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