In general, I try not to complain very much (no sarcastic snorting mother), but I have felt that since I have arrived in Malaysia all I do is some form of complaining. And though you are all very patient with me, I do feel bad when I read over a former blog and it is just thinly veiled complaining or frustration. However, this blog will contain none of the above, as things seem to be going...well. :) Somehow I woke up for the past 3 or 4 days and life (though busy and full of stuff) has been very enjoyable.
Sunday I woke up, made french toast with Adam over skype and then watched The Island with him. It was so nice! Last week we had attempted to watch it but I didn't have internet, so I to sit outside and try to hear the movie from our porch. Then, of course, our dvd player caused the movie to freeze, so moving watching last week did not work out well. However it was an absolutely wonderful Sunday morning. I will not get all gushy, but I will say that I am incredibly happy to be in a relationship with this guy.
Sunday afternoon I came downstairs and was immediately invited to "follow after" (they way they say "come along with) my friends Syafyka and Hanif as they were going to a Hari Raya open house! An open house is actually a party of sorts where there is lots of food and people are dressed up in their clothes for Hari Raya and you go to the house and eat and drink. It is not called a party because the actual word seems kind of disrespectful and wild. This makes older generation of families not enthusiastic about it (or so I understand) so it is called an open house instead. It was so much fun!! It was really nice inside, and both the doors to the house were open so it was kind of cool to sit inside and be close to the outside. There was a gold embossed plaque (sp?) of some verses of the quran, which kind of reminded me of how we put Bible verses up on our walls at home. There were also some really cool ceramic things inside this huge cabinet behind their tv. The most notable of which were a pair of roosters, which made me think of my friend Sara Pugh, as she loves them. The lady who had invited (originally) Hanif was an old admin from slb who has a 7 month old son and he is so adorable!! She was very nice and all the food was quite excellent. Best of all, I didn't feel sick after eating anything! And I got to pet a baby kitten as we were leaving and it was adorable. I got a little bit excited about that.
Next we stopped by and visited my friends Catherine (from Indonesia) and Zhu Zhu (from China) in their new house which was kind of hear the open house. It is a sweet house! The couches, kitchen, rooms...everything is brand new and shiny. I do have pictures and I might try to put some in here, but if that doesn't work I am definitely posting them on facebook. They still do not have internet or Astro (cable) but I offered them all my house if they have skyping or just connecting-to-the-world that they would like to do. Anyway, as we were driving away, Hanif (who is driving) asks me if I've seen all of Labuan yet. Of course I reply with a negative, so off we went! We drove down to the beach and we had drinks from a shop next to the beach. Syafyka got an ABC which is a crushed ice drink with rose syrup in it and different fruits. It is quite sweet. Hanif and I both got coconut, which is literally a coconut with the top cut off and the coconut juice inside. For the record, coconut juice is nothing like coconut milk (which I dislike). It is definitely a juice, but tastes kind of like a sweet water. It's really really good. Also, when the coconut is the right level of "youngness" there is a milky film on the inside of the shell that is also really good to scrape off and eat.
Next we were off again and drove around the island some more. I saw some really nice scenery and awesomely colored houses. Pink, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow...they were all over the place. We stopped at another couple beaches a little further on the island (where, of course, my camera died) so I started using my blackberry and it takes some sweet pictures. The other beaches were so nice. They are not like South Padre Island beaches with the white, soft sand, but they are beautiful nonetheless and getting to see the that huge expanse of ocean and possibility...is marvelous.
Finally, before we headed back to my house, we stopped at a war memorial which incredibly beautiful.
And quite sad. It is actually a WWII memorial. Inside the gates are raised up stones placed in honor of the men who died fighting the Japanese in and around Labuan. Seeing the diversity and sheer number of men in both age and nationality that never got to go home from Labuan was sobering and impressive. I found one gunner that was 23. Another footsoldier was 47. And then there were all the graves for the soldiers "known only to God." So many. They came from India, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand (and those are just the countries I saw) and fought, in what was truly a world war, for concepts, beliefs, and freedoms in a place that none of them were actually from. Oddly enough, I've never really thought about the extensive impact of the the fighting up until now. We always focus on the part of the war that happened in Europe, but there soooo much fighting everywhere else. I want to learn about that now, too. :) For the record, dad, I am so happy you were able to come back from Iraq.
Then, of course, we came home and did my nightly ritual of studying, watching tv, and then talking to Adam before bed. Possibly my favorite part of the weekends, I get to talk to him more than once a day :) And then the week starts!
Kara came in on Monday morning! It really is nice to be able to talk to another American female. I really like all my friends I've made here, however, I enjoy having a somewhat shared past (as in we've been to the same cities and such) with another person. It kind of helps me to relax a little. Also, I am now the most senior d&m FET (field engineer trainee) in the office now that Syafyka is back on the rig in Brunei (I never realize how much I miss a friend til they aren't here anymore). It means I answer a lot of questions. This helps me a little, but at the same time it also frustrates me when I don't know the answer, or my explanation takes 30 or 45 minutes, because that is 30 or 45 minutes I could be studying or in the shop! I made spagetti for some D&Mers on Tuesday night which was pretty fun. It wasn't the most excellent spaghetti, but it was quite good. I am going to try a white sauce this weekend as I have a lot of spaghetti noodles left.
All I am doing now at work is finishing up studying things for my preschool, as well as trying to get shop training in. I am attempting to find that balance between annoying the maintenance technicians and pushing just enough so they will know I really do want to be there and watch things. I'll get there eventually!
I went out and jogged for about 40 minutes tonight which was really nice. Definitely not easy. But I love running so I don't care about the bugbites, car exhaust, my general exhaustion, or people honking their horns and waving at me while I am out there. I am truly happy when I get back because I was able to accomplish the run. I try not to remember when I could super easily run 7 milles...that would be depressing. Plus, I will get there eventually again some day!
I think I might post again tomorrow about some interesting people I have met here so you can "meet" them too, in a general sense of the word. They're all very, very interesting.
15 days!!
Becca
3 comments:
Why do the people honk and wave at you...is it because of your coloring, or is it the clothes you wear, or is it because some of them have seen you before, and feel they know you now?
Glad you're having a good time.
Love you, G'ma J
I am not sure. I think it is a combination of the fact that I am a girl, they are being friendly, I am orang patay (white person), and that very few people actually run here.
I would like to note for the record that I said at the beginning of your sojourn to a far and distant land that you would be in the throes of culture shock for 3 to 6 months (although I did not predict the physical illness that you would suffer, sorry!). That you would dislike where you were and would not even be able to see things (they would be so foreign to your sight you would not be able register/file them in your mind). Been there, done that. I'm glad you are slowly having more good days than bad!!! Don't you love it when you get to the top of the hill and can finally start running downhill!
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