The End.

Well, tomorrow is my last day here in Penang. I have mixed feeling about this.
On the one hand I can't wait to see my sisters, brother, nephew, and friends, but on the other hand I have to go back to Texas and find work and start school. Why am I leaving?! You should all come here!

Living in Malaysia is so different. I think I may have culture shock when I return. Everyone told me I would have culture shock when I arrived in Malaysia. Besides the usage of bathrooms I don't think it affected me. I think I belong in Asia. But I think when I return to the States the culture change is going to be major.

I can't wait to have a dryer again!

Goodbye Malaysia. I will miss you.

Northam Cafe View

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Sunset

Nutmeg

Another month has come and gone. I can't believe my time here is almost over.

May 1st we went around the Island. I ate Durian which is the national fruit or King of fruit. It is this awfully potent fruit. It wasn't what I expected. I thought that you would slice off the pieces but it turns out that the fruit is individual seeds. It had the texture of custard. I probably wouldn't choose to eat it again, but it wasn't bad.
My favorite part was going to a WWII fort. Just being able to stand where people stood and fought so many years ago, was really amazing to me. This fort even had a paintball course. How cool would it be to play paintball in a WWII fort?!
Unfortunately my Internet is not fast enough to load pictures. So I will post some soon.

On May 17th we went to some Indian friends' house for dinner (Tandoori chicken YUM!!!!) and to watch the parade for Buddha's birthday. Buddha's birthday is a national holiday here. We were told that the parade has some 10,000 people in it. It was actually kind of sad to watch all those people walking and worshipping this "guy".
It was a kind of unimpressive parade. Some floats and people chanting. Some of the funnier parts were when one float came by and the people were singing 'happy Wesak' (the name of the holiday) to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it".

The month of June is going to be a very busy month. On June 6th we fly to Borneo for the Branch conference. I will be helping out with the childcare, ages 5 and under. It should be great fun, but nuts - there are about 10 of them!. Then on June 17th we fly to Medan, Indonesia so my mom can renew her visa. I am pretty excited about this. When we get back from Indonesia I will only have 2 weeks left before I fly back to the States.

Prayer requests:
Corbin is sick, seriously inflamed tonsils. Poor thing has been miserable for the last 2 days. Pray for his parents as well that they don't catch whatever it is Corbin has.
Pray also for the people who are flying in for the conference. Pray as they are finishing up there orientation and packing as well as for the long flight over here.

My dad asked me what I will miss when I leave. I had to think for a few minutes, only because there are so many! The food, the view, the people, access to movies!!!!!, and even things like riding the bus. I would much rather have my own car but the public transportation is amazing and so cheap. The people here are so friendly. Sometimes I don't know how to respond - they are friendly. Two of my favorite places to eat are both Indian restaurants. In the mornings I walk past a road stand where I can get breakfast for less than $.50. AMAZING! I don't know what what I'm going to do when I return. How am I going to be able to pay more than a few dollars for food????? The other place is a more touristy Indian restaurant. It caters to the hotels across the street. But it is just a 5 minute walk from our apartment. I love it, about 5 of the waiters know us now and greet us with huge smiles. One of them even jokes around with us now. It's great.
I think I'm being spoiled here!

Things i won't miss... the humidity, the limited amount of Internet, and.... I think that is it.
This place is truly an amazing place. You all should come and visit. I can give you great tips on where to eat and what not to buy no matter how good a deal it seems. :)
Thanx!!!!

9 Weeks left

I have started learning Korean. I really enjoy it, but it is very hard.
My Korean tutor is a 22 year old girl from Seoul. She is in Malaysia as a nanny and works at the cafe where we have lunch and meetings twice a month.
We found out that we will both be leaving Penang on the same day and arriving in Seoul around the same time. She has offered to show me around Seoul for my 10 hour layover!
This makes me very excited.

Last weekend my parents and I went to Singapore to renew our tourist visas. I have a 90 day tourist visa which requires you to leave the country for 24 hours to have it renewed. Singapore is an amazing city. Very clean and organized! Every building was a piece of art. I loved it. The first night we arrived we were going to meet a friend of my parents for dinner and ended up running into three other friends. They took us to Chinatown where we had amazing food. Who knew that fish head soup and deep fried fish skins could taste so good! It really was very good. On Saturday we went to the zoo. It is probably the best zoo I have ever been too. The animals weren't in cages but "free-ranging" (of course they were limited in where they could go). You could look up and see orangutans in the trees or only reach out your hand to touch rhinos or kangaroos.

I have a whole week off this next week. We are going to finally do some touristy things like Fort Cornwallis, the war museum, Penang Hill, and possibly a boat tour to an island.

Until next time!

Well, it has been about another month since i updated you all. Here are som pictures from the last month.

This is Corbin and Micah. Micah comes over to play once a week.

HUGS!

Micah

This is where i want to live. It's beautiful. 

We found this bookstore in Little India. So many books. Unfortunately it is REALLY expensive.

Two of the other kids I get to play with. Suyoung and Anna Sophia

The Arritts and I were invited to Kuala Lumpur to see some friends and watch their daughters ice skate in the National Championships. It was a beautiful drive. Mountains and palm trees as far as you could see.

The view from atop the Menara tower.

Only 2.5 months left. It is going to fast.

14 Weeks or 3 months. I like 3 months better.

This last Saturday I was allowed to tag along on a trip to a local Chinese fishing village. The high schoolers from the international school teach English to the kids. It was fun to meet the kids and get to play with them for a little bit.

Kind of blurry, but it was chaos with all the kids and the balloons flying around. 

It has been a week since returning from Borneo. I babysat for two families so the moms could either have a break or attend some of the meetings that were going on. The kids were hilarious and a joy to play with.
Here are a few pictures of my time in KK.

At dinner with some friends. 

Beautifully colored chillis at the market

This is a picture of the village one of the families lives in. It felt like i was really on Borneo instead of being in a city. A couple of days after we left it was  devastated by a flood. Up to 4 ft. of water.

I thought this was funny.

We also went back to the Butterfly the weekend before Borneo. This time one of the workers took us around and let us hold some of the insects. I of course didn't get anywhere near them. Here are some pictures.

If it stings you it will only make your hand numb and give you a high fever for a week. ONLY. No thanks

The Arrits (who i am nannying for) and Us.

Orchid Mantis

River Monitors, they also roam free around the city.