Three Months in Malaysia

It's here -- October 12 -- meaning we've lived in Malaysia for three months. In transitioning abroad, the three month point is a big deal. By the end of three months, you've worked out many inevitable rough patches. It also marks the end of the honeymoon. Now it's real life. For this occasion, I've provided myself some time to reflect and catch you up on some generally impressions of expat life in Malaysia.

Also, as we're settled in enough now, I'm ready for visitors. If anyone is serious about coming over, email me with dates. Grandma and Grandpa Garibaldi already have their tickets for a late January/early February 2014 visit! And now that the Pohl/Smith's are over the jet lag from their European holiday, I just heard they are booking a mid-August Asia visit (Toyko and Malaysia).

Driving:
When we arrived in KL and after spending several weeks as a passenger with Robin driving with four kids in tow, I was near terrified of driving in KL. I actually discussed with Brian not getting a car. This seems totally absurd to me now. Before I go on -- I need to give Robin a serious shout out because in the first few weeks, she did all the very stressful driving while we missed exits, u turned, turned the wrong way -- too often with at least one out of four kids screaming in the back seat ("I have to go to the bathroom!" "I'm getting car sick" "You didn't pack snacks??" "Oh no, I just spilled all the water."). Robin, you are a saint.

Driving in Malaysia is totally fine. While we are on the opposite side of the road as the US, that turns out not to be a difficult transition (except getting used to the reversed windshield whippers and turn signal). Road infrastructure here is well maintained, highways outside KL are comparable to those I remember from Europe, and all areas we've traveled to have excellent signage. For tolls (which are too frequent), there is the equivalent of the EZ-pass. There's this one really tricky concept here: the u turn lane. So in the US, when you exit a highway there's usually an A and B exit, taking you in opposite directions (or at least you exit and immediately have an option to turn right or left. Not so here. You exit off the highway and go straight ahead onto another road. To go the opposite direction as the exit, you get into the u turn lane and swing a u. It's not a bad design concept, it just takes some getting used to (and a few times where you really tick off the other drivers because you don't really want to make a u, but you happen to be in the u turn only lane).

Except for the motorbikes (holy yikes!), traffic here is orderly with little honking. By orderly, I mean that cars move deliberately. If the guy next to you is inching over looking like he's coming into your lane, he very much IS COMING INTO YOUR LANE. Slow down and let him in. Brian says that the drivers here lack the herky-jerky, making traffic flow more or less predictable. Volume is terrible during rush hour and I avoid driving during peak traffic times (the mums at school call it "the jam".)

Last thing: Google Maps and the related apps accessible on my mobile device are my driving BFFs. They are accurate and update quickly when I miss a turn. I won't leave home without my phone and phone charger.

Travel:
We love to travel and traveling in Asia was a big draw for moving over here. While I'm still super excited about traveling, I've realized that booking travel takes a ton of time. Maybe some of the time suck is information overload. I check trip advisor, I check agoda, I check lonely planet, I check ibilik, I check groupon... But a lot of it is the complexities of booking domestic flights in places like Myanmar and Indonesia. Ug. For our big Christmas trip, I was trying to figure out how to get from KL to Pangkalan Bun, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Limited by the flights that go into Pangkalan Bun, I needed to book from KL to either Jakarta or Semarang. Surabaya and Balikpapan don't work (even though Balikpapan is on the same island as Pangkalan Bun). Then I've got to get us out of Pangkalan Bun (on Christmas!) and somehow end up in Yogyakarta (not Jakarta, that's a different city) 10 days later for our exit flight back to KL. Yeah, you try to figure that out. First, it's a whole lesson on geography (AirAsia flies direct from KL to 16 cities in Indonesia). And to make it more confusing, the airports often do not have the same names as the city/island so I've got to cross reference everything. Then the domestic carriers won't take credit cards... Again, love to travel, but the planning takes way, way, way more time than I anticipated. (Next time maybe we should just go to Bali, since I can get a direct flight there!)

I'll update you more in upcoming blogs about the planned Christmas trip to Indonesia. Camp WienerPohl is assembling for a fun-filled adventure!

Speaking of travel, Brian and Charlie took the critical care boards last week in Hong Kong. In addition to just being thankful that the test is over, Brian reports loving Hong Kong, especially the efficient and user friendly public transportation and drinking beer at the highest (or one of the highest) bars in the world.

Small loves around the house:
* Malaysia power outlets: Each outlet has an on/off switch to save power. The hot water heaters also have on/off switches on the walls outside the bathrooms to save power.
* Electric tea kettle: Fast hot water. To boil pasta, I boil in the electric kettle then transfer to a pot. Works really fast and I don't heat up the kitchen with the stove.
* Outdoor kitchen: Kitchens here have a "dry kitchen" indoors in the A/C and a "wet kitchen". Our wet kitchen is outdoors. I have a large toaster oven, two burners, and sink plus the laundry in the outdoor kitchen. It's great to bake without heating up the house.
* Car mirror retraction button: With very narrow parking spots, including the one in our condo building, I appreciate having a button in the car that retracts the side mirrors.
* Condo amenities: Onsite pool, gardens, badminton courts, mini-mart, and cafe. So nice to roll out the door for a quick swim.

English:

I've been asked by friends in the US about speaking English in KL. We are totally and completely spoiled here in KL. Malaysia, especially KL, is very multicultural and many, many people speak three languages or more (often a "home" language, Bahasa Malay for school, and English; at the kid's international school, what we called ESL when I was a kid in the States is called EAL, "English as an alternative language"). It's rare to encounter folks in KL that don't speak at least conversational English. Malaysians don't even try Bahasa Malay on me; they see me coming and say, "Hello, may I help you with something?" (When we travel outside Malaysia and struggle with directions, etc., it's particularly obvious how English-based KL is.) Also, nearly all signage has English along with the Bahasa. Unfortunately, this has made me a bit lazy with trying to learn Bahasa Malay. In a month or two, after I get some projects rolling for work, I'm committed to taking at least one Bahasa course.

Since we're talking visitors and speaking English, here are three words (in English) that every American visiting Malaysia should learn:
1. "Lift" - Don't bother asking for an "elevator" -- they don't exist here. In KL, we only have lifts. For some reason, this has been particularly hard for me to integrate into my vocabulary. I tend to take the stairs or the ubiquitous escalators.
2. "Toilet" - This isn't just the porcelain piece in the bathroom that we sit on; this is how one asks for a restroom in English in Malaysia. I was in a store and asked the person at the checkout, "Where can I find a restroom?" Stare - blink - blink - stare. I tried again, "Is there a bathroom nearby?" Blink - confused tilt of the head. So I tried my limited Malay, "Tandas?" The woman then said in the clearest English, "Are you looking for the toilet?"
3. "Petrol" - This is the stuff you put in your car to make it go. In Malaysia, "gas" (in Malay) or "gas" (in English) is the stuff you use to cook with on your stove or a bad smell in the air. This one is particularly helpful because we tend to need this vocabulary word while driving by a street corner - my head stretched out the window - asking direction to the nearest "petrol station". "Gas station" will get you very confused looks.

In further British-isms, check out Tyler's family tree from school. First of all, he's doing so great at fine motor. His teacher said he worked really, really hard to sound out and write everyone's names. I'm labeled as "mum".

I'm pleased to report that it was a great week at school for the kids. They are continuing to settle in academically and socially. On Monday, they tried out a capoeira class. Yes, we moved to Asia and they selected a South American martial art! Violet enjoyed the gymnastic aspects of capoeira and Tyler loved the drumming. Violet's class at school took a trip to the zoo on Tuesday and engaged in service projects there. Violet's group cleaned up the tortoise enclosure, including polishing a tortoise's shell. As this week's writing assignment, Violet's teacher placed in her google drive pictures from the zoo. Violet must log on, retrieve the photos, and then write concerns about the habitat the zoo has created for the animals. Violet went to a friend's after school to play yesterday. And both Violet and Tyler have play date invitations for next Friday!

We're headed out to the movies today to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. I'm so looking forward to popcorn. I have yet to find good popcorn in KL. The movie theater has got to have that, right?