It was wonderful to get home from work at 5:30 and get a big hug from Jaime. They had lots of good stories to tell, especially about the various forms of animals they have run into, especially when sleeping at night.
Jaime is now starting her phone calls back home and started with her grandmother. Once again, it's great to have Vonage. After their phone calls home they are planning to go for a swim in the pool. That is after they finish their Cinnabons they picked up at Sunway Pyramid.
We took them their for comfort western food at Nandos. We then loaded up our extra cell phone for Jaime to use while in Malaysia.
TTYL,
Jim
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday and Jaime's here.
Jaime arrived via Cambodia at 11:30 am. By theis time she should be in our condo (probably having a nap). I have 2 after school administrative meeting so I won't be home until 5:30 pm. At that time we are planning to walk up to one of our local (Indian) restaurants for Tandori chicken.
Jordan has an exciting weekend planned. He has a hockey game on Saturday and then he is heading over to Vancouver Island by ferry (first time in 3 years) to celebrate his year anniversary of dating Lauren. He is also planning on test driving a used motorcycle he has been eyeing. He also called this morning with the good news that he has been hired by Coca Cola to work as a marketing representaive for them during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He will get access to all the venues and also make some good money in the 10 days. Pretty exciting stuff as he also gets 2 credits from the university as part of their leadership course.
Jaime is only staying until Sunday at which time she flies back to Thailand for 3 days and then off to Australia and New Zealand for a month. She then returns to us for 2 months. She plans to do some volunteer teaching at taylors during that time frame.
Almost time for my last class,
TTYL,
Jim
Jordan has an exciting weekend planned. He has a hockey game on Saturday and then he is heading over to Vancouver Island by ferry (first time in 3 years) to celebrate his year anniversary of dating Lauren. He is also planning on test driving a used motorcycle he has been eyeing. He also called this morning with the good news that he has been hired by Coca Cola to work as a marketing representaive for them during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He will get access to all the venues and also make some good money in the 10 days. Pretty exciting stuff as he also gets 2 credits from the university as part of their leadership course.
Jaime is only staying until Sunday at which time she flies back to Thailand for 3 days and then off to Australia and New Zealand for a month. She then returns to us for 2 months. She plans to do some volunteer teaching at taylors during that time frame.
Almost time for my last class,
TTYL,
Jim
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday - Jaime arrives tomorrow!
Shelley and I are excited that Jaime and Sheila arrive tomorrow at lunch hour. Pam, a wife of one of the teachers is planning on meeting them at the KL international airport and accompanying them back to our condo and letting them in. This will make their arrival very easy as Shelley and I both have to work until 5:30 pm and Sheila and Jaime will be tired.
Classes are going great as the students are well rested and fed after a week being pampered at home by their parents. They did, however, admit to having difficulty getting out of bed at 7 am.
Shelley and I have noticed that we get profiled quite often as North Americans. We get honked at by taxi drivers when we are walking down the road. That's good as it is easy to grab a cab. It's also bad as they want to charge us more. There are more subtle problems such as extra items on our retaurant tab that we have to be vigilant for. I guess we are easy targets as we stand out as foreigners. However, most Malaysians are simply great!
Today I am reviewing arrays and introducing 2 dimensional arrays. The students will find this difficult. I would guess it will separate the scholars form the students.
TTYL,
Jim
Classes are going great as the students are well rested and fed after a week being pampered at home by their parents. They did, however, admit to having difficulty getting out of bed at 7 am.
Shelley and I have noticed that we get profiled quite often as North Americans. We get honked at by taxi drivers when we are walking down the road. That's good as it is easy to grab a cab. It's also bad as they want to charge us more. There are more subtle problems such as extra items on our retaurant tab that we have to be vigilant for. I guess we are easy targets as we stand out as foreigners. However, most Malaysians are simply great!
Today I am reviewing arrays and introducing 2 dimensional arrays. The students will find this difficult. I would guess it will separate the scholars form the students.
TTYL,
Jim
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday Morning
It's Monday morning and I am reminded of Robin Williams' performance in 'Good Morning Vietnam'. Some of the Taylor's teachers just arrived back from Vietnam and really enjoyed the experience. Apparently the country is booming but you can still experience the old Vietnam with the new. You probably have about 10 years of this. Enjoy it while you can.
It's just past halfway in the course so I will review the first half today and get a feel for where the students are. I have an online test from the Ontario Educator's resource bank that will help me considerably.
Jaime and Sheila arrive at noon on Wednesday so that should be fun. Shelley and I are looking forward to showing them around and hearing about their travels to date. They leave for Thailand in a few days and from there to Australia and New Zealand.
Time for a Starbucks to prepare me for today.
TTYL,
Jim
It's just past halfway in the course so I will review the first half today and get a feel for where the students are. I have an online test from the Ontario Educator's resource bank that will help me considerably.
Jaime and Sheila arrive at noon on Wednesday so that should be fun. Shelley and I are looking forward to showing them around and hearing about their travels to date. They leave for Thailand in a few days and from there to Australia and New Zealand.
Time for a Starbucks to prepare me for today.
TTYL,
Jim
Sunday and Ikea
You think we would learn not to go to Ikea on a Sunday. Going to Ikea on a Sunday is a major pasttime for Malaysians who live in and around KL. needless to say it was busy. We had previously taken a taxis to Sunway Pyramid to have lunch with Amy and Michel. We then decided to share a cab to Ikea and back.
I managed to sneak away for 90 minutes and went to Borders, bought a technology magazine and then headed off to Starbucks for a latte and a read.
I thought they would be close to being done but underestimated their shopping stamina by about an hour.
We are now home and have some brekkie things for tomorrow morning as we prepare for the home stretch with this group of students.
TTYL,
Jim
I managed to sneak away for 90 minutes and went to Borders, bought a technology magazine and then headed off to Starbucks for a latte and a read.
I thought they would be close to being done but underestimated their shopping stamina by about an hour.
We are now home and have some brekkie things for tomorrow morning as we prepare for the home stretch with this group of students.
TTYL,
Jim
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Back at the Condo
We arrived back at the condo about 9 pm. While we were gone we had teh landlord bring in a technician to look at 2 of our air conditions. They were faulty as we expected and they need new compressors. Apparently that will take a month in Malaysian time. I figure with 3 of our 5 aircons working we will be paying 3/5th of our rent.
Tomorrow will be a school planning day as I pushed my courses out of my mind for the vacation week. I also plan on walking over to Sunway Pyramid mall tomorrow to pick up some deent ice cube holders (i.e. Canadian size vs sugar cube size).
I am tired so its reading for a half hour and then lights out. Vacations really tire you out :-)
TTYL,
Jim
Tomorrow will be a school planning day as I pushed my courses out of my mind for the vacation week. I also plan on walking over to Sunway Pyramid mall tomorrow to pick up some deent ice cube holders (i.e. Canadian size vs sugar cube size).
I am tired so its reading for a half hour and then lights out. Vacations really tire you out :-)
TTYL,
Jim
Friday, September 25, 2009
Saturday and Heading Home
We fly out at 7 pm today. I managed to get a bit of an extended checkout until 1 pm and then we will store our luggage with the hotel and look for something to do for about 5 hours. It's a hot one out there today so my choice would be the mall down the road.
Penang was an interesting place to visit once. It's one good beach (Batu Ferrenghi) is full of parasailing and jet skis (way to busy, swimming would put your life in danger) and is covered in garbage. The city is prosperous but then again it is a city. It has some great bookstores and I have reading material for the next 2 months or so.
We much prefer Langkawi as a YATI due to its rustic nature, great beach, affordable accommodation, restaurants and cheap scooter rentals with very little traffic. It is also a duty free zone and has cheap booze.
The Evergreen Laurel hotel was great and had the best internet connection yet in Malaysia. We went online and watched the opening episodes of House, NCIS, CSI(s), Grey's Anatomy. Highly recommended if you ever visit Penang.
TTYL,
Jim
Penang was an interesting place to visit once. It's one good beach (Batu Ferrenghi) is full of parasailing and jet skis (way to busy, swimming would put your life in danger) and is covered in garbage. The city is prosperous but then again it is a city. It has some great bookstores and I have reading material for the next 2 months or so.
We much prefer Langkawi as a YATI due to its rustic nature, great beach, affordable accommodation, restaurants and cheap scooter rentals with very little traffic. It is also a duty free zone and has cheap booze.
The Evergreen Laurel hotel was great and had the best internet connection yet in Malaysia. We went online and watched the opening episodes of House, NCIS, CSI(s), Grey's Anatomy. Highly recommended if you ever visit Penang.
TTYL,
Jim
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