Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Last weekend, we had some staff from the home office (in Mississippi!) visit us here in KL. Dennis is the VP of the organization and Susan works in the recruitment and hiring office. Since our school is brand new, we're expecting it to grow exponentially. As such, Susan wanted some information and a feel for KL to be able to pass on to future recruits. We (the Coopers and I) decided the best way to see the city was on the Hop On, Hop Off tour. You pay 38 Ringgit (US $13) and get a ticket for 24-hour access to the buses. They take you around the city to 23 different stops and if it looks like something that interests you, you can Hop Off. Whenever you're done exploring, you just Hop On the next bus that comes by! It provides a very cumulative view of the capital city and provides some history and information along the way. It's not for the faint of heart, though, because the bus ride itself (without getting off at any stops) is 2.5 hours! With only taking about 1/2 of the stops, it took us a solid six or so hours!

The tour itself is fun, but since we like to go above and beyond in the fun department, the Coopers had the grand idea to make a movie about our day. Clay has the iMovie app on his iPad and learned that trailers are quite fun and easy to make. Since we were going to be hopping all over the hot spots of the city, we decided to go with a Carmen Sandiego theme. For those of you not fortunate to understand what that means, I mourn your lack of childhood. For the rest of you, you can understand how torturous my day was with a single line of  the "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" theme song on repeat in my head for over six hours. :)

I'm not sure I'll get hired back for the actual movie that is supposed to follow this trailer. It's very hard to keep from laughing when you're dodging in and out of short Asian tourists.

Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/Pk-yBTNR_5Y

Let's Go to the Movies!

Malaysia does have some downfalls, but overall it's a pretty spectacular place to live. It has many attributes and advances of a modern culture, but people aren't consumed in it and life isn't solely focused on being bigger and better. As a result, the cost of living is pretty low, which works out nicely given my profession. :)

A perfect example of what I'm getting at can be found in the cinemas. Let me explain...

*We're advanced enough to have theaters. The theaters are on par with the ones in the states. They have big cushy chairs, big screens, surround sound, IMAX, 3D, air conditioning, etc... In fact, in the two months that I've been here, the movie theater is the only place I've found so far where it's cold enough for a sweatshirt!

*We're advanced enough to show the big Hollywood releases at the same time (or 12 hours before due to time zones!!) as the USA. Since I've been here I've seen The Amazing Spiderman 3D and The Bourne Legacy in theaters. There were others that I've wanted to see, but time got away from me and they were out of theaters before I got around to it!

*We're advanced enough to serve popcorn, nachos, hot dogs and regular movie theater snacks. This is a major plus. There are not a lot of places where you can find "American" snacks. And not only do they make them, but they make them GOOD! Instead of selling popcorn that instantly clogs your arteries and is so drenched in butter you almost have to drink it, they make a caramel-y popcorn with a hint of salty. It's SO yummy!

*It doesn't cost you your first born child to see a movie and get snacks. I got a movie ticket (with assigned seats so you don't have to elbow your way through the crowds or show up 45 minutes early), a large drink, and a large popcorn for $7 US total. Which, if my memory serves me correctly, is approximately the price of one small popcorn in the states. Also, I got a cool Thor popcorn bucket to add to my collection. Double bonus? :)

*Malaysians care more about function than fashion. We saw Spiderman 3D. It was an enjoyable movie. It was made more enjoyable by the fact that we were laughing through the entire thing because the 3D glasses reminded us more of snorkel masks than glasses. Haha! They were huge! But they worked!

The Start of Something New

 September 3, 2012 marked the opening day of Northstar Learning Center in Malaysia! It was a day full of joy and happiness. Many of the families with students attending our school have been waiting and praying for this school to open for around 3 years! It was such a privilege to be able to be a part of it and feel the support and love from everyone.

Our director was kind enough to make the first day a half day and it was such a blessing. First days of school are always quite awkward since the students are still half-asleep, shy, nervous, and uncertain of how this year is going to go. Although we ended our day at noon, I was still EXHAUSTED by the end because I wasn't been able to sleep well the night before due to nerves and excitement, and 5- and 6-year-olds suck the energy right out of you!

1st Day of School Class Picture!

It was quite a drastic change going from twenty-six 4th graders to five K-2nd graders. I could tell from day one that I was going to have a fantastic, but challenging year. Most of the students at our school have been home-schooled for their whole educational career, so we're starting at square one with school etiquette. Also, even though I only have 5 students, they range from very beginning Kindergarten reading to advanced 2nd grade! Similar ranges in Math. That's a lot of planning!

When we brought the kids down to the cafeteria for dismissal, we were greeted by balloons, posters, snacks, gift bags, and all of the parents. It was quite incredible... and quite different from any of my past teaching years where parent involvement was not the greatest. Two weeks in and we still see and hear from the parents often and it's wonderful!

Rice Krispy Treats and Muffins? They tasted even better than usual since baked goods are so few and far between here!

It's still tough waking up before the sun every morning, but working at such a marvelous place, with such magnificent people definitely makes me one happy girl!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

School is going full swing and it's amazing! It's been ridiculously busy due to some unforeseen circumstances and just the start of a school year in general, but it's great. It's quite the adjustment moving down to Kindergarten/1st Grade from 4th grade. These kids are SO little and need to be constantly entertained! Their assignments take them approximately 5 minutes and then they're moving on to something else! Not a big deal when we've gotten into a centers routine, but for now it's exhausting!!
However, a major perk is that my kids are hilarious. Now, my kids in previous years have been funny also (see all the posts from the past 3 years!), but these kids are so innocently hilarious that I can't help but smile all day.
Case in point, the conversation I got the opportunity to take part in today... We had just come in from recess and we were sitting in a circle on the carpet. One of my boys, I'll call him E, (the tiniest kid in my class, but has the facial expressions/demeanors of a 25-year-old) raised his hand. I called on him and it all began.
E: "Can I tell the whole class something? It's not funny, but they're all going to laugh and that's ok."
Me: "Ok. Go ahead."
E: "I'm really sad because I've just been trying to get a girlfriend for so many years." (Author's note: He's 5.)
Me: "Don't be sad. Girls are trouble."
E: "They're not trouble for me. I just really want a girlfriend."
Classmate #1: "Sometimes girlfriends will be cutting potatoes and scream like she cut her finger. Then the boy rushes in to help her and she was just joking."
Me: "Yeah, girls can be tricky."
E: "That's ok."
Classmate #2: "And sometimes girls want you to buy them clothes and jewelry and they will use all your money.
E: "I don't care. I can empty my bank account on her!" (Again, he's FIVE!)
Classmate #3: "Sometimes girlfriends slap their boyfriends." (Ok??)
E: "I don't care. She can do anything she wants to me and have all of my money. I just really want a girlfriend."

Haha. He kept the most serious, 'feel sorry for me' face the entire time this was happening. If it wasn't so funny and he wasn't 5-years-old, I might have felt sorry for him. Turns out he has a crush on a 3rd grader and when he saw her at recess it brought over him a flood of emotions. This is the same kid who wrote that God was his best friend on the "All About Me" survey I sent home, so I told him to pray about it. Haha. How's that for a teacher solution? (Found out later that he primarily wrote that answer because "We're learning about God in school, so I wrote that down because I thought my teacher would like it." Haha!)

I LOVE them! Situations like this happen all throughout my day and keep me on my toes. It's so refreshing to know that despite all the other crazy drama happening all around, these little guys are still able to worry about girlfriends and best friends.

More to come on school later, hopefully this weekend when I have some time to breathe. Sorry for the scarcity of posts lately!

Happy 55th Birthday, Malaysia!

History lesson for the day:
On August 31, 1957, the Union Jack (British Flag) was lowered in Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and the Malaysian flag was raised for the first time.

That was exactly 55 years ago. Today is Independence Day and boy, did we make it a good one!

Before the first glimmer of sunlight, my alarm went off and I forced myself out of bed. (It's going to be a real snap back to reality to wake up that early every day next week!!) Took a quick shower, ate a quick breakfast, and called a cab to head over to the train station. I figured with it being a holiday, they might be sparse, but he was here within 3 minutes and I was out the door! I headed to the train station to meet the Coopers to head into town for the parade.

Did I mention it was still dark when I got to the train station? Ugh. But that didn't stop the party from starting!

The only thing anyone told us about the parade was that it would be crowded. None of the other expatriates (non-Malaysians) we've talked to have ever ventured to it, so we were not really sure what to expect. I mistakenly commented to Jalah that I expected them to come decked out in their Malaysia wear so we would blend in, and they sure did! They had bought matching Malaysia soccer jerseys in Chinatown a few weeks ago, so of course had to wear them. Let me just go ahead and mention that this did NOT help us blend in!!

When we got to our stop, we got off the train and started following the swarms of people. As soon as we were out on the street we heard crazy amounts of air horns blowing, car horns honking, people yelling, and saw hundreds of flags waving. As we neared the parade route, it looked a little like mass chaos. People were everywhere, including all up and down the parade route! There were MULTIPLE times throughout the day where one of us made the comment, "This is the most confusing parade I've ever been to!"

The sights we saw upon arrival: Kids all over the parade route, flags, and Malaysians.

Apparently, the parade started out with a 45 minute presentation of famous people and inspirational speeches. Of which we could understand about 3 words. We stood there for about 30 minutes, then decided to go get a free flag, and two minutes later the parade started. Of course we had had a great, up close spot and by the time we got back we were forced to the back... Figures. Once the actual parade started moving, it was quite entertaining, although we could only see about half of it and got sore calves and strained necks from doing so! It was PACKED... and hot! :)

The parade format was similar to one in America, but the content was quite different. Started with a good old fashioned marching band... (**Note: Sorry for the poor pictures, they were mostly blind shots taken from 2 feet above my head!**)

Old fashioned because they were marching and playing music, new fashioned because they were wearing skirts and pants.

There was a (singular) float...

Not sure what the float was for or who was on it, but it was the only one!

 There was a (singular) giant helium balloon...

That is definitely not Snoopy!

There were LOTS and LOTS of flags...

There was the entire Malaysian Military. We seriously saw more than 15 different groups of soldiers march past us. Each wearing a different uniform. All carrying huge guns. It's a good thing there wasn't a war going on outside of Independence Square because I'm pretty sure EVERY soldier was in the parade!

Yes, there were groups of all women. All with huge guns.

 

Seriously. SWAT Team and everything!

 There were about 15 minutes of taxis. Of course, we were less than impressed because this is just an everyday sighting around town!

There were 2 fly-overs... 

Those might be the only 5 helicopters Malaysia owns? Jury's still out on that one.

And there were horses. Now, if you'll notice, these horses were not wearing blinders. I, myself, am not an equestrian, but I do have common sense enough to know that horses without blinders in confined spaces surrounded by thousands of people and loud noises is not the best idea ever. True to their horsely form they were quite skiddish, some of them were bucking, others were constantly turning around/walking sideways/walking backwards, and all were pooping. This concluded the parade.

Notice, no blinders.

However, the partying had only just begun. After the official parade ends, Malaysians like to create their own sort of parade. Everyone gathered in the street and starting walking towards Independence Square, so we followed. It took us longer than everyone else to get there, though, because of course we had to stop every 3 minutes to take pictures with random strangers. The Coopers WERE matching, so I guess I can see why people thought they were celebrities. :)

We walked around the square for a while soaking in all of the patriotism and culture. There was lots of chanting, lots of people, and even more pictures being taken of us. After our cheeks started hurting, we decided it was time to get some food. (It was only 10:00, but we had already been awake for 4 hours!! Haha. The tough life of teachers on summer vacation!)

People and flags EVERYWHERE! It was impossible not to feel Malaysian.

On the way back to the train station, we saw a man selling Merdeka (Independence) headbands, so of course we bought them. I mean, we weren't going to get any fewer stares without them, so might as well live it up, right?

Jalah: "I feel like Malaysia threw up on me!"

Tonight the skies are sure to be filled with fireworks (they have been about 3/4ths of the nights... and days.. that we've been here, so that's a very fair assumption!). In two weeks we get a day off school to celebrate Malaysia Day which commemorates Malaysia becoming a Federation or something. It's a day off. I'll take it.

1Month Down, ___ More to Go!

I arrived in Malaysia on July 30th. Exactly 1 month ago today. On one hand it feels like I was JUST in Virginia tubing down the river with my friends. On the other hand, it feels like those days were SO long ago. Since school hasn't started yet, the past month has been all focused on setting up an apartment, getting acclimated to the climate and culture, and (recently) preparing for the new school/class/grade level. Without any real structure to my days, some seem to drag on, while others seem to evaporate! I'm at the stage right now where I'm tired of planning and organizing and sticky-tacking (that's right, no bulletin boards!), anxious and excited to meet my new class of smiling faces (however small the class and students might be!), and yet trying to soak up every last minute of freedom and relaxation I can find! Just one more weekend stands between me and the end of summer 2012. Thankfully, it can go down in history as one of my favorites and most unique!

Here's to many more months of Malaysia!

Baking: Malaysia Edition

I love to bake. If you've known me for any amount of time, that shouldn't be a surprise. Hopefully you've gotten the chance to taste my brownies, cookies, or some other concoction and lived to tell about it!

So, enter new chapter of my life... living as an adult in Asia. I was so excited to move into my new apartment to have the opportunity to make some meals at home. Now, granted, it's just as cheap and a whole lot easier to eat out every meal, but it definitely loses it's appeal quickly. I moved in to our apartment on Wednesday, August15th, my roommate moved in that Friday, and we finally sat down to our first home-cooked dinner on Monday, August 20th. We had a scrumptious Spaghetti dinner. It appeared all was well with the world.

Well, the next day I discovered my bananas had seen better days, so naturally I decided to put them to use in banana bread. And that's when we discovered some of the Asian challenges of baking.

Challenge #1: Recipe. In the States, I had a whole collection of recipe books and a ton of recipes printed off that I had tried and liked. Here I had nothing... including internet. So, I took a trip to my school, googled some banana bread recipes that looked yummy, and realized there was no printer I could use. Good thing I have such lovely teacher penmanship.
I was proactive in the fact that I had been craving chocolate chip cookies, and went ahead and copied down that recipe while I was at it. Oh, did I mention I had to make sure I copied down everything in Metric AND Customary units because I hadn't bought measuring cups yet and had no idea what I'd find? Right, well, I did.


Challenge #2: Grocery Shopping. From the office, I went out to buy a banana bread pan and the rest of the ingredients. Easier said than done. Did you know that Baking Soda is actually "Soda Bicarbonate"? I didn't until I could only find Soda Bicarbonate at the store and decided to bring it home and try it out! Thankfully, the rest of the stuff was reasonably easy to find and called familiar names.


Challenge #3: Mixing. As expected, I needed to metric measurements... and the customary ones... and the Japanese ones? Wasn't planning on that one! Apparently measuring SPOONS are not a hot commodity here and so the ones I bought just happened to be from Japan. The sizes looked reasonable and the funny writing on them looked Chinese, so I figured my roommate could decipher for me. Well, it wasn't Chinese, but she has studied some Japanese, so was able to decipher. Her translation of the writing: "Big Size." "Small Size." "Smallest Size." Um, not helpful? Thankfully, my mom is a professional 'eyeballer' when it comes to dumping ingredients into a recipe, so I prayed I had inherited that gene and started at it. The measuring CUPS I bought were customary measurements, so those were very familiar. And then, of course, the butter was measured in grams. But, I eventually got it all mixed up and looking/tasting like some banana bread batter, so I greased the pan and dumped it in!

Challenge #4: Baking. Ovens aren't a thing here. People don't bake. It's hot and ovens heat up the house. Most meals are fried. It's super cheap and easy to eat out. Ovens aren't a thing here. But, we have a toaster oven! Thankfully we had one at my house back in Newport News, so I was semi-familiar with them, but had never used one for baking baking. Set the temperature to 175*C, put the pan in, set the timer, and started praying! It started out slow (probably because I didn't preheat!), but 75 minutes later, I had some banana bread!

I hadn't preheated the oven, which is why I think it took a little longer to bake than expected and didn't get quite as brown, but it still tastes yummy!

The next day, I did get around to making my chocolate chip cookies. Same sort of challenges, but they turned out scrumptious! Also, because I can only bake 4 at a time, I decided to refrigerate the dough and so now I can A) have chocolate chip cookie dough whenever I want it and B) have fresh-baked homemade chocolate chip cookies ready in 10 minutes whenever I want them! NOW who wants to visit?

They don't come in a bag and I'm not sure they're actually chocolate. But they're yummy!

 

Perfection?