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Published: September 8th 2008
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Appetizer
Guava, Mango, Cucumber, and another untranslatable fruit/veggie with a unique spicy/sesame sauce to dip in. Well, it’s my last week in Malaysia! Just 5 days left actually, the time has just flown by….I’m excited for school, but I’m actually a bit sad that my time in Malaysia is over; I’ve been enjoying life here.
Cole and I have been befriended by a lovely, lovely Malaysian family. We met Z (as I’ll call him), Stanford alum at a Stanford alum event, and turns out he lives near us. He invited us over to his house for dinner a while ago, and we immediately connected with his family! I have no idea why, but I was immediately comfortable there and I started kidding around w the daughters, tickling them and just playing around…. I’m gonna miss them when I leave. They are so sweet, always driving over to pick us up, giving us homemade food, etc.
He has four adorable children and I finally have learned their very difficult names! They speak excellent English, although the youngest, about 3, is still working on it. Z’s mother lives with them (again, totally typical) and they have a maid who does the cooking/cleaning, etc. Z is half Chinese by ethnicity, and his wife is Malay. Z’s family is
Oldest and youngest
and yummy malaysian food in front! Muslim and I really appreciated the opportunity to ask some questions about the religion that I haven’t yet had the chance to do so.
Last Friday night, we all went bowling! I think the second game, I got the lowest score of EVERYONE, including the youngest daughter! (Though I must clarify that Malaysia has three sports it is well known for: Badminton, Squash, and Bowling) The youngest daughter has been a little skeptical of me, and finally I figured out it’s cause she only understands my English if I speak slowly to her. By the middle of bowling she was holding my hand, and trying to talk to me in eng. After bowling we played Foosball for a bit - cole and I could NOT play at all, it was almost comical. They were quite good. And THEN, it was time for a late night movie - 11:30 pm…I couldn’t believe they let their kids stay up that late - it was past my bedtime, that’s for sure!
They are fasting now as Ramadan is a week in already, I hope to see them one more time before I leave - perhaps breaking fast together.
Why call
Our house gift
The basket is made of used magazine from disadvantaged women. him Z? Well, I’m paranoid now. You try to cover your tracks on the internet, which is why I don’t use my last name/email on this blog and write stuff about all the people I go to school with - yet sometimes it catches up to you! I have to be careful what I write on my blog, what I post on facebook, etc. One day I posted that I was excited to have dinner at a native Malaysian’s house. (Z and his family, not on facebook). Then, Z invites a friend of his/ex co-worker to go bowling with us, who COINCIDENTALLY, works in the same office as us! (we have donated office space from a company). She commented to Z that they must be the “native” family I mentioned on facebook, and oops - faux pas - apparently “natives” means something else, and he asked the woman to tell me to change it to “locals” (I think natives would be like if I called an Australian person and aborigine or something). My, the internet is dangerous! And it’s a small world out there.
All generations living in one household has come up so many times here, and it’s
The girl domino
Oldest to youngest fascinating that some of the people don’t get why it’s not like that in the US. I was discussing this at dinner one day with Gab, my Thai friend, who lives in a house/apt with her whole family, plus uncle and his family upstairs, etc. and she asked “why” - to which I didn’t really know the answer. Why not? Cole hypothesizes that it goes back to the farming days when younger ppl needed to spread out for land, but I don’t think I buy that because they obviously also farmed here. I’m not sure what the main causes for the differences are, but it’s something interesting to think about.
Back to work now, that’s all from me. Oh, I tried to post a video for the first time - let me know if it works :- )
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Mom
non-member comment
How fun is that!! To enjoy a meal with locals and learn about all their culture! I'm jealous! See you soon!! Stay safe!! Love, Mom