Week one :)

An exchange year really seems to be like a roller-coaster of feelings and experiences and even after one week I can assure you that! It goes up and down so fast that sometimes I cant follow myself but I think that is maybe how it should be. :)

Like I said everything is new oh wait no actually one thing is exactly the same as home : American Music everywhere ! haha of course...

A week ago I met the first time my host family at the Handing-over-Ceremony organized by AFS and
I am really thankful to have such a wonderful family here, they were so welcoming and make me already feel like a part of them!, I live together with my mom, my abang (older brother), my little sister Kate and nene (grandmother) oh and with the cat Ciki in a big and very cantik( beautiful) house in Seksyen 13 of Shah Alam…
  Fortunately my school will just start next week ( so exited already and hip hip hurray I can wear a school uniform, so awesome!)  and so I spent most of the time at home with learning Malay, reading, swimming and playing or watching TV with Kate.

At the moment is the fasting month Ramadan so the Malay People fast the whole day and eat only after the sunset. Every evening come many neighbours and friends of  Mom to our house to pray and break fast together. I fasted also for two days ( not really because I still drank water) ,but I got a little sick so I had to stop. Almost everyday we go to a special Ramadan market to buy food and this is really an experience! You smell thousands different odors from food you have probably never tasted before, many people, the cries of the marktsellers advertise their wares, it is so colorful! (I m sorry, no pictures) We also visited different malls which are giant in comparison with Swiss shops and  where Mom bought me beautiful new Baju Kurung ( the traditional Malay dress) for Hari Raya. I am already so looking forward to Hari Raya where we will visit all the relatives and neighbours. 

7 Things I learnt this week:

-how to shalam ( the traditional Malay greeting,) and wear the Baju Kurung

- dried little fish tastes actually like crisps and isn’t disgusting at all

-eating with hand isn't that easy how it looks! 

- a few Malay words for example : Saya suka nasi lemak! (I like Coconut rice, I know what an intelligence sentence isn’t it..:) ) 
anyway I cant speak Malay at all but I have to learn it fast because my school will be in bahasa melayu!

-I can count to hundred in bahasa melayu, that deserves an extra line

- the Malay chocolate milk is as good as the Swiss one…

      …and the watches are soo much cheaper too.

- Air Condition and Anti-Mosquito Spray are adorable and do saves lifes ;)

So here we go,  some pictures of the last week.  a few will follow... 
 Sincerely me,  sitting under an air-con :) have a nice week.

Central Market in KL

kinda a multinational picture :D just AFS

over 60 exchange students on one stage :)

with my lovely little sister Kate :) 

PS: I am probably not going to update this blog every week but I try to, I promise.

First Blog, First Post, First Days

Finally I am here. At the moment I am in the center of Kuala Lumpur at the AFS Orientation Camp and there are about 60 or more people from all over the world, all with the same thoughts, hopes and fears.

In this Blog,  I just wanna show you a few experiences in my exchange year in Malaysia. Ill probably switch to just uploading  photos and comment on them so you can see how I live here :)

But from the Beginning: I am Hannah, a sixteen year old girl from Switzerland and I am going on an exchange year in Malaysia, to be precise in Shah Alam that is a city who lays 30 minutes from KL. I ‘ll live there by my new family and go to the public Highschool there and I already look forward to meet them on Sunday!

 I ll write here in English and I do apologize for all the grammar mistakes you’ll probably gonna find here but if you re interested I ll hope you keep reading or watching here!

Deborah and me, the other Swiss girl arrived yesterday at ca.9 a.m. in KL, where we met the French People and went to the Hotel. It is so awesome to meet all the other AFS People to talk and exchange about our placements, expectations and feelings.

I still don’t really get it that I am gonna live here in this totally different country for a whole year! There are this freaking moments when I am just like : omg omg  I am here, I am actually here! Everything is new and strange but in a good way.. I haven’t seen much yet, yesterday we ( just a group of like 15 people, the others hadn’t arrived then) visited this big big shopping mall, Times Square  in the heart of the city where most of us were just stunning and watching all the shops and people…

After that we were so tired that we went sleeping after dinner, at 8 o clock already.

Today we had the whole day AFS sessions, where we played little games to break the ice ( no fat penguin but in that way ;)) and mostly get Information about the whole country with topics like Ethnicies, religions, family life, food, school and especially personal interactions and communication styles. That was very interesting but also very tiring cause we all fight still a little with jetlag.

Another really really awesome thing here is the pool on the roof top of our hotel. On one hand it is a pool which is so comfortable especially when it is so hot and humid outside, on the other hand do you have an incredible view there over the whole city and I could stand there for hours  just watching and dreaming. I am really happy to  experience this year and I wanna thank all people who make it possible! :)

So here are three of my first Photos :

Sunrise over the clouds- View from the airplane

Our first visit of a Shopping Mall  - from right side: Maxim ( Austria), Deborah (Swiss), me (Swiss) and Carmen (American)

The awesome view from the Roof top!