My Experience as an International Exchange Student in Malaysia
Becoming hooked up in the day to day trivia at University very often becomes mundane and boring. Courses and Frequent Tests are the same everywhere. Even the places you visit in your own country becomes more or less the same. In September 2018, as part of my University’s eDu Student Exchange Program, I went to the International Islamic University in Malaysia, located at the heart of the marvelous Kuala Lampur City. It was a little scary as it was my first time traveling abroad. It was also the first time someone from the CSE dept of our University traveled abroad.
By mid-day, I arrived at the KLIA airport, the third largest airport having 2 terminal- A & B; I was amazed to look at the stores selling luxury products. What caught my eyes were international brands like Amazon, Vanity Fair, Starbucks, which were not available in our country. They were selling popular luxury items like electronics, books, footwear, and the famous Caffè mocha from Starbucks. The people of Malaysia looked relatively modern, decent, and kind. Some have a close resemblance to the Hill Tract People of Bangladesh but not all. Come to think of it, though I was a foreigner visiting their country; they looked foreign to me. But in reality, everyone is like an average Joe. With eyes of amazement, I waited for Rizwan Sir of my University, who was so kind as to pick me up at the airport.
I arrived at my new campus at 10 pm night. First, I went to my room, took my keys, and arranged my luggage. I was dead tired after the flight, so it was refreshing when I ordered my food at the great cafeteria. They were about 10–12 cafeteria on this vast campus, and the cafe I ate was at cafeteria Faruq. Each cafe has its name named after significant figures of the Islamic world. Coming back to my room was a relief as I could socialize with my new roommates, Africans. I’m kidding; they looked more like Europeans. They are from Morocco, so I was the only Bangladeshi there living with 3 Moroccan’s. My room was small but quite neat with a window opening to a beautiful lake. So, every night it felt nice to look at the midnight stars.
The next morning was a busy schedule. My classes were already started. So, I hurried up to get enrolled in my classes. I took the tough courses, like Multimedia, Machine Learning, Mobile App Development, Warehousing, and Software Engineering. After which I took my lunch at the cafeteria, Salahuddin. That day was the first time I tasted Malaysian food. It tasted quite spicy and different. I didn’t like it that much. It sometimes took before I got used to Malaysian food. One thing I noticed was people were alert on preventing wastage of food. So, the regular norm was “Take and drink only how much you can eat.” At the cafeteria, I met people from various places, mostly from the Middle East and Northern Africa. While some people wore their local clothes as the Saudi student wore taqiyah, their headscarf, most of the other students wore t-shirts and pants like the westerner.
The following day I located my University using google maps. It was on an enormous area with five buildings having a big center circular field in the middle. Everyone knew it by the name Kulliyah of Information and Communication Technology, KICT, in short. I entered my classes and met with my new friends. All of them were warm but somewhat skeptical. I was introduced to the professors there, and I enjoyed his classes a lot. He was teaching us the concept of how Data could be stored in an online Warehouse or cloud, which was another advanced concept of Database. I carried on to the other classes meeting new friends.
Soon, I began to recognize the vast space around my Mahallah and other Mahallah as well. My way to my University became easier by bus, although we had to wait sometimes to catch the bus. Soon, the cultural shock of a new country, as well as adjusting to hostel life, faded away, and I was able to explore the outside life of Kuala Lumpur city. My Algerian friend and I arrived early and reached the subway station. We arrived at KL Central at 1 pm. At once, we went to the Petronas Twin Tower and started taking pictures. Inside the tower were big shopping malls where I purchased a Sony camera. From there, we visited Bukit Bintang, where I tasted street food. It was exquisite and delicious. I tried various other, both local and international foods. Some tasted good, most hard to understand; maybe food lovers might love it better.
Tourism in Malaysia is quite fun if you know the right place to visit. If you’re an Asian, people might look familiar as people around you. I saw the ancient city of Malacca with a vast group of people. There we enjoyed the cultural dances and songs of the Malaya natives. We visited huts and got engaged in the local ceremonies and customs of the natives. Of-course we took countless pictures to make the trip more memorable. Lastly, I visited other lovely places like Penang, Genting Highland, China Town, and many others.
Thank you to my University for giving me this opportunity. I sincerely hope in the future, many more people will take the opportunity to pay a visit to a foreign country as an exchange student and get to experience something grander than what they had experienced.
