Archive for 2014
Greetings! Welcome to the blog for the J-Term course, South Africa: Examining Global Service! This blog will serve as a platform for students to share their experience, provide insight into their respective learnings and challenges, and to raise meaningful questions that will engage you, the reader. The blogs will be stories and reflections on events that occurred […]
Welcome to J-Term in Germany!
In the middle of wrapping up the semester, preparing for exams, and packing to go home for the holidays, 16 of us are also getting excited with plans for our J-Term in Germany! After three days on campus for pre-departure orientation, we depart for Germany on January 8, arriving in Bremen on January 9. During the course […]
Welcome to Olympic Quest!
It is December and here at Gustavus most students and faculty are busy wrapping up on semester while anxiously looking forward to break! We are Olympic Quest are looking forward as well – but we are looking forward to January and beginning our adventure through the The Pre- and Post- World War Olympiads. This will […]
Peranakan Museum and Masjid Kapitan Kling
A few weeks ago as part of our Religious Experiences class, we had a visit to a main Mosque in town. The outing took most of the afternoon and started with a vegetarian Indian lunch which was delicious as usual. After lunch we visited the Peranakan museum. The word Peranakan is used to describe the […]
Coral Reef Survey at Mak Kepit Beach
Besides studying turtle conservation at Mak Kepit beach on Pulau Redang (Redang Island), we also had the opportunity to snorkel right off of the beach. There are many different kinds of corals on the reef, especially Acropora sp. (hard branching coral) and mushroom corals (Fungia sp.). For our assignment, we needed to perform two different types […]
Giant Top Spinning
On our East Coast trip, we stopped briefly in my old Peace Corps town of Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. I taught at a secondary (high) school there from 1972-1976. On this occasion, we had been invited by a friend of mine, Mr. Nazife Ismail, who is a teacher at another school, Sekolah Menengah Gaal (Gaal Secondary […]
Gustie Gamelan Orchestra
A few weeks ago, as a part of their Malay Language and Culture course, the students visited the USM Museum. There they found an exhibit of a complete set of gamelan instruments. A traditional gamelan music teacher worked with them for just under an hour, after which they produced some pretty fine sound!
Traditional Malaysian Meal in Bahasa Melayu!
HELLO FRIENDS!! :) A few weeks ago, we all traveled to the local Tesco where we completed an assignment as part of our Bahasa Melayu class (Language Course). Our task included finding distinctive recipe ingredients under an allotted price. At the time, our Cikgu’s hinted at the fact that we may be cooking some of […]
Vasakhi at the Sikh Gurdwara
On April 14 we were invited to the Penang Police Sikh Gurdwara (temple) to witness the end of the annual Vasakhi celebration. Vasakhi is akin to a “Sikh New Year” celebration, and our Sikhism teacher from our Religious Experiences of Malaysia class, Mr. Kirpal Singh, hosted us at the Gurdwara. As we arrived, anyone who […]
Merbok and Matang Mangrove Ecology
We had the opportunity to visit Sungai Merbok and Sungai Sepetang to study the mangrove ecosystem for our tropical ecology class. Mangroves are unique trees because they are adapted to live in saline conditions, as well as with changing tidal levels. They have unique root adaptations that will stabilize them in the soil and also […]