Getting Here...

I made it to Malaysia!

Well, here I am in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.  I arrived last night at around 1:30 a.m. Malaysia time, which is about 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, after leaving Atlanta a little more than 24 hours before. My two flights -- one from Atlanta to Seoul and the second from Seoul to K.L. -- were long, but they both were pretty uneventful and I just watched tons of movies and got a little sleep.

Now we are here in K.L., staying in the Dorsett Regency Hotel.  All the other ETAs are here now except Gwynne, whose flight was delayed until the 10th, and it's been fun meeting everyone and having 10 other people to experience the Malaysian transition with.  The 10 of us are spread out within the hotel, and some of us have roommates and some don't.  I have a single room on the 28th floor, which is called the "Esquire Lounge."  Another ETA, Mike, is on the 28th floor with me, and we're hoping that the fact we were put on this floor doesn't mean that our placements in Terengganu are the worst ones! :)  

  

We have basically been doing orientation type things so far, like getting our cell phones, filling out forms for our bank accounts, and going over other details.  We went to the U.S. Embassy today and got briefings on Malaysian security, politics, and economics, and then we met with the ambassador to Malaysia for a bit.  Everyone here has been so kind and welcoming.  

In between all the Fulbright stuff, we have been slowly exploring K.L. For lunch, we all ate at this outdoor market place that was kind of like a self-service cafeteria.  There were many dishes to choose from (some were mystery foods, although I know they had lamb, okra, green beans, and fish), and my whole meal was 3.80 Malaysian Ringet, which is a little more than $1.  Sweet!  

This afternoon and night we walked around the city more, and then ate Indian food to celebrate Zoe's birthday.  This is a really beautiful city at night!  There are lights everywhere and interesting trees.  It all feels very tropical, but urban at the same time.  It was a good day, but I'm still really tired from the plane ride so I'm ready to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow we have our first cultural orientation, and so I'm looking forward to that.