Gong Xi Fa Cai 新年快乐

     Last week I spent 5 days in my friend Jia Jin's hometown. There we celebrated the Lunar New Year with all her family. We ate many foods that are a specialty for New Years, like steamboat for the reunion dinner, and dumplings. Also there were fireworks every night. This is a very important celebration for the Chinese and is celebrated all around the world. Here in Malaysia there are many customs, like eating steamboat for the reunion dinner, firecrackers, giving mandarin oranges to family and friends, and giving red envelopes with money. Also, Buddhists will go and pray in the temple on the first day of the New Year.
     For Jia Jin's family, this is the one time of the year were all the family gets together and can enjoy each other's presence, so every night the children and adults will stay up very late playing cards or watching movies because it not every day where they can be together. This is true for many families as well, not just Jia Jin's.

Yummy homemade dumplings

The women making dumplings

Chinese lanterns

Chair in a Buddhist temple. When sitting on it, your body becomes possessed with a god, or so I was told

Yay! I got lots of red envelopes

The most adorable little girl in traditional Chinese clothes

I love these little girls <3 

Praying on New Year's Eve

Praying in the temple on New Years day

A cool looking guy in the temple

An unforgettable birthday

      This is really late, like almost a month late but better late then never. For my birthday I had the chance to experience Thaipusam! It was so exciting and scary and kind of disturbing but it was really amazing. For those who don't know, Thaipusam is a Hindi celebration celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon on the Tamil month of Thai, which so happened to be on my birthday, January 17th. Before I came to Malaysia, as I was researching the culture and celebrations, Thaipusam was one that interested me the most. I was really hoping that I would get the chance to experience, so when my chapter president said that she would take us to her temple I was ecstatic. The festival commemorates when Parvati gave Murugan a "Vel Spear" so that he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. People will pray on this to to the Lord Murugan, the the Tamil Lord of war. He vanquishes all evils so on this day people will pray to him to destroy evils in their lives. They will carry with them a "Kavadi" which symbolizes a burden. Usually it will be a milk pot and they will have to carry this on top of there head to the temple. They will go barefoot and have to walk a long distance. Others will pierce there cheeks or tongue along with carrying the milk pot.
     Those who pierce have to fast for approximately 48 days before Thaipusam. They will eat nothing but vegetarian food when the sun is down and fast for the whole day. This is to prepare themselves. When they are about to get pierced some will go into a trance. They will not feel a thing and will even start to dance or move there heads to a beat. If they have fasted properly they will not bleed.
     Others will have very big kavadi's they will carry by putting it over there body and piercing there back with small hooks. These are very heavy and they still need to put a milk pot on them. These will be made and decorated by the person carrying it. These kavadi's can be very colorful and before they go they will spin around with them and dance, making for a spectacular view. There are others who will have hooks on their backs with ropes attached. On the other end of the ropes will be a person pulling on them while they walk ahead, These are one of the scariest to me because it looks like they will just pull the skin right off their backs.
    Thaipusam is celebrated in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar. The largest Thaipusam celebration in Malaysia is in Batu Caves, where millions of devotees and tourists will gather. In Batu Caves they will have to carry the Kavadi's 15 km starting from KL all the way to the caves and climb 272 steps to leave the kavadi and milk pot to the hige statue of the Lord Murugan.

Our Henna :) The peacock is very important in Thaipusam because it is the vehicle of Lord Murugan

Kavadi's adorned with peacock feathers and flowers 

This couple are carrying their baby, they are giving thanks for their new born

Exchange students of Johor with our Indian guide

One of the biggest piercings I saw

"Just here, texting with an arrow piercing my cheeks, no big deal"

What a Wonderful World

       What a wonderful world, what a wonderful country! I love Malaysia and today I feel especially happy to be here. I feel almost in a dream waking up in this place and coming down to find my amazing family. I couldn't have asked for better.

      The reason I am so giddy and joyful today is because today was a holiday, so no school!!!! It was the prophet Mohammed's birthday (Muhammad is believed to be the last prophet and his birthday is the 12th day of the Islamic month of Rabbi' al-awwal) as well as the Indian celebration of Ponggal. Pongal is celebrated by the Tamil people and it is on the last day of the Tamil month. It is celebrating the last day of the harvest and is usually 4 days. Pongol in Tamil means overflowing. 

      I celebrated Pongol and Mohammed's birthday today by going on an exciting quest for a crown with Nicholas (the guy who takes me to church). It was surprisingly hard to find one. By a crown I don't mean anything fancy, I just wanted a cheap plastic crown like the ones little girls use to play dress up. The reason I wanted one was for something special that I will later reveal. Anyway after searching the whole entire mall, I finally found one! After accomplishing my mission we went for lunch at a small Chinese shop nearby. It was alright, it wasn't the best I've had but after my exhausting adventure, anything would do. After I was nice and full with my noodle soup, it was still pretty early. My parents said I didn't have to be home until 6 pm so we decided to go out for karaoke. Usually I don't sing, it's not that I don't want to its just that I'm extremely shy so when I have the microphone in front of me, nothing comes out. As much as I try I just can't. Today was different though, I guess it was because it was just me and Nicholas and not a big group. Before I knew it I was singing at the top of my lungs not caring if I sounded good or bad. It was so awesome! I had so much fun. 

      I made it home at around 5 pm and no one was home yet because they went to Pontian (their kampung or hometown). I decided to go for a swim. I don't really know how to swim but my host dad is giving me lessons so I practice what he taught me so far. While I was in the pool my parents and little sister got back home. My little sister, excited to see me in the pool jumped in with me and we had a tickling war. Afterwards my host mom made some yummy crab for dinner. It was delicious. Today was all in all a great day. I'm so glad I didn't have to go to school today.

My beautiful crown :)

Mid Stay Camp

     This week was our mid stay camp. Our batch was split into two groups though so I did not get to see everyone. but I did see people I haven't seen in a while. It was really great. We had it in Sekin Fisherman Village Hotel & Resort, Sekinchan Selangor. It was very nice because it was right by the sea and there was a watch tower where we could climb and have an awesome view. Unfortunately we couldn't actually swim in the sea because there were rocks so it wasn't actually a beach. Nonetheless it was really fun because we had a lot of games and activities planned out. There was a lot of dancing and singing as well which made it all the more fun. We also had plenty of free time to talk and catch up with people who we don't often get to see. 
      We had a surprise on our second day. We were taken to a kuey (Malay cookies) factory in the kampung (village) surrounding the resort. We got to see traditional cookies being made and we even got to make some ourselves. The best part was we got to taste each one. The kuey was just out of the oven so it was really yummy. Time flew by so quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go our separate ways.  In the end it was really sad to say goodbye to everyone because we didn't know when we would see each other again, but it did bring a lot of us closer together. 

"Everyday starts with a sunrise, but it's what we do before it sets that matters" K Mcgraw

Packing kuey

some really awesome girls ;) 

Margarita and Pablo enjoying the free food :)

"Never dance in a puddle when there is a hole in your shoes (it's always best to take your shoes off first)"- John D. Rhodes

 

AFSers 

What we all want in life: to travel,  fall in love, and to be happy :)

Happy Holidays

     I thought that I was going to be very homesick and maybe even a little depressed this year over the holidays because it was my first time being so far away from home. Surprisingly though, I did npt really miss home too much because I was having so much fun. My chapter president arranged for us, all four students in the Johor chapter and 6 from Kedah, to stay with a Catholic host family for             Christmas. From the 24^th –28^th I was placed with a lovely host family that attend the same church that I go to. Another Italian exchange student named Selva was also placed in the same family which made it more fun. Before I left my host family to go to the Christmas family, I hung up Christmas stockings for each one and put their names on it. Inside were small gifts and some sweets. It wasn’t much but it was the best I could do. I hung them up in the middle of the night so that they could wake up and see that “Santa” had come. They are Muslim so they do not celebrate Christmas, but I still wanted to give them something because I love them and appreciate all that I have done for me.

      From the minute that I met my Christmas host family they were so warm and kind to me and Selva. On the 24^th of December we went to mass at 4 pm instead of the traditional mass that ends at midnight because we have babies in the family. One of them was only one year old and the other was two and they were both equally as adorable. They would call us jie jie Jackie and jie jie Selva (jie jie means older sister in Chinese). Afterwards we went to a resort that they owned where we had a small party with turkey and spaghetti. We spent practically the whole night singing Christmas carols because they had karaoke. The following day, on the 25^th we stayed home but we had a lot of visitors. We had two groups of visitors. Some came over for lunch and some for dinner. All of the family and friends were very nice and kind to us. At the end of the night we played games just like some that I would play in the US involving Christmas presents.

Christmas tree at the mall

The Stocking I made my Family 

The resort where we celebrated Christmas Eve

The two youngest playing on stage 

Maxine, the youngest sister

Selva and I at Legoland

     My Christmas celebration was pretty much a lot like how I would have spent it in the U.S. All the family gets together and eat. Only the food we eat back home is very special. We eat tamales on Christmas because I am Salvadoran. We usually only eat these tamales on Christmas because they are very difficult to make, they require an entire day to make and my mom and my aunts will still be cooking through the night. Sometimes they won’t finish until 2 or 3 in the morning. Also I am not going to really celebrate New Year’s because school starts on the 1^st of January. I guess the start of a new year is not that important here.

Visiting a Buddhist temple

All my host sisters and Selva 

Trip to Hat Yai, Thailand

     This weekend I went on a trip to Thailand with another exchange student from Austria and her . whole host family. I had such a great time even though the journey there was exhausting. I spent 4 hours on the road to KL and right after another hour and a half to Tapah Road in Perak. Upon arriving at the train station Anne, the Austrian exchange student was waiting for me. I was mildly dissapointed to see she was alone and that there was no car waiting to take us because that meant I had to walk with my bags. Fortunately, it wasn't that far of a walk. It was less then ten minutes and on the way Anne kind of briefed me about her family and her village so that I sort of new what to expect. It was certainly different then what I'm used to. The house was small and cozy and there was a lot of Buddhist statues around the house. I was a little tired but I still agreed to let Anne show me around the village. The rest of the houses were even smaller then Anne's and there was the palm oil plantation very close to the house. After the little tour we went for a run in a nearby field and then bought some food for dinner at the bazaar.
     At around 10 pm the bus came to pick us up from the house. Most of the family was already on. The bus was very cold even though I was wearing a thick long sleeve and a sweater and shawl on top, it still wasn't enough. The buses get very very cold at night. We didn't arrive to Thailand until around 8 in the morning. Partly because we made a few stops before for breakfast and to shop at the duty free store near the border. Also, it was very crowded at the border so when we had to go through customs there was a very long queue.
     Once we got there, the Thai Chinese tour guide lady took us to some Buddhist temples, a few shops and then for lunch. It was around 4 when we finally got to the hotel. I was so relieved because I had spent most of the time travelling. In one day I went from the very South of Malaysia all the way to Northern Malaysia into Thailand. I rested for a little, but I was too excited because we were right in the city in a new country I have never been before. I wanted to explore. So me and Anne went down and walked the street of Hatyai. I bought a few souvenirs and we bought some kuey from a lady in the street. It was a little frustrating though how things were so overpriced for us because we're foreigners.
     The next day we went to a couple more Buddhist temples and then we went to a camp were we could ride elephants. I was so excited to be able to ride an elephant because well its not every day one gets the chance to ride an elephant. It was a little upsetting though to see how they treat the elephants, the trainers would jab them with sharp sticks and some were chained. Also while we were on the ride, the man handling the elephant offered us some necklaces and bracelets made out of ivory. I got a little angry at that.
      The next stop was lunch right next to the South China see. Afterwards we went to a park where they had a huge dragon spitting out water into the sea. Then we went to a very old town where we couldn't go in with the bus because the roads were too narrow. Some of the buildings there are over a hundred years old.

People trying to get coins into the belly of the statue

Praying

Monk that has been dead for many years

The dragon is a tunnel to get to the top of the hill

Inside a dragons mouth

Anne and I before the elephant ride

Ice cream with egg yolk

We go to keep the cups as souvenirs

. We had to go in a different vehicle. We got to try ice cream topped with raw egg yolk and coco powder. It was actually pretty good, you could hardly even taste the yolk. We got to keep the little ceramic pots that held the ice cream as souvenirs. The trip was pretty fun and I got to know Anne a lot more so it was definitely worth the long, tiring journey to and from Thailand.