Hello Marang!!!

I met my mentor from my school last Sunday!  Her name is Rosilawati.  She is an English teacher at SK Marang. Her husband is a Malay teacher at a nearby school.  There are about 550 students at my school.  Remember, the students range from 6/7 years old to 12 years old.  Although, the school also has a preschool connected to it.  I will spend one hour a week teaching there.   The schools here look like resorts or condominiums, in terms of the set up.  The schools are a couple stories high with courtyards in the middle of buildings and outdoor walkways. 

I have been in Malaysia for three weeks already, soon to be four.  The time has flown by! We had our Handing Over Ceremony on Jan 27^th.  It was a beautiful event, attended by many important people and lots of media outlets.  I have never had my picture taken so much.  I guess we have been in the paper a lot but we have yet to see the proof. 

At the Handing Over Ceremony, we were all required to wear the traditional Malaysian dress – Baju Kurung.  Essentially, it is a long tunic with a matching skirt underneath.  It covers the whole body, except the face and hands.  Baju Kurungs are typically very colorful and can be made of silk batik.  Unfortunately, the authentic batik here costs quite a bit.  Although in scarf form, it can be quite reasonable.  The State Secretary of Terengganu attended.  Jim, the Director of MACEE in KL, told us that in Malaysia “the higher the status, the shorter the stature”.  It is definitely true for the State Secretary.  He stands around four feet and ten inches tall.   

In many ways the Handing Over Ceremony was bittersweet.  It meant the end of orientation and living in a hotel.  In addition, it meant saying goodbye to all the other ETAs, except Andrea.  Amazingly, it also meant the start to the rest of our journey as teachers.  Sad as it was to say goodbye to fellow ETAs, it has been wonderful to unpack and settle in. 

After the Handing Over Ceremony, Andrea and my mentor took us grocery shopping, to buy bicycles and to move in.  It took many hours to complete all these tasks.  And time seems to move slower here. By five o’clock, we had all of our stuff in our apartment and finally sat down.  Emotionally and physically, we were both exhausted.   We haven’t actually had one day to sleep in yet since we arrived in Malaysia.  Most days we have had to be up by 8am, even on the weekends.  Thankfully, we plan to sleep in on Saturday before school starts on Sunday. 

On Friday January 28^th, Andrea’s mentor picked us up at 9am and took us to the market in our little fishing village.  The market had fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, nuts, freshly fried food and spices.  It was wonderful to experience.  The market is open daily so we plan to buy most of our fruits and vegetables from there.  Also, Andrea’s mentor brought two of her eight children with us to the market.  From the market, we visited her mother’s house, younger brother’s house and older brother’s house.  We met many of the cousins, three of which are women in there twenties.  Of course, the cousins want to spend time with us and one of her brothers wants us to teach he and his wife English.  I loved meeting the brothers, sister-in-laws, cousins and children of Andrea’s mentor.  I hope to develop friendships with many of the cousins. 

 This weekend (Friday and Saturday), Andrea and I cleaned, made dinner, unpacked and debriefed.  In all the time we have sat through endless orientation sessions, we have not talked about how we are feeling.  All of us ETAs have just gone from one event, field trip or meeting to the next.  Therefore, it was nice to finally talk about my feelings of confusion, joy, awe, surprise, sadness and happiness.  I feel very lucky to have Andrea as a roommate.  We get along very well and have many similarities.  We hope to attend a yoga retreat in Malaysia while we are here.   

Interesting things about Malaysia:

1.     Many Malay Muslims practice polygamy. 

2.     The traditional Terengganu dish is fried fish paste.  Ground up fish, rolled into lines, then fried.  It’s called keropok.  Unfortunately, I am not a fan.

3.     Most homes and apartments do not have ovens.  Malaysians fry everything so they do not need an oven.  Andrea and I bought a toaster oven so we can make pizza and cookies for our students to try. 

4.     They have an entire aisle in the grocery store for cooking oil – since they fry everything.  

5.     Fish chips are popular here.  Not fish n’ chips.  Fish chips.  Typically fish chips are whole dried fish (like fish jerky) or dried fish paste.  Again, I am not really a fan.

6.     The call to prayer five times a day is comforting to me, after hearing it so often here. 

7.     They call the car wash, “Snow Wash” here, which is funny because most of them have never seen snow. 

8.      Many Malaysians do not wear seatbelts here.  In addition, many cars here do not have airbags.  As a result, I tend to see eight or ten people in small sedans.  Most families just cram as many people as possible into a car.  Of course, if you have six or eight children, this is very convenient.

I will put up pictures of my apartment soon.  It is very spacious.  The living standards here are very different.  Not in a bad way.  Just different.  We have a semi-automatic washing machine in the apartment.  It looks like an ice box.  We have to push a button to wash, then rinse, then transfer the load into the spinner.  My mentor did a beautiful job of getting my room ready for my arrival.  I am living at the secondary school about a mile from my primary school with Andrea.  Andrea will be teaching at the secondary school.  I will be riding a new bicycle to school every day!  I am so excited about this.  It is very hilly here- my ride to school will be downhill but my ride home will be uphill.  Thank goodness I will be getting some exercise here. 

I think I have eaten fried food for almost every meal since I have arrived.   That is all they serve and eat here.  Therefore, I will need to work very hard at eating healthily.  Andrea and I made breakfast burritos for dinner tonight with wholegrain tortillas and every vegetable we could find!  Andrea is a vegetarian.  Therefore, we plan to make some wonderful, healthy meals filled with vegetables, beans and grains. 

I just realized that this apartment in Malaysia is the first apartment I have ever lived in.  I have never lived anyplace other than my family home or a dorm room.  Therefore, it is crazy I am having my first apartment experience in another country.  Of course, I will have stories for many years to come. 

I am missing everyone back home but have some wonderful experiences to share so far!  Right now, I am at my school in the staff room.  The staff room is in one of the new buildings.  It is air-conditioned and bright purple!  I LOVE IT!  This morning I walked to school in the rain as the call the prayer was being made over the loud speaker.  They welcomed me here with open arms.  The Head Master or Guru Besar welcomed me and walked me through rows of students all lined up to greet me.  Cameras were flashing everywhere.  Malaysians love to take pictures.  I was asked to say a speech on a microphone to the whole school.  A little nerve-wracking but I managed.  The students all squeal and walk away when they see me.  They are excited and nervous.  I observed two classes today, after my tour around the whole school.  The proficiency level varies year to year and class to class.   I can't wait to being my journey of teaching at SK Marang.  I will update more soon!  Hugs and smiles for everyone back home!!!