holi festival

a belated happy easter! i spent easter at the same church i talked about last year, only this time i went to an earlier mass at 9:30 and found it much less overwhelming as what i had walked into last year.

following mass, i met up with meagan and we headed out to a local holi festival. holi is a hindu holiday, celebrating several different legends in the hindu religion, and also marking the start of spring. we weren't quite sure what to expect from it, but it certainly turned out be one of our better experiences!



this is what we looked at just after walking through the welcoming committee. and this was only the beginning!



see how happy she is? EVERYONE was that happy. i have never giggled so much, nor been surrounded by so many people who were just genuinely celebrating their religion and acting so completely carefree.




essentially as you walk through the crowd (who are all dancing or just enjoying themselves), everyone blesses you by marking you with the colored powder. we eventually got our own color and were able to walk around spreading the love to others. generally on the street, if someone were to come up and rub your face you'd probably be quite concerned. that was not the case here. it was all happiness.



this is what we looked like nearing the end of it. it was interesting, to say the least, to hail a cab and hope that he wouldn't mind our colorful selves in the backseat.



of course when i came home i had to share some of the colored love onto snuff, as well. he didn't enjoy it. i think he was a little startled when i walked through the door.

last easter i wrote about how amazing i found it that right next to the church, there was a chinese temple, and it signified to me exactly how culturally diverse malaysia is. this easter i had the same experience, only more first-hand than last year. it's just quite amazing to see. i'm a firm believer that one cannot blindly follow their own religion without lending themselves to experience the traditions of others. i'm all the more thankful that my opportunities here are giving me firsthand experiences. i had much to be thankful for this easter.

Read More

thaipusam!

this weekend, thaipusam is being celebrated in KL. thaipusam is a hindu holiday in which they pray for their sins, and celebrate murugan. millions of tamils flock to the large statue of murugan here in KL, and the party lasts for three days! it's very interesting. i didn't want to go, because i don't like crowds, but then i went and am happy i did.



as is typical for me, i got henna'ed. only i paid $3 versus the $20 it'd be in america...



the men all shave their heads. okay, not all. but many.



the henna takes concentration.




lots of preparations before the final ascent to the top of the caves.




the piercings are known as kavadi, or a burden placed upon oneself to show your dedication and ask for something from the Gods in return. it can happen in a few other forms, but the piercings are the most extreme.





i didn't figure out the purpose of breaking all the coconuts, but it was interesting.



balloon men were everywhere. also i think the man on the right was auctioning kitchenware.



a mini theme park was set up in the area. there were a LOT of rides, none of which existed when i was there in november. so of course, an unnerving ferris wheel ride was necessary.



i don't know where the theme park came from, or why it had harry potter painted on one of the rides.



from the top of the ferris wheel, we could see the petronas towers and the kl tower!



looking down on the festivities.



the other rides actually looked pretty cool. but pretty crazy.



i got to play around with my new camera's settings, so this excited me.



there were lots of mini shops set up with dresses and jewelry, and of course food. lots of food. i had a "magic ice cream" which was actually just frozen milk, but nonetheless interesting.

so that was my experience at thaipusam. fairly tame compared to what i see, but it just so happened we left at a good time because soon enough the storms came and it rained all evening. and now i get to relax and enjoy the third day of my weekend!

Read More

home time.

my time at home was a month ago, but it feels like yesterday. january has been an exceptionally slow-moving month, so here's what happened not-yesterday:



firstly, i had a super long layover in seoul. it's now one of my favorite airpots for super long layovers. there's a huge lounge on the second floor with lots of places to just sit and relax/rest. i got my nails done, and then i found the hello kitty cafe! it was a pretty perfect layover. i also got totally caught up on my shows.



after some time in california (in which i took NO pictures, so unlike me!), i had just over a week at my home sweet home. and with that came a white christmas!! yes. my two trips home now have been timed so perfectly that i got to experience justenough of the four seasons. i'll skip spring, but that's okay.



i got this magical disney princess bag for christmas, and i got to spend so many days with my favorite person!



the little dog was, by all accounts, her normal little dog self.



i also brushed up on my jenga skills.



coming back, i went through amsterdam. the airport of cheese. and yes, that means i did do my first around-the-world trip. magical.



eventually though, i made it back. and once i got back, christmas was gone and chinese new year decor has taken over!




my mom got me a cookbook for christmas, so now i have been trying to cook more at home. for starters, some star wars pancakes. and then sweet and sour chicken! the churros, however, were delightful and came from la boca, a restaurant here. someday i'll make my own churros!

Read More

a little bit of catch up.

i know, i know. i've dropped from weekly blogging to.... bi-monthly. i'll make it up. here's a summary of all that's gone on since september! please excuse my photo effects. the new photo editing service in flickr is more fun than the old photo editing service, and now i've gone overboard.


we celebrated halloween! it was a spooky time indeed. i learned that tearing a haunted house down takes significantly less time than building one.


i attended my very first marine corps ball, with my most delightful boyfriend. it was a fun time indeed.


i tried out a new restaurant called "circus" with my friends, and faced another case of what i call "malaysiafication," aka when a simple dish is ruined for no reason. salads are frequent victims of this. i ordered french onion soup. simple. so easy i could make it! i think what everyone looks forward to in french onion soup is the cheesy goodness on top, right? instead i got an egg yolk. and no cheesy goodness. everyone else enjoyed their food, and the cocktails were good, if not a bit expensive. that's typical though.



after weeks of me whining pouting begging politely asking, my compliant sweet boyfriend finally took me to the aquarium. the aquarium is located semi-underground, in klcc. we arrived right before the piranha feeding fest was beginning, so it was delightful right from the start (i mean, as delightful as you can feel watching fishes attack other fishes). because fishes make me SO EXCITED i was pretty happy about this. and as you can see, we saw bruce AND crush, so that was even better. we saw so many sharks. it was a pretty good aquarium. the only thing that really stood out to me is how different safety is outside of the us. this isn't something new to me, as i noticed it my very first day in budapest on my very first trip abroad. nobody cares about safety like america. in the case of the aquarium, you could easily stick your hand in numerous fish tanks, which had "please do not put hands in the water" signs all over them. who is to stop you though, when you can do it right there?? and it's not just accessible by adults, but also children. just kind of crazy to see. i guess people obey the signs though, or else i would imagine the tanks would be covered by now.


deepavali, a major indian holiday, came and went. the numerous beautiful rice/sand displays also went. i think i enjoy that holiday (not just for the four day weekend it brought).


thanksgiving also came and went. i had two dinners. i missed home more than i have the entire time here, i think. blah.

i actually do have more to post about (including doing the most touristy thing to do here in KL), but i'm a little tired and it's a little past bedtime. more later!

Read More