WHAT I am missing the most

Except for my parents, bother, grandparents,Prague roomies, friends back home and in the World I miss following:

As previously mentioned, the food here is good, but I miss the most Czech food: Spenat s bramborami a vajickem, Svickova, Bramboraky, Palacinky z Narodni Tridy, Sunkofleky od maminky, Rajska od babicky, bramborovy salat a’la Beckovi, cesky chleba s pomazankou, mozzarella a dalsi druhy syra, gulas z bufiku ve Strakonicich hehe...

Climate – I know that back home is summer too, but I just miss the chilly mornings, mild evenings…

Seeing European people walking down the streets & European guys;) (I am not rasist!)

Pubs and beer – simply the atmosphere "na zahradce s Gamrinusem, fried cheese "U Houdku" and so on"

Saturday shopping in Strakonice with my mum

Oranized public transport – in all aspects

Slightly horror story

Yesterday I went sleep in a good mood. I was laying on my yellow bed and trying to fall asleep. Suddenly I hear noises.. Like something is in my plastic bags on the floor. I turn on the light. I have the anti-insect spray in my hand. There is something moving. Ahh, cockroach, I assume. I use the spray. But no result is yet to come. My room became after my chemical attack uninhabitable.

I decided to move to living room (did not want to share my room with cockroach and did not want to breath RAID spray), brought my pillow and bed sheet and lay on the sofa.

Roman, my Ukrainian roomie came home and wanted from me a vodka (for making his ears clean..?.. don’t ask me why:)) I said, that I had it in my room and now I am not gonna go there. So he switch on the light in my room and suddenly a HUGE (10cm) cockroach ran out of the door form my room. As a typical girl, I started to jump on the sofa, cried “Kill it! Kill it!!!!”

Roman tried to smack it with his shoe, but it tried to escape, it even tried to fly away. Oh my God! I was producing a nice scene for a hysteric movie, shaking, screaming… Finally, Roman, my hero, killed the beast! I sat on the Sofa, still shaking. We opened the bottle of vodka and had a shot for calming down. Then a beer for a better sleep.

Cockroaches are simply very disgusting and when big, even more odious. They will simply not be my friends here…

The FU**ING Rainy Season is here

Past few days it rains during the day. And during the night, too. The sky is harldy ever blue. The rainy season is here, baby!

Today I had another cool experience with going home from the office, while not having an umbrella. Mine is broken and I think I should seriously concider to buy one.
I stepped out of the office, out of the building, had my MP3 player on, which made my mood merrier. Walking in the rain. Yaaay:) In the subway I spent just few minutes going to my station, slightly wet clothes on. The way home from LRT (metro) station takes about 8 min. During this period of time I felt like being a star in the "Wet T-shirt Contest". My greenish blouse became more and more transparent so did my white pants. Men passig by were turning their necks like the turles do.. Malaysia, Truly Asia...:)

Rain season lasts till December... Several hours rain per day. Hope it will stop raining at least sometimes for some travelling...

Culture shocks, part 2

Riding a bike in a rain forest
Seeing a huge spider on my own eyes!
I am freezing at work due to Air Con (but slowly getting used to that, my colleagues love my colourful cardigans:P)
Seeing sky scrapers for the first time in my life (KL, Singapore)
Eating with hands
Seeing a cockroach running around in my room
People here spend ages in huge Shopping Malls
While shopping I saw cooled black chicken and wrapped chicken feet even with nails (a delicatessen)I am not really into tasting this...
Driving on the right side of the road and very aggressive
People laying on the street, sleeping
Positive: Casual Fridays at work
Payment of the rent to the landlord in cash every month (no bank transfer)
I expected modestly dressed women and while walking downtown I saw Chinese ladies in miniskirts (the same on parties)

Luna Bar with Amilia

Saturday was pretty rainiy, so with Amilia, my friend from Indonesia, we decided to go to National Musum and see more of Malay, Indian and Chinese culture. Most intresting there for me was actually the Indian things (Indian ppl came here about 2000 years ago and see their habbits, e.g. their big celebration "Thaipusam". Then we had a dinner in Indian restaurant - a true bannana leaf (eating with hands from a bananna leaf). It was already evening and two girls were eager to explore the big city :)Petronas Twin Towers are just simply very irresistable.
Our aim was to go to "Luna Bar" a poshy bar on 34rd floor of a hotel in a city center. AWSOME view! We ordered nice coctails and let ourselves to be spoiled by the view, drinks, nice gezelig sofa:)

Culture shocks part 1

Being on the other part of Earth, experiencing different culture for alrady 1 month, I am putting down continously things, that surprised me here and that could be called as a cutlure shock. Here come some of them:

Eating the Indian food on a banana leaf!
Getting used to the time difference (still facing some challenges with that)
Meeting my Filipino coleges in our Indian company and going with them for a dinner to a Malay restaurant, while teaching them some Czech phrases
Different climate, but slowly getting used to it
Positive: toilet paper present at every rest room so far (except for the University:S)
Positive: everybody speaks English here!
Different flora – instead of the European trees I meet on my way to work palm trees, banana trees, tropical flowers
While travelling in a tube, it is hard to get out of the vagon - no system of first getting off and then getting in, you have to fight to find you own way out!!

TGIF

Working process is implies waking up early (7:30) going from work late (5:30)... But then THE day comes. THANKS GOD IT'S FRIDAY! This time I was very much looking forward, when I finish the work, cause afterwards we went for a dinner and then to a Tropiq bar for a beer. They had offer 3for2, so we celebrated the working week to come to the end!!
With Flic(AUS),and my future roomies Jeff(AUS) and Irene(NETHERLANDS)in the Tropiq bar

Pulau Perhentian trip

Pulau(Island) Perhentian is located on North-East part of Malaysian Peninsuala.

We set off 6 people from Kuala Lumpur and travelled about 8 hours. With jetty we then carried on to the island, about 1 hour travelling.

I will share the most interesting moments:
Meeting cool people!Jana(Germany), Hannu, Janne (Finland), Carey(South-Africa),Flic(Australia)


Our housing. Jungle wooden house, two beds, which 3 ppl shared, lizards on the wall. Sleeping under a net agains mosquitos (princess feeling:P)


Diving, sknorkeling. Seeing many colourful fish, feeding them from my hand, seeing a sea turtle, shark and FINDING NEMO:)

Being on the pretties beach I have ever been. White sand, palm trees, aquamarine water.

Hiking threw jungle on the island at night with Janne. First we went to see the sunset on the other side of the island. We had a dinner, bbq there and when was rather dark we went back. With just two little lights. Jungle full of strange sounds, hight trees... Cool experience.

Relax, sleep, fun, challenge, new experience...
for more pics check my flickr account..

ERASMUS X INTERNSHIP

This article might be interesting not just for those, who went for the student exchange, but just for those who are working and share simmilar experience as I do now.

Erasmus is (according to my experience) VERY different from actuall interns life, what I did not expect at the beginning. Erasmus (student exchange) is very much about partying, meeting new people at certain point of time, when noone knows anobody, and then with your friends you meet often, also during the day, bonding ppl, making real friendships, travelling a lot...

Intern life is in a way different. You arrive to the community, where ppl already know each other and you have to assimilate somehow. Slowly get to know the people. The work takes the majority of the day, you are tired afterwards, so you (I) try to relax in the evening, or go for dinner with friends out. Then weekends are to be used for travelling, but you don't want to wake up early on Saturday, cause of the lack of sleep during the week. But still there is time to explore new cutlure, cities, places, getting close to people. That is so far my experience and who knows, whithin 6 months I might have a different point of view;)

Both are very different lives, but both brings fun, friends, getting to know new cultures, bring good x challenging times and HEAPS of learning. And that is why I went for both of the experiences.

Who I am missing the most/Kdo mi chybi nejvic

NAC 2007

After the demanding preparations, the fruits is yet to come. NAC was fruitfull, indeed. Delegates were satisfied, interns, outgoing members and returnees were sharing experience. For me it was another cooool faci experience, for sure! I had also several culture shocks:) For more see the pictures:)
Our Faci team


Facilitating ALBATROS game with Eaton. (a game about culture shock, very impacting one)


My dinner and lunch for two days totally thesame... (breakfast was rice too)"What the hell does the fish in my dish?!"


Culture shock! I wanted to have a shower when coming to the spot, totally disgusting sweaty, what a surprise, the shower did not work. No idea what to do. Do you see the red pipe? Normally it is used by muslims for something else then shower.. Well.. Sometimes things just have a different purpose of use.. And so I had a "enjoying" shower.


Playing games on the beach! First evening I went with a friend of mine along the coast and when he told me, that that this ocean was acutally responsible for the Tsunami, I got a huge respect towards the sea!


Great pleasure to present my own country. I felt pride to present Czech Republic to people, that were really interested in it! I showed pics on PPT of Czech landscape while playing the most famous Czech componist Smetana - Vltava. Ppl told me, they had goose bumps!! Yeah!


Sculling. Topalki. Boat race. Different as well as simmilar. We were in semifinal, but people appreciate my quick drinking spirit hehe


A punishment comando. Watch out, guys!

Petra/Jordan - one of the 7 New Wonders of the World

Congratulations! Petra deserves it!

Preparing for National Ambassadors Camp

I did not acutally expect myself to get that busy here:)
Since Monday I know that I will be going this weekend for NAC (National Ambassadors Camp), as a facilitator, leading workshops and actually organize the conference. What is NAC? It is an AIESEC (the organization I came here with) conference, where people who are in Malaysia on an internship and Malaysians who want to go on internship meet and share experience, prepare for culture shock.. something simmilar like our OPS, click and roll down.
Since Tuesday my day schedule is very very simmilar. I leave the work at 6, then have a very nice chat and coffee or dinner with Sutha, my collegue and a new friend - a 28year old Indian girl, coming from Malaysia. At 8 then I move to a nearby MC AIESEC office, the National Committee and we discuss the sessions, and other important stuff regarding the conference. I get home at about 11pm and still need to work out ppts, sessions... And I fall asleep at 2am and alarm clock morning rings at deadly 7:30.

On a whole it is very nice, I am looking forward to the comming weekend very much, I am gonna have a different role than usually - faci plus intern, who is gonna present my own country - ambassador of the Czech Republic. I am sure all the busy days lately are worth it!

The Equator Weather

The weather in Malaysia is very different from the weather in Europe. Logical already from the geographical features  As soon as I lended in KL IA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) I did not notice such a difference, because it was very early morning, quite warm but OK. By the time I approached KL itself and walked out of the departure hall I felt a bit like in a drying room. Rather humid, very warm.

The weather here is unpredictable. It should be a dry season now, but rather often in the morning it is a clear sky, warm about 27 degrees, so when I go to work at 8am it is already quite warm. The whole day I spend at work, just seeing the sun outside from a window and when there is a time to go home, it starts to rain. It is not the kind of European rain, but a tough downpour (not Monsoon). I have already seen also a huge storm, and I had a pleasure to be exactly on my way home. So rule no.1 – always have your umbrella-ela-ela-e :) on you!

I think I kind of got used to the climate, even though it is not very comfortable to sweat all the time. I am just very happy, when there is at least some breeze. Mainly in the evening on the parties… it is just different :)

What I also realized is that the Sun here is very strong. Especially sun bathing around 11am in Singapore (about 100 km from the Equator) was not very smart. My whole body’s skin is currently pealing off from the sun burn. Next time a sun cream with a high protection, baby!

Another funny story worth mentioning: Every night I sleep with a fan, but despite of the fact I have no Air Con the air is ok, I am taking shower in the evening as well in the morning. In our bathroom there is a window permanently opened, so in the morning there is quite a fresh air for having a cool shower.

When I mentioned Air Con, the people are crazy about it here! Wherever you come (except for my room :)) there is Air Con set up for at least 18 degrees, sometimes is just a huge shock! And I am waiting until my body gets tired of the temperature difference and get sick.

About the Monsoon: Beginning of October there should be a rainy season coming over, lasting till February. That means, that heavy rain occurs with a strong wind, that is called Monsoon (in Taiwan area is called Taifun and resembles Tornados in US) Looking forward  But the locals told me, that the weather is very unpredictable. Now it supose to be a dry season, but the rain occurs rather often. The average temperature is about 30+, I really don’t know, because I have no thermo meter.

That’s all for now, hope wherever you are, you have a sun shining (at least in your hearts :P)
Cheers!

Random post (appologies to English readers)

Nedokazu si dost dobre predstavit, ze me deli ve skole uz jen rok a pul od opusteni univerzity a straveni zbytku zivota praci, treba podobnou jako delam ted!
To clovek pozna, jak si vazi skoly, az kdyz z ni vypadne!

Videos from Singapore added

A bike ride in the jungle (shitty road, nice trees, a bike)


Cafe del Mar in Singapore (awsome bar/cafe.. chill out place)


Skyline of Singapore

Hindi prayer

It all started so innocent... On Thursday I finished work sharp at 5:30 and was in a mood going exploring Brickfields, the Indian neighbourhood, where I live. It was still light and I somehow get jumped into a big street market (so called Night Market) with all different kinds of fruit, also clothes, food, shoes, fish... 1000s colours all around and 100s people on the street, mainly shopping after comming from work (99% Indian ppl) As I was wondering around I happen to go next to the house, that on first sight looked like an old indoor small market place, but when I came closer I saw shoes in front of the room and inside very colourfully decorated interier, about 20 people standing inside and in the middle there was a man a “priest” wearing some kind of long orange skirt. In the first moment it was clear, that it is a Hindu prayer. As we were told to be culturally sensitive;), so I just stood behind ppl not to disturb them and I was observing what is happening there. Fistly I was a bit scared, that I will be an invador or sth, but then I “prayed” with them. All the women we wearing the typical Indian Panjabi suit and men were quite typicaly dressed, too. I found quite interesting, how big role played at the prayer fire, they kept on lightening it up on and on. Then all went into a row (i already had courage enough, that I joined) and we got a white powder – each of us a bit and put it behind the eyes on a nose and then later on thesame with a red powder. Both man and women. Since then I was having bindi (a white-red dot) on my forehead. Then I sat down next to the wall and they started to pray more personally, talking to the “priest”, who gave them a candle afterwards and some flowers and bananas to hold it and pray with it. Then they had to walk several times around the main “altar” in the middle of the room. On the altar there was some kind of stuffed animal, to which then to people were silently talking one to one and gave it the fruit and flowers.
I stayed about half an hour and then I decided to leave. I still went to the market, bought a pinaple for 0,5 EUR :) and a ncie T-shirt.
Quite interesting experience...