Journal update by nafisah

It's already been four weeks into my internship and I guess it is about time that I write about what I've learnt so far and interesting events I've been to.

First I need to thank everyone for helping to inform me of what I've missed out when I was on mc. January was not a good start because I fell quite ill and did not put me in my optimum condition.

Well, something that impacted me quite deeply would be the TRUST central meeting at JSSC. It was enlightening because for the first time I actually had, laid down in front of me, the projects which TRUST central is embarking on. I like having the bird's eye view of what my committee is working on as it made me feel more informed and involved.

Anyway, apart from that, the most shocking thing that has happened in this four weeks is that me and yvonne had in the speed of light been promoted. What I meant by this is that for the heritage trail in Chinatown, in about a week, we were told that we were going to be participants, and then tour guides and ultimately, coordinators for the entire event. The adrenaline rush from having to plan such an event in such a sort time was great, because apart from my daily research on races and religion, it was my first project. However, due to me being a malay by ethnicity, I was not quite sure of alot of things regarding the chinese culture and because of vagueness of what the event was about, I did not know where to start. Something I learnt from these trails is definitely to not let self pity take control. What I mean is that, eventhough I was not sure of the Chinese culture and abouit Chinatown, it gives me no excuse for knowing my facts less or knowing less facts. Thus, self-pity would only be a mere excuse to get oneself out of learning something new.

That is about what I thought impacted me deeply. Regarding the daily workload, me and yvonne are still writing the write-ups for the religions and it is actually very interesting to know that many of these religions actually share quite a couple of the same fundamentals. Researching about religions has definitely opened my eye to the different cultures and way of thoughts of different people.