New apartment, new school, new city to explore!

To say the least, the past couple of weeks have been overwhelming and awesome!...or awesomely overwhelming :)
First, Tyler and I moved into a pretty sweet place! When looking, we had the option of grabbing an apartment with an actual bedroom (or even two!), but came across this amazing building that looks and feels like a resort; we couldn't pass up! Alas, we are back in a studio apartment, but hey, we did it in Korea...so, tomato, tomaaahto. As well, our apartment was completely furnished, making it an easy move and the need for us to buy basic amenities zero. Check it out!

Our home sweet home, Malaysian style.

(One of the) the amazing parts about Malaysia are the tropical plants growing everywhere!

Courtyard

Birdseye view from the 26th.

The view that sold us! ...Not the mention the awesome infinity pool!

Otherwise, I'm into my second week at work! My school is an international preschool/primary school and I'll be teaching Grade one this year. I was really excited to have my own class this year (opposed to various groups of students in Korea), but even more excited when I arrived, saw my classroom(s) and learned a bit more about the school! The school is an inquiry-based school. They are really into using the outdoors, first-hand experiences and using various mediums to teach the students (opposed to worksheets, etc.). On Monday I meet my 20 students who hail from all over the world..Can't wait! Ty's continuing to look for work, and in the meantime he's teaching at a couple of international schools, subbing and looking for more permanent work. He even landed some French classes at a Korean hagwon...Our kimchi loving friends just can't let him go :)

One of the three rooms that are assigned to Year One! (Don't mind the mess! -mid-setup)

Our little art room

Now to the more interesting part, and a major reason why we are still living abroad…touring! This past weekend we ventured out for a bit of a night on the town (void the clubs and bars) with our new friend/coworker Danielle. We headed to an area with all kinds of different kinds of food (Thai, Chinese, Malay, Indian) wondered, looked and ate. The area we went is touristy, so there’s  lots happening on the streets. Although definitely not the road less traveled, we figured we would begin to get familiar with some night market areas…as we will be living here for a while! The thing about Malaysia is that there are so many cultures living here (38% Malay, 46% Chinese, 13% Indian...Thanks wiki), so the people watching is amazing, and being S.E Asia, everything (from alleycats, rats and cockroaches -_-) and everyone (babies, elderly, ladyboys, tourists) are out and about, creating a pretty great vibe!  After food, beer, hooka and some pretty convincing product demonstrations we called it a night.

Being persuaded.

Finished product (Danielle's head)

Durian Fruit...smelly, bitter, banned from public buildings, and loved by S.E Asians.

The next day, being Sunday, we headed out to the Batu Caves, which are, again, pretty high on the tourist priority list (according to any travel guide). Tyler and I wanted to check these out, as we had skipped over them when we visited KL two years ago. The Batu Caves, for any Amazing Race fans out there (as I have been since told) was the site for a challenge where teams had to count the number of stairs to the top…and that this resulted in some teams being reduced to tears did not offer us any comfort.  Once arriving, eating a healthy dose of our daily curry, we started to ascend the some 270-ish stairs. Perhaps it was the terrifying distraction of the wild monkeys going ape (haha) over being fed bananas, or a sugar rush from the recently consumed chai tea but the trek up the mountain was not so bad! As we checked out the cave that serves as a Hindu temple, a giant thunderstorm rolled over us and dumped loads of rain down. It was pretty cool to be chilling out in these caves while the thunder rumbled and the rain poured! After, we went into a second cave where 600,000 bats live along with cockroaches, giant snakes, poisonous millipedes, etc.  and no lights except for a dim flashlight (so to not disrupt the bats). To say the least, it was a bit too creepy, sciency and dark for me, but we still enjoyed wearing our hard hats like we were legit. 

 

Feeling refreshed!

 

 

 

 

 

 Until next time, lot of love from KL!

We've Gone Again!

As most of you know, Tyler and I have made the trek across the Pacific again! We left Canada on Thursday morning, traveled across several timezones and landed in our hotel in Kuala Lumpur some 35 hours later. Needless to say, getting to KL was a bit more of a jaunt than heading to Korea (not to mention the 17 hrs on China Eastern without in-flight entertainment..) but all is a distant memory now. I have to admit that since we had traveled to KL a year and a half ago for a vacation, our overall preparation/forethought about making the move was minimal, and it only really dawned on me that we were returning to Asia while we waited in Shanghai for our connecting flight. I had a sinking, homesick feeling already, wondering if we had made the right choice.

Where in the world are we?

Fast forward three days later, and to no surprise, we LOVE Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!  It's tropical, multicultural, multi-lingual, and home to some of the most friendly people we have ever met, with of course, an exception to the East Coasters of Canada ;) . With the country being so multicultural, almost everyone speaks English, so immediately it proved to be easy to get around, ask for advice and begin to set up our new lives!

We arrived during a holiday marking the end of Ramadan (Hari Raya Puasa/ Eid al-Fitr is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.) so many things were closed, which was totally okay as we slept and lounged at our hotel, only to wander to eat delicious curry at any number of street vendors (Definitely more on the fantastic food in Malaysia later).

After the holiday and our jetlag was wrapped up we were able to hook up our cellphone (BIG thank you to our friends Jack and Amy) and come Monday, looked at several apartments. Looking for apartments was super exciting for us, as up until now, Tyler and I have either stayed with family, or in Korea, have been appointed an apartment; We have never actually gotten to 'apartment hunt' together. We were also excited to see what kind of place our budget could get us. Since we were looking in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) we were warned that apartments would be expensive. After chatting with friends at home and hearing about rent in cities such as Toronto and Calgary, as well as remembering the hurting rental situation in Busan, Korea, we were prepared for the worst...and initially, we saw it. However, the real estate gods shined down on us, and we found a killer apartment with amazing facilities (pools, gym, gardens, etc.) more than within our price range!  Again, since Malaysia is more used to foreigners than say..Korea, we simply flashed our passports, and signed the necessary documents to get ourselves hooked up (workvisas/residence cards to follow).

So, after a mere 4 days, we have set ourselves up with the basics; an apartment and phone...and for the remainder of the week, we'll be poolside, enjoying the last week of our summer vacation before school starts on Monday! Trust assure friends, we are happy, safe, excited...and sweaty in KL.