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 :)