tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38619698457800251242024-03-13T23:01:17.428+08:00ikut akufollow meUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-44700480367767897782011-05-24T00:10:00.000+08:002011-05-24T00:10:38.631+08:00raindrops on palm treesYesterday, I decided to drive to Sekayu Waterfalls on my scooter before dinner. I figured it should only be about a 20 minute drive (about 15 km away), so I set off around 5pm for a mini-adventure.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p7ACsrnyRFA/Tdp3Y-eHAzI/AAAAAAAAATo/6tgxK6j9Rco/s1600/Sarah%2527s+Malaysia+021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p7ACsrnyRFA/Tdp3Y-eHAzI/AAAAAAAAATo/6tgxK6j9Rco/s320/Sarah%2527s+Malaysia+021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Thank you, mother nature, for making my outing particularly... wet. That's right - about 15 minutes into my drive, it started POURING and of course I was sans raincoat in a T-shirt and black leggings. For approximately 30 seconds I had the bold idea to "tough it out" and just drive through the rain, but when the drops started to feel like bullets and zooming over puddles started to feel like fording small rivers, I decided to wait it out under a covered carport on the side of the road. <br />
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I should have anticipated this, but the rain turned into a downpour and then thunder and lightening got involved... turns out I didn't need to drive all the way to Sekayu to experience a waterfall after all. Suddenly I was really wishing I had decided to curl up with a book back at school rather than venture out on my scooter.<br />
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That's the risk you take every day in Malaysia though - monsoon season is apparently supposed to end in January, but it has rained nearly every day since I've been here (even if the rain shower is only for a few minutes). My students naturally attribute this unusual weather to the earthquake in Japan (?), the ever-impending Doomsday, or "maybe" global warming... all I know is that rain here is generally a mixed bag: on one hand, it really does cool things down, but on the other, you can find yourself stranded with your scooter in the middle of a thunderstorm, the duration of which could be minutes or days.<br />
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Lessons learned:<br />
a) never leave your <a href="http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/231906998/Electric_Scooter_raincoat.jpg">raincoat</a> at home <br />
b) ...but life might be <a href="http://worldhistorymakers.net/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/rain1.jpg">a little more fun</a> if you do.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-74937275243196254942011-04-05T00:31:00.001+08:002011-04-05T00:38:20.632+08:00suddenly it's april<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sorry about the month-long (yikes!) absence of updates... things have certainly been busy around here! Among other things, I took a trip to Indonesia, went to a Malaysian wedding celebration, visited an elephant sanctuary, participated in the annual Imtiaz cross country race, and bought a scooter! Details to come...</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For now, check out an <a href="http://www.wineandfoodtravel.com/travel/delinquent-dining-in-bali-a-locavore-goes-rogue/">article</a> I wrote about eating my way through Bali!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-1736208141237314372011-03-07T01:13:00.000+08:002011-03-07T01:13:18.477+08:00a treasure from the kuala berang night market<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">After seeing these last week at the KB Tuesday night market (yea, I'm a regular), I hereby declare that all chicken nuggets should be heart-shaped. And they should come on happy little skewers like these.</span><br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K-bQOoDFIOc/TXO27kAGB-I/AAAAAAAAATg/ACAyaHDz8Ik/s1600/feb.march+065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K-bQOoDFIOc/TXO27kAGB-I/AAAAAAAAATg/ACAyaHDz8Ik/s320/feb.march+065.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just wanted to share, because the last time chicken nuggets made me smile I think I was eight years old. After the past few years of transitioning from a non-discerning carnivore to ovolactopescetarian to careful omnivore to eater-of-all-things-but-especially-rice, things have come full circle and I can say with confidence that I will henceforth unquestionably eat anything in the shape of a heart - even if there are parts of a chicken in these things that I'm probably not even aware is edible... </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm not sure what Michael Pollan's stance on heartitarianism is (or will be... you know, once it catches on...) but if people can claim that an egg tastes better when it comes from a happy chicken, it's just as valid to point out that heart-shaped food is simply more delicious than food in any other shape.</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">To all the moms who use heart-shaped cookie cutters on their kid's PB&J in the morning, you should know: Malaysia's got your back.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-47765890614441642462011-03-02T21:40:00.001+08:002011-03-05T16:57:03.329+08:00the art of multitasking<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Behold! My bathroom:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ugEhN2QemUA/TW5GX07ThMI/AAAAAAAAATc/n6axZeS8NOc/s1600/Copy+of+feb2+050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ugEhN2QemUA/TW5GX07ThMI/AAAAAAAAATc/n6axZeS8NOc/s320/Copy+of+feb2+050.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Did I write bathroom? Because it’s actually a walk-in dishwasher. And by walk-in dishwasher, I mean shower. Just kidding! It’s actually the laundry room. With a toilet.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Besides giving you a small glimpse into my daily surroundings, I’d like this picture to serve as a representation of the uncanny ability of Malaysians not only to multitask, but also to repurpose. These days, I know you can’t turn on NPR for two seconds (or maybe even exist for two seconds) without hearing somebody somewhere using trendy enviro-buzzwords like “sustainability”, “eco-chic”, or “carbon footprint”. The first month or so that I was here in Malaysia, it made me angry to find out that no one here recycles, and that the use of plastic bags is - all jokes aside - OUT OF CONTROL. But my general frustration has alleviated upon slowly realizing that rather than throw things in a recycle bin, Malaysians would simply prefer to just find a new use for something when they’ve exhausted its original function. Likewise, they see the value in using things simultaneously for different purposes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why <i>not </i>wash your dishes while you shower? And do laundry at the same time? And maybe even pee! When one small room has the ability to offer so many services, the distinctly American need for a separate room in the house for every little thing seems excessive. I mean seriously: “mud room”? A room for mud then, or something? And “living room” – as if the rest of the house wasn’t suitable for living in? Some people still have a “sitting room” or “drawing room”… I don’t even know what that means. Or the “study”… Malaysians know better than anyone that studying can (AND SHOULD) be conducted anywhere and anytime (meaning all places all the time… gotta get those A’s!). And don’t even get me started on “breakfast nook”… The bottom line is, it is exactly this quintessential American excess that gives my students the idea that I have seven cars at home, am related to Selena Gomez, and have a personal Big Mac delivery service. If my house in America has a breakfast nook, surely I MUST live next door to Taylor Swift.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other things Malaysians repurpose:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rice <i>– not just for dinner!</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Actually, nasi (rice) isn’t just for lunch either. Actually, it’s not just for breakfast, lunch, and dinner… it’s for dessert too! Nasi is incredibly plentiful and affordable here, and it is part of EVERY meal. Even when I thought I was having a different kind of starch when I was eating <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l659qjtsnP1qbivsh.jpg">kway teow</a>, I later found out that the noodles are actually made with rice flour. Sometimes the nasi is pressed together and cut into cubes. This makes eating rice a slightly different chewing experience, but it fundamentally remains the same product. Sometimes the rice is blue, sometimes it’s yellow, and sometimes it’s just plain white. And those weird <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_LNaQuBlSf8Y/TQENMA4WyfI/AAAAAAAARCU/68gGA_MpEZE/jello%20layers%20party%20tray_thumb.jpg">multicolored jelly desserts</a> here? Yea, they’re made from rice. Those little glutinous <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3zqaiFE0A1qbivsh.jpg">coconut-filled balls</a>? Nasi is the main ingredient. Any way you look at it, you’re going to eat rice approximately every 4 hours here. Period. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Motorbikes<i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ok, so I have to give Malaysians some credit in the transportation department: they use public transportation a LOT, and not many people have cars (a basic sedan here costs around 100,000-150,000RM, equivalent to $30,000-$50,000 – yikes!). Instead, they have motorbikes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I may have mentioned that I really (REALLY) want to buy a motorbike, but my request has been met with various forms of opposition and “maybe later”s, but I’m pretty confused as to why, because almost everyone here has one. By purchasing one of my own, I would simply be participating in the cultural exchange that Fulbright so frequently promotes. Anyways, motorbikes aren’t just for zipping on down to the 7-11. No… they are the Malaysian family vehicle. It is not unusual when I’m walking around Kuala Berang to see a motorbike with not one… not two… but in fact four people riding it: typically two adults, each holding onto an infant or small child. You heard it here first: motorbikes are the new baby strollers. Here in Malaysia, motorbikes are also:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: small;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>An excuse to scream across the road whatever you please. Normally, if I’m within 50 yards of anything, it’s “Mat Salleh! HALLOOO DVD MOVIE JUSTIN BEIBER HOW ARE YOU” (translation: White foreigner! LET ME TELL YOU ALL THE ENGLISH WORDS I KNOW!). When in a car, Malaysians practice vocal restraint, but out in the open air, anything goes!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: small;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>A place to nap</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: small;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>A form of exercise. Instead of going for a jog or a bike ride, from what I can tell, many Malaysians just prefer to take their moto out for a spin. Maybe it tones the wrists or something…</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-49734359524394353652011-02-21T21:17:00.000+08:002011-02-21T21:43:29.317+08:00settling in<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> 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mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Life in Kuala Berang isn’t flashy, it isn’t cosmopolitan, and doesn’t really have a “scene” – but it’s home. The nightlife is pretty raging – between 9:15 and 11:30 I can always find a game of chess to join down by the academic building, or relax in the library with a book, or help students with homework and essay corrections either outside at a picnic table, in the library, or in the Rest Room. And if I get hungry, I can hop on down to the night café for a burger, or hold out til 11pm for a steamed dumpling, tomato sandwich, or roti canai in the dining hall.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">I know I haven’t posted in a while, so here are some highlights of the past week (2 weeks? Who knows):</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">English movie night: </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">After much cajoling by the students (and after quite a few confusing English-to-Bahasa conversations with the office staff regarding projectors and speaker equipment), we had our first English movie night of the year on the eve of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.<span style=""> </span>After deliberating among a very select group of DVDs (acquired through borrowing from other ETAs – thank you Blair and Andrea!), I decided on Matilda for the first viewing. The students really liked it, thanks to its perfect ratio of overweight villains falling on their faces to kids using magic in everyday life (2 staples of highly successful movies, in my opinion). The speakers I used ended up being pretty lousy, so thank goodness for English subtitles!</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Sports: </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Blair (the other ETA in Kuala Berang) and I are attempting to start a softball team here at Imtiaz. Ranjan, last year’s ETA, played informally with some of the Form 1 boys, using a baseball bat and tennis balls in the field behind the school. Luckily (for me!), Blair’s school has actual softball equipment that he is using with his students, but also has graciously offered up for the students at Imtiaz to use as well. SMK Tai has the equipment and Imtiaz has a slightly better field, so the arrangement is ideal for everyone. Plus we found a secret gate linking our two schools, so transporting the equipment or students back and forth won’t be as big of a problem as we had anticipated. Honestly, I couldn’t really dream of softball practice actually happening if it weren’t for Blair, because he actually knows a bit about the sport (although I’m fairly confident I could just make stuff up about the game and everything would be fine… but may as well get it right, I suppose). He’s been able to have a few practices already at his school, and we’re hoping to have the first practice here at Imtiaz next Monday. We talked to my principal last week about the idea, and he seemed pretty supportive. In fact, after confirming that holding weekly practice would be suitable, he suggested that the school might invite the media and newspapers to the softball game between the two schools to show how talented these students are – learning a western sport like softball! I put a signup sheet outside my door to gauge student interest in playing, and by now I have a fairly long list of names, so I’m excited! The only thing that makes me slightly concerned is that right after one of the students signed the Baseball Team Interest Form on my door, they walked up to me and asked, “Miss Mere, what’s baseball?” </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Another very exciting development on the sports front is my discovery of the archery club! Every Wednesday after school, an archery instructor comes to Imtiaz to coach the students, and last week was the first meeting. Students learned about the parts of the bow, and about the basic movements, stance, arm position, etc. Some of the older students who participated last year also shot some, and I gave it a try as well. Back in the day during summer camp, I was OBSESSED with archery (I used to sign up for entire days of it… who needs crafts or swimming when you can mercilessly impale straw-stuffed targets?). Needless to say, the proudest accomplishment of my life was winning the Most Outstanding Archer award at Camp Merri-Mac at the tender age of 12. How serendipitous that I’ll be able to relive the summers of my childhood EVERY WEDNESDAY here at Imtiaz?! I can’t wait.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Free time: </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">This past weekend I went to Cherating, which is a sleepy little beach town about 3 hours south of Kuala Berang. The town is known for surfing – little did we know that our surfer friends from KT would be in Cherating the same weekend! Another beach bonfire commenced, complete with acoustic serenades of Coldplay, Radiohead, and The Cure... does it get any better? Having not had the opportunity to cook (although I have been QUITE experimental with my microwave), my curiosity/culinary withdrawl got the best of me and I attempted to roast several oranges over the open fire, with little success. </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">I also spent one afternoon in Cherating making my own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_batik">batik</a>! I LOVE MALAYSIAN BATIK FABRIC! I’ve already bought 6 or 8 cotton batiks here in Malaysia… they are perfect for wall coverings, using as sarongs, or curtains. Obviously, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make my own. <span style=""> </span>I outlined my design on white fabric with pencil, and then drew over the outline with a thin pen that has a small well for hot wax in the top. The first step is to dip the pen in a bowl of hot wax, and slowly “paint” with the wax pen onto the fabric (you can check out pictures of the whole process on my facebook). After drawing the entire design with wax, you use water-based dyes to paint in your colors. I used my fingertips to blend colors together which ended up creating an amazing watercolor effect. I really, really enjoyed the whole thing. I had forgotten how therapeutic and mind-clearing art can be. This past year I took an abstract oil painting class with a few friends at school which was challenging (I am not an artist by nature or by practice), but also renewing and curative, in a sense. The afternoon spent batik-making in Cherating made me really miss taking a few hours each week to do art. Maybe I’ll pick up a sketchbook in town (do they exist in Malaysia?) and try to draw a few times a week. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get some of the kids to join me. Another project!</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">The other night, one of my favorite students in Form 2, Zuhdi, brought me a pot of delicious <a href="http://tourism.terengganu.gov.my/culinary/buburlambuk.htm">Bubur Lambuk</a> that his mother had made. It was absolutely fantastic. I know rice porridge doesn’t sound particularly enticing, but if this stuff caught on the states, it’d be trendier than macaroons or taco trucks. <span style=""> </span>Later that evening, I helped Zuhdi edit an English essay he wrote about the proper way to make Mee Goreng (fried noodles) – another of his mother’s recipes. Maybe I can somehow get Zuhdi’s mother to be my cooking guru… </span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Zuhdi also invited me to his uncle’s wedding in March! It actually isn’t particularly uncommon here to be invited to and subsequently attend wedding celebrations of people you barely know, or have never met. All I know is that I’m going to need to go Baju Kurung shopping!</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">That’s pretty much all that’s been goin’ down ‘round here. Tomorrow I’m going to Kuala Terengganu with some students to participate in “Pony Club”. If I knew at all what this involved, I would tell you, but like so many things in this country, for now it is a mystery. For me, Pony Club will likely involve more watching than riding considering all of the horses I’ve seen in Malaysia so far have been approximately as tall as my belly button. Do you remember that sad moment in life when you realize that crossing the monkey bars on a jungle gym is MORE difficult now that your feet touch the ground than it was when you’re feet didn’t? I’ll keep you posted whether it’s the same when riding a miniature pony… </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-398416792972576652011-02-07T21:10:00.000+08:002011-02-08T21:20:44.597+08:00penang<span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >Last Tuesday night, we hopped on an overnight bus to one of my favorite places on earth: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang_Island">Penang</a>. This island, off the west coast of Malaysia, is known for its rich <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Town,_Penang">colonial history</a>, unique fusion of many cultures, religions, and ethnicities, and most importantly, its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang_cuisine">FOOD</a>. We picked Penang for Chinese New Year specifically because there is a significant Chinese population on the island, whereas the Chinese population in Terengganu is approximately ZERO. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >We ate our first Penang breakfast at the famous “Nasi Kandar Line Clear” food stall at 5:30AM. The owner was wearing a red cowboy hat, blew an obnoxious whistle every few minutes, and insisted on taking a “thumbs up” photo with us after we’d finished our meal of curry chicken and ladies finger (aka okra). Oh, and we were joined at breakfast by a rat roughly the size of a terrier. We also found a Chinese market our first morning where we sampled all sorts of delicious delicacies: gooey sugar cakes (tee kuih), bean-filled fried dough balls (kuih bom), jackfruit, thin crispy pancakes (sweet apom), and fresh (REAL) coffee. Over the course of the weekend, we went to the Chinese chamber of commerce one morning for a free buffet, saw the snake temple (total letdown… basically a bunch of drugged up snakes hanging in trees), the Kek Lok Si temple lit up at night for Chinese New Year, visited the clan jetty fishing huts, and Fort Cornwallis… but let’s be real. The best part about this trip was the food, and the point was to just walk around enough to be vaguely hungry in another hour or so, so that we could try something new from another street stall. 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unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p style="text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;">Some yummy noodles being served at the early morning Chinese market... I would like to note that RM1 (one Ringgit) is equal to about 33 US cents. It has come to the point where if a meal is over 1 US dollar (RM3), I start to think: is this really worth it?</span></p><div style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TU_xmjzLDEI/AAAAAAAAASY/ZIXKc4Xxgas/s1600/jan.feb%2B026.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TU_xmjzLDEI/AAAAAAAAASY/ZIXKc4Xxgas/s320/jan.feb%2B026.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936908827790402" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The fried sesame dough ball man caught me snapping a photo!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TU_yWM-R-zI/AAAAAAAAASg/u4m31vcrMAE/s1600/jan.feb%2B033.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TU_yWM-R-zI/AAAAAAAAASg/u4m31vcrMAE/s320/jan.feb%2B033.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570937727334087474" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Action shot of the crispy pancake making lady.</span></span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE6zluSgTI/AAAAAAAAASo/ZqEUFUwWoNU/s1600/jan.feb%2B047.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE6zluSgTI/AAAAAAAAASo/ZqEUFUwWoNU/s320/jan.feb%2B047.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571298872008016178" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a style="font-weight: normal;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gado-gado">Gado-Gado</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">: a taste of Indonesia in Penang.</span></span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE7y4I9WUI/AAAAAAAAASw/lc7uyKEs2HM/s1600/jan.feb%2B052.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE7y4I9WUI/AAAAAAAAASw/lc7uyKEs2HM/s320/jan.feb%2B052.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571299959283472706" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_kachang">Ice Kachang</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE8rBHo7WI/AAAAAAAAAS4/AiHKhHk4XmQ/s1600/jan.feb%2B064.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE8rBHo7WI/AAAAAAAAAS4/AiHKhHk4XmQ/s320/jan.feb%2B064.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571300923766533474" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a style="font-weight: normal;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mee_goreng">Mee Goreng</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">... this dish is usually available at every Malaysian restaurant, but this version was one of my favorites. This exact dish from this exact stall was actually featured on Eating Asia, my favorite Malaysian food blog, on this post: http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2009/01/mee-first.html check it out!</span></span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE9eSgCrrI/AAAAAAAAATA/hm-IwxVG21g/s1600/jan.feb%2B158.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE9eSgCrrI/AAAAAAAAATA/hm-IwxVG21g/s320/jan.feb%2B158.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571301804605615794" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Delightful breakfast of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_carrot_cake">carrot cake</a> (otherwise known as Chai Tow Kway), and wanton mee.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE_2x5jZGI/AAAAAAAAATI/VHP2HYu23eA/s1600/jan.feb%2B166.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVE_2x5jZGI/AAAAAAAAATI/VHP2HYu23eA/s320/jan.feb%2B166.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571304424374232162" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">A stall in Little India selling various fried delights, including the universe's best samosas.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVFAl-2PhQI/AAAAAAAAATQ/RHkQwQtNxOM/s1600/jan.feb%2B163.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TVFAl-2PhQI/AAAAAAAAATQ/RHkQwQtNxOM/s320/jan.feb%2B163.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571305235303859458" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A vendor preparing </span><a style="font-weight: normal;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teh_tarik">Teh Tarik</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So yea, Penang was... amazing. Good food, good friends, good times. It somehow seemed fitting to usher in the "new year" with the Chinese considering this is the beginning of a VERY new year for me, and being in Penang was the perfect way to celebrate. Gong Xi Fa Cai!</span></span><span style="visibility: visible;" id="search"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: left; font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> 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<w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal">Last week, I had my first unofficial days of teaching. I was the go-to substitute for when other teachers couldn’t be in the classroom (how does the school normally handle missing teachers? I should ask…). I’ve taught a Form 1 class, and two Form 2 classes. I kept things simple, and just had the students introduce themselves to me, and ask me any questions they might have about my life or America. Mostly I just got more questions about my (nonexistent) relationship with Justin Beiber, and about my sisters. They love to ask about siblings (or is that the only question they know how to ask in English?). We also played two truths and a lie, which was almost a big mistake because my mentor walked in the classroom right as I was revealing which fact about me on the board was a lie: that I knew how to ride a motorbike. Needless to say, Wan seemed surprised and confused, given that I’ve asked for her help to buy a motorbike here. She asked me after class if it was really true that I didn’t know how to ride one. I explained to her that OF COURSE I knew how to drive a motorbike, and that I was just joking with the kids! … just something to add to my slowly growing pile of little white Malaysian lies. Others include that I go to church at home (that’s a whole other story to tell…), and that really did LOVE the chewy unidentifiable meat served for dinner last night! It was my absolute favorite! </p> <p face="times new roman" class="MsoNormal">Learning names here has been the most stressful part of this whole adjustment. I’ve had the same kids tell me their names over and over (seriously, like 12 times, or maybe 35 times) and I STILL can’t remember them. In my defense, there are several obstacles to successful name learning here:</p> <ol style="margin-top: 0in; font-family: times new roman;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">All of the girls wear headscarves and the same uniform to school, so the only thing to distinguish them from each other is their face and sometimes skin tone. All the boys wear the same uniform and the same hat to school too, and they all (obviously) have the same hair color, so telling them apart is difficult too (though not as much as the girls).</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Their names are words I have never heard or spoken in my life – how am I supposed to remember names like (I’m using phonetic spelling here) Wanny and Wetty and Shofo and Dini? I almost hugged a girl with joy when she told me her name was Sarah. </li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">My best guess is that about 75% of people’s names here start with A. One of the first name games I played with a class involved them picking an English adjective starting with the same letter as the first letter of their name, and pairing the word with their name when they introduced themselves (example: Marvelous Meredyth). Little did I know this game probably seemed supremely stupid to them considering we weren’t even halfway around the classroom, and we’d had 12 students whose names started with A (Ahmir, Ahmed, Aisha, Amira, Atika…). By the end of the game I let words sly that weren’t really even adjectives at all… I have to say I was relieved the game was over when Astrologist Akmad rounded out the class of 30.</li></ol> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">The worst part about not being able to remember students’ names is that they are truly heartbroken when they ask me “Miss Mere, Miss Mere, What’s MY name?” and I shamefully have to ask for a hint, and usually even after the hint I get it wrong anyway. I’ll keep you posted on my progress on the name learning front, but I have to say the outlook isn’t good.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">“When is movie night? When is movie night?” is all I hear from students these days, so I posted a signup sheet outside my door where they can write suggestions. I don’t even really know what genre they like, or what rating is appropriate to show, so I thought I’d get some ideas from the students. I think last year they watched The Sandlot and Toy Story 3, among others, so I wanted to get some new ideas… <span style=""> </span>So far though, I’m not sure what insight I can gain from the suggestions, given that “Silent Hill” and “Another Cinderella Story” are listed side by side. I’m thinking Double Feature? Another personal favorite that made the list: “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer”. I got a good chuckle out of this, thinking the student was just confused about the REAL title, until I realized that “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer” is in fact the 2006 sequel to “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” which is the 1998 sequel to “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” There’s nothing like a straight-to-DVD sequel to a sequel made 8 years later starring a D-list celebrity blonde whose career highlight was likely her single episode appearance on a 1999 episode of “Are You Afraid of The Dark?” Yes, I looked this up. Don’t judge.</p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal">Last week Imtiaz had a special ceremony celebrating last year’s Form 3 PMR scores. Imtiaz KB students received the best scores in the state! In the PMR test, students are tested in nine subjects, and receive grades in each subject (A, B, C, etc). Of the 41 Form 3 students, 36 of them got A’s in ALL NINE SUBJECTS last year. Can I just say these kids are BALLER?! All the parents came, and there were representatives from the state education department, and the Form 3 teachers were recognized and given gifts (a pen! woohoo!). It was a little bit hard to sit through a three hour ceremony conducted entirely in Bahasa, but I could more or less determine what was going on. I have to say though that the best part was being asked to sit at the “VVIP” table for lunch (a dream fulfilled!). <span style=""> </span>At any event in Malaysia, there is almost always a VIP section and VVIP section… it’s pretty nifty if you’re VIP, but VVIP is the swankiest of the swank, the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème, the bomb.com - you get the drift. Never mind that the food served was the exact same, the chairs and tables were the same, and the tent was the same as everything else that wasn’t VVIP… everyone knows it’s all about the title.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-39271722019122391042011-01-30T20:22:00.000+08:002011-01-30T20:37:40.549+08:00from the city to the jungle<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> 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mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">A few days ago I met my mentor for the year: Wan. She is a 29 year old teacher at Kuala Berang IMTIAZ who will be helping me adjust to the school, help me get anything I need for my apartment, and help me adjust to the school and answer any questions I might have. She’s an English teacher, and her class got the best scores on the state standardized English results last year in the whole state, so I know she’s good at what she does! Wan also just cracks me up. After discovering that we both like cooking, she told me that last month she made her first pizza from scratch – she was so excited to tell me about using real mozzarella and oregano! That really is impressive, considering there is NO CHEESE IN MALAYSIA. ANYWHERE. I’d really like to know where Wan got her hands on mozzarella…<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">Anyways, the day after I met Wan, she and her husband picked me up and took me on a grand tour around Terengganu to see places I hadn’t seen. Wan and her husband had to pray after lunch, so they took me to the floating mosque in Terengganu, then they drove me to another part of the beach I hadn’t seen, then to Marang, which is a fishing village about 20 minutes away, where 2 other ETAs will be living and teaching. We got Keropok Lekor and chrysanthemum tea from a roadside stall and ate it by the ocean. In general, I’m a huge fan of Malaysian food, but Keropok (the food for which Terengganu is MOST famous) is quite unfortunately FOUL. I mean seriously BEYOND GROSS. Wan and her husband love it though, and devoured a whole packet. I have a few pictures of Kerepok on Facebook… basically, it is fish sausage and rice flour or cornstarch, rolled into gray-colored hot dog looking rolls, and then deep fried. They are chewy and fishy and nasty, nasty, nasty. Even if you are a big fan of seafood like me, these things are hard to stomach. I ate a few to be polite but seriously: stay away.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">I found out I’ll be teaching Form 1, which is basically the equivalent of our first year of high school (9th grade). IMTIAZ Kuala Berang is a secondary school. Schooling in Malaysia works like this:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">In primary school, you enter in Standard 1, and leave after Standard 6. You enter Standard 1 at age 7 though, so by the time you graduate Standard 6, you are 12 years old. Then you enter Form 1, which is the first year of secondary school. You stay in secondary school through Form 5, which is kind of like our 12th grade. After Form 5, you take a HUGELY important exam which basically determines whether or not you go to college, and what you study there (with math/science being the “best” track to take). There’s also a big exam that students take after Form 3, which is important because it “streams” kids into a science/math track, business track, or arts/humanities track, or vocational track. But the biggest test is definitely after Form 5.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">My school is an IMTIAZ school which means “Excellence” in Arabic, so the students at the school are extremely academic-oriented. Students in Forms 3 and 5 even attend classes on the weekend. All 315 students at the school live at the school, and are allowed to go home every other weekend. The weekends here in Terengganu are on Fridays and Saturdays (Friday is their holy day), and the school week starts on Sunday. This early weekend schedule, however, just applies in the state of Terengganu, which is strange… it would be like if Virginia suddenly changed their official workweek to Sunday-Thursday. To me, it seems like Terengganu having their own separate life schedule would cause some issues when it came to business, commerce, communication, etc, but apparently everyone here thinks it’s totally normal.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">My accommodations here at the school are fine. I live next to the Surau, or prayer room (hence the large speakers outside my window which broadcast the almost hourly prayers, including a particularly delightful 45 minute prayer chant in Arabic at 5:30am… yay!). I essentially have a dorm room attached to a small room with some couches and a TV, a small nook for kitchen stuff, and a bathroom. Inside my bathroom (literally, right under the shower) is my washer and toilet. It appears that I'll be showering right on top of the toilet, potentially while standing in my washing machine. Should be a good time!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">A side note about Malaysian bathrooms: going to the bathroom in Malaysia is kind of like going swimming… meaning, you should probably wear goggles, and when you are finished, you are dripping wet. Whenever I turn anything on in my bathroom, water sprays everywhere – from the faucet, from the showerhead, from the pipes, from the toilet, from the floor (somehow), and from this weird hose that kind of hangs out on the floor. To a Malaysian, a wet bathroom is a clean bathroom, so mine must be considered spotless. The bathroom floor is covered by an inch or more of water at all times, so I kind of wade my way to the sink using these bumpy flip flop-ish sandals that they gave me. All Malaysians wear these flip flops when they use the bathroom, but I think I might need rain boots… </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">The first night I was here I went down to the “Poom” (basically the equivalent of their weekend canteen) and bought a burger to support the Business Club (the function of which I have gathered is entrepreneurial in nature, though I can’t seem to get a straight answer as to what they do with the money (“we use money for business!”… I guess you can’t argue with that). My first burger in Malaysia was… chewy? Anyways, I was happy to support a student-led cause (the cause being making money), and it only set me back a ringgit and a half (the equivalent of about 50 cents). I was swarmed by students eager to meet me... this is how most of my first conversations with students goes:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Miss Mere, Miss Mere, Hello! Are you married?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“No...”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">:: looks of complete and utter HORROR ::</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“But Miss Mere, WHY NOT?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Well, I- ”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Don’t worry, Miss Mere, you will marry soon! You will!”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">Well I’m glad that’s settled… after asking if I am married, the questions they ask tend to be about my family (let’s just say I fudge the truth a bit to make things easier to explain), my hobbies, and whether or not I like Malaysia. OH, and a BIG one is whether or not I know Justin Bieber. I swear, the two best ways to let a someone down around here is to tell them you’re not married and that you don’t personally know Justin Bieber. I suppose it isn’t too late to change my story yet… maybe I should tell them I’m married after all… to Justin Bieber...<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">This morning I gave a short speech to the school after the principal officially welcomed me, which was received with mostly blank stares and half glazed over eyes (who could blame the kids? They’d been up since 5:00am), which was probably good considering I tried to make a joke about having my first burger in Malaysia (the irony of having a burger in Malaysia was completely lost on them… joke FAIL). Then I sort of milled around the school for a bit, and started looking for pictures and information on the internet to put on my “English Corner” board – stuff about America, Virginia, my family and friends, etc… if you’d like to make an appearance on my English board (in the form of a postcard or photo), you should mail me something! Which brings me to my next point: MAIL ME STUFF!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times new roman;">My new address:<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times new roman;">MEREDYTH HAAS<br />SM IMTIAZ KUALA BERANG,<br />JALAN PAYA BESAR,<br />21700 KUALA BERANG,<br />TERENGGANU. MALAYSIA.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times new roman;">Well I think that's all for now... it's prayer time (of course) so I think I'm going to go plan a few lessons for the next week... I have a feeling Taboo could be highly entertaining...<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times new roman;">PS #1: In other news, my Mentor Wan told me today she’s pregnant! She was SO excited… the conversation went something like this:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: times new roman;">“Mere, Mere, I have exciting news for you!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Oh really? What is it?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“I am going to have a baby!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“That’s wonderful, Wan! Congratulations!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“I’m pregnant!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Wow, that really is great news. I’m so happy for you.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“I took a pregnancy test and it said positive!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Yea, that’s awesome…”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“I have a baby inside of me!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">“Yep…”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">I’ve never seen someone so excited to be pregnant. She told me she and her husband had been trying for several years now, so I’m really happy for them.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">PS #2:<span style=""> </span>In one of the larger grocery stores in Kuala Terengganu, I found this strawberry hazelnut granola for sale (or so it was labeled...), and was SO pumped to buy it because it actually looked European or maybe even American. But Alas! when I opened it, it was literally 75% raisins and 25% white funky looking cornflakes, and NO granola, NO hazelnuts, and NO strawberries to be found. Seriously Malaysia? Quit playing games with my heart.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-454726397053335252011-01-30T19:50:00.000+08:002011-01-30T20:38:17.809+08:00first post: orientation and more...<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> 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mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" face="times new roman" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;">Hello friends and family!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">So after much hemming and hawing, internal conflict, and debate about whether or not I would succumb to pressure to join the the (mostly annoying) "check me out, I live abroad" blogosphere of post-grads fleeing US economic woes, I am hereby declaring that I'm nowhere near cool enough to declare myself too cool for a blog, and I'm way too lazy to figure out how (and to whom) to send mass emails. I have officially joined the I-Teach-English-In-Southeast-Asia-And-Blog-About-It universe, if for no other reason than so many people expect me to have some form of publicly-accessible electronic outlet to express how very different life is over here, and that so far I happen to have quite a bit of free time due to the RIDICULOUSLY immense portion of the day spent praying Malaysia, which I am kind of not allowed to participate in, or even watch. So why not write about my thoughts and experiences, and maybe someone will take a look!? So here goes nothing!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">So even though I’ve been in Malaysia for nearly a month (well, more like 3 weeks…), I haven’t started teaching yet. I am part of a group of 17 Fulbright ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and for the first three weeks of January, we have been part of an orientation program, first conducted by the US Government, and then by the Malaysian Government. My first week here was spent in Kuala Lumpur (the capital of Malaysia) and the two weeks after that were spent in Kuala Terengganu (the capital of the Malaysian state of Terengganu). Now, as of a few days ago, I am living at my school in Kuala Berang, which is a very small town in the region of Hulu Terengganu, in the state of Terengganu. Confusing, I know, but the bottom line is that I basically live in the jungle now!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">Orientation had its ups and downs, but for the most part it was highly entertaining. The “downs” just involved too much sitting in freezing cold conference rooms listening to repetitive information about the Malaysian education system, and the “ups” included some pretty fun field trips. Some highlights included visiting the <a href="http://www.trglib.gov.my/v1/index.php">state library</a> of Terengganu in KT (I’m now an official member!<a href="http://www.trglib.gov.my/v1/index.php" target="_blank"></a>), going to the Terengganu state museum (which was huge, and pretty cool… though they did have an exhibit on indigenous animals of Terengganu that involved very poorly executed taxidermy that might have been the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen). The museum had a traditional fabric section, art section, as well as an entire exhibition building basically worshipping petroleum, Petronas, and the oil industry (which I can’t really complain about considering the oil industry here is likely singlehandedly paying my salary and living expenses).<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">We visited the Islamic civilization park, the hilarity of which I can’t do justice… it is essentially an intentionally religion-based and unintentionally kitschy theme park which has replicas of every important mosque or Islamic building in the world (including the Taj Majal and Mecca). The replicas are reduced in scale from the originals to a perfectly awkward degree – doors just too small to go through and roofs just too tall that you can’t see the tops of the buildings. We watched videos about each structure in their “theatrettes” which had horrible English translations, and were taken around the park in a small children’s train like we were in Disney World. We also visited the Crystal Mosque, which is a newer mosque right on the water that has a really cool glass roof, and changes color at night (Malaysians LOVE when things change color, and they LOVE anything rainbow… all the streetlights are rainbow, mosques have tacky rainbow lights, all the weird jelly desserts are rainbow, and the dresses and headscarves for women are a compilation of psychedelically neon shades of pink, green, yellow, blue and orange). You should see the shirt I bought at the market the other day… I am a walking box of pastel crayons.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">Orientation also included a game of night Futsol (similar to soccer, but played on a smaller field), bowling, and a visit to the KT Science Center. They opened up the Science Center in the evening especially for the ETAs, they served us a buffet dinner (after being given a buffet dinner at the hotel earlier that evening... just one example of the lack of communication between people in Malaysia… and perhaps an excellent example of their need to eat meals approximately every 15 minutes), we went to a planetarium show (my first ever!!), and then they showed us "science." This consisted of them blowing up balloons, rubbing them on their clothes, and showing how they pick up little particles of paper afterwards... static electricity!<span style=""> </span>Then they made a “tornado” by putting dish soap and glitter in a plastic water bottle and swirling it around. Then we were presented with commemorative science center water bottles and left.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;"> One morning we went out to visit actual schools in Terengganu to get a taste of what Malaysian schools look like (though they weren’t the actual schools we'd be teaching in). It was a ridiculous morning for several reasons:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">1. The Terengganu education department decided to bus us to the school, except that it was literally TWO BUILDINGS down from our hotel. Like literally 150 feet away. Again, I’m not sure whether they do this just to be nice, or because they assume that Americans require or expect private automotive transportation to every location… regardless, it was absurd being on a bus for approximately 3 seconds.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">2. That day, we were served a buffet breakfast at the hotel, a midmorning snack at our briefing at around 9:15am, brunch at the secondary school we visited at around 10:45am, an "early lunch" at the primary school we visited at 11:30am, and then a full sit-down lunch at the hotel at 12:30pm. By the time our fifth meal of the day had commenced, most of us couldn’t control our urges to vomit and/or laugh uncontrollably. Malaysia knocks the pants off college as the WORLD destination for UNLIMITED free food.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">3. The secondary school we visited didn’t actually have classes for us to observe. It was an assembly day so there were no teachers anywhere and all the students were in a meeting hall all morning… which is fine, except that the whole point of us going there was to observe classes and talk to teachers. What makes it even funnier is that we were supposed to "debrief" all afternoon about what we learned from observing classes and talking to teachers... oh wait, except that the observing didn't actually happen...<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: times new roman;">One of my favorite nights in Kuala Terengganu involved building a bonfire on the beach. We were joined by some Malaysian friends, mostly surfers who we ran into every afternoon by the beach. One of them is sponsored by Billabong and is Malaysia's #1 surfer! Anyways, they helped us build a fire (Malaysian firewood = broken boat pieces and palm fronds), and then the 25 or so of us all hung out just talking and listening to music all night by the beach. To celebrate the full moon, we did this traditional full moon ceremony activity where you write down on a piece of paper all the bad things you want to rid yourself of for the year - all the negative things in your life weighing you down - and then roll the piece of paper up into a funnel, light the funnel on fire, and run to the ocean while it burns and throw it in the ocean. It was actually a really amazing, therapeutic experience, and it was cool because we all did it together.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3861969845780025124.post-84017677082288302572011-01-12T17:02:00.000+08:002011-02-21T21:44:51.845+08:00snapshots from kuala lumpur - chinatown<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TS10G2ewYDI/AAAAAAAAASE/TZpX_ccLQ9g/s1600/blog2.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TS10G2ewYDI/AAAAAAAAASE/TZpX_ccLQ9g/s320/blog2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561228775924981810" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TS1y-5OmE5I/AAAAAAAAAR8/ZGa-L8whrn8/s1600/blog1.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DY3MYIyI-OM/TS1y-5OmE5I/AAAAAAAAAR8/ZGa-L8whrn8/s320/blog1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561227539711923090" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0