Reception Venues

The top two photos are of Tamarind Springs Restaurant where we will have the Kuala Lumpur reception on December 9th. The restaurant is surrounded by green jungle on almost all sides which gives it a wonderful intimate feeling. It's also on a hill and open to breezes so it stays cool naturally rather than exposing people to air conditioner drafts. The menu is Indo-Chinese rather than Malaysian. The restaurant has consistently won awards and is ranked in the top 100 in KL.



The bottom picture is where we will hold the reception in Kuching on December 8th. It is a gallery in the parish hall of the church where we will hold the ceremony. We chose this spot because it is pleasant, casual and also convenient for the older members of Leo's family. The food here will be more Malaysian. We'll definately have some Kuching delicacies such as, seafood, fish and wild fern salad.

Getting fit at the National University of Steps

A popular name for NUS around campus is the National University of Steps. The campus is situated over a series of hills. All of the buildings on campus go up and down to accomodate the terrain. Many of my classes next semester will be in the Faculty of Engineering. They have about 10 buildings all linked by covered walkways and staircases. It's a bit like an MC Escher painting. Today I went looking for the discussion room I'll be using for tutorials. I went up some stairs that climbed a hillside to the engineering canteen on the ground floor of one building. I went out the other side, up some more stairs and ended up on the 4th floor of Engineering Building 1. After going along an outdoor walkway, I ended up on the 6th floor of Engineering 1A. Down another a small flight of stairs and I found a cafe on the 2nd floor of Engineering 2. I gave up looking for the classroom by myself and stopped to have lunch. On the way back, I got lost and went up and down 4 more flights of stairs to reach my office out-of-breath.

In Malaysia, I drove almost everywhere because buildings are spread out like in the US and there are seldom sidewalks or other safe places to walk. My first week here in Singapore felt like the first few days of a backpacking trip -- my feet swelled, blisters developed, knees ached and I was often winded. Now during the second week, my muscles and joints are no longer complaining and I'm not as often out-of-breath. The National University of Steps is making me fit after the soft life in Malaysia.

Wedding Dates and Venues Finalized

On my last weekend in Malaysia, Leo and I finalized our wedding dates and venues. Here's the low-down for all of you who are planning to fly in.

December 4th Leo and I fly to Kuching for the wedding rehersal and registration.

December 8th 11:00am wedding ceremony at St Joseph's Church in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia with a lunch buffet afterwards in St Joseph's Gallery.

December 9th evening reception at Tamarind Springs restaurant in Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia. Ampang is a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, the capitol.

If you would like to come earlier or later and visit with us, arrange your tickets so you fly in or out of Singapore. My new apartment has 2 spare bedrooms, so you are welcome to stay with us.

Moving! New Job!

There has been a lot of changes in the past few months -- getting engaged in April and at the end of this month, I'll be moving from Malaysia to Singapore to take a new job. I'll be working at Singapore's National University(NUS). It's been ranked among the top 20 universities in the world by The Times of London and among the top 3 in Asia by Newsweek. I have always wanted to work in a university, but it is often very difficult to get the first job. Three years at NUS should open many doors for me.

I will be a lecturer there at the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC). Most of my students will be non-Singaporean undergrads and graduates who have enough English to pass NUS's initial exam but not enough to earn a degree in their disciplines. The Centre also hosts conferences and publishs a journal. So, there will an opportunity for me to continue to conduct research and perhaps get published again. I start at CELC on 2 July. If you would like to see more about where I will work, you can look at the NUS website at www.nus.edu.sg/celc.

Being in Bali

I'm on a sort of working holiday during the school break in Malaysia. A friend of mine has done volunteer work here for the East Bali Poverty Project for the past 3 years. EBPP works with a group of very isolated hamlets on slopes of one of the biggest volcanoes on Bali. The Indonesian government didn't know of the hamlets' existence until the late 1990s. As a result, the people there had no schools, health care or access to the outside world. Some hamlets had an almost 50% infant mortality rate and a high rate of mental retardation. The mental retardation was mostly caused by iodine deficiency. The people grew only corn and cassava. Cassava hinders the body's ability to absorb iodine.

EBPP has been showing the villagers new farming techniques to prevent erosion, irrigate and fertilize organically. They have also introduced new crops such as tomatoes, spinach and potatoes. All of the children and women of child-bearing age receive iodine supplement tablets and they have been educating the villagers about bacteria, parasites and how to prevent them. The villagers also had trouble with water. In the rainy season there was too much and in dry season there was too little. They built a series of reservoirs to store and manage it. You can see more of their work and projects on their website at http://www.eastbalipovertyproject.org/.

Some of the villages requested EBPP to set up schools for the children since the nearest ones were a 3-4 hour walk. The children have 1 hour a week for English and this is where I am helping the foundation. The children have such little knowledge of the outside world that most of the English teaching resources available wouldn't be suitable for them. The children don't know about modern conveniences such as TV or telephones. They don't really understand concepts like hobbies or occupations. Nobody in their village has the time or resources to devote to hobbies and everyone they know is a farmer. The villages and the foundation wants them to have some knowledge of English so that the children can communicate with foreign donors, fill out forms and read simple things such as an instruction pamphlet or the directions on a bottle of medicine. My plan is to help the education team plan a syllabus to organize what the children should be learning over an extended period of time and to help them make their own textbooks and other classroom aids.

So far, it has been very interesting to think about ways the teachers can overcome the special problems they face in the villages. So interesting that I don't mind missing out on the typical tourist activities here on Bali.

Holiday on Redang Island

At the end of April, Leo and I took a 4 day holiday to visit the east coast of West Malaysia, specifically we headed to Redang Island off the state of Terengganu. We left after lunch on a Sunday for the 4-5 hour drive. It actually took us much longer because of a heavy downpour that slowed traffic near Kuala Terengganu (KT). KT is the capitol of Terengganu, which is considered part of the Malay heartland and is one of the more conservative states in Malaysia. We checked into a budget hotel in the center of town and after we dried off we set out to sample the seafood and see what kind of nightlife KT offers. In an essentially dry state, the nightlife consists of sitting in cafes until late drinking coffee or tea and snacking. The rain and the fact that Sunday in Terengganu is the first working day of the week didn't keep people at home.

The next day we woke up early to catch the boat to Redang. The seas were choppy and the sky overcast. The weather would hold for our entire trip, making this the one snorkeling vacation that wouldn't send me home sunburned. Our resort was a budget one -- clean but without too many amenities. We spent most of our time snorkeling -- going out once on the first day and twice more on the second day. The seas there were full of fish. We rented an underwater camera the second day and you can see some of the photos if you click on photo albums under Links on the side bar. There was much more than you can see in the pictures. It was difficult to keep the camera steady in the waves so many of the pictures came out blurry. The third morning at Redang we caught the boat back to the mainland after breakfast.

We took the inland highway back which cut through small villages and oil palm plantations. Cows, chickens and monkeys wandered along the sides of the road. We stopped frequently to sample and buy some local delicacies, such as keropok (chips made from fish, prawns or squid) and dodol (a taffy-like sweet made from brown coconut syrup). We also stopped for lunch at a roadside stall. There were several fire department vehicles parked along the road there. We figured if the place was popular with the local fire department, it would do well for us. It served very traditional Malay food and proved to be one of the best meals of our entire trip. The girls running were unaccustomed to serving many white tourists. I think they were surprised that I could not only eat Malay food but that I cleaned my plate. We arrived back to Bentong in mid-afternoon. I had only two working days until the weekend. My relaxed post-beach holiday state made those two days seem like nothing.

Santa Singh

One of my good friends here in Bentong died last month. He and his wife, Anthea, were some of the first friends I made. I met them almost accidentally in a coffee shop the first week I was in Bentong. They invited me along to their Sunday evening Scrabble game at Ted Miles' house, another friend. I have been playing Scrabble almost every Sunday ever since. Santa almost always got both v's and at some point in the game would have an excessive amount of vowels. Santa was a very kind man. He was a peacemaker who smoothed out other's rough edges or bridged gaps of misunderstanding. Ted, Anthea and I still play Scrabble every Sunday. I'll remember Santa whenever we sit down together, especially whenever I draw 2 v's or 3 i's.