We Made It

           Approximately 37 hours and 4 separate flights later, we have traveled halfway across the world and find ourselves in Penang, Malaysia. Can’t say I’m eager to do that trip again, especially since the cankles due to flight swelling of my ankles and feet have yet to subside. It’s all good though, because we made it safe and sound.

I’ve heard the first two weeks are the hardest for studying abroad, and I can definitely see it. It’s been very overwhelming. Thrust into a completely new place with new culture, we’ve been given a whirlwind tour of the large campus, went shopping for essentials at the mall, given various orientation talks, connected to wifi, and were assigned to a dorm room, called “hostels” here. Shouts out to everyone who made it into my picture collage, it made the janky room a little homier. No AC in the dorms is a struggle, but windows wide-open and large overhead fan seem to help.

For once in my life I wished classes started already. I have to wait until Monday. For now, it’s just orientation. I’m such a schedule person that I’m craving some routine, especially since everything else is so new. Eating out for the first time was a success though! No idea what I ordered but it was some sort of delicious noodle and chicken dish. The drink was recommended to me, and tasted just like cold chocolate milk. Yumm! Definitely could get used to the food and how cheap it is. I can get approximately 3 ringgits for 1 US dollar, so I have essentially tripled my money. Combine that with a 5ish ringgit cost for dinner, and I’m like yesssss!

The island is quite beautiful. There are large forested hills and when we can see the water, it’s a lovely shade of blue. It is however, a metropolitan type city, so the bustle and hustle is real. There are a lot of buildings, shops, and apartments, and traffic always seems to be heavy. It is quite the change from small town St. Peter. The campus is large, and so confusing. Incredibly different from small GAC. We have to take busses to class! Which reminds me, I still have to figure that out…

I was feeling a bit out of sorts, and completely tired after dinner the first day when me and a couple other girls decided to walk. We came upon an outdoor track near our hostel, which had a men’s soccer team practicing inside. We couldn’t go in yet, because we need student IDs, but we could look from outside. Many people were running around and I instantly felt better. I’m such an endorphin junkie, I wanted to go for a run sooo bad (and hopefully meet the soccer boys). That’s my plan for as soon as possible, and I was grateful to see some women wearing shorts which means I don’t have to die of heat stroke wearing pants while running.

In summary, I don’t quite know what I’m doing, where things are, or what I got myself into. I’m excited (and anxious) to become acquainted with the area, meet some people, and settle into a routine.