First week in Kuala Lumpur

HEY AIESEC !
Sorry for late updatessss
As I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on 15th night,
and I started working on 16th morning. ( Crazyyyyy!!! )
Though it's kind of exhausting, it's quite fulfilling.

Brief Background of my internship

The organization I am working in, in short form is called MAKNA,
( complete name in Malay ).
It's a foundation who work to combat against Cancer through helping the cancer patient,
as well as public education.

On one hand,
the organization is going to set up new office in neighboring countries like Thailand and Singapore, one of the destination is HK.
So I have been working in the International division to help them research on the details needed for setting up an office in HK.
The supervisor of the division is a Brazilian, former AIESEC intern which stays in MAKNA after his internship.
I also work with a Brazilian girl on the HK office things.
In the division there are also 1 Saudi Arabian, 1 Dutch and 1 Bangladeshi.

On the other hand,
I also work in the Fund raising department with local Malays.
Basically I help them to see how they could adhere, organizational-wise, to the international standards set by an org. called BBB Wise Giving Alliance.
This is to secure the confidence of more donors.

Chinese in Malaysia

Bet Chinese should be prestigious in Malaysia, huh ? Coz perceptionally they are rich?
NO!
On Friday, I just had a conversation with my Chinese Colleague.
( He's so nice and friendly to me after knowing that I 'm from HK. XD )

The afternoon he told me that being a Chinese in Malaysia is quite helpless.
As the government always want to leverage its own race, the Malay,
they have a lot of subsidy and privilege to the Malays
while for the same size of land,
the Chinese have to pay extra tax and even a higher price.

The situation is so serious that Chinese have to pay a higher price for newspapers.
Even for working /owning street stalls,
the government will have subsidy for the local Malays,
but for Chinese, if the police walk by, the police will ask money from Chinese in which the money
doesn't go into the government nor any organization.

For university,
70% of seats are reserved for the local Malays, regardless how they perform in the exams,
while only 20% of seats are for Chinese, and the remaining 10% for the Indians.

While being asked the feeling,
my colleague says it's kinda helpless,
the policy is so unfair, yet no one could speak for them,
even for the Chinese that are with significance in the society,
Coz there is a law that states whoever tries to cause instability in Malaysia will be sent to jail for 2 years without going to court.

The government have all kinds of these policies because of the given fact that Chinese are so rich and success in Malaysia,
the government want to leverage the local Malays to the same level with Chinese,

Yet, in recent years,
the government, the minister is quoted as saying,
we are spoiling our Malays too much.

My colleague, near the end of the conversation,
saying that it's helpless,
also in the sense that they could do nothing to improve their next generation's situation in Malaysia.
The only thing they could do is to earn more money, to secure that their children will be able to sustain through these unfair policies.

We talk for like half and hour,
hahaha~ coz today is friday,
the Muslims have 2.5 hrs lunch for praying,
Since Muslims comprises of 70%-80% of the employees,
The office is kind of empty. lol

Gosh, the internet connection in my apartment is so weak that I couldn't upload the photos!!!
Will try tomorrow when I get back to the office,
will arrive at the office ahead of time before I should start working to upload that. =ppp


So how are you all, esp. my exchange mates???
Look forward to hearing the updates from you! =)))))))))))))

Will update this blog again soon. =)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Bran Castle and Rasnov

6/3
When I woke up, it was still snowing, which was a bad news to me since I will be going out to Bran and Rasnov today. To encounter this tough environment, I had worn quite a lot of clothes. It was really freezing and I thought the temperature was around zero. I reached the bus station by foot and waiting for the bus to depart. It was not really a good experience since when you are standing still during the cold weather, you will be stumbling very soon. I have waited more than 30 minutes to get on the bus. There were quite a lot of old people taking the same bus, perhaps it was a local tour. In Bran, it was where the Dracula Castle located. The snow covered everywhere, including the roads and the trees. Walking up to the castle was not easy since it was quite chilly and windy at that time. But it was really worth to be there because the castle was so quite awesome. Inside the castle, it was very medival in style. If you were a fan of Dracula, this was a place that you cannot miss. Explanation of Vlad as well as the history was also displayed inside the castle. Even if you were not interested for the things above, a beautiful scenary can be found by looking out of the window. The castle was really nice, especially with the snow. On the way back to the bus station, there were numerous stalls selling various kinds of souvenirs, which were not really appealing to me.
The next station was another small town called Rasnov. The weather was even worse because it was snowing more heavily. There was another Hollywood like words in the hill, besides the large fortress. I decided to climb up the snowy hill even it will be harsh since I knew that I will not be having the same chance to go here. It was quite tough for me, because the snow was falling heavily at that time, and the road up to the hill was quite slippery. Moreover, I saw no one was doing so while I was the only one climbing up there. I kept climbing and finally I reached the top. The words ‘Rasnov’ was just next to me and I was able to see the whole view of the town. Yet, I was quite disappointed when I knew that the castle was not opened. Though I was disappointed, I still felt the sense of achievement that I was able to get there alone, despite the tough and harsh journey. There was something that I can be proud of and tell others about that. It was really kind of taking challenge and stepping out of the comfort zone. Eventually, I was safe to get back to place where I got off the bus. However, another challenge was waiting for me. I was waiting for the bus there for more than 40 minutes. You can imagine how cold I feel because there was a blizzard and snowing crazily. I was standing still there and doing nothing because it was too cold. There was not any shelter or cover avaliable for me. It was quite despair, but I thought that somehow when you are young, you should be trying something different, which included the suffering. I can take a car or cab if I do not wait for the bus. But I didn’t want to spend so much, accounting for why I persisted to doing so. I finally got back home at around 6. Miha’s place is so warm when comparing with what I have experienced few hours ago. I can take some rest there after such a long day. David and Miha were so curious about using the chopsticks to eat. And I taught them how to use properly and they have done it within half an hour. It was so great! Yet, more exciting thing is coming because we will be having a party at night. There were around 15 AIESECers coming to Miha’s place, which was really nice. They were bringing some wines, soft drinks, sunflower seeds and also flours. I really enjoyed the time there because I made a lot of friends, who were very friendly and nice. Though they were not speaking in English all the time especially in arguing something, we will tell them to switch to BBC/CNN when they are communicating in Romanian. We played game such as the black magic and watched movie together. And of course, we were having a lot of fun there. Even more surprisingly, Alex, the OCP of recruitment, made us the pancakes in Romanian way. They were served with different kind of jams, and they were so delicious. That was such a wonderful and marvellous night.


The Bus I took to Bran

Cold.....><

Dracula's place with snow

Inside the castle

Bran Castle

A hot coffee is so warm~

Tough and harsh

Birdview of Rasnov

Party!

Alex is cooking pancakes, yummy =)

AIESEC Brasov

5/3

When I woke up this morning, this was snowing outside! Snowflakes were flying around and the weather became colder. I went with Miha to his university and I saw the recruitment counter there. It was larger than ours one, which was decorated with different national flags. I have met quite a number of AIESECers and talked there. Do you guess what I have seen there? I saw a Freddy’s photo in the promotion video! We were connected when we shared the experience of doing AIESEC recruitment. When we walked out of the university building, it was snowing heavily outside and I haven’t experienced that since the heavy falling of snow in Hokkaido. We managed to walk to the AIESEC office and got into this time. There was a training held by VPTM and VPX about the recruitment to AIESEC members. It was like a little classroom which was full of AIESEC materials. After the training finished, the VPTM who was called Cristina, told me that she knew Freddy and Dominic Lam from Hong Kong. The footprint of Hong Kong AIESECers was truly spreading around the globe. We were so happy about that. I kept staying in the office to talk with different AIESECers and also surfing the internet there. I was planning my trip and facebooking there. It was until 5, I went with Edith to the city centre again to see whether I can get the money from the ATMs. And it time I was successful as the ATM was able to provide enough cash (I failed several time in Bucharest). When we walked by the city square that we have been to yesterday, the landscape was totally different because of the white coating of snow. It was another kind of beauty, right?

I took a bus to Miha’s home since it was too cold to walk back there. It was so warm with the heater and I found that I can watch football match in the television. This place was so nice to me except I was not able to access to the internet.

Slope before getting to the University of Transylvania

Recruitment Counter- Robot made by Cigarette boxes

Snow on my head

AIESEC Office in Brasov

The central square covering with snow

BRASOV

4/3

Enjoying the last breakfast in Friends’ Hostel, I pick all the things to the station. I missed the train nearly since I didn’t find out where it was. Luckily, I got this on in last moment. Next time I will reserve more time for it. :P

2^nd class seat is okay, perhaps there are not many people there. Train is not very fast and it stops quite often. But the interest thing is that there was no name for some stations. Outside the window of the train, there were mostly farmland and mountains. The scenery started to change if the train approaches Brasov. There was no longer plain, but tall mountain with snow on the top. After three and a half hours, I arrived in Brasov with the train delaying for half an hour. Edith, a reception team member from AIESEC Brasov, picked me up and went to the place I will be living in. Originally I thought that I will be living in a youth hostel, but it turned out I will be living with an AIESECer. What a good news to me! When I walked out of the station, the feeling that Brasov gave me was already very different from that of Bucharest. Streets were cleaner with fewer buildings around. After settling my luggage in Mich’s place , Edith took me to the city centre before she took the lesson. The buildings in Brasov were very beautiful with its red color. They were not large but stylish. This Saxon town had not disappointed me. Then we met with another girl, Maria, who was also the reception team member. She took me to natural path of Brasov and we will join with Edith later on. We walked to a little river, along the old fortress wall. Everything seems so pleasant with a nice weather. We climbed up a higher point where the White town was located. A bird view of the whole Brasov can be seen there, which was very nice. We had managed to go to another town, which was the black town. A brief history of Brasov was told by Maria and it was the crown of the city in Transylvania indeed. I also told a lot about Hong Kong to her as well as how to distinguish people from China, Japan and Korea. The city tour continued and we reached the northern gate of the fortress, which was very marvelous too. Surprisingly, there were numerous high schools inside the city, with Hungarian and German speaking one. The reason why there were different languages for teaching the high school was because of the history of Transylvania. Blocs of university were located in different parts of the city, which was also very interesting that they did not have a large campus for thousands of students. Then, Edith joined and Maria was about to leave. Edith showed me to the city square as well as the black church. The black church was medieval building that remained as a landmark there. It was originally golden but after a fire, it became black in color. We walked a far to reach the oldest church in the city, which was an ordox church. It was breathtaking too with the first Romanian school aside. The weather became cooler and started to rain a bit. It didn’t stop sharing and chatting among us. Another destination was the AIESEC office, although I hadn’t gone inside today, AIESECers were very friendly and nice to me when they met me. They were very hospitable that I can truly feel that. They also invited me to offer some help for them in doing recruitment and I was very willing to accept that. So, I decided to stay here for a bit longer, which can do sightseeing and AIESEC works at the same time. We were only staying there for a short time and we walked back to Miha’s home. The weather became to deteriorate since it started to rain and windy. Though it was quite tired for the whole day, it was really very pleasant and nice to be in Brasov.

Streets in Brasov

Me and Black Church

The North Gate

Maria is getting the fresh water

City Square

The narrowest street in Europe

St.Nicholas Church

Mihai's place

Bye Bucharest

3/3
It was my last day in Bucharest after six days of the stay. I haven’t gone out today but I have gone to buy the ticket to Brasov, a tourist town in Transylvania. I was also packing my stuff because I will leave one luggage to Anda, so that I won’t carry a bulky luggage later on. In the evening, I have cooked for myself. And then I went to the trainee beer night with people coming from AIESEC Bucharest. There were also friends from Maria, who had been with us last night too. I have experienced the nightlife which was very vivid. We have gone to the karaoke bar and people were singing very happily. Some of them were even dancing. Though I did not enjoy a lot because the sound was too loud there, I was glad that I can see this side of Bucharest. It was quite late till we left. Two AIESECers were so nice that they walked together with us back to the hostel. I discussed lots of things with Milena, including hall life, politics, economy and way of living. I enjoyed so much that hoping the way to the hostel never ended.
Let me write down something about Bucharest before I forget. Bucharest is a crowded city like Hong Kong as it is full of cars as well as people. It is a bit similar to Hong Kong, yet the streets are quite dirty and the feeling is quite like China 5 to 10 years ago. It is quite muddy too when it rains. Roads are rough and stray dogs are very visible. Buildings are quite old without lots of maintenance. Attractions are fine, featuring with the old city centre and loads of churches and glamour buildings. The rhythm of people in Bucharest is fast, as you will see quite a number of people are crossing the street in a hurry. Generally, people are friendly and could answer you in English, especially the young people. Nightlife is vivid as I have mentioned, but with quite a lot of smokers. They are a bit money-oriented as I have been told by others. All in all, it is the capital of the country which may not be the best place to stay and visit.
Interesting facts:
You can take buses (except going to airport) without paying the fees when it is not in rush hour as there are not controllers to check your ticket.
Watch out cars when you are crossing the road.
The duration for you to cross the road is even shorter than in Hong Kong.
Gypsies and dogs are everywhere.


The Train Station- Gara De Nord

I cooked for myself~=)