My Exchange Journey @ Romania and CEE

My Exchange Journey @ Romania and CEE

Crazy days at Dhaka, Bangladesh XD

(Photo taken fr. the roof of my friend's flat)

4 days in Dhaka...

Crazy..... in the sense that .......

1. Traffic jams everywhere


I was lucky that I only stuck in the taxi without air-con. for only 30mins without moving on the day of my arrival......
My friend told me that it could be up to 1-2 hours without moving for a phrase of road that needs only 15 mins for walk........................
I guess it's because I scare away most of the cars ?! @@


2. How they wire the cables.............


OMG!!!!!! No wonder my friend told me that the areas in Dhaka take turns to have electricity cut out.........


3. How the electricity was cut suddenly....................














The lower part in the photo, they are all buildings packed together..........
They were black in the photo because the electricity of the area was cut out..........
the electricity cut out lasts for around 1 hr.
My friend told me it happens everyday, in random time.
They were prepared for it,
with lights run on batteries....... @@
For offices, they have back-up electricity powers............


4. How the Bangladeshi drive their cars............

This (the dark green one with a real BROKEN HEART ... XDD ) is one kind of public transportation called CNG, as they run on Complete Natural Gas.....
It will run in S shape, S shape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on the road..... in high speed.
Once I saw it trying to compete with a double-deck bus for speed.........................XD






5. How the people "mount" on the cars........




6. How people carry heavy things in bulk.......



7. How colorful Dhaka is...


(bottom row,leftest: Rickshaw, most common public transport on Bangla streets, pull by human )
Even the KFC is soooo colorfullllllll .........



8. How intelligent 2 Bangladeshi children could be.....

The two children in the picture, son of my colleague, one 7 and one 5 years old,
when I reached their home, they are reading an encyclopedia, ENCYCLOPEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!
and obviously they are familiar with it, because whenever we talked about something,
they can remember what's in the encyclopedia and flip to the page......................!!!!!!!!!!!
In addition, they talked to me in PERFECT ENGLISH..@@


9. How spicy the food is.....
& the millions of bones their national fish, Hilsha, could have.......T.T
The Hilsha is in the leftest rectangular container!!!!!!!!
I had a hard time struggling with the bones......... using my right hand.......
because Bangladeshis use their right hand, only the right hand, to eat..........
My hand is now so skillful in separating the meat fr. the bones, picking out the bones of a fish,
and putting a handful of rice in my mouth.................XD



10. How delicious the Alu Chop in Bangladesh is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I only had this photo because I was too excited when I saw the Alu Chop, and I quickly started eating......... until there is only 1 left,
my friend reminded me that I didn't take photo of my favorite Alu Chop.........T.T
( Btw, Alu Chop is a dish that people smashed the potato and make them in a coin-like shape,
with curry and minced meat)

11. How cheap things are....
One of my idol, hard cover, English, at around HKD 50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12. And.. how hospitable Bangladeshi are....... I stayed in Bangladesh for 4 days, but 1 day is for arrival in the late afternoon, and another day is for leaving in mid afternoon, so roughly I stay in Dhaka for only 2 or 3 days, but I was invited to 4 homes for meals already. In which, every family welcomed me with a feast....... though sometimes the food maybe a bit too oily or heavy to me, esp. when beef is their common ingredient........................ But............ I miss the warm atmosphere......... and I hope... I will go back to Bangladesh one day. =)






P.S. Where is the Jump Break Button ?!?!?!??! T.T

Use Jump Break to keep the blog entry short

Hello everybody.

The blog is really reach in content now. However, to keep the blog entry more decent and easy to read (without lots of scrolling), I would recommend all you to use the "Insert Jump Break Function" when you compose your entry.

Hungray

23/3-28/3
Budapest, Szetendre, Pecs, Godollo

Jaq was the friend who picked me up at the train station. He was the alumnus of AIESEC and planning to go to Asia soon. I knew him through Yip Lam, an AIESECer who went to exchange in Budapest in the winter break. Jaq was very passionate about Chinese culture and currently learning Mandarin. Once I arrived, he took care of me a lot. If he comes to Hong Kong later, I would like to treat him as well as he treated me. He told me a lot of interesting things/stories when we walked around the city. We also shared economic, political thought with each other. Hungarians had really a long history since the large empire they possessed before. Owing to the Second World War, it lost 2/3 land which later developed into different countries. Jaq was very friendly as he always hanged out with trainees. He had also hosted trainees before, but due to the opposition of his family, he did not do so this time. He had also been to Sri Lanka for MT for one year, so he had no problem in dealing with Asian culture. All in all, I deeply appreciated the hospitality shown by him and treasured all the good time spent with him.

TTX 2010

17/3-21/3
TTX 2010 @ Slanic Moldova

Accompanied with OCs and one faci from Iasi, we have finally arrived Slanic by train. Unfortunately, we just missed the bus to the conference site, thus we have waited for an hour to take another bus. Slanic Moldova was a resort in Romania, which was also famous for its mineral water. The scenery was wonderful since it was a valley surrounded by hills. The hotel was not bad, though the room was a little bit small.

Having been in Kuala Lumpur 1 month & 10 days

Errrr

Sorry that I've been lazy in updating this blog in the past two weeks.... =p

Okieeee

Updates on work

After 1 month & 10 days,
finally I got a breakthrough in my job tasks.
I was asked to do a Balanced scorecard for the plan of setting up a new office in Thailand in 5 days including the weekends.
Well.. I heard BSC a lot during my time in AIESEC, but I never need to do it.
(1st thought came to my mind is...........
gosh..... even outside AIESEC, I couldn't get rid of BSC.........)

Well....... so it comes as a big challenge. @@

Luckily I got a result-oriented supervisor who made sure I'm clear of everything before I started the job task, he led me through briefly how to fill in the BSC.
Though I still have to figure out exactly how to do it,
www.myaiesec.net has therefore become an excellent source for me to have a look on how people do BSC and how they work on the BSC. =))))))))))))



Discussion

Usually, when it comes to fund raising and donation,
will you tend to donate to NGOs showing you materials with sad faces of the suffering people?
If yes, here comes the question,

Supposingly, if the NGO is helping its suffering target group effectively,
there should be more happy faces than sad faces.
I mean, it will be more difficult for them to shoot sad faces to place on fund raising materials.

For example, my NGO is working to help cancer patients,
if it's running effectively,
there should be less sad cancer patients they found.
This is the true situation.

However, to raise more fund,
they have to find sad faces in the beneficiary group which is extremely difficult.

Isn't it a self-contradicting action?
Are donors tend to donate to see the ineffectiveness of the NGOs?
Or this phenomenon is a way to prompt the NGO to work more harder?



Funny thing

As two of my Bangladeshi colleagues are going back to visit their family,
and it will be the time I needa flee away from Malaysia again,
I was planning a trip to Bangladesh with my two collegaues.
So I was trying to get a VISA fr. the Bangladesh high commission in Malaysia.
My colleague insisted that he will go with me.....
at that time I was feeling strange ( why so insist to go with me?! juz VISA application? )


When we arrived at the Bangladesh high commission,
it looks more like a public washroom in Hong Kong
( Sorry! no offence to Banglas, but I couldn't think of other things more similar than this ............................)
& When I arrived there, I understood my colleague's insistence.

The guy at the entrance for enquiry just put on the poker face,
& keep saying,
"No, you're just travelling, why don't you apply fr. Bangladesh consulate in HK..."
Luckily my colleague is with me,
he said in Bangla to the guy and strived a chance to see a higher grade consular officer.....

Luckily the consular officer is a women, and more humane.
But she still doubt why I want to go Bangaldesh.
( Simply travelling. Why bother?! =.=)
She asked my colleague in Bangla something,
then asked me in English why I want to go Bangladesh.
How I knew my colleague .......
( of coz I could only tell her he's my friend and I met him in Malaysia,
As I'm not with a working VISA, and don't want to involve my NGO for sure)

She questioned me why I only knew him for 2 months and follow him back to Bangladesh .
[ Com'on!
I just want to go Bangladesh for travelling,
I'm not really "following him", OK?! ]

Then I heard my colleague, in quick response telling her that
" no no~ She already has a boyfriend, no way, we are really only friends. "
Gosh..............................................
Until then I kind of got the idea what she's worrying.


Finally, after using Bangla to ask my colleague , and using Eng. to ask me,
both of us giving her the same answer.
She agreed that I could apply the VISA with several documents.
( other than normal documents, e.g. Photocopy of passport, photos,
They still need bank statements ......
and invitation letters fr. a local even for tourist!!!!!!!!!!!! =.= )

On our way back to the office,
my colleague is telling me,
because there are lots of cases Chinese girls go to Bangladesh,
marry a guy, and stay there forever.
So the consular officer is worrying we are going to do the same.
No offence,
but 1st thought is,
OMG.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD A HONG KONG GIRL WANT TO MARRY A BANGLADESH GUY WITH THE INTENTION OF STAYING IN BANGLADESH?!????!?!?!?!?!
well, I'm not the ethnocentric type of person,
but com'on, is this too unbelievable?!
& even after 2 days, when I typed this,
I still feel it's unbelievable @@

Anywayz.
I'm great that my nice Bangladesh colleague has gone there with me.
and we gonna go there tomorrow again for submitting the documents..........
Fingers crossed. =p


************************************************************************

Best wishes for CM for your VP election!!!!!!!!
Try your best and with no regret! =)
and all the best for other VP candidates. =)

fon

In Cameroon, fon is something like a 'king'. He does't have any power but people do repest them as a fon. He can have many wifes (some of them even have more then 1,000 wifes!). Basically other than the identity, there is no difference from a normal person to a prince or a princess.

This week is the cultural week in Kumbo and there are many performances in the palance, where the fon lives. I went there today and accidently went into a princess's house. Actually it looks like a poor family's house instead of a princess house. After sitting there for a few minutes without anything to do, I left the house. When I was about to leave, the fon sent someone to give me a bottle of Fanta and asked me to see him. I was led to enter a gate and was asked to bend down when seeing him.

He asked me where I am from and how long I have been here. He seemed not to be happy after knowing that I have been here for two months without visiting him. He sent me back after that.

Anyway, it is an interesting experience to know more about the fon here.