Malaysian Adventure: May 2010

We are now ONE month away from end of this school year. It is really hard to believe that our 'adventure' is about to end. We will return with many, many memories. As with any adventure there are some things that are memorable for more unpleasant reasons. We have begun to compile a list of things we will remember, miss, and not miss from our time in Malaysia.

Things we'll miss-

wonderful friends from Australia, US, NZ, Holland, Canada, all over
playing tennis in June, September, December, whenever
fresh tropical juices for less than a buck
polite, bright, cooperative students (well, 95% worth)
the food, Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Thai, fusion all good and all inexpensive
shorts all year round and no jacket required, ever
the Plaza on Thursday market evening, buying fresh fruit, supper for $2.50, sipping some Guinness with good friends
Air Asia sales, let's see Perth, Siem Reap, Chiang Mai for 0RM, can't beat that
the monkeys
Gold Class theatre tickets for $10
weekly Thai massages

Things we won't miss-

the traffic- only those who experience it can understand how nuts it is
soaking wet shirts from sweating all the time
living in AC
the U turns- driving 2 km more in order to make that right turn
the cleaners (all female) walking in to the bathroom and mopping up while I'm taking a whiz
getting the response 'no can lah' to simple requests or perhaps even worse 'yes can' but doing nothing
no recycling
the belief that lanes and turn indicators are optional
the malls

As the school year wraps up, the activities seem to ramp up. We spent last weekend working the doors of the theatre production at the school. Somehow we landed the role of 'front of the house' and it has been our job for the past two years to man the front of the theatre for the twice yearly productions, managing the ushers, selling tickets and t-shirts, helping out with concession, stopping people from taking flash photos, and many other things that go with show time.
The commitment with the sport teams is now over although Maureen's final game of the softball season was last week. It was all anticlimactic after the big regional tournament in Bangkok however. My soccer coaching seems a distant memory.
We have had lots of social engagements over the past little while. Mari Makan again two Fridays ago. Mari Makan is sponsored by the parent association. Every national group brings food from their country to share. After the feast there is a lot of dancing and visiting to be had. I only managed to make it around to a small sampling of tables and it was all delicious. I took advantage of the Asian offerings (Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Philippine, Indian). Maureen managed to try a bit from a few other countries (she took smaller samples). There were about 30 different tables, so there was no shortage of food. The Canadians did desserts this year and so Maureen offered something from the Whitewater cookbook. What could be more Canadian than that?
The following night we headed off to a big function sponsored by the Canadian Association of Malaysia, Canada Rocks. Along with another great meal (mainly pork, rather rare in a Muslim country), we got to dance the night away to a cover band playing Bryan Adams, Tom Cochrane, Tragically Hip, BTO, and other Canadian classics. We had a great time consolidating friendships with people from all over Canada.
Every weekend from now to the end looks full with a variety of activities, road rally, end of the year dinners and bbqs. It will be busy and then everyone, well almost, disappears back to their home country or to some adventure in another one. Maureen and I are here for Malaysian tax reasons until mid-July. We do a few trips planned during this time in and out of Malaysia but more about these later.