My New Home

Well, many things have changed since my last entry. We finished up with orientation and then had our official “handing-over ceremony” on Monday, where we were formally presented to each of our schools. The four of us staying in K.T. (Len, Mike, Gwynne, and me) stayed in the Hotel Seri Malaysia for one more night, but all the other ETAs (minus still-sick Anita) left straight from the ceremony for their new homes. We quickly hugged each other and said hurried good-byes, and before we knew it everyone was gone. That last night in the Seri Malaysia was strange and lonely, and we were glad to leave the next day.

On Tuesday Gwynne, Mike, Len, and I moved into our apartments. It was so nice to have a place to finally unpack! We’ve been living out of a suitcase for almost a month and that gets old fast. Gwynne and I share an apartment on the third floor, #706, and Mike and Len live in #707, right next door. The apartments are virtually identical, each with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Our mentors and foster families cleaned everything before we arrived and had our place well stocked with dishes, furniture, sheets (Gwynne’s sheets and comforter have a hilarious suitcase-carrying, potbellied mouse on them, by the way), a washing machine, and a TV (which currently turns itself off after about 30 seconds, but we’re working on that). We don’t have air conditioning or hot water, but we have fans in every room and, really, the cold showers feel pretty great in this weather. We’re in a convenient location because we live right near Mydin and Giant, stores that are kind of the equivalent of Wal-Mart and Target here. That has been a huge help as we’ve been getting the apartment set up over the past couple of days. We have already made about six trips there (some because we needed things, and some just because we were bored). Also, there’s a really good (and cheap) food court in Mydin with lots of different food selections AND free wireless Internet, which is wonderful because we don’t have Internet in our apartments yet.

So far the main downside to our apartment is its proximity to the loud intercom speakers that blast the Islamic call to prayer in Arabic five times a day. It’s not too bad most of the time, and kind of a cool cultural thing, but at 5:30 in the morning it’s nothing short of miserable. Luckily for me, my bedroom window faces away from the intercom, but Gwynne gets the full-on experience and she hates it (understandably). We’re hoping that we get used to it, like some people who live near train tracks are eventually able to sleep through trains whizzing by in the night.

Other fun facts about my new home:

1. There’s a flock of sheep that wander around between our apartment complex and Mydin, grazing on grass and other plants along the way and crossing the street like they own the place even when there’s heavy traffic.  I love these new neighbors.

2. A group of Malay kids (mostly boys) play outside in the parking lot in front of our building every evening, and we’ve been hanging out with them. They are all sweet, energetic, and interested kids, but one of them in particular is my favorite. He’s an adorable, probably around four-year-old boy, and we are new friends. We can’t really communicate with each other language-wise, but I don’t think he’s quite figured that out because he is constantly talking to me in Malay and I just nod and smile at him and periodically repeat one of the ten or so Malay words/phrases I know. Last night when I came outside he ran up to me yelling, “Sister!” in Malay. He is precious!

3. So far there are no bugs really except for the scary flying beetle-like creature that landed on Gwynne’s bed the first night. We are trying to make sure we keep food well packaged and covered so we don’t get any insect invasions. (Mom, I’ve already put out those roach traps and ant traps you sent with me. Thank you so much for thinking of that!)

Yesterday, Gwynne and I went to a nearby university to meet with a professor and visit a river turtle hatchery. Gwynne is interested in incorporating sea turtle conservation into her teaching and extracurricular activities, so she has been in touch with this professor for a while and will be working with her to get more information about activities related to turtle conservation. Anyway, I was so glad I got to tag along and see the hatchery and learn a little bit about efforts being made to save Malaysian turtles, which are very much endangered. 

Not only was it informative meeting with this professor and her graduate assistant, but it was also so much fun! We were with them from 8:30 a.m. until around one, but the time seemed to fly by. They got me in touch with a local dive master that takes people scuba diving on an island ten minutes from K.T. by speedboat, which is so helpful. They even said they might be able to get me connected to a local newspaper, so that I could do some writing while I’m here. I would love that!

In other news, today was my first day of school! 

My mentor and foster sister picked me up at around ten this morning to show me around the school and let me meet some teachers. I won’t officially meet the students until Sunday (their Monday), since that’s the day they have their school-wide weekly assembly. My school is rather large and has 78 teachers, so it’s a little overwhelming because there are so many people to meet. (The school is an all girls’ school, and of the 78 teachers only ten or so are male, so the guys are hugely outnumbered.) Everyone I met was so kind, though, and made me feel very welcome. 

I was so excited to finally be there! I have known that this day would come since last March, and so to actually be at my school is really wonderful. Anis, my mentor, is amazing and I can tell I’ll enjoy working with her. I was given a desk, right next to hers, in a large, air-conditioned room with wireless Internet. That will be so helpful for planning lessons. 

I worked with Anis to create my teaching schedule, and to my surprise she asked me if I wanted a day off and said that the two previous ETAs had been able to arrange their schedules to their preference. That sounded great to me, so I have every Sunday off – a three-day weekend every week! That will give me much more time to travel on weekends, which I’m very thankful for. That was an unexpected treat. The rest of my schedule is tentative for now, but so far I just have one class at the beginning of school (7:40 a.m.) and the other days I start later. Also, I’ll have Form 1, Form 2, and Form 4 students, which means I’ll be working with 13-, 14-, and 16-year-olds, and I’m glad to have that age diversity. I’ll have about 17 classes each week and will work with about five different English teachers. I think they want me to make my lesson plans relevant to what the teacher is working on in class, which definitely makes sense. The Malaysian education system is heavily exam-based, and so teachers are pressured to complete each class’ syllabus so they will be prepared for the tests.

Walking around the school today, I saw so many students and they would just stare at me and giggle and wave. The school is three stories high and at one point I was walking outside and looked up to see dozens of faces staring down at me from every floor. I cannot wait to start teaching and interacting with the girls.

P.S. This is a monitor lizard that we saw hanging out in a sewer in front of our hotel as we were moving out. Look at how long his tongue is! We were very glad that there was a sturdy metal grate as well as a good seven feet between the lizard and us. This doesn’t really relate to anything else, but I definitely thought it was worth including.