I am truely sorry for being so lazy with my blog, but here it is enjoy!
Oktoberfest in Malaysia!?!
I can already imagine some people, especially from Bavaria, will
cry out in horror when reading this. I can just say everybody calm down… it was
surprisingly nice. Everything was organized by the Malaysian German Society Penang,
and they did a very good job. The event took place on a Friday and Saturday allowing
me to volunteer a bit. Overall there were about 2500people who came to the 41st PEnang Oktoberfest. Joined by my friends, we worked at the German food stall,
selling different types of sausages, mashed potatoes and even “Sauerkraut”!
This is the food that we sold!
And these are two of the crazy Germans that sold it ;)
The Caption reads: " A volunteer from the MGS serving up a German sized portion of sauerkraut, a classic dish of German sour cabbage, finely cut and fermented by various lactic acids."
Visa Run to Kuala Lumpur
Shortly after my visa run to Hatyai (see previous blog for
the full story) I volunteered to take all of the passports of the AFS
Volunteers, who are living with me in Georgetown, down to Kuala Lumpur to get
our 1 year visa. I thought it would be a nice way to spend my weekend and the
following Monday. It sounded simple enough; but would lead to me being stuck in
a noisy waiting room for about 8 hours! Nonetheless I am very happy to have
done this visa run; finally we got a permanent visa and can live happily in
Malaysia for the next 6 months (which we will do!!).
Deepavali
Deepavali, or festival of lights, is a Hindu festival. As a
part of my intercultural experience, here in Malaysia, I traveled to the city
of Ipoh to live at a Host Family for 5 Days. It was a great way to learn about indian tradition. We ate, prayed, ate again, played with fireworks and watched a lot of bollywood films! Although they were in Tamil, I managed to understand the basic plot... which isn't to hard most of the time! (A boy from a village meets a girl from the city... they fall in love, but the parents dont aprove)
I had a Visitor
I had the pleasure of hosting Antonia at my house for a
while. It was a real pleasure to talk with someone from JFKS again. Thanks you
Antonia, Sophie and Jannik for being such great Guests! You are always welcome
to come back for another visit. The same goes for anyone who is in Malaysia!
Just write me an e-mail or on facebook. :)
AFS Mid-stay camp 2013
As a part of my stay in Malaysia, I am obliged to attend 5
different Seminars. Two preparation Seminars in Germany, an arrival camp in Malaysia,
a mid-stay camp in Malaysia, an end-of-stay camp in Malaysia and last, but not
least, once we arrive back in Germany, a return-camp back.
Although I was rather
skeptic about the usefulness of a mid-stay camp, now I am very happy it exists.
We were 18 volunteers, from Germany who are living in various parts of Malaysia
and four Malaysian Volunteers who organized the whole event. It was really nice
to talk to the other volunteers again, who in some cases I had not seen since
the arrival back in July.
The whole purpose of this camp is to talk about some of the
experiences, problems, ups and down that we have encountered in our roughly 5
months in Malaysia. What happens when you put 18 German volunteers in one room,
who live in a foreign country, and haven’t seen each other in months? Correct! They talk. A lot! And surprisingly
enough, they will not do that in English, if German is their mother tongue.
Although I felt bad for the four Malaysians, it did not stop me speaking German
most of the time… I thought to myself, what is the point of talking in English,
if the Malaysian volunteers do not understand the core problem of what we are
talking about.
To maybe show what I mean, I will briefly describe an
encounter with one of the Malaysian volunteers below. Enjoy!
It was in between two Seminars, and there were only a few
people left in the room. And somehow we started talking about German punctuality
in comparison to Malaysian punctuality (which for me seems almost not existent).
After this brief discussion about how we will have to adapt to the German way
of life again, once we return. Then one of the Malaysians, who had briefly been
to Germany once, said that while taking a bus in Berlin she was amazed at how
punctual the busses were. And that they even had a timetable at the bus stop
with the exact minute of arrival. While the other Malaysians were in awe at
this story, I felt a reverse culture shock. At first I was aghast at the
reaction of the other Malaysian volunteers, but now their feeling of time makes
more sense to me. Especially because traffic and public transportation are so
unreliable, it is simply not possible to predict when one will arrive somewhere.
As a Team building exercise all of us went and played paintball. It was my first time playing paintball and it was a lot of fun.
Hong Kong
As a hard working volunteer I decided to take some time off
of the hardship that is volunteer work, and traveled to Hong Kong and Macau for
a couple of days. I did a lot of
sightseeing, took the star ferry, climbed the peak after having ridden the
peak-tram most of the way and wandered the streets of Hong Kong. After my last camera was stolen, my parents were kind enough to buy me a new one! Sub sequential, I took a lot of pictures :)
Me.
I waited 10 minutes for this helicopter to take off.
In Stanley, Hong Kong
Me, infront of the Hong Kong Skyline
Taking the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong, main island
Me, on top of the Peak! Hong Kong in the back.
Macau
Having spent some days in Hong Kong, I took a high speed
ferry to Macau. It only took an hour, and was more than worth it. The former Portuguese
Colony has a beautiful colonial city center but has also transformed itself to
the world’s largest Casino. Macau makes more money through Casinos than Las Vegas!
It may look like europe, but it is actually in the city center of Macau
watching the canon that is pointed towards china... just in case ;)
Being your average asian tourist....
Its starting to feel like christmas
The grand Canal, MAcau style
Me, on a fake bridge leading over a fake river...
Yes that is inside...
This is not some old building in europe.. it is part of the Venician Casino
As
always I want to thank for reading my blog, and all the positive feedback I
have been getting! I really appreciate it. For any feedback or just some questions
that you might have, write me an email at: tmvolkmer@hotmail.de
I
wish you all Happy Holidays and see you in 2014
Super, Tobi - ich lese, wie immer, begeistert von deinen Erlebnissen!
AntwortenLöschenToby du bist ja teilweise richtig im Stress. Das mit der "deutschen" Pünktlichkeit ist schon erstaunlich. Und da regen sich die Leute bei uns auf, wenn sie mal 10 min. auf den Bus warten müssen. Was für ein Luxus bei uns. Und du weist nicht mal, wann einer kommt. Habe noch eine schöne Zeit. Ich bin Morgen auf dem Mexikoplatz. Werde an dich denken. Gruß von Tante Martina
AntwortenLöschen