Busy Couple of Days

Shelley and I leave for Langkawi at 9 pm tonight. The bus pulls out at 10 pm and we arrive at our destination at 6 am the next morning. Apparently we have 2 stops along the way. I had no idea the trip was overnight and I will guess I get zero hours sleep as I do not sleep well on any moving vehicle. I guess I can get some programming done. I also know what I will be doing once I get there. Sleeping.

The last 2 days have been kind of busy and I am looking forward to a little down time on the beach as Shelley and I finish off our first month in Malaysia. Overall, it's all been good. However, I must admit we have missed our summer vacation.

I should have some good pics of Langkawi for you early next week.

TTYL,

Jim

Met with Mentees

Each teachers gets a group of mentees that they have to meet with periodically. It is suggested that we meet every month. My mentees are all scholars which means the Malaysian government has paid for their year of study at Taylors. It also means that if they get an 80 average then they get their education paid for at the Canadian university of their choice. Needless to say this is high stakes for these students.

I get to counsel them on their choice of courses, university, etc. I also make sure they are on track, attending classes, doing well, etc. If they are not I get to rat them out to their parents. Not usually a problem with this group. Tonight I mentioned that they really should try to speak to each other in English all the time they are at Taylors. This is the only way they will become proficient.

They also have to complete 10 hours of community service and I explained what that was and how to accomplish it. They thought that was kind of cool. Speaking of cool, once our talk was over I took them all to MacDonalds and treated them to an ice cream cone (1 ringgit a cone). The only catch is they had to learn the names of all their fellow mentees and where they were from. They are all living away from home for the first time in their lives. They are all a little bit homesick at this time.

TTYL,

Jim

Monday - Hot and Muggy

Hi Folks, it's a hot and muggy Monday morning. It's a good day to be in an air conditioned lab teaching Computer Science. Probably also a good day to hit the pool at 4:30 when we get back to the condo. It looks like a quiet and uneventful Monday night and therefore a good night to try out our new DVD player and some of Shelley's newly acquired DVD's.

Student's seem to be settling in at taylor's. I read my discussion forum in BlackBoard entitled "How did the first few weeks go? The students seemed to be coping fairly well but a number expressed that they were having difficulty with the language and the number of assignments. I decided I could slow down a little bit so I will this week.

This is a short week for Shelley and I as we head off for an all expenses paid 3 day retreat at an island resort. However, we do have to make up Frida's class hours. Let's see, 4 hours of class vs 3 days on the island. Sounds like a good deal for me.

TTYL,

Jim

Let's Try Some More Pictures

The view from the top
Cable cars in the distance

They have the strangest signs.

Cable cars (duh)

The outdoor theme park.

Taylors, the stairs, no elevators.

Taylors parking lot from the stairs.

All photos from my Blackberry.

Genting Highlands

We were up early Saturday morning and had a buffet breakfast at the Sheraton for a trip down memory lane. I must admit it tasted better when it was free (Taylors put us up at the Sheraton for a week when we arrived). If you have to pay it is 50 ringgits. We then headed off in our rented Mercedes (a bit aged, actually rented from the owner of the tack shop in our building). We then climbed about 1000 metres (altitude) on the highway. When we arrived at the Genting base station we jumped on the world's fastest cable car. It is also South East Asia's longest cable car at 3.4 km. We zoomed up (yes we have pics, please be patient) and eventually arrived at the top. We are now at over 6,000 feet and the temperature is about 75 degrees. It's sunny but hazy.

Genting is home to what it described as the entertainment playground in the mountains. There are a couple of 5 star hotels and a couple of 4 star and a 3 star. The 5 stars are quite opulent. There is a casino and an outdoor and indoor them park. The parks cater to under 12 year olds and can't compete with Disney and Universal but if you had yound children they would be good. There are also lots of shops. We broke up and everyone went their separate ways to tour for a while. Two hours later I had exhausted the place and sat down for a Starbucks and read an automotive magazine to educate myself on the auto industry in Malaysia.

Malaysia has it's own automobile brand and manufacturing plant called the Proton. It seems to be quite popular but I think that is due to the fact that the government taxes every other brand at what seems to be 100%. For example, a Toyota Corolla will set you back about $44K where the equivalent Proton is about $22K. No wonder Malaysians buy Protons.

So, would I recommend Genting for the avid tourist? There was no shortage of visitors in the place and the cable car is definitely worth the 20 ringgit round trip price as the view is awesome. However, the rest of the allure is posh hotels and shopping and I was not interested as the prices were tourist inflated. The theme parks are disappointing if you have done Disney or Universal. However, if you need a break from the heat it would make a nice day outing. Take your camera.

TTYL,

Jim

Food for Thought

I think I have mentioned that we like to eat at the Asian Cafe which is a huge area of about 200 hawkers stalls that serve up all kinds of yummy Asian food. We had time to kill after our shortened schedule today so we headed off to the cafe to grab some crushed ice drinks.

I was sitting there drinking mine and noticed that at that time of day, many of the stalls have closed up shop for the day. I then noticed a nice big fat rat crawl up out of a stall, shinny up a post and enter the ceiling. I must admit he looked rather healthy so I am not concerned. He did not seem a bit concerned and somehow nor was I :-)

By the way, did I mention the size of the cockroaches here?

TTYL,

Jim

So Ends Week 3

I mentioned earlier on that today was a shortened work day so time flew by. That is except for Shelley's trip to the bank where she waited an hour for her bank card but the system was down. She now gets to go back and line up again Monday. We are hanging around the staffroom awaiting our meeting at 4 pm for our upcoming Langkowie Island PD retreat. Not sure I spelled that right so all bets are off if you google it.

After our meeting we think we will walk up to the Subang Parade, a small mall nearby and purchase a dvd player. Our landlord supplied us with one that belongs in a museum and it does not work. We tried harassing her to no avail so we will just buy one for 90 ringitts. Turns out we need one because Shelley bought about 30 bootleg dvd's and is now wanting to watch them. Copyright seems to be an unknown concept over here.

TTYL,

Jim

First Quiz - marked

Yesterday my classes took their first quiz (Knowledge) and I thought it would take them 30 minutes and it took close to an hour. I marked it last night and the majority of the students did quite well. The marks are skewed to the upper end as I have quite a few scholars in my classes. I also had some outliers at the bottom of the mark range so some of the students may want to rethink staying in the course.

A scholar is a student in Science and mathematics that the Malaysian government is paying their costs to attend Taylors. The government is trying to develop a skilled workforce in Science and Mathematics (particularly Engineering) so they do not have to be dependent on foreign workers. These students are bright and very committed. These scholars tend to skew the results in a course such as mine. It's a nice problem to have (if you consider it a problem).

We have a shortened schedule today as there is a compulsory student body meeting the last period. It is on student safety (street proofing, etc.). Shelley and I also have a meeting from 4 pm to 5 pm to discuss our upcoming PD trip to an island just off the mainland. Did I mention it was all expenses paid (just like back home :-)

On Saturday, Steve is renting a car and the 3 of us are off on an excursion (3 hours, there and back) to a nice beach on the ocean. We have not yet been to the ocean and we are looking forward to it.

We finish off our 3rd week of teaching today and our first 4 weeks in Malaysia. So far it has been all good and we are settling in nicely to the school, routines, etc. The weather is really quite nice and not over bearing as I thought it would be. Matter of fact, I am quite looking forward to lounging around the outdoor pool from November to March. I will be sure to take lots of pictures for those of you in the great frozen white north we call Canada.

Hey Larry, I hear the weather has been abysmal in Ottawa. Are you ready for a visit to a warmer climate yet? I get ESPN here as well as about 8 more sports channels on the satellite feed.

TTYL,

Jim

Subang Jaya - University Town

I start every morning with a grande mild with hot milk. They do not charge extra for the teamed milk so it is kind of like a poor man's strong latte. Fortified with my morning coffee, I walk back to Taylors passing many university colleges. Subang (by the way, the g is silent, and Jaya means town) seems to be the home of many international and private universities and schools. It would fun to take a tour one day to see what they have to offer.

Another oddity is the phrase 'to go'. It does not exist here. Instead we have 'take away' which is pronounced very quickly with one syllable. Once you catch on all is good.

Sunway University seems kind of interesting. There is a teacher from Sacred Heart High School going there in January so we might get some feedback. Sunway is a huge conglomeration of services. In one area we have the Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre, The Sunway Hotel and Convention Centre, the Sunway Hospital, the Sunway University, and last but not least, the Sunway Amusement Park which is huge (like Universal Studios). Everything is brand spanking new. There is a rumour that Sunway University puts there teachers up in the Sunway Hotel for a full 2 months on their arrival. May have to check it out :-)

Hey, Katie Brown if you are reading this, you would really like it here.

The cold spell continues, with a temperature of 85 and no humidity. Brrrr!

TTYL,

Jim

Cold Front Moves In!

I know you won't believe this but Shelley and I just went up to the pool to float around for 30 minutes or so and actually baled after 5 minutes. The temperature has dropped to about 80 degrees and that feels a little chilly now! There is also zero humidity (or at least it feels that way). I almost went into the sauna (yes they have a sauna, I guess for days like this) to warm up.

It will be interesting to see how long our little cold spell lasts.

I did manage to make up my test for tomorrow's class as well as fix some database items in ePLC (my registration software) for Brent.

I also discovered that TPA and the data tools work quite well from Malaysia. It's all good :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Missed a Day

Yesterday was quite busy as we traveled by van to EPF to put our application in for a state run pension plan. Of course we had to get thumb printed multiple times. We came home and Shelley and I cooked spaghetti for Steve, Amy, and Steve. After dinner and a bottle of wine, there was not much time for anything else.

Today we again traveled by van (8:00 - 10 am) to the government capitol of Putra Jaya and it is one of the most impressive cities I have ever seen. It is built around a lake that is spanned by 5 bridges and you guessed it, they had an international contest for the design and construction of the bridges. There must be a boatload of petro dollars out there! The whole city looked like they had turned the architects loose again. This city is worth traveling halfway round the world to see!

Tomorrow is my first test and all the students are stressing out over it. To allay their fears I completed a quick 30 minute review of what we have covered to date. If only Canadian students were this conscientious! It poured rain quite a bit yesterday for about 2 hours and then cleared up. The air was noticeably cooler and more fresh afterwards.

TTYL,

Jim

Kind of like a resort

Shelley and I decided to go for a swim for the first time at 9 pm tonight. We slipped into the horizon pool and swam over to the edge for a look see and then parked in front of a water jet. We then thought to ourselves after about 30 minutes that this was like living in a 5 star resort. We actually got a little chilly after 45 minutes in the water. We headed back up to our condo and here I sit drinking a fine glass of red wine imported from Spain. It just not get any better.

We are really looking forward to Jaime and Jordan visiting here in the Fall and December. I think they will love the pool and fitness centre (not to mention the malls and KL).

We started week 3 of our courses and I am beginning to realize I am really teaching all 3 Computer Science courses all rolled into one. I have quite a range of computer users. File management is still a problem on the other side of the world. However, we did manage to load some XML into a textArea today so we must celebrate the small successes. I will giving a test this Thursday and the students are quite worried. I told them to make sure they knew what a TLA is.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we head out to 2 more government departments to fill out more paperwork. The good news is we get a gold card that shows we are a resident of Malaysia which means we get to take the fast line in the airport immigration line. Hey, we even get paid at the end of the month!

TTYL,

Jim

Cats Abound

You would not believe the number of cats that wander around everywhere. I suppose they are all without homes, but they are quite friendly and like to be petted. They all also have short tails and I have not figured out if that is heriditary or if they were chopped off and ended up in some of the stews I have been eating.

The barbecue for all the Canucks living in our condo was a lot of fun. We ended up in Steve's condo playing euchre and Michel and I cleaned up. I haven't played euchre for years.

Shelley and I travelled to Ikea once again and we finally have cushions for the chairs we bought. The chairs are really comfortable and I can see myself spending lots of time in them typing away on my laptop.

TTYL,

Jim

Finger printed for the 1st Time

In order to open a bank account (required for payroll to be deposited) I had to give a thumb print out today. Of course in Canada that would be an invasion of privacy but here in Malaysia it is the norm. After all after a heavy night of drinking and perhaps tripping and falling into an open sewer and drowning it is imperative the body can be identified by its thumb. However, I am very happy to have a bank account and a Visa debit card. They are really big on Visa debit cards here in Asia. Instead of drawing on credit and making a payment every month, the money comes directly out of your account and the merchant gets dinged for the privilege at no expense to the bank. What's not to like about it from the bank's perspective?

The ATM's are really coll here because when you make a cash deposit you have access to the money immediately. The reason why is each ATM has a money (bills only) counter that verifies you actually put real cash in it. It's either that or there's a really tiny person in there that counts really fast :-)

Tomorrow is the condo barbecue which should be fun. Tonight is RnR and tomorrow morning we head out to IKEA to get our chair cushions and a couple of steaks and a bottle of red wine to wash them down with. Should be lots of fun.

Both Shelley and I had a good week teaching and head into the weekend semi relaxed with a handle on most things academic. I hope to get some of Shelley's photos up on Flickr this weekend.

TTYL,

Jim

First Student Presentations

Yesterday I put the students into groups of 3 or 4 to research XML on the web. They had to complete the research (guiding questions) and create a power point all in one class. Today they presented in their groups and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did, especially their presentations. Each person had to talk to the part they contributed and it was well balanced. They functioned very well in groups.

Their spoken English is much better when they have time to rehearse than when they have to speak spontaneously as in answering a question. It was all good :-)

Last night Shelley and I were asleep by 9:30 pm. I think it is because we are up at 6 am and out the door at 7 am. We did have a workshop after school on the features of BlackBoard 7 which was quite well received by the new staff. Their is a barbecue planned for this Friday after school at our condominium bbq pit for all staff that live there. It should be fun.

We are getting into a routine where we work early in the day and have nothing to do when we get home at 4:30. Most nights we eat out as it is actually cheaper and less work than cooking in. However, I did enjoy eating the spaghetti we cooked up on the weekend.

I bought some instant coffee to help me in waking up in the morning and it goes well with the usual peanut butter and toast. Lunch consists of a yogurt and juice. So far I am down one notch on my belt so the Malaysian diet is doing its job.

TTYL,

Jim

Pics from KL Visit

We did visit KL on the weekend and here are some pics.


This pic contrasts the old and the new. The white building in front is from colonial times with new buildings in behind.

This is the cricket field that is no longer used for cricket buy Independence Day celebrations.

Just like Europe there are many, many scooters.

The twin Petronas towers make an appearance.

They are pretty impressive. One was built by the Japanese and one by the Koreans. It was a race and whoever finished first received a million dollar bonus.

Petronas park from the Trader's Hotel rooftop lounge.

This is the entrance to the Petronas Towers which leads into one huge mall.


The inside of the mall. The main floor stores cater to the wealthy.

More later,

Jim

Ready to Head Home for the Day

Shelley and I have not had time to check out the pool yet and tonight may be the night. Apparently it is quite a nice pool and the temperature is probably just right. I just finished my period 6 class and I really like them as they are a riot. They like to joke around and they are quite smart as well. They are also my smallest class which may be why they are som much fun. I also get them last period when you think they would be tired but it seems just the opposite.

It looks like I will be cooking a chicken stir fry tonight but with a glass of wine away I go. Shelley just informed me she wants to go shopping again tonight. I don't have anything I need so perhaps I will check out a bookstore or simply have a Starbucks and chill out people watching.

Our van is late as the driver had an airport pickup this afternoon.

So far I am not missing my summer holidays and we do have a couple weeks off in September which should make up for teh lack of a summer vacation. Especially if Jaime arrives while we are off :-) Jordan should be on his way back from California as Lauren and Jordan drove down to Sacramento from Vancouver to visit Jordan's buddy David who is working in Sacramento all summer. They were camping and seemed to be enjoying it. I hope they get back safely.

Jim

AirCon Fixed Yesterday

Okay, the problem we have now is our condo is too cold. I am now dumbing it down to 24 degrees which seems very cold now that we are starting to get acclimatized. Shelley and I are into our teaching routines where we have 3 hours of prep/marking in the morning, teach our 3 classes and then we are free the rest of day from 4 pm on.

We cooked a great spaghetti (with Tomatoes) and have eaten it the last 2 nights. Malaysians do not use many tomatoes in their cooking so it was a great taste from back home.

Out Vonage VOIP (voice over IP) is working great. We can now be reached via a local Ottawa (613) number so there are no long distance rates when you call us. Ditto for when we call anywhere in North America. It's all free and you have to like that. If you feel the need to call me just drop me an email and I will send you are phone number. Just remember the window of opportunity to call is small (about 3 hours) due to the different time zone.

Still very little rain (about an hour total) since we arrived. However it is the dry season. Time to get ready for my last class.

TTYL,

Jim

The Haze

The haze is quite bad today. It appears the Indonnesian's are bent on burning down their tropical rain forests much like Brazil. It seems they deplete the soil they are planting on and then reclaim more forest and then deplete and then again. Eventually they will turn the island into a desert. I suppose there is more to it than that, and it's a choice between burning and starving. As I find out more I will keep you informed.

Today's lesson are going great despite the greater numbers in my classes. I am getting a better handle on how fast I can go. Students are as cheerful as ever.

TTYL,

Jim

Week 2

We had a very busy weekend and head into Week 2 somewhat tired. On Saturday Steve Wise, a veteran Taylor teacher took us on a tour of KL. Kuala Lumpur is definitely a cosmopolitan city that turned the architects loose with carte blanche. The Petronas Towers are not alone in their architectural splendor. However, they are spectacular, especially lit up at night!

Inside the towers is a mall that features every high end store from every country in the world, from Hermes of France to Harrods of England and everything in between. However apart from the Gucci's there are also normal stores on the other 9 levels of the shopping area. I can only think that these stores cater to the vacationing peoples from the middle east.

Steve took us on a tour of the city that included a marketplace, China Town, and the Petronas park. We watched the sunset from the Traders hotel rooftop pool sipping wine, beer, and a Hemmingway Daiquiri por moi. (hey Gabe, trying to keep my poop de do up). As the sun set, the various levels of the Petronas Towers lit up.

Shelley found a jewellry trade show in the convention centre and we all signed up for a free visitors pass. The prices were excellent but unfortunately time was short and Shelley came away empty handed due to the lack of comparison shopping time. I am sure there will be opportunities in the future :-)

We travelled to KL from Subang jaya by train and it was really crowded. We came back by cab for 17 ringgits ($5.50 CDN) and that was a much better choice! We ate dinner in Chinatown at a restaurant with a sidewalk cafe that Steve recommended. It was excellent and the people watching was even better. There are many westerners travelling around KL compared to Subang Jaya where we are somewhat of a rarity. I also saw quite a few young backpackers.

Five star hotels in KL can be found for $125 CDN. The city is definitely a bargain if you can survive the iron butt flight to get there. Shelley and I took lots of pictures and we will be creating a site on flickr for you to peruse.

Have to get ready for my class now. I must be doing something wrong as my class sizes have grown to 26, 26, and 23. Time to scare some students off :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Some Pics of our condo

All photos were shot with my Blackberry bold.


The photo above is what replaces the hotwater tap. All showers heat the water on demand and this unit heats the cold water. Works remarkably well.

Here are the 2 Ikea loungers we purchased. We neglected to buy the cushions so off to Ikea we go again.

This is the queen bed in our 1st guest bedroom. It has its own bathroom. The 2nd guest bedroom also has it's own full bathroom.

This is the king bed in the master bedroom. The door to the left is the bathroom. Floors are either tile or wood. Celings are 12 foot and every room has a ceiling fan and it's own air conditioner with a remote.

The photo above is the view of the dining and living room area from the kitchen.

This is the dining area which also has the living room area off to the right.

Week 1 Down

The picture is the view from balcony!

Week 1 is over and I received another 8 students today. Getting new students into a class creates a big problem for me so I have decided to start all over on Monday as the new students will be hopelessly lost. This is not a big deal as the IT head promised me I will have my software loaded by then. So we will start over working with Flex Builder and away we go.

Taylors has more paper work than any institution I have ever seen (maybe not U of O). The v arious departments obviously do not share info and each department collects the same info. The good news is I now know my passport number, new address, and new cell number off by heart as I have written them out countless times.

The students are still impressing me with their charm but the pack is starting to separate in terms of abilities. Language issues compound the problem as they try to express themselves. However they all want to achieve big time. Some of them have quite a sense of humour and seem to appreciate my humour quite a bit.

Today a guidance person came in and tried to tell the students on scholarships that they had to decide on which area in engineering they were going to focus on. They did not want to do this and were going to have to decide there and then until I suggested to the guidance person that they would make a better decision in 3 weeks time once they had 3 weeks of courses under their belt. The guidance person stated she could wait 3 weeks and then left. The students were quite relieved and thanked me and then I proceeded to chew them out for not challenging her and suggesting that they needed some time. They agreed they should have spoken up but are just always used to doing what they are told. Could have the makings of a revolution here :-)

Did I mention none of them has ever programmed? In Ontario they have to take the grade 11 Computer Science course before getting into the grade 12 course. No proble, super Jim will cover 2 years in 1 year if he manages to stay out of jail.

All in all Taylor's is a great school and a great place to teach. Malaysia is also a great place to visit and those of you who make the journey will not be disappointed.

TTYL,

Jim

Day 3 and do I have to memorize all this?

I had about 5 students hang around after class today and ask if they had to memorize all I talked about. I must admit I laughed and then I told them the amount of knowledge in the world was doubling every year and a half and asked them how they were going to memorize all that info. They kind of got it. I mentioned that I simply looked up everything I needed whenever I needed it. I call it just in time learning and Google is your best friend.

The students really want to do well which is rather refreshing. However it does make them kind of steadfast in their desire to memorize everything. Tomorrow will be a discussion period as we move off programming for a day to talk about Computers and Society!

TTYL,

Jim

2nd Day Okay but bad cold

I managed to get Shelley's cold and I am now dragging myself around feeling sorry for myself. That's okay because I have a fever and the broken air conditioner in the condo does bother me as I have a chill. It all works out okay. However, I am quite tired by 9 pm which is not good. Shelley's cold only lasted 3 days and I am in day 2 so I hope it is gone for the weekend.

We hit the floor running with programming today. It took some of the students by surprise but they all seemed to enjoy the challenge. If they don't I felt it was only fair to show them what they were signed up for while they had a chance to change the course to something else. Course changes are permitted until this Friday.

I have to get my long and short range planning in by Monday but it is good that I am procrastinating as I have a better understand of where the students are. I will have to make some adjustments to the curriculum as this is the first programming course for most of them whereas in Canada the ICS3M course is a prerequiste.

I find that having lunch at 1 pm makes me very hungry as I always took lunch at 11:30 back in the school board. I lunched at Subway today and it is just as expensive as in Canada. I won't do that too often.

We had a big thunderstorm last night and our interenet does not work in thunderstorms. However, it was brief and we were back up and connected to the net.

Today's quote of the day in class was "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". I had loaded a programming environment onto a flash drive and had it ready, just in case the IT department had not got around to loading it on the workstations. Turns out that was prudent as I had to load it by hand into each student's "My Documents". However, it did save my lesson.

TTYL,

Jim

3 Classes Down

I taught my 3 classes and found the downside of having one prep is teaching the same lesson 3 times a day. Not a great idea for Mr. ADD. I must admit the students were all marvelous and I managed to get a laugh out of them every now and again. They sure are serious though and I did get thanked profusely for the lesson.

I found their English language skills quite good. I talked for 40 minutes and then immediately put them into MS Word where there 20 minute activity was to write a summary of everything I talked about. Half the talk was on course stuff and half was on our life back in Canada. They found some of the pictures quite amusing especially the record snowfall of 2007!

My class list grew somewhat. I now have a classes of 26, 20, and 17. I also managed to touch base with Charles, the IT guy and he promised to have my software loaded for tomorrow's classes. I hope he does or I will be scrambling.

I was bad today and had 2 Starbuck coffees today. I rationalized the second cup because I had to break a 100 ringgit note to take a cab back to the condo. Cabbies would never have that much in change. I had to take a cab back in order to let the workers in to fix our air conditioner. They lucked out and gave up after 2 hours. It looks like the whole compressor unit needs replacing.

I have students from all over the world in my classes. One of them is from Kazakhstan and no his name is not Borat. He's quite cool though and I was impressed an 18 year old would travel that far to live alone and go to school. Canadian youth are quite pampered.

I now have Shelley's cold. I told the students it was not swine flu so they would not panic :-)

They are building a new condo across the pond and I noticed the migrant workers have built a shanty town that they live in while they are working on the building. It's quite something and I will take a picture and put it up soon. (really, I will :-)

TTYL,

Jim

It's Official

It's official now, the vacation is over, and I have to teach for a living. It's 8 am and I am in the lab and have a grande Starbucks to keep me company. My first class arrives at 10:30 am and it begins. I meet with the head IT guy to talk about getting some software installed in the lab. The printer is also locked up in a box and I don't have a key so I don't know how to go about adding paper. The previous teacher also mentioned that my workstation can't print to the printer. I can only assume it is on a different vlan. For you non techies it means you can't get there from here.

I put together a powerpoint but I think I will steal from Shelley's as she has some photos which are good, such as our record snowfall from 2 years ago.

Taylor's is really big on paper forms. I really must get around to filling them out at some point but I am amazed at the number of them as well as the redundancy factor. I guess the various departments do not share information.

This is just a short post as I have to prep for class.

TTYL,

Jim

First Full Staff Meeting

We had our first full staff meeting today and met most of the teaching staff. They are definitely an eclectic group from all over the globe with about 70% of them being from Ontario. Tomorrow the students arrive in our classrooms. My first class is at 10:30 (yippee kai yah) so I have time for a morning coffee and prep. The van picks us up at 7:15 and 3 are at school by 7:30 so I have a full 3 hours before the first class. Ditto for Shelley and Amy. Unfortunately Michel has an 8 am class.

My class sizes are 23, 18, and 16 so that is pretty good. My lab has all brand new computers with LCD monitors. I have a 9 am meeting with the head IT guy to get Flexbuilder and Coldfusion installed. Today I put a powerpoint together to welcome the students and talk about expectations.

We met 2 outgoing teachers today who were heading back to Ontario as they had used up their 2 year leave of absence. They were both adamant that they would be staying on if they could. We now have our official ID badges (pictures included) and can come and go as we please. We had lunch at the hawker's stalls and then had a mini tour of the immediate area by one of the veterans (Steve). We were shown a great place to buy wine at reasonable prices (60 ringgits for a bottle of Mouton cadet (usually about $16 at LCBO).

I am feeling quite comfortable at this moment so it is all good to go. Shelley is still coming to grips with her assignment as it is all new to her. She has also come down with a cold :-( A Starbucks grande is 6.5 ringgits which is about 25 cents more than in Canada. However, lunch was $1.50 for rice, beef stew, and some veggies. I have been bad and eaten at McDonalds twice but a Big mac Meal is only 8 ringgits or $2.75 CDN. You gotta love this place for food.

TTYL,

Jim

Live & Learn

Being the life long learner that I am, I learned something today. I really hoped my vonage voip phone would work over here in Malaysia and I had brought along a wireless telephone set to test it. Well, the voltage on the wireless set was 110 volts so that would not work with the 220 volts Malaysians get out of the wall socket. So off I go to Carrefour (Costco equivalent) in hunt of a wireless telephone set. It turns out they are hard to find as most Malaysians use cell phones.

I eventually find one and the price of $150 ringgits is not bad so I decide to purchase it. The salesperson we are talking to is not very good in English and she points over to a testing station where folks are opening up packages and testing whatever is in them. Well this is a 'Phillips' phone and I figure how do you test a phone without a phone line and a person to call so I decide not to test. I get home and open the box and guess what? I am the proud owner of a power supply but no handset or base station. Lesson learned - Testing stations are there for a reason, if only to check that all the pieces are there. Someone obviously pilfered the phone out of this box.

My dilemma now is whether I try to take it back to plead my case or simply chalk it up to experience. Caveat Emptor is very important in Malaysia!!!

We now have some food in the house and I sit at my laptop, connected to the internet, sipping a glass of Yellow Tail Shiraz from Australia so all is good. We also just had the cable guy in and signed up for the movie, sports, and learning channels. All for 60 ringitts a month or $20 CDN. I just hope it is ESPN. The cable guy's english was not great, so who knows I may be watching sports in Mandarin. I can always call Francis to translate. Hey Francis over here I am referred to as a Gwailo (white ghost, apparently only the Chinese are real persons).

Shelley just informed me the orange juice we thought we bought is actually orange drink, similar to Sunny-D. Oh, the lessons we learned today.

TTYL,

Jim

Goodbye to Subang Sheraton

We headed down to the international breakfast buffet for the last time. We enjoyed a leisurely meal with Mariam and Craig and then headed upstairs to pack. It's sort of official now as we head off from the hotel to our home for the next 11 months. I personally will be happy to get out of our suitcases and have access to the internet full time. I do promise to get some pics up of our new home sometime soon.

First off, Shelley and I are heading into Taylors to see if we can get a class list and teaching timetable for Tuesday. Monday is a full staff meeting but Shelley and I would prefer to get a headstart on planning.

It's actually quite cool today (80 degrees F) and that is a good thing as 2 out of the airconditionning units are not working. They are under warrantee so the owner of our unit is awaiting condo service staff to get back to work on Monday.

P.S. In case the chimps are wondering I did have peanut butter (Kraft) and toast.

TTYL,

Jim

From our Apartment

This is my first post from my apartment so I obviously have my internet connection up and running. I went with P1 (Packet 1) Networks who offer a wimax connection for 99 ringits per month. That's about $33. I just tested my network speed and I got the advertised download speed of 1.2 MBS but the upload sucked at about .3 when I should be getting close to .5. I can always pay for more if I need it as 99 ringits per month is quite inexpensive by Canadian standards. The modem is also portable so I have my net access to go.

I am very pleased to be connected again as I do not like to be off the net.

Shelley, Michele, Amy, and I took a cab to Ikea today. It made our Ikea's look tiny. We bought just about everything we needed to furnish our apartment (cleaning supplies, couple of comfy chairs, cooking stuff, etc. We were there for 4 hours and are totally shopped out. Everything we bought is being delivered tomorrow (Saturday). We shared the delivery and can costs with Michele and Amy. We have nicknamed Michele the 'negotiator' as he always gets the best cost for the cab. Amy is a fount of knowledge as she did a 2 year teaching stint in China. They have also moved into the same building as us.

We have 2 more nights in the hotel and we move into our apartment. The only thing we will miss is the awesome breakfast buffet which features cuisine from about 10 different countries. We have a meal voucher for teh hotel that we plan on using tonight to celebrate the end of our shopping with Amy and Michele. They move out tomorrow moring as they arrived a day earlier.

So far so good as we are enjoying ourselves and there is lots to see just around here.

TTYL,

Jim

Taylors Briefing Today and ISP problems

Hello, back on the net again after 2 days of calling tech support. If I get asked again what operating system I am using I could just lose it. Even when I told them what the problem was it took them 2 days to fix it. However, the last person I managed to talk to actually understood networks. Yippee kai ai!

We had our first rookie staff meeting today and Taylors is just first class in what they do. They also have an excellent reputation as one of the top universities in Asia. We had our pictures taken and will have our ID cards tomorrow. You need to have your ID card to get on campus.

Shelley and I have both had our first bout with Montezuma's revenge but it was pretty mild. It coincided when we decided to bite the bullet and have a pop served on ice in a glass. We figured we might as well get it over before classes started.

I have decided I definitely could field a basketball team here so I am toying with the idea of putting together a school team and challenge the local high school teams. There must be quite of few of them in KL. The tallest students are the Chinese. Must have something to do with Yao Ming.

We are off to Subang Parade to buy some table lamps and the wimax modem. I decided to bite the bullet on this one as the technology should be good. Can't be worse than this isdn line that I am currently using.

TTYL,

Jim