Thursday....

Today was a very busy day for us. First of all it was Donna's B-day!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON!!!
and of course our trip to Malacca.

The day started with us getting on the bus at 8 in the morning and arriving at Politeknik Malacca (2 hours later). We were then given a very warm welcome by the art and culture club who performed a traditional local dance called sapid. It was one of the best welcomes we have received yet. After all the introductions we sat down at 'Mock Restaurant' where we were again wined and dined with traditional Malay food. After everyone had eaten their fill the team sat in a boardroom and were presented a speech about the politeknik from the director himself Arshad Bin Kassim. Once all presentations had been done we were again whisked off to eat more traditional food. As we dined in 'Restaurant Crystal' we were further entertained by more traditional dancing called the Java dance as well as having a band play traditional music 'Dondang Sayang' (love song or dear song). Before long we had to move on to our next destination, Malacca city.

Once arriving in Malacca city we were welcomed by all things historical. 'Richman' showed us around the old dutch settlement (what was left of them any way) and tombstones. After we had enjoyed history at its greatest we were rewarded with a tricycle ride!!!!
(I have to admit that I did feel rather important)
After a good trike tour around Malacca we were dropped off infront of the oldest chinese temple in Malaysia. It was an absolutely spectacular sight!!
It was amazing watching the priest or monk pray and make music.

When everyone had finished looking at the magnificent temple, a chill out session was well due. Before long it was time for dinner, which was a fusion of chinese and malay (and very yummy..especially the cake)

So that pretty much wrapped up our day, just want to say thank you to Politeknik Malacca, Richman and HAPPY 19TH DONNA!!!!!

Home soon, missing you
Megan

LAST DAY OF WORK!

Hello!!

I'm sure we all have mixed emotions about today! We have finished our training at the hotel! Today I worked in in Banquets, however the day was extremely quiet so I folded napkins. Don't feel too sorry for me, I got an early mark and finished at 12pm so Holiday mode ahead!

The last three weeks have definately been eventful, challanging, fun and educational. Id like to thank the associates for trying their best to keep us busy and teach us what they know.

My favourite department was conceierge as the people were extremely friendly and genuinely loved their job! I will take home an extended knowledge and no doubt a few new friends :)

My computer time is almost off! so i will end in saying thanks for the experience!

peace.

Photos from KL

Tuesday By Di

Hi All,

Today was our second last day of work experience at the Renaissance. I had the pleasure of spending the day in the HR department, the morning was spent with Ron learning the inns and outs of the Marriott training procedures, including the AMAZING website, all about passport to success and information on legislation and the Malaysian Gov schemes for training - companies in Malaysia are required to pay a percentage of their labour costs into a fund which they then can access to use for training and training equipment, what a great way to ensure the country has continuous training for its employed!
The afternoon consisted of a run down on the other HR departmental areas from Lim Chui Fung the KL Renaissance HR Manager, the required steps taken by Marriott when recruiting staff, industrial disputes, staff activities, team building events, annual leave and public holidays. I was impressed with learning more in depth about the activities going on in the HR department and thank the staff for sharing their knowledge and time (very busy people) with me.
Sommer and Donna participated in an official signing ceremony, and the other girls worked on concierge, club lounge, events and Temptations.
Tonight was spent by the girls, shopping (those of us who have any money left!!), fish foot spas and relaxing around the hotel.
Tomorrow is our last day working before we have a few days of tourist activities and then home to the Goldie. There are mixed emotions from the girls as most are missing home and loved ones - but at the same time its hard not to enjoy the hotel, activities, city of KL and all that comes with it!
Jumpa Lagi

Sunday Is Fun Day By Andy

Still having technical problems with my account so using Lucy's once again.....

Sunday, 13th december 2009

After a much needed sleep in we started the morning off with a nice big breakfast in TEMPtationS restaurant with the girls. We than ventured out to do some more shopping, believe it or not, some of us still have it in us!.
Returning to the hotel at lunch time we all rested for a few hours until it was time to be picked up at 3pm.
It took us just over an hour to reach our first destination which saw us feeding silver haired monkeys by hand. After spending an hour with these cute, little creatures we were off again to dine by river side at a seafood restaurant where we saw the beautiful sun set as we feasted on a banquet fit for a queen!
Rolling our way to the bus we took another half hour bus ride to see the fire flies, putting our life jackets on as we saw them by boat, by boat we are talking about 1 poor man, paddling 4 of us ladies up and down the river, watching these amazing creatures that look like lights on a christmas tree. Did you know that there are only 3 places left in the world you can witness them, Here in KL,Brazil and not too far from home New Zealand.As it started to rain we made our way back to land and back to the bus for the long ride home. Exhausted, we all had a early night, ready for work today!

Can't wait to come back to aussie... see you all soon!

Andy
xxxx

Good times!

Diana, Donna, Sommer and I worked in Temptations Buffet today, and as usual the staff were great. They are always polite and very willing to teach us anything we want to learn. We started at 7:30am this morning, which proved to be quite difficult to get out of bed. That 9:30am Aussie time, it's going to be hard to rise early again when I come back home.
Everybody is enjoying the sights, shopping, and food in KL. However we are all missing our families and friends. I can't wait to eat steak and chips when I get back.
Tomorrow will be the first day Diana, Megan and myself will be working in the Events department. We have been looking forward to this very much. It will be a great experience to see how the events come together before they are turned over to the Banquets department.

Saturday12th

Today we all where off to the sky bridge. We all gathered in the lobby around 10am to walk to the patrona towers, once we got there we followed the signs to the where we would have had toline up for hours but thanks to tourism malaysia they had organised us all tickets for the days so wewere given straight access.

We sat through a 3D short video,explaining how malaysia and the towers were constructed. It was a very insightful video. We then forwarded into the large elevator and it took less than 45 seconds to get to the skybridge. Once there the views were amazing. We took numerous photos from either side of the deck. The park below was beautifully decorated with ponds, pools, play grounds and fountains. We didnt know how much was there until we saw it from a birds eye view.

After the sky bridge we all rested until work at 3pm. We were all given special working clothing that did not fit us at all,which was hilarious when the shoulder pads made us look like we were incredibly broad. We worked another wedding and a few of us were chosen to present the first course to the bridal table. It was so excited for us. After about 9pm we all were getting tired and found that there was nothing much else to do. But we powered on to 11pm and then had a Mcdonalds

fest in our rooms.

And then we went to bed and slept like rocks.

Donna :)