From Melbourne to Malaysia

Thailand and beyond.....

hannahekers — Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Ok so after finishing my placement in Malaysia we (Rachel, Kirri (another of the volunteers from another school) and I) flew to thailand. We stayed a night in Phuket, which isn't much to write home about but the hostel me stayed in was nice and it had free internet. Then we took a ferry to Ko Phi Phi where we spent 4 nights. It is a really beautiful place but quite touristy and busy..and we weren't even there in peak season. There we swum, went on a snorkelling trip and also went out a few times at night. The best this about this was undoubtly the fact that many bars on Phi Phi give away free alcohol, usually in small plastic buckets, every night. So we had a good time dancing and meeting some really nice people including some Welsh, English and Irish guys. Then we left Phi Phi island and spent 2 nights in a beach near Krabi called Ton Sai, which is one of the most beautiful beaches I have been to in my life. However there wasn't much to do here and the weather was a bit dodgy at times so we left to go to Ko Phangan (another island off the opposite coast). Ko Phangan was so peaceful and relaxing. We swum on the beach (which our bungolow was literally on) and worked on our tans. We also met a few really cool people including a German girl called Lena and a English guy called Peter.

Anyway so after Ko Phangan I went back to Phuket to fly back to KL while Kirri and Rachel left me to go up to Bangkok to start their 2 month Southeast Asia travels. I wanted to go with them to Chang Mai and Bangkok becuase although the islands of Thailand are really beautiful they are expensive (compared to the rest of Thailand) and I didn't get a feel for Thai culture at all really which was strange after getting to know a country so well in Malaysia. But hey i guess thats travel..you don't have time to see everything! It was also really weird to leave Rachel after living with her for so long and I miss her already.

So....my future travels.....Well at the moment im in Malaysia again with my parents until the 7th of June when I fly out to LONDON!! to begin my 3 months for travel in Europe. Ill spend 2 weeks in England (where I will see Tilly) and 1 in Ireland (where I will meet up with Max) then I fly to Rome..1 and a half weeks in Italy then across the French riviera (probably stopping in Nice) to Spain for 2 weeks where I'll meet up with Meg, Tilly and Teagan. I might also go to portugal for a bit. Then I'll leave everyone to go to Belguim for a few days and meet Rachel on the 4th of August in Amsterdam. Then we are going to do Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest spending about 3 days in each place. After that we fly to Edinburugh for the comedy fest, then fly to Bristol and I'll go to Rachel's house for the last few days. Then home on the 3rd of September. Ah... then I'll sleep...and try to find 50 jobs to get some money! So yeah Europe here I come!

BYE MALAYSIA

hannahekers — Thu, 4 Jun 2009 15:45:00 GMT

OK the final 2 weeks were incredibly sad. Taking each one of our 26 final classes was pretty hard..some of them were really fun and some were really sad depending on the personal relationships I had with different kids in that class. I only cried in like 5 of the classes which isn't a bad effort I thought.

Depending on the class we did different activities with them. Some we did a quiz, some we played party games with musical chairs and pass the parcel, others we played taboo, charades and pictionary and with pretty much every class we sung a song at the end...mostly Love Story by Taylor Swift (a cheesy pop song), which sadly, I can now do word for word.

It would take me years and years to go through the myriad of ways I will miss everyone and all the different people there are too miss..whatsmore I'm pretty sure not everyone will be interested in that so I'll keep to describing a few things.

It was really sad becuase Rachel, Wan, Rathi and I had planned to go out together on our last saturday but Rathi's Aunty died and then Wan's Father fell sick..so unfortunatly that didn't happen.

The last friday we were at school a whole lot of our favourite kids returned to their old school of MRSM Lenggong. All the girls that had been on the drama team bar one were going back and so before they left we went to their "cube" (their room, which yeah is like a cube, the kids dorms didn't have any doors and only half walls). It was really nice we (ok lets see if I can remember everyone: Rachel,Lina, Aslin, Ewa, Hamizah, Farah and argh...I'll have to ask Rachel) sat around, ate, chatted and gossiped. It was a lot of fun and I miss all those girls terribly. A few days before we left another group of form 2s also invited us to their cube which was also really cool.

But those who are closest to my heart will forever be 'HR' (they nicknamed themselves HR as in Hannah Rachel but if anyone else heard them talking about "HR meeting us" or whatever, they would think it meant Home Room). These are most of the boys who did drama plus a few extras. In the last 2 weeks we kept staying up until 1am talking to them and then in the last week they shook our hands which was super nice (since boys and girls aren't meant to touch). The last night one of the kids syamil had promised to sing for us so he sung Viva La Vida (by Coldplay) while the others were on various air instruments. Hahah it was awesome but now i pretty much can't listen ot that song without wanting to cry. Yeah so after that we talked for hours..none of us wanting to say goodbye and each of them should give us like a speech each. OOOOHHHHHH i have NEVER cried that much in my life and nor have i ever been told that im an awesome person just for being me that many times...seriously talk about an ego boost. But yeah then Azzam and Emirol (who both did drama) sent the rest out of the room and just talked to us while we all sobbed. All of the kids told us that they loved us like big sisters and I serioulsy love these kids like little brothers and it breaks my heart I will never again get to hang out with them as much as i did at school.....THEN just before we left Azzam asked if he could HUG us! Ok it might sound strange but this is a super massive big deal in malaysia and especially in a school as strict as ours! then they all hugged us argh. it made my night! but yeah enough ranting about all that...you guys probs dont want to hear any more.

Its strange...in a country where road rules are largely optional, (like seriously who needs seatbelts of indicators?!) where people "I'll send you to the station" instead of "I'll take you to the train station" and "have you taken your food yet?" when I in fact have eaten it, where a delicious snack is ice, syrup, corn, kidney beans and sometimes peanuts if your lucky, (ohhh 'ABC' is amazing..seriously try it!) where a time seems to be utterly flexible...really a 4pm meeting will start from anywhere between 4:05 and 5pm...and of course where other far more important things such as language, cultual outlook, some core values and religion are different to my own I NEVER thought I would feel as at home or love a place so much. I now have a second home and so many great memories and friendships I hope will last a life time.

Getting to the end..

hannahekers — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:35:00 GMT

Argh so much more to say...ok:

OK so after language week we had normal classes again. ON the Wednesday of that week (the 15th of April) I went to a Hockey tournment which our school massively lost but still it was fun to go along especially since Izan the sport teacher is really cool and always super nice to us...buying us food and taking us places where we are stuck. Then that weekend we drove with Wan to KL where we stayed with her family in...somewhere in KL. I can't remember but it was about 30 mins out from the centre. We spent the next 4 nights there because we had the 20th-22nd off becuase the kids had exams. We spent our time in KL eating Wan's mother's amazing cooking, hanging out with her lovely family including two adorable kids Aina and Riduwan, shopping for presents for various kids and teachers and being tourists! We went up KL tower which was quite expensive..38RM! (OK its like 15 bucks but still expensive for Malaysia). So we stayed up the top for ages getting a really good view of KL and our moneys worth! At the bottom of the tower there were 3 "activities" we could do, included in that 38rm. hahah these activities were the biggest shambles...but sooo funny. We went to a "snow park" which was a bunch of foam snowmen and other white..stuff. There was also spray on snow drapped over palm trees...strange. Then we gave the animal park a miss and went to the horse ride/photo instead. Ok so the horse ride was around like half a car park so we took the photo instead...it is one of my favourite photos of all time..I'm wearing a Baju Malayu (boys traditional clothes) and Rachel is wearing a cowboy outfit (these were the only two costumes they had). It was super random and lame but super funny for those reasons! Anyway we also we up the Petronas towers...just coz we totally needed to get another slightly different and not as good view of KL.

Ok then we got back to school on the Wednesday night, taught on Thurs, Fri then on the Saturday we went to Rathi's Mother-in-law's house. She lives in Kedah, Gurun, a small town with a large minority of Indians..I think. But yeah we pretty much just ate AMAZING indian food for 2 days. I loved it! We also went shopping and bought Punjabi suits (well I got 1 and Rach got 2) and after casually mentioning that I would like to get my nose pierced, Rach and I ended up nin a mall getting our noses done, for like 6rm..SO CHEAP. So yeah I have my nose pierced.

We came back to school on Sunday our school held a Silat tournment for 4 days. Silat is a Malay martial art and is SUPER COOL. I loved watching all the different events..let me try and remember them all. There was Tari (dance) which is just a display performed by one person, another where two people perfromed a corographed fight, one where 3 & 4 people did a display in time and one only for boys where 3 people did a different kind of Silat display in time. I also really enjoyed meeting some new kids and hanging out with some I didn't really know before Silat.

Then after Silat we went back to KL.... (coz thre was no classes that week. The kids all had to go home to make room in the dorms for all the participants) Rachel needed to pick up a visa for Vietnam and we still had to get a few presents. We also spent a day with some the kids from school. It was Emirol, Azzam, Azri (who all did drama) and Firdaus. We went bowling, played table soccer and most importantly ATE..as usual. It was heaps of fun.

Once we were back at school we started our two week count down...ok this needs its own blog entry...

Laters, han xo

Language Week

hannahekers — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:00:00 GMT

OH MY GOD. THERE IS SOOOOOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT! OK so where to begin...Language week. Ok so we rocked up to MRSM Kubang Pasu which is in Kedah and the school of two other volunteers, Ellen and Jess. At language "week" which was really a language weekend, there were quite a few different events for both English and Malay. The English events were drama, public speaking, choral speaking and story telling. We helped out with the Drama and public speaking as I have mentioned before. The lower form public speaker for the girls, Hasana, was first up and it is probably the most nervous I have been, and also probably the most maternal I've ever felt while she was doing her speech, especially her impromtue one. I swear I could have done that thing off by heart as well just becuase of the hours and hours Rachel and I had sat there for listening to her reading that damn speech about saving the environment again and again...but anyway it went really well but when she sat down after finishing her speech she burst into tears just becuase it was all over and also because the topic was "what makes me happy" and she talked about her partents and how much she loves them etc...So then we started crying as well. That sounds strange but I swear it wasn't..you had to be there. Unfortuantly the lower form public speaker for the boys, Hareez (originally it was his friend Riduwan but he got sick leaving Hareez about 5 days to prepare for the comp erk!) was on at the same time so we didn't see him. However in typical boy fashion he was like "yeah it was good, I did well, no worries" or something to that effect anyway. Aizat the upper form public speaker...hahah where to start with Aizat. He ended up becoming one of our best friends at school but at first I think he felt a bit awkward around us which I suppose was fair enough since we are two white girls. Anyway although he has really good English he isn't the most natural of all pubic speakers and so we had to work really hard with him trying to get him to project his voice and look more animated. But yeah he ended up doing an ok speech but kina choaked on the impromptu. Oh well I think he leant a lot. In the end Hasana came 2nd out of 14 which was amazing, Hareez 6th and Aizat.....last. haha great coaches we were.

Drama, drama, drama. Wasn't much of a drama. It was pretty much the best thing I did the whole time in Malaysia. I tell you those kids are incrediable but I will have a rant about them in the next blog when I have time. Ok so drama we spent most of our time at language week helping with the final probs and final rehearsals for the play. We also introduced some "warm up games" which included the hokey pokey. Which Rachel insists is called the Hokey Cokey which is obviously WRONG. But then again at this point she would turn to me and say "Where am I from? What are you speaking? Yeah I'm from England and you are speaking ENGLISH, so whose language is it?" Whatever, I know I'm right.

The actualy play went pretty well but I have probaly seen the kids do it better and they ended up coming 3rd last which left a lot of them in tears. But whatever, I still had a ball helping them out with everything. Anyway so that was how I spent my Easter, on a bus coming home from language week, watch quarantine which was far far too violent for many of the 14 years olds on that bus. Seriously showing a kiss between two people is a massive no no but showing someone maimed to death ok right? Argh sometime I still don't understand this country no actually I do but I still think it's a bit strange. Ok so thats lang week. I don't have time to write more atm so that will have to do.

Just for everyones info I'm in Thailand atm. It's pretty cool but more on that later. Missing everyone, Love han ox

Thoughts about Malaysia

hannahekers — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Hi everyone. I hope you are all well. I have been so busy here I have barely had time to sleep but I still manage to get in a lot of eating time. We have been taking classes as per usual. At school Rachel and I rotate through all the classes in the school, so we teach everyone once every two weeks. I thought I would enjoy teaching the upper forms a lot more than the others but I really enjoy all levels across the board. Form 1 and especially form 2 have a really impressive level of English considering they are only 13 and 14 years old. Saying that though there is huge discrepancy between the kid's level of English. There are some who are fluent at the age of 13 and others who can't construct a sentence at the age of 17. On that note we, after seeing how poor a lot of the form 5’s (final year) English was, took it upon ourselves to set them an essay (the topic being “my ideal day”)so I now know the joy of marking essays. Some were amazing but others, URGH were like this “I am was go to beach with my parent” but worse. Others were really funny especially this one in which his ideal day was “to go dating with Rachel and Hannah” in which we went clubbing and I was breaking dancing but singing like “a frog” which Rachel was smoking but had a wonderful voice like “Akon”. We TRIED to learn grammar ourselves and teach it to them. Although we had limited success in teaching the definite and indefinite article, prepositions, plurals and tenses, things like the very “to have” and “to be” were just too complex and so we gave up and have since gone back to “teaching” them through the art of games and song. After all as Dickens points out in Hard times the young mind should “come upon fact and reason through the tender light of fancy (coz it’s super cool to reference your year 12 English text). In class we have done many different activities such as quizzes, Pictionary, taboo, charades, role-plays, singing songs, drawing pictures, writing stories, describing people etc… Overall I don’t really know how much we have contributed to the actual English skills of the kids but I would definitely say have made a difference in the level of English spoken by a few of the really poor students who we have pulled aside as well as the confidence of others who are really good but did not believe in their abilities.

Apart from teaching classes (this is why I have been so busy) lately Rachel and I have been helping the drama team and public speakers who are going to compete in a “language week” competition which is actually less of a week and more of a weekend. So, on Friday afternoon we are going to another school for the weekend. We have been training every night until 12 running through the public speakers speeches and rehearsing with the drama team. There are 3 public speakers, Husana (form 2) Hareez (form 3) and Aizat (form 4) all of who have amazing English and are generally just awesome kids. The same could definitely be said about the drama team all of whom are in form 4. Rachel and I are perhaps less of a help and more of a distraction when it comes to the drama rehearsals. We usually just spend hours sitting around talking and joking with them. In fact on the whole it is mostly the boys we are friends with here. Although we talk to girls as well here, including this girl Ayu who is such a champ and super funny and nice, we mostly hang out with boys in our free time, namely the form 4 boys from drama as well as a boy called Riduzwan in form 5. I’m not exactly sure why, and Rach and I have talked about this and we think perhaps that the way in which we act and think where our position is in society is akin to the boys here and not the girls. That perhaps could be a little harsh but in any case I will miss all the kids here terribly when we leave. In fact one of the drama kids Azam, who has flawless English, made me start to cry last night. Since we are only having his class one more time in about 3 weeks time we have told every class that they can choose what we do in their last lessons. He told me that they have decided that their class doesn’t wasn’t to do any activities but only sit around and talk to us about “what we have liked here, what we will miss the most and what we are looking forward to in the future” because they “are all going to miss us so much”. Hahah then in the next sentence he asked if he could have a photo with Rachel and I to “prove when I'm older that I had white friends”.

It is going to be so hard to leave everyone here. It is not only the kids but also all the teachers that have been so kind to us…taking us places, buying us SOOOO much food and just generally feel so welcome and comfortable. I am simply not going to be able to express to our adopted mother Wan how much I’m going to miss her. She has been so kind and always makes us laugh not to mention driving us everywhere and helping us when we are useless and we don’t know who else to call. This is not to say we have always found it easy here. I still find that the divisions between girls and boys very difficult to accept. Boys and girls are not allowed to touch each other although our school is quite strict compared to other schools and some of the kids also find this strange and hard to accept. There have been times when have felt taken for granted or unable to accept the divisions between races or the excuse that “that’s just the way things are” and I have encountered more cultural difference then I thought I would. However I have learnt a lot and come to love this country. There are certainly things we could learn from Malaysia.

Anyway, we haven’t left yet so I will leave the gushing for another time. 2 weeks ago it was the school holidays so we (10 of the volunteers) went to the Perhentian Islands which are possibly some of the most beautiful in the world. It was nice to just chill out, wear 'inappropriate' clothes which were above our knees and swim in the clear blue water. While we were there we also went snorkeling which was fun but not the most amazing coral reef I've ever seen.

In other news, I have decided to go to Europe straight away after finishing here. So I finish here on the 13th of May then I’m going to Thailand for 2 weeks then coming back here when Mum and Dad come over then flying out to London on the 7th of June. So yeah I’m super excited about that and I’m amidst planning that trip at the moment. I hope you are all well and I will write again sometime before I leave (I won’t say soon coz we both know that probs won’t come true). Love han xo

Cameroon Highlands

hannahekers — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

About a month ago on the 6th of February (which now seems like a lifetime ago) we went up to Cameroon Highlands. It was a nice change to get up into some mountains with nice fresh air and where wait for it... it was actually cold!! and by cold I mean about 15C at night and 25-30C during the day. However Rachel (being English) and I (just being lazy) didn't take a jumper since we didn't really believe that we would actually need it and got fairly cold at night.

In the Cameroon Highlands we were horribly middle aged and went for "nice walks" to a tea estate, a strawberry farm and ate in some lovely restaurants. We had some incredible Indian food as well as some awesome Roti Canai (as Rachel describes it "roti canai is like when naan and a pancake had a delicious baby) which is served with daal or curry for dipping and teh tarik (ultra sweet malay tea) for breakfast which set us back a grand total of 2 ringgit - less than an Aussie dollar. The scenery was stunning and I spent hours just staring at the wonderful patterns created by the masses of tea plants that grow everywhere throughout the highlands. While sitting in one of the afore-mentioned Indian restaurants Justine walked past which was very random but a great surprise and lovely to catch up with her on her big adventure.

One thing not so middle aged about our trip to the Cameroon Highlands was the fact that most of us didn't bring very practical shoes. Two others only brought thongs which were useless when we walked through the jungle and both Rachel and my shoes gave us blisters. Hence when the time came for us to walk back to our hostel all of us were whining.. a lot. Luckily on the way back down we managed to hitch a ride (don't worry various family relations and people over 30, we figured that in a fight we could take on the driver 6 to 1) from a nice man who took pity on us. I also got to fulfill one of my dreams...I rode in the back of his Ute. SO MUCH FUN. In fact in the Cameroon Highlands we spent quite a lot of time squashed in taxis or in one case the car of Syafiq - a talkative Malay guy whose American university education had left him with a hilarious Malay-Texan accent.

We were in the Cameroon Highlands during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. During this festival people pierce their body with various hooks and metal bars, in other words it is super painful. So much so, this festival is banned in India because it got so out of hand. It was quite a strange thing to watch and while some were obviously in a trance, some obviously were not and looked in a LOT of pain (check out the photos).

Sorry about the lack of blogs...I've been super busy and super lazy. I'll have another blog up by the end of the week. Love han xo

Chinese new year in Penang

hannahekers — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:30:00 GMT

A very very late Selamat tahun baru cina! (Happy Chinese new year) to everyone. To celebrate Chinese new year, and the fact we had a long weekend, we (5 other volunteers and myself) went to the Chinese dominated city of Georgetown on the island on Penang. Here we thought there would surely be parades, dragons and celebrations breaking out in the streets, however from a lot of red lantens, we didn't see any kind of celebration at all. After arriving in Goergetown, via the ferry across from Butterwoth (which is only half an hour from my school), we dumped our stuff at our hostel, which was in the middle of town, and went for a wander around town. We took our trusty bible (lonely planet) and did two self guided tours around the colonial district then Chinatown and little India. Little India was soo vibrant and busy with so many beautiful shops and stalls and music playing everywhere, it has made me want to go to India very badly. In fact Rachel and I have decided that since I'm visitng here this year, she will come to Austrlia next year and the year after we will go to India together....India 2011 here I come! Walking around Georgetown and just soaking in the atmosphere was definately my favourite thing to do. All the bulidings are so interesting and there is just such a great vibe about the city.

One night we went to Batu Feringgi to have dinnner with Leigh (our mentor for this program) and her daughter, Emily who is the most independent and assertive 11 year old I have ever met. Leigh is English but has lived here for 9 years. Batu Feringgi being a resort town, is full of westerners which was actually quite strange for us. So much so that Danae, one of the other volunteers, was so facinated with a whole group of blonde kids behind us, she took a photo with them. After talking these kids and their parents we found out that they were all from Perth and they ended up paying for most of their meal becuase they "appreciated what we were doing by volunteering etc.." which was really lovely, although I think they thought we were doing something a lot more nobel than we actually are.

In Penang we visited Chong Fatt Tze's Mansion which is a UNESCO world heritage site and so facinating. Chong Fatt Tze was a very wealthy Chinese businessman from the late 19th early 20th century. He had a different wife and a mansion in most countries through out South East Asia, his favourite of which (both the wife and mansion) was in Penang. The mansion was restored about 10 years ago and the archeticture of the buliding along with the interior is beautiful. We also went up Penang Hill from the top of which we got a nice view of Georgetown and ate some really nice corn which had a tub of butter and salt poured on top of it. Near by Penang Hill there was a Chinese Buddhist/Hindu/Confucian temple (they combined aspects of the 3 religions) which was beautiful.

We spent Chinese new year eve/ Australia day (since they fell on the same day) out with 4 Swedish guys we met in the hostel. They were super nice but made me realise how much being a backpacker just puts you in your own little world. They has just spent a month partying in Thailand which is a complete world away from what we are doing. And so going back to school after talking with them was quite strange and for a few days I felt like ditching school and just backpacking. I suppose this brings me to the reason I am here and I guess I haven't really talked much about acutally teaching or what life is like here...and well I'm too tired so I won't be doing that now either. I will however, be writing a new blog in the next few days to fill in the last month, since it has been so long since i've written one. I hope everyone is well and I do love getting your emails, although I know I take a while to reply sometimes. Love han

Gallery: Weekends Away...

hannahekers — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:38:00 GMT

Kehidupan di Malaysia dan Langkawi

hannahekers — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:30:00 GMT

The internet here at the moment is frustratingly slow and it has taken me about 2 hours to open all you emails so I will reply eventually but urgh..hopefully the internet will be back to normal soon.

I don't really know where to start. So much has happened since I last wrote. I got fairly bad tonsillitis and spent 3 days in bed and about a week not being able to really drink much becuase it was too painfull - which is always nice when the weather outside never gets below about 28. I'm all better now through and hopefully it stays like that!

Living here at the school is most likely the closest I will ever come to feeling like a celebrity. Everytime we walk the school people look at us and wave and smile and increasingly, will also come and talk to us. The other night Rachel and I went to the "co-op" to buy some water and we ended up with about 30 kids surrounding us asking us questions and trying to teach us all their names. I have discovered I'm HOPELESS at Malay names since many of them are Arabic. They are hard to pronounce let alone remember as we meet about 30 new kids a day. I also find it very ammusing that many of the kids think Rachel and I look alike. Beyond both having freckles, dark hair and being tall we really don't look alike. We have also been told, for the first and last time in our lives, that we look like Barbie Dolls.

About a week ago Miss Ven Woo was visiting her "homeland", being so Malay and all, and I got to chat with her and eat cheesecake which was really lovely. Speaking of cheesecake, Rachel and I had an ardent craving for some yesterday and so decided to walk down to the shop that sells it. We ended up getting a lift there and walked back which took about 45 mins. Now we thought this is a perfectly normal thing to do but today we have had over 10 teachers coming up to us to say "OH why did you walk?! Its so far! (its not) and its not safe (it is)". Everyone seems to be perplexed to why we would want to walk when we could have called a cab. And it is true. Malays seem to rely on their cars so heavily...one of the english teachers drives her car to work...she lives on campus and it is literally 30m for her to walk while another drives her car to the sports field, again only about 30m, which I thought was so ironic.

Lately becuase of the events in Israel and Palestine we have had a few students come up to us asking our opinion on the issue, which we choose not to really answer beyond saying that we don't know enough about the issue to comment. We have also had another student ask our opinion about Islam which was fine but again a bit difficult to discuss.

The weekend just gone Rachel and I plus 5 other gappers (who are in schools not too far from us) all went up to Langkawi which is an popular holiday island really close to the the Thai border. It was fairly touristy but at the same time not too busy. We had a hotel right on the beach where we spent most of our time. Both of the English girls (Rachel and another girl Ellen) got horribly sunburnt which we found funny and spent a long time talking about how we, being Australian and used to harsh sun, knew how to protect our skin and already had healthy glowing tans (which wasn't quite true as many of us were also a bit pink). One of the coolest things we did in Langkawi was eat at quite a few restraunts right on the beach and watched the sun set. It was beautiful. However being the "locals" we are now, we found the meals quite expensive at these restraunts. A meal was about 12 ringgit (less than $6) where as in the local towns we pay about 3 ringgit for a huge plate of noodles or 70 Sens (30 cents) for Roti Chanai (a bread similar to Nann bread with daal or curry with it). We also, more than once, uttered the pharse "tut tut stupid tourists" while we were in Langkawi, regarding outselves far above these clueless westerners.

The other highlight of the trip to Langkawi was a trip up a cable car which brought us to the top a mountain 700m above sea level at a surprisingly fast pace. Even I got a bit freaked out on the cable car and I quite like heights. The view was truly amazing though. Well worth it. While I was in Langkawi I was able to use my sweet Malay/Indo skiils to bargin down the price of a few choice pieces of clothing etc.. (don't worry mum I only bought 1 dress, the rest was for the others).

Coming back to our school was acutally quite nice as I have really begun to feel comfortable here. We got our timetables and next week we start teaching about 6 classes a week each. It's not a lot but I'm surprised at how tired I am at the end of each day and it means we have a lot of (much needed) time to plan our lessons and also help to plan extra-curricular activities and our weekends away! Speaking of which we (the same girls that went to Langkawi minus one) are going to spend the Chinese new year long weekend in Georgetown on the Island of Penang as it has a large Chinese population and we hope to see parades and get a feel for the place.

Ok I think that is it for now. I will wirte again after Chinese new year. I hope everyone is well and happy with their uni offers (I'm sure you all will be).

Love Hannah

School...

hannahekers — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 21:15:00 GMT

Selamat malam semua! So I've been here in Kepala Batas for almost a week now and I'm begining to settle in little by little. Today was the first day of classes for the year and so we started the day with a whole school assembly. It went for TWO HOURS. TWO HOURS....in a hot..VERY hot noisy hall. However it was possibly one of the funniest things I have ever sat through. Don't get me wrong the speeches etc.. were boring and I didn't understand most of it but we sat on the stage with the teachers who talked and gossiped the WHOLE way through. Ahahah they were doing marking, writing on paper and passing notes, playing games on their mobile phones and I even saw one answer his phone on stage...while speeches were going on. It was amazing. meanwhile the students actually listened. hahah. Rachel and I also gave a small speech which was a bit intimidating but it turned out fine. Everytime we said anything they clapped: "Hi im Rachel *applause* I'm from England *applause*".

We are also getting used to being stared at. Since this is a boarding school (and they are hardly ever allowed out) we have become the local entertainment. Today we went to a form 5 class (which is the final year of school - they are 17 years old) and they asked us questions about Australia/the UK and ourselves. Their english comprehension is really good but some of them are too nervous to talk. I think the two funniest questions we got were "Is everyone as tall as you where you live?" and "Do you believe in love?". Oh and I told them if I'm going to Penang for Chinese New Year and one of the boys said "can I follow you?" to which I pomptly affirmed the answer to be no.

Here at the school there is an "English Motivation Council" (EMC) which encourages students to speak english etc.. The president of the EMC has amazing english. He lived in Perth of 4 years so he sort of has an Aussie accent. Its so funny though he gets so embarrased talking to us and has told us that "I'm not good at talking to girls". Hahah he is so nice and cute. There is another girl in the EMC which follows us around and is nice but is going to get annoying after 5 months.

We are taking our first class tomorrow so I'm off to prepare! Hope everyone is well, Love Han xoxo

Kepala Batas

hannahekers — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 22:15:00 GMT

I hope everyone is doing well. This is my third day at my school and I'm currently watch ER on pay tv which is in the house im staying in. hahah in other words my accommodation is a lot better than I thought it would be!

My school here is in Kepala Batas, a small town about 20 minutes out of Butterworth which is across from the island of Penang. It is one of about 60 selective schools in Malaysia and only opened in 2007. The facilities here are really new and nice. In the english department we have our own desks and access to computers and the internet. The facilities in selective schools here are a lot better then the non-selective ones. For example we have tennis courts, netball courts and other sport fields, a decent amount of sports equipment and we even have wireless internet in out room! But in a non-selective school they have minimal facilities and equipment and have classes of up to 45-50 whereas in my school the classes are about 25-30 students.

I'm staying in a apartment with Rachel and one of the english teachers. It is really nice we have a kitchen, a tv with cable, our own bathroom and Rachel and I get our own rooms as well. It's a strange though becuase although we have all these nice facilities, we still only have cold water. It just doesn't seem to be a priority for Malaysians. I'm getting used to cold showers! Also the teacher we are staying with is super lovely and Indian so she can cook us daal and roti! YAY.

We haven't taken any classes yet because it is orientation week. All the teachers seem super supportive and friendly and the students seem nice but a bit shy at the moment. I'm getting used to being stared at whenever I go out of the house. We have been told we won't be teaching grammar which im sooooo happy about. We will be teaching mostly spoken english to all classes (from 13 year olds to 17 year olds) which works for me.

That is all for now. More later, Love han ox

P.s Malayisa is 3 hours behind Melbourne if anyone was wondering.

Arriving in KL

hannahekers — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:30:00 GMT

This being my first blog entry it seems a little strange and perhaps a bit self indulgent to be writing one. However I've decided it is by far the simplest way to let everyone know whats happening with me over here in Malaysia.

So, so far I've been here in Malaysia for a week. I flew out in the early morning of Tuesday the 30th of December. I flew over with 6 other volunteers from Melbourne but the flight over here was not great becuase I was very sick. I was talking to this woman next to me at first, who promptly ignored me when I threw up. Hahah guess I can't blame her though.

After arriving at the airport, we had to wait around the airport for 5 hours for the english kids WHO HAVE THE NICEST ACCENTS! ARGH! The other volunteer I'm placed with here, Rachel, is from a small town about an hour out of Bristol so we have spent a lot of time talking about the differences between Australia and England for example she had never had fairy bread, to which I promptly demanded that she try it AS SOON AS she got home.

There are 13 volunteers in total. 10 from Australia (9 girls, one boy) and 3 from the UK (all girls). So poor Matt, being the only boy, is placed in a school by himself.

After we all arrived we were taken to an international private school just outside of Kuala Lumpur for training and "getting to know you" time with everyone. The school had beautiful grounds and the training, although scary becuase we all just realised we were actually going to teach real kids, was really helpful and interesting. On the last day we had a practise class with some local students who were 14 years old. It went quite badly. We (Rachel and I took the class together) tried to get them involved but they wouldn't answer any of our questions. Becuase they are really shy and find it embarrasing to speak up. Even when we asked if there were any questions no one spoke up even though some of them really didn't understand. It was like teaching to a wall. Anyway afterwards when the local teacher talked to us he said that if the kids are finding it too hard / too easy / boring they will just walk out and if that happens we are the ones that will get in touble because it is our responsibility as teachers which I find crazy.

Possibly the highlight of my time during the training was when we went to KL for new years eve. We drove into the city arriving about 9pm and the 13 of us were let loose on the city. We wandered around just taking in the city and were followed around by packs of guys who were saying "oh di sini orang putih" or "oh there! white people" or sometimes "welcome to Malaysia". At about 10 o'clock we decided we would find a place to have a drink and spent the next hour and a half trying to find somewhere. Since Malaysia is a muslim country there aren't many places to get a drink apart from hotels etc.. which had a lockout by 10pm. We finally found an Irish pub at 11:30 and had a cocktail whereupon we also recieved free party poppers and flashing shot glasses (classy as! - I'm totally bringing it to every party I go to when I get home). The pub was playing horrible 90's music which we all sang along to, so much so that we missed new year and only realised when the fireworks started going off outside. After we watched the fireworks (which were set off worryingly close to all the buildings) we set off through the middle of the city expecting to just meet up with our driver and teachers. However everyone started spraying eachother with silly string and foam. We all got COVERED. Especially becuase we were white girls but it was so much fun. When we reached our driver we found Matt had somehow avoided getting sprayed and so promptly pushed him into a group of guys until he was covered head to toe.

So that was most of my first week here. I'm at my school now which is lovely but I will write more about it later!

Love han xoox

p.s for those of you who have left me a facebook comment, I can't access facebook from school because its blocked to I only log on occassionally.