24

Today I turned 24. I remember when I was in Junior High and I thought that 24 was old. By 24 I was going to be done with school, probably be married, and most definitely I would have a big kid job. In junior high I was in between wanting to be an elementary school teacher and a journalist. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would still be in school (today also marks the first day of my second semester of grad school) and living in Malaysia. The possibility just wasn’t on my radar, but my summer in Berkeley changed that, my 4 years at Alma changed that. I am in love with the path that I have chosen for my life even if it is not the traditional path or at times the easiest path. I have committed myself to a life of working with developing countries and traveling the world and even when I miss my friends and family (which I do. a lot.) I love knowing that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. In the past year I have...

...started grad school. I am anxious to get back to Denver and studying and paper writing. I think school has almost become a security blanket for me. I feel incomplete without having readings and paper deadlines. 

...started to regain control of my health again. Working on getting my hormones back in balance with some new medicine and have lost 40lbs and counting since last September.

...moved to Malaysia. Only 8 more weeks. Too hard to process that at this point so we’re just going to leave it there. 8 more weeks.

...met 49 new friends and 16 new family members in the form of the T-ganu crew who are the only ones who are going to be able to fully understand this year. 

...experienced my first Ramadan. As nervous as I was about having to teach classes of hungry, sleep deprived teenagers for a month I really enjoyed the experience. There is nothing comparable to it in the US. An entire village waking up at 5am to eat breakfast and then work through the day with out any food (even for my pregnant mentor) or cigarettes (which seems to be the harder of the two for a village that loves to smoke) and then feast together at exactly 7:20pm. The sense of camaraderie and togetherness in the air is really remarkable. I wish I could have participated, but my body decided to revolt for all of July and a good portion of August.

...showed my parents around another country, specifically Malaysia. I had a blast showing them around my town, introducing them to my students and then exploring new  places with them. We went snorkeling at Rendang Island, got eaten alive jungle trekking at Lake Kenyir, and went white water rafting down a river in Borneo. I think it actually helps with the homesickness knowing that they understand my stories a little better now.

Today I turned 24. It was a pretty normal day. I traveled up to Besut to plan for our next English camp and will be going to China town for dinner so that we can grab a beer to celebrate. It doesn’t really feel any different but for some reason the number screams adulthood to me. It might not be the definition of adult that I had in Junior High, but I am more comfortable considering myself an adult than I did when I turned 23. It might be a few years until I get what I would consider a “big kid job”, but I think today I officially declare myself an adult. 

Finally, I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated you all on Malaysia so if you have any questions feel free to post them and I’ll answer them as best as I can. Too much has happened in the past 2 months to write about all of it. I wouldn’t even know where to start. So I guess I’ll end with this: I’m 24 and 8 more weeks until Michigan. Woah.

A friend's view on life in Terennganu

Here is the link: http://jordanholliday.com/collections/writing/fresh_835_explanations.html

This was written and performed by one of the guys that lives just North of me for our mid-year meeting a month back. I thought he did a great summary of life as a Terengganu ETA.

The Global English

Earlier this week I attended a course taught by a Wisconsin woman named Renee who was invited by the American embassy to teach us about teaching English as a foreign language. She started out by stating some facts that really struck me as important. She said that the majority of people in the world who speak English speak it as a second language. Even more the majority of teachers teaching English globally do not speak English as their first language. She followed this up by saying that the English language is rapidly evolving due to all of these non-native English speakers communicating in English through informal channels like the Internet.

In Malaysia they say they learn British English and I’m discouraged from using American English in the classroom so that I don’t confuse the students too much. However Renee talked about how my students will end up using “Global English” as they communicate with others in the future. Renee talked about a “Global English” as an English that is less focused on specifics of grammar and more focused on comprehension. Can the two parties speaking understand what the other party is trying to communicate?

These comments though made in passing during an all day course stood out to me because it is something I have been thinking about a lot since I saw the midterm results of my student’s English scores. They didn’t do very well. Now I am purposely placed in a school that is struggling with their English, a school where the students rarely use English in a practical setting, but I know my students. I am able to communicate with a good amount of them, but their exams are very specific grammar based questions.

It’s frustrating for me as a teacher to see my students progressing to speak and understand English, but to see no improvement in their exam scores. Now before I talk about my conclusion I want to preference it with “I do not study English or languages and I do now that grammar is important.” With that being said for my last 4 months teaching I’ve decided that I’m going to let go of the little bits of grammar I’ve been trying to get my students to pay attention too. Instead I’m going to focus on getting my students ready to communicate in “Global English” with the European tourists that frequent their islands and their online penpals/ their random Facebook friends.

Last week, I posed the question to my upper level students “Would it be better if the world only spoke one language?” And I guess I’ll leave it there, because I don’t really have an answer to my own question.

Oh, wait. One more thing. Here is an interesting videos that one of my fellow ETAs shared.
 http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_walker_on_the_world_s_english_mania.html 

The Women of Terengganu

After the mid year break I held my first over night English Camp with 5 other schools, 6 other ETAs, and 120 female students at a beach in Dungun, Terengganu. We called it “The Women of Terengganu English Camp” and it has been in the works since January.

We noticed right away that our female students tended to be very shy and passive in class. So we decided that we wanted to take some of our top female students somewhere special to work on their self-confidence in English.

All of my girls before getting on the bus to go home.

As a part of the camp we mixed fun activities like cooking s’mores and slack lining with confidence building dance and drama competitions with a little bit of seriousness in the form of a ‘Love your body workshop’ and small group discussions about relationships. We packed the two days full of activities and the girls really seemed to respond. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls in a place where they felt comfortable to be themselves. By the end of camp the girls were making speeches (in English) in front of large groups and performing their own dance routines in front of 100+ people. Definitely things I never would have expected out of my girls who use to hide behind their hands while speaking in class.

Climbing the rocks at the end of our morning beach hike

Since our return to school I have noticed that the 20 girls I brought with me have begun to open up more in class and every once in a while running up and giving me hugs in the hallway. Hopefully this won’t fade overtime, but instead spread to their friends. One can only hope. Now it’s time to stop writing blogs and start planning for camp number 2! Any suggestions on favorite camp activities would be more than welcomed.

Kangaroos, Kualas, and Dingos, Oh My!

So I have been off in the great down under for the past week and a half: Sydney, Australia. I have been slightly obsessed with visiting Sydney since the 2000 summer Olympics. I came to the conclusion that Malaysia is way closer to Australia than Michigan and decided to treat myself to an early 24^th birthday present.

My Sydney tour has been the family friendly route. My first few days included visits to the Aquarium, the Opera house, the zoo, the Australian wild life exhibit, and the Royal botanical gardens. Lots of school kids on field trips and lots of animals, which has actually been a lot more fun than my original expectations- I’m not really an animal person. I have also been reading the book series “Clan of the Cave Bear” which is a well-researched fiction book about the lives of cavemen, cavewomen, and the origins of humanity. I think the combined efforts of seeing these really unique animals and reading these books has given me an intense desire to go back to school for biology. And that’s just weird; I’ve never been a science person. However it does fit into my typical pattern in school of wanting to know everything and not being satisfied with only studying one thing. I want to figure out how everything in the world works weather it’s the reasons that lead one country to develop while others stay stagnant or the mysteries of the first people (and yes as I type the words “figure out how everything works” I’m realizing how science geek it sounded. Maybe I am a science person deep down). Anyways the first half of my vacation definitely led me to the conclusion that I never have an excuse to be bored- there is just too much cool stuff to learn about.

Feeding a kangaroo at the Sydney zoo.

My first day was extremely overwhelming. It was cold, rainy, and oddly familiar; everything that Malaysia is not. I kept forgetting that people could understand me, and the market near my hostel had everything you would ever need. In Malaysia I’m lucky enough to live near a large super market, which is fairly rare in Terengganu. When I’m in KT I have a hard time articulation what I’m missing from home. I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything (except maybe good Mexican food), but being in that super market made me feel like I’m missing so much.

One of the coolest things in Sydney was called ‘Vivid’. It was a month long event happening at the harbor where the opera house and the modern art museum are located. At night the whole harbor was turned into a light show. Meanwhile the opera house was hosting techno inspired performances and the local restaurants turned themselves into faux night clubs. The harbor was packed and the energy was high, definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

View of the harbor from the Rocks during the Vivid light show.

Opera house tour- check

Aquarium visit- check

Forced to buy a winter coat- check

Stay a night in a Olympic village hotel- check

Spend a lot of time sketching and reading- check, check

Sketching on the back of an old reciept from the Royal Botanical Garden.

Now it’s time to get back to school and prepare for the second half of the year. Time is going to move so quickly the next few months. I already have every weekend booked through September, starting this weekend. My dad has arrived in Malaysia for a work trip and this weekend I’m making a trip out to KL to celebrate Father’s day with him. I am beyond excited and life is good.

Talking about FOOD

This post is in dedication to my dad who will be joining me in Malaysia for the month of June and especially asked for information on eating in Malaysia.

Sooo here’s the thing. If you love fish you’ll be in food heaven. They put in everything and you can usually count on it being very fresh (especially where I live on the coast of the South China Sea in a small fishing village). Malaysians usually fry their fish, along with the majority of their food, but they have also perfected the fish sausage and various other processed fish varieties. At our local night market you can even buy processed fish in the shape and color of angry birds just waiting to be placed in the deep fryer.

However, if the only fish you eat is tuna and the occasional piece of salmon, and you grow ill at the thought of a whole fish head and all, like me, Malaysia can be a little difficult food wise. For a typical meal I usually go for my standbys of sup sayor (vegetable soup), nasi paprik (rice with a red pepper and onion sauce), or roti cani with dal.

There are not as many varieties of fast food places in Malaysia as compared to the US but Malaysians take it to another level. Take McDonalds for example. In Malaysia, you have the typical McDs menu, but you also have their doubles menu which takes any sandwich already on the menu and doubles it. You can order a quadruple burger and the Mega Mac is a sight to be seen. Additionally, here Mc Donalds has a delivery service. I can only imagine how my college all nighters would have been different if the Alma McDonalds delivered. Finally is their reward program. I’m not exactly sure what joining the McDonalds reward system gets you but I know in must be good because you get a large sticker to place on the back window of your car and every car in Malaysia has a huge McDonalds sticker on it. That was really shocking to me when I first arrived, because in the US eating at McDonalds is not something people usually brag about after the age of 17 and here it is plastered all over their cars.

Now as you might notice, it’s a bit difficult to eat healthy here which is reflected in Malaysia’s high diabetes and obesity rates as compared to other South Asian countries. Many of my fellow ETAs have been complaining about gaining weight. I however have been losing weigh which I think is in large thanks to my avoidance of all things fish, in ability to eat more than one meal a day with rice and my addiction to their delicious fresh fruit.

So if you ever make it out to this region, here are my top 5 foods you should try.

1.       Chicken Satay with peanut sauce

2.       Roti Cani with dal

3.       Nasi Goreng Paprik

4.       Sup Sayor

5.       Tom Yam

…and top 3 foods to avoid, even when the locals try to force feed you

1.       Durian (a local fruit that is out lawed in hotels do to its horrible smell)

2.       Karapok (fish sausage)

3.       Rose Water (it’s a red juice that they serve at celebrations, super sweet)

Top 3 foods to eat at home before you leave, because they’re just not the same in Malaysia

1.       Mexican food (it’s not available, but if you do find a random place offering it stay away the Malaysian version I had replaced sour cream with mayo)

2.       Alfredo pasta ( They don’t do a lot of pasta here, and even less dairy based meals)

3.       Bacon, peperoni, basically any ham based foods that you enjoy. (It is a Muslim country after all.)

My perfect Malaysian Day

Hanging out during Teacher's Day

Wednesday May 16 was Teacher’s day here in Malaysia and it was easily my favorite day since arriving here in Malaysia on January 4. 

Malaysian schools go all out for Teacher’s day celebrations. There was a parade of teachers, an assembly honoring the teachers and celebrating birthdays, a lunch feast, games like water balloon toss and rubber band shooting, and a talent show. Oh, and lots of presents. Lots and lots of presents. I am now set in my coffee mug, tubaware, pen needs for the rest of the year. 

Playing water balloon toss against the other teachers. I got second.

I spent most of the morning in sheer panic because I had been forcibly volunteered to sing Selenia Gomez’s “Love you like a love song” to the entire school for the talent show. For those of you who have witnessed my singing abilities in the past you may remember that I have absolutely no ability to remember a tune or to sing on pitch. Luckily, a few of my favorite students took pity on me and agreed to be my back up. We sang and we were even asked for an encore. I had a blast working with them all day and I was able to hang out with the drama kids who were preparing for their skit as well.

On stage singing with my two awesome backup singers.

It was the first time where all of the kids, teachers, and administrators were relaxed and just enjoying themselves. I had a great time chilling with the students and soaking in the emotions of everyone at school. It was my perfect Malaysian Day, which lead directly into a pretty awesome weekend.

At the end of the day I had to rush home to catch my plane to KL for the weekend. All 50 of the ETAs were gathering in the capital for the mid year meeting. It was the first time we had all seen each other since the first half of January. Good food, story swapping, and fun were all apart of the weekend along with meetings with the Ambassador and the Malaysian Ministry of Education. We parted to prepare for a week of exams and then 2 weeks of vacation. I, myself, will be heading to Sydney, Australia for two weeks taking my continent count to 5.