Getting Started!

Having finished my official two weeks of training, and an extra week of odd jobs around the office coupled with teaching practice in the evenings in the center located in the KL Headquarters, I am ready to begin work at my placement.

I have been placed in a small town called Chaah, in the Malaysian state of Johor, in the south near the Singapore border. I am approximately two hours from Singapore, from Melaka, and from the centers where a few friends work, so hopefully I'll get to travel around on my weekends while I am here.

My last two weeks in KL were pretty busy, between wrapping up training, helping out in the school downstairs, and visiting KL, including entertaining two good friends who made the trek from Phuket and Jakarta to meet up in the middle.

I returned to the city center one weeknight with a few friends, and got to see the Petronas Towers all lit up. I still haven't gotten the chance to go up the towers, so I'll have to do that on one of my trips back to the city.

I also spent a day with two coworkers at the Batu Caves, the site of a Hindu temple which boasts a 140 foot statue of the god Murugan, and requires the climbing of 272 steps to get inside.

The caves are rumored to be crawling with thieving monkeys, but we were disappointed to find none. We did go into a reptile house to see snakes, lizards, turtles (including an albino one) and others. Afterwards, we headed to Chinatown for some delicious and cheap food, and then wandered the city for a while.

Last week I really got a chance to practice teaching. One of the teachers who arrived around the same time I did is in charge of the classes that take place in the KL Headquarters, so a few of us have been working as a team to make sure that all gets off the ground smoothly for her. So far, so good. The students there are in the nearly finished with their program, so their English is very good, and they seem excited to learn. I especially like working with the adult classes there. All of the students, children and adults, are extremely grateful for the program, and they really appreciate the work that their teacher does. It's pretty heartwarming and makes me hopeful for my own center.

Friday afternoon, one friend arrived from Jakarta, and she and I, along with a few of my coworkers, toured a park full of plants and sunshine and a lake, and then enjoyed the perks of her hostel reservation, including a rooftop bar with a great view over the city, and especially of the Towers.

The other friend arrived late late that night, so after saying a quick hello, we all headed to bed, with big plans to get up early to go up the Towers the next morning. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get tickets, so we settled for KL's butterfly house, rumored to be the biggest in the world.

We had fun basking in the sun and fountains and green, but less fun in the "Giant Insects of Malaysia" exhibit that followed. That mostly terrified me.

We followed that up with another stroll through the Chinatown market and a dinner in one of the restaurants, then enjoyed another great night out in the city.

Sunday, we all visited Kanching Falls, a short trip outside of the city. We had such a great sunny day, climbing to the top of the falls surrounded by cheeky sneaky monkeys, beautiful palm trees, and the falls, of course. We got to splash in the water for a while, and stand under the falls, which was very cool. Then we realized that the several locals who were taking pictures of the waterfall were actually trying to discreetly take pictures of us, so we indulged them and posed a bit.

I returned home Monday morning after spending the night at the hostel (couldn't turn down the promise of a warm shower!) to discover that I'd be leaving KL that day. I was shocked, overwhelmed, and stressed. I packed quickly, then spent the rest of the day enjoying the company of the friends I'd be leaving. I left Monday evening with one of the guys who works in the office and is the coordinator for the centers in the south. We spent the night at his mothers house, where lizards were crawling all over the walls, and at least one large spider shared my room. After a mild episode of panic and a reassuring conversation with a friend about the situation at her center, I concentrated on the lizards and fell asleep.

The next morning we made it to Chaah, where I was greeted warmly by my community contact and offered a place to stay with him and his family (wonderful wife Anita, and children ages 5-12). The house, as well as the center where I'll be working, is so nice, which was such a relief. I actually miss the lizards. But the area is surrounded by palm trees and it is beautiful. I'll get pictures up as soon as I remember to take my camera out.

This morning I had an intro class, which turned out to be 33 students of all ages. It was hard to come up with two hours of activities that primary and secondary school students would enjoy, without diving right into the curriculum (class won't actually start until next week) so we did some conversation practice and played hangman:

English is (a) universal language!

All in all, I am happy with my center, my students to be, my living situation, and my wonderful hosts. Looking forward to a great year!!