Getting Acquainted

I have failed to mention that I have a boyfriend/bodygaurd. He's 12. I'm kidding about the boyfriend part of course, though I seem to be quite popular with the boys under the age of 17. Dawan is 12 and he is a trip and a half. That boy is going to be a handful when he hits puberty. He and his sister Nana( who is 15) are two really great kids. Neither of them speak English extremely well, but they are working on it. He wanted me to come sit in the bedroom while he went to take a shower, but it came out as him asking me to accompany him to the shower, so that was good for a laugh. I was mocked for quite a bit. :-/ I am going to severely miss both of them though, because they are quite wonderful. I am actually going to miss a lot of the younger kids. One kid, Adam (ad-ahm) is 5 and just cute as can be. I finally figured out a way to bond with him, and that is to play soccer with him. He has three older brothers and two of them Alif and Arif are just wonderful. They are 16 and 15 respectively. Both are incredibly smart and have great futures ahead of them I think.

Last Monday we went to the KL Tower. It is a huge building in downtown KL. It is one of the tallest in the world. We went up to the top and you can see for miles and miles all around the city. It was such an amazing view. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was from up there. After the tower trip we stopped at this seafood restaurant, which was quite delicious. I had this fantastic apple juice drink and shrimp fried rice. It was just a nice relaxing evening out and I was grateful to just sit back and enjoy being with all of the family.

The day after Tie, Bad, Nisa, my dad and I tried to go over to the Patronus Towers, but they were closed for Raya. We rode on the KTLR which is the metro transport here in Kuala Lumpur. Got to take in more of the scenic views while riding. Since the Towers were closed we decided to go over to KLCC which is a shopping center. It is about 5 or 6 stories tall. We walked around and did some looking around for things for the wedding, then headed off to get some lunch. Now let me tell you, the food court was huge, so many options. I think I settled on a sesame chicken and rice dish. Then Tie and I got this amazing waffle with ice cream. I was jonesing for some American food, and that hit the spot. We got chocolate ice cream and my new favorite, YAM ice cream! So delicious! Oh and later we had New Zealand ice cream.. I had a scoop of toffee and a scoop of honey with butterscotch pieces!

After looking around some more, we went down to the Aquarium there. Aquaria KLCC. Oh it was so amazing! We walked around and looked at all of the little exhibits with all the different fish and sea creatures. The crowning glory is the tunnel you walk through with all of the fish and animals swimming all around you. I made friends with a Ray that kept swimming over my head and behind my back. There were sharks and rays and catfish the size of a small car. All kinds of amazing creatures swimming around to look at and snap plenty of pictures of. We managed to catch divers coming down with food and we watched the guy tease one of the giant rays with some fish to get it to swim around and do "tricks". We also happened to be in the right place at the right time to watch a live feeding. Let me tell you, watching thousands of fish fight for food is both awe inducing and frightening. I can't even imagine what the piranha feeding looks like.

After we left KLCC we went to India Town. It is exactly what it sounds like, the Indian portion of town. A lot of the shops were closed for Raya, which was a recurring theme. We did a lot of looking around for particular pieces of clothing needed for the wedding. Unfortunately we didn't have much luck. Lucky for me however, we were there during Raya because it was pretty void of people, when it is usually packed to the brim and hard to move around. We then hopped over to Old Town White Coffee. I don't know what the difference between regular and white coffee is, but my god it was good. I had an iced white coffee and mmmmmmmmm! After that back on the KTLR and home for a bit. Later on we went to this shopping center Mines, and I got 2 new pairs of glasses! Hooray! I am loving how cheap things are here compared to the states. We got 3 pairs of glasses and a set of contact lenses for cheaper than what one pair of glasses would cost at home.

I am going to pass out on the keyboard, so more updates soon!

Say Hey Malay

Upon leaving the airport we headed to Nisa's family home where everyone was waiting for us. I was just mesmerized looking out the window. Everything was so lush and green and so unlike the states. The also drive on the left side of the road, which took a minute to get used to. Motorbikes are very popular and the drivers of them do not obey traffic laws at all. I would be terrified to drive one of those around the city.

We got to the house, which is actually a nice apartment about 30 minutes from the airport. Nisa, her mom and her 2 brothers were there waiting for us. Her mom was so excited to see us, which was just a wonderful feeling. They were incredibly welcoming and made me feel right at home. Her brothers are very friendly too. I had spoken to one of them on skype briefly before, but never really talked to them. Her brother Boy (Uncle Boy as I like to tease him with) is absolutely hilarious, he is so outgoing and funny. Her brother Bad(pronounced Bahd) is more reserved, but he has warmed up more and we joke around and talk now. I was pretty exhausted so Tie and I took naps to cope with jetlag. That evening we just hung around their house and ate lots of good food. The food, oh my god the food!!! J Crashed out on the couch fairly early, but so did all her siblings too. We all slept in the living room together. Lots of goofy pictures taken too. I have noticed that taking pictures is a huge deal over here. Everyone wants pictures of everything.

Unfortunately Saturday was the last day of fasting for Ramadan, so everyone woke up at 5:00 to stuff their faces, so all the noise woke me up. Not a great way to start the day when you are super jetlagged. During the day we went out a bit. We went to her Aunt Sal’s house and I got to meet this kid I’d been hearing about, Dawan. He is my bodyguard/12 year old boyfriend! :-p He is too funny, and I fear what happens when he hits puberty. His sister Nana, is very quiet, but I love her to death. She is just super sweet and we hit it off well. She doesn’t speak a lot of English, but we are working around that. I am going to miss them. After we left there it was off to the last garment fitting for the wedding clothes. That was interesting.

Later that day was pretty chill, just hanging around the house. A ton of people (all family) came over and had a giant feast to celebrate Raya, which is the end of fasting. So we ate and ate and ate and then hung around watching tv. I passed out on the couch so they sent me to bed.

Up again fairly early the next day, but not terribly early. The men all had to go out for prayers and other activities so all of them women came over. It was actually really nice. They fixed my hair and we all wore traditional dress and hung around and just chatted. I really enjoyed that.

Then the day after that we had what I like to refer to as the Food Crawl. Now when in Ireland you do a pub crawl, in Malaysia it’s the food crawl. We went to several different houses to meet with people and eat. I have tried so many new and delicious foods, I may have to dedicate an entire post to food alone. It was really wonderful going to these different homes, because depending on what part of town you visit, the houses are all so vastly different. New styles and different layouts. It was great.

I know, not very exciting so far, but I will update more of the stuff later.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I am going to do my best to recount my trip over several posts. The past week has been so full of activity that I will try to remember everything. It will be easier to keep up with things as I go along now.

Wednesday the 16th, Tie (my new step aunt and just all around soul mate) and I left Richmond to embark on our trip. We spent about 2 hours in the Richmond airport, just chilling and eating. Flew into Charlotte and had about 40 minutes to get to our next gate and recheck our baggage and catch our flight to Los Angeles. That was roughly a 9 hour flight. It was supposed to be 7, but due to bad storms in New Mexico and Colorado we had to detour and fly through Wyoming and Utah instead. It was a shame our flight was so late, because I wanted to look out the window and actually see the ground below. What's the point of a window seat at night? I shockingly was able to sleep on the plane, which is super rare for me. Anyhow, we got to L.A. at 8pm their time, so 11:00 Richmond time. LAX= worst airport I have ever been too. There was no signage or any clue as to where you are supposed to go after you pick up your luggage. We wandered around lost for quite a little bit, before figuring out that we needed to take a shuttle to the International terminal. We had an amazingly wonderful shuttle driver though and he dropped us right where we needed to be. Except you go inside and everything is opposite of the signs from outside. We finally took care of all our checking in and security checks, etc. Now we had about 4 hours to kill in the airport. I immediately put on my pajamas and we got some food. Hung around our terminal with a bunch of people heading to Sydney, so we contemplated sneaking on that flight instead! No celebrity sightings. :-(

I don't mind flying, but 21 hours on a plane is a hell of a long time. Completely missed Thursday because we were in the air the entire time. Thankfully each seat has its own personal television thing. I watched the Proposal, Star Trek and Wolverine, even though I've seen them all. Watched an episode of the Office, 2 Big Bang Theory's and How I Met Your Mother. Then I discovered the create your own jukebox feature and had fun with that. Eventually passed out with Damien Rice in my ear. The food was fantastic the entire ride. For airplane food I was extremely impressed. I also drank more orange juice on that flight than I have in the last 3 months.

Tie and I had a blast goofing off and being silly on the plane. You have to find ways to entertain yourself. I seriously regretted my pajamas when I went to the bathroom because there was an extremely cute guy sitting in the aisle by them. Oh well, I'll never see him again.

We landed at the Taiwan International Airport around 9 a.m. Friday morning.(so 9 pm Thursday night stateside) We were there for about and hour and a half. Then in the air again for 2 hours. Finally we landed in Kuala Lumpur around 1pm. I was so happy to be off of planes. Our luggage was in the last group unloaded and man they were slow getting it out. Oy! My dad was there to greet us, followed by Niesh! It was a goofy reunion, but nice to see familiar faces! Walked out to the car and was immediately assaulted by humidity... not my friend.

At least we had arrived!!!