We’ve been thinking about our arrival to Germany a lot this past week. It’s hard not to compare our current experience with our last overseas adventure.
Exactly three years ago, we had just arrived to our temporary apartment in Frankfurt. It was hot and I was worried about drinking the tap water. There was no soap or toilet paper in the house. There was very little food. We had to walk five flights of stairs for internet access. We didn’t know how to get around or where to go to get what we needed. There were several boxes in the house that we ripped open to unpack our scratchy emergency-style blankets to use until our own bedding arrived. Mike immediately went to work while I stayed home not knowing how the dishwasher, laundry washer, stove or microwave, with their plethora of buttons, all worked. I felt scared and stressed, and so dang hot without AC. It was hard to sleep at night with the scratchy blankets.
I know I’m probably sounding like a whiner at this point, but the truth is, that our arrival to Germany was more uncomfortable, confusing (and hot) than I expected, and it was a bit of a jolt as far as adjusting to new homes go.
My, how our move to Malaysia has been so different.
Yes, Malaysia is the location of Mike’s new assignment, and as I write this, we’ve already made the journey across the globe. We've been anxiously awaiting this move since we found out about it last
summer and we can hardly believe the time has arrived! We spent about a year in Arlington, Virginia where Mike took six months of Malay language training and three months of management training. I was able to take two months of Malay as well, which I'm really grateful for.
We left the US last week. The flight was daunting – over 30 hours of travel time. We'd been dreading it for a year.
The first flight was one hour to Seattle. There, we had paperwork problems and had to stay the night in the city. I think it actually turned into a blessing because it gave us time to decompress after packing and preparing the previous days.
The next day, at 6pm, we finally took off on a plane and
began our longest flight, from Seattle to Doha: 14 hours. Yikes. But here’s
what happened. The kids stayed awake for a bit and then each of them fell
asleep. I slept with them pretty solidly throughout the night and we all woke
up with just a few hours left to Doha. What? Was that really that easy?
Whew. It was! (Except for Poor Mike- he didn't sleep much).
An eight hour layover in Doha was next. Luckily, the airport had a playground to help pass the time.
The flight from Doha to Kuala Lumpur was seven hours, which we filled with lots of movies and kindle games. In KL, we had to complete about three hours of paperwork before we could drive home. We were all so tired at this point and that was a tough process with exhausted kids, but we made it through.
After that, we drove an hour to our apartment. We were dropped off and led inside our home – the permanent one we’d be living in for two years. There was AC on. We had beds with pillows and sheets and blankets (that weren’t scratchy). Groceries we had ordered from our sponsors earlier were stacked on our counter, which included soap and toilet paper. The sink had a water filter and the cupboards had cups and dishes. Our internet was already set up. The microwave, oven, washer, dishwasher- all were self-explanatory, with minimal buttons!
Wow. This has been the easiest, most comfortable, least-confusing transition for us, and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you. We are GRATEFUL.
So here we are in the middle of our 2-week mandatory quarantine. A few first impressions of our new home:
There are a lot of palm trees here. And pretty butterflies that fly past our windows.
We love our apartment. There’s lots of room and we hope we’ll have lots of visitors while we are here. Also, we only have a week left of lockdown– hooray!
Apparently house geckos are very common. We found a tiny one inside our laundry room our second day here. Mike caught it and we had fun holding him before releasing him on our deck.
At night, fruit bats fly around the palm trees.
We are so grateful for our sponsors. They have picked up food for us just about every day, answered our questions, and have made sure we have everything we need. What a difference it makes to have good sponsors!
We’ve tried a few local restaurants already using food ordering apps. So far, we’ve discovered Australian barbecue, and some Malay soup dishes. All have been sangat sedap.
We already were able to attend church on Sunday via zoom and our new congregation is so nice. Plus, everyone speaks English – what a blessing to have the consistency of the church wherever we move.
We cannot wait to be able to get out and explore what’s around us. I’ve been google mapping the area, looking up parks, activities and stores nearby. We’re excited to meet new people, figure out what’s what, and weave our way into this new community.
So yeah, we made it! A new chapter begins. Many things await our future: school starting (will it be online or in-person? We still don’t know), venturing outside, Mike starting work, and finding a new routine at home. In the meantime, we’ll try to enjoy this family time together, and continue watching fruit bats each night.Airport Pictures: 17 suitcases, 3 different airports, many lines, kids finding ways of entertaining themselves, and lots of walking.
In-flight, leaving the city lights of Doha for Kuala Lumpur.
Online church service the day after arriving. So happy to have a church here.
Our happy vacuum. I like this place already, ha!
Our house gecko
Morning moon
