Volunteers for Hosting Camps

Dear all,

This June is an exciting time in AFS Malaysia as we're going to have a number of Hosting Camps coming up!

In case you're wondering, Hosting Camps are the orientation camps for hosted exchange students in Malaysia. AFS Malaysia is looking for fun-loving and dedicated returnee-volunteers to help lead the camps! You'll meet other awesome AFS volunteers, as well as some funky and interesting hosted students from all across the world.

We have three camps coming up next, they are : -

1. End of Stay Camp NH10 batch (11 - 15 June, 2011)
2. Mid Stay Camp SH11 batch (21 - 24 June, 2011)
3. Arrival Orientation Camp NH11 batch (14 - 16 July, 2011)

So if you are interested, please follow this link and fill up the application form ASAP! Remember that we only have limited space for volunteers, so you'll want to hurry!

p/s. It's alright if you've never done this before, we'll guide you along the way :)

How to Volunteer with AFS

I must admit, charts are my guilty pleasure. It's amazing stuff. It's straightforward, and looks nice!

So today, we have a chart for you who *wants to volunteer with AFS*. There has been so many questions from so many people who wants to jump into the AFS volunteering bandwagon that we are happily overwhelmed by the responses! So, we've made a special chart for you to follow :)

Just click to enlarge!

HELP WANTED

We are looking for fun-loving,

dedicated

TEAM-orientated
VOLUNTEERS

to join in our crew for the 53rd AFS Malaysia Gala Dinner / Farewell Dinner for YPnh 10 & SMsh 11. Job delegations will be briefed to you when you volunteer :) The Gala Dinner will be held on June 10th, 2011 at the prestigious Grand Season Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Currently, we're also looking for photographers and videographers for the event. You must have your own DSLR camera / video camera.

All who are interested to join in the adventure of making a night to remember for AFS Malaysia, are more than welcomed to email one of our Organizer Extraordinaire, Syant Alias at syant.alias@afs.org.my with details including: -

Your full name and contact number,
and if you are a returnee - your hosted country and year of exchange.

REMEMBER
spots are limited so hurry hurry with writing to us!

AFS Gala Dinner 2011

Hey there fellow Returnees,

When was the last time we last saw each other? Met again to catch up? When was the last time we spent hours just exchanging memories of our AFS journey, and spend even more hours talking about our current lives, and feeling that we're part of a bigger family out there?

Too long, too long ago. Don't you agree?

IF you are feeling just like me, and would like some AFS-goodness, then cheer up cause I have good news for you! Well now there is the PERFECT chance for us to meet again! Come 10th June, 2011 is AFS Malaysia's 53rd Annual Gala Dinner, and I think it would be a wonderful time and event if we would all go together. What do you think?

Below are the details regarding the Gala Dinner, so do let me know by emailing your details to afs.returnee@volunteer.afs.org.my. You can also contact us if you have further questions.

Place: Grand Seasons Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 10 June 2011
Time: 7.30pm onwards
Theme: Colours of the World

Ticket Price: RM100 per pax

Just in case you're wondering what to expect in the Gala Dinner, I've decided to write down some 5 solid reasons why you should come to the Gala Dinner. So here goes : -

1. It's a family reunion. In AFS, we are like one big happy, even though sometimes somewhat dysfunctionally funny family. And each year, we come to reunite to celebrate our family-ness! It's a time to catch out what fellow AFS-ers have been up to and have a good hearty meal like the Malaysians that we are :)

2. The AFS Gala Dinner 2011 is also a combination with the End of Stay Dinner of our hosted students of 2011. Come see and cheer for the foreign students who have spent their year in Malaysia and how they have experienced AFS in their own unique ways.

3. There will be a variety of performances during the night, many of which done by fellow AFS-ers and current AFS students having their exchange here in Malaysia. It's going to be a big, colourful night!

4. It's a very good reason to dress up, look damn good and party the house down with most fun people you know. And if AFSers doesn't know how to have fun, who does?

5. repeatedly read point 1 -4. :D oh, and plus +++ Grand Seasons has good food. We know, we tried it :D


So what are you waiting for? Go call up EVERYONE in your AFS batch, book a table to seat all of you, and get excited!

Guo Xian in Germany

My experience with AFS was extraordinary. Like every other AFSers, my experience was unique. Many might not understand what we had experienced. What I’m trying to say here is that every one of us learnt a precious lesson and had priceless experience even though we might not really enjoy the process of learning it sometimes. However, I had enjoyed mine a lot.

As soon as I finished my SPM, I attended my first orientation camp with AFS. It was a great experience, and filled with joy and laughter. At that moment we were confident that we were well prepared for the exchange program. The excitement continued for another 3-4 weeks, until the day we (those who went Germany, =)) gathered in KLIA and flew to Germany. Our excitement was at the maximum level upon arrival in Germany.

For the next whole month it was always a good experience. Everything seemed new to us. Right after the camp (LOC, late orientation camp), I went to London with my class. London is a cool city. Although it was the capital of England, the air wasn’t as polluted as it is in Kuala Lumpur. I also went on a trip to Berlin during the first month. It was a 4 days 3 nights trip and it was excellent. We had a tour around Berlin but too bad I cannot understand everything because it all in German.

After 3 months when I was thankful that I had “survived” for 3 months, but was the most boring part of the program. Because everything is settled, I had nothing else to do. I started to read books and also watched televisions to overcome my boredom. I also played with my host brother with his video games console. It was always fun to have a little brother that had the same interest with me. I picked up some drum from him (Too bad both my hands cannot synchronize. :/), and also learned some guitar from him. Apart from that, I hung out more often with friends during weekends.

It was summer holidays in July during my stay in Germany. It was the happiest time in my whole experience. I had a 6 weeks holiday and I went on a mid-stay camp (not with AFS) for 3 weeks and had a lot of fun during these 3 weeks. It was organized by another organization and the participants were international. We stayed in an open-air museum in Cloppenburg. The museum itself is surrounded by walls, where all the 18^th, 19^th century buildings were moved from all parts of Germany to this little town.

During the work camp, we had the river cleaned up, cleaned the wells, built some house to cover logs. We stayed in an old German house which had at least 100 years of history, and cooked our own food in a kitchen. During weekdays after working, we had the chance to learn about German history, for example, how people lived in middle age German, how they cook, write, etc. During weekends we would go around the large cities nearby, like Hamburg, Bremen and Bremenhaven. It was a good experience, and it was also a turning point in my experience. After the summer camp ended, I became more outgoing, I started to visit the other exchange students and cities, and I picked up some guitar from a friend, and started to read German stories and articles.

After 1 week the camp had ended, I moved to Berlin for 2 weeks. As I arrived in Berlin, I met my second host family, which is only for two weeks. While in Berlin, I was on top of the Berlin TV-tower (radio tower, like KL tower.), it was amazing to look around Berlin from the top, especially for the sunset. It was pretty but too bad my camera’s battery died at the time. For the next two weeks, I enjoyed myself to the max. Berlin is a good choice for a holiday. Of all of the places of interest, I like Madamme Tussauds and the river the best. I also had a free tour to the Mercedes Benz factory. It was located right behind the apartment my host family was living in. It was huge and fun because I got a free tour by the manager since he was also an exchange student and since he was generous enough. This is actually the first time I am proud of my German because I did not use any English words throughout the whole tour, and yet I understood everything. 2 weeks passed really fast, and I enjoyed my 6 weeks summer holiday in Germany.

The time flies. It was then the last 3 weeks of my stay in Germany. It was the first white Christmas I ever had. It was really cool because I have never seen snow in the past 17 years. Now that I have a chance to experience it, I made a snowman, of course, and also played snow wars with my host brothers. They were good. I am always the loser if we were to fight against each other alone. However, I will always cooperate with my younger host brother against the other because he is seriously too good at it. There was once that I actually ate some snow by accident. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun. Also, I decorated the Christmas tree and exchanged Christmas present with them. One week after was New Years. It was a pleasant experience to celebrate New Years with my family members. We played poker the whole day, and even though I suck at it, I had a lot of fun.

Throughout the whole year, I experienced joy and laughter, sadness, anger and so on. Even though some of us did not have an entirely good experience, we actually enjoyed it because no matter what happened, we learnt a lot of things that are useful in our future. If you are exchange student in the future, and also, I wish you all have a good and pleasant experience and all the best in the future.

Yau Guo Xian

AFS YP Germany 2010/2011