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 :)