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.
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