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

A Few Sights Around KL on Malaysia' s Independence Day

Independence Day in Malaysia is on August 31st.

-Malaysia Tourism Center

-colonial style architecture

-Islamic style architecture (railway station)

-Little India

-a KL Sentral neighborhood

-The National Museum

-The National Palace

- intersection in Titiwangsa area

-Titiwangsa Lake Garden

-Palace of Culture

- military showcase

- Independence Day reenactments

-Bukit Bintang district

Things I Did on My First Day in Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Mostly in order...

1.  Changed my dollars into ringgits

2.  Visited the world's largest free-flight walk-in aviary (KL Bird Park)


3.  Ate delicious satay for lunch in the bird park restaurant overlooking the canopy, while the birds harmonized away

4.  Visited the Orchid and Hibiscus garden

5.  Relaxed to the melodious afternoon call to prayer in said garden while admiring the skyline 

6.  Gasped as I saw a monkey, who had crept up beside me during that beautiful moment: I startled him away...

7.  Got on the hop-on, hop-off tour bus to see more of KL

8.  Admired the variance in architecture everywhere:  contemporary skyscrapers and multiple sky walks, mixed in with modest, cement storefronts, sprinkled with onion-domed and minaret-wielding mosques, among classic, colonial-looking buildings and Chinese-style architecture...oh, and with a palace somewhere in the mix

9.  Bought more water:  The heat and humidity here are mighty potent forces...

10.  Began work on my 1st presentation as a Fellow for the Harry Potter English Camp.