My Weblog-live from Malaysia

German Embassy

9th of March

What exactly is an embassy? What do the people do there? Is it the building you can jump into to be safe if you are threatened by someone because it is a political Specialzone?

With this questions stuck in my head I made my way to the German Embassy in KL , which was surprisingly organized by AFS Malaysia. Once I reached Ampang Park LRT Station I wasn’t quite sure where to go since it was my first time to the diplomatic part of KL where there were tall office buildings everywhere. After asking around I finally met up with the other German students, out of which I haven’t seen some for a very long time. Beeing Germans, we were relatively punctual,too punctual actually since we were asked to be there at 10,although the actual meeting started at 11.Once again, an information being spread incorrectly and way too late.
Anyways, once we had registered at the front desk we took the elevator up to the 26^th floor and entered the embassy. The security was quite tight but luckily we managed to get in without being x-rayed.
After a very theoretical, glued-to-facts-based opening speech by the Vice-ambassador we were left with Dr. Radtke, the head of the cultural department who was supposed to give us “further info”. Most of us were already counting the sheep at that time being told for quite a while how many Billions of Ringgit Trade Exchange Malaysia and Germany had last year.
Luckily the conversation that followed was more interactive, we were interviewed about our experience in Malaysia and also tried to submit some AFS-Ideas. The people there didn’t really seem to know anything about AFS so we had to start from the real basics, which were presented by our National Director Atty Sulaiman.
Some of us were shocked by the fact that we were attending a function without makan dan minum (food and drinks) which is basically impossible in Malaysia. The Coke bottles on the table that were filled with water also looked quite weird and displaced. I didn’t see the sticker ‘For illustration purposes only” but they must have hidden it somewhere. Charlotte was hoping to get to eat some German bread, but unluckily the bread the embassy orders once a week from an Austrian Bakery in KL already seemed to be finished up. Since the ambassador was not in and there was nothing else to do we were given a short tour through the premises. To be honest: It was nothing special,just like any other office, only the fact that every Roominfo was written in German and the people working were mainly blonde made it a bit special. As you can see on the photographs he has a very nice chair with a beautiful view of KLCC just by looking out of the window.
Well, that was basically our visit to the Embassy, after which we still lepak-lepak (hang around) in KL. For all of us it was not that special and unique as we expected it to be,since it was basically just a German office/ Rathaus in a foreign country. So especially the people who had traveled quite far like Luise from Johor (state neighbouring Singapore) and Charlotte from Kuantan.(Eastcoast)
A few hours later one of the worst things that can happen to you in KL happened to me:
I had to take the last train, since I’ve just missed the train before.The thing is you could write an whole encyclopedia about the Malaysian Railroadcompany KTM,whereby ¾ of the book would be about service or better to say ways to improve it.
Nevertheless after a day in KL which I haven’t been to for a while, I finally got a change to read the book about 50 years of German-Malaysian relations we were given at the embassy.
Now most of my questions I was asking myself before leaving for the embassy were answered and I got an idea what it’s like being a diplomat and an ambassador of Germany.

more pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/manuinmas/GermanEmbassy