To Dwell in Possibility

Read the original post here: Musings from Malaysia: 11 Years Later- How Living in a Primarily Muslim Country has Changed my Views of the World.... Has it really been one year since I wrote this post? 365 days, and thousands of miles away. How things have changed. I've been back in the U.S. for almost 4 months now. People ask me questions about my...

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I miss boleh-land. A lot. And I wish I was there to celebrate with my family and friends in wishing Malaysia a happy 56th Independence Day! Selamat hari Merdeka ke-56! I'm celebrating here in New York by listening to Najwa Latif songs and singing Negaraku to myself in my room. Hm. Doesn't quite compare to the kampung kenduri I went to last year......

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Note: This post was inspired by the lovely Sara Britton's blog, which can be found here. You should check it out for some more great advice. My facebook is full of pictures of students in their blue AFS-USA t-shirts, getting on planes and traveling to their new homes. It's hard to believe it's been over a year since I was in their place,...

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Today is the 4th of July. In America, it marks the date our country declared itself free from Great Britain. Today, America is 237 years old. This time last year, it was my second night in Malaysia. I spent the holiday with the other YES Abroad students and two AFS volunteers. They were practically strangers then; this year they're family. This time last...

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DC was another whirlwind of workshops and visits with people. We (Malaysia and Thailand groups) visited Senatorial offices at Capitol Hill and gave presentations at the State Department. It all felt like a blur, probably a combination of jet lag and reverse culture shock. Everything about America seemed clean, shiny, loud and over-sized. But then I think back to my first days in...

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My last few days in Malaysia were spent trying to eat as much food as I could in between saying goodbyes to the people that had become my family and best friends. I gave a speech (in Malay!) at assembly, I had a wonderful goodbye party from my class, I received lots of gifts. My host family took me to karaoke one last...

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I  made this list shortly before I left. So more than one year later, here are the results... To-Do's while in Malaysia Become fluent in Malay Not fluent, but definitely more than conversational Learn some Chinese and Tamil Ahma, I know a few sentences in each Take Physics I took it, but the teacher taught in Malay so I didn't understand a lot...

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I can honestly say my week on perhentian with the other YES Abroad students, volunteers, and villagers was among the most tiring, hottest, busiest, amazing and above all rewarding week in Malaysia. Before our trip, we were given only a little information about exactly what we would be doing. We knew there would be teaching English, cleaning up the community and interacting with...

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After nearly 11 months in the country, I consider myself pretty Malaysian. Here's some of the habits/ ticks/ words I and other exchange students have picked up that have made us "Malaysianized" You know you've been Malaysianized when... You know when to use lah, leh, lo, lor, meh, and ma all correctly You know the pros and cons of using DiGi, Maxis and...

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AFS Malaysia offers a program called Short Term Exchange, STE from here on out, to experience a different part of Malaysia. This year the locations offered were Melaka, Perlis, Terengganu, the Orang Asli settlement, and Sabah. Originally, I was one of eight students selected to go to Sabah, but due to the conflict in Lahad Datu, our trip was cancelled last minute and...

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Paradise... My first island in Malaysia! In Borneo nonetheless Another picture-y post. If I wrote about Mabul you'd be reading a post about the joys of tanning and sleeping on the beach. Photos 1-4 were taken by the wonderful Giulia Rovera All photos edited by yours truly Actually, there were no beaches on our side of the island, but we "borrowed" the beach...

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