All good things usually have an end, or at least something of an ending. Most everyone has been informed of my unexpected arrival back to the United States, but if not, here I am. It’s official: I am in the U.S. again. The farewell was definitely bittersweet, but I’m excited for what is going to happen next. I really do miss all of my friends back in Malaysia, and I hope and pray that one day I will be able to visit again. But these goodbyes are never permanent. I always have the assurance that I will get to see everyone again someday. I wish I could thank every single person in the best of ways for being my friend while I was in Malaysia. You all have had such an impact on me.

     You all know who you are! So as far as things are going, I will probably get another final blog posted on here for my trips to Singapore/Chinese New Year. Besides, I need to let everyone know about the wonderful experience at the fish spa! It’s nice to be home for a lot of reasons though. But I could say that some of the things I miss the most are the culture, the food, the people, the languages being spoken, the humidity and heat, and the church. I’d like to start another blog just to keep my Malaysian friends up to date. It’s difficult having to repeat so much information to so many people. Or perhaps I’ll just include it with my personal blog, which everyone else has the link to. Goodbye, Asia, for now. I will be there again soon.

Signing out for this blog for the second to last time…

MusicNinja

     So here is the truth… I’m writing this specific blog right now because, although I am supposed to be doing my Japanese homework, my brain was completely fried today. There is nothing left but mush. Besides that fact, I had been wanting to post a little bit of what has happened recently. This blog will probably be lacking in pictures, but I hope you all find it interesting enough to read without the pictures. Yes, children, this is not a storybook.

     For Christmas, it was harder than I thought it was going to be… A lot harder. I never thought I would miss my family so much, but it manifested quickly when it came to a week before Christmas and I still had no feeling of Christmas being around the corner. Most of what my Christmas involved was tradition. If you don’t have someone to celebrate that tradition with, it’s almost pointless. Let me explain. One of my family traditions is decorating the house, tree, and sugar cookies. It’s something we’ve always done. Here, it seems ridiculous to decorate the apartment. Why would I decorate a place that isn’t really my own? That would be strange. Decorating a tree can’t be done if you don’t have the necessities… I would consider a Christmas tree a necessity for decorating one. And sugar cookies… Oh goodness, I missed those! Half of the fun was eating so much dough, icing, and baked cookies while we were supposed to be decorating them! You can’t really make cookies when the ingredients are not the cheapest or easiest things to come by in a country that doesn’t make a big fuss about cookies. Malaysians love their pudding though! (Mind you Americans, this is a little closer to our idea of jello, only thicker, harder, more bland, and a lot less sugar.) So, leading up to Christmas was nothing that I was used to. Then, we didn’t celebrate on Christmas day. Or I suppose we did, just not in the way I’m used to: family being of utmost importance. That would mean there was no plans for the day. We would read the Bible, open presents, cook and bake, and play games. Unfortunately, Ken was out of the country for work, there was church on that day, and Adrian and I were in the Christmas drama for church. [I have posted the video below for those who want to see.] That meant that I got up early to be there and help set up. Later in the day, we invited approximately twenty people over for a pot-bless—what they call a potluck here—and that went until midnight. I had hoped to open my presents that my parents sent to me with them Christmas morning, which was night for me, but I didn’t get the box in time. Instead, I just watched them on Skype and had a wonderful time watching them open their presents. There were so many things that happened to me personally that also made Christmas fairly difficult, but I guess you could read about that type of stuff on my other blog!

 

     Then came New Years Eve. We went to visit the church of our friends that we made on the kelong trip in downtown KL. It was called 12 hours of prayer. It lasted from 12pm-12M. It was a wonderful time of being refreshed and spending time with the friends we made. New Years Day, we invited people over again for another pot-bless… Only more! It was a blast, and I had such a wonderful time with all my friends! There was also so much wonderful food! Same goes for the Christmas party, of course.

     Now comes the more current happenings around me. (Don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten about the Singapore trip! I just feel a lot less motivated to write that blog right now.) I got to try durian on Sunday! For those who haven’t heard about it from me, or anyone else, it’s a very odorous—some can just say it’s downright pungent and nasty—but the locals devour it like it is some type of magical fruit. I would compare it a little closer to the texture and taste of an avocado, but with the smell of—forgive me Malaysians who are reading my blog!—a rotting carcass. I can never decide if it smells sweet or stomach-churning revolting. I did finish the fruit though. It’s not something I would try again.

     The other thing that is going on right now, as maybe you might have seen hinted at in the introduction, since it was my excuse for writing this blog at the moment, is that I have started an intensive Japanese course. It was my second day today, and you’d be amazed at how much information is being crammed into my poor little brain. I can hardly handle much more! Yet that is precisely what I will receive. The class will last 25 days, and it is from 10am-3pm every weekday. The class is also only taught in Japanese, and we are required to only speak Japanese in the class. I actually was trying so hard to understand everything that I got an intense headache near the end of class. I’m hoping tomorrow will improve.

 

Love you all! I’m now off to finish the rest of my homework!

 

P.S. I’m so sorry about my Japan Adventure Pt. 1 blog! The stupid site actually deleted it when I posted part 2! I hope to make it up to you all. Maybe I will just repost the pictures, no commentary, and what little I wrote that is still saved on my computer.

     I figured it was time for a little bit of a change. I don’t do so well at typing just about the things that happen around me, yet I end up typing a lot of things to myself to help my thoughts get organized and rolling. There was also someone who told me that I’m not exactly the best blogger out there because for those who are here in Malaysia, there’s not much interesting about what they see every day. So, here I decided to start up another blog as well. This one will be a little bit closer to my heart, and you all might get a chance to feel a little bit closer to me. So here is the link to my new blog.

http://thismetamorphose.blogspot.com/

Feel free to check it out and post comments. Love you all!

 

P.S. I haven’t forgotten! The Singapore trip, and a blog about Christmas will be coming soon!

     It just so happens that I got to experience another interesting trip that does not exist in the United States. We all went for a weekend with another church in KL on a kelong trip. Click on the link to get an idea of what a kelong really is. Basically, they are huts on stilts in the middle of the water. We ended up going to one in the South China Sea. I’m not going to make this a very long blog, but I wanted to let you all know about it.
       We drove to the church that we were going with, since it was some friends who invited us. Their son has an extreme passion for fishing, and this is something he only gets to do once a year. After having some makan, we left the church at 2am on two large charter buses. We made a stop for food around 5:30am and made it to the port around 7:30am. There, we boarded two ferries that made its way out to the kelong. It was roughly a half hour ride. The floor plan consisted of a roof, tarps for walls, and large bunks that fit six mats per bunk. For sleeping arrangements, you had to roll out a mat, cover it with a sheet and grab a pillow. That was your bed! I was fortunate enough to only have to share a bunk with Adrian and Christopher. The first day, I spent a lot of my time reading and relaxing, using the time to reconnect with God. We were served four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and
barbecue. They left tea and biscuits out the entire time. Every meal consisted of rice, soup, some type of chicken or pork, and two types of seafood dishes. It was very interesting. Most of the food is not something I would normally attempt to eat. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I did. For instance, I had stingray. You even eat the bones. Another interesting thing was the bathrooms. I had thought we were going to at least have bathrooms provided with soap and such, since that is what they had said. But the amenities were the hut with a toilet bowl in the ground and a bucket of water in the bathroom. This small place dualed as a shower. When you wanted to shower, you simply filled the bucket and used a smaller bucket to rinse yourself with. Talk about exciting! It’s not as bad as some people would think.
     The second day, we went to the island that was close by, Sibu Island. I swam a little in the water, which was quite warm, warmer than most pools in the U.S. I also spent a little bit of time with Adrian and Chris exploring the wildlife amongst the rocks. I’m sorry everyone, but I didn’t bring my camera on that little expedition. Tides change quickly, so we were allowed an hour on the island, and made it back for dinner. Later that night, Glenda introduced us to one of the girls on the trip. We all talked to her and ended up meeting her friends too. Next thing we know, all of us that were teenagers were playing games until really late. I went to bed at 6am, not being able to pull an all-nighter like Adrian usually can. I got three hours of sleep. Adrian, Justin, and Priscilla made it all night. By the time we had all packed for leaving the last day, all of us had made friends with each other. When we got back to the buses, I immediately went back to sleep and slept until dinner: a total of 6 hours. I did take a few pictures, but for those that would like to see more, post a comment requesting them. I can pull some off of facebook from the people on the trip that took more. As I’m writing this, we are on a bus headed for Singapore. Don’t worry. You’ll all hear about this trip soon enough! I wish you all a Merry Christmas! God bless!