Handing Over Ceremony and Apts

1/27/11

LAST DAY of orientation!! It does not seem like it has been almost a month in Malaysia. THANK YOU God for all my opportunities! I thank you for allowing me to continue to wake up every morning and do this. I thank you for the people that I have met since embarking on this trip. I thank you for my family and friends. I thank you for everyone who has made this possible. I thank you for MACEE, the Terengganu State Govt. and all its officers and employees who continue to work hard EVERY day for our group and for the success of this program!

After our orientation meeting, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Most of us tried to book these elaborate vacation packages to surrounding areas.  Some of these deals are amazing: Korea, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, and Australia. Sooooooooo I think I want to go to all of them.

That night the director at MACEE, Dr. Jim Coffman, arrived into town for our Handing-Over Ceremony the next day.  He treated us out to dinner and dessert at two very nice restaurants.  When we arrived back to the hotel, I think it hit everyone that it was our last night together and it was a very mellow mood. Goodnight

1/28/10

The DAY has arrived!!! What a beautiful spectical of outfits!! There were all sorts of traditional dressed individuals. The wide variety of colors were beautiful and stood out amongst one another.  I was happy to be there as it was a long time coming. This was the culmination of our orientation and we were now "given" to your schools to start our journey. The ceremony went smooth and we we all saw each other off until the next time we got together.

After the ceremony, my mentors drove me to my school and I arrived at the school at the tail end of there break. Now because it was Thursday it is customary for the males to wear Batik's. All the males wore a burgundy batik with a blue design on the side. BEAUTIFUL. The Form 6(Pre-university) students wore Sea blue Batik's and Baju Kurung's(traditional malay women's dress). The school is huge and beautiful. Many of the classrooms's offer a view of the beach that is less than a minute in walking distance from the school. This could be a problem due to my beach affinity.I met much of the staff and a lot of the students who warmly and welcomed me to the school. I am the first male ETA here so I was told that they were expecting big things from me and that they were happy to have me and for me to be the first. 

We received a call informing us that the apt was ready and that we could finally move in. Upon arrival, a brigade of mentors, officials, and other "friends" were in attendance to watch us make that move into our place.  FIRST IMPRESSION: this is going to be a work in progress but one that I welcome and could be fun. There were minor things that needed to be addressed but manageable....UNTIL I started cleaning the bathroom and one of the shower faucets sprung a MAJOR leak. I mean I looked for wood to build an ark. While the water continued to flow, we decided to go the the supermarkets to kick off our Home Makeover: KT edition. We ate in the supermarket, spent the rest of the night cleaning the apt and organizing our rooms and went to sleep.