Noodles for Breakfast

On the way to Batang Ai (a lake which was created by the construction of the dam serving as a hydroelectric power station about 20 years ago), it’s possible to make a stop-over in the little town called Serian. Every day there’s a great market where Malaysian and Indonesian traders are selling their goods such as fruits, fish, chicken and sunglasses. Besides the usual meat, it’s sometimes also possible to find quite the exotic goods over there – however, the chances to spot these are quite small when you are carrying a big camera or wearing a t-shirt of a well known tour operator.

Sometime ago I was doing the usual tour and explaining some exotic fruits for my small tour group. When I reached the area with the fishes, I suddenly realized that I was walking alone. I went back to my group to see why they were not following and was surprised to then see the contents of a few plastic bags on one table. The reason for the trader to cover up the Python meat when seeing me or a tourist making pictures is quite simple: There’s a hefty fine and jail time to hunt, kill and sell protected species in Sarawak. Although I have to admit that I was quite curious about the taste of Python, I’m also quite okay with knowing that it’s supposed to taste a bit like chicken.

At another stall I bought one of my favourite fruits – the Rambutan, a kind of lychee which has an aggressive appearance but is very sweet and delicious in taste. There’s also another quite famous fruit I should mention at this point, called Durian. Some people say it smells like hell, but tastes like heaven. I think it smells like rotten animals and tastes like hell. But maybe that’s just me as a person preferring sweet fruits such as Rambutan. At the stall I said:
“Ehm..satu Rambutan.” Finger-Point.
The woman: “Tiga Ringgit.”
Me: “Tiga? Ok cool. Terima Kasih.”
She responded with a simple “Sama-sama.” and concluded the sale. Wait a second – did I just have my first dialogue in Malay?

There are many situations like the above, when you order a fruit you didn’t know a few month before in a new language you didn’t know a few month before making you realize that something changed. I guess it’s normal to adapt to some degree to your environment and develop some kind of routines the longer you live in a place. Sometimes, when there aren’t any German speaking tours to follow as a German guide, Christian and me are working in the Office. We are getting very interesting tasks from our supervisors including the creation of weekly assignments to assist the organization and scheduling of the tour guides, researching about the mangroves in the Kuching Wetlands to assist a project for protecting this area and developing statistics for mangrove tours in the last years.

From time to time, the routine kicks in (mostly for Breakfast and Lunch time) and we walk to the next Kopitiam, the Dim Sum Café. As I mentioned before, sometimes you have to adapt to your environment – over here this is especially true when it comes to food. Unless you are in a major Hotel it’s quite unlikely to find a traditional European breakfast. So for breakfast I’m usually having Kolo Mee: Noodles mixed with vegetables and chilli and served with slices of Pork. At first I was a bit sceptical about it, but now I’m almost feeling that I lack something when I didn’t get my rice, noodles and chilli of the day. Maybe getting used to the food is like eating with chopsticks – you just have to try out new things and adapt a little. Maybe you will even gain some new insight, for example that Noodles can be actually quite yummy for breakfast!

Jumpa Lagi,
FS

HELLO EVERYBODY=)

HELLO EVERYBODY=) Paola is writing today!

Well what should I say…=)… Finally I handed in two exams from BLM and I am very happy and hope for the best for the results.
Now I am enjoying the sun, the nice weather and I pray every day that it will last until February. It has been great weather until now, above 30 degrees until middle October, but now the temperature went down a little around 20-25 degrees, but I am not complaining at all! :D

Well basically, when I am not studying at the university, I am running with Christian, training at the gym as my goal is to try all sort of different tapas here!!=) Every time I go out it has to be something different! In this way I will be able to give good advices to the BLM students who will go to Seville next year =) (or is this just an excuse as Mads is paying? :D I will leave you with this dilemma :D).

Yesterday night we went to a place called La Carboneria. It is a very nice place but normally it is not easy to find for tourists. Every night there are different shows of flamenco dance, guitar, Spanish culture and many others. And everything is for free. I would say this is definitely one of the MUST SEE places in Sevilla =)
Well..it was very super nice and also very romantic! :D
After that we went out for a walk and surprisingly we even got lost! Especially Christian was shocked as he thought he knew everything about the city :P (well apparently he doesn’t :P)
Nevertheless it was nice as we discover a new sushi restaurant, where we will go one of these days =) I will keep you update!! :D Un beso grande! Paola! :D

Muchos saludos desde Barcelona

As Kaja has shared already some first expressions of Barcelona with you, it is now time for me to do so.

The first time I came to my new university (of time) I was overwhelmed: It is all so big, so many students and buildings. At first it was difficult to find your way around. As Kaja already mentioned there are three bus lines on our campus to get around. About the classes, it took us almost two weeks to sort out our final schedule, as a lot of courses are not running this semester and the others are overlapping. Now my Spanish intensive course is over and I can now attend the regular courses and have some more time.

The classes are different here. Compared to Denmark, there is much less to read but more mandatory classes and homework to do. Furthermore the classes are louder and the test are more multiple choice.
There are so many Erasmus students in our university. Alone in the tourism faculty are between 30-40 students. Because of us some courses are taught in English and Spanish. However, the majority of local students did not like having classes in Spanish, they prefer Catalan and still use it whenever they ask questions during the classes.
Talking about Catalan people, they are really proud of their language and you need to get warm with them first. Then they are saying hello to you by giving two kisses (like it is in France) and like working in a group project with foreigners. However, still some language barriers exist. What I like about the Catalans is that they are very laid back and relaxed.
However, the local student seem not so interested in foreign Erasmus students, so we do a lot with the other Erasmus students and there are so many, especially from Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. I even met another girl studying in Denmark.


And Barcelona is a great city with a lot of places and sights still to explore after living there for two month. But it is not only the city, also the smaller cities around, like Sitges and Castelldelfels are worth to discover. I especially like my schedule, with having off every Friday. This leads to experience the practical way of tourism by travelling through Spain.

However the climate in Barcelona is awesome. It is now the end of October and it is still quite warm. Two weeks ago I have been swimming in the ocean and lying on the beach with Kaja in Sitges. But it is not only Barcelona, last weekend I have been visiting Inga in San Sebastian and it was so sunny that we went to the beach, okay, swimming was quiet cold but lying on the beach not.

Besos y abrozos
Anna

The relativity of punctuality

Five years ago I went to Ireland for the first time, praised for its laid-back attitide and its chatty inhabitants. If every person, or at least every second person you'll meet, engages you in a small talk, sure my English would improve quickly. An ounce of practice is still worth a pound of theory!

Quickly, I did not only practice my small-talk skills about west-winds, liquid sunshine and other weather conditions, but also my "laid-backness".
In other words, out the window with my well-trained punctuality. 15 minutes was the maximum duration I would wait and then label anybody as late. Now I had to make sure to be at least 30 minutes "late" or rather add 30 minutes to the agreed time. The more remote the location the more time you had to add. I still remember being greeted even coldly, when I arrived at a party on time...
 

The good part about Ireland is that you can stop a bus in the middle of nowhere and they wouldn't mind. Backpacking is so very easy and if you were at a bus stop at 10.10 am and the bus was due at 10 am, well, you would still get it, for sure. (What a change from Berlin with people getting frustrated with their underground train being late for 2 minutes. With a line at a 5-minute-frequency!)

The Inishowen Peninsula is so remote, that even the national carrier would not operate there and private companies do not have bus stops. And when I still missed the bus, with the next one departing 2,5 hours later, my new host family told me to enjoy the city and they will drive into the village later to pick me up.

I embraced the Irish attitude towards time management and part of me keep that for good.

But that was then. After six months I returned to continental Europe. And even though I returned to Ireland a year later and again two years later, I was time-pressured (by either a return flight or the policy of a German company) and consequently missed "the Irish way".

Five years on, Ireland has changed. Two bus companies compete for the fastest and most punctual connections to the west coast and the number of motorways incresed from one to seven. An underground was supposed to be built to connect Dublin Airport with the city centre and train connections on the west coast are reopened to increase the number of connections.
In order to compete with continental business destinations, Ireland had to improve reliability and punctuality. Or in other words: continental European standards will soon reach the last corner of Irish laid-backness.

Before I continue I have to admit, I am spoilt: communication and punctuality work so perfectly at my home university, that's hard to beat. But in an academic environment you expect high standards, don't you?

Thus, all of my fellow exchange students are shocked when a lecturer is 20 minutes late. Or they don't show up at all. And apparently, communication is overrated, too...

And even though it might be frustating after a while, I am amused. It resembles a part of Ireland that I became attached to five years ago and thought it had disappeared.
So, once more I will embrace it, lay back and do as the Irish do!

Slaínte from Galway, Ireland,

Doreen
 

Hola Chicos y Chicas…

First of all, I am sorry that it took me so long to write an article, but Spain is simply too exciting, here is too much to do and the weather is too nice to sit inside in front of the computer ;-)

The time is passing by so quickly... I arrived in San Sebastian already 6 weeks ago! 

My entrance into my new Spanish life was a bit chaotic (but I guess that was foreseeable hehe). Summarized in some words: totally exhausted from my summer job, luggage lost by the airline, almost no Spanish language knowledge, only a tiny google-map, not exactly sure about the address of my apartment, and no contact telephone number... but I made it to my new family, and after a nice Spanish siesta I was able to realize that I actually arrived.

I live in an apartment with four other people, a mix of German, Italian and British... which doesn’t really help us improve our Spanish skills, but we are giving our best ;-) Therefore I feel like I live in an 5*-restaurant... maybe you can imagine why???

Before the actual uni started, I took a Spanish intensive course lasting for 2 weeks. During that time I/we had time to get to know the beautiful city, the beach and the amazing local food... pintxos, pintxos, pintxos... and of course the Txakoli! Even though the city was still packed with tourists in the beginning of our stay, we were able to experience a bit of the actual Basque way of life. We shall not forget that we are not in Spain, we are in the Basque country (I hope I make certain people proud with this sentence ;-).

Back to the actual reason of our stay here... studying... hehe. It took us about two whole weeks to figure out our final schedule. Accept from the Spanish and finance course which we chose from Denmark, our whole plan changed and it was very hard to meet the restrictions from both, our home and the Spanish university. The result is that we are taking three courses in Spain and 3 courses from Denmark. But I am sure, it is sooo worth the effort. Why?

Because whenever I walk up the hill to my university and have a nice view over the city or when I sit at the beach and look over the ocean I am happy that I took the chance to be here!! We love it!!

Hasta luego... over and out ;-)

Sevilla..once again!

Hola amigos :)

Here we are again in the beautiful city of Sevilla.
We arrived 1 September 2011 and got picked up by Paola's "old" Spanish hostmother and driven straight to the appartment we have rented in Sevilla. Yes..that is right..we have been here before :)

(MOVIE FLASHBACK..heh.,)
Back in 2008 we both studied Spanish in CLIC International House Sevilla and lived in two different Spanish host families. This was exactly where we met, fell in love and started our journey to Italy and Denmark together =)
So we already knew the city and had some network which has made the start of this semester and experience simply great!

In fact we found our appartment thanks to some Spanish friends. The location couldn't be better, right next to the cathedral - in other words right in the centre.

The university, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, didn't start untill 9 September, so the first week was actually vacation..and a most needed one, as we decided to spent our summer studying in Copenhagen Business School. In CBS we attended and happily passed Organisational Behaviour and Macroeconomics, as we were not sure if these were available in this semester.
It turned out to be a great decision, and we would therefore recommend other students to do the same.

So the first week went with revisiting favourite tapas bars (tapas bar guide will be supplied later ;), go out with friends, refreshing our Spanish and just enjoying life! :)

The university is pretty large and this year we were 500 ERASMUS students in total from all corners of the world. The international environment is really good, and you integrate very fast both with other ERASMUS students but also Spanish.
One advantage of UPO is also that you can choose between ALL courses taught and not just from one specfic undergraduate/bachelor degree. There are also quite a few business and management related courses which are taught in English. However, there are not very many leisure related subjects.

Now the university courses have really started up strong so this it all that it will be for now :)

Hasta pronto a todos y que lo paséis bien ;)

First weeks in Barcelona

Hola a todos,

since I cannot avoid to sit down anymore and actually write something about my experiences in Barcelona I decided to stop running away from it and just spill it out. We girls cannot give the guys (Frederik and Christian) the lead!

I arrived in Barcelona on the 15^th of August together with Vincent. We decided to take the cheap alternative and booked tickets with Ryan Air and yes I would like to say “Never again” but unfortunately the price is so tempting and I am sure I would do it again.
After a big fight with the staff at the Bremen airport about our hand luggage at 6 o’clock in the morning we arrived in Barcelona (Girona) tired and exhausted. After taking the bus to the city center and several different metros we arrived at the Universidad Autónoma in the north of Barcelona. The campus is huge, bigger than anything I have seen so far. There is even a separate bus system for the campus but since the buses did not work yet in August we had to walk up the hill with our luggage in the heat of midday. When we finally got our room in the hostel we were dead tired and took a long break.
In the next days we looked at rooms but also did some sightseeing and beach visits to enjoy our time in Barcelona. After around four days I found a nice apartment in central Barcelona with three Spanish roommates.
Vincent had to leave soon after to return to Nykøbing which was a very sad but unavoidable good bye.
In the first few weeks I got to know my roommate better and saw some more things in Barcelona. I also had to do the administrative things like registering here at the police station which took me around three hours to do, since there are always a lot of people in the waiting room. In the beginning of September I had my first meeting at the university, registering, getting my student ID and signing up for the classes. This was not as easy and it took me until this week to get all my courses the way I wanted and not all on the same day at the same time. Some courses are in Spanish others taught in English and I also got a Spanish class to practice my Spanish a little. Unfortunately in the university the Spanish students are not very interested in Erasmus students so I am mostly talking to other Erasmus students from Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Poland.
Besides the people in school I also met some nice people through my roommates and it is great to see the city through the eyes of Spanish speaking people that have lived here in Barcelona for some time. I have gone out and tried great restaurant and great clubs. Barcelona has everything to offer from high class discos to small alternative bars and clubs. I am mostly staying away from the typical Erasmus activities because I would like to see the real Barcelona as much as possible instead of the touristy endless Erasmus parties that are available every day.
It is difficult to meet Catalan citizens, because they mostly keep to themselves and do not let many outside persons in. They are very proud of their language, Catalan, and it is seen everywhere. Catalan is a mixture of French and Spanish with small Italian and Portuguese influences. All the signs in the city are in Catalan, some are translated into Spanish as well. Most homepages are in Catalan and not all are translated to Spanish or even English. The teachers usually teach in Catalan and only make exceptions for Erasmus students.
All in all Barcelona is a great choice for an Erasmus semester and I am very happy to have made this decision.

Reading over what I have written so far I am surprised how easy it was to write so much in such a short time after overcoming my inhibitions. Maybe this will not be so difficult to bring myself to do this more often from now on.
Until then HASTA LUEGO from Barcelona and MUCHOS BESOS Y GRAN ABRAZOS!

Borneo - First Contact

Right in the moment when Christian and me stepped into the plane in Frankfurt we felt like we already had left Europe and entered a whole new world with a new culture. We directly noticed the music, the flight staff and the guests who all sounded and appeared in a different way.

The great thing about having a lot of travelling experience is the way you can quickly accommodate yourself to somehow familiar situations. In this way I followed a kind of routine to make myself more comfortable in the plane: First I turned off the tornado coming out of the air ventilation system above my head, took my shoes off, spread out the blanket and switched through the video-on-demand system in the little screen in front of me. A few movies, Malaysian flight food, power naps and some reading later our plane landed in Kuala Lumpur (or KL, like the cool kids say). We had about an hour to get our connecting flight, so we directly went to the customs, got our bags and checked in again for the flight to Kuching. The staff at the counter were a bit surprised that we still wanted to check in but were super helpful to get us to the gate as quickly as possible – about 10 minutes later we were lifting off.

On the airport in Kuching we directly met Linda, a very friendly person working for the UCSI university - our university for the semester abroad starting in January. From that moment we entered a very smooth process and quickly got Malaysian SIM-cards, saw the university, visited our workplace from our first internship (Masama JS Adventure Tours) und also met Julia (one of the two interns who will be replaced by us). We continued our drive to our apartment and got a tour of our new place which pretty much blew my mind! It’s a two-storey apartment, provided directly for the interns and barely 5 minutes walking distance to the city centre. What’s more is that the living room itself is basically bigger than my flat in Denmark.

We didn’t waste much time sitting around (because we would have probably lost the fight against the jet lag), so we just dropped off our bags and went to the city. Julia showed us around and we made a break in her favourite kedai kopi (Coffee Shop). Christian and me weren’t really sure how to behave in such a kedai kopi, so we just followed Julia’s lead and ordered a Teh O Peng – a cold Earl Grey Tea with Sugar, Milk and Ice Cubes. Considering the humid and hot weather conditions, this drink was definitely the right choice in order to get some re-hydration.

Later on the same day (I still managed to not fall asleep so I would adapt faster to the time difference) we went out with Julia and Leonie (the other intern) to get some food and drinks. At some point when we were sitting in the bar and surrounded by around 7 new people Christian and me suddenly felt like we’ve been already here for a solid 3 weeks. We could really feel the open attitude of the Malaysians and the friendly and personal way you normally just have a in a conversation with friend you have known for some time.

At this very moment it’s really been about 3 weeks since we arrived in Borneo and a lot has happened since. On the first weekend, Christian and me went kayaking with the girls on the Sarawak River and were amazed by the massive trees leaning over the water. I actually think we were more looking around and watching the scenery than moving forward with the boat.

The internship at Masama directly started on the first day and we already got a good insight into the office life (e.g. Booking system) as well as the products being sold. To elaborate on this, Christian and me were split up and distributed on the various tours offered by the company.

Last week I went on a tour to the longhouse Ngemah of the Iban tribe. For anyone who is interested into the culture of Malaysia and wants to get a better understanding of how the tribes have been living for over a hundred years, I can definitely recommend a trip to the longhouse. We reached the Iban longhouse by a longboat where I could directly notice the major skills of the Ibans to operate long boats. From time to time, however, we had to step out of the long boat because the current was pretty strong and some parts of the river quite shallow.

At the longhouse we first had to take our shoes off before we got welcomed by a glass of Tuak (Rice Wine). After that we had to present ourselves to the chief who welcomed us to his house. Before we had dinner (very delicious, everything spiced with chilli and eaten on the floor) I walked around and greeted every Iban. Most of them didn’t speak any English, so I used body language which surprisingly works pretty well for most of the conversations. Some kids were very fascinated by my big white hand and I almost had a hard time to continue my stroll in the longhouse as I was occupied for some time giving little High-Fives to all the happy kids. An encounter with the chief followed where he said jokingly (I think) that he would like to wrestle me. I declined politely which he agreed upon before he started to laugh.

What’s to say about Ngemah is that it was not build for tourism purposes unlike other longhouses. It still serves as a place to live for the Ibans who sometimes return from the city in the holiday season or for the weekend in order to meet the family again and follow old traditions. As guests we were lucky to see one of these traditions and got a dance performance in the night. It ended up in a big circle and we all got invited to dance with the Ibans in the circle. I wasn’t really sure how to move but noticed at one point I must’ve alternated the traditional moves slightly as I looked around and a happy Iban behind me was imitating my dancing style. He started to laugh, I started to laugh and we kept on dancing in the circle. After a little more dancing, Tuak and Langkau (Rice Schnapps) I retreated to my bed which was a mattress covered with a mosquito net.

The next day we stopped with our longboat on a riverbank and made a traditional meal consisting of rice and chicken cooked in bamboo above the open fire. For this the ingredients are packed into banana leafs (or similar trees) and stuffed into the bamboo. In this way the food is heated above the fire for a good hour which cooks the rice and the chicken in a slow and super delicious way.

Besides visiting Ngemah I got one more favourite place so far being the Bako National Park. I was lucky to follow 3 Day-Trips to this park which might not be the biggest of Sarawak but definitely one of the most diverse: in seven vegetation zones you can walk on 17 different trails and see 37 species of mammals, 24 of reptiles and 184 of birds. One of the famous animals of Bako is the proboscis monkey with the quite… expressive nose. If you’re a patient and calm person, you can get a good look at these primates.

The second time I was in Bako we were a group of about 9 people when one of the two guides said he had heard some Proboscis monkeys in the forest. If we would act very patiently the monkey will come down to the beach in the mangrove forest. There was low tide and the afternoon sun was burning down on us when suddenly one, two and then about 10 Proboscis monkey came out of the forest for a stroll on the beach. Between the older ones there were little monkey kids playfully climbing up trees only to jump down again and run after the older ones who were heading towards the sea. There are really amazing moments like this one which directly make me realize I arrived on another part of the world. I’m looking forward to the next moment.

Keep on rockin,

FS

Start of the Borneo Adventure

Two years ago I would have never guessed that I will be landing in Malaysia at any point of my study life or even after that. I always imagined myself in a spot more like Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Besides, I did not even know where Borneo was exactly located until a year ago. However, this changed quite quickly and after reading a lot as well as watching like every youtube clip that was just slightly related to Malaysia or Borneo, I feel ready now! It was a long process of talking, waiting, talking, waiting and a lot of waiting, but finally all important things have been sorted out - except the visa - but well- that is gonna work somehow, I guess. ;-)
After months of organisation, tomorrow is the start of an amazing year!


Nevertheless, during the last days there were some more tough obstacles to take and I am speaking of packing! 20 kg for a year in one backpack is just pretty insane. What should I take? At first I thought - well, 20 kg- of course this makes maybe around 30 bottles of German beer. But well, I had to realise that this would not work since all the Malays would be so amazed by the beer that I probably would only get a little sip and have to hand out the rest to them. So I dropped this idea and went reluctantly for the more practical stuff, like changing clothes and shoes as well as toothbrush and so on, even though it is exactly that what you COULD buy over there. I can find a toothbrush at every corner in Malaysia but where the hell can I buy German beer?!
Then again, of course, I tell myself that the Malaysian beer cannot be that bad. I mean, they must be drinking something over there, right? ;-)
Now everything is done and I am basically just waiting for tomorrow and try to kill the time. Maybe you noticed that already. :D


So, what are my expectations of Malaysia and this year in Kuching? After reading and watching all that stuff, I only heard the coolest things and so Malaysia seems to be a freaking incredible country. I am very certain that the year will be insanely good but what do I expect in detail? I have no real clue to be honest. It is probably just the distance and the difference to the Western World what I expect; just an environment which I cannot even really imagine right now and what it is like to actually be there. It is gonna be very exciting the next few days to collect an enormous amount of new impressions and experience this place first hand!

Where are we going?