Andrea Hugs the World

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

I’ve been home a little less than 2 months.  I’m constantly shocked by how different and similar life in Atlanta is compared to Terengganu. How can both of these places exist in the same world? And yet, it’s a small world after all. Mostly since I’ve been home, I’ve started to notice the subtle ways that the past year has changed me.

First of all, my family finds my eating habits rather odd. When I first got to Malaysia, I was shocked that people ate rice, fish, and curry for breakfast. Meanwhile, my students couldn’t understand why American breakfast foods were different from other meal-time foods. About half-way through the program, I began to understand their point. Why eat oatmeal for breakfast when I’m in the mood for couscous? Well, you can imagine how my mom looked at me on the first morning I was home when I heated up a left-over enchilada, beans, and rice for breakfast.

I don’t understand it, but strangers here don’t walk up to me and tell me that I’m beautiful, don’t ask for my photo, and don’t ask for my autograph. My ego has been getting a reality check since I’ve been back home. I kind of liked being a mini-celebrity.

It’s cold here. Between living in Florida for 7 years and Malaysia for a year, this mild Georgia winter is turning me into a popsicle.

My mom came into my room my first night back as I was getting ready for bed. She found me hitting the bed (essentially patting it down) and wondered what I was doing. Well I had to scare the bugs out of it before I got in. Duh! Doesn’t everyone do that? Apparently only when you live in a jungle.

It’s amazing how fast you can take a shower when you don’t do your laundry in it. Or if you’re Meredyth, when you don’t have to wash your dishes in it anymore.

Two words for you: bubble baths.

“How about Malaysia?” was a frequent question I was asked by the locals while I was in Malaysia. Try to put yourself in my shoes. How do you possibly answer that question? Do they want to know if I like it? Do they want to know what I think about it? Do they want to know what Malaysia is like compared to America? It drove me nuts when people asked me that.  But sure enough, now that I’m home, it’s the Americans that are asking me “So, how about Malaysia?” (Though with slightly better grammar…sometimes.) If you want to know about my experience in Malaysia, please have some specific questions to ask. Please.

My whole view of beauty changed while abroad. I could talk about this in a lot of depth, and will, at some point.  But for now, I can tell you that seeing girls make their skin orange, hobble around in platform pumps (seriously? I think people would see heels a lot differently if they did some research into their history), and poke and prod their bodies until they look airbrushed seems ridiculous to someone “re-entering” this culture.

To completely contradict my previous point, I bought the cutest pair of Jessica Simpson pumps in a beautiful coral color. They’re the first pair of shoes I’ve bought since I’ve been home and every time I look them, I feel like I’m getting a hug.

I’m a lot more comfortable and feel much more empowered discussing Islam, my religious beliefs, and world politics. I brought home a tudong (what many women in Malaysia use to cover their hair) for family and friends to see and to try on.  A lot of people seem hesitant or unsure of how to enter those conversations. I was. But I had to have these conversations this past year.  I only have a sliver of insight into how one particular society seems to interpret and practice Islam (and of course, individuals differed). Nevertheless, I’m very proud of myself for having gained a little more knowledge and understanding. It turns out that it is okay to talk about politics and religion with one HUGE caveat—actively LISTEN.

One of the things I ended up loving most about living in Malaysia were the calls to prayer 5 times a day.  I kind of miss them. To understand their beauty, I encourage you to do whatever it is that you do—pray, meditate, send positive energy, quietly reflect—try to focus on this 5 times a day (about 10 minutes each time) for a week. I bet you’ll feel a lot better, less stressed, and more focused on your life’s mission and values if you do.

I’ve got this! Malaysia threw me curveball after curveball.  I lived in a fishing village, where the population was 96% Muslim, about as far away from home as I possibly could have gone. I traveled throughout SE Asia haggling at various markets, being ripped off in tuk-tuk rides, and having my butt pinched by a stranger as I slept on an overnight train in Vietnam. I’ve squatted in my fair share of toilets and killed flying cock roaches (well I watched Anna do it). I traveled to Kolkata solo (this may not seem like a big deal, but I guarantee you getting on that plane was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my life).  So now, not to say that I think I’m invincible, but no sweat. I’ve got this.

First-world problems. Get over it. I’m not trying to say that our day to day problems aren’t important, but many people I’ve had conversations with since I’ve been home don’t put their problems into perspective. It’s that whole thing that grandparents and parents told us when we were little and left our vegetables on our dinner plates. “You better finish that broccoli, there are starving kids in this world.” Guess what? There really are starving kids. There’s also a lot of people who don’t have the opportunity to be educated, who don’t have adequate access to healthcare, who don’t have the right to vote, who are sold into modern day slavery, who are punished for being raped, who are told that based on their gender their opinion isn’t important, and who would do anything for a book. Get the point? And yes, a lot of these people live in the same city as you. My advice: get involved.  This doesn’t mean you have to move to Malaysia for a year, but follow an issue that’s important to you in the news (and from multiple news sources), read some books about it, participate in local volunteer opportunities, talk to your friends about it. We’re smart, let’s start using our brains and energy to put into important issues instead of hashing out celebrity relationships (unless it’s William and Kate because they’re my favorite).

I’m very grateful for things that I took for granted before.  A clean grocery store! Wal-Mart, by the way, is not as trashy as I remembered it. Our roads are amazing. Our drivers are actually good and the fact that it’s pretty much normal to wear seatbelts here is incredible. And we should all be grateful that cops actually pay attention to enforcing road rules. If you don’t believe me, try visiting Hanoi or Delhi. Did you ever realize what a priveledge it is to recycle? I can go to a doctor and have the right medicine prescribed. Who knew that I would appreciate the rinse cycle on a washing machine so much? My internet doesn’t disappear whenever the wind blows. I can buy a can of black beans just about anywhere. I can buy Tylenol and cold medicine over the counter. And guess what!?! I can turn on my kitchen sink, fill up a glass of water, and drink it without boiling it first! Life is good.

Life is also missing its tropical islands, enthusiastic students, supportive teachers, friendly locals, exotic (though sometimes stomach churning) foods, and once in a lifetime friendships. I miss Malaysia. I miss the people there the most. A very difficult part of traveling (and really immersing yourself in a different location) is that you never really feel complete in any one location. A part of me will always feel like Atlanta is my home. But Rollins is my home too. And now, so is Malaysia. It’s nice to have so many homes across the world. But it also means that I’m constantly homesick.

Malaysia changed me. I hope that I helped my students think about the world a little differently too. This is one of my favorite quotes from Senator Fulbright:

The Fulbright Program aims to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs, and thereby to increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.

Part of me wants to say that I accomplished this goal on a personal-level this past year.  But the truth is, it was only the beginning.

By the way, this blog isn’t going away. Adventures and Hugs await!

I’ve just finished a week-long stay in Kolkata. It was my first introduction to India and appropriately a very chaotic one. I don’t know if my sister remembers this, but when we were in our tweens we would sometimes play pranks on each other. When one of our friends called the house asking for the other one we would say “I’m so sorry, she’s moved to Kolkata.” We also used to say this to telemarketers. So I guess it was in my destiny to eventually go to Kolkata.

The first few days there I was overwhelmed with being in India by myself. I was also severely sleep deprived after leaving Malaysia. So I treated myself to a real hotel room and essentially slept for the first day and a half.  The first night in my hotel I ordered room service and literally fell asleep while I was eating. I guess I needed some sleep.

After my brief hotel stunt I ventured out to see Kolkata (which included finding a new place to stay).  I went to Kolkata primarily to volunteer at Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.  One of the best parts was meeting other volunteers from all over the world. I quickly became friends with people from Australia, Sweden, Japan, Macau, and England. One of the nuns told us that Mother Teresa was everyone’s mother; they even used to get Communist volunteers who called her “mother.”  I was surprised by how many travelers were alone—all facing the same fears of navigating Kolkata solo. Even though we were traveling by ourselves we quickly adapted a policy of looking after each other, which was very much appreciated.

The Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata has many different “homes” to meet the needs of their varying patients. During registration they said they needed the most help in a home called Shanti Dan, so that is where I volunteered. It’s a home for girls (ages 8 to 25) who suffer from various mental and physical disabilities. The girls at this home tend to be more capable than at the other homes, so sometimes they helped with chores.

My days in Kolkata started at 6:30 am when I walked about 20 minutes to Mother House. Along the way I felt like I was walking through an exotic movie set. Everything was so interesting, new, colorful, noisy, smelly and dirty. People woke up from their beds on the side of the road, took baths in public fountains, prepped their stalls for the day, threw trash wherever, fed their cows and goats, and constantly spit. The traffic was also chaotic with various types of automobiles and animals wandering down the road. I think Kolkata is half city and half farm. After the walk all of the volunteers met in Mother House for a simple breakfast of chai and bananas. We all said a prayer together and then split into our respective groups to make our way to the different homes. Our group took a public bus (which was quit the experience) which was only about a 30 minute journey.

Once we reached Shanti Dan my first job was helping with the laundry. That’s right, the laundry—my least favorite chore. I was happy to help though. As a student when I spent time with Community Engagement, Micki Meyer (proud new mama) always used to remind us that there’s doing volunteer work to be cool and then there’s getting it done. I felt that by helping with laundry I was “getting it done.” Each center has nuns who live and work there but most of the physical work is done by volunteers and by locally hired staff called Mushi’s. The Mushi’s taught me how to do loads of laundry by hand (and foot) in these huge basins of water. Then I would help carry all of the laundry up to the roof to hang it up to dry. It was a tiring process but it was nice to finish it every day and feel like I accomplished something.

Then the fun began as I got to work with the patients. There are different groups of patients in Shanti Dan as they are divided on their capabilities. I worked mostly with the “flowers” who were busy preparing for their Christmas play. Ummm, amazing! This is the second time I’ve gotten to celebrate Christmas this year and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. I particularly helped one girl to learn her lines. I would say one word and she would repeat it, then the next. If I put two words together she would get confused, so we stuck to one word for quite some time. By the end of the week though she was able to put a few words together at a time and she even memorized a couple of key words. The girls were so much fun to be around.  It’s funny how often times the people in the world who have nothing are the ones who are the most happy. There were a lot of happy girls there.  There were also a lot of sad girls.

One of the hardest parts of the day for me was helping with feeding and getting the girls into bed to take their naps.  Feeding was difficult because many of the patients weren’t able to feed themselves so the volunteers would spoon feed them. They had huge portions of food and ate every last bit. I don’t think I ever saw a grain of rice wasted. The amazing part is that these girls were tiny. I wouldn’t have been able to eat that much, but they all managed. I guess they all learned from a very young age that you eat the food given to you. The hard part of feeding was realizing how helpless some of the patients are. These are people who have been abandoned by their families and essentially left to die. Some of the girls nearly did. There were various girls there who had been forced into prostitution, on some of the girls I could see scars around their wrists and necks from knife cuts, many were twisted in every which way, and there were some who looked like skeletons. Putting them into bed was difficult because we had to lift them and that’s when we really felt the twists in their bodies and felt how thin some of them were.

One of the greatest realizations I had while volunteering at Shanti Dan may seem very obvious to some. But as I was helping the girls with laundry, learning, eating, and getting into bed, I couldn’t help but to think of the times that my mom had been there to help me with all of those things.  Even last year when I had my wisdom teeth taken out she came to Orlando to help.  All of us who are lucky enough to have a good mother know the comfort they give us, especially when we are at our worst. It was so sad to realize that these people, who needed their mothers or family members, were abandoned.  And as I was spoon feeding the patients, I realized why they call her Mother Teresa.  I would like to think that I jumped right into the tasks at Shanti Dan without hesitation, but I did hesitate. I didn’t want to touch the soiled diapers, I was careful to let my hair get too close to theirs because of lice, I walked around the bathroom area instead of through it. But Mother Teresa didn’t.  Knowing how scared I was to be in Kolkata by myself and being so overwhelmed by almost every aspect of the city, I appreciated her work even more. It’s amazing how such a small, meager woman could create such a huge organization (and there are many throughout the world) and impact so many people. She did it all while at the same time making everyone feel her love—the love of a mother.

After my time at Shanti Dan I spent the afternoons catching up with family and reflecting on my experiences. I went to eat Indian food with the other volunteers and even tried some amazing Indian sweet cakes. I left Kolkata a few days earlier than I anticipated because I was ready for the next part of my adventure. But I’m very grateful that I went and spent some time volunteering. I know that I was able to contribute a small part to the amazing work being done to help the people in Kolkata, but like many volunteer experiences, I think it helped me more.

I’m officially a Fulbright Alumni! I can’t believe that it’s over but am excited to go home soon.

I feel the need to write a “see you later” post aboutMalaysiabut in all honesty I’m not really ready to reflect on the experience yet. It’s been a lot. I’ve made so many meaningful relationships, integrated into a Muslim, rural fishing town, and taught for the first time. There have been an equal amount of beautiful and hard moments these past 10 months. I hope to provide a more thorough reflection at some point, but I’m still processing it all.

To give you a little idea of my send-off inMalaysia, let me tell you about the airport. All of the English teachers came with me to the airport with a van full of my students. They all wanted to send me off the right way. Of course I was on a flight with 10 other ETA’s, who all came with buses of students, so you can imagine the chaos in the airport. Tears and photos everywhere. It was funny because students kept giving us gifts but we all checked our bags already, so we had to take huge amounts of carry-ons through security. The guards could see the crowds though so they weren’t about to tell us that we couldn’t take a giant stuffed teddy bear through. And I’m not going to lie, I was crying. It was especially hard saying goodbye to my mentor, Salmi, who made me feel so much at home even though I was on the other side of the world.  Saying goodbye to her felt like Dorothy saying goodbye to the Scarecrow. Sad times.

MACEE (the Fulbright people inKuala Lumpur) had a day-long debriefing for us before we all left. The most Malaysian-like part happened when the U.S. Ambassador came to talk to us and brought a small media frenzy with him. I think we made countless headlines in newspaper and on television. Most of us were wearing crummy clothes—the ones we planned to throw away at the hotel because our bags were packed with no more room—so of course we would make the news. I think every time I’ve made the news inMalaysiaI was wearing a bad outfit and having horrible hairdays. Figures. 

I was exhausted leaving Malaysia. And I was incredibly nervous about traveling to Indiaby myself after the program. Ten months of emotions had built up inside of me and with the program ending, I was starting to let go of those feelings (which is good, but also involved crying). I was run down.

I’ve made it to Kolkata though and am surviving.  I took the first two days to stay in a real hotel and did nothing but eat and sleep. I’m grateful I did because the work I’m doing now is tiring. It’s hard here, which is expected, but I’m glad I came. I’ll also be glad to go home in exactly 1 month! I’ll keep everyone posted throughout my time inIndia. Thank you all so much for being supportive to me in all of my crazy adventures.

I’ve done a lot of new and exciting things this year—I spent a day with rescued Elephants, saw the great temples of Angkor Wat, trekked through the rainforest, kayaked through Halong Bay, and made friends with students and teachers in Malaysia.  For all of these amazing things that I’ve done, there’s a lot that I have not done these past nine and a half months—things I did on almost a daily basis in America. 

Here’s a list of the things that I haven’t done since I boarded the plane for Malaysia…

• Worn high heels (gasp!)
• Worked a 40 hour week (I think I average about 25-30 hours a week)
• Worn a suite
• Got a professional haircut (my friend did cut it for me half way through the program which was very much appreciated but not quite the same as going to get it done)
• Gone to a gym
• Snuggled with Stella
• Drove to work
• Drove a car or any other type of vehicle
• Ate a microwavable meal
• Paid rent
• Used a dishwasher
• Drank water from the faucet without boiling it
• Worn a pair of jeans (I do have a pair of jean capris with me, but not actual jeans)
• Straightened or curled my hair
• Shopped at Whole Foods, Publix, Target, Ann Taylor Loft, New York and Company, or Ulta (not really surprising that I haven’t done this in Asia, but considering that’s where most of my  spending money went in the U.S. it’s pretty incredible that I haven’t been to one of these stores in so long).
• Had a Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks (What gives? They have Starbucks in many places in Asia but no Chai Tea Latte’s. Lame).
• Gone to a theme park (Unless you count the Islamic Civilization Park, which I don’t).
• Used a vacuum cleaner
• Cooked with wine (I love cooking with wine. Alcohol is not allowed in our apartment since we live at the school hostel. Overall it’s not a big deal, but let’s face it, spaghetti sauce or risotto tastes so much better with a little wine in it).

There’s also quite a long list of things that I used to do daily that I’ve really only done a couple of times since I’ve been here

• Gone to the movies (we don’t have a movie theater in my town so I’ve really only gone in Singapore and a few times in KL)
• Ironed (let’s face it, I didn’t’ really do this at home either)
• Blow dried my hair (did it the first month and then realized how silly it was)
• Watched TV (I do watch TV shows on my computer and if I’m at a hotel that has a TV sometimes I turn it on for fun. But we don’t have a working TV at our place).
• Painted my nails
• Got legit dressed up (my new definition of dressing up is when I wear something other than a Baju Kurung or sweat pants. Sometimes sweat pants seems like dress up to me depending on how many holes are in them)
• Taken baths (Thank goodness for the Dorsett Regency bathtubs or this bullet point would be under the “haven’t done” list).
• Drank alcoholic beverages (Not that I drink much at home either, but it’s a lot more likely to go out to dinner with friends in Orlando and buy a glass of wine or Margarita than it is in Malaysia)
• Gone an afternoon without taking a nap (most days I nap at least an hour every afternoon)
• Sat at a desk (I maybe sit at a desk for a total of 2-3 hours a week. When I’m not teaching I prefer to sit on this pink couch instead of at my desk. At Rollins I didn’t sit at my desk that much either, but usually I was at Jill’s, Erin’s, Jeff’s, or Holly’s desk…so that all still counts at desk time).
• Ate Mexican Food (when I’ve found Mexican food in Asia, I have eaten it like nobody’s business. But it’s hard to find and never as good. It’s my first stop when I get back to the U.S.)
• Worn earrings or really any other type of jewelry

Many of you have heard about the things that I miss from home and some are mentioned above, but most of the things on my list I really don’t miss. I actually enjoy not wearing heels, driving to work every day and I love not paying rent.  To illustrate I’ve made a drawing for you (this is what I’m using my MBA skills for).

Now if you had asked me to make a similar drawing before I left of what I thought I would miss the most, I’m sure some of the order would change. I thought I would going to miss high heels a lot. That was clearly wrong. I would have thought that I’d be more excited to not work a 40 hour work week. Wrong again. I like being busy and it’s weird to have such a free schedule. I think I’ve always known that I would miss Stella snuggles though.

One of my favorite parts of teaching in Malaysia is making up silly lessons. Our job here is to help students to become more comfortable speaking in English, but we’re not really here to teach them grammar lessons.  However, the education system in Malaysia is very exam-based. The result is that students are taught how to pass tests with very little consideration to developing students’ creativity or critical thinking skills.  I think this is something that all of the ETAs noticed within their first week of teaching and has remained a huge part of our time here. We’re not just teaching English, we’re teaching creativity.

This week I’ve been playing Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. The students have to listen to the song and fill in the missing lyrics (just as I used to do for Celine Dion songs in French class). Why Cheeseburger in Paradise?

1. When people ask me where I’m from, half the time I say Georgia and the other half I say Florida. I figured I needed something Florida-y for at least one of my lessons to represent half of my home-base.
2. It’s a perfect opportunity to explain the difference between a McDonald’s Big Mac and a real American Cheeseburger.
3. I like the song. If you’re going to do a lesson based on a song you better choose one that you like. I teach 23 classes per week. In each of those classes we will listen to the song a total of 3 times. That’s close to 70 times I’ll listen to the song this week.
4. My students have never heard it, or any Jimmy Buffett song before and that needed to be changed.

After my students got over their initial disappointment that I the song was not by Justin Bieber, they started to enjoy the song—they especially love singing the part of the background singers “paradise…” However, they do think that he mumbles and says things funny, which after living in Malaysia for 8 months I have to agree with.

My favorite part of the lesson is when I have the students write their own lyrics to the song. Instead of it being about a Cheeseburger, they are supposed to think of their favorite Malaysian food and write about how they like it served. Most of this humor will probably be lost on you unless you have eaten Malaysian food, but it’s one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Notice I changed “God” to “gol.” For the record, the students also think the lyrics say “cold soda” instead of “cold draft beer.”

Tom Yam in Paradise

I like mine with chicken and tomato

Red, spicy chilies and fresh, green celery

Big, fresh, sweet prawns and a cold fresh orange

Well, good gol almighty which way do I steer

Chicken Rice in Paradise

I like mine with salad and cucumbers

Red, spicy chili and freshly fried chicken

Salty, spicy soup and a cold lemon tea

Well, good gol almighty with way do I steer?

Nasi Lemak in Paradise

 I like mine with fish and sardines

Sweet coconut cream and plenty of rice

Served in a banana leaf and a cold milo ice

Well, good gol almighty which way do I steer?

Living in Malaysia has been an incredible and life-changing experience. I’m constantly surprised by the warmth of the people and how much fun I have on a daily basis. But there’s more to it. Living in Malaysia, specifically Marang is hard.

For example, the closest movie theater is a 3 hour drive away. While I’ve been able to travel to amazing places this year, on most weekends the big excitement is going to McDonald’s for a few hours (which costs me 20 USD to get there and home). Why McDonalds? Because it has air-conditioning and internet. Every day I constantly cough from 5-8pm because of people burning their trash. My male co-workers tell my students that they want to take me as their second wife. Ever heard of sexual harassment? I’m supposed to be flattered by this. One of the biggest challenges I face is that I am happiest when I am busy. Lately, especially with Ramadan, life has been really slow.

I’m not trying to complain, but this is a hard experience. I’ve also been struggling with thoughts of returning to the U.S. and figuring out the question of what’s next. Having so much time to think about this is rough. A few weeks ago I couldn’t sleep anymore. At 3 or 4 am I’d be wide awake and couldn’t get my brain to slow down, let alone go to sleep. Luckily, it was time for a vacation.

For the last break of our program 2 of my friends and I went to Singapore and Bali. I’ve never felt like such a country bumpkin as when I got to Singapore. People were dressed so fashionable. In actual outfits! They had all the latest technology. It was clean. I was none of those things. My first day there I went to a mall and walked around with huge eyes looking at all the pretty things. I got lost about 20 times because it was like an underground city full of sparkly things. The second day my friends and I had aimed to sightsee. We ended up at the mall but eventually dragged ourselves away for a few hours to see more of Singapore. The next day? Mall. I actually cried when I found a grocery store that carried canned black beans, Green & Black’s Chocolate, and Amy’s Organic microwaveable meals. I wore a sleeveless dress and nobody said “oh, too sexy.” I could essentially walk through the city being anonymous. Glorious! I know this all sounds pretty shallow, but these few days in Singapore helped me feel like me again. I guess in Malaysia I always feel like I’m being watched, when I greet people I know that I’m representing my country, and sometimes it’s hard tobe me. Singapore allowed me to be me and that was an amazing gift.

Then my friends and I headed to Bali. Hello Beautiful World! I’ve dreamed of going to Bali for a long time (I think ever since I studied abroad in Australia) and couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to go. Our thought in planning Bali as our last trip was that we figured by this time, we’d be ready to just relax by the pool for a few days. Of course we did more than that though. For starters, we ate a lot of Mexican Food! I’m not exaggerating when I say a lot. I think ate it 5 times within 3 days. We also went shopping. Leigh, Anna and I love to shop in South East Asia. Everything is so beautiful and unique. However, in all of our other trips together we’ve had at least 1 person who is sensibly frugal with us. They always kind of kept us in line. We knew we were in trouble when we drove into Ubud and saw store after store of beautiful art. Whoops, there went that trip to China I’d been saving for.

I did make it a point to wake up every morning we were in Ubud to go to a yoga class. Amazing! It was hard work though and had to be rewarded with a trip to the Gelato store down the road. We saw beautiful rice terraces and temples and made friends with some locals. We visited the Green School which is by far one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. Seriously, you should check it out http://www.greenschool.org/. So, we did get a bit of culture in there too.

Our final leg of the trip was heading to a small beach town called Ahmed where we had booked a 2 night stay in a charming villa. Holy Monkeys!!!!!!!! Infinity pool? Check. Sunrise view from our beds? Check. Tropical welcome drinks? Check. Needless to say we spent the next 2 days glued to the pool with the amazing view. We ate wonderful food, swam like mermaids, and read fun books.

One of my favorite parts of the villa is that when we arrived a band was playing “Every Little Things Gonna Be Alright” by Bob Marley. It’s actually quite funny how popular Bob Marley seems to be in Bali. Regardless, I couldn’t think of a more perfect song to hear at that moment. With all of the recent stress I had been placing on myself with resume writing, getting references on linked in, listening to how crummythe economy is, and trying to figure out what I actually want to do for my career, I was about to go crazy. When I was taking yoga classes in Orlando my teachers talked a lot about how the universe talks to us all of the time but most people are too busy to listen to it. I think the time I had spent in Singapore and Bali, being just Andrea, helped me to listen again. And what I heard was wonderful.

Rise up this mornin’, Smiled with the risin’ sun, Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin’ sweet songs Of melodies pure and true, Sayin’, “This is my message to you-ou-ou:” Singin’: “Don’t worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh! Every little thing gonna be all right.”

A huge part of me feels like I’m not done with Bali. I wanted to do so much while I was there (climb a volcano, see the countryside, go for a bike ride, etc.) but that just wasn’t the vacation that I needed this time around.  It was the much needed break I needed from the day-to-day difficulties and from my own head. And it was magical!

Last post about the English Camp, I promise. We had our student’s do a reflection at the end and this is what they got out of the camp. Once again, my favorites are italicized.

Funny things that happened that made you laugh:

“Acting by Amin. When made a flag by Amin. When Amin be a Mummy.” (I guess Amin was a funny kid.)

“I fell from the bed.”

“The campfire when Miss Andrea n Miss Mere sang the song Funky Chicken.” (I agree; our singing is pretty laughable.)

“My marshmallow melts, and that’s funny!”

“Somebody didn’t flush the toilet.”

“The window of my room broke and everyone who passed by could see how messy the room was.”

Things you have never done before:

“I’m be a Mummy”

“Eating marshmallow (smoke) with chocolate and biscuit.”

“Act as if I am a fan of JB.” (JB means Justin Bieber.)

“The game Funky chicken is the best dancing I’ve ever seen and I’ve it on the campfire.”

“Sleep Late.”

“Talk to the girl.” (GAAAAAAASSSSSSPPPPPPPPP. This was written by a boy.)

Things You Learned:

“Love each other.”

“How to teamwork.”

“Boy and girl can work on the same team.” (Another gasp!)

“Teamwork is another step to success.”

“A true friendship will never end although we still trying to know each other.”

“I learned how to eat marshmallow correctly.”

“First step on making new friends is to SMILE!” (I love this one because before the camp this student was nervous about meeting new people and I told her just to smile a lot and everyone would love her because she smiled. It worked!)

“Chiky Boom song.”

Other Notes:

“I will never forget the campfire and exciting movie night they’re the best part of this camp and the ETAs really successful. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget it!”

“When we gather around the campfire and share ghost stories…the most scariest story, I think would be Ms Mere’s story…one thing I learn from ur story…never ever give a drive to someone who looks weirdo in the middle of the night especially when I’m alone…”

“Miss Mere and Miss Andrea I <3 both of you. Thank you so much!”

Talk to the girl

I Heart English Camp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love is All Around

One of the coolest parts about our English Camp was that both Meredyth realized how “go with the flow” we’ve become. I wasn’t stressed out at all before the camp and if any of you saw me before Discover Rollins, you’ll realize how big of a deal this was. In Malaysia things just kind of work out.

So, what did we have our students do at the camp?

Team Spirit and Bar Soap

We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit how ‘bout you? We put our students into teams with an equal mix of students from each school (gasp) and mixed boys and girls (gasp x 100). The first project they worked on was naming their team, coming up with a team cheer, and decorating a flag. After the project we started to see some team spirit forming.

 To prepare for this I had to look up cheers online to make sure I had some examples for kids. Now I’m a happy and cheerful person, but I am not and never was a cheerleader. Add to my list of things I never thought I’d be doing in my life: Learning cheers form a high school student via YouTube videos while preparing for an English Camp in Malaysia.

 Only one slight oops. After our students warned us that the flag sheets were too thin and they needed newspaper under them before they painted, we ignored them. Paint got on the wood floor and began to soak into the floor. Hence why Meredyth and I tried to clean the floor at midnight while using a bar of soap, paper towels, and our fingernails. It was really late and we were rather tired. We never got the paint off but we did laugh…a lot.

 Mummies on the Beach and Never Kill Me

I think only at a camp with Meredyth would our students end up using toilet paper to dress each other up during a scavenger hunt on the beach. Here was their clue for this task:

“Next you must find the oldest student on your team,

Then, with ALL the paper provided, make us want to scream.

You must cover your friend from head to toe,

Wrapped like a mummy to us you must show.”

EPIC! It became more epic when Meredyth discovered she bought normal rolls of toilet paper instead of the really cheap kind of toilet paper that only has about half the amount of paper on it as a normal roll. They had a lot of paper to use.

Students were also asked to write a poem with the topic of English is Fun. Here’s the clue:

“For this next task let your creativity flow,

And write a poem to show how you feel and what you know.

Use the letters to start the first word of each line,

The theme of the poem is English Fun Time!”

Just watch this video and pay particular close attention to the second and third girls reciting their lines.

Never Kill Me

 Starting a Campfire with Gasoline, S’Mores, Ghost Stories, Let me see your Unicorn

I think the activity that kids loved the most was our campfire. We loved it too! It had been a long time since I roasted marshmallows, told ghost stories, and sang songs around a campfire. But in Malaysia things are always just a little bit off…

The place we were staying at said they would help us start the campfire. Meredyth and I did not oppose since we didn’t really know what we were doing. However, we didn’t realize that they were essentially going to make a fire bomb on the beach, which is what they did when they started the fire by lighting a bottle of gasoline on fire and throwing into the wood we had gathered. Only in Malaysia.

We were super lucky to find Halal Marshmallows (thanks to my awesome mentor) and got to teach the kids how to make s’mores. Nothing too funny about that, but they were super delicious!

Meredyth and I also made up some hilariously bad ghost stories that would make Are you Afraid of the Dark? look like an R-rated TV show. The kids were trembling though. So that was fun.

And of course we sang songs like Boom-Chicka-Boom and we taught them how to sing “Lean on Me.” My favorite was during a rather fantabulous rendition of “The Funky Chicken” when we added a verse about Unicorns. I can’t describe it here and I don’t have a video, but I think I almost peed my pants laughing. The video of “Lean on Me” is below but it’s too dark to see anything…still super cute.

Lean on Me

Siamese Twins, Brad Pitt, Justin Bieber, Polar Bears, and “You Stole my Rice”

Students also had to work on skits during their time at the camp. We gave them some prompts they had to choose out of a hat and they were of course nice and random. I think we stretched their imagination a lot. It was magical to watch them work in lines like “You stole my rice” and “I will never forgive you.” They’re a good group of kids and let us put them through a lot.

Midnight Bar Soap

Mummy Time

Our Campfire Before the Gasoline

One of the things that my school was hoping for me to be involved in during my time here was to have an English Camp. An English Camp is pretty much an immersion weekend where students speak in English the whole time (or at least when the teacher is in ear shot). My friend Meredyth and I decided to host our English Camp together. I’ll keep the suspense low in this post and tell you up front that it was a huge success. I think the kids loved it and learned a lot, and for me, it was one of my ultimate highlights of teaching in Malaysia. I’m going to make a few posts about what made it so special, but we’ll start with the applications.

Applications. If I thought managing the wait list at Rollins was hard, that’s nothing compared to choosing what kids to take on your English Camp. I was in agony choosing.  Call me a weenie if you want, but read these answers and you’ll start to understand how absolutely endearing my students are. I am totally wrapped around their fingers. Some of my favorite responses are italicized.

Answers to Question 1: Why do you want to go to the English Camp with Ms. Andrea?

“I want to spend my time with Miss Andrea before she back to her hometown”

“I also want to know Ms. Andrea better because she is pretty”

“I can meet new friends”

“I want to release my tension by join this English Camp”

“I want to spent more time with Mr. Andrea who is friendly” (oops, need a lesson on Mr and Ms.)

“Last year, I’ve just about to send my application to Ms. Nina, but it fall into a drain and I felt terebbily sad.” (student drew a sad face next to this)

Answers to Question 2: Why do you think you would be a good student to take to the camp?

“Because I wouldn’t do any mistakes at the camp. I will try to be a good student and obey all the rules there. I promise.”

“I think I can talks so much but I speak English not well”

“My family encouragement for follow Miss Andrea English Camp”

“So, trust me” (student drew a smiley face next to this)

“So, if I take to the camp, Ms. Andrea do not have to worry because I can easily make a friend with learning English.”

“I’ve never been to the discipline room before. Furthermore, I’m not going to break ur rules….as I extremely hates breaking rules. There’s no benefits going through that…that’s shows me I’m a good obedient and samaritan boy…”

“English is my life. I want to learn more and deep about this (English).”

“I do not know why but in my option everyone is a good student in their own way. So, I think that I could be a good student but not too good because nobody perfect. And I promise that I would be a very good student to take to this camp.”

Question 3: How will this camp help you to achieve your academic goals?

“By speaking English” (all the student wrote)

“I will be more exuberant to study, study and study. If I study hard and study smart, I can achieve my academic goals.”

“My exam will be more better especially in English”

“I hope you will choose me…I really want to go to your camp…PLEASE!!!”

“It will help me a lot” (all the student wrote)

“Because I think this camp is a good camp. Not just that, I can easily understand when learning English with playing game. With that, I can remember what I have study when I remembering what I playing at the camp.”

“I am a ‘English Secret Fan.’ If I am try to achieve all of my targets in English, I am sure that everyone I’ll be proud of me because my teacher is an ETA. (ETA: English Teacher Assistant).”

In conclusion, I am a weenie. I wanted to take every kid who applied to the camp. I wasn’t allowed to though and had to tell some kids that they couldn’t go. I really needed Jill’s candy drawer to get me through the rough times. Instead I bought the local store out of all their mentos and ate them in one sitting. It was depressing. I hate telling people no. But I also got to tell 20 students YES! And we had a great time.

On my mid-year evaluation for the Fulbright people they asked “In what ways have you made an effort to change yourself within your host country?” My exact response “Learned how to eat with my hands. It’s harder than it looks.” And that’s true. It is harder than it looks.

Malaysians (at least in Terengganu) eat mostly with their hands. They eat rice, fish, noodles, cake and just about everything else with their right hand (the left hand is not used while eating as it’s job is for something else that would not be appropriate at the dining table).

Learning how to eat with my hand has been hard for a couple of reasons. First, it’s hard to learn to scoop up rice soaked in curry sauce with your hand—especially with only your fingers. To do it successfully, you have to use the tips of your fingers to swirl the food around on your plate and grab an appetizing bite. Once you’ve raised your hand to your mouth, you use your thumb to push the food forward. I still am not quite sure because most of the time my students laugh at me. I guess I’m not a pro quite yet.

It’s also hard because once your hand is messy from eating the food you can’t really touch anything else. There aren’t many napkins or tissues. Instead, at the end of the meal you go to the sink (or hose) and rinse your hands and face off with water.  Keeping your left hand clean ends up helping maneuver your way around until you get to the sink.

I’m a lefty. When I use a fork, I use my left hand. While it’s sometimes a problem when it comes to deciding where I sit at a table, it’s not too bad. But even when I use my left hand here to hold a fork, I sometimes get odd looks. It seems like all around the world lefties are given a bad rap. Not fair.

 However, the hardest part is getting over the fact that it’s considered polite to eat with your hands. Now I was never a debutant or went to any formal dining etiquette courses growing up, but my mom taught me how to eat properly at a dining table. If my sister or I misbehaved at the kitchen table at home, that was as bad as misbehaving at a high-class restaurant.  We had to prove to our parents that we could eat properly at home, or else we wouldn’t be going out to eat for a very long time. I don’t think I would have been allowed in a restaurant for a whole year if I had eaten rice with my hands at the dinner table. So now that I’m in a culture where eating with my hands is acceptable, I feel like I’m breaking some rules.

Of course many of my students are thoroughly confused by American dining etiquette.  It’s simple in Malaysia. Unless it’s soup, you don’t need any utensils. This means fewer dishes to wash and less confusion. In America you eat some stuff with your fingers and some with a fork. And isn’t it gross that we eat with both hands especially considering that at least one of your hands has a different job in the bathroom? It doesn’t really matter how much you wash your hands; it’s a little icky.

 I tried to explain to my students how it’s okay to eat a cupcake with your hands but a piece of cake needs to be eaten with a fork. I think I ended up being more confused than they did. Try explaining chicken fingers.

Me: Well, they’re not actually chicken fingers. They’re just chicken that’s okay to eat with your fingers.

Slightly Confused Student: So if it’s okay to eat something with your fingers, they use the word fingers after the food?

Me: Not really. Just for chicken fingers.

Very Confused Student: Why?

Me: I have no idea

Still Very Confused Student: Can you eat other chicken with your fingers?

Slightly Confused Me: Well, chicken nuggets, sometimes barbeque chicken that is still on the bone. I think that’s about it.

Head About to Explode Student: But you can’t eat other chicken with your fingers?

Confused Me:  No. You wouldn’t really eat grilled or baked chicken with your fingers. Really any type of boneless chicken, except fingers and nuggets, you eat with a fork.

Defeated Student: That doesn’t make any sense.

Thoroughly Confused Me: I know.

I spent the next 10 minutes thinking of chicken fingers and dozens of other types of chicken. I’m a vegetarian and I don’t even eat chicken. Malaysia messes with you sometimes.

So learning to eat with my hands is hard, but explaining why we have different types of etiquette seems even more difficult. I guess it’s just one of those curve balls thrown into the way you think of the world.  It happens a lot here. I’m still really confused and so are my students.

*As a side note, I have to admit that I’m still not very comfortable eating with my fingers. I pack a fork with me just about everywhere I go just in case.