Selamat Hari Raya

I guess in the States it's like having Chinese take out on Christmas Eve... we're hanging at home eating leftovers on Malaysia's biggest religious celebration of the year. From the balcony we can see and hear fireworks across town for Eid, here in Malaysia called Hari Raya. It's the end of Ramadan and the end of a month of fasting. The PUGSOM family celebrated Hari Raya early yesterday with a trip to the final Ramadan bazaar. (See Robin's FaceBook page. I forgot to take pictures!) TTDI, a neighborhood not far from us, has a wonderful market during Ramadan. If you were fasting all day, you won't want to cook, right? So pop up markets form all over town with the most delicious take out food. Aida, our most excellent realtor, organized a meet up at the market (in the picture, Aida's to the left of our kids). Aida purchased a huge collection of traditional foods - plus the rest of us picked up anything that looked good. Robin and Ethan had us back to their place for swimming and breaking fast. Thank you, Aida, for finding us an excellent apartment and for organizing this outing. And thanks to Robin and Ethan for hosting, and also for the well enjoyed Dark and Stormy (albeit, non-halal).


Overall the last few days have been quiet. On Monday, the kids and I tried to replicate Quaker Chewy Bars (at $6 a box, we are not buying these at the local grocery) with a recipe from the internet and some Tesco muesli. As the oatmeal raisin turned out great, we made chocolate and peanut butter ones today! Also on Monday: As many of you know, Monday is Little Havana day for me and Brian. For 10 years or so, we've been going to Little Havana in Federal Hill for 1/2 price burgers and beers nearly every week - shout out to Marci and Andy and Tony and Jen for keeping it up while we are away. So we're set to find a new Little H spot right here in KL. This week we tried (again) Souled Out. So we went here for our first dinner in Malaysia three and a half weeks ago. That night was not good. Poor jet lagged Violet slept with her head on the table the entire time. Tyler (now famously) was just irritated and screamed "I HATE air" (very loudly) for 30 minutes. Needless to say, we needed to give this restaurant another try - mostly because of the specially priced at RM10 (~$3.00) BMWs - beer, mojitos, wine - served from 5 - 7. Try #2 results... It was good. A little pricey, but good. Definitely a Little H contender.

On Tuesday, we also met up with another American family new to Malaysia that live in Mont Kiara. The kids had a blast making new friends and it was wonderful to start to build new social connections. Although I am a bit envious, the American schools in KL start up next week. Our kids are going to the British school and do not start until September. Time will go quickly, but I think we are all excited to get back into school. Oh, Tyler does want everyone to know he found a new favorite fruit. Rambutans are a red fruit that have weird, thick hairs growing all over them. You crack it open and you find a large skinless grape-like fruit inside. Also tastes like a skinless green grape.

That really is Tyler's "I LOVE IT" face!

Work is super busy for Brian. Every day that he has been in the hospital, Brian has been amazed by both the similarities and differences of Ward 26 with the general medicine wards at Hopkins. Great example - while examining a 26 year old with a VSD and endocarditis (not something we typically see at Hopkins), the delirious alcoholic in the next bed started singing "Country Roads" by John Denver.  He was half expecting him to jump into his jazzy (motorized scooter) covered with Ravens' flags and roll down the hallway to go to Flamers. The hospital cafeteria is also an interesting place. Most of the shops are closed for Ramadan but the corn and waffle stand is open. For $1 you can get a Belgian waffle with 2 toppings of your choice and a cup of hot corn! Brian reports that it beats the heck out of Hopkins' cafeteria Subway any day.

In the morning, we are heading out to Taman Negara, the big national forest and will be away for four days. This is a camp WienerPohl adventure! We booked a "nice" place, meaning we are supposed to have A/C and hot water at a hotel in the tiny town near the park entrance. Now I've found that it's a really good thing to look at a map BEFORE you go anywhere here, but this is the best map of town I can find on the internet. And our hotel is somewhere outside of the map. Wish us luck!

A few other pics from the week...

My brother, Michael Pohl, is so close to being an international hair stylist...

It was fun to see, even if I've never seen chicken like that in my
hometown in Maryland. Now Lake Trout....

In case you are all still laughing at me for shipping a year's supply of tampons, check out the
feminine product aisle at Tesco. Yes, those are ALL pads - both sides of the aisle. Except the very
top right of the picture, second row down. Yes - they have all of 12 boxes of OBs (9 per box) in stock.