Everything New!

Finally I got the chance to update!  Day 10 in Malaysia, here in our hotel lobby, by the pool side and enjoying free wireless internet from the nereby Chinese resto…

Everything passed like blur after our visa was granted.  Last minute shopping, dinner with former officemates, and of course attending the UPLB FebFair… I knew it will be a looong time before I could have the chance to visit elbi again so I indulged with the moment.  After that visit to Los Banos, indeed I am ready to leave the country behind.  Oh and thanks to Manfred and Ryan for the ride to LB (",) Nakapagreminisce ako sa PCCARD road… hahaha!

Also I made sure my brother is OK with our setup… I've been long considering bringing him here in the future but I have more cons than pros in the idea.  I have nothing against the Malay culture (in fact I admire their superb self-discipline here) but the parenting Pinoy in me prevailed. So for the moment my resolve is for him to continue and finish highschool in Philippines — I don't want him to miss the fun of adolescent years in our native land, and I want his upbringing the Pinoy style.  Too bad I will not be able to watch him receive his elementary diploma next month… I've been waiting for his graduation day since I started providing for his schooling and unfortunately I could not make it.

Feb 21 - After all those final meetings with my friends,  me and four more colleagues boarded that Malaysia Airline airbus to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).  Our local destination — Cyberjaya.

I would describe my Day 1 here as pure culture shock.  I knew I had made ample research about life here months before I even accepted the job but maybe it wasn't enough.  Worse, we only had each other as shock absorber, as we don't know anyone in particular yet — and we are hoping to cross paths with some Pinoy but with no luck.  I will not deny that I was disappointed at how things greeted our arrival… though things got better after that.  We arrived in the middle of Chinese New Year holiday… which is celebrated for the whole week, thus the town was so silent when we arrived.  Our apartment is equipped with a kitchen so we could cook our own food — so our primary goal then is to buy groceries.  So off we went to the nearby groceries, with only some brochures to guide us.  That is how we found out that this town has no one-stop shop.  This town's very own "Street Mall" has some resto… and a 24-hour convenience store and that's it!  Thus after some struggling with the locals on how to find a supermarket, and waiting for the bus… we found a mall in the neaby city Putrajaya.  It really felt weird seeing people looking like Pinoy but don't speak the same language as yours.  And though I knew beforehand that Malaysian cars drive in the left side of the road (wheel is in the right hand),  we find it hard to adjust ourselves on where to look whenever we cross their streets. The difference in culture is so evident that I missed home too soon.

Day 2 and Day 3 was a bore — except for the pool.  The place was so silent and we haven't met anyone yet…  Thank goodness this hotel has a pool!  Big and clean and the water is not cold.  I don't know how to swim but what the heck, i like to take a dip too hihi!  Also it was in the poolside that we had our first Pinoy encounter, who happened to live just above our floor.  Exchanges on frustrations was inevitable of course, glad we met him!  He shared with us some very useful tips on which bus to take, where to shop, and what sites to see.

Day 4 was our first (and later proved successful) attempt to go to Kuala Lumpur.  We took the KLIA Transit from Putra Sentral and reached KL Sentral after 20minutes.  Again, armed with only a map that is free to anyone from our hotel lobby, we found our way to a catholic church to attend mass.  It was the Cathedral of St. Mary, near the park Dataran Merdeka.  Dataran is like Malaysia's version of Rizal Park.  Feeling confident about ourselves on finding our way and getting there by bus (we did not ride their teksi*, we are determined to go there by the way of the bus), we walked from the church after the mass into the shopping malls nearby.  We took another monorail going to KLCC, and then reached this mall called Suria.  Window shopping sure is fun!  And on our way out, we then realized we are already inside the Petronas… hihihi!  Anyway we didn't took the Petronas tour that afternoon, we are not in a hurry anyway.  We went home to rest for our big day in office the next day. 

I'll post more on our new office next! (",)

 * teksi is the Malaysian term for 'taxi'