Hannah
It’s been a while, but we’re back to blogging!
If you’ve been around the university this week, you have no doubt noticed all the events taking place in celebration of the World Unite Festival. Being the nosey writers we are, we decided to have a snoop about ourselves, and what we found proved to be very interesting indeed. The Brunei Leeds society took centre stage in the union foyer, armed with their own information table and passionate members of the group.
Perhaps you may be asking, where is Brunei? This is of course a fair question. I’d never personally heard of the country before, so it was very exciting to be educated about somewhere new to me. Brunei is a small kingdom and a Muslim nation on Borneo Island in South East Asia, very close to Malaysia. It’s mainly known for being a heavy supplier of oil, as well as its picturesque rainforests and tourist attractions. The materials and clothing of the country are bright, lively and colourful (which we saw in full as the members were modelling them quite nicely).
Speaking to members of the society, we found out that Brunei has an extremely small population; it totals up to around the same number of citizens living in Bradford, believe it or not. Therefore, the society is a great way of engaging with people who share a similar background and are able to celebrate the cultural holidays of Brunei. One example of this is the celebration of Eid, a sweet festival that occurs in the summer, marking the end of Ramadan. The members said it was extremely meaningful to be able to share their faith and beliefs together with a group who all shared the same passion. This led onto a funny discussion of how the UK lacks meaningful holiday days that occur regularly. For example, Bank Holidays.
Seriously, what are Bank Holidays for? I honestly have no idea.
All in all it was a nice change of pace to meet one of the cultural societies here at Leeds. Before I came to university, I hardly knew anyone who wasn’t from the North-west of England. Being at Leeds has given me the chance to meet students from all different backgrounds, which has consequently made me feel a much more cultured person in general. The students of the Brunei Society stated something very similar, as they came to this university to experience something bigger and more fast-paced. Leeds is a great centre for meeting new communities, and I can definitely see why they picked it.
They did admit however that the weather over here is a bit shocking. I agree.
Rebekah
I definitely agree with you there Hannah! It was certainly a new experience to meet people from Brunei, and it was great to see that they have created a society to form their own community in Leeds, not only as a way of getting together, but also to introduce new cultures into a UK university.
As a language student, I am very supportive of getting to know new cultures. It is such an invaluable experience to be given the opportunity to study abroad, and it was wonderful to see how Brunei students were getting to grips with the overwhelming city that is Leeds. It was a big transition for me coming here, so I can’t even imagine how they all must have felt!
However, I will be making a similar transition next year when I move to Spain for my year abroad as part of my English Literature and Spanish degree. I can totally sympathise with this society, and the effort they’ve made to bring a little bit of home to Leeds with them.
Life at university certainly is varied, and it’s such a fantastic opportunity to be able to learn about new cultures and meet people from all across the world. I would definitely recommend all Leeds students to check out not only this society, but some of the other cultural ones. You never know, you may learn something new, and make new friends along the way!
We’re looking forward to writing our next blog, which will be on the Spoken Word Society. Hannah and I will be attending their event at the Packhorse Pub on 24th Feb. Come along and see what it’s all about!
Until next time folks!
Blog written by Hannah Cowton and Rebekah Chapman.
Image sources:
1. http://bruleeds.blogspot.co.uk/
Images 2 and 3 are the authors’ own.