KL to Singapore: A World Apart

Well after an absurdly long day of flying....melbourne to sydney and sydney to Kuala Lumpur, I made it to Malaysia! And I'll be honest, given that my first interaction with the country involved seeing my beloved fast food place Wendy's....things were off to a great start. 

Kuala Lumpur is a lot more built up than I expected. But all of the singing and new is still beautifully intermixed with the legacy of the old. In my few days here I've been able to see most of the must ddo touristy things, while still having plenty of time to just hang out and chill at the hostel. The variety of public transport here makes getting around super easy and efficient which is wonderful and the food...well I really can't complain. A mixture of Malay, Indian and Chinese is a pretty great thing to find anywhere, much less for $2, five minutes from where you live. 

 

Anyways here are a few pics of the lovely things I've gotten to see in my time in KL. 

Central Market: a sweet little knickknack market built in 1888 where I was able to get my classic, must-buy-in-every-country goods.

Batu Caves: a Hindu shrine just outside of KL in a beautiful limestone cave found at the top of 274 Steps next to a giant (140 ft) model of the Himdu god Murugan. I'll be honest....wasn't quite as thrilling as it's cracked up to be, but the statue was pretty impressive.

                                   

                    

                                        

Petronas towers: twin towers of KL, they used to be the tallest in the world. But I'm pretty sure they're still the tallest in SE asia. Twin-style anyways. 

                                          

                       

The National Mosque/Masjid Negara: really interesting design of a mosque. And while I didn't find the interior to be anything overly special it did have a pretty open-style design. 

                           

                           

                           

Islamic Arts Museum: cool. Got lots of Arabic reading in due to the large number of Qurans everywhere. Really cool. And stunning calligraphy...as always.

                         

                                                                   ˆˆPlan of Mecca

                                            

Masjid Jamek: beautiful large mosque built in the early 1900s on the first Malay burial grounds.

Sultan Abdul Samad building: housed the administration for the Federal Malay States when it was first built in theh late 1800s, it now houses the ministry of information, communications and culture. But really, let's be honest; no one cares about that. It's just a super pretty building.

Merdeka square: one of the largest flag poles in the world, and where they raised the Malay flag after declaring independence. The fountain in front was shipped from England and assembled in Malaysia. It's like olden-days ikea! 

oh also!! some friends and I ended up doing this game called breakout. Basically you get locked inside a room and you have 45 minutes to figure out how to escape. Guys, we were handcuffed together and the keys were behind another door, and it was insane.  While we didn't end up getting out, we came SUPER close. Totally doing it again next time I have a chance.

SINGPAORE

Singapore ws interesting..in that it wasn't. It is a beautiful city, with lots of greenery amidst the elegant skyscrapers scattered about, but when youre looking for things to do the answers pretty much come to SHOPPING! THEME PARK! EXPENSIVE! Which, if I wasn't travelling on a budget would've been fine, however I was. But I did enjoy Chinatown very much and due to the extensive amount of greenery amidst the beautifully designed buildings, I did really enjoy walking around the city. AND I got to hang out with a friend from UVA, Hong Mun for an afternoon! Which was really great and made Singapore much more fun. And, I got to top off my time in Singapore by drinking a classic 'Singapore Sling' at the place where it was invented....the Raffles Hotel! Super delicious might I add.

pretty Hindu Temple in Chinatown

a Singapore Sling

I've been chilling in Bangkok for the past day, and it's awesome! Will do a Thailand blog as soon as I can!=]

Off to Adventure in the Great, Wide, Somewhere....

Okay sorry, that title was an extremely misleading representation of what is actually occurring in my current life situation. I simply intended to show that my time in Oz was coming to an end. I still can't get over it. Have I ACTUALLY bee away from home for a full year? It feels like yesterday that I left. Oh well, nonetheless. Since I haven't written down any of what has happened during my time in melb, other than of course the rather long update on jobs...here's what my life has been like.

1. Moved to Melbs with a good friend. 

2. Found an apartment with some cool people (who made awesome food) in southbank and moved out of the hostel.

 

3. Got a job as a telemarketer. Worst job ever. On the how much was I losing it scale of 1 to Lindsay Lohan, I was like a Britney Spears 2007 mental breakdown phase. I have so much respect for these people. 

4. Visited St. Kilda...finally.

5. Kept sneaking into the hostel I'd left because all my friends still lived there.

6. Switched jobs to be a host at a German restaurant/beer hall/bar. 

7. Went to be in the the live audience of Family Feud with some friends

8. Won $25 worth of drinks in a dance contest I didn't realize was happening. This might be the greatest achievement of my life.

9. Tried out as many random bars in melb as I possibly could

 

10. Have asked multiple British and Australian friends to marry me only to realize green card marriages don't work as well here.

11. Have met and worked with other Americans! Whattttt?! Two of my managers are even american! Crazy!

12. Went to a Les Miserables exhibit and got to see Victor Hugo's original manuscript!!!! As well as of course unabashedly sing to the continuous songs from the musical playing in the exhibit.

 

13. Continued to go to the awesome Hillsong church in melbourne.

14. Made friends with the leader of a German oompah band.

15. Had a ridiculous night at the Crown Casino

But honestly, as with all the places I've lived here, it's not really the big things that I've done in Melb that made me fall in love with the city. It is all the small day to day things. It is having a few favorite bars to go to with friends. It's knowing which trams and trains to take where and being able to tell people where the markets are without glancing at a map. For the past two months Melbourne has been home. I'm used to its rhythms and have a routine. I know my favorite indian place and it's hours. And most  importantly I have made some wonderful friends. That is what I will miss. 

As always, I'm excited for the next adventure to Asia and beyond, but it is definitely going to be harder to leave Melbourne and Australia than I even thought possible. I have seen so much of this country and made so many incredible memories here. It's going to be strange to have to start over on my own again. But, as I've seen time and time again, God knows what he's up to and I'm sure is just as excited for me to see the next step as I am scared to enter it. So off we go! Next up? MALAYSIA!

Endnote: since not everyone knows my game plan from this point...I'm currently flying to Malaysia and will be in Kuala Lumpur for about 4 days. Then I'm off to Singapore for a day or so then northern Thailand to see Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and a few other places! The goal is to go to Loy Krathong...the lantern festival where thousand of lanterns get out up in the air. Bucket list item? Hell yeah.

Check out the link in the upper right corner to see where I've been and where I am now!

Fatherly Love

It's crazy how much more aware of your relationships you become when you go abroad. People that meant a lot back home find their place among the very important or time-justifyingly distant. But, when it comes to family there is nothing but awe (at least in the case of myself) for how much perspective you are given on your relationships with them and their impact on your life.

Recently, a distant cousin of my father passed away. Now I have no idea how this works in other families, but for my father, such events mean sending an email with some general background on what happened, and how we are related to the person. So this distant cousin who my sisters and I barely remember got an email. But in this email, my father proceeded to give us not only the history of how we were related to her but also his memory of her. He wrote of her joy and enthusiasm for life, as well as her general goodness to those around her. Simple words; but unendingly powerful.

I have always respected my dad, but today I was brought to tears by that email. That this funny, crazy father of mine, has underneath all of his ridiculousness a deep kindness and caring for those around him. I cannot quite put into words the loving intensity that I found in that simple email. That, upon hearing the news one of his is first thoughts was to take the time to write out a letter to his daughters so that we too, could hear the story of her passing and know that though she my be a relative stranger, a good woman was gone.

His note made me hope for two things. One is to both be and marry someone one day with that depth of kindness. Someone that sees the beauty in the people around them and wants to share it with others. And two, I hope I may live a life worthy of such an email one day. That when I pass on some distant friend or relative upon getting the news conjures up thoughts of my joy and enthusiasm. That I may bring some sort of light to the lives of others and that if nothing else I stand as a reminder to them of some good time and the wonder that is this world around us.

My dad finshed his email to us girls with this thought:

"So--live to the fullest.  Be good and be happy.  If you ever have to choose between the two, be good. 

             love,  Dad"

And that dad, is exactly what I intend. Thank you for the reminder.

'If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.' 1 Corinthians 13:1-3