Malaysian Moments

Those times when there is no explanation for what is happening other than the fact that I'm a foreigner living in a different land.

Moment #1: It shouldn't be news to anyone that we've moved into our new apartment! It's going GREAT! I love having a place to call my own, having all of my clothes neatly folded or hanging in place, a kitchen I can cook in, and everything else that goes with having your own place. Part of setting up a new home is spending lots of money! We've bought pots and pans, a wardrobe, bathmats, sheets, a mop, toilet paper, and the list goes on and on. One thing that took a while to buy was dishes. Now, my roommate is pretty easygoing and said she didn't have a preference on dishes, so I could pick them out. I thought this was awesome, not that I'm particularly particular about my dishes, but I I had an idea of what I was or wasn't looking for and wasn't sure I could articulate it.

Well, after a lot of patience, I got my dishes! I found one set I LOVED. Like, seriously. As soon as I saw them I wanted them, which doesn't happen often considering how indecisive I am. It was actually 2 sets, one in purple, one in gray. They were simple, yet classy. 20 piece sets (mugs, saucers, salad plates, dinner plates, and bowls for 4) which is exactly what I wanted. For whatever reason, here they sell all random sorts of sets, ex: 10 pieces - table setting for two people, 7 pieces - just enough for one person to have a feast, 12 pieces - two plates and a mug for 4 people, etc... weird. So, I was extremely excited to find these.

Malaysian style includes lots of floral... I wasn't feeling it. Lesson learned, sometimes it's good to be different. :)

I went to get them and there were no more boxed sets on the aisle, so I went to find someone for help. Here is our conversation:
Me: I want to buy these dishes.
Employee: Ok. (Looks around, sees that they're sold out.) No more.
Me: I know. Can I buy the display pieces?
Employee: No. No box.
Me: Can I put them in a bag?
Employee: (Stares at me smiling, points to other dishes). These are also 20 pieces. Take these.
Me: No, I don't like those. I want these two sets.
Employee: No barcode.
Me: Can you find a manager I can talk to?
10 minutes later comes back.
Employee: Nobody is here.
Me: Ok. Thank you. Bye.

I wasn't going to give up that easily. I went back the next night and everyone was busy stocking shelves so I didn't bother asking for help. I went back the NEXT day and asked for help. Pretty much the EXACT same conversation, so I gave up hope. My question for them, are the dishes just going to remain sitting there forever because you don't have a box or barcode?? SELL THEM TO ME, gosh darn it!

Yes, that's dust. CLEARLY these had been sitting here awhile waiting to be sold!

The following night, my roommate, 2 co-workers and I were in the store to buy a DVD player. I had told them the story about the dishes, and decided to show them the ones I was talking about. They urged me to give it one more try, with them there for moral support. The guy who we got to help us just happened to be the same one who had sold them their dishes and the guy I had talked to the previous night. He looked a little shocked/scared to see me and after lots of pleading by all of us, he said we could have them. He went to the back and got two big boxes and loaded them up. Then he grabbed a random barcode from another set of dishes and walked to the checkout with us. I was pretty ecstatic and ever so thankful!

These are actually dishes, not gas cartridges. Try explaining that one to a taxi driver!

Still love them every time I look at them!

Moment #2: A very popular thing in Malaysia is inclined or declined moving walkways in lieu of escalators. It's pretty nifty and helps me stay lazy. I'm assuming the main reason for them is so that people can easily take their carts from one level to another. It's great! Part of their design is even a specially patterned conveyor that holds carts in place to prevent them from sliding down the declined walkway. This is especially fantastic so the cart doesn't get away from you. Well, let me rephrase. It's fantastic when the sidewalk IS MOVING so that the cart doesn't get away from you. Last night, I was at the store (trying to buy dishes... argh) and wanted to grab some groceries on my way out. Groceries are downstairs. I was upstairs with a cart full of new house stuff (but no dishes). I pull up and see the downward walkway not moving and figure I'll just have to be extra careful not to let my cart get away from me. That was NOT a problem. I push it on and it stops abruptly. I try pushing it a little and it doesn't budge. I put my full force into it and it moves about a foot. I then continue to manually overpower the safety measures to get my cart downstairs. I was taking huge, lunging steps, pushing with my hips/arms/shoulders. I looked like a complete fool. Normally, not a big deal, I'm kind of used to it. In this case, though, there just happened to be a security guard standing directly at the bottom of the walkway on his walkie-talkie trying to get someone to fix it. He unashamedly stared at me man-handling my cart the entire way down without a word, smile, or offer to help. Thankfully, about halfway down, I heard an angelic voice behind me say, "Do you need help?" I turned around not really sure what to say, and managed to stammer out, "Yes, please." A random teenage girl and her boyfriend move around to the front of the cart and the three of us lift it off the ground and carry it to the bottom floor. I thank them once and then sped-walked away. Semi-embarrassing, but such is life. I'm always happy to provide some laughter to the lives of others.

The walkway has never felt so long....

3 Weeks and Still Learning...

I've been here 3 weeks today! WOW! Time is flying! We're going full force with meetings, I'm settled into my apartment and love it, have met lots of wonderful people... life is good!

In the short time I've been here, I've come to some conclusions & learned a lot about Malaysia. Take note.

- Sweating is a way of life here. Call it what you like (perspiring, glistening, or taking a natural shower) it's permanent and doesn't ever seem to end. It's nice in that it releases all of my endorphins, but it would be nice to just NOT sweat every once in a while.

- Most Malaysians' favorite pastime is shopping or hanging out at the mall. Not because they have tons of money or need a lot of stuff. Nope, primarily because malls provide free air conditioning to prevent aforementioned sweating. I must say, it does work... a little.

Because they're so frequented, they sure do dress up their malls nicely!

 - "Good hair days" don't happen here. At least not for me. I think I may have had ONE in the past three weeks. Maybe that's why mom gave us all bowl cuts before we moved to Indonesia?

All of the "good" pictures are in storage, but I was able to scrounge this one up off Facebook to give you an idea. I'm thinking of going back to this style (hair and clothes...), thoughts?

  - Jaywalking doesn't exist here. If there's a street that you need to cross and cars are or are not coming, go for it! There are some crosswalks and walk-overs, but those are only for the weak.

- The plugs/outlets in Malaysia are crazy. See for yourself. About 1/2 the time, the center piece is made out of plastic, so I'm pretty sure it's quite pointless. 

One of the MANY adapters I've had to buy since arriving. This one is 'universal' so I'm able to use it anywhere in the world.. or so they say!

One thing they did get right is that you can turn the power source on or off to all outlets. Hopefully it'll help us save some money on our electricity bill!

I've learned/observed/concluded a lot more, but that's all I can think of at the moment. More to come in the days, months, and years ahead!  

What is something that you've experienced or concluded over the past 3 weeks I've been here?

Home Sweet Home!

No more suitcases!! Last Wednesday we got the keys to our new apartment and immediately set to work CLEANING and unpacking! We've been there a week and I LOVE it! We still have a few things on the list to buy before I'll consider myself completely settled and "at home" (mostly decorations and 'extras'), but it's definitely liveable and it's so nice to have our own place. Here are some pictures from move-in day, so you get an idea of the space. As soon as I finish decorating I'll put up pictures of the "after". Hopefully it'll be all done by the end of the week because the focus for next week is getting ready for school!
 

Dining Room & Entryway. All of that has been cleaned out! It's nice and open!

Living Room & Patio

Guest Bedroom. We already have a double bed set up in there, hint, hint!

Another angle of the guest bedroom.

Susy's bathroom. Shower behind door.

Maids quarters. Aka, storage room because we can't afford a maid. :)

Maids bathroom. Aka, third bathroom because we can't afford a maid.

HUGE kitchen!! Lots of room for cooking and baking. Unfortunately, that 11" toaster oven you see is the extent of our baking resources...

Full-sized refrigerator. Definite bonus.

"Laundry Room"

Another view of the living room/entryway/dining room.

My bedroom with attached bathroom!

The rest of my bedroom. With brand new queen-sized matress!

My bathroom. Please notice the enclosed shower. Hallelujah!

So, there you have it! Lots of changes have already been made and more still to come. Pictures of the pool and other facilities coming soon!

Birthday #1

August 1st is my birthday. Since it's smack-dab in the middle of summer, it's always debatable where I'll be for it, who will be around to celebrate with me and what activity or event will be involved. I love my birthday and have had many amazing ones! Also, because of the "summer factor," it's not uncommon for me to have more than one party. When I was growing up, my parents would let me have a party on my half-birthday (February 1st) because my friends were in town (we went to an International School, everyone went home for the summer!), and then we'd have a family celebration the day of. You can never celebrate too much, right?

Nothing compares to fresh fruit in Asia!

This year was no exception, as I got 2 birthdays (3 if you count lunch at 5 Guys with Tim and Katie before I left, with Sweet Frog for dessert! I count it...!). On August 1st I was at the beach in Port Dickson, Malaysia with my family and we had a blast! I woke up at the crack of dawn because I was jet-lagging. I went to the resort restaurant and downed a fruit platter. By the time I got back, mom and dad were awake, so we sat on our laptops and got caught up on emails and other news. Gradually my sisters, and Amanda, and Julie started waking up and we headed out to the pool. After some elaborate synchronized swimming routines, we went to get brunch. About 2 hours later, we got our food. Thankfully we were on vacation, so this wasn't a problem and allowed for good conversation and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Mr. Ng is in the blue swim shirt. If only he'd learn his job!

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. It was a beautiful, empty beach. Unfortunately, there were no waves, so there wasn't a whole lot to do in the water, but it was fun nonetheless. When we got there, the tide was way out and a boat had gotten stuck on shore. We went to help push it in as we were headed out to swim. A few minutes later, the owner came and asked us if we wanted to go for a ride as a reward for helping. Of course we did! We piled in, he took us around and showed us how he puts his crab nets down and then took us on a little joyride!

A posed version of our human chain!

When we got back to shore, he threw in the anchor and asked us if we could help him look for the anchor that he had lost the previous day. We of course obliged (we had nothing else to do!) and formed a human chain to search the premises. A few minutes in, I came upon the end of a rope that looked to be tied to an anchor. Thinking this was about the spot we had just put the anchor in, I looked up and sure enough the boat was floating away! Everyone screamed to go stop it from getting stuck again, so I ran after it and started pulling. Much to my dismay, the boat was stronger than me and until Stacy, Amanda, and Mom came over, it kept drifting. Thankfully we kept it from getting stuck, and it suddenly became very clear how he had lost his previous anchor! We never did find it...

In case you're wondering, Mango Smoothies ARE the way to my heart.

We played in the water a little longer, then got out and went to the pool for a bit. Then we walked down to a different resort and got Mango smoothies (with chunks of real, fresh mango in them!) and played Skip Bo. After Amanda and Dad won, we walked back to our resort, showered up and went to another resort for my birthday dinner. It was a cozy little place and the waiter was by far the best I've ever had. He was literally running up and down stairs and all around the restaurant to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. At one point we asked him to turn down the fan and we honestly thought he was about to reach up and stop it with his bare hands.... all while wearing the biggest smile ever! Haha. His name was Mark. He was awesome. By the time dinner was over, my jet lag and all the sunrays had caught up with me and I was ready for bed as soon as we got home! Birthday #1 was a success!

Coming Soon.... The Tale of Birthday #2!

New Friends!

"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other gold." -Oldest quote ever

At Church last Sunday, I was introduced to three single ladies who work here in KL. One has been here 2 years, one has been here 4 months, and the third has been here 1 month. It was great talking to them, and as we were leaving, one of them invited me (and told me to invite my co-workers) to her birthday party on Wednesday. I thought this was a huge move because I'm pretty particular about my birthdays and don't know that I'd consider meeting someone I'd just met to one of my birthday parties! Haha.

So, Wednesday rolled around and she came to pick us up. She then drove us to a Craft Village in KL where we got to paint Batik. It was AWESOME! I don't know how I lived in Indonesia for 8 years and never did such a thing! When you show up at the place, they have some pieces of cloth already 'waxed' with patterns and such, or you can flip through pages and pages of notebooks to find one you like. Naturally, wanting the full experience, we each flipped through the books until we found a design that popped out at us. I got overwhelmed by all of the choices and so just quickly chose a flower design that I thought looked cool!

The ladies then take the design from you and set up your cloth so that it's easily traceable. Then, you trace the design onto the cloth with pencil.

The birthday girl is the one in the red (Kelli) and the girl in the pink on the end has only been here a month!

Once you've drawn the design how you want it, you give it back to the ladies, and they trace over it again, using wax this time. I thought it would've been awesome (and probably turned out terribly) if we'd gotten to do the wax, but maybe next time...! :)

It took me about 15 minutes to trace it in pencil. She had it waxed and back to me in like 4 minutes

Then, they give you a palette of different colored dyes (green, blue, magenta, purple, orange, yellow), some paint brushes, and some cups of water. You have the freedom to paint it as you wish! It was super stressful at first deciding how I wanted mine to look, but once I made up my mind, it was so fun! The dye absorbs into the fabric and goes on very easily, like watercolor, but doesn't cross the wax. It's pretty much fool-proof and even the least artistic of us made some pretty great looking pieces!

You can make the ink darker by layering it up, you can make it lighter by adding water, or you can make your own colors with the empty palette. I feel an Art lesson coming on for my little 1st graders! :)

 It's so addicting and when I finished mine I just wanted to grab another one and keep going! The cloth/wax/painting costs 15 Ringgit (US $5) and then you can get it "framed" with cardboard and covered with plastic for an extra 5 Ringgit (US $1.50). So, a 2-hour social event, with take-away product for less than $7 each? I'll take it!

It was pretty much just as intense as it looks.

My finished Batik!

While the cloths were drying, we went inside to look around the Craft Village. They have all kinds of crafts from all over Malaysia, and t-shirts, postcards, etc. They were also having a bonus Ramadan special bazaar with cookies, jewelry, scarves, and more. So, that kept us occupied for the 20 minutes they needed to finish our pictures! We went back, paid, picked them up, and now I have my first piece of artwork for my new apartment.... whenever we get that! :)

L to R: Susy (my roommate), Jalah (teacher at my school), Me!, Kelli (birthday girl), Jennifer (been here a month), Londie (been here since May)

After the Craft Village, Kelli drove us to the pastor's house for her birthday dinner. She's from New Mexico, so the cuisine was Mexican. Oh how I've missed my chips and salsa! :) Yum!

Yummy chicken tacos, followed by a Rice Krispy Treat birthday cake!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like School!

Summer is my favorite, hands down. But, being a teacher, there is always a certain level of excitement when September starts nearing. This year is definitely no exception as I'm about to endure some HUGE changes from the past three years! Obviously, I'm in a different country. I'm teaching at a brand new school. My class size is about 1/12th the size it was last year. I'm moving from 4th grade to 1st/2nd. Need I continue?

However, a lot of my feelings are the same. I went shopping last week and bought some little baskets for my books which got me really excited. Decorating a classroom to start a new year can be quite fun!

That's my classroom! Can you see why I'm excited to get it decorated?

And the other side...

Then, I came into the school office and saw all of our brand new textbooks laying out and got even more excited.... and a little nervous. I flipped open the reading textbook to Unit 1 and suddenly realized I have NO idea what I'm doing with the little kids! Haha. I did my student teaching in 1st grade, but a) it was the Enrichment Class, so they all knew how to read, and b) I didn't start in there until halfway through the school year, so they DEFINITELY all knew how to read. I have a feeling I'm in for a little bit of a wake-up call! Thankfully, my class size is TINY, so I should be able to give PLENTY of attention to each student. Heck, they'll probably be reading than my 4th graders by the time I'm done with them! :)

How many boxes would it take to mail an entire set of Reading textbooks from the US to Malaysia?

One sentence per page! Oooooh boy!

This is only the Reading books.. and only half of them, at that!

As with any new experience, there are also the feelings of anticipation, questioning, uncertainty, joy, and so many others. I know this school year is going to be VERY unique and unlike any that I have had before, and possibly will ever have again.We're definitely taking it one day at a time and are all in this together!

We started our meetings today to discuss things like schedule, curriculum, and the other details that we've been in the dark about. We'll also start planning this week and get to get into our rooms to start decorating and organizing! I'm excited to get back on a schedule, and since we move in to our new apartment tomorrow, I have a feeling I'm going to be exhausted for the next few days! I hear the pool calling my name for this weekend!

Minus Jalah and I, there's our whole staff!

Baby Fever!

This post doesn't really have anything to do with my move, but today is my sister-in-law's birthday, so this is a shout out to her! 

It seems everywhere I look and all over my Facebook, all I see is pregnancy! In my family alone, Katie is pregnant, my cousin is pregnant, and one of my second cousins is pregnant!

Tim and Katie's baby is due mid-September. It just so happened that she was ready for maternity photos right before I left. Now, I love photography. I love looking at pictures, being in pictures, and taking pictures. I bought myself an SLR camera with my tax refund 2 years ago and am still trying to figure out how to use it. Thankfully, Tim and Katie have successfully followed the "American Dream Timeline" and I've been able to use them as my subjects for "engagement" pictures (2 years after they were married), "buying a new house" pictures, "first Christmas together" pictures, "baby announcement" pictures, and other random shoots. They're by far my favorite (possibly only?) clients and I'm always VERY happy when the pictures turn out the way they're supposed to and Tim and Katie both approve! :) Here are some of my favorites from July 28th.

**Note, I know less about editing pictures than I do about taking them, so don't judge me if my "S-Curve" isn't just right or what not!!**

 

Dear Baby Benjamin, You have a lot of choices ahead of you in this life, so your daddy already went ahead and picked your favorite football team for you. You're welcome. Love, Auntie Steph

Classic. You'd be surprised how much work it was to actually get it to look like a heart!

She has the cutest belly ever!!

Reason # 24,567 that they're my favorite clients: They're so good-looking and photogenic!

Reason #25,212 that they're my favorite clients: They do goofy poses all the time and we have a jolly ole time!

Tim was actually the brains behind this shot! My skills are rubbing off on him!

$10 says Mom cries when she sees this picture.

Best Parents Ever! (Minus mine, of course!)

Coincidence that we were dressed the same? I think not!

Amazing what you can do with a brick wall.

Can't wait to meet the munchkin who fills those teeny shoes!

Big Sister getting ready for Little Brother! It took a few tries to get her to not eat the shoes!

Anyone else want to join my clientele?