Week 2 teaching english, and a long weekend!

---

Week 2 was a little easier than Week 1. I was a bit more used to my surroundings, was over my cold, and was bitten a lot less by mozzies! It is still hard to get used to the atmosphere here - I guess it is like any institution would have been in the UK 30 or 40 years ago, ie quite formal, not that much warmth, and what with being locked in at night it feels slightly prison-like!

Anyway, last week I was teaching 2 hours each morning with the Culinary & Baking class - they are coming out of themselves and getting more confident every day at talking to me/ writing ideas on the board etc, which is really nice. I was also teaching 2 hours in the afternoon with the Sewing & Tailoring class, who are a bit shy still and have slightly less English, so it is a bit more hard work at the moment! I have also started trying to play games in the evening, it only really took off on Tuesday night though, and mostly because there were a dozen girls who came because they have been told it is compulsory for them to attend in order to "improve themselves"!

On Tuesday I also found out there was a long weekend holiday, so no teaching on Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun. It seems the girls only found out then too! So on Thursday/Friday I did some more tourist stuff around KL - went round the lake gardens including the butterfly park, the orchid park, the deer park, the sculpture park and the national monument. I also went for a brief walk through the city park - although I was scared of all the little monkeys playing near my feet and jumping onto branches next to my head!! Then I went to the cinema in the evening which was cool.

I had to stay here in KL on Thu/Fri, because a new volunteer was arriving late afternoon on Friday and I didn't want her to arrive without any introduction to the place and to her room-mate! She is Jacqui, a 30-year-old primary school teacher from Australia, and she is really nice. She has loads of creative ideas for the teaching (she also did TEFL in a much harder environment in India for 3 months last summer), which makes me feel a bit useless but it will be a real help! It is just so good to have company now too!!

We got caught in a massive storm on Friday night, and were drenched - everyone in the restaurant laughed at us when we walked in but what can you do! Then on Sat/Sun we went to the Cameron Highlands, which was an uncomfortable 4 hours by bus around some long winding roads up into the hills. Beautiful views though, and the climate is cooler, more like the UK (complete with rain!). We went and had foot reflexology and a massage - I was so impressed with what they could tell about the rest of my body through my feet!! We had a nice dinner and as were were the last diners to finish the 14-year-old boy running the restaurant for the evening decided to come and practice his riddles and card tricks on us to end the night, it was hilarious. On Sunday we went on a half-day trip to the highest point in CH, round a tea plantation etc.

Back to work today (Monday).

Hope everyone is enjoying the long Easter weekend at home. Bye for now....

---