It's not that nothing has happened for the last three or four weeks... quite the contrary, really. But I moved into my new condo on October 5th, and, three weeks on, STILL don't have Internet access there. However, I'm assured (ha!) that it will be up and running by Wednesday, which is, by some evil coincidence, the same day that the condo management company are doing rectification work on the main water tank in my building, so there will be no water supply for FOUR DAYS!! I have to clarify with management if there will be literally no water flowing whatsoever, or if we'll just have a limited amount for that time period. (Most buildings in KL have a huge water tank as a backup.)
I went to Jakarta last week for five days, too, and I'll write about that and post some pictures soon. It was a good little escape! Next on my list is a short jaunt up to the Malaysian island of Penang, about midway up the peninsula, just off the west coast.
I also got perilously misdirected last Friday night in what proved to be my worst navigational blunder ever. I emerged from the SMART tunnel (a two-level storm water/traffic tunnel that's an engineering marvel... read about it here), trying to make my way to Taman Bukit Desa to pick up some friends for a night out in the city, and at one of the 50,000 forks in the road, went straight when apparently I should have gone left. I wound up on a highway with no turns, no exits, no chance for U-turns, no services, nothing... for over ten miles. Meanwhile, of course, my gas tank was nearly empty, and about five miles along this epic voyage, the low fuel light came on and stayed on. Panic didn't really set in until I crested a big hill and saw the highway laid out before me, stretching on for miles and miles with nothing in sight. I was on the E20 highway to Putrajaya and it was over ten miles before I was able to make a U-turn. Naturally, the exit was about 100 yards past a toll booth, so I got to pay a double set of tolls (one in each direction) for the privilege of doing a U-turn on a road I didn't want to be on in the first place, and then I got to drive, sans A/C, all the way back to relative civilization, then drive around, lost as an Easter egg, desperately searching for a gas station.
Speaking of which, gas has dropped in price here, although not as precipitously as it has in the States (from what I've been reading). It's RM2.20 per liter here, which is the equivalent of about US$2.30 per gallon. So it's cheaper than gas in the States, but not fantastically cheaper.
The new condo is quite nice, and I'll post some photos once I get proper Internet access. The unit is rather small, but it's very nicely appointed, three bedrooms, two baths, nice kitchen (hooray!), and a nice Samsung flat-panel LCD TV in the living room. I also purchased an LG LCD panel for the master bedroom. It's only 32", but it's plenty big enough for that room, and it's dual voltage and only 26 lbs., so when I return to the States, I can presumably bring it with me.
Today is Monday, October 27, and it's Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights. It's celebrated by the Indian community in KL, but it's a public holiday for all, and everyone loves a day off, so it's appreciated by everybody here. The day celebrates the triumph of good over evil within the human spirit. Listening to one of the English FM stations here today, the DJs were exhorting their non-Hindu listeners to "get their enlightenment freak on." I nearly wrecked my car into a pole laughing so hard at that one. "Get your enlightenment freak on!" Yeah!
More later, with pictures!!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Wedding
Chinese weddings, I'm told, can be incredibly elaborate affairs, so I was very excited and honored to be invited to a blended Chinese/Irish wedding within just a few days of arriving in KL. The people who run the school where I teach, Ronan and Kiera, have legally been married for about four years now, and together for almost ten, but in the eyes of the bride's family, were not really married, because they hadn't yet held the traditional Chinese wedding. Over 300 guests were invited, and the groom's family flew in from Ireland and Scotland for the occasion. It was, quite literally, an all-day (and night) affair. (Click on the pictures to see a larger version.)The bride and groom first have a ring ceremony in which they exchange rings in the presence of friends and family. This is followed by the traditional Chinese tea ceremony in which the
Creator of the Universe is paid respect by serving tea. The elders of both the bride's and groom's families are served tea to gain their approval and acceptance. Then the "yum sing" ceremony takes place, a Cantonese phrase that means "bottoms up!" The event has to be as noisy and raucous as possible to ensure a long life of happiness. A lot of alcohol can be consumed here because every guest tries to have a drink with the new couple... after the first few toasts, the groom has to appoint a number of "brothers" to drink with the guests on his behalf. From my program: "This ceremony suits both the Westerners and the Chinese, as the Westerners can't live without the alcohol, and the Chinese will have an excuse to get drunk, too!"Guests mingle for awhile, in anticipation of the traditional Chinese wedding dinner. As I was wandering around, completely overdressed, I might add (everyone else was in trousers and shirt sleeves; I had on long sleeves and a tie), I was spotted by some of the other (very few) Caucasians in the crowd and asked if I wanted to go up to the bar and have some drinks. It was the groom's Gaelic football team, a number of Irish guys who live here in KL now. Some wives and girlfriends joined in, too... some Dutch, some Malaysian, even a Canadian... and we had a few pitchers of beers before heading down to the dinner.
Nearly thirty tables were set out in the ballroom, plus the head table for the bride and groom and their immediate family. I was lucky enough to be at a table quite close to the head table, so I was able to better see all the goings-on, but by the third course of the eleven-course (!!) meal, no one cared! We were all laughing and drinking and eating and socializing... the dinner went on for hours. Toasts were made, the bride and groom paid a visit to each table, shared a dance, and cut the cake. It was a wonderful blend of Chinese and Western marriage traditions (complete with speeches in English and Cantonese) and it sure seemed that everyone had a great time. The free flow of beer, wine, and Irish whiskey may have contributed some, but I can't say for sure. :)
I've included some pictures from the evening, but not many. I hope Ronan and Wai Fun don't mind their likenesses appearing on my blog. Wai Fun is the bride's Chinese name; she has taken "Kiera" as her Western name, so that's what she goes by at school.
One menu item, the shark fin soup, caused a bit of a stir at my table, simply because I was with other Westerners. In Chinese culture, shark fin soup is a delicacy, a rare and expensive dish usually only served at important events. To Westerners, however, it represents a cruel practice: cutting the fins off live sharks, then throwing them back into the ocean, where, unable to swim, they die. So there was a bit of discussion about the ethical implications of tasting the soup, but as one woman from Scotland put it, not trying the soup wouldn't bring the shark back to life, nor would it make a statement or put a dent in the practice of shark finning. So I tried it. It had chunks of crab meat as well, so to be honest, it was like eating a thickened version of egg drop soup with crab meat. To avoid any possible religious complications, no beef or pork was on the menu... only chicken and seafood, which seems to largely be accepted by all religions. It was a wonderful, HUGE dinner and we ate and drank long into the night.
I'm told that after about the tenth or eleventh Chinese wedding you've been to, they start to get a bit mundane... so I've got a ways to go yet!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Viva la Mexico!
I promise, you'll only see those two phrases together here! Today is Hari Raya ("day of celebration"), the national holiday in Malaysia marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, so a big Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends and blog readers!
Aidilfitri is the Malay term for Eid ul-Fitr, which is Arabic for "the festivity to break the fast" (loosely). It's one of about 17 Malaysian holidays and among its biggest. (Chinese New Year is also quite a big one.) Many Malays in KL have returned to their home villages (a tradition known as balik kampung) to celebrate with their families, so the city is much less crowded, although certainly not empty by any means. I made the huge mistake of going to the Tesco hypermarket two nights ago. If you can imagine only one massive Wal-Mart serving an entire city and being there two nights before Christmas, then you have an idea of what it was like. There were 26 cashiers open and the queue for each checkout still stretched back into the aisles. It was a nightmare! Similarly, trying to get a table at a restaurant -- almost any restaurant, really, but Western chains in major malls were particularly crowded -- was nearly impossible each night around 7 pm, because Muslims would break their daily fast around 7:20, so they were very hungry and ready to eat, and eating out with friends and family is quite common when breaking the fast.
It's been a really interesting experience living here during Ramadan... my first time experiencing it. It's a lot like Christmas in many ways, notably that it's a religious holiday that's been somewhat exploited by the commercial sector. Hotels and restaurants in particular host lavish Ramadan buffets each night, and some are wildly expensive by KL standards. Malls and shopping centers have all sorts of sales and promotions during the month and as the end of Ramadan draws closer, streets and apartment buildings are adorned with lights and decorations, the most prevalent colors of which seem to be green and gold. I'm not sure if these are traditional colors, but perhaps so -- sort of like red and green for Christmas, or purple, green, and gold for Mardi Gras in America. Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience, although I have to say, I'll be glad now that it's over so I can have lunch with my Malay friends -- or not have to wait until 7:20 for dinner with them!
The "viva la Mexico" part is because, happily, I have discovered a small little chain of Mexican restaraunts operating here in KL (http://www.lascarretas.com/). They have three outlets and I stumbled across the one in Ampang quite by accident. As usual, I was "lost" -- although that's not really the best word, because I'm not truly lost, I just get misdirected and the road system here is incredibly unforgiving. If you miss a turn or take a wrong fork in the road, you may well have to drive for a long time to correct the mistake. Many roads and highways are one-way, with the opposing direction separated by a concrete barrier and a place to do a U-turn may be a couple of miles away. So there I was, trying to get back to the main highway, and I drove down this small side street marked "jalan sehala," which I learned this morning means "one way." Nice. Naturally, I was going the wrong way, but there was nobody on the street, so no matter. Anyway, I drove by this little restaurant, very colorful and adorned with neon signage and all I saw was "Mexican restaurant," so I made a mental note of the location and continued my efforts to get back to the highway.
A couple of nights later, last night in fact, one of my friends and I went to dinner and decided to try our luck finding this place again. It took a couple of times wandering around the wrong areas ("Hmm, no, this doesn't look right at all!" but I eventually found the place, driving the wrong way down the street once again. (Like I said, I just did the translation this morning. Whoops.) So the place is called Las Carretos and their tagline is "House of Great Mexican Food, Margaritas, and Wine!" I was excited before we even walked in. The atmosphere was festive 
and very authentic. Well, maybe not the authentic Mexico, but certainly the authentic American version of Mexico. I had two Cuervo margaritas, which were quite good and definitely the first margaritas I'd ever had in Asia, and steak fajitas which were absolutely delicious. I was elated to have found good Mexican food after less than a month of living here. I figured it would be very hard to find it here.In other news, I have found a condo to rent, but I'll write about that more in my next entry. I move in this weekend and am really excited to have my own place. Probably the best part is that it's only 900 meters from my job, so I can quite easily walk to work.
Last week was pretty frustrating and difficult at times. I don't want to paint a false picture of what it's like living abroad, so I need to talk about the hard times, too. I spent a couple of days wondering if I had made the right decision moving here and really just assessing my level of disappointment. It was temporary, of course, and times like that are probably to be expected, but it's surely not fun. I had a couple of difficult classes at work -- teaching beginning English to adults is substantially more challenging than teaching intermediate English to kids -- which increased my level of stress, the driving is still occasionally frustrating, my car died one night (just needed a new battery, but getting that taken care of when you know nothing about the city was very frustrating), negotiating with the condo owner and agents (who don't speak fluent English) was incredibly stressful, and I had obligations every day... it was always something. I just felt that I had been thrown into the deep end of a very unfamiliar pool and was just struggling to tread water.
Today, October 1, is my first day completely free of any obligations at all. No classes. No appointments. No tutoring my Korean student. Just a totally free day... and not a moment too soon! I was thinking of going to the American Embassy today to get my mail-in ballot to vote in the upcoming election, but on second thought, I think I'll do that tomorrow instead. (I'm off all week for Aidilfitri... told you it was a major holiday!)
Honestly, so far, the thing that's struck me the most about living in Kuala Lumpur is not the differences from living in an American city, but rather the things that are really just the same. People here have the exact same goals and dreams -- work, earn a living, raise a family, be happy, enjoy some success, etc. My daily routine was much the same as it would be in Denver. I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, sit in traffic on a long commute to the office, work all day, go home, eat dinner, read the news, watch some TV, whatever. That realization initially disappointed me pretty profoundly. But I think that as I get more settled and develop more a routine to handle the day-to-day necessities of life, there will be much more time for me to devote to learning the cultural differences, doing some real photography, meeting more people, and exploring the country. So for now, the storm has passed and, once again, I feel okay about being here.
One other thing I want to be sure to write about in an upcoming entry is the wedding I went to this past Sunday. It was a combined Chinese/Irish wedding, so it involved six hours of eating and drinking, and that was after the actual ceremony. Over three hundred people were there and we had an 11-course meal and far too much to drink... the Irish know how to pound down their booze, that stereotype is accurate. I met a lot of people from all over the world who are all living in KL now, had a great time, and woke up Monday morning with a stupendous headache. So I'll be sure to write about that and post some of the pictures, too.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Cost of Living
Just as a point of interest, I thought I'd outline some of the general costs of living here in KL, as I've discovered in my first couple of weeks. I've listed the prices in US dollars at the current rate of exchange.
As I settle more into a routine life here, I'll update the cost of living in KL with more examples.
- Loaf of bread $0.35 to 0.55
- Jug of milk (2 liters) $3.15 (about $6.00 per gallon)
- Processed cheese (12 slices) $1.85
- Grade A eggs (30 count) $2.50 ($1.00 per dozen)
- Fresh fruit juice (1 liter) $1.55
- Fresh shrimp (1 pound, head-on, 31-40 ct.) $1.30
- Fresh produce (potatoes, carrots, garlic, Asian greens, etc.) Impossibly cheap (under $0.25 per pound)
- KFC meal (2 breasts, rice, drink) $2.55
- 92-octane gasoline (gallon) $2.79
- Unfurnished 1,100 sq. ft. 3 bdrm. apt. $150.00-175.00 (unfurnished means bare -- no kitchen cabinets, no light fixtures, no A/C, nothing)
- Fully-furnished 1,100 sq. ft. 3 bdrm. apt. in nice area $375.00 per month (includes all furnishings, applicances, multiple A/C units, etc.)
- Fully-furnished 800 sq. ft. 2 bdrm. serviced apartment, KLCC (prime location, similar to living on the Upper East Side in Manhattan) $1,200.00 per month
- One-hour massage $11.50-15.00
- 32" LCD high-def TV, good name brand (Samsung, LG, etc.) $539.00
- Live mature potted orchid $1.95 medium, $4.30 large
- Meal for two, local vendor stall $5.00-7.00
- Meal for two, nice sit-down restaurant $8.00-18.00
- Bottle of French red wine, grocery store $10.00-12.00
- Philips 400w blender/juicer/food mill $27.00
- Average toll (a few highways have them) $0.45
- Maximum fare on light rail system $0.60
- New car, locally-built (includes insurance and road tax) $11,000.00-17,000.00
- One-year membership in auto club, free towing and roadside assist nationwide $22.00
- Maid service, full-time $140.00 per month
- Maid service, part-time $55.00 per month (four 4-hour visits)
As I settle more into a routine life here, I'll update the cost of living in KL with more examples.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Uh-oh! Chad is mobile.
View Larger Map
Feel free to click and drag the map to see the horror that will befall anyone driving in KL. Malaysians have yet to find a patch of land in the Klang Valley that they don't think could be improved by a building a road, a series of roads, a stack of roads, or a highrise building. I can't properly describe the roadway scenario here without offending the more delicate readers, but it rhymes with "thruster duck."
So what I've learned -- rapidly -- is that when it comes to transportation, KL is roughly the Malaysian equivalent of San Francisco. Good public transit is available, but if you live, work, or play outside the specific areas served by those lines, you'd better have a car. So yesterday, I actually bought one.
It's a brand-new 2008 Proton Persona Special Edition. Gorgeous car... leather interior, integrated GPS, premium MP3/CD player, automatic transmission, power windows, dual airbags, and much more.
Except not really.
While that flowery description does in fact belong to the car in the picture, the piece of crap car that I actually bought is pretty much the complete opposite of all that, with the exception of still being a Proton car, which is one of Malaysia's two car manufacturers. Oh... and it does have power windows, too. Here's the little beast in all her glory:
It's a 1996 Proton Tiara, and I can only surmise it's called that because it's just about small enough to be worn as one. It has a 1.1-liter engine that, when all of the three gerbils powering it are well-fed and rested, cranks out a whopping 60 HP. Manual transmission, of course, and an actual carbureted engine. Usually the only time you see those nowadays in the States is when you mow your yard. I'm not sure I've ever had a car that wasn't fuel-injected. My first car, a truly craptacular 1980 Chevrolet Monza, may have been carbureted, but I'm not sure. To give you an idea of how small a 1.1-liter engine is, consider this: The average-size bottle of water is 600 mL. I'm currently drinking out of a large 
bottle of water here, 1.5 liters. We all know the size of a 2-liter bottle. The engine in my car has HALF that displacement. And yet, it still accelerates reasonably well, drives fine at highway speeds, and is really easy on gas. Plus, it was very cheap, just a bit over US$900.Like I said, it does have power windows, along with power locks, an alarm system with keyless entry, a stereo, new tires, and really cold air conditioning. So far, the only potentially serious flaw is a non-functional gas gauge, so I'm working on the formula for that so I'll know what my range is with each fill-up. Oh, and the steering wheel seems to be on the wrong side, too. :)
... time passes ...
... time passes ...
So now it's about 11:30 pm here on Wednesday and I've been driving for two days, essentially. I've managed to not get hopelessly lost yet, but I do manage to get very misdirected on almost every outing of any actual distance. The worst drive was a sad attempt to get from Damansara Perdana to Damansara Heights -- the latter is about 10-15 minutes from the former, almost due east.
It was a complete failure. I wound up clear down south in Subang Jaya, way off course. So I thought I'd just skip my 3:30 appointment and head into the city, so I found my way to one of the main perimeter roads, but didn't get there until nearly 5:00 and it was near gridlock. So I crept and crawled along for nearly another an hour, thinking all the while, "This is why I moved to the other side of the world? To sit in this intolerable tsunami of cars and motorbikes?" At least my little car has cold air conditioning. The picture, taken through the windshield of my car, doesn't begin to do justice to the parking lot I was stuck in.So I veered off to park at one of the dozens of malls here called Starhill Gallery which is, I must say, very posh and impressive. Whereas many of the newer, swanky malls are bright and open and airy, Starhill Gallery has a more subdued feel... very chic and muted, with loads of water features and plants throughout. I definitely got more of a feng shui feel there than at Pavilion KL or Suria KLCC. (In case I haven't mentioned it, there is no shortage of malls in KL... one source counts over 60 in the greater KL area.) So anyway, I parked there, then walked to Low Yat Plaza.
Low Yat is a tech geek's fantasy come to life. It's a massive six-floor mall, haphazardly jam-packed with kiosks, shops, and larger stores, the vast majority of them dedicated to tech goodies, electronics, computers, mobile phones, and assorted gadgetry. I frankly hate the place, not to put too fine a point on it. It's crowded, noisy, and not well laid-out at all. And woe betide you should you choose to visit on a weekend, because the crowds double. However, I needed three things, and Low Yat was supposedly the place to go for them. I managed to find none of them, mostly because I was in a hurry, but also because of my lack of proficiency in Malay or Mandarin.
I escaped Low Yat and emerged onto the steamy streets of Bukit Bintang, an area in the heart of KL which is virtually always humming with activity. It was nearly 6:30 and the street food vendors were all grilling and cooking their foods. Unfortunately, I couldn't linger, because I had to be at KLCC at 7:00 for my tutoring gig. So I took the KL Monorail to the main hub in the city, called KL Sentral. (In Malay, "c" is pronounced "ch," so they spell English words according to their own phonetics, hence "teksi" and "seksyen.") From there, I caught the light rail train to KLCC and hoofed it to meet my student.So driving will doubtlessly be a huge adventure here, but having a car gives me a freedom that would be otherwise missing, so I'll forgive the traffic jams and lack of a working gas gauge.
More later -- sorry for the epic length.
Friday, September 12, 2008
First week observations...
I've completed my first full week in KL now -- it seems to have flown by, but at the same time, so much has happened, so it feels like a longer period of time.
I accepted the job offer with Emphasis Education Academy. It's not the greatest compensation package in the world, but the pay is good, and it's a convenient location and a very laid-back school. I have classes in the morning and afternoon -- each is three hours. The kids are grouped according to their English proficiency level, not by their age. Most of the students are elementary school-age... typically 6 to 10.
The tutoring is going well, too. I've had two sessions with my student, a Korean boy who turns 16 next month. He's only been studying English for five months, but he's enrolled in an intensive study course at a language school here, and he's a good student, so he's done quite well. We'll be meeting three times a week, each session 90 minutes in length, so it's an easy second job, and the pay is outstanding.
Today, I'm going to to look at some condos in the area near my job. The suburb is called Damansara Perdana, which was the first large-scale development in Malaysia with complete IT-ready infrastructure. It's aimed at middle- to upper-middle class residents and has a lot of major shopping and good restaurants in the immediate area. I'm told it's a nice area, and the housing costs are very, very reasonable there.
Also on the agenda for the upcoming week is finding a car, either to rent or buy.
Everything is happening much faster than I anticipated, for sure! I feel very lucky so far.
I accepted the job offer with Emphasis Education Academy. It's not the greatest compensation package in the world, but the pay is good, and it's a convenient location and a very laid-back school. I have classes in the morning and afternoon -- each is three hours. The kids are grouped according to their English proficiency level, not by their age. Most of the students are elementary school-age... typically 6 to 10.
The tutoring is going well, too. I've had two sessions with my student, a Korean boy who turns 16 next month. He's only been studying English for five months, but he's enrolled in an intensive study course at a language school here, and he's a good student, so he's done quite well. We'll be meeting three times a week, each session 90 minutes in length, so it's an easy second job, and the pay is outstanding.
Today, I'm going to to look at some condos in the area near my job. The suburb is called Damansara Perdana, which was the first large-scale development in Malaysia with complete IT-ready infrastructure. It's aimed at middle- to upper-middle class residents and has a lot of major shopping and good restaurants in the immediate area. I'm told it's a nice area, and the housing costs are very, very reasonable there.
Also on the agenda for the upcoming week is finding a car, either to rent or buy.
Everything is happening much faster than I anticipated, for sure! I feel very lucky so far.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tidak halal: The other white meat
I constantly tell my Muslim friends that they just don’t know what they’re missing by not eating pork. Bacon, ham, sausage, pepperoni, pork tenderloin… some of my favorite foods involve pork, and I can barely imagine a pizza or a sub sandwich without pork on it in some form or fashion. Here, they have this abominable beef-based pepperoni and it’s like, “Really, why did you even bother? Can I just get a cheese pizza, please?” Some things just shouldn’t be altered from what the food gods intended them to be. Tofu meatless balls and beef pepperoni are on that list.
So a couple of days ago, my housemate ("roommate" here would indicate that you're sharing a room) Jamie and I were wandering around the local Tesco hypermarket, which has become by far my first choice for grocery and household shopping. It’s huge, clean, not massively crowded, and they have a great selection of foods and other goodies. Indonesian-style shrimp chips? Check. Daun pandan and daun salam? (These are herbal leaves that are all but impossible to find in the States and completely impossible to find fresh). Check. Smoked garlic cloves? Check. (And they’re amazing.) Wine shop? Check. An approximation of Javanese palm sugar? They had that, too, and just when I thought I’d have to settle for plain brown sugar in my recipes. So I was like a kid in a candy store as I was going through their huge produce section, but the best surprise was saved for the end. We emerged from an aisle and there, isolated in the corner of the store, was a small shop, set apart behind glass and doors with a massive sign overhead that read “Tidak Halal.” Jamie saw my transfixed gaze and said, “Tidak halal means…” but I cut him off. “I know exactly what it means!” I said in a happy stupor and pushed my trolley hypnotically to the entrance. “Halal” is the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish word “kosher.” It simply means food that’s 100% permissible to eat under Muslim law. “Tidak” is the negative, meaning “no” or “not.” You can put it together. To me, it meant one thing: PORK. I wandered in.
It was a pig’s worst nightmare. Fresh sausage links hanging in the finest German tradition. Bacon. Pork chops. Tenderloins. A deli counter with six kinds of ham, along with mortadella and sopressata. I had already resigned myself after three failed attempts elsewhere to find anything resembling lunch meat that sandwiches were more or less a Western convention and I’d just have to live without them, a sad prospect seeing as how a loaf of fresh bread here costs about 35 cents. So I happily ordered up 300 grams of smoked ham (adapting to metrics will take some time – it’s about 2/3rds of a pound), got a package of sukiyaki (very thin-sliced pork loin that I pan-fry and stir into rice and veggie dishes), and left happy.
No pork and no alcohol. What kind of a religion is this? Ha ha. (Actually, many of the Muslims I know happily ignore the “no alcohol” part.) Cheese is almost prohibitively expensive here (the cheapest I've found is a basic white cheddar at about $9/lb.), but at least now I know I can still have bacon and eggs or a nice ham sandwich when I want them. All is well.
I had a job interview Tuesday afternoon. It was in Damansara Perdana, which is a fair distance from where I am in Bukit Antarabangsa… about 30 minutes by car. Jamie ordered a cab for me, and they picked me up here and delivered me to the IKEA store which is near the school. Apparently, IKEA is a huge landmark here because everyone knows it. It’s a trendy European furniture store – we have them in the States, but I think it’s more prevalent in Europe and Asia. So I wandered around there until it was time for my interview. I just wanted to make sure I got there plenty early. Interestingly, unlike the US, free WiFi is available nearly everywhere you go here -- restaurants, all coffee shops, McDonald's, etc. -- it's been very uncommon for me to open up my laptop and not be able to find a free WiFi signal. So I took my laptop and sat at a Starbucks (yes, they're everywhere) and surfed the web while I waited.
The interview went really well. The center is run by an Irish expatriate and his wife, who is a Chinese Malaysian. One thing I've learned rapidly is the difference between ethnicity and nationality. Malaysian here means nationality only: a citizen of Malaysia. Chinese, on the other hand, can mean a citizen of China, or a person of Chinese descent, so the terms used here are either ethnic Chinese or Chinese Malaysian. The word Malay is used to indicate ethnicity.
So anyway, the three of us talked for awhile, I got a tour of the facility, and they offered me a full-time post teaching there. The pay is not fantastic, but more than enough to live on here. I wouldn't go in until 10 a.m., which is nice because I can avoid the early morning traffic here. There are no benefits, but healthcare here isn't the nightmare that it is in the States. The wife told me she was recently sick and went to the doctor and the entire visit -- office visit, transport, and her prescription -- was under US$20. She said something about a ride or transport, so I guess they fetched her and then took her back home, but I'll need to clarify that. Or maybe she meant it was a house call, which is probably more likely. Malaysia is a developed nation, and healthcare here, although not as advanced as it is in Singapore (which sets the standard for all of SE Asia), is still quite good. So I'm not too fussed about having "no insurance." It's just not the same mentality as back home... you get sick, you go to the doctor. If you get really sick, or injured, you go to the hospital and they'll treat you. There is plenty of time off -- about seven weeks a year built into the schedule, including a nice three-week block in mid-December through early January, and personal/vacation time off as well.
Interestingly, the work visa choice is up to me. I've talked to expat teachers here who have lived and worked here for years without ever getting a work permit. A social visa here in Malaysia is granted on entry for 90 days and, unlike the visas of many countries, work is not specifically prohibited by its terms of issue. So they just work and get paid "under the table," and make "visa runs" every 90 days, typically scooting down to Singapore or up to Thailand and then reentering Malaysia. So you're not breaking any rules, not violating the terms of the social visa, and you're free from paying income tax. The downside for me would be that, although I'd be paid in tax-free cash, I'd still have to figure out a way to get some of it back to my stateside bank account. One option would be to just squirrel money away and then go to a local bank periodically (say, every two months) and give them the cash and do an ACH wire transfer to my US bank account. The charge is fairly minimal -- about US$5 or so. I told the directors at the center that I'd let them know (about accepting their employment offer or not) by the end of the week.
I have also taken advantage of an opportunity to do some tutoring for a Korean student who is trying to get into an international school here. Students have to be at a certain proficiency level in English before they are accepted into these prestigious schools (which have exorbitant tuitions and also happen to be the best paymasters for English teachers), so wealthy Asian families tend to pay quite well to have their kids tutored privately. (Tutoring about five hours a week will pay me more than enough to meet my housing expense here.)
I am going to meet with the student and his father early this evening, and start the lessons. After the kid begins at his new school, I will still stay on as his tutor, meeting with him three times a week. They live in a condo with his dad in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre, where the Petronas Towers are), which is about 15-20 minutes from me. It seems increasingly apparent that I’m either going to need to move to a place convenient to public transit lines or get a car. KL, unlike most Asian cities, is exceptionally car-dependent. They have a very good public transit system – light rail, a monorail, buses, etc. – but it’s not comprehensive beyond a certain area.
I've also been given a contact at one of the local colleges here in the suburb of Subang Jaya. They're looking for an EFL teacher and since I have a personal contact, it makes it that much easier to get in the door. I'll be calling them today.
Finally, I have a chance to get on board with a “grass-roots” style English learning center headed up by an American woman who has lived here in KL for six years. She has more students than she has teachers to handle them, so I’ll be meeting with her next Monday, but her background is in special education, and I think her students are special-needs kids, which isn't really my strong suit at all, so I seriously doubt I'll pursue that. All the same, though doors continue to open here, and nearly everything is done on a personal basis, it seems. People know someone who knows someone else who is acquainted with a person looking for an English teacher, or something like that. I’ve looked at job sites, but all of these opportunities, as well as the one offer I got from a university here (and didn’t accept), have come from personal contacts.
Next step: Get a car!!
So a couple of days ago, my housemate ("roommate" here would indicate that you're sharing a room) Jamie and I were wandering around the local Tesco hypermarket, which has become by far my first choice for grocery and household shopping. It’s huge, clean, not massively crowded, and they have a great selection of foods and other goodies. Indonesian-style shrimp chips? Check. Daun pandan and daun salam? (These are herbal leaves that are all but impossible to find in the States and completely impossible to find fresh). Check. Smoked garlic cloves? Check. (And they’re amazing.) Wine shop? Check. An approximation of Javanese palm sugar? They had that, too, and just when I thought I’d have to settle for plain brown sugar in my recipes. So I was like a kid in a candy store as I was going through their huge produce section, but the best surprise was saved for the end. We emerged from an aisle and there, isolated in the corner of the store, was a small shop, set apart behind glass and doors with a massive sign overhead that read “Tidak Halal.” Jamie saw my transfixed gaze and said, “Tidak halal means…” but I cut him off. “I know exactly what it means!” I said in a happy stupor and pushed my trolley hypnotically to the entrance. “Halal” is the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish word “kosher.” It simply means food that’s 100% permissible to eat under Muslim law. “Tidak” is the negative, meaning “no” or “not.” You can put it together. To me, it meant one thing: PORK. I wandered in.
It was a pig’s worst nightmare. Fresh sausage links hanging in the finest German tradition. Bacon. Pork chops. Tenderloins. A deli counter with six kinds of ham, along with mortadella and sopressata. I had already resigned myself after three failed attempts elsewhere to find anything resembling lunch meat that sandwiches were more or less a Western convention and I’d just have to live without them, a sad prospect seeing as how a loaf of fresh bread here costs about 35 cents. So I happily ordered up 300 grams of smoked ham (adapting to metrics will take some time – it’s about 2/3rds of a pound), got a package of sukiyaki (very thin-sliced pork loin that I pan-fry and stir into rice and veggie dishes), and left happy.
No pork and no alcohol. What kind of a religion is this? Ha ha. (Actually, many of the Muslims I know happily ignore the “no alcohol” part.) Cheese is almost prohibitively expensive here (the cheapest I've found is a basic white cheddar at about $9/lb.), but at least now I know I can still have bacon and eggs or a nice ham sandwich when I want them. All is well.
I had a job interview Tuesday afternoon. It was in Damansara Perdana, which is a fair distance from where I am in Bukit Antarabangsa… about 30 minutes by car. Jamie ordered a cab for me, and they picked me up here and delivered me to the IKEA store which is near the school. Apparently, IKEA is a huge landmark here because everyone knows it. It’s a trendy European furniture store – we have them in the States, but I think it’s more prevalent in Europe and Asia. So I wandered around there until it was time for my interview. I just wanted to make sure I got there plenty early. Interestingly, unlike the US, free WiFi is available nearly everywhere you go here -- restaurants, all coffee shops, McDonald's, etc. -- it's been very uncommon for me to open up my laptop and not be able to find a free WiFi signal. So I took my laptop and sat at a Starbucks (yes, they're everywhere) and surfed the web while I waited.
The interview went really well. The center is run by an Irish expatriate and his wife, who is a Chinese Malaysian. One thing I've learned rapidly is the difference between ethnicity and nationality. Malaysian here means nationality only: a citizen of Malaysia. Chinese, on the other hand, can mean a citizen of China, or a person of Chinese descent, so the terms used here are either ethnic Chinese or Chinese Malaysian. The word Malay is used to indicate ethnicity.
So anyway, the three of us talked for awhile, I got a tour of the facility, and they offered me a full-time post teaching there. The pay is not fantastic, but more than enough to live on here. I wouldn't go in until 10 a.m., which is nice because I can avoid the early morning traffic here. There are no benefits, but healthcare here isn't the nightmare that it is in the States. The wife told me she was recently sick and went to the doctor and the entire visit -- office visit, transport, and her prescription -- was under US$20. She said something about a ride or transport, so I guess they fetched her and then took her back home, but I'll need to clarify that. Or maybe she meant it was a house call, which is probably more likely. Malaysia is a developed nation, and healthcare here, although not as advanced as it is in Singapore (which sets the standard for all of SE Asia), is still quite good. So I'm not too fussed about having "no insurance." It's just not the same mentality as back home... you get sick, you go to the doctor. If you get really sick, or injured, you go to the hospital and they'll treat you. There is plenty of time off -- about seven weeks a year built into the schedule, including a nice three-week block in mid-December through early January, and personal/vacation time off as well.
Interestingly, the work visa choice is up to me. I've talked to expat teachers here who have lived and worked here for years without ever getting a work permit. A social visa here in Malaysia is granted on entry for 90 days and, unlike the visas of many countries, work is not specifically prohibited by its terms of issue. So they just work and get paid "under the table," and make "visa runs" every 90 days, typically scooting down to Singapore or up to Thailand and then reentering Malaysia. So you're not breaking any rules, not violating the terms of the social visa, and you're free from paying income tax. The downside for me would be that, although I'd be paid in tax-free cash, I'd still have to figure out a way to get some of it back to my stateside bank account. One option would be to just squirrel money away and then go to a local bank periodically (say, every two months) and give them the cash and do an ACH wire transfer to my US bank account. The charge is fairly minimal -- about US$5 or so. I told the directors at the center that I'd let them know (about accepting their employment offer or not) by the end of the week.
I have also taken advantage of an opportunity to do some tutoring for a Korean student who is trying to get into an international school here. Students have to be at a certain proficiency level in English before they are accepted into these prestigious schools (which have exorbitant tuitions and also happen to be the best paymasters for English teachers), so wealthy Asian families tend to pay quite well to have their kids tutored privately. (Tutoring about five hours a week will pay me more than enough to meet my housing expense here.)
I am going to meet with the student and his father early this evening, and start the lessons. After the kid begins at his new school, I will still stay on as his tutor, meeting with him three times a week. They live in a condo with his dad in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre, where the Petronas Towers are), which is about 15-20 minutes from me. It seems increasingly apparent that I’m either going to need to move to a place convenient to public transit lines or get a car. KL, unlike most Asian cities, is exceptionally car-dependent. They have a very good public transit system – light rail, a monorail, buses, etc. – but it’s not comprehensive beyond a certain area.
I've also been given a contact at one of the local colleges here in the suburb of Subang Jaya. They're looking for an EFL teacher and since I have a personal contact, it makes it that much easier to get in the door. I'll be calling them today.
Finally, I have a chance to get on board with a “grass-roots” style English learning center headed up by an American woman who has lived here in KL for six years. She has more students than she has teachers to handle them, so I’ll be meeting with her next Monday, but her background is in special education, and I think her students are special-needs kids, which isn't really my strong suit at all, so I seriously doubt I'll pursue that. All the same, though doors continue to open here, and nearly everything is done on a personal basis, it seems. People know someone who knows someone else who is acquainted with a person looking for an English teacher, or something like that. I’ve looked at job sites, but all of these opportunities, as well as the one offer I got from a university here (and didn’t accept), have come from personal contacts.
Next step: Get a car!!
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