week seven: a pewterly day.

hello hello. today, i attended the school of hard knocks. this is actually a tour of the royal selangor factory here in KL, which ends with you smashing out your very own pewter bowl. i learned many things, but as per usual, i like to speak with pictures versus my words.



this is actually outside my apartment this morning. considering the early hour, this is unusual traffic for a saturday. the reason is that there is a large political demonstration downtown today, so the police cut off the roads. it's supposedly crazy bananas out there, so aside from my tour today, i am not leaving my apartment surroundings (except for the pool and the gym, obvs).



our time at the factory started with a guided tour. our guide was the granddaughter of one of the original pewter-pounders (this is what i think they should be called), so she was very knowledgable. obviously. these little animals were once used as currency, says she! i would love to pay with a little elephant.



this is she, and on the right is one of the original teapots made by her grandfather. she said that during "the war," a man leaned down to pick up the teapot when a bomb went off close by, and a piece of shrapnel flew past where his head would have been had he not been leaning down for the teapot. for that reason, he kept the teapot as it saved his life! many years later he asked the factory to fix it up, when they looked at the bottom and noticed it was stamped by her grandfather. they asked if he would sell it to them, and initially he did not, because it was his lucky teapot! as he got older, he decided to sell it to the factory as he knew they would take proper care of it. i thought that was very neat.



this is a pattern for a beer mug!



these are the chinese characters that make up the stamp that her grandfather used.



i learned the oscars are actually gold-painted pewter! also they made special coin-things for NASA. timely considering the recent final flight of the discovery!



there was a large wall of frames they have used over the years.



and provided 100 plus, a sports drink sold around here, originating in singapore. she said pewter keeps the drinks cold. you cannot argue when it came from a cold bottle.



the factory!



it is really amazing to see everything done totally by hand. and so perfectly!



the money tree is supposed to bring you good fortunes. i did not invest in one.



finally! the pewter-pounding! this is what we started with.



these were little stamps so you can pound your initials into the bottom of your bowl. i did my name, but you know. the directions on the wall said initials.



demonstrating for us.



photographic evidence i did this on my own, thank you.



my finished product!

now, for the gift shop. it was full of interesting things. some of my favorites being the following:











there was also a little cafe, with sandwiches, salads, and such. i got a tomato, basil, and mozzarella panini. it is not my panini place-styled panini, but it was decent enough. it cost 15 ringgit for the sandwich and a coke, aka $5. not bad.



finally, we end with the world's largest tankard. i have heard that malaysians love the guinness world records, and now i have experienced my first aspect of that. it was neat!

so that was my day today. in total, the tour was just under two hours. i highly recommend it, and will probably try to take people who visit me on it. it was just so neat.

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week sixish and some.

this weekend my mom said, "why haven't you updated your blog?" oops. things have been very quiet, and i haven't had anything specific to write about so that's why i haven't written anything!

i went to church again, and as it turns out the phenomenon of tents outside the church that i experienced was because the church was well prepared for easter. it has started on time at 10:30 and been relatively crowd-free since that sunday. i like it. i also have gotten into the trend (aka three sundays in a row, obviously a trend) of getting mcdonald's soft-serve on my way home from church. here, a plain vanilla cone is one ringgit, aka approximately $.30. in america, it is one dollar! obviously, given the cost-savings and the fact that it just happens to be right there on my way home, it's completely acceptable for me to have an ice cream cone every sunday.

i have also spent a lot of time here:


it makes life really hard.

on the exciting front though, my sea shipment came in last week, so i spent thursday, friday, and saturday organizing and unpacking. like so:


to


you never realize how much stuff you have until it's laying all over the floors, the counters, the couches, the tables, the bed... and on and on. everything is now all put away and in its respective place! i just have to wait to get my pictures hung up on the walls, then it will very much feel like home. i also got to open up my magnetic unicorn poetry set and put it on my refrigerator.



it is the little things that make me very happy. such as being able to make ridiculous poetry out of unicorn-themed words.

that is really all for now. we have a three day weekend coming up and i am trying to figure out what i want to do for it. when there are so many options, and you are one of the least decisive people in the world, it makes things tricky!

right now it is thundering. it really makes sense that someone who is absolutely terrified of thunder moved to a tropical place with generally one big thunderstorm every few days. maybe it will desensitize me. maybe.

i have nothing further significant to report. except maybe people should read this. it mostly sums up how i try to live, and how others should too!

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my easter experience!

on sunday, i was fairly determined to find my way to church. i researched the catholic church in kl, weighed the benefits of taking a taxi versus experiencing the light rail train (note to self: you no longer ride the metro. you ride the train). masses were at 8 am, 10:30 am, and 6 pm. because i like to sleep and had a morning skype date with my friends, i decided on the 10:30 mass.

ok.

my first task was to walk to the train station. this is not a difficult task. my next task was to figure out how to get a token. for the train system, you can purchase a card which you can then reload money onto as much as you'd like, or you can get a one-use token. i decided to get a token because i don't know how often i will actually ride the train. the train station was actually very easy to navigate, and the token machines were extremely easy. i say this with a grain of salt, as really my only "regular" train experience is the metro, and even after riding it every day for two years and multiple times a year growing up, i get confused at the reloading stations in dc. anyways. that's beside the point. we're talking about kl. and here in kl, it was extremely easy. it's a touch screen, so you touch the map for where you want to go and it calculates the price and you pay and you're done. the only negative i could find is that it does not take bills larger than 2 ringgit. that isn't really a big deal though.


see? super easy to use. take notes, wmata.





overall, it was so super nice and easy, i was just happy. i was really concerned when the train pulled up and i saw a child in the front window. i thought he was sitting on the lap of the driver. it wasn't until i got into the train that i saw there was no driver, it's just a window, and it was totally legitimate for the child to be sitting there. still not safe, but this is the mindset you get when you stay up until 1-2 am reading about monorail crashes at disney world. i also laughed when going up the escalator and reading the stand-to-the-left sign. i think anyone who has had to deal with rushing to catch a train while politely asking tourists to move to the right side of the escalator in DC can appreciate that.

so anyways. navigate train system: check. my next task was to find my way from the train station to the church. i wrote out my directions, but of course, when coming up from underground, i had no idea where i was and my directions were useless. i used the tall buildings as guidelines for where i should be going, and i managed to find it. the swarm of people helped.



i say swarm, and i do mean swarm. i have never experienced anything like this church. firstly (and i didn't take pictures of this, but i should have), the street leading up to the church is filled with vendors. selling random things. anything. it was strange. i walked through the gate and up the hill and encountered a crowd. the church had tents set up in front of the church and at the sides, with presentation screens so that those sitting outside could follow along with the mass. the church bells rang, so it was 10:30 exactly. but the swarm of people had not just sat down for mass. the swarm of people had been there for a while. i could tell by where they were in mass that it did not just start. i walked around to the side of the church (aka i followed americans who looked like they knew what they were doing) and stood in one of the side entrances. i was really confused. i figured either the earlier mass started later, or ran longer, or something, but that the 10:30 mass would shortly follow the one i was currently standing in. so i stood and patiently waited, and the mass ended. the swarm of people cleared out, and i took a seat. the swarm never returned. the next mass started at 11:30, and aside from little quirks that you always find in going from one church to another, i enjoyed it. i was warned that there was no air conditioning, so i was not surprised to feel beads of sweat down my back. at the root, church is church, and no matter where you go, you're going for the same purpose, and all the extras don't really mean anything.



it is pretty inside, and very large. i suppose it will be my churchly home for the next three years.



on my way out, i saw this little shrine. one of the things i think i am going to like about asia is the religious mix. i think it's a fairly obvious idea that appreciating a culture's religion is important in order to appreciate the culture as a whole. and here in KL, with the mix of malays, indians, chinese, and everyone else, there seems to be a speckle of every religion anywhere you turn. i like that. although i have my religion and what i believe in, i appreciate the ability to learn about other religions, and really appreciate being somewhere where the opportunity to do so is so abundant. that's really the only way to not be a blind follower of your own faith. but anyways. so it was interesting to go to mass and come out and be encountered immediately with not just another christian sect, but a symbol of another religion entirely outside of christianity.

so anyways. that was my easter church experience. i have talked to a few people, and they have said that it's likely the church service at 8 always starts late, so to always expect it to run into 10:30. or, it may have just been easter. i will only know the truth by continuing to go! i spent the rest of easter sunday eating dinner at a friend's house, from which i unfortunately had to leave right after eating. it was still very nice to have a real dinner. i hope everyone else had a happy easter ♥ tomorrow is a local holiday here - the installation of the new king. his full title is: Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah ibni Sultan Badlishah. the names here are something that will take me a while to fully understand. also a fun fact, he is the first king to have reigned twice. his first term was in the 1970s. neato.



these popped up this weekend. i liked them.

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week four: how is it already week four?

hello! i have now officially passed the point of the longest time i have been outside of the u.s. bananas. it honestly feels like i just stepped off the plane yesterday. i did not do very much this week. i spent the day today at the pool. i finally received my shipment of hangers, so i have been trying to organize my bedroom. i am having a lot of the furniture that was put into the apartment taken out on monday (to include the awful bed), so i have to do some organizing! since i did not really do anything this week, i will just continue to talk about things i really like about living here.

one of my favorite things here is the fruit. it is all so fresh and delicious. and cheap! i spend about $20 on fruit for the week.



at hock choon (the grocery store i, and most people, go to for fruit) pre-cut fruit comes in little containers as you see above. the containers have little toothpicks taped to them, i suppose so that you can take it to go anywhere, but i eat it at my house, obviously. i have now accumulated 11 containers (14 if you include those above). they are a sturdier plastic than the kind pre-cut food comes in in the u.s., and microwavable, so they are good to reuse for anything. i imagine this will soon become a problem when i am overrun by them and the massive amount of tupperware i own that is on its way... but we'll deal with that when the time comes.

i was nervous about the fruit at first because the honeydew is not green. it is almost white, with a tiny hint of green/yellow. somehow that doesn't matter, because it's way tasty anyways. there is usually a wider variety of fruit, too, but i went to the grocery store in the evening today so i missed out on the prime pickings.

of course, for non-lazy people, there is also a wide variety of fruit for you to pick your own and cut up on your own, but i am lazy. so i don't do that.

there also exists here a magical juice called watermelon juice! i know watermelon juice is available in other countries, but i had never had it before coming here. it is. the. best. ever. i could drink it all day, but i don't because i believe with my standard candy consumption my sugar levels would be off the charts, but i could. if i wanted to.



so good.

anyway. my favorite thing/the only thing i really liked about my apartment in alexandria was that i looked directly out onto crystal city and reagan airport. i watched planes come in and take off all night. i liked looking out my window and seeing the city lights. and my windows, apart from about 5-6 feet in the middle of the room, were giant. how lucky/happy i felt to arrive here and discover that minus the airport view, i have essentially the same thing:



my favorite thing about it really is not just seeing the lights within the close vicinity of my apartment, but seeing the lights out closer to the mountains. i have always liked that. unfortunately, this also means i haven't seen any stars. or the moon. i think the sun and the moon rise and set in an arc directly over my apartment, but that is okay. i don't miss them yet.

i am going to try to make it to church tomorrow. i am still trying to decide if i want to try to take the train there, or a taxi, and i have problems deciding on anything so. we will see. this is the first easter in a very long time that i am not with my parents. it is a little bothersome, but such is part of growing up! i wish everyone a very happy easter ♥

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midweek update.

one very big positive to living here: i never have to check the weather. it's always going to be hot, there is always a chance that it will rain (like, a legitimate chance. not 40% if-you-don't-take-your-umbrella-it-will-rain-if-you-do-take-your-umbrella-it-will-be-sunshines-all-day DC chance of rain). this means, of course, i can always wear dresses. every day of the week, i can wear dresses.

of course, that also requires the shaving of the legs every day. but what's two extra minutes in the shower, and an increased risk of nicking your legs, when you don't have to wear pants???? i love it. i hate pants. i really do.

i am finally back to a regular workout routine, and that makes me happy. especially because i keep listening to these songs:





especially the second one, just because of the video.

life is all good and well still!

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