Is all the meat water buffalo?

So, I am now at UPSI!!! Sarah and I arrived at our new home to find that we are living in a small apartment with 5 other roommates plus spiders, lizards, mosquitos, and others. There is no refrigerator, A/C, stove, microwave, HOT WATER, trashcan, toilet paper, and according to Sarah, "overall cleaness". And the windows are sealed in with a nice layer of newspaper and duck tape (actually, I don't think there are windows behind the newspaper). The amenities that we do have are floral curtains, a one-inch mattress, dirty sheets, tape infested walls, dirty floors, and dusty shelves. The look on both Sarah and I's faces was most definitely the funniest part of the day! Sarah told herself to expect the worst and she said "it was pretty darn close to that", haha. Regardless, this is actually the kind of study abroad I had hoped for all along :) It might seem like this is the worst living situation ever but I really don't mind it- next time Sarah gets the bed by the creepy spider curtains though. I wanted exotic and I sure did get it! Despite the cold water, I was so nasty after 2 full days traveling, that a shower was much needed. But we did find out that this is only our temporary home and we move into somewhere new in two days. The atmosphere here is really pretty and very lush: there are rivers, rainforest, and everything green and tropical, all over the apartment complex. I went on a walk around the area with some of the students and got a sense of the area, which is quite beautiful (and there are some really cute cows and rabbits). I went into the local 7/11 near the school to buy a water bottle and noticed that every single pack of cigarettes had gruesome pictures of what smoking can do to you- it supposedly stops the people here from smoking (we should bring that to the US). For dinner, we ate at a local restaurant and had some trouble ordering food: they only spoke Malay (luckily I learned some new vocab). My debit card was rejected at every ATM so Clara was nice enough to pay for Sarah and I. The whole meal for three people cost 7 MR (only $2.50 USD): CRAZY!!!! I think what I was eating was in fact chicken but it could have been a mystery meat, most likely water buffalo. The mosquitoes haven't gotten bad just yet and I surely hope it stays that way. Everyone is great so far! There are so far 6 other girls for the US, several Korean girls, an America guy, and a girl from Kazakhstan: more are still to come! Tomorrow we have the entire day free= exploration!!!! Today was also Chinese new year!!!! Year of the Snake! Due to that, a lot of things were closed and we were unable to move into out permanent homes. Fireworks are going off right now which is really exciting! The first day in Malaysia has been a success and I am sure lots of amazing things are to come! 

Journey to the Other Side of the Earth

For starters, I have neither narrative skills or experience blogging but here it goes...I am currently sitting in the airport in Kuala Lumpur but I will back track for a while. So, this whole adventure kind of started last summer (actually I think my whole life is one big adventure) when I travelled to Costa Rica to work with the cutest, most loving animals ever: SLOTHS!!! While in Costa Rica, I contracted a terrible and expensive illness...the travel bug. I have recently found out that there is not only not a cure, but the illness worsens with time. Well, that led me to travel to Turkey and Greece with Jess this past winter break, which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Now, the real journey begins as I am studying abroad for the Spring 2013 semester at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Tanjongmalim, Perak, Malaysia!!! From what I have heard from people already here, it offers some intense culture shock which I am more than ready for.

As with everything in my life, there is NEVER a dull moment, in the states and out. After saying goodbye to my mom and day Friday afternoon, I started my 2 day journey to Malaysia. While still in Charlotte, I received a call from Sarah: my Queens friend and fellow bio major who is also studying in Malaysia this semester. She tells me that the TSA officer won't let her get through security because she doesn't have a Chinese visa to fly to Hong Kong (thank you Jun! at least I had one!). Even after Sarah making it through security, we nearly missed our first flight because we were too busy chatting and missed the whole, "your gate has changed" thing! At least we were right near it and pretty much hopped on the plane right before the doors closed, FEEEEWWWWW! As much as I hate reading I bought a new book to read on the plane (considering it is 25 hours flying time to Malaysia). Sarah asked what I planned on reading so I pulled it out, oops, not the right book. Out came the other book I brought: "Writing in Biology". Sarah looked at me with utter disgust which confused me, my book was about traveling after all? I would have paid money to have a picture of Sarah's face at that moment!!! I looked down and started laughing, and semi-crying: that was not the book I planned on reading, but I did bring it as a reference for my science classes here (sorry Queens bio professors, that is still not my favorite source of pleasure reading). I got out my other book, "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day", which hopefully will give me some info on how to decrease the cost of my illness. After about 2 hours, I read the book and it was TV time! I have recently become obsessed with Breaking Bad! So much so that in the last month I watched sessions 1-4, and the first season twice (thanks Anna Blake). Somehow, I really don't know how, but the plane had the whole 5th session which I had yet to see (Hints, had not yet seen). Seriously, it was my lucky day! Then I watched "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (which was weird). I guess Sarah liked it so much that she watched it three times haha- delirium can sometimes get the best of you. Then it was on to the next flight, LA to Hong Kong, in which I drugged myself to make it through the 16 hours (which wasn't even bad at all-MELISSA!!!). The flight was quite nice because Sarah and I got a seat-and-a-half each! This made the trip more comfortable than it could have been! First class looked pretty darn nice: people had their own pod-like corners to sleep in. There were several times I looked over and I wasn't sure how Sarah could actually sleep the way she was laying. We also both missed dinner: I was looking forward to having sweet and sour chicken.

The flight from Hong Kong to KL was next and it sure was interesting. We were served brunch and had a choice of two plates- I chose ham and eggs. The mystery meat has already started, the menu on the plane said I was getting ham and eggs but it was definitiey not ham (this reminds me so much of my ham-burger from Costa Rica). Note to everyone, if you go to a restaurant and the menu says ham-burger, the hyphen is not just randomly placed there, it means your meal is not made of the normal beef but something crazy! Then Sarah all of the sudden said, "what is that spraying noise". Then we looked ahead, the flight attendants walked through the aisles, several times I must say, to fumigate the plane (thats what I thought they were doing but who knows). It looked like one of those action movies where the guys in all black, spray crazy gas in the air and kill everybody (jk Mom and Dad, it wasn't that bad). But anyway, the air smelled of disinfectant for a while (if that was even what they sprayed). Once we got off the plane, we stepped foot into Malaysia for the first time (I can already tell its gonna be HOT!!). Sarah and I are the only blonde and blue-eyed people here, at least that we have seen so far.  Now we are sitting at a smoothie bar in the KL airport blogging (my first ever!) and waiting for another American student to arrive :) My hand now feels like a claw because I have such poor typing etiquette so I think it is time I go...and dang I use too many parentheses. After all, lets be real, I am a biology NOT english major. But I made it here safely and I am so excited for what the future is going to bring :)

Love,
-Merdy