Air to Our Lungs/What's Next?

READ THE POST BELOW THIS FIRST 5/18

5/19

Two weeks ago, the weekend of May 13 and 14th could not have come fast enough. I think the general consensus amongst the ETAs was that we were ready to go back to KL. We were told that midyear meeting amongst MACEE officials was to be held that weekend and that we were going to share presentations about our first half of the year and also be briefed on any other pertinent information. Yea all that "yadi yadi" sounded nice but what we wanted more than anything were hot showers, free buffets, plush pillows and sheets, soft beds, and AIRCON!! Boy we were in luck. We left there that Wednesday night from Terengganu and arrived in KL about 40 mins later. I think, and I could be wrong, but I'm willing to bet that everybody's first move was to lay in the bed for about 30 mins and just get acclimated to not having to worry about your feet hanging off the bed(me), not having to turn every 10 mins(me), and being able to spread your legs without hitting the wall or swinging off the bed(also me). This was much needed R & R time for us and we were going to take full advantage of it while it was there. I decided to take a shower before we went anywhere and ended up taking a 30 min shower while doing nothing but standing there. It was air to our lungs, light to our path, ground to our journey. The next day we went downstairs to the exquisite breakfast we had all grown accustomed to while there are first two weeks. I think everybody was there earlier than usual to let the first round of food digest then go back up for the next. Once we arrived at MACEE, we were greeted by welcoming and familiar faces. Mrs. Ponnusamy met us in the room with all the answers to our immediate questions, as usual on the ball, and Mr. Coffman followed with his comical personality which soon proved to have everyone laughing. A breath of fresh air to us all to see and be able to share our concerns and experiences with them. We were given a full schedule of events that we were to be involved in for the day. Mrs. Mary Chan(our Bahasa Melayu cikgu), walked in and it was wonderful to see her also. We spent 30 mins of the lesson talking in nothing but Bahasa Melayu. Now even though I didn't understand everything that she said, I understood enough to be able to answer questions. At the end of that period, she informed us that she had superlative awards for us. Yourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Boi(me) received the Overall Best Bahasa Malaysia Speaker Award!!!!! All those mornings of talking to Qistina and Syafiqah, conversing with the students and teachers, and "shooting the breeze" with the locals paid off. Even though I didn't do it for the award, I am glad that my progress has been noticed and recognized. THANK YOU Mrs. Chan, Mr. Coffman, Mrs. Ponnusamy, Qistina and Syafiqah, students and teachers, and locals!!

 That night we went to a theatre production where we supported a fellow Fulbrighter Jaki, who is in KL studying theatre and dance. Initially, I must admit, I didn't want to go being that we were in the city for the first time in months and wanted to take full advantage of its "resources". The production was held at the Publika Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and was the headliner for the gallery exhibit. It turned out to be a great event, I met some people, and I got a chance "jam" with the companies drummers. At first when I talked to the guy and told him that I play, he kind of looked me up and down and I could tell that he was reluctant to believe it.He asked me I wanted to play and I said how about we all play. So I picked the Djembe, put the strap around my shoulder, locked the drum in between my knees and proceeded to play. What I'm sure he thought was going to be a quick 2 or 3 minute lesson to me, turned out to be one of the "most intriguing jam sessions" he had ever been involved with. Never judge a book by its cover.

That next day I shared my presentation, in which of course, I had technical difficulties. I thought besides that it went smoothly. Our task was to create a presentation about our experiences in our schools, Terengganu, and Malaysia have been like so far. In my presentation, I made a movie where I had students and teachers asking me questions about my experiences. I even put music to the movie and set it up so where it looked like I was being interviewed but I also interacted with the students and teachers as they were a large part in the making and completion. * I'm going to try and load it on here also. Throughout our stay in KL, MACEE so graciously paid for our lunches and breafkasts'. That only means onnnnnnnnnne thing(well not really but it sounds good).....we ate gooooooooooood!!! There was sooooo much food at some points we were close to turning it down. We ate at TGIF and the most elaborate buffets, and often felt bad for letting some of the food go to waste. Our last day in KL proved to be equally relaxing as I got my favorite, KRISPY KREME donuts and saw The Furious 5. Maybe it's because I had not gone to a movie in over a month but that movie was GREAT!!! Non-stop action, surprises, and clutch punch lines kept me intrigued. I also got watch the M16 competition. The M16 is a B-Boy(break dance) competition where you dance for the right to represent Malaysia in Korea for the world championships of break dancing. While watching them dance I couldn't help but think, " You know what, I can do this." I decided to go down and dance as a independent in the competition. Since I had never break danced before, I just thought what would Turbo do?(reference from the movie Breakin') Soooooooooooooo....I started pop lockin' and....ok ok ok, just joking. I didn't really go and start dancing BUT I think I could've done alright in the competition lol We had a great weekend and looking forward to the return!! THANK YOU MACEE

Selamat Hari Guru or Happy Teacher's Day. Whoever heard of a day where they celebrate teacher's the whole day by playing activities, giving them food, and presenting information about them. Well I haven't until I arrived at SMAASZA. I was told that Selamat Hari Guru was a national holiday and that all teacher's are celebrated. I participated in COCONUT Field Bowling, Apple Eating Contest, Tug-o-War, musical chairs, and helped DJ the event at school. I was unaware how competitive the teachers were with the games but soon made aware. I was told by a teacher "you are in 6th place and I am in 1st, you lose!" as a participant in COCONUT Field Bowling. I was pushed out of a seat while playing musical chairs twice. I even almost choked in astonishment on a apple, because of the teacher next to me SWALLOWING the apple to try to beat everyone else. Ohhhhh but I know now...I know now..There had to be a reason why these teachers were so competitive in these friendly games with nothing to win. I couldn't have been more wrong. While in the presentation, the announcement was made for the winners and 2nd place participants to come up to the stage. As their names were called one by one, the winners and runners-up received these GIANT gift baskets with fruit, chips, cookies, office utensils, and sometimes money inside. I couldn't believe it. If I had known that we were playing for such lucrative prizes I might have pushed a little harder or rolled a little more accurate. As we sitting down one of the teacher's who at this point had three 1-meter high baskets looked back and winked. All I could do was laugh. At the end of the presentations, I walked back to my office to find my own 1-meter high basket along with a slew of other goodies that students had bought or made for me. THANK YOU SMAASZA        I tell you what though, next time I know lol
Ohh yea, how could I forget...at the ceremony one of the prizes that were being handed out were COMFORTERS!!! Can you believe that??!?!?!?! It's 98 at night and the prize.... is....a.........COMFORTER!! How?? WHY????

As the mid year date comes and soon will pass, looking back on past experiences have only brought about two thoughts: 1. Where did the first 5 months go? and 2. Looking forward to the next 5! I look at my progression as a person here in Malaysia and I can honestly say that my perspective on life has not changed. I still look at people with an open mind. I still approach most situations with an inquisitive platform. I hope that these qualities continue to make me a better person. Each day, something new, but with that a new level of understanding of life and not only how I fit into that puzzle but how can I improve on it. THANK YOU GOD

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Where did the first 5 go??

May 18, 2011

As we returned back to Terengganu last Saturday from our weekend in KL, it hit me that we are halfway through this trip. HALFWAY!?!?!?!! Whoa whoa whoa....that can't be right. I mean we got here January 2 and today is May 18; one, two, three, four months and some change have passed. We have been in Malaysia for 5 months already! This can't be real! Where did the time go As we near our 2 week midterm break, I think about the experiences that have led me to where I am now in my stay here. When I first arrived, I was introduced to Bahasa Malaysia in a quick 2 week course and then "thrown into the fire". We were unsure of our living arrangements and all had questions concerning Internet and phones. How would we get around? What if someone had fell ill and needed medical attention? What were going to be our biggest obstacles here in a new place? These were just some of the questions that we all had and discussed amongst each other. It seems that

Ahhhhh ok, let's see. The last time I wrote on the blog, I had discussed how Taman Negara at one point seemed like a scene from Jumanji(i'll probably show that for my next movie night). Well the last couple of weeks also proved to not disappoint. I have had a couple activities at school and was able to travel to Singapore and KL. As a part of my English Extravaganza Week #1 prize for the second place participant, I promised that I would have a BBQ Malaysian style.  Initially, when I said a BBQ I thought of the traditional BBQ where we cook some hot dogs, hamburgers, maybe some corn, and chips. Little did I know that this was not going to be the case. Now because I live in a Muslim state here there is no pork which means chicken hot dogs. Chicken hot dogs aren't bad but I was salivating for at least a beef hot dog. There is beef to make hamburgers BUT its not ground beef. Its minced meat which makes it soooooooo difficult for it to stick together. I tried everything to make them stick including adding a egg to the mix. Did....not....work...wait wait wait...I'm jumping the gun. FIRST, I decided to take the kids to Kuala Ibai, a local beach area with trees for shade.Once we arrived, we had to get the fire started. One of the groups that I took had members from the Bomba uniform body or fire brigade. You would think these guys could get a fire started with the materials we had. I think paint takes longer to dry lol. I let them continue to try until one of the students said "I'll get some gasoline!" Two things came to mine: Why can't they start a fire as members of the fire uniform body and was he serious about using gasoline to start the fire? Before this experiment turned into a scene from Die Hard I decided to step in and try. We got it working together after a while and had the meet cooking. As we were cooking I couldn't help but notice the different roles the kids were playing. The boys were all cooking the food and the girls were preparing the plates and buns. I stopped everybody and switched roles. I made the girls cook the hot dogs and the boys had to get the condiments and plates ready. You could tell the boys were not subjected to these tasks because many of them were making a mess. Interesting. We had a great rest of the afternoon playing games and eating.

 That week I also participated in a speech choir contest. My school and I traveled to Dungun to SMK Kuala Abang where Olivia is a ETA. There were about 8 other schools in competition. I was so surprised that students sang and talked in English on certain subjects. The teachers who accompanied the students were even more surprised that this did not happen in America. I told them that I had no account of this happening and wasn't sure where they came up with this idea. They told me they modeled it from the U.S. Guess you learn something new everyday.

As a part of my in-class activities I decided to show the students American commercials then instructed them to create their own. I THOUGHT I was very clear when I stated the criteria for this project including: groups of 3-5, everybody in the group must talk, must clearly indicate a theme or market a product, no more than 2 mins, and the most important, BE CREATIVE!! Now out of my 16 classes and about 50 groups only 8 of the groups were ready to present on the designated day. When I confronted the students about them not doing the task assigned the overwhelming response was "Sir, I did not understand the project" or "Sir, we were very busy with our extra classes(classes held after regular school hours and weekends) and didn't have time to prepare". I gave the student's two weeks two prepare a less than 2 minute skit and these were their excuses. At first, I told them this was not an excuse because they had ample time to complete this project. I was disappointed in them. Not so much for them not doing it but for the fact that I asked the classes numerous times "What questions do you have?" and "If you have any questions please come talk to me." This was suppose to be a fun activity. After hearing their reasons, I decided that I was going to tackle this a different way . I sat each class down separately and explained to them that I can't read their minds and that they need to talk to me to let me know things. I would have even been inclined to dismiss the project or postpone it to a later date if they had come and talked to me beforehand. "Communication is the key guys, we have to communicate with each other. Now I understand that you all are very busy but if you feel like it's too much TELL ME. I would rather you come and say "Sir, we have a lot going on at this time,may we not do it or do it at a later time?", than to show up unprepared." I explained that I wasn't mad at them just disappointed that they didn't tell me in advance. I could see that this really hit home because after I left the classes, groups of students came by my office and brought candy, cookies, cards, and small gifts to make up for them not being prepared. It was the sweetest thing as many students came and told me that they would start speaking up in class if they did not understand and that they would not do it again. NOW, this is very important because not only may this have been poor communication on their part but it very well could have been even poorer communication on my part. Many times in class, I find myself repeating myself and talking very slow so that the students will understand. Maybe I was talking to fast or just rambling and they didn't understand what had been said. I went back to the classes and apologized to them for my "lack of communication" and they all at once would say "ohhh no no no no sir, it's our fault. We won't do it again." We all laughed and smiled and promised to communicate more efficiently and frequently. Since that day there has definitely been a change for the positive in their communication in class and probably mine also. Improvement comes from learning and amending. We just got better!

Traveling is a wonderful thing...BUT....when you are stuck on a bus for over 12 hours because the bus driver takes leisure stops every couple of hours there's nothing else that you want to think about except getting off. The last weekend in April I traveled to Singapore. Ok, imagine all the futuristic movies that you've ever seen that take place in a city. The first one that comes to mind is Demolition Man(I know not the happy-go-lucky movie but...). Cars that fly, seashells in the bathroom(toilet paper), virtual reality platforms...all things that come to mind when I think of Singapore. Well it wasn't that futuristic(not yet anyway) but the city was not far from it. It definitely is a city of the future. Singapore has one of the best economies in the world and that is evident through all walks of life there. The city is blossoming with skyscrapers, innovative new designs, and state of the art technological advances. My favorite part of the trip actually happened by mistake on my part. I had a couple in the airport earlier in March and they told me that they lived in Singapore. We swapped contact information and I told them that I was coming to visit Singapore soon and would inform them. Once I arrived, we set up a lunch for myself, them and the other ETAs who had come on the trip. Well once we got to the "meet-up" location, we found out that the location was actually two stops back on the train. Crunched for time we decided that we should just stay where we were and eat lunch there. I would miss seeing him that time. This turned out to be the best decision of the whole trip. The area was called Marina and it hosted the Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort and the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Gallery. First, we ate lunch in the gallery mall where there was a river running though it where they had small boats that would pick you up at various stops and take you around to other stores. Secondly, they had a food court that overlooked a ice  skating rink inside the mall. Thirdly, the building was constructed to look like a giant rippling wave so the architecture was one-of-a-kind. Leading out of the gallery mall was a "double helix" bridge that spiraled and wound about a 100m. Once out on the bridge and looking up to your left, you were struck by the Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort. A SHIP ON TOP OF A BUILDING!! 197m tall, 2,561 rooms(57 floors),  340m long sky deck, the world's largest public cantilevered platform, 2 theatres, 2 floating pavilions, AND(if the construction bill was not high enough) a 150m infinity swimming pool that overlooks Singapore. When the elevator opened up its doors and that breeze from being that high up hit your face, your hear starts racing. IT...WAS...BEAUTIFUL!!! ohhh man let's not even talk about how it looks at night with it illuminating all of Singapore. The top of this grand hotel offered nothing but scenic and majestic views .THANK YOU GOD

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