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We are home and safe. Happy to be home in America! We are still really struggling with jet lag, but hopefully getting better everyday. It is so good to see friends and family. You were missed!

To the End of Malaysia

Well, we are packing up and getting ready to leave Malaysia. I am going to have to buy an extra suitcase to get home. Can't believe that it has been two months already!!! Crazy how fast it went by. I am ready to get back to Colorado and our Family and Friends. We are going to be sad to leave here and I'm sure there will be some tears, not only by the kids either. We said goodbye to our church Friends on Sunday and we are going to especially miss Sister Kaitlyn is the Primary President, who also taught the Sunbeams Class. She brought Cannon the cutest frog mug for his milk, and two really sweet outfits for Mya.

We are going to miss Joanne and Cho so much as well. They have really become like a 3rd set of grandparents to the kids. We are going to really miss Lyn the most. We have spent so much time with her and have really enjoyed getting to know her and having her around. Although we couldn't understand each other all of the time, we all will be sad when there is no MyLyn around, as Mya calls her.

I will miss all the culture here and the new things that I have seen every time I leave the house. I am also going to miss the pineapple. Oh, it is so good, and the way they cut it here is so beautiful. I thought it was only for show, but they do it to cut the eyes out. Brian's going to miss the food. He will be so sad to leave the Hawker stands here and come home to American Fast Food, when he needs a quick bite. Oh, the Roti Canti. Poor Brian. I will miss the people here who take extra time to say hello to my kids and pat their faces and hands. I won't miss the people who grab Mya out of my arms so they can take pictures with her.

I am not going to miss the squatting toilets, I haven't figured out how to use them without removing all my clothes. Cannon's pants get wet every time he uses one to go to the bathroom and I won't miss that either. I won't miss the red face I get every time I go outside. It will be good to not start sweating the moment I leave my bedroom.

I am looking forward to going the grocery store and not having to pay to park, and the store having the same things that I need, since the last time I was there. I am looking forward to a green salad with Ranch dressing, cold.... not wilty cause its so hot here. I am looking forward to ice water. Cannon's looking forward to Taco Bell. He asks everyday if we can go there for lunch. Mya's looking forward to her own room, without noisy people sleeping with her.

The thing I am looking the most forward to is having my feet on the ground. You can hardly go anywhere here without being up at least a few stories. I will love being able to send my kids out the back door and letting them play in the yard. I have absolutely loved the views, being up so high has offered. I have found that I am not a city girl. It's true you can't take the country out of a city girl.

Malaysia has been an absolutely fantastic experience. We have grown closer as a family. We have experienced things I never thought I would. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to come here.

Brian is a Writer!

Brian is a publisher writer! Congratulations to him. He has been asked to write some articles for the Concrete Network online. You can read his first article online at www.concretenetwork.com look for Colored Concrete in Malaysia. We are proud of him!

Durian

I finally tried Durian. Smells like hell, and tastes like hell as well. GROSS!!!! I know why it smells so bad now, because it tastes bad too. Just the fruits way of warning you not to eat it. The office ladies sent some home with Brian so we could taste it. They wrapped it in two plastic mailing envelopes, that were taped shut and in two Tupperware containers and a Safeway sack on top of that. You could still smell it when he brought it into the house. The smell is so overwhelming you can smell it when someone opens the fridge. Durian is totally banned from hotels here. Like a dog, if they catch you with one they will fine you. There is no way to hide the smell. You can even tell when your neighbors are eating it. Lyn says it is an acquired taste. I definitely have not acquired the taste. She said she had to eat it a lot before she liked it. I don't think I will try it again. Brian on the other hand want to try it all different ways to see if there is a way that he likes it as well. Good luck Brian, just don't breathe on me. :)

The Bird Park and the Ferry

This last Saturday we took Cannon and Mya to the Penang Bird Park. It's not on Penang, but they still call it that. Cannon has been asking since we got here if we could take the car boat (the ferry.) Since the Bird Park was on the main land I thought it would be a great idea to combine the two. The Ferry was pretty cool, they have like four ferry's running and so you never have to wait that long. It's free to take the ferry to the mainland which I thought was interesting. The same to go on the big bridge to the mainland. You have to pay 7.70 ringet to come back, which is a little over two dollars to take your car on the ferry. I thought that was a pretty good deal, cause when we have taken the ferry across it Lake Powell, it's always over $50.00. Granted we are usually pulling the boat, but....

We got out of the car on the way over and back, most people stay in their cars and just ride across, but Cannon wanted to climb all the ladders and go to the bottom level of the Ferry and on the very top, which I didn't let him do. But he raced all over and scared me the whole time. He thought it was awesome. He has become quite the picture taker as well. I thought the one he took of Brian and I was great. Mya thought the ferry ride just okay. She all of the sudden is very frightened of loud noises. The ferry was loud so she held Brian most of the time. She is a little tired of people asking to hold her all the time too. If she is holding on to one of us, she just puts her head on our shoulders and says, no. There is quite a bit of loud thunder here and a helicopter that flies really close to the ground, and right on the shoreline and is very loud. She will run around and yell, "Copper, copper," if she starts to hear any noise that she thinks is going to get loud. Then she wants to be picked up.

We got lost on the way to the Bird Park, cause we were following the same map, I need to get a better one, but it said we were to drive off the ferry and go in a straight line and we would be at the Bird Park. I think Brian is going to stop taking these outings with me if I don't get better directions first. He gets pretty upset and grumpy with all the driving around.

The Bird Park was pretty cool. We watched a Bird show right when we got there and they let these hawks, and eagles fly right over us. Mya loves, loves birds, so she was yelling and pointing the whole time. When Mya wants you to see something she is looking at and you're not paying attention she will slap you face and say, "look, look."

After the bird show, they let everyone come and hold all the bird in the show, which was pretty cool. They had tons of different kinds. Cannon and Mya each held one bird and then they were totally done. Mya loved to look, but didn't want them close to her. They had some little bay owls that you could pet with your finger and when you did, they would dance. It was cool, it took Cannon the whole time at the park to work up the courage to touch one, and when he did, finally, he didn't want to stop, he thought it was so funny. I am glad we went there, Cannon has been asking for a bird for a pet, and now he doesn't want one, cause they are so noisy and stinky. I agree. No birds for pets. He has been looking for another cockroach though....

The Snake Temple

We finally made it to the Snake Temple. We watched one episode of the Amazing Race before we left, because it was in Penang. Everyone kept saying you have to watch this, and we did, and Cannon wanted to go to the Snake Temple ever since and just because he saw it on TV. On the show they made the Snake Temple seem like it was crawling with snakes, and this really creeped me out, cause snakes creep me out. I was not very excited to go. I asked Cannon what he wanted to do one day and all he wanted to do was go to the Snake Temple. So when Brian got home from work we went.

We had a map, the kind you get from the mall that tells you all the fun things to do around town. SO I didn't have specific directions, so we got lost. I knew that I had seen signs for it while we were driving to the airport, so at least I knew the vicinity it was in. If you are not careful and watch the signs you shoot off the main highway here and end up heading the totally wrong way. Total side note, one night we were driving to Tesco, (which is similar to Wal-Mart except it makes Wal-Mart look like a nice place to shop.) Brian was driving and took what he thought was the off ramp to Tesco and all of the sudden we realized we were on the big bridge to the main land. Once your on there is no way to get off and change directions. Cannon was freaking out and saying, "Mom, Dad where are we going?" I told him that Dad was taking him to see the big bridge. He was like, "Thanks Dad, this is awesome!"

Anyway, the Snake Temple on the amazing race was crawling with snakes. The Snake Temple in real life has 6 plastic snakes, with all these signs saying they are pit vipers and are very poisonous. Needless to say Cannon was extremely disappointed. He kept walking around saying, "Mom, where are all the snakes." There was a beautiful garden in the back of the Temple that you could walk through. We stayed fro about 15 minutes and that was that. But every time we see a Chinese Temple Cannon says, "Look there's the Snake Temple, we found it more easily this time."

My new favorite dessert

Brian has become the hawker food connoisseur. He loves the local food and will try anything. The people in the Bomanite Office insist on bringing him all the local food to try. Me, on the other hand am not so food adventurous. I stick to the things I can pronounce or at least know what it is I'm eating. Brian doesn't care, he's to the point now where the food is in his mouth before he asks what it is. He has tried goat intestines, sheep brain, cow intestines, all kinds of squid, a ton of different kinds of fish, (head, brain, eyes, bones, scales, everything still attached.) and every kind of curry you can imagine.
One thing he has fallen in love with is an Indian bread named Roti Canai. It is a pastry like flat bread. They start out with a piece of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. The man flattens it out with his hands with ghee (which I think is melted margarine.) Then he starts to flip it around in his hands until it becomes paper thin and round like a circle. He spreads it out on the counter and folds it in onto itself, and then, folds it again into thirds and the pushes the air out with his hands. It ends up flat like a pita and he frys it on a grill til its cooked and brown like a pita. Then he takes it off the griddle and slaps it to fluff it up. That part makes me laugh! It is chewy, but it is flaky similar to a croissant, but not dry like a croissant. They serve it to you warm with a spicy lentil curry to dip the bread into. It's pretty yummy, not my favorite though.
My favorite is the same dough, they flatten it out the same way and they cook it. Then they put it on your plate so its like a tepee, and they drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top. It is called Roti Tisu, like tissue paper. Cannon and I would have eaten this all night. I was a little full cause I had eaten tandoori chicken, which is chicken they cook in these big clay pots, super hot! The chicken is bright reddish, orange. I don't know the spices they put on it, but its yummy and they serve it with a yogurt and mint sauce to dip it into.
Cannon has grown a taste for soy sauce, which he likes to dip french fries into. They also have a lot of chili sauces here, which they serve with french fries instead of ketchup. Its spicy, Brian and I like it but Cannon and Mya can't stand it. It difficult to get regular ketchup here as well. They have it at McDonald's, but most places serve this stuff they call tomato sauce, which is suppose to be ketchup, looks like ketchup. But taste like tomato and vinegar. I don't care for it very much.
McDonald's is like an upscale restaurant here. We have only found one that has a drive through. But if you buy Hawker food, we can feed our family for like 5 dollars. If we go to McDonald's, we pay like 15 to 20 dollars. They serve fried chicken here and also a rice porridge. The hamburgers are more expensive then the chicken, and you can't get anything grilled, everything is fried. You also also get a Big Mac with 4 patties and chicken sandwiches with two. They call them chicken burgers here. You can also get it delivered, they have men on motor scooters driving around. They have KFC's as well, that don't taste anything like at home. I ate there once and that was enough for me. They have Pizza Hut as well. We haven't tried it yet. We walked past it the other day and they were advertising a pizza with fish sticks on it. Yuk, I will be skipping that one as well.
One of the specialty's here is the chicken satay. Which I didn't like very much at first. But then I realized that you have to eat it with the peanut sauce and then it's pretty good. They cook a ton of Chinese food here, which isn't like American Chinese food, which I definitely prefer. Oh yeah, here's another strange thing, they eat beans for dessert. I made chili one night and they were so surprised, because they don't eat beans in savory dishes, only for dessert. They put kidney beans, and corn on their shaved ice, and its called Ice Kacang. I haven't tried it yet, but I will. They also eat noodles for dessert. I had one a couple of weeks ago, they cook the noodles in Pandan leaves (which they use pandan, like we use vanilla,) and then they serve it with brown sugar and shaved coconut on top. Nothing is very sweet, like we like it in America.





Cannon said to me the other night,"Mom, I hear a Mosque, He's calling everyone to come have a prayer with him."