Saya Suka Makan!

 

I like eating! A friend here told me that she is learning Indonesian since it is very similar to Malay, and that has helped her to recognize words, so I decided to try the same thing. 

After 8 days here, the one thing that I can say with certainty is that the food is a delight! The flavors are amazing (and unique), it's the right amount of spicy, and it is soooo cheap! I'm experiencing a reverse sticker shock. 

This first week has been an overwhelming mixture of sights, sounds, smells and adjustments. The longest leg of our flight (16 hours) was decent, and I got 7 hours of sleep (only periodically interrupted by turbulence).  

We could follow the progress of our flight across the world on the TVs on the back of the seats.

See our yummy snack of Mushroom Potato Puffs!

The humidity will take some getting used to, but AC is everywhere, and if you stay out of the direct sun, it's manageable. 

I want to be honest about my experience here, and even though it's embarrassing, I have determined that I am not a good traveler. I didn't realize how overwhelmed I would be or how exhausting it would feel to not know what I was going to be eating (or when). 

On our third day here, we toured most of the eastern island with our relocation assistant. We climbed in and out of a van for the better part of 7 hours, learning what the "naughty" monkeys look like and how to avoid having them steal our food or anything shiny, which temples we could visit (and what attire was appropriate for each), driving through chaotic traffic on the narrow roads, stopping in a random part of Georgetown to watch the pop-up Chinese opera for Ghost month (see Erik's post), then walking around the gigantic mall to get our new phone plan set up. 

I had a blood sugar crash in the phone store and had to walk over to a bookstore several shops down with Christine, our relo agent, to buy some type of soda, Lays potato chips and strawberry flavored Pocky (though it has a different name here). I didn't know how to pay, even though I had some ringgit (Malaysia's currency), and Christine quickly stepped in to take care of it. We walked back to the phone store, where Erik was still working on getting the plan going, and I sat at a table with sweat dripping down my back (even though the mall was a very comfortable temperature) and ate potato chips and pocky and wondered whether I could ever adjust. It didn't help that I was still fighting the virus that Erik shared with me the week before we moved, but that felt like a low point to me. 

I realize how much I curate my daily activity around food, schedules and routines and how much comfort that brings me. This foray into so much unknown is very challenging, but I'm excited to see how brave I can be. The great news is that I am trying lots of new foods and was able to go to a grocery store to pick up snacks to help keep my blood sugar more regulated. 

This made me laugh hysterically

 these are some sort of chestnut thingie

not sure what these are actually made of

 Not sure if it's a double swallow because it takes twice to get it down?

I didn't try this at all...

On Saturday, we drove to Erik's employee's birthday party (it was 90 min away, across the bridge in Kulim). We arrived at this Muslim family's home right as the torrential rain stopped and the sun came out, creating a wave of humidity unparalleled to anything I've experienced before. The lamb was roasting on the spit

and the caterers were still putting out food on tables set up in the carport (most houses here have a covered space in the front of their home for parking their cars). I felt so discombobulated, but Azrul and his wife Amira ushered us into their home and quickly made us feel welcome. The women all had long-sleeved multiple layers of dresses and headscarves (not a bead of sweat was visible) and were smiling and friendly. Amira continued to bring us food to try, and I'm proud to say that I tried nearly everything (I elected to avoid the fish balls on a stick). The tuna fish soup wasn't my favorite (I just took one bite of that), but the spicy peanut sauce on white triangles of some kind of starch was pretty delicious. 

One of the things that I loved about being there was that no one stared at me; they were just accepting and friendly, even though I was dressed very differently and obviously wasn't from there. The drive home took us through a huge date palm plantation with jungle views, and it was just crazy to think that I was 8,643 miles from my home. Oh, and Amira sent us home with four bags of food for each family (another expat family drove there with us), and I had to hold it all together so that the sauces wouldn't spill while Erik was driving on narrow, winding roads. 

I was so exhausted when we walked in the door at 6 pm that I actually turned down an invitation to go get ice cream with another expat family that we met. This ice cream is supposed to be amazing: bingsu. It will probably get its own post. 

This is significantly longer than I planned on writing, but regardless of anyone reading it, it is a great way to document this experience, as I know that the memories will fade. I'm still falling into bed exhausted most nights and can't seem to shake a lingering heaviness in my lungs, but I'm proud of myself for trying so many new things.