony
January 21st :
This day was almost entirely used for debate and presentation session. Everyone in the team involved, either in debate or presentation. I did the debate. The good thing about this session was that the judges gave us chance to consult before our debate and gave feedbacks for our performance. The debate session was interesting, but I didn’t really enjoy the presentation session because 10 teams presented the same topic (aha! I forgot to tell you that all participants were divided into 10 teams, 11 people each, sorry about that). Many participants slept during that session and you know what happened next after you slept in a session: documentation! :p. Next, we finally did EDMAT ball, I didn’t really understand the game, though. But I tried to participate in it. Just when I thought they called it a day, or at least do something relaxing (re: indoor – like doing EDMAT country), we had another outdoor game. And later I realized that it was similar with Running Man. You know RM, right? I know you do. We played the game until midnight, and as the day changed, we wished our friend Milo a happy birthday.
Myself and my team (on my left) during debate session
January 22nd:
We started our morning with another (please use underline and bold to make it more visible!) outdoor activity, EDMAT hunt. It was inspired by catching pokemon, so you guys who play this game must know it. But what I enjoyed from this game was the fact that I could walk around the campus. UM is a nice campus, though, better than Undip. After EDMAT hunt, we finished our nobel session and we launched the catapult that day. Our team’s catapult was not the best, but personally I am satisfied with its ability. Good job, team!. At night, we played EDMAT country for the last time and we had our supper party afterwards. It was a great night, everybody was happy.
Our catapult. Nice looking one, huh?
January 23rd:
It was the last day, people, and last day means goodbye. I did my short message to my teammates the previous night so I put it in each envelopes that day. According to the schedule, we did industrial visit and my team went to Eastern Pretech, a precast concrete manufacturer in Beranang, Malaysia. The visit was quite short of time but it was a good experience, especially for me, a civil engineering student. In the afternoon we went to Pusat Alumni Universiti Malaya to attend Gala Dinner. It was a great night. Our friends Milo and Ken got so emotional and cried (and I laughed instead, not try to be a meany ok? Haha). But I understood. We understood. That night was the last night/day we met each other. We don’t know when we are going to meet each other, so every moment counts that night. And our Philippines friends sadly needed to go to the airport that night because they had midnight flight to Manila. Goodbye, dear friends..
During industrial visit
Gala dinner wefie for cheering up Milo and Ken haha
Since November 2016!
January 24th:
We still are allowed to be at Kolej until 12.00pm, and we plan not to stay longer, either, as we wanted to have a city sightseeing. And the bad news is.. you need to be patient for the next post for my experience during KL trip! Well I know that recently I also did the KL trip, but this time, it was different. So, see you in the next post!