My Life in Pictures!

So in typical fashion, I am avoiding working on my final papers and presentations and studying. We leave this afternoon for a homestay and I have a few free hours that I don't know what to do with. I went running, and ate breakfast, so now I think I'll give you a glimpse of places I visit here, and the hostel where I live. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but these don't do the subjects justice. But at least it's something!

This first one is a picture of my dorm room, since this picture it has gotten significantly messier! (And yes the bed is too short for me and extremely hard) Our "closets" are opposite the window and I am standing in the doorway taking the picture.

The next are a few lovely shots of our bathroom, shared with our little cluster of 5 rooms. Luckily, no one else lives near us so we get it all to ourself! I promise there's a "real" toilet too, I just don't have a picture of it. It's equally janky as the rest of the bathroom.. theres no seat!

And this is an example of the hallway we live on. We live on the top floor of our hostel, which is situated on top of a huge hill. We are literally the king of the hill. 

These are a few random pictures from around the lakes on campus (lovely green), at a typical bus stop, and then one from the stadium that I often end my runs at to do some abs.

Here are a few pictures from classes, or outside of our classrooms, and room I like to study in. I also included one of the canteen that's down the hill from my dorm as well.

These are from the complete opposite side of campus, the soccer fields. I run by them, and it takes me about 20 min to get there, if that gives you any idea how big the campus is. I don't run slow either.

I think that's all the "place" pictures I've taken so far. If I remember, I'll try and take some of the international students apartments that I frequent, or their pool which has been such a lifesaver. It's funny, looking back through my pictures, I've done a lot of really cool stuff here, and I love every picture I've taken. I haven't been crazy with my camera, nor have I been lacking, but I think the saying "you only regret the pictures you don't take" is very accurate. I'm going to try and take a lot of pictures these last two weeks. Get ready!

Happy Wesak Day!

Tuesday, May 13 all classes were canceled for the public buddhist holiday, Wesak day. Also known as Buddha's birthday! We toured around some buddhist temples in the morning, all of which were very crowded, to get a feel for the holiday.

Happy Wesak Day!

The Weekend Update

The days are winding down in Malaysia, but there is no shortage of things for me to report on. This weekend we stayed around Penang, but I still kept busy.

Friday we had the opportunity to visit and tour around a Mosque in Georgtown, and so went downtown early to visit a historical mansion first. It was a gorgeous old house, but the best part were the two chinese brides taking bridal pictures inside. So pretty. The mosque itself wasn't that great. Had to cover ourselves from head to toe, so obviously I took the purple robe and pretended I was a boxer. Watching the afternoon prayer was boring, but I guess I'm biased. I came to Malaysia with an open mind about all religions, and I find myself turned off by Islam after we learned about it. I have some serious issues with that religion.

Saturday, we woke up early and climbed Penang Hill as a group. It was about 800 meters up the hill, and some parts were incredibly steep. Per usual, I was sweating in the heat and humidity like none other. It took us about 3 hours to climb up, and then we had lunch at the tourist spots on top. The view was quite nice, but it was disappointing how cloudy it was. Feeling quite accomplished, I bought myself some ice cream and we took the cable car back down the hill. It rained for the rest of the afternoon, and I finally had a free Saturday night to hang out with my international friends.

Sunday I was lucky enough to be invited to a traditional Malay wedding. I borrowed a traditional outfit and a few of us went. It was kind of weird, as I guess this was the second day of celebrations, but we got to see the couple march in and had a traditional meal buffet style. It was cool to see, and I'm glad I went. The rest of the day was spent doing homework, and being lazy.

A Week in Paradise

Our weeklong escape from campus, with only a little biology involved, was heavenly. As with my previous vacation, I will set this up day by, with some pictures attached.

Day 1 (Friday April 25):

Travel from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang to the state of Kelantan Malysia on the East coast side of the island. It was a long, hot bus ride. Once we made it to Pasir Belanda resort, it was all worth it. This tiny resort in the middle of a Kampung has cabins in the traditional Malay style, but with AC and the nicest bathrooms we’ve had all trip. There is food cooked for us, and an infinity pool to swim in. You would never guess this place was here, and we have rented out the entirety of it.

Day 2 (Saturday):

After a delicious traditional breakfast served on the terrace overlooking a little pond and some cows, a bunch of us rented some bicycles and cycled around the area. It was a nice way to see the area, and further experience the always-fun stares and catcalls that come with being white in Malaysia. Never have I ever had so many children (and teenage boys) yell out from their small, poor houses, “hello hello!” We found a beach, practically deserted, with water that was almost too warm to be refreshing, but the prettiest blue. We made it back to the resort hot and sweaty, ready for a nice swim. Later in the afternoon, three of us took place in a traditional kite making class. They are decorative kites, not made for flying, and I’m quite proud of how it turned out! I’m skeptical about bringing it home though, so this picture may be the only thing I have. Directly after the kite making, I treated myself to a traditional Malay massage in my cabin. Oh my god heavenly. It was an hour long, and she hit every single part of my body. Exactly what I needed. After dinner, we watched the Notebook before bed. Probably one of my favorite days ever.

Day 3 (Sunday):

Another traditional Malay breakfast on the terrace this morning before we bussed into town. We stopped at a nice silversmith shop where they make the jewelry in the back room, and then sell it out front in the showroom. They got a ton of business out of us! We then went to the main market, and wandered around both the wet and dry portions of it. Mangos were delicious but the lunch we got in the food court was overpriced and pretty average. It was too hot for life though, so I was glad when we loaded up the bus to go back to the resort. I had an ice cream, and spent an hour and a half in the water at the pool and together they were day changers. Feeling refreshed, we went out to dinner as a group at a fancy restaurant. This was the best meal of the day, by far.

Day 4 (Monday):

 Western breakfast! Delicious. Then we bussed out to a secondary school in rural Kelantan, close to where our professor used to teach in the Peace Corps. We were the main event of the day, and the school pulled out all the stops. I call it the “Malaysia Red Carpet.” While the afternoon ended up near the top of top 5 sweatiest times of my life, it was also a really fun experience. We got to listen to speeches, view local handmade kites, mats, baskets, and shadow puppets, and were fed a traditional lunch while a group of students played music for us and sang. The funniest part of the whole thing was that we were the first white people most of them have ever seen, so they were absolutely enthralled by us and couldn’t stop staring. However, when we tried to take pictures with the guys, they all ran away. We were like Moses parting the seas, and always had a clear radius around us. It was quite comical how they ran. We managed to get a few pics with the guys, and the girls were much more willing, and it was an enjoyable, if hot, time by all. We continued our journey east, and made it to a small resort on the beach where we stayed the night before catching a boat to the island in the morning.

Day 5-7 (Tuesday-Thursday): Our home base was a small private beach, inhabited only by a few men who live there for about 7 months out of the year doing turtle patrol. That means every night, they watch for turtles making nests on the beach and mark the nest and the turtles, as well as data on the hatchings for scientific data. We slept in tents, for the 4 nights we were there, and spent our days snorkeling, both for pleasure and biology work. We had to complete transect and quadrant analysis of the coral reef directly in front of our beach and then write a report on our results. It wasn’t incredibly difficult, and I absolutely adore all things water so snorkeling was a real treat.

This coral reef was teeming with life, and while the coral itself wasn’t as bright as “Finding Nemo” led me to believe the fish themselves were incredible. I found Christmas Tree worms that would suck back into the coral if I got too close, and clams with brightly colored lips. My favorite was the green anemone that housed some clownfish. It was hard to find those clownfish, but such a treat once spotted. The highlight of my snorkeling experience was the two Green Sea Turtles I saw swimming gracefully in the water. The first one I saw was probably less than 10 feet away, and startled me. The second was a little further, but so beautiful swimming in the blue water.

Other than snorkeling, the other main highlight of Mak Kepit turtle beach was the turtles! The first two nights, my tent mates and I woke up to a turtle in front of our tent, using her strong front flippers to dig a nest. The second night, the turtle even tried to walk into our tent, before realizing that was a bad idea. One of the mornings, a straggling mother turtle was still digging her hole so we got to watch as she finished digging, laid her eggs, and covered them back up. They lay 80-120 ping-pong ball sized eggs each time they nest, so this poor turtle was exhausted by the time she finished all that work. It’s amazing how big these turtles are, over a meter long and half a meter wide, and how awkward they are on land compared to the water. Baby turtles though, are the cutest things ever. Another night, a nest was hatching so we watched as about 50 baby turtles emerged from the sand and scrambled their way down to the ocean… where a few sharks were already circling in wait. Only about 1 in 1000 Green Sea turtles makes it to adulthood, so they have terrible odds. I’m hoping for the best for the one I got to hold though, he’ll be the lucky one. Side note, while watching the turtles that night, I also got to watch the sky, and the distant horizon line over the ocean. There was some heat lightning lighting up the sky in the distance, and flashing gorgeous colors. Not only was that a brilliant site, the sky itself was the prettiest I've ever seen it. With so little light pollution the thousands of stars were literally glimmering. Incredible. 

The last thing we had the opportunity to do was transfer turtles eggs. There is another beach close by that the turtles also nest on, but that beach isn’t protected so poachers could potentially use it. The men on Mak Kepit watch that beach every night, and every morning they bring back the nests that were laid that night, and re-bury them on Mak Kepit. We got to help with three transfers!

Day 8 (Friday):

Free day! We paid some ringgit to get a round trip boat to the tourist beach area on Pulau Redang Island, and spent a lovely day eating, swimming, and soaking in the sun. Coming from someone who loves to be busy, it was nice for me to accept the fact that there were no plans and nothing to do and just enjoy the laziness of the day. This area had the most gorgeous water and sand beach I’ve ever seen. Pictures don’t even do it justice. The best part is that while I was laying on a tropical paradise beach, my friends back home were probably doing pre-final homework on their Thursday night. Sorry guys :)

Day 9 (Saturday):

Breaking down camp is never fun, but we were efficient and got everything done quickly. The hour long ferry back to the mainland was sad. I hate to leave the water, and the island, but I was excited to get back to a real (well as real as I have in Malaysia) bed and my friends on campus. It was a long, bumpy bus ride back across the peninsula to my home island of Penang, but we stopped at one stop that afforded us an amazing view of the country.

Overall, cannot complain one bit. My favorite trip within a trip by far, and I was sad to see it come to an end. I mostly have finals work to look forward to now.