We've been here 2 whole weeks. My how time flies. We've seen 16 houses and narrowed it down to 5. We've made an offer on one and are waiting to hear back from the owner. We've gone car shopping, It was only one dealer..Steven had to lie down from the difference in price from the internet and the dealer. We will head out again. We've got the children enrolled in the school, although they will not start until January. Side note, I think the Malaysians have the right idea about the school years. They have back to school sales twice a year. They prepare for the fall term with back to school sales and offer the uniforms on sale again in late November early December for the January semester. How many moms have noticed that their child has grown since the beginning of the school year and doesn't have the benefit of a sale price come December? If most kids grow like mine did and still do, it's an advantage to the parent to have another sale come December.
Zachary has taken his first piano lesson and will have another come next Wednesday. He hasn't had the chance to practice but the teacher is aware that we have other obligations and is willing to work with us. The girls took a jazz class and Kristen took a tap class. I think that we will wait until we are in our house before we go on with dance classes.
Our stay at the Lanson Place is comfortable, our air shipment came in finally. We now have a bunch of boxes in the main entertainment room but we're not here for very much longer.
The best thing about today is that we finally got to attend a worship service. The people were very nice and the service was very interesting. The pastor taught from 2 Chronicles the story of Jehoshephat and his army against the countries that were coming against Isreal. It's a wonderful testament to the power of God. The assistant to the youth pastor came to meet us got mine and the kid's cell numbers and wants them to come to a semi-retreat that the church is hosting for the youth. It's a 3 day trip to the beach, it runs 150.00RM which is about 50.00USD. I'll see if it turns out that the kids will be able to go.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The wrong side of the road.
I've been in Malaysia about a week and a half. I decided to wait until I felt comfortable driving before I attempted it. Steven went out of town on Sunday and said I should try to drive. I let a couple of days go by and I even had our relocation agent drive me to the place that offers music lessons as well as dance and voice lessons. It was pretty close to our location right now but will be quite a distance to drive if we move to the part of town we want to live in. The owner of the place wanted the girls to come try out a couple of dance classes tonight. Jazz and tap. Zachary will return in the morning for a lesson in piano. So I decided to try and drive to the place. Ok, so here's the hard part--after driving for 29 years in the USA means that I'm pretty accustomed to driving on one side of the road. I trekked out and asked the kids to say over and over again "the left mom, the left" Believe it or not, it really helped. I have now driven to the dance/music studio, parked in the crazy way Malaysians park and driven to the KLCC mall. We like walking to the mall because it gives us some exercise and we don't have to pay for parking. More later...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
1 week in Malaysia...
I suppose I'm supposed to have this great insight and blog about all the things I have learned since coming to Malaysia. I don't have my list yet but I have had an interesting time since we got here a week ago.
I've learned that you have to be adament about what paperwork you have handled and not let them tell you that you didn't send it. I've learned that email even with all technology and Americans get impatient if you don't reply right away that the Malaysian way is when ever they get to it.
I saw all kind of cultural costumes at a grand party hosted by Shell at the Shangrila Hotel here in Malaysia. It was on a grand scale. We had a wonderful time. I got to meet some of the people Steven works with.
I've also learned that not everybody speaks English although they attempt. I've also learned when to stop trying to get my point accross. After repeating yourself a couple of times, like Nicole says, just smile and nod.
When you have an issue that should seem like an easy fix, it's not. We are a family of 5. We are staying in 2 rooms not one. So, as an American I would think that the hotel would consider since we have 2 rooms that we would require at least 4 breakfast meals to go with our stay. No, we are only provided with 3 breakfast per family. Our relocation agent thought that was rediculous. She attempted to "sort it out" But even after talking to the manager we still have to sign for 2 of the breakfasts meals because the contract is for 3 breakfast meals that come with the room/per family.
Our bank is not "trustworthy" as the name implies. That was another post from a week ago.
We saw many houses and for around the same rent you can get a 2,900 sq ft. condo or a 5,000 sq ft bungalow. Yes, I did say 5,000 sq ft. Guess which one we fell in love with?
The Malaysian people are very friendly and want to help you as much as possible, at least that's what I have found here at the Lanson Place.
Oh, it takes 2.5 hours to get a manicure pedicure here at the hotel. That is with 2 people working on you.
I've learned that you have to be adament about what paperwork you have handled and not let them tell you that you didn't send it. I've learned that email even with all technology and Americans get impatient if you don't reply right away that the Malaysian way is when ever they get to it.
I saw all kind of cultural costumes at a grand party hosted by Shell at the Shangrila Hotel here in Malaysia. It was on a grand scale. We had a wonderful time. I got to meet some of the people Steven works with.
I've also learned that not everybody speaks English although they attempt. I've also learned when to stop trying to get my point accross. After repeating yourself a couple of times, like Nicole says, just smile and nod.
When you have an issue that should seem like an easy fix, it's not. We are a family of 5. We are staying in 2 rooms not one. So, as an American I would think that the hotel would consider since we have 2 rooms that we would require at least 4 breakfast meals to go with our stay. No, we are only provided with 3 breakfast per family. Our relocation agent thought that was rediculous. She attempted to "sort it out" But even after talking to the manager we still have to sign for 2 of the breakfasts meals because the contract is for 3 breakfast meals that come with the room/per family.
Our bank is not "trustworthy" as the name implies. That was another post from a week ago.
We saw many houses and for around the same rent you can get a 2,900 sq ft. condo or a 5,000 sq ft bungalow. Yes, I did say 5,000 sq ft. Guess which one we fell in love with?
The Malaysian people are very friendly and want to help you as much as possible, at least that's what I have found here at the Lanson Place.
Oh, it takes 2.5 hours to get a manicure pedicure here at the hotel. That is with 2 people working on you.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Finally here!
We started our journey Friday 7/11 at 7:30 pm. We then flew for 9 hours to Amsterdam for an 8 hour layover. You say, 8 hour layover that should be fun-so much to see in Amsterdam right? Steven tried to buy train tickets for the family and agent declined his card. He knew there must be a mistake so he walks over to the atm and tries to get the euros to purchase the tickets. The atm says it is taking his card for security purposes. So I'm not too willing to give up my card--haven't had to offer it to the atm gods yet. We spend the 8 hours (the first 2 listening to Steven rant about someone at our bank wishing they were never born or that they hadn't answered the phone) It was a long wait but we could look around and the lounge was stocked with something to drink and eat. We got on the plane and had an 11 hour flight to Malaysia. That flight was uneventful but I couldn't find my glasses when we were supposed to get off the plane. Elise found them so that was another incident avoided. We got to our driver and because we Americans love our personal space & I hadn't bathed in 2 days I wasn't about to get up close and personal with anyone else. So we all pulled out of the already crowded lift (elevator for the people in the US) We got on the next lift and were on our way through the KL scenery. More later...I'm exhausted-my eyes are literally closing as I type.
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