21 June 2012

i'm scuba certified? what is that even.

here is my super fast quick blog about last weekend (since i have 30 minutes until i leave for my next adventure), likely my favorite weekend here so far!

so. the marine monkees were gracious enough to come and teach some of us how to play in the water, aka scuba dive! we had a weekend of classes at the embassy, and then this past weekend we went out to tioman island (off the east coast of west malaysia) for the real diving! the water was perfect, the weather was perfect, and the company was perfect. i'll just speak with the pictures.

tioman island, malaysia

tioman island, malaysia

tioman island, malaysia


should anyone in/around kl be looking for a dive course to get certified, the monkees are the way to go :)

and now, i'm running away to tokyo!

03 June 2012

week twelve: miscellaneous happenings

hello hello! i realized i have a. not blogged in a while and b. not blogged about little things that on their own don't make a full blog post. so here you go, a few different things that have happened in the past month or so:

sunway
on the list of largest shopping malls in the world, malaysia holds spots # 4, 6, and 9 (seriously, i belong in this country). sunway pyramid is #9. aside from being a massively large mall (to include an ice skating rink), it also has an adjacent amusement park/water park/zoo. we went up for the water park, and it was decent enough. the amusement park did not have many roller coasters, or at least not enough that were running. the ones that were running were pretty good, but i have difficulties enjoying roller coasters without my roller coaster buddy matthew! in the zoo, i was brutally attacked by a duck, but the other animals were nice. see see:

kuala lumpur, malaysia.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
lazy, sleepy tiger.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
i'm pretty sure this is who attacked me. is that even a duck? i don't know. i'm bad with the bird family because mostly i don't really like birds. all i know is a took a photo of it, then i walked away to take a photo of another animal, and then when i came back it pecked my leg. and then we were done being friends. so rude.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
these ones are cute though.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
the amusement park made an attempt at theming, but kind of failed with it. this was in the "western" portion of it. i didn't know dinosaurs existed in the old west.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
and finally, one of the entrances to the mall! so big.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
malaysia apparently loves unhealthy excess just the same as america.

latin festival
for four years (i know this because it was the fourth annual.. haha) the latin american ladies association of malaysia has put on a festival to showcase latin american culture. so, obviously, a break from asian food = must attend. it did not disappoint. i think beyond panera, and chick fil a, and sonic, and my panini place, and every other food i miss, i miss mexican food the most. the next time i realize there's something else i miss, that will take the #1 spot, but you know. so anyways. this was a treat.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
it was held in this little tiny area. there were a lot of people. a lot.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
we had brazilian caipirinhas.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
and saw dancings.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
and had tacos, which fell apart but were still so good.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.
and more dancings.

it was a nice break from southeast asia, even if only for a couple of hours. mostly for the food and drinks.

on the way to my church, there is a group of ladies who run a little nail salon outside. i have been waiting to get a perfect little sneak shot of it because i don't want to be totally rude/creeper, but seriously. this can't be hygienic.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.


i end today with this! some of the grocery stores sell flowers or have flower shops next to them, but i have not been able to find actual bouquets/things i want. so i asked my helper and she told me exactly where to go and i found so many flower vendors! there is nothing that makes me happier than having fresh flowers, and now i can get them on a weekly basis right after church and be happy all week. that would be another thing i miss from DC: the flower men on every street corner. there were a lot of different options, but since sunflowers are my favorite they were the only ones i paid attention to.

i also got a little baby daisy bouquet to put in the little neat vase-thingy i got at the wine & chocolate festival in wilmington. it has little spikes in the base to hold the flowers up, and supposedly it makes the flowers last for a while. we shall see. they're going to my desk at work so we'll see how they hold up.
kuala lumpur, malaysia.

kuala lumpur, malaysia.


that's all for now. before june is finished, i will have my scuba certification (maybe), and take my next outside-malaysia trip, but you will have to wait and see where! i am super excited for this trip, for multiple reasons, but mainly what it will do to my closet. my budget is going to hate me.