First Taste of Malaysia

Well, we’ve officially stepped out into the world and gotten our first taste of Malaysia.  Last Friday was our final quarantine day, and it has felt great to be free!

The moment we emerged from our apartment and walked, blinking, into the warm, wet air of the courtyard, was pretty wonderful. Our first day out, we were so happy just to play on our community playground, walk down to the garage to see the car we’d bought prior to moving here, and go shopping at the grocery store across the street. Every day since, we’ve been slowly getting out more and more, and seeing what’s around us.

Here in Kuala Lumpur (KL), a lot of businesses and travels are strictly limited, so there aren’t too many places we can go at the moment.  However, here’s what we’ve been up to on our first “real” week in Malaysia:

-Our apartment complex is packed full of young kids, so every time we step outside, the kids are off and playing tag, riding scooters, and meeting/reuniting with friends. We’ve never experienced such a tight knit kid community, and we are loving it! 

-Every time it rains heavily (which is pretty much every afternoon), kids go running into the courtyard to slide on the slick stone next to the pool. Once our own kids saw this, they were ready to join in! So now, we’re frequently putting rain clothes on to slip and slide and dive in the rain.  It looks like so much fun, and I’ve yet to see an adult do it, but Mike and I just might sneak out late one rainy night to give it a try. 

 

 

 

 

- We have officially tasted the (in)famous Durian fruit. It’s well known for its strong smell and unique flavor. Mike didn’t let me capture his first try on video, but it was over in a matter of seconds – he had one small bite, shrieked, and swore to never eat it again. I, on the other hand, like to give new things a completely open mind and I really wanted to like it – or at least tolerate it. So, anyhow, coming nose to nose with durian, I have to say, wow, it truly is a stinky fruit. But! I tried to wrap my mind around it in a way that made sense to me and determined it smelled sort of like an onion, and somehow that made it more tolerable. So then I took a bite, and wow, it sort of tasted like a stinky onion, but also a sweet mango-like fruit, plus it’s oddly creamy and gelatinous, which is both gag-inducing, yet tasty in a weird way. Anyhow, I still can’t completely wrap my head around this totally new flavor/texture/smell, but it was fun to try it! :D

 -We are now left lane drivers! Who drive in a right-driver-seat car! It’s definitely different. Mike already has practice with this because he travelled to England all the time for his job in Germany, but it’s completely new to me. I keep trying to grab the shifter on my right, except it’s on my left, and I keep trying to flip the turn signal lever on the left but the windshield wipers go swishing, because the signal is now on my right, so it’s all a little confusing. The first few times I drove, Mike kept telling me I was drifting to the left and that I needed to hug to center line closer, so that’s what I’ve really been trying to focus on while I drive. It’s hard to do because I’m used to hugging the left side and this new position on on the road messes with my depth perception or something. 

Debbie's First time driving on the left side of the road/left side of the car.

 -Speaking of hugging the center line, here’s a little story.  So, another thing we did was hire a domestic house helper last week. Her name is Indra and she is wonderful!  Last weekend, she offered to come with me to the mall near her house so I could get more experience driving around KL, and she could show me good places to shop for various household items.

It was such a hilarious adventure. I didn’t have a GPS because Indra planned on telling me where to go. On the way, she kept saying, “Go straight! Don’t go left!” and “You need to stay in the middle of the lane.”  I told her Mike said the same thing, and that I would really try to stay as far as possible on the right of the lane and not drift to the left.   

We drove into a part of the city that looked different than where I lived. Indra told me this is where most Malays lived, rather than foreigners. (I believed her because on the whole trip, I didn’t see a single other “Mat Salleh” around). I felt like I was seeing the real KL with Indra!

At the parking garage of the mall, there weren’t any tickets left at our ticket kiosk, so I tried to back up, but the car beside us had the same problem, so they started backing up and blocked our way. So then, I searched through the car for a card Mike had said he put somewhere that you can use on parking garages. Finally I found it, and was able to get in – hooray! In the mall, the stores Indra wanted to show me were both closed due to COVID, so we walked around a little bit and found an Italian ice cream shop open. I got passion fruit and durian – durian to see what it would taste like in ice cream form, which, by the way, was as “WOWZA” as the fruit form.

Anyhow, after the mall, Indra directed me to something called the 2RM Shop where everything in the store was 2 ringgit or less, which equates to about 50 cents in US dollars. This place was SO crowded, with cars stacked all around a busy parking lot. Indra told me to drive into the chaos and get in line with all the cars. It looked crazy in there, but I was like, “well, okay, what the heck.” So there I was inching my way in. People were backing up and weaving in and out right and left while scooters were zipping to and fro. A couple cars looked like they might back into me, so I honked a few times. Indra was laughing and shaking her head and kept saying, “oh no, no, no, no,” which I didn’t know if it was directed to me or the other cars, but I was just there, enjoying the ride, moving to the side when cars honked at me, sneaking through the line when there was room ahead, and waiting in what Indra called the “elevator” which apparently is a space at the side of parked cars, for a space to open up. I know this all probably doesn’t make sense in writing, but there was just a tangle of cars, Indra pointing and saying things I didn’t quite understand, lots of honking, and both of us laughing.

In the end, we found a paid parking area with more room, and we were able to go into the 2RM shop where I bought some waste baskets, Tupperware, and other household items all for only 50 cents each.  When I paid for my items, I discreetly pulled some cash out of my…err… you know, how we women keep things tucked inside the ‘ol bustier where it can’t get stolen? Anyway, Indra was laughing really hard and shaking her head saying, “Debbie” and I just said, “Hey, you’re the only one who saw that, okay?” So I guess that was seen as a little scandalous – good to know.  But I mean hey, I didn’t get robbed that day, which was the goal :D.

So anyway, here’s where the point of this story comes in. On the way home, Indra said, “You need to go to the right.” So I thought, “Again I’m drifting to the left!? How does this happen? Dang this right sided driving!” and I hugged the center lane a little more closely. We were having another conversation in between her driving directions, and a short time later, she mentioned, “You must stay in the center of the road.” So I was thinking like, “What’s she talking about? I’m hugging the right like crazy. I couldn’t go anymore right,” so I said, “Am I drifting left again? I feel like I’m as far right as I can go.” So she repeated, “You must go to the right.” And so I said, “Okay, I’m going to the right,” and I hugged the right lane even tighter – right on top of it! We continued our conversation and then a little while later, Indra said in exasperation, “PLEASE. GO RIGHT!” while pointing to the road that was forking to the right.

“Ohhh! You meant switch lanes! …I see… That was a communication error.”

So anyway we both laughed. We both said sorry a few times. And we made it home from our adventure in one piece. Whew. I definitely got driving practice, and enjoyed seeing different parts of KL! I’m grateful that Indra went with me and kept me on the “right” roads! :D 

Indra and I on our mall adventure

-Down the street from us is a group of plant shops with some beautiful outdoor and indoor potted plants. We bought our first two and are excited to get more. Look how pretty our indoor plant is! It doesn’t look real it’s so pretty!

-School has started for 3 out of the 4 kids. Sadly, it’s online and we don’t know when it’ll be in person. It’s been totally crazy keeping three kids in three separate classes all on task and on time for all their zoom meetings, plus taking care of the baby, but with Indra taking care of the house work, it helps so much and is really the only way online school is possible right now, so we are grateful. 

-One of the coolest discoveries near our home has been these amazingly giant moths that flutter around our apartments. It was so magical seeing them for the first time!

 -Malaysia has its own version of Amazon, called Lazada, and everything is one half to a fourth the price of American products. I’ve been buying so much junk on that site – it’s ridiculous! Especially during our quarantine, I was like, “Ooh! A candle stick for a dollar? A fancy princess dress for 10 dollars? A flower pot for 2 dollars?” I have a problem, honestly. But I did buy some cute stuff to decorate our apartment and get it feeling like a home while we’re here, so I’ll have to post a few pictures when it’s done.

-Mike is enjoying his new job so far, working at the U.S. Embassy. The embassy is pretty cool. It has 2 restaurants, a playground, pool, and tennis court that we can reserve. We’ve been swimming twice already, and it’s nice to have a place to go work off some energy with the kids. Hopefully, we can get in some tennis games while we’re here as well!

Mike leaving for his first day of work

Visiting Daddy's work

Embassy Pool

 -Mike and I just celebrated our 13-year anniversary. Indra watched the kids while we went on a quick date to the local pasar (market). It was fun trying some street food and walking around the shops. I’m grateful there are a lot still open right now! We got some Malay food and asked for “Tak pedas” (not spicy) which they assured us it wouldn’t be. But wow, their version of tak pedas is sure pedas to us! 

 Street Market:

We also tried fried bananas, fried sweet fruit (can’t remember the name), Apam Balik (below), and some chocolate cake from a bakery. It was fun to get out and enjoy the atmosphere. We have felt really comfortable here so far and we feel completely safe walking around, while of course following basic safety precautions to prevent pickpockets and theft, which is main thing to worry about here when it comes to crime. 

Apam Balik- I want to try "Oreo cheese" next time.

  -Other random observations about Malaysia:

·       While it is hot and humid, before coming, I imagined the heat would be crazy miserable to set my expectations low, so now it’s not as bad as I imagined, and some days have actually been quite cool, with a nice breeze.  Honestly, summers in Maryland felt worse to us.

·       People are warm, humble, and friendly here. They like to laugh, wave at kids, and smile, which is so inviting and welcoming. We love it.

·       There are many different bird sounds, butterflies, bugs, trees, and plants which are beautiful - check out the falcon-looking bird we saw out our window and a bright purple dragon fly at our apartment fish pond. I can’t wait to see more nature when the lockdown eases up. (Right now we can’t leave the state, travel farther than 6km or drive with more than 2 people in the car).

·       Almost everyone we’ve come into contact with here speaks English. Also, we can get almost any American Product we want here at several stores that are very close by. It’s the little things that are so comforting in a new place!

·       Walking around, we’ve noticed there is a lot of garbage in the city and the smell of sewage wafts through the streets here and there, but in general, where we’ve been has been pretty clean, and what’s great, is the street food is safe to eat! :D

·       There are lots of mosquitoes floating around. Good thing we have lots of bug spray!

·       I haven’t seen any monkeys yet, which I’m super sad about. I love monkeys and I know they’re around here somewhere. I will find them.

Anyway, so far, we are really enjoying our new home. It’s been such a smooth transition and feels really easy to live here. We’re all healthy and happy – especially the kids. They are so much happier here and are doing so much better this time around than our last overseas move. Their joy makes our joy full! Family happiness is everything - even if we can’t go anywhere else but our own little home and neighborhood. 

Visiting a small street market near our home.

Rambutan - we've seen these on nearby trees - they are a very popular fruit here, and really tasty - just eat around the big seed in the middle.

Very pretty dragon fruit. Me and our youngest liked it - tastes like a pink kiwi. 

View of KL from the highway.

 

 

Malaysia: A New Adventure Begins

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

 

Malay dishes

Pedas tapi Sedap.

From our porch, Birdsong I've never heard before on a beautiful Malaysian Morning.

 

Ten things we learned from Germany

Less than three months after my last post, we left Frankfurt. After almost two years, our time in Germany was complete.

In those last few weeks, when we knew time was running out, we did our best to live it up before saying goodbye.

We visited the favorite bakeries to buy the chocolate-filled, chocoalate-coated, and zucker donuts. We visited the Italian Ice and doner kebab shops. I took the kids running around my favorite loop through a beautiful park that weaved through the woods, passed apartment patios dripping in gorgeous flowers, and wound around a path surrounded by colorful kleingartens. 

We took one last trip to the Black Forest and bought a coo-coo clock. We took one last trip to Belgium and played in the ocean. One last trip to Austria.   

We visited the parks, forests, churches, castles, and palace grounds that we had come to love, all one last time.

 

As many days as I was able, I walked through my favorite place of all - the Frankfurt cemetery - to breathe in the trees, the beautiful stone angels, the silent church house, the pond, the sculptures of Christ, the intricate monuments, the flowers embracing tombstones in a hug of vines.  This was my place of refuge! (Isn't it beautiful?)

We truly loved our time in Germany. 

We loved the thickness of the trees, the green moss, the web of rivers tangled with stone, the monuments, the ghostly castles emptied of wood and torches, the food, the cozy villages, the bakeries, the centuries-old houses, the twinkling lights at night, the woodwork, the smell of burning branches, the Christmas markets. 

Yes, in between all that were some really stressful moments. Those moments taught us so much, increased our trust in God, and helped us become stronger. And our hearts are full from all of it: the learning, growth, challenges, adventures, fun, and magic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, here we are another four months later, back in the states, reflecting on some of the many things Germany taught us. On a MUCH less serious note, here are 10 of those things:

1. We learned how to double park and back in and out of narrow driveways with ease.

    -You become an expert when it's a daily occurrence.

2. We learned how to have thick skin.

    -With strangers coming at you with lectures, reprimands, and swear words on a regular basis, you learn to brush things off, dish it back (respectfully), or simply ignore it after awhile.

3. We learned how to use the bathroom in any park or woods you could ever find yourself in.

    -With no public bathrooms at most parks, you learn to always keep toilet paper and hand sanitizer handy for the whole family. Just look for a bush - that's all you need!

4. We learned Mike is Turkish. 

    - Out of all the countries Mike visited, he may have felt most at home in Turkey. With his darker complexion, natural hairiness, and brown eyes, everyone assumed he was a local. And as it turns out, thanks to Family Tree, we know he actually has bloodlines from that region!

5. We both learned to be alone.

    -I never thought I'd be able to be alone for long periods of time without my husband and be okay with it. I've always hated being alone - especially at night! But it turns out, you get used to situations when you're forced to do it for a long enough time, and it becomes totally doable. As for Mike, he learned ways to pass the excessive amounts of free time while traveling through reading and working on projects. He also learned that visiting new countries is okay by yourself, but WAYYYYY better when you have your family with you. :)

6. Debbie learned to ask for help.

    -One of the MOST important lessons I learned was that I have the permission to get help for myself when I need it. I hope anyone who has a lot on their plate can understand this too - We can and need to ask for help! It doesn't make us weak, it makes us wise! We can hire a babysitter for 1 1/2 hours a day to help us put kids to bed, we can ask a friend to watch our kids while we go shopping. We can express our needs to those who can and want to help us!

7. We learned going 85-90 mph on a daily basis can feel completely normal. 

    -Many days taking my kids to school on the autobahn, I would look at my speedometer and be like, "oh, 85/90, weird, it feels so normal."

8. We learned that spraying graffiti is the equivalent to toilet papering someone's house here in the states. 

    -In Germany, graffiti is literally EVERYWHERE, including every park playground. At first, it made us feel like we were in a bad part of town or something, but then one of Mike's driver's explained that graffiti is just what every kid does for fun. Like EVERY kid. So it's not seen as that big of a deal I guess. 

9. We learned the habits of recycling and how to bag your own groceries at super-sonic speed.

    -Having to separate plastics, paper, and other trash every day has made recycling a habit! I hope to continue it forever now that it's ingrained so deep! As far as the groceries go, they don't bag your groceries in Germany, so you bring your own and learn to stuff them fast enough to keep up with the speedy checkers - wowza they're fast! It's like the checkout version of the autobahn...

10. We learned that living abroad is an amazing adventure, filled with unimaginable rewards and unexpected difficulties. 

    - Some of the hardest things can be some of the best things we do, with the best memories made! Would we do it over again? YES WE WOULD! Nothing can take the place of these experiences. They were life-changing!!

...

At the moment, we are now living in Washington D.C. in between our assignments. There's a lot to say about our next step, but you know the government, there's a lot of processes, paperwork, and clearances that take TIME, so we're waiting for our plans to be finalized to talk about it just yet. One thing we know for certain is that our Germany chapter is behind us, and another adventure lies ahead. Stay tuned!