flipping love this place!!!
These last three days have been phenomenal. I am totally relaxed, like the weight of the last few months has been totally lifted; I'm laughing at absolutely everything and the people I am here with from England as well as the people I am meeting here are amazing, making this experience complete. The British group are all so laid back that its 24/7 banter and lighthearted abuse all round. The people here are so diverse and all come together and live in harmony while retaining their unique culture, personalities and traditions.
I have experienced so much wonderful local food and am trying new spices, clothes, languages and even transport forms! The iced coffee here is strong and rich and will be brought back to England in bulk! On Sunday, I counted that I did 10 new things which were 1.) Went to Robocon (an interuniversity Robotwars which is a massive deal here!) 2.) Used a squat as a loo! 3.)Used a monorail and drove over the top of Kuala Lumpur 4.) Got a fish foot spa (you put your feet in a tank of fish and they come and eat the dead skin off your feet and it leaves your feet totally smooth, sooo tickly and weird though!) 5.) tried a Malaysian coffee (amazing!) 6.) saw the Petronas Towers (we stayed until dark and they put the lights on and it was stunningly beautiful, definitely a highlight so far!) 7.) Drank lychee juice 8.) experienced a Secret recipe and a jack fruit 9.) Had a kickapoo joy juice!

After eating some amazing pancakes which were made from a stretchy dough and grilled on a hot plate for breakfast (it cost RM1 which is about 25p!), about 25 of us went to a robocon competition which was between robots built in all the main Malaysian universities, we then headed for Kuala Lumpur, which is a crazy journey involving a bus and a long train journey, its fairly similar to the UK except one carriage is only for women. We added the australians to our group who are brilliant and spent the day mocking each others accents. We headed into Central Market which is a massive indoor market with every time of cultural produce represented. On the ground floor was a massive fish tank where I spend 10 mins have fish eat my feet which was one of the strangest things I have ever experienced!! Most of us tried it and it was brilliant watching even the boys scream like girls! We then headed through to Chinatown which is soo crowded and sold food from stalls all over, lots of 'designer' products and clothes. Lanterns and lights were everywhere and it was quite beautiful.
We later headed onto the Petronas Towers which we had to lie on the ground to take a full photo of as it was so tall, it is surrounded by statues and fountains and is pretty spectacular, we shopped for a while but with stores like Gucci, Prada and Dolce and Gabbana, we moved on to dinner fairly quickly!
Once it was dark, we saw the towers lit up and it was truly breathtaking! Finally we headed home and watched the football in our local bar...enough said about that! :(

Yesterday was our welcome and briefing, we were given a rice breakfast in our building and taken to the programme briefing where they explained the plan for the next 4 weeks. It sounds amazing and we are all so excited! We are going to a tropical island and well as walking the world's longest canopy bridge through the national park! We have an amazing lecturer called Dr. K who is a little crazy but so enthusiastic that we can't help but catch his excitement.
We were then given the most amazing lunch in the VIP lounge which was wonderful and was a great way for us to get to know the Malaysian students.
In the afternoon, we travelled to get our student cards for our stay here before a dinner which had meat in every dish so I had to have salad and they found out and are now preparing me special meals which makes me feel a little guilty!
In the evening we took a long walk to see the monkeys which lives in campus and ended up getting lost but was a VERY funny trip as it was still hot and very hilly and more like a work out! I have acclimatised though to the weather and wore black trousers to class today with no problems!

Today, lectures started, they are two hours each (2 a day) but quite varied and interesting so I didn't off too many times! We were shown a lot of pictures of the indigenous communities which was exciting but has taken away a lot of the suspense about what to expect! This afternoon we had a tropical storm and it poured down while remaining quite warm! We have been given homework already and have to prepare an imaginary aboriginal community for presentation tomorrow. Me, Maddy, Vicky and Soniyah have prepared a powerpoint on the 'Tetley Tribe' which is a tea drinking tribe fighting against the local Nescafe tribe. The Australians with us are mocking us for the amount of tea we drink so we thought we'd poke fun at our stereotype!

Ok, thats me all caught up! I'm off to dinner and then we're heading to a night market; apparently all the exciting market trading goes on at night! See you soon!