Thaipusam, Chinese New Year and Penang FA!

I now have 100 days left in Malays (I started writing this blog a few day ago... so by the time you read there are only 98days left), which means:  So much time, so little to do… (or does it?)

In todays blog you will get to hear about: throwing coconuts during Thaipusam, seeing great Street Art,  Chinese New Year,  supporting  Penang FA.

Although all of these events sound were interestingnone of them would alone be blog worthy. So I waited until I had a collection of stories that would interest you guys.
Besides these events my life has settled into a nice routine of work, meeting friends and eating a lot of good food.

Thaipusam:

Thaipusam is a Hindu Festival which celebrates….

Here in Penang a procession including a huge silver chariot makes its way through the streets of Penang in order to reach the Waterfall temple. In front of this chariot you smash coconuts to symbolize the shattering of one’s ego in pursuit of self-realization. With every coconut you shatter you may wish something. Following the principle, 1 coconut = 1 wish so many coconut = many wishes, us volunteers spent a whole day throwing coconuts. But since it was Thaipusam, it was not the usual group of volunteers who were let loose on penang to do some mishief, but we had reeinforcement in form of three Volunteers from the Kuantan chapter! Caro, Janina and Julia I had a ton of fun, and can' wait to see all of the AFS Volunteers in Malaysia again at the End-of-Stay Camp. For anyone who feels like reading some blogs written by my fellow Volunteers click here.

Two little girls who are preparing for some coconut throwing

 The chariot infront of the Komtar tower

 Just unbelievable amounts of coconuts

 

 It has begun

 Do you remove thousands of broken coconuts? 

The whole street smelled like coconuts, nice sideffect 

Probably the three coolest Volunteers!

Street Art:

Some of you may remember that I have talked about the wonderful Street Art which can be seen here on Penang Island. My favorite Artist ,at the moment,  is Ernest Zacharevic, a Lithuanian who has real talent.  End of January he opened a small exhibition close with some really neat pieces of Art. If you like the pictures you see and want to learn more about the artist click here.

Ernests gallery in Penang

 speechless

daily scenes from Penang

all of his artwork will at somepoint fall apart.

Not much I can say.

It is a rather sad painting...

Chinese New Year:

CNY was a lot of fun. We walked around Penang, whishing everyone “Kong Xi Fa Chai” which is Hokkien (the Chinese dialect spoken on Penang) for Happy Chinese New Year.  It was fascinating to see what kind of affect these four little words had on people. Even though I probably butchered the Chinese language with my horrible pronunciation, it put a smile on everyone’s face.  On one of the weekends me and my friends went to the Tek Lok Si Temple here in Penang.

 I swear the text was there when I took the picture

 Endless amount of lamps

 Its starting to get dark, the lamps are co ming on

 If this doesn't remind you of Mulan...

 Volunteers in a good mood

 On a tower overseeing the Tek Lok Si Temple. 

Yes I got that shirt here in Penang!!

Penang FA:

Late in our Gap Year we discovered that Pulau Penang has a football club known as the Penang Panthers. Although they are in the second Malaysian football league , confusingly called premiere league, they have a surprisingly strong fan base. Here are some pictures that were taken of us...

So much fun :)

 Singing some malaysian texts that we don't understand

There is also a great video to be seen here

I know it was not so much text today, but somehow I had not so much to say. I hope that you still enjoy my blog. And feel free to send my some feedback via email. (tmvolkmer@hotmail.de)

And always, thank you for reading my blog,

Tobi.