So I have been meaning to write for a while, but I have been extremely busy with the state level orientation, meeting my mentor and moving into my new house. When I last left you, my readers, I was in my last days of orientation in KL and I was meeting the Prime Minister of Malaysia. For those of you who are up on their movie references and those who know how to use imdb.com you may be interested to know that Zoolander is outlawed here due to seditious content. It was a very fancy tea and he gave a very nice speech about how important English and teachers are to continuing Malaysia’s development. My favorite part was the painting that was hanging in the entryway to the dining room. The painting depicted four woman gathered around a bench. The colors and design were all very subdued and formal, but one of the women was carrying a hello kitty shoulder bag!
I’m actually surprised that Hello Kitty isn’t bigger here than it is. Maybe its more of a northern Asia phenomenon. What is huge? Angry birds. They have taken over Malaysia. I literally have not gone a day since arriving in Malaysia without seeing some sort of Angry birds merchandise- usually it’s by the wall full.
I moved to KT just in time for Chinese New Year weekend. The weekend wasn’t as festival filled as I thought it would be because Terengganu has very few Chinese compared to the rest of the country. However, we did get to go to a New Year’s open house that had a lot of cultural dancing and food. Additionally, after the open house we got to attend a Malaysian wedding feast. It was a very colorful affair and the couples outfits were awesome. It’s traditional for the couple to wear matching clothes and dress as royalty including crowns and a wooden sword.
State orientation was more of the same: language lessons, cultural sensitivity training, and teaching lessons. It was all pretty good but nothing that we hadn’t heard in KL. The one thing that I really got out of the state level orientation was closer friendships with the people who will be living with me in Terengganu. It’s much easier to get to know the 16 others in my state rather than trying to meet 49 others in Malaysia. I also got to meet my mentor during orientation. Her name is Ena and she’s super sweet, but she’s also afraid to let me do much because I might die.
Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of my new house and stories from my first two days at the school.
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