Hi, my name is Jess. I am one of the official bloggers for the trip to Malaysia. I will be at Sunway University, Malaysia for 10 days with LUSU as part of the ‘Global Exploration scheme’. There are 20 students plus 3 staff going and we are staying at the Sunway Monish Residence.
10am – Saturday 21st March 2015
The joys of trying to fit everything into a suitcase! – By the time it’s all in the suitcase its literally bursting at the seams. I am very, very excited but also quite nervous about the whole experience. This is my first time away on my own so it’s all abit daunting- especially with the added pressure of having to remember EVERYTHING! I am counting down the time till I can leave. Considering a nap and some revision as I don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate very much on the plane.
8.25am (Abu Dhabi Time- 4+ Hours UK)- Sunday 22nd March 2015
So we survived the first flight. All feeling rather tired but really really excited about Malaysia. The food on the flight was really nice and there was lots of films to watch! I’ve visited Malaysia before but when the Psychology department and LUSU decided to do a trip this March, I just couldn’t resist revisiting- it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world!
Malaysia: 9pm, Home: 1pm – Monday 23rd March 2015
We landed yesterday at 10.30pm and then got a bus back to campus where we arrived shortly before midnight. So of course today we all look like zombies out of a ghost movie! When we pulled up to the campus it was immediately evident that it was well looked after. We checked in and went to our room which I was really happy to be sharing with 7 other people, especially in such a nice, welcoming and clean flat.
As soon as I made my way out of the flat, I was hit by the sudden heat of about 34℃. Once we all woke up this morning, we had breakfast at Starbucks- which was really nice and once again the staff were very polite. We then made our way across the Sunway Canopy walk to meet the staff at Sunway University. They were so friendly, and I felt at home straight away. This reinforced why I had come back to Malaysia- mainly because of the kind community they have! Some of the staff gave a short lecture about Malaysia and the history of the University, followed by a lecture on ‘culture’ which I found really interesting and very applicable to Psychology.
We made our way to dinner about 12pm where we had a lovely curry, despite it being very spicy, I really enjoyed it. Shortly after we started the briefing for our experiment and discussed the relevant ethical considerations we needed to think about it. During this, there was a large thunderstorm, which at first really scared me as it sounded like a building falling down! Obviously with it being March, it is the season for the tropical rainfalls and hot, clammy climate. After the lecture we met the Psychology Society students from Sunway who were all very nice- once again they made sure everyone felt welcome. They showed us round there recently renovated library which was very beautiful and made me look forward to Lancaster’s library renovation even more!
After they had finished showing us round the various areas of campus we made our way to a ‘food stall’ court. The outside court was made up of a variety of foods including Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and even English. We received 20 Malaysian Ringgits to spend (from LUSU) and we found (very quickly) this was more than enough! It was really good because we were able to try a variety of dishes from different cultures.
The exchange rate from Pound to Ringgits still astonishes me- 5 ringgits in every £1. Especially when in the food courts meals ranged from a mere 3 ringgits to around 12 ringgits maximum. Once we had eaten ourselves into a food coma, we decided to walk it off and head to the highly recommended Sunway Pyramid- Shopping Mall. This was not regretted! The mall has over 800 shops and covers a floor area of 396,000 m². We all ended up coming home with items from Topshop and H & M which we realised was rather silly when we have all these at home!
Hoping that tonight I get a good night’s sleep, as tomorrow we have another busy day. In the morning we are continuing with the experiment and setting up the stimuli and in the afternoon we are heading into Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) – where I’m hoping there are even more shopping opportunities!