Key learning points so far

Observe to get to know the culture. Ask people to understand the culture. Be open for the culture experience. (me eating the sea food that I don’t eat usually, trying unknown Chinese food…) Just like that you can live the true culture.

Take things as they are coming. Not to be sad if anything is not the way I wanted it to be, because I believe it was ment to be like the way it is. In one minute I am home alone and longing for a company in a few minutes later a friend is coming over, and in some minutes later I am at the party with the other trainees…

Life is a challenge!

Set the expectations. If the expectations don’t match, re-set them 

You are not choosing the people you are working with. The point is to cooperate in a neat way even with the people, with whom you think is hard to cooperate.

BE YOURSELF

Get to know about the country you are going to as much info as possible, to try to prepare at least a bit. I felt I was not really prepared, even though it is not too different here.

Internet at Brickfields, our flat, wireless... Soooooo coooool! Finally! Thanks Migz for fixing that! Let´s re-connect with home!

New Tattoo :)

I had my new Henna Tattoo done. At one Indian stall with E-rings and other little thingies I saw that a lady offers also Henna tattoos. It is a fashionable stuff for Indian ladies, they usually have tattooed both whole hands – for different important occasions like weddings, engaging, or just for daily life to be in  So this one is my first souvenir here. The whole process of drawing took just about 10 minutes and the price was OK. The tattoo itself will last about 10 days.

The Food

One of the best things here in Malaysia is probably the food. Before I came here, many people kept on telling me that they would love to come back just because of the lovely food.
My first impressions were already Hard Core :) First meal was in the Indian neighbourhood, typical Indian place and so was the dish - rice with some meat and sauce, served (typically) on a banana leaf, eating with hands (with the right one… funny is that after the meal is the whole hand very yellow from all the curry). And the food well matching drink is a lime juice with ice (limo-ice).
What I really like is, that they offer everywhere fresh juice from squeezed fruit like water melons, oranges... As the culture is here very diverse – having Malay people living in one country together with Indian and Chinese people - also the cuisine is very diverse. You can find easily everywhere various types of restaurants - many Indian ones, Malay, Chinese or Thai.

The dishes are on a whole quite cheap, so I eat out every lunch and dine outside very often with other trainees, too. Per dish it is about 2 Euros with a soft drink included.
Indian food is pertty much about curry, chicken, rice, flavoured rice with chicken, or noodles. And Indians are so far my favourte. They offer also some Indian bread, which is usually dipped in various sauces (mainly curry).
Malay food is more or less greezy, noodles... I have tried once so far. The less I like the Chinese cuisine so far, the dishes are rather oily and full of the soya sauce, very different from the Chinese ones that we have in Czech, back home. And of course eating with sticks, which is funny to use, but I alrady ate 3 times with them, and I managed :)
I also like the Thai meals, I have alrady tried Green curry, that was not that spicy, since here you can bet that the dish will be rather hot - anywhere! Thai use a lot of pinaple and sweet-sour combinations... hmm... do you feel hungry already? :)

There are also lot of chains like McDonalds, KFC and those kind of restaurants, but so far I have not had a single burger. Today we have been in kind of European restaurant, where we got also European cutlery-knife plus fork. In Malaysia you get everywhere just fork and spoon!

So.. that is about the food here. Sometimes I just remember the typical Czech food like “smazeny syr” or other tasty fattening dishes, but so far I feel I eat quite healthy here. We will see after the whole 8 months :)

Singapore

Due to getting my visa/working permit I had to visit Singapore, a state and single island located on very South of the Peninsula, down from Malaysia. I set off on Friday after work, spent 5 hours in a bus, while talking to George, a retired Chinese man. From him I got to know many useful and interesting information, it was just nice to talk to some local person.
Nevertheless, I departed in Singapore, took a taxi and went to meet Reindhard, a DHL trainee in Singapore, who did his internship in KL before and he let me stay at his place for my whole say in Singapore. I have to admitt, that the place, where he lives was breathtaking. I felt like in a sea-side resort.
Saturday morning Reindhard joined me to make a grand-tour sight seeing in Singapore. The city center itself is not that huge, so we did not have to use the public transport that much.
We started with a view from DHL building (what a luxury place to work, man!) Cool view! Then we continued to see Little India, with all the small stalls, shops with all the little things, smelling after scent sticks burning... Definitelly it had its atmosphere. When talking about India, we couldn´t miss the temples – Hindu Temples. It was my first expereince with it, fist impressions – very colourfull, we had to take our shoes off, in the temple itself was hardly anybody, it was quite open-air, about 7 little rooms seperately built with locked doors, behind each is an Hindu God and at certain time the doors open and people pray to the particular God. Not enough temples? Allright, next station was just on the opposite street – a Chinese temple. With a typical chinese scent inside and Budha statues too. Interesting.

As a contrast in about an hour we could admire the opera in a shape of national fruit smelly ”durian”. We crossed over the Esplanade bridge and got into the City Center, having the sky line up our heads. Tall scy sky scrapers...
As another contrast to that we jumped in for a food to a typical Chinese place, I ordered something I did not really know what it is (which happenes here in about 70% cases), but it was not that bad, although I had a slight fight with eating with poles:) As a dessert we had kind of jelly, tasting after nothing thing.. The best was a drink though – a fres squeezed water melon!
Recharged with the food-energy we carried on to China Town. Singapore – one state – one city. But I felt like I spent one day in many different countries. China Town was very colourfull, all the small shops, markets down the streets. And again different atmosphere compared to a Little India or the City Center with high buildings.

In the evening, quite tired, we finished up on the Santosa Island, South from Singapore. We caught the sunset on palmy-beach :P and made some cheeky pics...
The probably best part of the day was yet to come, cause already it was night and we went to “Café del Mar”. This is kind of open air Café, originally established in Ibiza. DJ plays up the stage chill-out house music, there is a swimming pool, umbreallas and beds with pillows on the beach... We ordered a coctail and just layed down on a chill out bed, listening to the music, talking... What an atmosphere!
Beginning of Sunday I spent at the swimming pool, about 2 hours. I felt really relaxed, sunbathing... When I decide it is enough of sun (about 11am) I realized how big mistake I did not using the sun-cream... Red like a pig and a nice shape of sunglasses (purely white, compared to rest of the skin)... Funny, when everyone is now noticing hehe.
At midday we sett off to another island-trip, this time Pulau Ubin. An island, that belongs to Singapore, but is very different. Singapore itself is very modern, very well-planned, cause of the few land, the government is strict, you can not even buy and chew chewinggums!!! Littering is fined...
Pulau Ubin is not big, but kind of old-fashioned, people live in wodden houses, fishermen have their farm there and the rest of the island is a jungle!! Yes a jungle! You can actually rent a bike there in a port and explore the island yourself on a bike. That was an advanture! First we just went for a walk through kind of botanic garden, seeing all the trees like pappaya, coffee, durian, pepper,... Suddenly it started to rain – a serious downpour! So we hide under a tree and tried to not get soaking wet with only one umbrella. At Ubin island I tried for the fist time a cocoa nut and its fresh juice. Delicious.
The island was very nice – many animals like lizards, dogs, cats, spiders (about 15cm size!!!-I saw 3 of those) and flora is amazing – palm trees, bananas, pappayas...
The evening was compared to the afternoon program rather different – from the jungle we went again to the City Center, admire the sky scrapers with a can of beer :)
Very nice 2 days! I have to admitt that I had a really nice guide, thanks, Reindhard!

Monday was a way stressy. I had to get the visa, it was rather complicated and messy, the Malaysian ambassy moved, so I had to search for it without the map... But finally I got it, went shopping and then I took the bus. When I sat down in the bus, I immediatelly fall asleep.
Tomorrow starts next working day and I feel like having a week off for such a nice holidays. Singapore was great!

The Trainee life...

Slightly feel the alcohol still hehe:) Read through, if you wanna really feel the usuall trainee life....

OK. Today. The second working day here. I will just keep you guys up to date, how I feel about the internship, the whole stay here... I have to admitt that there are ups and downs for sure. Today after work at about 5am I wrote down on the peace of paper: “Sometimes the things are not just the way you want them to be. OK. I will just put down my current thoughts while I am after my second day at work. I do hope I will have something interesting do do. So far Just watching around, getting to know the company. I am sceptical to any interesting project I will get. I hope I get one. We will see. Everyone keep on telling me, it is the first days – doing really nothing, so I trust them.
I feel pretty well, that the beginning is usually hard. Not knowing people, that already know each other for quite a long time usually, fist days in the company. Different culture. Not much things go the way I would like them to be. I am at the very beginning. Long way to go....“

I was quite frustrated from the work, I felt I haven´t got much into the trainees community so far. Not my best day today, though. While I went out of the office (after checking my emails for about 10 minutes while having about 40 emails in inbox) I got into the tube, it started to rain. But not normal rain. A tropical one! So I got off in my station „Bangsar“ and I had to go home. I went about 5 minutes ...soaking wet, jumped right in the shower.

If the day was not that nice, the evening was 100% better. It was a bye bye dinner of one Japanese trainee - Takuya, who stayed here about 1,5 years. We got together, about 15 trainees and some AIESEC ppl. We had a nice Indian food, I happened to meet many ppl, had a nice chat and I feel kind of connected now. Afterwards we went to the bar (5 guys and me hehe) had one beer. Imagine: In a bar, very comfy sofa, cool climate, wind, palm trees up my head, 5 guys around, bustling KL city, Malaysian beer Tiger (!!!!!! - not bad one). I did not feel bad;) Then we finished our quite expensive beer and went home by cab. We took another beer back home, some Bacardi Coke and had a chat. Tomorrow work.
I will go over the weekend to Singapore to pick up my visa. I am going there with Janne, the Finish guy and probably with Salah, the Belgium guy. He doesn´t know yet.

Hehe and again – another time meeting a cockroach, this time a bigger one (about 3cm). As I expected, I started to scraem and luckilly guys were around so I asked them to get it off my room. Dan from Enlands sprayed it, but did not help, so Migs from Kenya just killed it with a shoe! Hehe, I did really scream and jumped on the bed – scared! As expected:))))))

I will get back to you with more concrete reports about different stuff here, I have already made a list;)

Have fun,
miss you all, though...

P.

Kuala Lumpur - first impressions, first sight-seeing

In the morning, my room-mate from Belgium Salah and me set off down-town. First we were window-shopping in a huuuge shopping mall. Quite nice one, modern and fashionable!! We happened to come across a Sunday market. There was mainly different exotic fruit, food, flowers... some sea-food on a piece of wood – a lady came, took it, boil it in a boiling water at the stall, put some spice on it an ate it.. and anothe one and another one! We stood, watched her.. a bit like culture shock:) Then we went to KLCC (center of the city) and while getting off the subway I looked high and saw the towers – Petronas towers. Hiiiiiiigh! I did like the view and the towers itself – magnificent! It is possible to go up, it is for free, but you have to queue early morning to get tickets. I have to see it once. We made some pictures and then we just chilled around in a nice park just in front of the towers. The kinds were jumping and swimming in a nearby swimming pool. While sitting on the grass, chilling out, watching on the Petronas towers, I realized finally that I am here – Malaysia, KL!!! Very peacefull place, although it is inside of the city center. We had a nice chat about Salah´s thesis, which he is writing here. About Islamic banking. Interesting. Suddenly it got dark and we had a dinner in a typical Indian restaurant – some rice, chicken, beef, drink...all just for 7 ringgit (1,5 EUR) It is very cheap to eat out!
The city itself is very very big and modern. My past thoughts about old dirty city were wrong. At least in the center. It is very clean, modern building, parks, a lot of green parks, flowers, trees...
The streets are very busy, the cars they don´t care about pedestrians, when they want to cross the street. They drive right, so sometimes it is a little bit confusing.
The weather... It is humid and warm. Today it did not rain like yesterday, it was also a little bit windy, but still I sweat the whole time, even now at night! The shower doesn´t help much. But I think I can get used to this climate pretty fast.

PS: more photos on my Flickr.com account www.flickr.com/photos/paja

Party

In the evening there was a party thrown by Flic, Hannu and Kat – trainees that live quite not far from our appartment. It was a purple party, so everyone was wearing something purple. Funny and a good idea. I borrowed a tie from Nadim and then we had some nice face-painting:)
The party was really nice. Many new people, it was a bit hard to remember all the names, but on a whole I did try! Many trainees from different parts of the world: Australia, Germany, Colombia, Slovenia, Kenya, UK, ... I am in touch mainly with the people, who live in Brickfields (the part, where I live), but I hope to get to know more also other ppl. There were also some locals, AIESECers. I brought the BCHEROVKA liquer, typical Czech one, on a whole ppl did not like it cause it is so strong:))
People were dancing, drinking, sweating - cause of the heat – still!... We left at bout 4am, quite tired.

Arrival to Malaysia

Soooooooo, I am here, sitting in my VERY tiny room (on a bed) and writing my first impressions post. I am happy, that my lap-top works, cause I forgot the lap-top battery at home and during flight I was worried, that it will not work. Both flights were quite tiiring. I really liked the look of the plane Boeing 777 – painted in blue sea:) 12 hours in a plane from Zurych to KL. In the morning 6am (Malaysian time, midnight Czech time) the plane lended in Malaysia... NEW BEGINNING HAS STARTED:)

Some observations/adventures so far:
When going from KL International Airport to KL Central station, where AIESECers were waiting for me, i was amazed by the flora – back home we have „normal“ forrests, here the forrest means palms, banana trees...:)) I even saw the sun-rise form the train, romantic;)!

Meeting AIESECers (ppl who picked me up and who organized all the stuff before comming here) was fun – first some girls came to me to see what´s my name and who I am waiting for, then they went back to some group, than came back again with a group of ppl of 6 and started to shout and dance an AIESEC rall call:)) fun!

My flat – it is much better than I was expected! No cockroaches so far, juchuu:)) Clean rooms, big kitchen, tiny bathroom (shower and an European toilet!) a big
living room and 3 different size rooms. Balcony view to a bannana/palm forrest and skyscraper:)) My flat mates are: a Kenyan guy Steve (who I haven´t met yet) and an Slovenian guy from Ljubljana (who I met already, but told me, that he wants to move - closer to his work).
In this case I would move to his room (which even has an aricon and furniture) my room is very tiny, as I already said. Just bed and fan, nothing else. And I bought cute yellow kids bed sheets for my bed;) Internet is not here, but Nadim (the Slovenian guy) told me that there will be one within a month! Yes! There is actually not much to do, while not working or hanging outside or reading... So the internet will be warmly welcomed.
I spent morning with AIESECers – Lavanya, Michelle, Gin, Rene showed me round a bit, we went shopping, then for a breakfast and then home sleeping.

Breakfast – huh, awsome! We went to the Indian place, ordered some specialities, we shared rice, noodles, kind of omelette and many sauces! Cool! A bit hot, but OK. The best thing was, that all was served on a separate banana tree leaf!! Welcome in a different culture:) We ate with a cuttlery, not hands;)

Weather – humid. It was a bit sunny in the morning, but the temprature was OK (29 degrees), when the sun came up, it was more hot. Everywhere is aircon – cars, shops, flats... If I did not have in my room a fan, I think I would melt! In evenings it usually rains. So it did today. Very heavy rain, that it was hardly possible to see the neighbour house(skyscraper;))!

In the evening there is a party, so I gonna meet the other trainees... Looking forward!

READY TO GO...
Tomorrow early morning I am leaving my country, parents, friends for 8 months:) Let´s see how it will be... Stay tuned for my adventures;)

1 day left!!!
Ultimate feeling: Looking forward:)

2 days left!
Garden party today - was cooooool! I have my bags packed and realized that my worries about the overweight of my luggage were rightful... My suitcase weights 20,5 kilos and I don´t rally know what to get rid of now. Everything seems to have it´s value. Even the hairdyrer:P :))

3 days left!
After my B-day celebration! Very cool one! I got from my friends some stuff to kill insects, that awaits me in Malaysia and of course some alcohol:))
...hmmm the visa sucks! I will not get the long term visa before comming to Malaysia:( As soon as my visa will be approved (it took more time than I thought), I will have to go to Singapore to pick it up! I will enter KL with certain Social Security Pass, I really don´t know what it is:) But will be fine...

4 days left!
And I will go abroad even older and wiser! Iam 23 today! It´s pitty, that I can´t celebrate it with my friends in Prague... But family party and friends from my hometown party counts too, of course:))
...packing to be continued...
Right now I just have seen some blogs from my future frinds (i hope), who are in KL on internship too and I realized that I really don´t know and haven´t relalized yet how different environment I will live in for following 8 months! I fear a bit, but I hope that people I will meet, things I will do, company I will be employed at will make my stay positively memorable...

5 days left!
Back home from a nice trip. The weather is great (30 degrees). At least I can get used to the heat:P :))

7,6 days left!
Right now at holidays with my parents and brother in Moravia! Relax, sun, fun...

8 days left!
Relax...

9 days left!
Actual packing has started, mess all over me, napsaná a poslaná aplikačka na fasoše na Malajské OPSko v červenci!!!, getting into travelling mood:)

10 days left!
(I miss the energy and dance mood from Sensation, I am surfing on youtube.com and watching all the videos:), I have most of things prepared, but still don´t feel like leaving)

Sensation White 2007 in Prague

The biggest world dance event had the pleasure to be hosted in the capital of the Czech Republic - Prague. And I had the chance to attend it! For those of you, who don´t know, I love dance music and trance/techno music style. I already visited Love Parade last year in Berlin, but Sensation White was kind of very different to LP.

With my brother and his girlfriend Evča and our 2 other friends we set off by car to Prague, all dressed in white, as this is one of the most importat rule for attending Sensation. It was funny, when all 5 of us stopped at petrol station to buy something - all ppl were watching us and asking what are we up to:)

Finally we were approaching Prague, Sazka Arena (The place). We couldn´t miss the place because of the fact that the closer to Sazka Arena we were, the more ppl in white we could see! We got into the Arena and the big adventure started. Impressive layout, decoration, size. 13.000 ppl there! From 9:30PM to 6:30AM- it was like a marathon dancing through the whole night!

At the beginnig we were standing up facing the main stage and seeing all the people under the stage. Cool feeling see all the clubbers in white. It is an interesting and special idea though! Michael Burian, the only Czech DJ performing started to play. I slowly got into mood, while having my first Red Bull:)
The scene and the whole concept is based on symbiosis of man and electro world, somtimes it was too much (all the robots, the Eye talking to us as a moderator...)

The best time for me was from midnight on, when the French DJ David Guetta started to perform. Nowadays there are many famous songs by him on the radio (Love is gone, The world is mine) But he played also other great peieces. Sometimes the music just got me high! Nearly 2 hours in extasy:) Then I was deadly exhausted, so I just drank at once another Red Bull(such a destroying of my body!!) and was fully prepared for another part comming after David Guetta - the Megamix (many short famous songs put together for 1,5 hours. Again dancing like freak. It was 3AM and I slowly started to feel my hurting feet.

Check the atmosphere of Sensation White in Prague as we cought it on our camera!

BUT! the main star of the evening was suposed to come now: Armin van Buuren (the Dutch famous DJ) When he pop up on the stage everyone started to jump, put the hands up and the atmosphere in the arena was awsome. I couldn´t help myself and despite of the cool music I had an hour break from dancing, just sitting and listening to the music. My brother and Evca were enjoying the music too. The night continued in a good mood with other DJs, but after an hour dancing on Armin I was dead. I gave up and was just sitting next to my brother, listening to the loud music and eventhough I wanted to dance, I was just exhausted and I couldn´t. I even managed to get there (hell loud) a short nap! We were wating till 6, when was the end and met up with our other friends, went by car back home. In the car we were all (except for the driver) sleeping. Still now I am very tired, still feel the smoke (of cigarets and weed too - it was everywhere!), but happy I had the opportunity to join such an event!

The Senation Megamix was thesame here in Prague like all over in Europe (this is originally from Antwerp)