Hi,
This is my first entry and I'm thinking it will be easier to have a blog since everyone keeps asking what i have been up to. Well...I have now been in Malaysia for 2 weeks today, and it has been a very different experience. I arrived in KL on the 12th after an hour flight from Melbourne and about 8 hours to KL on Malaysia Airlines, which has great service. There were two other Aussies with me, Janice from Melbourne and Huw from South Australia. I also had Adam on my flight to Melbourne who is now in Portugal. Did a bit of duty-free shopping in Melbourne which is very worthwhile, bought some JLo perfume(very nice), 1200g of Toblerone(which i shared on camp) and some Baileys(which i haven't drunk yet). After wandering around KL airport for a while wondering where to go, we were met by Kuhuan the hosting co-ordinator in Malaysia. He spoke very good English, since he lived in the UK and Aus for a while. We waited in the airport for a while, while about 5 exchange students from Malaysia headed off to the USA. We then caught the train to the part of KL where we were staying. We were met at the station by a bunch of other exchange students. We then went to the YMCA in KL where we staying. The Australians were last to arrive out of all the exchange students. There were exchange students from Germany(4), Japan(5), Finland, Norway, Iceland and Greenland(3). There were also Returnees from USA, Japan and Spain. At orientation camp, we learnt a Malay song, a bit like Waltzling Matilda, learnt some basic malay words and were told a lot about the culture and customs. We went into the city on the second night and had a look around at the night life of KL. On the Saturday most of the host families arrived and we sang them the song, Rasa Sayang. After everyone left the YMCA,Kuhuan and some other AFS people took me, 3 japanese exchange students and Thomas from Iceland through the crazy traffic of KL with our suitcases to the bus station to go to Kuantan. It took about 4 hours to get to Kuantan, we were met by the host families at the bus station and my host mum, Wendy who is the chapter leader of AFS in Kuantan. Thomas and I went to my host family's house, where he stayed the night till the next day when he continued on to his family. The next day, Thomas and I (mainly Thomas, because he had been training to be a chef in Iceland) made Spaghetti bolognaise(is that how you spell it?) for my host mum and sister, Pei-Jia. I went to school the next day to see the assistant principal, just to check it was ok for me to start school the next day. I went to the supermarket and bought some things, all mainly australian, including fruity bix bars..i miss Weet-Bix for breakfast so much :( I also went to the Night Market which is held every monday and at the moment is selling mainly things for Chinese New Year which is in three days. So the next day, i started school, first thing i did was a speech in front of the whole school. My speech started with Apa khabar? Nama saya Kathryn. Umur saya eman belas. Which means 'How are you? My name is Kathryn. I am 16 years old'. I then spoke english afterwards, i did have to tell everyone to be quiet because they kept talking. I then went to my class, which is form 5 Cangghai. I had Biology, English, Additional Maths, Modern Maths and Moral(yes...moral, where you learn to become a better person or some bullshit). I got a lot of attention at school, still do. My host sister, Pei Jia said some of her friends think i look like barbie. Everyone is either very very friendly or scared of me. First day most of teachers talk to me, now most of them try to ignore me. Except the English, Malay and English in Science & Technology teachers. Who either make me do work, or use me for pronounciation etc. There is one other exchange student at my school called Bila, he is from Denmark and has been here since August. I joined the English club/society thing at school but i think i will join the Mandarin one instead. I also joined up with the Malaysia Girl Guides which is called Pandu Puduri, it involves a ugly uniform and lots of marching. I get to school at about 7am and finish at 2:15 except on Fridays when it finshes at 12, which is great. I am starting to get used to getting up at 6am. I am in the green house at school, which tomorrow i will run for, because it's cross country. I played basketball on Saturday with some boys from my school, which well...they don't play by the rules. I went out for my host father's company dinner on Saturday and had 9 different courses. Including Shark Fin soup, Jellyfish and Piglet etc.. I have done quite a bit of shopping, i'm loving how everything is so cheap especially shoes. My host brother who is 23 arrived from Brisbane on Sunday and i have been spending lots of nights out with him and his friends eating, drinking(not alcohol, different things like Lemon tea, coffee and tea together)and movies. Well, i will try to update soon. Maybe a nice ugly picture of me in my school uniform or something.
xoxoxoxoxo to all.