First month, first reflections

After a month living in Malaysia I believe I already have an "ok" understanding of the country and culture and I think I’m having a pretty intense experience trying to get as much as I can.

Bottom line I think KL is a very easy place to live in, where a foreigner can easily adapt due to the English which is widely spoken, the development and access to information and goods. People are very nice and helpful, and after I month I know my way around, how to handle with taxi drivers, and so on. I feel pretty much independent.

I like living here, everything is new and quite exotic, but at the same time many things are just like at my home country. There is a mixture of adventure and comfort zone. I would still like to live more near the city center, but the conditions I have are also very above the average and more than I could expect.

I like my work a lot, the environment is very easy-going and people believe in what they do. That is for me the most important. I'm learning a lot about animal welfare and getting more and more interested in Non-corporate Sector. And aside that, I know now that I missed living with animals and I find a lot of comfort and companionship among them.

I’m becoming more adventurous with the food, but I don’t think I will ever “love” spicy/chili food. Also the meat always tastes differently from what I am used to. I imagine myself getting back and go straight to a restaurant where I can have a normal grilled beef. Nevertheless, there are some things which I like a lot! Their fried potatoes, the different noodles, the everyday different cuisine possibilities, some fruits and the price!

Almost everything is cheaper (impressively not the electronic stuff!) so I feel an urge to buy a lot of things. Specially shoes (which are stupidly cheap here), watches, bags and random stuff. Clothes are basically the same as in Portugal so not planning to get many heheh.

Then I believe I started to find some friends, some at my work and others that are interns here is KL like me. And I love the fact that I deal daily with Malaysian people because otherwise I wouldn’t get to know the culture, and on the other hand I have international friends with whom I can share freely my perceptions and experiences because they are going through the same.

The most difficult thing to get used to is definitely the weather :S I love nature and to walk but with this heat is so hard to find motivation for it. To imagine that it’s like this 365 days a year it’s too much for me! I would have to visit Genting more often. The rain I got used to pretty easily, always carrying an umbrella with me :)

Nevertheless, for me it’s still a bit confusing how some things work around here. Government and religion are still pretty attached to each other, and being a Muslim country by the constitution, there are some differences and rights between the population despite the fact that they were all born in Malaysia and based only in their religion. For me as a foreigner I am not affected, but it’s complicated to understand how it works and to cope with it.

At the end of the day I’m very glad to have this opportunity to get to know a Malaysian Culture and at the same time being exposed to many other cultures, languages, religions and traditions. At the same time I cannot stop thinking that there are so many things we take as granted and it’s something that over and over impresses me.

This is why these kinds of experiences are so important, and I wished more people would come to the same conclusion: we should appreciate more those small things we take for granted!