Last 3 weeks in pictures / September 2013

Hello (: 

as always,  i apologize for not posting anything for a few weeks but now i finally found time to write...mostly because i m not experiencing much at the moment since I m sick and spend my time in bed. But don’t worry I am already feeling a little better (you won't pity me anyway after you see all the Island pictures)  and I have lots of time to read, watch movies or update this blog... (:

Soo I don’t want to loose many words and let instead the pictures speak… the past few weeks altogether  were quite awesome and it was so difficult to decide which photos I should take because I have about over 600 only for the last three weeks.

... three weeks ago we went for the family day of my mom' s office to Perhentian Island... one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.

Arriving :D

the normal visitors while eating breakfast

Nemo *-* (my host brother has an underwater camera)

with my wonderful host mum and sister Kate

2nd place winner of family day games ;))

adorable baby turtle

snorkeling and swimming

like in these holiday magazines..

ouuu and now to a total different experience which is actually just something we did in school but it was pretty fascinating to me so I feel like I have to share this... we had to do a dissection of a frog and a rat and I guess it was the highlight of all biology lessons I ever had.
Please don't assume we are cruel people and enjoyed killing an animal, we did this in school in the name of Science. ;)  It was interesting and exiting to see and touch all the organs, how it works, to cut the frog and rat open and to see the still beating heart...

with my schoolfriends and the poor but dead rat.

the frog...we called him Frodo.

yes. I had fun.

Then two weeks ago ... Family  Cooking, everybody of us cooked something and in the end we had heaps of delicious homemade food.*-*

food*-*

behind the Candy buffet... where else ;)

..and another weeding...














last weekend :  our first AFS Camp... awesome days with awesome people :)

just AFS, I guess ;))

icecream on a bread is still icecream

with bunga (flower)  klantan; actually they use that for cooking

our Damansara chapter :D

Soo that were a lot of pictures and I hope you enjoy "reading"...

Have lovely fall holiday (everybody in Switzerland)
and to those who have neither holiday nor fall, just a good time :))

Daily Life and School

7 weeks in Malaysia, how time flies! 

It feels like a longer time though, Switzerland seems so far away already, maybe because I could learn experience and see so many new things in just a month that it fills a whole diary...About this country, its culture and I guess about myself too. I am sorry that I didn’t updated this blog as often as promised but there are always so many things going on here and so much to tell that I was just too lazy to put it all in words.

So where should I start...

After the holidays and my first school days, I guess, I slowly, slowly adjust and get used to living in Malaysia. After the Arrival and the first weeks of Settling in, the everyday life begins.

Good days and not so good days.

 There are moments where I am so happy to be here that I could hug the whole world, but also moments where I am just homesick and tired.

 But the good moments clearly prevail and make every day to something I do not want to miss!

School started three weeks ago and I really like to go there, even when the school rules are a little stricter here. (What a confession ;))

Every morning I wake up at 6 a.m. and ride to school with the bicycle which is pretty much the only place where I can go by myself and I enjoy this little freedom even if cycling isn’t my favorite exercise (especially when it is 30 degrees and in long school uniform).  But I can see the sunrise almost every day and sometimes I even see a monkey or like last week, a big lizard (1 m  for sure ) walking across the street and that is totally worth it !

 Every  Monday morning we have a big morning assembly,  it is still a special feeling to sit there in my white blue school uniform with all the other students and listen to the morning prayer of the Muslims, the announcements of the principal and the teachers ( in Malay)  and to sing the National and School Anthem. The school is quite big, with over 800 students and maybe 80% are Malay, the others mostly Indian or Chinese but we are only two exchange students. It feels weird to be the only blonde girl in a whole school but my friends here say it is a good thing because  it is easier  to find me when I go lost in the corridors (happens quite often).

First day of school :) 

School trip to a Roboworldcup :D 

                                                                                                                                                                    

 I am in Science Stream because these subjects are officially in English but they seem to be further in all subjects than in my old school so it is quite a challenge. Two totally new topics for me were Morals and Civics, regrettably in BM so I don’t understand much yet. The teachers go much faster through all the topics here because the time we spend in school is shorter here (everyday till 1 p.m.) and that is why almost every student goes after school to additional tuition to learn and understand the subjects better. Having good grades (resp. to have the best grades) is much more important here than in Switzerland, a lot more of competition.

  When the teacher comes in, we stand up as a sign of respect and say:”Assalammualaikum Cekgu” and the Muslims have a short prayer called “doa belajar”. These are quite big differences to my old school but I got used to it quite fast... (But I have to admit, I still forget to stand up sometimes).

One of the best things here is the school canteen. You get a whole plate of noodles, rice, soup, drinks, snacks or chicken nuggets and everything costs only 1 RM. One RM! That is like 0.30 Francs and so cheap compared to the school food in Switzerland. I could actually eat 16 and a half plate here for one plate of Pasta back home. Really really awesome.

 Anyway one thing seems to be the same like everywhere, the students.  I guess in the end most teenagers all over the world laugh talk and worry about the same things and through the invention of the internet we also know the same songs, TV-series, movies and YouTube videos. I am very happy that most people on my school are so welcoming and interested and so I could make friends quite fast :) They help me to understand the rules and intricacies of their culture ,teach me in Malay or traditional games like”Cikupang”, tell me Malaysian Ghost stories (they have a loooot even about our own school) or so called “pantang larangs” old Malay taboos/sayings.

 I wrote my favorite ones down for you:

Pantang Larang:

•  Unmarried women shouldn’t sing in the kitchen otherwise they will marry an old man
•  If you laugh too much all education will fly out of your mouth ( there cannot be much left in my head in that case) 
•  If three people take a picture together, one will die first. 

The last one is definitely my favorite . ;))  

 I wish you a wonderful week and hope you enjoyed reading .

Sincerely Hannah 

Short Holiday Summary. 3.8. - 18.8

A month ago the Hari Raya began, the biggest festival for Muslims where they celebrate the end of their fasting month Ramadan. It lasts for a whole month and they celebrate together with family, friends and neighbors and return to their Kampung (village) to meet and forgive each other. In many ways it is quite similar to Christmas.

 In this time, especially in the first week of Raya , every house is open for friends and families to visit and eat anytime they want to and this is what we did on the first four days of Raya. 

with my hostfamily on the first day of Hari Raya.

On the first we stayed at home and almost over hundred people come through the whole day for a shorter or longer visit. The next days it was our turn and we visited 3 to 4 different houses a day, mostly relatives and because the families are so big I still don’t really have the overview to know who is who... My family s Kampung lies in the middle of KL surrounded by skyscrapers but still a village. That was really interesting to see, the different houses, to meet many new people and to eat lots of delicious Malay food! Raya is all about eating eating eating.  Yes the food... Before I came here I was afraid I wouldn’t like it but that is now my smallest worry I just love it and in every house were new and different dishes to try so I ended up eating the whole day, alternately traditional Malay food and cookies. Regrettably then my Malay wasn’t good enough to get at least the topics of all the conversations but I enjoyed it anyway and I learn new words every day.

2nd day of Raya :)

my family's Kampung in KL 

Then in the second week of the Raya holidays I went on the first trip with my family, to Kuantan and then further to Terengganu.

 We visited friends and family in two Malay villages, with the traditional wooden houses, ate fresh Ramputan fruits, went to the Beach, a wonderful small island and even when I got bitten by a jellyfish, I survived and could enjoy my first taste of Durian…yes I like it ;))  The last 3 days we spent at home and my little sister and me went Batik painting and visited together the Batu Caves, a Hindu Temple where we climbed all the 200 steps up to the caves and got our hands painted with Henna. :)

just Malaysia :) 

Pulau Kapas 

 

Batu Caves

Henna :) 

We also went to an "Akad Nikah", which is like the most religious part of the Malay wedding ceremony and it officially brings together a couple in marriage. The ceremony is effectively a verbal contract that takes place between the father of the bride and the groom. It took place  in a small Mosque so I wore for the first time a Tudung, the Headscarf and it was quite an exiting experience.
So that's it,  Post 4 will follow right after this on :)

Akad Nikad 

  

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!