Soraya's on the road again: The sound of settling

As i have been in KL for some days I want to shed some light on what I'm doing here. Apart from recovering and getting acclimated, the first days were spent with getting right into business. I did not only come to Malaysia to travel the beautiful country, eat delicious food or use the cheap shopping opportunities (although I can be found enjoying one of those things quite frequently these days), but to actually do something productive and not only productive I might add, but something meaningful.

Being without any form of occupation recently, I managed to organize an internship through AIESEC in Malaysia. After having some troubles before, I was very happy that everything worked out smoothly and I arranged the details with the assistance of the local TN-manager in a matter of days. (for all non-Aiesecers: if there are some words/abbreviations you don't get, than it's beacuse it's AIESEC-lingo, sorry about that, can't help it). So for the next two months I'll be working on a common project of AIESEC and Standard Chartered Bank in Malaysia (www.standardchartered.com) and will do my best to educate local students on the issue of HIV/AIDS which will be done through workshops in secondary schools and universities. The workshops are based on the model of Standard Chartered who conduct these sessions in many countries in Asia and Africa as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility/Sustainability program. We aim to create awarness among youth, enable them to make the right choice in their lives, break ignorance and discrimination and we do so by combining theoretical info with interactive games, which works quite well.

after one of the workshops

(branding our LC also over there)

preparing the workshops

Apart from working, I finally unpacked a bit after one month of living out of my backpack and got settled in the flat. I also used the scarce moments, when it doesn't either pour down or is blazingly hot to wander around the neighbourhood to explore the surroundings. For some reason I find it very hard to just sit still at the moment and constantly crave for some kind of activity or diversion (I guess it's due to the active live I had while travelling), so I constantly find myself encouraging my flatmates to do something.

my cool flatmates - before we went to the cinema

skating ring on the ground level of a shopping mall - didn't try it yet

As my second flatmate arrived only a couple of days after I did, we decided to have a welcome/cooking party in our house. Lazy me was relieved that most of the food was prepared by my fellow interns or brought by our Malaysian guests and so we were happily munching on Kimchi, Bulgogi, Korean pancakes as well as local seafood dishes and pastries. However, I wouldn't have dared to not represent my home country and spent quite some time in the kitchen to prepare the probably most laborious and complex Austrian dish and as I compensated the lack of a mixer with sheer manpower, I was quite happy that it turned out finger-lickingly-good :-)