Graduation Celebrations

Graduation was on Tuesday, but then of course we needed to celebrate it But how to do that?
Well, in Malta we have the tradition of buscading around Malta. Buscading? you are probably saying…YES Buscading…you know…carcading with a bus? So we rent a bus, some sound for the bus, buy banners and spray for writing things on the banners to be hung outside the bus, horns, whistles, and everything that makes sound .
So Wednesday morning, bright and early, saw us meeting up at the university entrance, to deck out the bus, and get prepared for BUSCADING! (PS…I’ve been told that carcaading is a Mediterranean thing…I though everyone would know what it is, since here we do it for everything and anything! But here is an explanation.)
On our bus we were the graduates from the Faculty of Science, but other students who had graduated with us, the Engineering and IT students, and the Pyschology students (don’t know when they graduated) were also at the entrance, preparing for buscading…hmmm…so why don’t we all join forces to make much more noise and chaos? Sure!
Route? Planned!

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Sound? Set up!
Banners? Painted!
Balloons and banners (and blown up gloves in our case )? Attached to the bus!

Decking out our Bus

Everyone here? Off we go!
Our first pit stop was the Junior College. The Junior College is the main sixth form (school which prepares students for entry into university) in Malta, so most students have been there as students (I was at another sixth form however). That is one of the main stops on every graduation buscade, to taunt the students there about us being done – very nice of us isn’t it?

In front of JC

Being close to the headquarters of both political party, the next pit stops where there…first the Nationalist party headquarters as it was closest…the buses dropped us off outside, and in we went (unlike JC, where they expect us to go and so there was security there which closed the gates immediately as we approached, no one was expecting us here, so we just walked in, shouting, whistling and in general making a whole lot of chaos . There was one lone security guy, who couldn’t do much. Then, the general secretary of the party, Paul Borg Olivier, came down to congratulate us and try to get us to go out as calmly as possible. We had much more stops to do, so after a while, off we went.

In the PN Headquarters

At the PL Headquarters

Next stop…Labour Party headquarters, which is just round the corner. As at the PN headquarters, there was one lone security guy, who didn’t do much to prevent more than 100 students from getting in. After a while then, the leader of the Labour party, Joseph Muscat, came down (with a photographer) to congratulate us, shake our hands (use the situation for a photo op) and get us on our way. Here is the resulting article on l-Orrizont, the PL newspaper. We also appeared on the PN newspaper, in-Nazzjon!

Nazzjon backpage: Science Graduates - All Employed!

From there it was off to Valletta. First stop…the Office of the Prime Minister at Auberge the Castille. There we were prevented from entering. I was quite suprrised at the rough way the police treated us…even as we were going down the stairs, and not doing any threat of entering, they pushed us roughly. As a group we were not intent on doing any damage, and everywhere we went we didnt stay too long…we were only intent on making some noise and celebrate clamly (no one wants to end up in prison or anything!).

In front of Kastilja

Off down republic street to the Grandmaster’s Palace. There, there were two security guards, who again couldn’t really do much, so we managed to enter the Department of the Attorney General, but after a while we went back out, as soldiers came running to get us out. However, as we were told we have to go out, we started moving out, and the soldiers just watched us move calmly out with no incidents or anything.

At City Gate - I am half-hidden behind my Sister's Hand

Of course, we couldn’t not make a stop in front of the law courts, taunting the law students…One of the main things is that we get jobs (cos we are science graduates and there is a need for us), while they tend to have more problems in finding a job.

Walking down Republic Street

Back out of Valletta, with people stopping to look, and tourists taking countless photos and videos (also met my aunt and cousin who I hadn’t seen since I’ve returned to Malta!), the next stop was the Sliema front. Off we went! This time, the buses could stop just along the front, so with music blaring out from the sound system on our bus, we continued the party from the bus to the front, again with tourists looking and smiling at us, and all of us more than ready to pose for countless photos (as evidenced by the amounts of photos on facebook now ).

Celebrating on Sliema Front

This was the penultimate stop…the ultimate? OF COURSE! University! For years we’ve watched other graduates come to unviersity, celebrating their graduation…at last it was OUR turn!

We knew that the ex-head of department (now pro-rector) had a lecture at this time, so of course our first aim was to get to that…In we went, houting and in general making a lot of chaos. He of course let us for a while, since this is a tradition that he just had to withstand. From there, we toured other lecture halls, other laboratories where lectures where ongoing, and of course the lecturer’s offices.

Invading the Pro-Rector's Lecture

We Convinced the New Head of Dept (Dr. Sinagra) to come out for a photo

All in all, a great day…though it would have been nicer if some people didn’t get a teeny weeny bit too durnk and decided that they can sit in the bus windows and lean as far back as posisble! (iwa ghalik qed nghid )

Our Graduation T-Shirt - Periodic Table with our Names!

Back Side of T-Shirt: Lecturer's Notorious Quotes

IT Students T-Shirt - HILARIOUS!

Statistics Students T-Shirt - OF COURSE I agree

Tags: balloons, buscading, carcading, celebration, chaos, disruption, engineering, Faculty of Science, graduation, graduation celebration, Grandmaster's palace, IT, Junior College, Law Courts, lecturers, Malta, Maltese newspapers, Office of the Primeminister, Partit Laburista, Partit Nazzjonalista, political party headquerters, Pyschology, route, Sliema, university, University of Malta, UoM, Valletta