Memo To Self

An umbrella sitting on a shelf in your apartment serves no useful function!

I still am not able to open a bank account because I am still waiting for my visa to be finalized. Because I have bills to pay, today I went downtown to MACEE to pick up a check that I could cash (rather than deposit). On the way from MACEE to the bank I met up with an Aussie surf bum who lives in Java. He had a map that helped me to find the bank. Thanks Mate!

Maybe I am starting to be accepted here. I pass through the lobby of my apartment complex many times a day. Usually there is a very serious (I thought) Malay lady sitting in the reception area and a cleaning lady working on the floors or window. Beause I pass by so often we are now on a "wave and smile" level of familiarity. Today while I was waiting for the elevator the receptionist lady goosed the cleaning woman with the antennae of her walkie talkie while the cleaning woman was bent over cleaning the window. We all cracked up and I still haven't been able to pass through the lobby without all three of us catching the giggles.

Maybe I am starting to be accepted here part 2. Tonight at dinner for the first time since I have been here they didn't bring the white guy a fork to eat with. Eating my soup with chopsticks was kind of difficult!

Figuring Out How Stuff Works

Things are done differently in diffferent places, so an important aspect of feeling comfortable in a new environment is "figuring out how stuff works". I am slowly making progress.

In places like banks and the phone company, you don't wait in line or form a "queue" (now is that a strange looking word or what!). Instead, you take a number, take a seat, and wait for your turn. There are "now serving # ..." signs so you know how you are progressing. Eventually, a very lovely female Asian voice with a British accent comes on the lound speaker and says "number three zero zero three to counter number five" and you are in business. It is not always clear to me how to pick up the ticket (sometimes you push a button on a machine othertimes you receive the ticket from a receptionisty). Luckily, I have found if you stand around looking "foreign and confused" then someone will come along to help. Luckily, I have that expression down, so I should be good to go.

Unrelated Aside- When the people in shops or the bank figure out that I am an American they often tell me to "have a nice day" at the end of our transation (it is finally nice to see a worthwhile American export). Although I appreciate them being friendly, this is one Texan who will not be outpolited, so I have become the biggest "have a nice day" saying fool you have ever met!

HAVE A NICE DAY!!

Some Interesting Things That I Have Seen

I have tried to post a lot of photos because that seems to be the best way to give you some idea of what things are like over here. There are some things that I have seen, that I wish I had taken pictures of, but I don't like to be intrusive, or get beat up, so I didn't.

Workout Clothes

Everyone knows that selling cute clothes for women to work out in (or at least to look good at the gym) is a multi-jillion dollar industry back in the US. There is not as much spandex in the workout clothes that I have seen over here.

I will try to talk a lot more about clothes that people wear later after I learn something more about it. Many of the Malay women (who are Muslims, by definition) wear a traditional head scarf. Today as I was walking around the park trying (in vain) to cool down after working out, I notice that many Malay girls were jogging in long sweat pants, long sleeve shirts, and headscarfs. They must have been melting! (although they probably get a better workout than some of the spandex queens prancing around the Tech Rec Center).

The traditional outfits of Malay women are much different from the burkas(burqas)worn by some women from the Middle East which are typcially black and cover everything except for the eyes. I have seen a number of women wearing burkas in KL, because there are a lot of tourists from the Middle East that visit Malaysia. I saw many more women wearing burkas when I was staying down in Bukit Bintang than I do in PJ or on campus, because Bukit Bintang is where a lot of the high end malls are.

As I came out of the gym the other day, I noticed a woman in a burka waiting in the lounge outside the gym. I went and cooled off by the pool for a while, and when I passed through again this woman was running on the treadmill. Her burka was white and she was wearing running shoes. She was really tearing it up on the treadmill. It must have been her workout burka!!

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

I saw my first Malaysian guy (a Malay I think) with a "Mullet" haircut last night. You could tell that he was so pround of his hair (and unbelieveably, so was his girlfriend). I can tell you that the mullet is one fashion statement that is equally effective anywhere in the world. I don't know if Americans invented the mullet, but if we did then it is another of exports from the US of A that we can be proud of.

Sunday Evening- I just saw my second mullet on a guy fishing in the lake in the park across the street. One is an aberation, two is a trend, will three mean a movement?!?

Ten Reasons I'm Missing My Nieces While I'm Gone!

I received a Facebook message from an niece who will remain unamed (Alicia) and she wondered if my next post was going to be "Ten Reasons I'm Missing My Neices While I'm Gone"? Becasuse I want to give the people what they want, here it is.

Top Ten Reasons I'm Missing My Nieces Hillary and Alicia While I'm Gone

#1. They are amazingly attractive, intelligent, and charming (which is not surprising considering they share 1/4 of my genes- for all of you 1404 exes out there, r = 0.25)

#2. I can't come up with any more, so I guess that I will have to quit.

Aside #1- wouldn't it be great if someone could send me some adorably embarassing pictures of H&A from when they were younger so that I can post them here (there is no way that any of their thousands of Facebook photos are suitable for national and international viewing!!)

Aside #2- You would think that good nieces would want to visit their uncle while he was gone istead of going to South Africa, Cabo, etc. I guess that sometimes you find out who your real friends are!!

To Campus and Back

The day before yesterday I took the camera along on my trip to the UM campus. Generally, I walk both ways, but that day I walked in and rode the LRT back so I essentially did a big loop across campus.

Yesterday I had to meet with people regarding my visa application so I thought it would be best if I was presentable and not a sweaty mess. I took a cab in: 10 minutes and less than two bucks. It is nice to know that I have the lazy man's option when I need it. They are doing construction on the office next to mine and yesterday they cut power to the lights and AC. I think I will work from home today.

Here's what it looks like.

Crossing the Federal Expressway, the main north-south freeway through the Malaysian Penninsula.


The suburbs.


UM Medical School and Hospital in the background.


PJ Entrance to UM


Campus view.


The building where my office is.


You don't see this on the Tech campus!


I don't know if the mosque is technically on campus or just adjacent to campus.


Universiti Station


Looking down LRT line and Federal Expressway from Universti Station. The archway represents the border between KL and PJ

Tigga's Last Day and Central Market

Tigga's Last Day and Central Market

Tigga, my friend and colleague from Tech, has just finished up a couple of months of field work on bats at Krau Wildlife Reserve, in Pahang. She is headed back to Lubbock this afternoon. She just bought a new house in Lubbock, so we spent yesterday afternoon shopping at KL Central Market. The Central Market has a bit of everything ranging the cheapest of cheap plastic junk to beautiful and unique artifacts. You could blow a lot of cash there (and Tigga did- I won't post the photo of the Malaysian chest that she had shipped back to Lubbock because I don't want to ruin the surprise for Danny).

After shopping and showing Tigga around my new place, we went up to Titiwangsa and met up with Tigga's field manager, and his wife Leena. I got to know Zam when I visitied last year so it was nice to see him again. Leena is a second grade teacher and today is her first day of the new school year. I hope she gets off to a good start.

We at at the Hokaido Seafood Restaraunt which is a little creepy for me because they have lots of aquaria with fish and inverts swimming around. You are supposed to pick what you want to eat and then they will prepare it. As a diver, I have a hard time doing that to my underwater friends, so I had pineapple chicken instead.


Leena, Zam, and Tigga outside of Hokaido's Restaraunt.

So What Did I Buy at the Market?


This mask (I call him "Asian Santa") carved out of bamboo comes from Borneo.


Nothing but "museum quality" pieces for me.

Stroll Around PJ

I am still exploring my surround area. Here are some photos of Petaling Jaya taken from within a 10 minute walk of the apartment. This area seems to be a mix of middle class suburbia, tall business buildings, and local shops.


The basement of this parking garage is full of food stalls. I haven't been brave enough to try it yet.






The "Bollywood" Movie Theater










They are everywhere and they are always open!!!

GAME 7

While the rest of the world is distracted with soccer, there is one more game before the Lakers become NBA Champs. I will have to figure out some way to watch it live (it will be early tomorrow morning my time). I can't believe that I might miss a Laker-Celtics game 7!

Go Lakers!!!

Seminar on Results of Expedition to Gunung Benom

Gunung Benom, the tenth tallest mountain in Malaysia, lies within the Krau Wildlife Reserve, the part of Malaysia where I spent some time last year when I visited Tigga Kingston and her crew that were studying rainforest bats. Because the highlands were a relatively unexplored portion of the reserve, last November the Malaysian Academy of Sciences sponsored an expedition to explore the biological diversity in that region. Today and tomorrow the Academy of Science is sponsoring a public seminar to discuss the results of the expedition.

Juliana Sewani, a Malaysian student who is working on her Ph.D. at Tech, has studied bats at Krau for a number of years so she was invited to give a talk about the Bats of Krau. Because Julie is a Lecturer at the National University of Malaysia (UKM), one of the major research universities in Malaysia, she invited me to come hear her talk so that she could introduce me to some of her colleagues at UKM.

The seminar was held in the Putrajaya Marriott Hotel (pretty posh!) so I had to take two trains and a cab to get there (it took about an hour). I enjoyed seeing how a Malaysian scientific meeting works and I learned some things about some of the amazing critters that are found in the rainforest. In addition to learning more about bats, I saw talks on giant worms (they grow up to 86 cm, the size of snakes!!!), beetles, bugs, other insects, and large mammals.


Commuter train arrives in the station.


Julie intoduced me to several of her colleagues so I feel like I made a good start on my Fulbright Project today. Thanks Julie!



From left to right- Juliana Sewani (TTU and UKM), Nor Azlin Mohd Fauzi (Forest Research Institute Malaysia), Dr. Norhayati Ahmad (Associate Professor, UKM), Dr. Che Aziz Ali (Professor UKM)

From the - You Can't Really Get Too Far From Home Department. As I was waiting for the seminar to start up again after lunch the people working at the Marriott kept trying to direct me to the meeting that was taking place in the adjacent conference room.



Have I ended up back in Lubbock!?! I had to tell them "back off man, I'm a scientist".

Mangosteens

When I was here in March 2009 I was able to try some of the fruits that we were able to buy at the night market in Kuala Krau. My favorite of them all was the mongosteen, known as the "queen of fruit". The fruit is a dark purple color that is between a golf ball and a pool ball in size. When you cut them open the fruit is coated by a thick inedible layer, but inside lies the pulpy white part that is really tasty (I can't describe tastes, so I will just stick with "yummy"). The edible part is technically known as an "aril" which is a tasty piece of food that plants attach to their seeds to get the seeds dispersed (I can't find out who originally was supposed to disperse these seeds).

I saw mangosteens at street stalls in Bukit Bintang, but because I really didn't have anywhere to store them I didn't try any. Today I saw them at the grocery store so I bought some. There were a bunch of fruit flies fluttering around the mangosteen pile in the store so I hope I didn't bring any little science experiments home with me.

To learn more than you have ever wanted to know about mangosteens you can check out wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Mangosteen

Almost my First Meltdown

My apartment came furnished, but lacked the personal items (sheets, towells, plates, silverware, etc). Luckily, I live in a mall, so my agent showed the stores where I would need to look to find what I needed. I was able to find most of what I neeed, with the exception of sheets and a pillow. After searching through every nook and cranny of all 200 stores, I found a sheet set at one of the little stands (still no pillow) so it looked like the problem was solved (although the rose pattern on the sheets really didn't go with my decorating plan). The girl working in the stand was trying to explain to me what came in the package of sheets, but I didn't play very much attention because everyone knows what comes with a set of sheets (a fitted sheet, a top sheet, and two pillow cases).


(As an Aside- Internet Radio is the best. I am sitting here listening to "Green Grass and High Tides" by the Outlaws on Radioio. Sophomore year at UCSB all over again! Still the best guitar ever put on vinyl!!)

When I got up to my room I was pleased when the "fitted sheet" actually fit, but was surprised to discover two pillow cases and no top sheet. I ran back downstairs and told her I was missing my sheet and she told me that it was only a three piece set and she had no other sheets. By this time I had exceeded my shopping quota for the month and I I walked away wondering "how and I going to sleep without a sheet?" I thought "you can get a damn sheet and any ****ing Walmart in America!!!". Clearly, the fact that I was missing Walmart meant that it was time for Mark to take a time out.

I learned two valuable lessons. First, I came over to get experiences in how other people live. In my land of AC, of course you need a top sheet because it gets too cold at night. Here where most people probably don't have AC maybe they don't use a sheet while sleeping (Obviously, asking the shy Muslim-Malay girls working in the shops what types of sheets they use is probably a really bad idea, so I guess I will never know). Amazingly, I have slept great two nights without a sheet. Second, I have learned because of language difficulties and culture differences I needed to pay special attention to listen to what people are really saying and not what I think that they should be saying. Just because we are both using "English" words doesn't mean that we are communicating. I hope I remember this when I start teaching.

Happy Ending- I have found a pillow and virtually everything else that I need (still missing that sheet!) so all is good.

World Cup

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It is a little confusing to me that no one else around here seems to be at all interested in the NBA Finals. Instead, there is something called the World Cup going on and that apparently has captured everyones' attention. Even though Malaysia does not have a team in the World Cup (they did win the gold medal in soccer in the South East Asian games last year), this place seems to be mad about football.

The US plays their first game against England tonight (at 2:30 AM KL time- I doubt if I will stay up). There is a lot of talk by the English in the local paper about wanting to get revenge for the time that USA beat them in the 1950s World Cup. You might think that they would be more ticked off by what happened in 1776.

Good luck USA!!!

Posted the Next Day- USA 1 England 1

Maybe a tie is like kissing your sister, but when somone offers you a gift it is rude not to take it.

Slightly Culturally Insenitive Remark of the Day- If the English goalie had grown up playing real football then he would know how to catch a ball and his team would have won.

New Apartment in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya

UM is located on the border between KL and Petaling Jaya (PJ), so to be close to school I will live just on the PJ side of the boundary line. I have made just a couple of trips into local neighborhoods and so far it looks like typical suburbia. I still have a lot of exploring to do.

Amcorp Mall

Anyone that knows me very well knows how much I love the mall! At the South Plains Mall in Lubbock, when I absolutely have to go the the mall I always park in the same spot so I don't get lost (outside of JC Penny's) and then I run in and try to get out as quickly as I can. Who would have thought that I would end up living in the mall? Now my immediate neighborhood is a 5 story, air conditioned area with over 200 stores and tons of places to eat. I think that apartment complex was mostly built to provide short term housing for visitors working in the adjacent business buildings so I imagine that most people living here are probably short-termers just like me.

When I walk out of the lobby of my apartment complex and into the mall, this is the view that awaits.




The Mall Entrance


Outside Views





You can see my appartment on the 16th floor (I think there are 27 floors total).


The Neighborhood

The mall is located just across the street from the Taman Jaya train (LRT) station,


an AW Rootbeer Drive-In,


a soccer field (can you tell that it has rained a "little" here?),


and a pretty park with a lake.


View From My Apartment on the 16th Floor

Last Morning in Bukit Bintang

After discovering that the commute from down town to the university was a lot longer than I had remembered, I decided that it would be best to try to find someplace to live out in the burbs nearby UM. I have enjoyed staying in the hustle and bustle of Bukit Bintang. Last night I watched a replay of game three of Lakers-Celtics (thank you Derek Fisher) on a busy street where I could watch the world walk by during timeouts. Hopefully, this afternoon I will be moving into my new apartment so here are some photos that I took this morning. It is hard to take photos that really show what it is really like down here so these are the best I've got.



The Dorsett Regency Hotel, my first home in Malaysia (see the Petronas Towers, former tallest building in the world, now third, peeking out in the background?)









Monorail leaving the station.










Breakfast Time