My Recent Activities Include...

1.  Taking Bahasa Malaysia lessons

   

To celebrate recent achievements, the staff had a 'shell-out'.

2.  Teaching classes


3.  Spending time with staff and students


4.  Learning the roads and routes through Johor Bahru  (Check out my rental!)

Perodua Viva

5.  Watching the U.S. presidential election campaigns from afar...(Yes, I did send in my absentee ballot.)

lok lok steamboat

6.  Trying new foods 

Scenes from Penang

After reviewing some of my photos, I realized that I forgot to blog about my trip in September to the national park in Penang. Here are some scenes from my trip.     

This is the entrance to the park.  Here you can chose to take the ferry to Monkey Beach or hike the trail.  Naturally, I chose the trail, but I almost didn't make it because I was unprepared for the amount of steep, unsupported inclines...

Oh yes, the trail starts off paved and flat.... and oh, look!  There's even a charming little bridge to cross...

 But the monkeys are scary!  They don't seem very frightened of humans, and they will look you straight in the eyes while walking towards you....

This is one of the gentler inclines.  I don't have any pictures of the more fierce inclines because by that point, I had put my camera away and was huffing and puffing for my next breath...

The beauty of the scenery encouraged me to keep going.  Families with little children were passing me by at this point.  Yes, I'm completely serious.

I did finally make it to Monkey Beach.  I relaxed with a nice lunch and had insightful conversations with some local college students before returning...on the ferry, of course.

Penang National Park truly is a beautiful and special place.  Thank you, Malaysia.

Scenes From Around Johor Bahru

Hutan Bandar Park 

 

 The clock tower and practice field for the Johor football team.

 Danga Bay 

Decorations in preparation for Deepavali. This floor art was made entirely from different color grains of rice.

 Views from downtown 

 

Skyline from my residence  

 Taman Merdeka Park 

 

 

 

The Sultan's Crown

How I Have Been Made To Feel Welcome Since My Arrival

1.  The faculty at my host institution invited me to play badminton with them after work one night.  I did go, and man, those guys were good!

2.  A different colleague invited me to her hometown for the Hari Raya Haji holiday.  I accepted and that's where I had my experience trying durian.

3.  Two  other colleagues invite me to have lunch with them regularly.

4.  I went and had a beer and amazing philosophical conversations with yet another different colleague one night.

5.  Another ELF has invited me to stay with her anytime I'm in her region.

6.  Yet another colleague has agreed to walk with me in the park mornings before work.

7.  The ETAs (English Teaching Assistant)  in Besut were amazingly hospitable and generous to me the weekend I was in Terengganu.

"What Did You Do At Harry Potter English Camp?"

 1.  I presented a workshop to the English teachers in the district who brought their secondary students to the camp.

2.  I learned a great deal about the students of Terengganu from the teachers who attended the workshop and the administrators who visited the camp.

3.  I met amazing Fulbright English Teaching Assistants who organized and ran the camp.  

4.  After the workshop, I went around awarding points to the different houses when I heard the students using English.

5.  I watched students make wands and elephant toothpaste, and practice divination by reading tea leaves...all while using their best English.

6.  I watched awards given out to students at the closing ceremony and heard them in their own words describe their feelings and experiences at the camp.

Details About My First Training Workshop At My Host Institution

1.  It was given at the Kuala Lumpur campus.

2.  The title was "Language for Customer Service Success."


3.  We had about 33 attendees total.

4.  About 8 different departments sent personnel.

5.  Another ELF (English Language Fellow) and I presented. 

6.  The workshop lasted 3 hours.

7.  We had a morning session and an afternoon session.

8.  The participants were very engaged.

9.  They gave excellent feedback and suggestions.

10.  I learned a lot about Malaysian culture and traditions from the participants.

"What Have You Eaten So Far?"

1.  For breakfast, I like roti canni, an oily, almost pastry-like bread, with a hard boiled egg, a banana, and coffee tarek.  However, a chocolate waffle with rice and  an over-hard egg are nice occasionally....

2.  For lunch, I usually have chicken or fish with spicy sauce over rice  with vegetables.

3.  I especially love nasi lemak, the chicken in curry gravy with the creamy rice,  and the fried rice with chicken topped with the fried egg, nasi goreng.

    

Other Culinary Notes of Interest   

     This special dinner of lemang was prepared for Eid-ul-Adha.  I was graciously invited to the celebration at the home of a work colleague.  After the dinner, I tried this spiky, brown fruit.  It's called durian.  The smell is super strong, and unpleasant to me.  Many Malaysians love it.  I tasted it and thought it similar to mashed potatoes with side of citrus.

A Few Things I Saw At The Batu Caves

-A statue of Hanuman on my walk from the train station

-The world's tallest statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity

-A long, steep staircase leading up into the caves

-People feeding the monkeys on the staircase.

-More stairs.

-The macaques up close and unafraid of the humans.....

-A view of the square below

-Inside the limestone caves

-The story of Rama being told along the walls of the cave 

-More steps to get to the next cave.

-A view of the shrines