If we get the internet this week (we should) we'll start posting pictures as well.
Subang Jaya is the city we live in. It is about 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur . Sort of like Mississauga from Toronto . Subang Jaya is a mix of very modern 1st world shopping & commerce with some 3rd world life styles still lingering. Pollution is pretty bad. Vehicle exhaust is the worst pollutant. People put out their garbage every day & it often rips & scatters & people don’t really clean it up well. Some areas are spotless & clean & other areas are quite littered. Subang Jaya is a very working class neighbourhood. We are in a gated community/neighbourhood & it is very nice. We have met some wonderful Malaysians who cannot do enough to help us out.
It is hot but nothing we haven’t experienced in Bolton during our heat waves . But it is always very very humid. It is about 31 degrees during the day & about 29 at night. Every place, store, classroom, taxi is air conditioned to the max & we are often freezing, but we don’t complain because it feels sooo good. We are getting used to sweating!! Bill bought a couple of little towels to mop up and then we noticed that many Malaysians also carry little towels too. We are noticing the heat less & less each day. I guess we are acclimatizing!
The food is interesting. We’ve had lots of rice with a variety of veggies & chicken – actually really tasty. I haven’t ventured too far from my taste bud safety zone yet!! On Sunday we went to a beautiful Japanese restaurant with a couple who took us to church. The meal took about 2 hours & it was wonderful. We tried eel, oysters, sushi (just a little bit), & many other delightful items - all very tasty.
The people we have met are wonderful – the school staff members are terrific. The new Canadian group - 10 of us - have gotten together many times for short parties – lots of fun. 4 are brand new graduates, 2 are 5 year teachers & 4 of us are retired – a great group. Almost all of us know people in common. It is such a small world.
Pangkor Island - We had a staff team building weekend July 27-29th. We left Friday am about 9:30 for a 4 hour drive & 20 minute Ferry ride to Pangkor Island - a destination restort island. We stayed at Puteri Bayu Hotel. It was once a very lovely but there has not been the upkeep & maintenance to keep it a 4 star place. Parts - eg foyer, entrance were lovely but other areas were older & a liitle run down eg rooms. But it was neat & clean. However, Taylor's hired a team to lead us through the weekend & they were terrific. We had a lot of fun and we met so many other staff members from other Taylor's campuses. They had many activities including "An Amazing Race" that took us around the island. The island is very pretty and picturesque with some beautiful beaches. The island itself seems to be a very poor settlement of "Chinese/Malaysian" fishing families. The "downtown" area reminded us of Wasaga beach of old where there were lovely beaches, some resorts/cottages & tacky little souvenir shops!. But we had a terrific relaxing weekend - and it was free!!
The Canadian section of Taylor's College took all of the Canadian staff out to a lovely restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel last week. This is where we stayed for the first week. It is a beautiful hotel. Dinner was great.
That's the news so far. I could go on about so much that is the same but so much that is different. It really is amazing to "live" in another culture. But, is it basically so modern that there has not been any culture shock. We are having a great time. It is like we are on a very long holiday.
Take care & hopefully we'll be sending some picture soon.
Love Kim & Bill
Monday, July 30, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Feel of the Place
We have now been here nine days & wow …. Things have happened sooo fast. It seems like we’ve been here for ages. But we don’t really know where anything is & we are trying to figure out the food. Our time has been spent:
· Finding a place to live. As Bill said – we have a lovely condo, brand new, simply furnished, fabulous pool. We have gone to the pool each evening about 8:00 and it is sooo warm, relaxing, beautiful….. Our condo is out of town so we have to take taxis everywhere – very cheap - $1.50-$2.00 Canadian.
· Shopping - Buying stuff for the apartment. We needed everything – iron & board, cutlery, towels etc etc. We have bought IKEA stuff to get us started. Bill hates to shop at the best of times & it is wearing him down a bit because it takes so long to buy anything because we do not know brands or we can’t read what the product is. Most local food is very inexpensive but we don’t know if it is what we want – North American stuff is about our prices. But I bought a box of cereal – Kellogg’s – that cost me $10 Canadian …. I didn’t realize that it was imported from Australia !!!!
· School – a number of staff meetings & division meetings. Classes started on Tues so we’ve taught 2 full days. The students are sooo polite, so courteous & very very motivated to do well. Many are on state scholarships and they must do well to maintain the $$ for tuition & housing. Most kids are from other Malaysian provinces but a few from places like China , Iran , Iraq …. Bill & I are having a blast in the classroom. It really is fun. We each have 3 classes a day – no problem. Bill actually has been doing 5 a day this week until a teacher returns next week. He is very tired. He hasn’t done the whole day teaching thing for a long time.
· I have about 6 fully robed Muslims girls in each of my classes. No not the black burka (sp??) but a long dress over long pants & head scarf. They do not look hot & I don’t know why!!!! Students really are quiet and very respectful.
· Night Market – We went to a night market in China town in KL on Sunday night – fabulous, scary, crowded, tiny stalls filled with a zillion watches, purses shoes etc etc I bought a purse for about $25 Canadian but I realized I could have gotten it for about 10-12 bucks!! Next time I’ll bargain more. I got the guy down form RM250 to RM 80 …. I though I couldn’t go any further – I definitely could have.
Subang Jaya is the city we live in. It is about 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur . Sort of like Mississauga from Toronto . Subaga Jaya is a mix of very modern 1st world shopping & commerce with some 3rd world life styles still lingering. Pollution is pretty bad. Vehicle exhaust is the worst pollutant. People put out their garbage every day & it often rips & scatters & people don’t really clean it up well. Some areas are spotless & clean & other areas are quite littered.
It is hot but nothing we haven’t experienced in Bolton . But it is always very humid. It is about 31 degrees during the day & about 29 at night. Every place, store, classroom, taxi is air conditioned to the max & we are often freezing, but we don’t complain because it feels sooo good.
The food is interesting. We’ve had lots of rice with a variety of veggies & chicken – actually really tasty. I haven’t venture too far from my taste bud safety zone yet!!
The people we have met are wonderful – the school staff members are terrific. The new Canadian group - 10 of us - have gotten together 3 times for short parties – lots of fun. 4 are brand new graduates, 2 are 5 year teachers & 4 of us are retired – a great group. Almost all of us know people in common. It is such a small world.
Internet – we don’t have internet at our condo yet which is why our Blog & e-mails have not started. I’m at school right now & thought I’d put this e-mail together to let you know how we’re doing.
So far it has been fun, tiring, exhilarating & very very interesting.
Kim
· Finding a place to live. As Bill said – we have a lovely condo, brand new, simply furnished, fabulous pool. We have gone to the pool each evening about 8:00 and it is sooo warm, relaxing, beautiful….. Our condo is out of town so we have to take taxis everywhere – very cheap - $1.50-$2.00 Canadian.
· Shopping - Buying stuff for the apartment. We needed everything – iron & board, cutlery, towels etc etc. We have bought IKEA stuff to get us started. Bill hates to shop at the best of times & it is wearing him down a bit because it takes so long to buy anything because we do not know brands or we can’t read what the product is. Most local food is very inexpensive but we don’t know if it is what we want – North American stuff is about our prices. But I bought a box of cereal – Kellogg’s – that cost me $10 Canadian …. I didn’t realize that it was imported from Australia !!!!
· School – a number of staff meetings & division meetings. Classes started on Tues so we’ve taught 2 full days. The students are sooo polite, so courteous & very very motivated to do well. Many are on state scholarships and they must do well to maintain the $$ for tuition & housing. Most kids are from other Malaysian provinces but a few from places like China , Iran , Iraq …. Bill & I are having a blast in the classroom. It really is fun. We each have 3 classes a day – no problem. Bill actually has been doing 5 a day this week until a teacher returns next week. He is very tired. He hasn’t done the whole day teaching thing for a long time.
· I have about 6 fully robed Muslims girls in each of my classes. No not the black burka (sp??) but a long dress over long pants & head scarf. They do not look hot & I don’t know why!!!! Students really are quiet and very respectful.
· Night Market – We went to a night market in China town in KL on Sunday night – fabulous, scary, crowded, tiny stalls filled with a zillion watches, purses shoes etc etc I bought a purse for about $25 Canadian but I realized I could have gotten it for about 10-12 bucks!! Next time I’ll bargain more. I got the guy down form RM250 to RM 80 …. I though I couldn’t go any further – I definitely could have.
Subang Jaya is the city we live in. It is about 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur . Sort of like Mississauga from Toronto . Subaga Jaya is a mix of very modern 1st world shopping & commerce with some 3rd world life styles still lingering. Pollution is pretty bad. Vehicle exhaust is the worst pollutant. People put out their garbage every day & it often rips & scatters & people don’t really clean it up well. Some areas are spotless & clean & other areas are quite littered.
It is hot but nothing we haven’t experienced in Bolton . But it is always very humid. It is about 31 degrees during the day & about 29 at night. Every place, store, classroom, taxi is air conditioned to the max & we are often freezing, but we don’t complain because it feels sooo good.
The food is interesting. We’ve had lots of rice with a variety of veggies & chicken – actually really tasty. I haven’t venture too far from my taste bud safety zone yet!!
The people we have met are wonderful – the school staff members are terrific. The new Canadian group - 10 of us - have gotten together 3 times for short parties – lots of fun. 4 are brand new graduates, 2 are 5 year teachers & 4 of us are retired – a great group. Almost all of us know people in common. It is such a small world.
Internet – we don’t have internet at our condo yet which is why our Blog & e-mails have not started. I’m at school right now & thought I’d put this e-mail together to let you know how we’re doing.
So far it has been fun, tiring, exhilarating & very very interesting.
Kim
Monday, July 9, 2007
The First Week
Its hard to believe we've only been here a week; it seems like we've packed a month worth of activity inbto the time..
Tuesday, July 3
Shortly after we arrived on Tuesday, Steve and Pam Wiser dropped by to see us and Susan and Ken. Steve and Pam are new hires (at least Steve is) who came over in mid April. Pam retired from her job in health care to travel with him and she is doing some volunteer work via the Internet with a group in Singapore. These two wondeful people took us on a tour of the area and then we all went to dinner in a local restauran called the Windmill. They shared with us their stories of settling in and gave us some valuable tips on sorting ourselves out.
We are rapidly becoming Asian as our first purchase was a pair of cell phones. They are very cheap to own and maintain here and everyone seems to have one. They are constantly in use.
Before the dinner we met with Rudi, a local real estate agent, who was assigned to assist us in finding accommodations. We set up an appointment for the next day to view several apartments with Rudi, Ken and Susan.
We were in bed by 8:30 and Kim says that Bill was snoring before his head hit the pillow.
Wednesday, July 4
We both awoke around 5:15 AM. We napped fitfully until 5:30 and then both picked up our books to read. Kim read until 8:30 at which time she informed her spouse that she was afraid that if she stopped reading she would have to start the rest of her life; clearly in denial. We went to breakfast in the hotel. It was included n the price of the room. The buffet is spectacular. A little of every culture that makes up and surrounds Malaysia. The fresh fruit is plentiful and the juice is literally fresh squeezed.
At 11:00 AM we met with the HR department at the college to go over the final version of our contracts. There was the ususal reams of paperwork to complete but they are all so helpful that it's hard to feel any animosity.
In the early afternoon we met Rudi along with Ken and Susan and visited five apartments in two condo buildings. The first was a new building and most of the units are owned by locals who have never lived in them. They are renting them out as an investment. The second was an older building. Those who know Kim will know her preference. We all asked to see a third building that we had heard about "E-Tiara" and a visit was arranged for Thursday.
Thursday, July 5
The orientation originally scheduled for today was moved to Friday. We did however meet with HR again for a short tour of the non-academic facilities. We also met Rudi and saw a couple more apartments. We then asked to make an offer on the ver yfirsdt one we saw. We agreed on a price and we set a meeting for Friday to check it out again and sign the papers. This evening we had a get together of the rookies at one of the places in our condo. Many of us have moved in to the Boulevard.
Friday, July 6
We met with the Director (Frank Meagher) for an orientation. Several of the departments presented and we had more paperwork to complete. We met with Rudi in the afternoon and we signed the papers. We got permission to make the move on Saturday morning and we would meet the local agent (Rossy...no really it is spelled correctly) at 10:00 AM. We grabbed the wordst pizza ever made for dinner and were back at the Sheraton for our last night.
Saturday, July 7
We went to the last of our complementary breakfasts. These have been a real highlight.
By 9:30 we had packed and we were able to negotiate the use of the hotel van and driver to take us to the condo. They sent the driver, the van, and another bell hop to help us and merely suggested a total tip of RM 20 for them (this is $6.50 CND).
Once moved in Kim set about cleaning an apartment that had never been lived in. She said she had to get rid of the construction dust...OK. Once cleaned to her satisfaction we made a list and went shopping. We found a taxi to Carefour; it is a WallMart type store. We loaded up on necessities and returned to the condo to set up living.
Not the seventh day but we rested anyway.
Sunday, July 8
This was a day of more shopping and setting up. Once we were done with the laundry (a wahser was included but here they don't believe in dryers) we went to KL. See Kim's next post.
Monday July 9
We had a staff meeting in the morning and again spent the afternoon shopping. We walked to Subang Parade (a very western mall). We had a large load of stuff and we discovered that taxi fares are based in part on the amount of cargo you are carrying. By the way, don't expect the cabs to turn on the meter. One negotiates a price with each driver and varies depending on many factors including the time of day and your level of desperation.
Tomorrow classes start and we reach the one week point.
Bill
Tuesday, July 3
Shortly after we arrived on Tuesday, Steve and Pam Wiser dropped by to see us and Susan and Ken. Steve and Pam are new hires (at least Steve is) who came over in mid April. Pam retired from her job in health care to travel with him and she is doing some volunteer work via the Internet with a group in Singapore. These two wondeful people took us on a tour of the area and then we all went to dinner in a local restauran called the Windmill. They shared with us their stories of settling in and gave us some valuable tips on sorting ourselves out.
We are rapidly becoming Asian as our first purchase was a pair of cell phones. They are very cheap to own and maintain here and everyone seems to have one. They are constantly in use.
Before the dinner we met with Rudi, a local real estate agent, who was assigned to assist us in finding accommodations. We set up an appointment for the next day to view several apartments with Rudi, Ken and Susan.
We were in bed by 8:30 and Kim says that Bill was snoring before his head hit the pillow.
Wednesday, July 4
We both awoke around 5:15 AM. We napped fitfully until 5:30 and then both picked up our books to read. Kim read until 8:30 at which time she informed her spouse that she was afraid that if she stopped reading she would have to start the rest of her life; clearly in denial. We went to breakfast in the hotel. It was included n the price of the room. The buffet is spectacular. A little of every culture that makes up and surrounds Malaysia. The fresh fruit is plentiful and the juice is literally fresh squeezed.
At 11:00 AM we met with the HR department at the college to go over the final version of our contracts. There was the ususal reams of paperwork to complete but they are all so helpful that it's hard to feel any animosity.
In the early afternoon we met Rudi along with Ken and Susan and visited five apartments in two condo buildings. The first was a new building and most of the units are owned by locals who have never lived in them. They are renting them out as an investment. The second was an older building. Those who know Kim will know her preference. We all asked to see a third building that we had heard about "E-Tiara" and a visit was arranged for Thursday.
Thursday, July 5
The orientation originally scheduled for today was moved to Friday. We did however meet with HR again for a short tour of the non-academic facilities. We also met Rudi and saw a couple more apartments. We then asked to make an offer on the ver yfirsdt one we saw. We agreed on a price and we set a meeting for Friday to check it out again and sign the papers. This evening we had a get together of the rookies at one of the places in our condo. Many of us have moved in to the Boulevard.
Friday, July 6
We met with the Director (Frank Meagher) for an orientation. Several of the departments presented and we had more paperwork to complete. We met with Rudi in the afternoon and we signed the papers. We got permission to make the move on Saturday morning and we would meet the local agent (Rossy...no really it is spelled correctly) at 10:00 AM. We grabbed the wordst pizza ever made for dinner and were back at the Sheraton for our last night.
Saturday, July 7
We went to the last of our complementary breakfasts. These have been a real highlight.
By 9:30 we had packed and we were able to negotiate the use of the hotel van and driver to take us to the condo. They sent the driver, the van, and another bell hop to help us and merely suggested a total tip of RM 20 for them (this is $6.50 CND).
Once moved in Kim set about cleaning an apartment that had never been lived in. She said she had to get rid of the construction dust...OK. Once cleaned to her satisfaction we made a list and went shopping. We found a taxi to Carefour; it is a WallMart type store. We loaded up on necessities and returned to the condo to set up living.
Not the seventh day but we rested anyway.
Sunday, July 8
This was a day of more shopping and setting up. Once we were done with the laundry (a wahser was included but here they don't believe in dryers) we went to KL. See Kim's next post.
Monday July 9
We had a staff meeting in the morning and again spent the afternoon shopping. We walked to Subang Parade (a very western mall). We had a large load of stuff and we discovered that taxi fares are based in part on the amount of cargo you are carrying. By the way, don't expect the cabs to turn on the meter. One negotiates a price with each driver and varies depending on many factors including the time of day and your level of desperation.
Tomorrow classes start and we reach the one week point.
Bill
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The Trip Over
We'll get some pictures in as soon as we have home access to the Internet. That takes a little time here.
Thursday, June 28
Kim finished at school today. She always said she would leave from school to airport and fly somewhere, but the KL plans changed all of that. She stayed at school (BIG SURPRISE!) to finish some paperwork. She arrived home about 8:45 and we went to dinner; on the way Kim calmly announced that she was now in KL mode and screamed.
Friday, June 29
We relaxed today. Laundry and sundry preparatory duties but mainly collecting the papers and getting the luggage from the storage room to the bedroom. Enough for one day.
Saturday, June 30
More of the same but we took time this evening to have dinner with our good friends Barb and Ed.
Sunday, July 1
Kim and Bill spent Sunday, July 1 getting ready, especially the packing. On Saturday we had checked all of the baggage requirements (size weight etc.) and decided that we needed more space. We went out and bought two more very large suitcases. Give the size (208 cm overall...l+w+h) and weight (32 kg or 70 lb) we had to pack carefully. By noon on Sunday we thought that we were well within the tolerances; we had the boys hold the cases one by one while standing on the bathroom scale and then we subtracted their weight.
Early afternoon Connie and Jim (Kim's mom and her husband) arrived and it was great to see them. Andrea arrived from time away at a friend's cottage in the Thousand Islands and around four thirty we decided to go to the airport. We thought we'd check in early and then go for dinner with the whole family. Since we had an 11:35 pm flight we felt a 6:00 check in would allow us lots of time to enjoy the company before embarking. The problem was that Cathay Pacific only has one flight per day at 11:35 PM and the staff doesn't open the check in until 8:00 PM or so. Fortunately the scales were working so Kim had us weigh all the bags. We were close but she re-arranged some items and got us within the acceptable limits on all bags.
We then took all the luggage with us and took the family to dinner at the Sheraton Gateway (right in the terminal). around 8:30 we returned to the terminal and checked our bags. That went smoothly thanks to Kim's efforts. We said our goodbyes and were on our own and through security by 9:15.
We sat and read or wandered until the flight. It was late taking off (12:15) because the plane was late getting in. Once airborne we ate and slept, ate and slept. We landed in Anchorage and disembarked for refueling and a change of crew. It was 3:30 Anchorage time when we re boarded; that's 7:30 Monday morning T.O. time.
The next leg of the journey to Hong Kong was more of the same and we arrived 6:15 AM their time. We were now in the the same time zone as KL so 12 hours ahead of T.O. We waited in the airport for two hours and boarded for the final leg to KL.
We arrived in KL at 12:15 PM Tuesday, July 3 (We'll stop telling you T. O. time; just know that we are 12 hours ahead until standard time resumes in the fall; then we're thirteen hours ahead. The director (principal) Frank met us at the airport with a van and one of the college's drivers. We trundled off and were registered at the Sheraton Subang Jaya Towers and Suites. This is a top end five star hotel!
We were exhausted, mainly in the rear end, from sitting for so long. We both observed that the flight was very quiet. We don't know if we should attribute this to the natural Asian reticence or the length of flight.
We're here; it's hot; we love it so far
Thursday, June 28
Kim finished at school today. She always said she would leave from school to airport and fly somewhere, but the KL plans changed all of that. She stayed at school (BIG SURPRISE!) to finish some paperwork. She arrived home about 8:45 and we went to dinner; on the way Kim calmly announced that she was now in KL mode and screamed.
Friday, June 29
We relaxed today. Laundry and sundry preparatory duties but mainly collecting the papers and getting the luggage from the storage room to the bedroom. Enough for one day.
Saturday, June 30
More of the same but we took time this evening to have dinner with our good friends Barb and Ed.
Sunday, July 1
Kim and Bill spent Sunday, July 1 getting ready, especially the packing. On Saturday we had checked all of the baggage requirements (size weight etc.) and decided that we needed more space. We went out and bought two more very large suitcases. Give the size (208 cm overall...l+w+h) and weight (32 kg or 70 lb) we had to pack carefully. By noon on Sunday we thought that we were well within the tolerances; we had the boys hold the cases one by one while standing on the bathroom scale and then we subtracted their weight.
Early afternoon Connie and Jim (Kim's mom and her husband) arrived and it was great to see them. Andrea arrived from time away at a friend's cottage in the Thousand Islands and around four thirty we decided to go to the airport. We thought we'd check in early and then go for dinner with the whole family. Since we had an 11:35 pm flight we felt a 6:00 check in would allow us lots of time to enjoy the company before embarking. The problem was that Cathay Pacific only has one flight per day at 11:35 PM and the staff doesn't open the check in until 8:00 PM or so. Fortunately the scales were working so Kim had us weigh all the bags. We were close but she re-arranged some items and got us within the acceptable limits on all bags.
We then took all the luggage with us and took the family to dinner at the Sheraton Gateway (right in the terminal). around 8:30 we returned to the terminal and checked our bags. That went smoothly thanks to Kim's efforts. We said our goodbyes and were on our own and through security by 9:15.
We sat and read or wandered until the flight. It was late taking off (12:15) because the plane was late getting in. Once airborne we ate and slept, ate and slept. We landed in Anchorage and disembarked for refueling and a change of crew. It was 3:30 Anchorage time when we re boarded; that's 7:30 Monday morning T.O. time.
The next leg of the journey to Hong Kong was more of the same and we arrived 6:15 AM their time. We were now in the the same time zone as KL so 12 hours ahead of T.O. We waited in the airport for two hours and boarded for the final leg to KL.
We arrived in KL at 12:15 PM Tuesday, July 3 (We'll stop telling you T. O. time; just know that we are 12 hours ahead until standard time resumes in the fall; then we're thirteen hours ahead. The director (principal) Frank met us at the airport with a van and one of the college's drivers. We trundled off and were registered at the Sheraton Subang Jaya Towers and Suites. This is a top end five star hotel!
We were exhausted, mainly in the rear end, from sitting for so long. We both observed that the flight was very quiet. We don't know if we should attribute this to the natural Asian reticence or the length of flight.
We're here; it's hot; we love it so far
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