We're Starting to Get Around

We have only been here for 1 month now & we have done so much, met so many wonderful people & seen so many new & exciting things. It seems that we've been here for many months.

July 27 - July 29th TUC (Taylor's University College) took 140 staff members to Pangkor Island for a weekend get to know each other. This is a resort island off the west coast mid way north toward Thailand. It was terrific. They hired a team building company to lead us through the weekend. They did a marvelous job. The activities were not too intrusive but fun. There is not much to do on the island so it was nice to have a couple of organized activities - The Amazing Race was one activity that took groups of us around the island in vans to complete a number of tests, hunts & races- a lot of fun. The draw back to the weekend was that the lovely hotel was nice in the front, lobby & restaurant area but the rooms were run down & I was not impressed. But they were very clean & bug free. We (I) managed just fine. At first I was wondering if it was my North America snobby standard kicking in & then we heard many Malaysian TUC staff who were also not impressed with the rooms. But, we had a great time & it was free. It is very interesting to see Muslim women swimming with full scarf, long sleeved shirts & long pants on. We also went on a boat trip, did some snorkeling & saw the surrounding island & sites - we could have been on Bill's parents' lake in Muskoka. It really looked so similar to some of our Canadian cottage country. But then we returned to the huge palm trees!!
This past weekend we took a school van & driver & a Canadian lecturer who has been here for approx 3 years & toured the greater KL area - fabulous day - we saw & toured so many sights; the Kings residence, the parliamentary area, a fabulous Mosque, the Ba tu Caves (enormous cave where the Hindu celebrate their Thaipusam festival each year); the Eye on Malaysia centre, studied the bridge & building architecture; a walking tour of "Little India"; sunset drinks at the Sky Bar on the top floor of a fabulous hotel facing the Petronas Towers & skyline of KL; lunch & dinner at KL centre & Petronas Towers. The towers & its mall are enormous & interesting & so modern. Lunch was Malaysian food - dinner was Vietnamese - both fabulous. We had a superb day. Yesterday - Sunday we had a Dim Sum lunch with Malaysian friends who take us to church & out to lunch - they have sort of adopted us & want to show us everything. Great couple. For dinner we went with 2 other terrific Malaysian couples (one of the ladies lives on our floor at the condo & she is the agent who got us our condo) to an absolutely great restaurant with Penang food - Penang is a small island in the north of Malaysia near the Thailand border & it is known for its great food. Actually it was one of the most delicious meals we've had this month.
But, I'm at work now and I must organize a test that my students expect this morning. We are anxiously awaiting our home Internet. We are discovering that Malaysian time is very flexible or as the locals call it - rubber time. Once that is installed we can update our blog with news & pictures.

There is so much more that we've seen & done it is hard to capture in words. We're still having a great time & we're so glad we made the decision to come.

Kim