A new public enemy #1

I'm sorry that I've been bad about posting this week. We've been staying pretty busy, and haven't gotten around to it until tonight. Last weekend I wrote that we were going to Batu Feringgi, and area of Penang that is on the northern side of the island. On this part of the island you can find a lot of hotels, beaches, and tourists. We started out our adventure by going to a butterfly garden. Glenn seemed the most excited out of all of us to go there, but to my surprise, it was really fun. Not only are there beautiful butterflies everywhere, but they had some cool exhibits that included turtles (Evelyn's favorite animal), scorpions (my least favorite animal), and snakes. There were also plenty of tanks that had all sorts of creepy, crawly bugs in them. Evelyn had a blast taking it all in.

After the butterfly garden, we went looking for a beach. Evelyn had never been to the ocean before, so we were excited to see how she would like it. She loved playing in the sand (she even let us bury her up to her stomach), and enjoyed swimming in the water with Glenn and me. The beach spot wasn't perfect (there were some jet skiers, horse riders, and para sailors all around) but Evelyn seemed to have fun. The worst part of it all was that as I was getting out of the water, I brushed up against a jellyfish that had swam nearby. It only stung my leg a little bit, but it hurt a lot. Glenn was gracious enough to volunteer to pee on my leg to relieve the pain, but I opted out and just dealt with it for about an hour until it stopped hurting. Not a great experience for my first trip to the ocean in Malaysia, but we still had fun and I would definitely go back again.

After swimming we found some dinner and went to the night market. After about 7:00, the streets fill up with vendors selling anything you can imagine. We had a lot of fun looking at all they were selling, and buying a few things here and there (I got an "authentic" Gucci belt for only $5!). I am looking forward to going back to that part of the island another time. We saw more tourists there than we had seen the rest of our trip, and it was nice for a change not to get stared at where ever we go.

During the week, Laura, the kids, and I went to a Buddhist temple called Kek Lok Si. We have seen various temples around town, but most aren't much bigger than our apartment.  Kek Lok Si on the other hand sits on top of a hill and was much bigger than I ever expected it to be.  We had a lot of fun looking at all of the different rooms and statues, we only wished we knew more about the history of the Buddhist religion. We've already talked about going back with Glenn and Zach (Laura's husband) and taking a guided tour (Glenn says he could lead the tour, but I think he's full of it).  The temple was absolutely beautiful, and the view from the top of the pagoda (pictured on the left) was one of the most spectacular I've seen since arriving on the island.

You may be wondering about the title of this weeks blog: A new public enemy #1. If you can remember, my old nemesis was the rooster that lives outside of our building that insists on crowing all day long. I have somehow learned to sleep through the crowing, so although it's still annoying, I've found something else that is bugging me even more. The other day I found a gecko that has decided to inhabit our kitchen. Today was the second day that I saw it, and I was not happy to see that it found my counter top. Glenn thinks it's funny to watch me jump around and scream every time I see it, but I am not so amused by it.  Move over rooster, you're now #2.

New Public Enemy #1 (aka Spike)

Durian and other things...

Ever since Glenn first travelled to Malaysia, he's been obsessively talking about this strange fruit called durian. He would always tell me about how terrible it smelled, and that you couldn't drink alcohol after eating it (because supposedly you would die). Despite all of these downsides, he would still eat it, and seemed to enjoy it more and more every time. Since our arrival, Glenn has been insisting that Evelyn and I try it before the end of the durian season (end of August). He finally won the battle on Sunday by insisting that the smell was worse than the taste (the smell- to which I can attest - is so bad that it isn't allowed in most hotels and apartment buildings!). With an onlooking crowd of Malaysians, who looked amused at seeing 2 Americans who clearly didn't understand what they were doing, we ate the durian. Okay, I should say that Glenn ate the durian. I took one bite, and decided that that was plenty. Evelyn took 2 bites, and then spit it all out. By the way, Glenn was wrong, the taste is definitely worse than the smell! 

 

On a brighter note, Laura, our American neighbor, has been scouting out some local parks and playgrounds, and has been kind enough to take Evelyn and me along with them. We went to a great playground on Thursday that looked like a castle. Evelyn had a blast playing in it with her new friends. The only problem is, it's so hot in the day, that you can't play outside too long without being soaked in sweat. After playing there, our air conditioned apartment felt great!

Tomorrow we get to go to a butterfly garden (Glenn says it's for Evelyn, but I think that he's more excited to see it than she is). After the butterfly garden, we're heading off to find a beach and swim in the ocean for a few hours (we're excited to see what Evelyn thinks of the salt water) and then to a local night market. We'll make sure to post some pictures and stories about it next time.

Finally, Glenn wanted me to include one last picture that he took today when we were shopping for diapers.  He said Willy and Andrew would really appreciate it... 

The Apartment

Well our shipment finally arrived and the world is a brighter place.  While nothing can truly compare to home, at least our situation is manageable.  We thought we would share a little information about our living arrangements.

The apartment has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (so anyone who happens to be in the area is more than welcome to stay in the guest room).  Our kitchen has a microwave, refrigerator, and range top, but no oven.  I have to continually stop myself from wanting to bake cookies.  The only weird thing about the kitchen is that the door leading to a small balcony where the washing machine is doesn't close all the way.  We keep the kitchen door shut so as not to waste the cool air and pay the price for being eco-conscious by having to cook in a hot Malaysian room (but Al Gore would be proud).

We have tried cooking a few dinners, but there are several food stands within walking distance of our apartment and we have begun exploring the local flavor.  So far we have stuck to recognizable parts of the chicken and have been pleasantly surprised.  Glenn likes to pretend he knows what he is ordering, but I swear half the time he just points to the menu and says, 'that'.

We were lucky enough to meet another American couple living two floors above us.  They have two boys and will be living here for 1 year.  They seem like a very nice family and this will hopefully make the hours Glenn is at work pass quickly.

Public Enemy #1

We were finally able to download the pictures off our camera.  If you need more pictures of Evie, check my facebook page.  One last thing, we managed to set up our webcam and create a skype account.  Our user name is GlennKateEvie and the best time to try and chat with me would be your night (our morning).  I can't always promise I'll be signed into skype, but I'll try my best.  That's all I have for now.  Until we talk again...

Week 1 in Malaysia

Hello again everyone! We hope you're all doing well back in the states. We've been in our new apartment for a few days and are finally starting to get settled in.

Evelyn is finally back on track with her sleeping. She spent the last few nights waking up at 4:00 am and refusing to go back to sleep, even though she was exhausted. This morning she finally slept in until 7:30 am (yay!) and she'll hopefully continue that pattern. We still haven't received the rest of our luggage that was sent 3 weeks ago. The last we heard it was out of Thailand and now going through Malaysian customs. I'm not sure when we'll finally get it, but we're definitely looking forward to it. We each only have about 3 changes of clothing, so I've been doing lots of laundry. We have most of Evelyn's toys in the missing luggage, so for now she has 3 toys to play with during the day, one of them being a plastic water bottle that she carries around with her everywhere and takes turns putting on the cap and then taking off the cap.

The evil rooster is still waking us up every morning, and insists on crowing all day long.

It's pretty hot here in Malaysia, although we're lucky enough to have an air conditioned apartment and a big pool downstairs that we can use. We walked to a mall the other day (less than a mile away) and by the end of the trip we were dripping with sweat. We've been warned that in February it gets really hot, whatever that means.

Today is our 3 year anniversary. Glenn asked me the other day if I 3 years ago I would have imagined we would be living in Penang and I could honestly tell him 'no'. For dinner tonight, Glenn's treating me dinner at the... A&W Rootbeer restaurant (what can I say, I'm pretty easy to please).

Once our shipment comes in, we will get our webcam set up and then be able to get onto skype.  We can't wait to 'see' you guys soon.

We've arrived!

Hello everyone!
So after 20 hours flying halfway across the world, we arrive in Penang, Malaysia.  Okay, lets not kid ourselves, two thirds of you reading this thing are only interested in one thing, so let's give the people what they want:

Evelyn did pretty well on the flight.  She decided to stay up for the first 9 hours of the flight between Minneapolis and Japan, but then crashed, thanks in part to a small dose of Benedryl.  She did much better on the next leg (Japan to Singapore) and went right to bed in the Singaporean hotel.  We can't believe how many people smile and wave at her everywhere we go.  Of course she plays her part well and grins back playfully (totally a Geyer thing).  She seems to be back on a normal sleep schedule for the most part, which has helped make the transition that much more bearable.  The only problem is that she has been getting little bumps all over her body.  Glenn has convinced me it's not bed bugs, and the leading theory is hives (diagnosed via webmd).  I tried coloring all the dots with a blue sharpie so I could see if any new dots were appearing.  Glenn thought she looked even worse and that the locals would think she was contagious (his laughing did not help the matter).  I will post pictures of the bumps later and see if you have any better ideas on what could be causing them.

Glenn has to go to work tomorrow.  I'm not sure what Evie and I will do yet, maybe we'll go hunt down the rooster that woke me up this morning and make some chicken soup.  The weather is hot and humid.  Fortunately our apartment has air conditioning (I am wearing my MN sweatshirt right now because we have the air turned down so much) and they have a pool we can use.  We have already been to the nearby mall twice this weekend.  I felt much better after I ordered a Starbucks coffee and walked around the GAP store.  Glenn tells me the grocery store has Oreo cookies, but I have yet to find them.

The box containing our camera charger was accidentally shipped to Thailand, we we won't get it until later in the week.  Once that gets here I'll start posting lots of pictures.  We miss you all and hope to hear from you soon.