Old Friends, New Friends...

...Short friends, Puke(ing) friends...

So last Saturday (14th) we went to the downtown metropolis to meet Rina, a girl I met 2 years ago here. She is in law school and we have been busy learning a foreign language and all, so last Saturday was the first time we had a chance to meet up. And what a reunion it was!

Here is Rina, me, and her younger sister posing in the mall where we rendezvoused- Both girls are beautiful! (and somewhat shorter than me too). The green box things hanging behind us are big versions of the ones made from palms that they cook rice in for their upcoming holiday. You can buy a light strand of them- like pumpkin lights at Halloween, or chili-pepper lights if you're from Texas...

This is us standing in front of, what used to be, the world's tallest buildings....until last year... (if you're a frequent visitor to our blog you may recognize it as a familiar site ==>)

And this is Anthony and Rina's little brother as we were taking a hop on a bus to a cheaper place to shop...the mall pictured above has, for example, a "Tiffany & Co."...that's a wee bit out of our price range.

Our new friends just arrived from the states yesterday to come work with the same sports company as us...

This is them, the "Kings," (as I have so affectionately nicknamed them). Don't they look great after 30 hours of traveling? I think so. The smile on Mr. King's face wasn't just because I was snapping his picture like a paparrazi. No. The real reason was because of this...

a sweetastic banner. Our boss's kids all call us "Uncle" or "Aunt"...they don't get to see their real one's that often. It's fun, though it did add a little tongue twisting as all their names start with "K" -and we already had 5 "K" neices and nephew...now we have 5 more. Our boss just numbers them "K1 - K5"...I believe K2 and K3 are holding the banner. Hopefully the banner will bring them comfort as they have already caught a mini-tummy bug (Hence the last piece of my introduction teazer)

Reflections...

So we're totally ganking post ideas from two places- The Chanclers and John Mayer. These people lead interesting lives.
The first reflections are things that we've said since arriving here- some you would utter in the US of A, but here it takes on new meaning. Here's a selection of our favorites.

1.“No, honey, we don’t need to buy bug spray – the glass cleaner works just fine.” -Sharon to Anthony. Ants abound here. Clean or not, you have ants. So I've found glass cleaner kills the ants as well as removes whatever the ants were flocking to in the first place.

2. “It’s hot.”

3. “Apa?” -Our most used foreign word. It means, “What?”

4. “Just go. They’ll stop.” -Said at every intersection/merge lane/roundabout/bridge/ highway/sidewalk/dirt road. What's scary is EVERY other driver is saying the same thing.

5. “Sorry... American moment.” -Said when driving on the wrong side of the road, getting in on the wrong side of the car or turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn-signal.

6. “We’re married.” -Said to new acquaintances, once we realize they think we’re shacking up because we’re Americans without kids… this is usually followed by an “Ohh! When are you going to have kids?”

7. “We meet again, Seafield Toll Plaza.” –Uttered the first time we actually meant to go through the Seafield Toll. All the other times we were lost.

8. “My arm is a hair-brush.” –Anthony trying to say “I hurt my arm” in another language.

9. Anthony: “It’s natural.” Sharon: “So is death.”- Said (and responded to) after smelling a stinky armpit of a guy holding an overhead ring on a train. Which its not like people don’t stink all over the world, but you’re more likely to run into them here because 1. there are less anti-perspirant/deodorant sticks available and 2. there are more trains.

10. “We (Americans) may be crappy at foreign policy, but we invented Coke.”- said after all at the table in the food court guzzled their cokes (some vanilla coke). It got a good chuckle from the locals.

The second reflection is of us. At www.myheritage.com you can upload a picture of yourself and see which celebrity you most resemble. Visit the site...you know you want to. And don't be scared...yes, there are celebrities that are ugly, but more than likely you're gonna look like someone attractive so no ego is in jeopardy. They say to do it several times and see which ones repeat.

Who did we come out looking like?

Anthony- Carson Daly (and a couple of girls with big lips) No other repeats really...which is just funny because Anthony's brother calls him Carson sometimes. Jason, you were right!
















Sharon- Ashley Judd, Anne Hathaway, Sela Ward, and an Asian named Tata Young. Interestingly when we tried the other women in Sharon's family, Anne Hathaway and Sela Ward came up as well...we think its the eyebrow(s))











We're not really sure how these celebrities would feel about resembling us, but we left the site feeling pretty ok. Let us know when you try it and who you look like.

2 Months- WooHoo!

Today, October 9th marks two months of us living overseas. We like it. They say we'll start to not like it around month 4 and then like it again month 5. But we're not there yet so today has been great.

Our company thought we were doing such a phenomenal job that they decided to buy us this...

Just kidding. Well, about the whole "Phenomenal Job" thing anyway. This is our new ride...an upgrade from an old HUGE Toyota van that could probably seat 17 people on a good day and screamed "WHITE PEOPLE ARE DRIVING THIS, PLEASE STARE!" This is a Toyota "Unser" and it blends in much better with it's surroundings. It's only a coincidence that we got it on the 2-month mark - and it's not really ours per se. Details, details. Tonight Kakak was so excited about us getting this - more excited I think than we were- that we all went to McDonald's in it to get ice cream. If you come see us, we'll let you ride in it.

Gila Week

We've had some, shall we say, interesting expericences (or gila-'crazy') this past week. Last Saturday we went to a forest reserve park that had a beautiful waterfall. We were with an American and a Koren family and had a great time climbing up and down the waterfall. After 4 hours or so we all decided it was time to leave, so I (Anthony) went to a restroom at the vistors center of the park to change into some dry clothes. As I was changing, I suddenly realized that I was not alone in the stall. Attached to the back of my leg was a leech, now fat because he'd been attached to my leg for some time. I was his own personal Golden Corral. So I suppose this means I'm now an offical "Southeast Asian Jungle Trekker." Two others of us found little surprises on their legs too. Below is a picture of the little bloodsucker's stompin' grounds.

This week we also did some more painting to make our house a little more like home. Going along with the gila theme, here's my isteri gila (crazy wife) painting a wall in our upstairs loft/tv room/hallway (we're not sure what to call it).

Let's review this picture for a moment, shall we? What you're looking at is Sharon, on top of a chair, which is on top of a 7ft wardrobe. She really wanted to paint this wall, and if you know my wife she's not easily deterred by petty little things like 15 ft walls or the lack of a decent ladder.

Our last gila story has no pictures (sorry April). Well, that's not entirely true - Sharon took about ten pictures of her eye last night but none of the pictures turned out good. Why was she taking pictures of her eye, you ask? Because last night we had our first visit to the klinik. We were over at Kakak and Abang's house yet again playing with some fireworks. Sharon was off to the side playing with their 2 year old son, helping him hold his sparkler. At one point she got a bit too excited and shook the sparkler, sending one little spark straight into her eye. It only hit the white part of her eye, so all is ok. As the doctor said last night, "Not too bad. If hit black of eye, very bad, but good news it hit white"-Luckily we only paid $2.50 for that diagnosis and the eye drops.

Just for fun I'll post a couple pictures Sharon tried to take of the little burn mark on her eye. The first one shows a bit of the redness, and the second one I feel is a good ending for this gila post.

Buggy Situation...

So tonight I painted our front door. It was an ugly off-white/creamy/but-more-yellowish kind of color and it just didn't look right next to my "bluemoon" wall. So as I was getting done, Anthony came downstairs and said "Aw." I said "What?" He said "Look." On the other side of the door (which was already painted) were about 10 bugs stuck to the beautiful white paint. There was no gettin' em off either.
SO...I thought it'd be funny to share it with you guys and went looking for the camera (about 8:15pm) and couldn't find it. Over the next couple hours I kept looking and couldn't find it, and was getting worried- because we spent a pretty penny on it and our blog would surely lose it's place in your hearts if there were no more pictures.
Then about 10:30pm as I'm putting out the fan for it to dry the door overnight, Anthony comes in with the camera! He snapped this photo as my bewilderment over the lost camera came to an end...gosh I look old...eww....and yes, that's paint on my right temple. Anthony laughed so hard at this picture that it confirmed the need to share this evening with you all...
Within the couple hour span between the first sight of the bugs until 10:31 or so, a few more found their way to its brillant finish...

So tomorrow I get to pick bugs off my door and spot paint...which should upset me more, but the camera has been found so it takes the edge off.

Blessings from Florida

Actually, the blessing was straight from heaven, sent via Florida. So the other day Sharon and I were in Carrefour (like Walmart with less mullets and way more Asians). We only had a couple things to grab and little time to do it in, so we split up and planned to meet at the registers. Five minutes later Sharon comes around the corner with a huge grin on her face. In her hands was pure liquid gold straight from Polk County, FL- Florida's Natural Orange Juice. No lie. Even though it cost 5 times more than all the other brands, we had to buy it. Actually, it's the only "real" orange juice we've found. "Oren jus" here is basically watered-down Tang with fake pulp. Bobby, please hug the man who thought it'd be a good idea to export to Southeast Asia.

A Sod, Lizards, and Sparklers kind of Weekend

What was your weekend like? Here's the rundown on ours...

Friday afternoon we 'landscaped' our front yard ...for all you before-and-after photo lovers these are for you...

Nice huh? And we're hoping our little Plumeria tree will survive...and produce wonderful smelling pink flowers like the nursery manager said it would...

Saturday we went to the mountains again with Abang, Kakak, and their 4 kids. Here's us doing what we usually end up doing with them...eating...

A few minutes into eating, a jungle lizard of some sort threw caution to the wind and jumped from a nearby tree, landing on Anthony. After consulting a highly reliable and reputable source (*cough* Iguanas for Dummies *cough*) we decided that the lizard was most likely a young iguana. We were all laughing too hard to get a picture of it on his head...but the little guy hung around for a couple hours after and posed for this picture later...

...maybe he sat still for Anthony as sort of an apology for the whole kamakazi attack earlier. Probably.

Going to the mountains also includes playing in the freezing cold river...this time little Adik had a boat...

Anthony took this one while I was catching some Z's on top of the car...what can I say, it's hard to sleep on the ground when tree-cutter ants are crawling everywhere along with the ever-present danger of leaping lizards...

Sunday we ate dinner with Abang's family at their home. Sunday was the first day of Ramadhan. It took a lot of motivation to get them to stop for this picture...they were pretty hungry after fasting all day...

Afterwards we all played with sparklers...

For more pictures of our life and times overseas...go to our shutterfly page (if you like any of the pictures you can even order prints for yourself)

Modern Convienence Week...

So this week was a fairly uneventful week as we again learned more words in our new language and fought the struggle between the ease of eating Western food (KFC just around the corner!) and the necessity of becoming acclimated to our new culture by eating at a local food stall. But that's just a normal week here in tropical paradise.
What did happen this week was getting a refrigerator for the kitchen and an air-con (as they say here) installed in our bedroom. These two modern conviences have revolutionized our home.
It's amazing how much better one feels - after the culture shock of eating at the local food stall- to drink an ice-cold coke and sit in an ice-cold room.
Here's a picture of the guys installing it...bless-ed, bless-ed men- they deserved the RM130.00 they got for their work (about $40).

Sorry no more pictures, but here's a story to give you guys a taste of what its like to go shopping here...with a dramatic twist at the end.
This week we had the opportunity to go with a curtain-maker to a fabric store to pick out fabric for the curtains she is sewing me. The curtain part isn't interesting, you guys have them in the US, although I do feel a bit spoiled hiring someone to make curtains for me...she says "I make you very exclusive design." Hmm...
Lemme tell ya ladies, if you have a low self-esteem, this is the place to come. The stares are never-ending...and even after speaking perfect English to them they still usually ask me "Are you Arab?" Then when I've sufficiently set in my mind to ignore the stares, an older teenage boy that works there sets out to follow me around the store. I glare at him, ask Anthony to stand close to me or to block him from getting near me, but his ninja-like moves between the bolts of fabric prevail and before I can start looking again, he's there.
Once I had endured the questions of "why you like the plain ones?" and "why you not get this one? This one nice color!" I had chosen my fabrics (one was too expensive so I decided to go with my first choice at IKEA) when we realized Kakak's 2 year old son was gone and we couldn't find him. This is the kid who each morning during our language lessons gives up "Sponge Bob Square Pants" to sit on top of the table just to be next to his mother. The store was 3 stories and Kakak, Anthony, and I were scouring the bolts of fabric beginning to get desperate after about 15 minutes of looking with no success. Oh, and instead of helping, the people in the store just decided its more fun to stare at the whities than to help look for the kid.
Then Anthony comes to the rescue. He decides to look outside the store...it is pouring down rain and the child is a block away standing in the middle of a street corner. Anthony triumphantly carried the child back to his mother and hopefully all the onlookers saw that the whities really are here to help.
I'll take pictures of my "exclusive design" curtains when they're done.

Monkeys, Sunsets, and Dwarves

So no one will be held in suspense any longer as to what I said in the video 2 posts ago...here we go...
"Sorry. What time is it?" Then I just named some dolls, not sure what order now but, "Woman, Man, Old people, girl, boy, and baby." Ya'll are all now unimpressed...I can feel the disappointment as you all sit at your computers and go "That was it?"
Although Joanna was incorrect, we applaud her efforts to guess (as she knows at least 2 languages fluently and speaks them with no accent)...so MamaKoo...anytime you're in our corner of the world, you're welcome to stay the night...no charge.

On to the pictures. Since nothing significant enough to warrant more than one picture happened this week, here is yet another hodge-podge of pictures. Enjoy.
The first is for all the kiddies out there. (and those like our friend Corey Z. who loves monkeys)
The next is a sunset picture in the city. This picture isn't an old Christmas picture...the lights on the intersection are always there.
The next is a photo of all the objects we can name (in theory at least).
This last picture is for Paul and Julia Roberts who are (Jules please don't kill me!) expecting their first baby next year! Congratulations guys. No this isn't a prayer for you guys to have septuplets...we were just wondering if Paul could help us find Dumpy.
(As one that loathes inside jokes proclaimed in public places... The joke came about something like this as we were concluding our day at Disney World. "So where did you guys park?" Rivers:"Oh we got here early, so we're in Pluto 19. Where are you guys?" Paul: "Um...I think we're in Dumpy." )

4 Week-aversary

We've been here 4 weeks Today! (Wednesday)
Last Thursday we celebrated Independence Day here. We went to a local jungle with Abang and his family and had a great time. We swam, ate, swam, played in waterfalls, and ate a little more. Nothing like celebrating independence from the British twice in one year. These folks are great at relaxing.
We didn't take any pictures of the big waterfalls we played in because they were too far away...and like Johnny May-May says "Hopin' I would see the world with both my eyes....so no more 3x5's" If you come see us, we'll take you there:)

Also this week...we moved into our house! It is still being cleaned, having furniture delivered and what not, but here it is...This is the outside...this was taken before our bars were put on the windows and doors and before the overgrowth was cleared out of the yard. We feel like we live in a castle compared to our two-ROOM apartment we had for the first 2 years of our marriage.

This is the view from the living room looking out. We love the potential in the front yard. More to come when paint goes on the walls, furniture is delivered, and flowers get planted.

Everyday Things...

So that our blog doesn't fall to the wayside...here are some random things that we just haven't posted yet.
After we signed our contract to rent our house, we took Abang and his family out to eat to say "thanks" for all the work he did to arrange it. He got to pick the place...and the food.

Very good...although a little too spicy for my true enjoyment. The green things you see there are a Southern classic...okra...or here "lady finger."
This was the view from the expressway as we were leaving IKEA the other day. Sorry for the glare...also sorry that unless you're in California or (we think New York) you can't enjoy the amazing shopping experience that is IKEA...It's a Swedish gift to the world of home decorating.This is Adik (what you call anyone who is a child). He is Kakak and Abang's youngest...he's cute, don't ya think?

And this is a little language ditty for you all back home...watch and be amazed. 1st one to guess what I'm saying before I pick up and name the dolls wins a free night in our guest bedroom. (To win, participants must not know the language of Bahasa...and if you speak it, don't ruin it for everyone else by saying what I said...cuz that's just not cool)

Ecclesiastes played out...

This week has been an interesting one and I think having the Word of God to show us how we are supposed to view a week like this is appropriate, and really, the best way to look at it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1- There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven...v.4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance...

We had a GREAT week with our homestay family in the Kampong. We made friends, learned culture, and even had some language lessons. But our laughter was turned to weeping as we learned of my (Sharon) Grandma's passing away early Saturday morning. She died peacefully with her children in her home. Our last visit with her the morning we left was great. We got to say goodbye and her last words to me were "Love You" (with an emphasis on the 'you'). We are learning the hard way, very quickly, how to be family members on the other side of the world.

This is my Grandma, Patricia, a couple Thanksgiving's ago with me, Heather, Mama, and Kaelyn. Four generations in one photo. She was a wonderful Grandma and we could always count on her to have snacks, treats, and cokes in her fridge when we visited. She was an independent woman, lived on her own til her death, and you can sense her fiesty influence in my mom and even in me. Although I think she'd laugh to see little independent me in an Asian culture that values collectiveness! Interesting how that works! She will be missed.

So that this post reflects our whole life and so you can also see, literally, that God gives blessings even in the midst of trying times...

We went out for "Sate Kajang" Friday night with our homestay family. It was very good and Anthony and Abang competed to see who could eat the most sticks.

Abang won with 40 sticks, Anthony tried his best and came out with 32. Looks like Abang is eyeing Anthony's count as Anthony chooses his next stick. Kinda like "Gator's Dockside" in Jax on Monday Night with all-you-can-eat chicken wings...

Kakak had a coconut drink...literally. She loves them. Good to know that it's not just tourists who love the stereotypical tropical drinks.

Although I am no longer the official spokesperson for the Arcadia Watermelon Association, I figured I'd give the watermelon industry a little boost, for free. This is "Watermelon Frost" and you use it for ulcers and what-not in your mouth. I have an ulcer from all the fruit I've been eating lately so I bought this in Chinatown last night. It seems to be working!
For ALL our pictures here so far...from the far east click here.

Thanks to everyone who keeps up with our blog. It's great to know you're out there!

Suda Makan?

We are spending time in a village outside the big city here. We're staying with some new friends, and since they're older we call them "kakak" (older sister) and "abang" (older brother). We have visited their friends and family in the village, and even went to a wedding. The question EVERYWHERE you go is, "Suda Makan?" or "Have you eaten?" kinda like "Dya eat yet?" in the South. Except here, it's a constant snacking...I really don't think they understand why Anthony and I are always so full so quickly when a meal finally comes around.

Anthony with Kakak's friends. Saturday Night "makan malam" "dinner" we went to Kakak's friend's house. We had TONS of seafood; 2 kinds of prawn, crab, mussels, stingray, squid, and shrimp. And you just continually eat...so we ate for about 4 hours or so...when the meat comes off the grill, you eat it, then wait for the next batch to come off the grill.

Me and a big hunk of BBQ-ed Stingray. Perhaps the best meat the whole night.

Me at a village wedding on Sunday...eating. I usually will not have to wear a head-covering, but to a formal event like a wedding, it is polite and customary to get 'dressed-up' and wear one. Kakak said I looked "Beautiful...like a Pakistan woman."

Us with the Bride and Groom. They get to be King and Queen for a day.

Hither and Yon...

This will be two posts in one of some images of our new surroundings overseas and our fun-filled day at Disney World before leaving the US.
My apologies for these not doing the city justice. We haven't stopped much since getting here and so I just snapped a few from the car this morning.
This is a tiny view of some of the skyline from the expressway. It was rainy today. Promise better one's are coming. This also from the van is a welcome sign/banner to another part of the city (I think anyway...we'll go with that) It has a bit of an Arabic Islamic flare to it...most welcome signs don't, so I thought it was neat.

This is Anthony outside our temporary residence. Its actually a company office, but there are bedrooms on the second floor. It's width is the two sections to the right of Anthony. Our bedroom runs the length of all the windows on the second floor.

And this sign is giving instructions for... this ramp...The local version of Walmart "Carrefour" is several stories and you push your "trolley" on these moving walkways to get from floor to floor. I wanted to get a picture of a person actually pushing one on the ramp, but we get stared at enough just being white Americans, so use your imagination.

Now to DISNEY WORLD...
The favorite of all the pictures is actually a video taken on the Tea Cups... Mindy and Anthony are the excellent spinners, I am the one laughing like a pig, and Josh is the one getting sick and saying "I hate this, I hate it, I hate it..." good times.

This trip contained all of the requisite Magic Kingdom stops... Jennifer, Anthony, and their Mom (Mary Lou) with the attention-starved Disney employee at Pirates of the Caribbean who worked his way into this picture...
Mindy and I in the stocks at Liberty Square (not sure how Disney justifies that one)...we dedicate this picture to Justin...Mindy, glad I got to be the first to pose with you here...

Josh and Anthony being (I think) freaked out before entering the Haunted Mansion...ooooo

Turkey legs in "Frontier Land"- I would like to draw particular attention to the lady-like way Cara and I are ripping the skin off. It tastes better when you eat like cave-men.

Paul and Julia Roberts (wrote that just for you Jules) bought personalized classic Mickey ear hats to round out the night before watching the Main Street Electric Light Parade...

We're here!!!

Quick post to let everyone know we arrived safely. Sharon and I kept thinking how weird it was that our 30+ hour trip over the Pacific was taking us HOME. I'm not sure it's really sunk in yet. We're so excited to be here and we promise that we'll put up a proper post soon with tons of pictures of our last several days in the States and our first days here, but to hold you over until then here's a picture of us with the greatest drink in the world.

The beautiful, frosty, amber-colored concoction you see here is Zappel. We've been dying for this since the last time we were here two years ago. There are many imposters in the States, but nothing beats the Zappel. We purchased these beauties 5 minutes after leaving the airport.

More coming soon...