My *new* Home

Hi friends.

I’m writing you a blog post because I literally have nothing else I can do with myself at this moment in time. I have to say that this blog is one of the few things preserving my sanity right now. Even though I only have 3 more days till I begin working – I’m just about at the tipping point where this unproductivity may just send me into a fit of madness.

I’ve learned another thing about myself since graduating university – I cannot sit still and do nothing without my brain feeling like its wasting away. I feel like this can be a positive thing – I enjoy doing work! I enjoy being challenged! I enjoy being active! But it can also be a not-so-good thing. I really have issues RELAXING. I already knew this about myself (give my anxiety) and now when given the chance to relax, I’m having anxiety about relaxing. I’m totally hopeless :p

Anyway. The reason why I’ve come to write this blog is because I was about to leave my *new* apartment and take my first solo adventure in Kuala Lumpur (Which is to audition for a choir) when it started RAINING LIKE it was the biblical flood. Moments after I ordered my taxi and walked out my door, the skies opened up and in seconds, I was WADING to the front of my building. When it rains in Kuala Lumpur, GOOD LUCK finding a taxi. I got a text message from my taxi company saying “I’m sorry, the taxi booking you made is canceled. Please try again later”. And I really, really want to be a part of this group called the Young Malaysian Singers because singing makes me happy and I would really like some happy things in my life right now.

Let me update y’all on this week. Last Monday, I left my parents in Singapore and took a bus back to Kuala Lumpur. Saying bye to my parents wasn’t fun. I miss them already so so much! (I go through this pattern, it seems, where I am most homesick closest to leaving my family). I try and apply Hindu Heritage Summer Camp thinking to myself - I always told the counselors I was training that they need to do their best to distract their kids so that they forget about their homesickness. I am trying my hardest to find things to distract myself.

1. Read – I am currently reading 3 books at one time, keeping a personal journal, and writing a blog

2.  Eat – At my cousins, I was literally eating four meals a day

3. Sleep – I napped! And this is saying something because I hate naps so much. Can you guess why? Because I feel like I’m wasting my day.

4. Talk to everyone I know from back home – this probably isn’t too healthy because it increases the longing I feel for home (Again, I always told my counselors not to let their campers call home too often. I am the number 1 violator of this rule).

Then, I decided to finally move into my apartment! Yipeeee. Something BIG to do! I am now a resident of an Apartment block called Bangsar Permai – situated in the area of Bangsar where my office building is as well. Bangsar is supposedly a great location because it has its own light rail stop, it has lots of places to go and eat (and grocery stores close by) and I can walk to my place of work! Bangsar Permai its self is good because other people who work at Mindvalley  (who remain faceless as of now) theoretically live in this building. This is also a really expatty area and this becomes very obvious when you go to the grocery store and see that even the simplest things are imported – like toilet paper and cooking oil.

So my new apartment is nothing glamorous. It’s basically student living, but in KL, and a little less homey because I only brought two suitcases with me.  My room is cute – it’s yellow like my room at home and I have two flatmates who are both Slovakian women who are much older than me. One has been in KL for 4 years, the other for a year and a half so they are well acquainted with this city. Both are really friendly and welcoming. The bathroom would have been a little shocking to me if I hadn’t already used one like it in Tanzania. Basically there is no specific area to shower– it’s just a shower head over the toilet and when you are done, you have to make sure to squeegee all the water into the drain. This isn’t bad at all, in comparison to my friend Shanthi (who has just moved to Ethiopia for 2 years to work in public health). She’s a wonderful writer and you should check out her blog: www.shanthiinethiopia.blogspot.com . Shanthi takes bucket showers and has zero comforts. Shanthi –  you are so brave and if you can take the risks you have so far, I can keep on pushing over here in KL!

The kitchens here are interesting. My tap only has one knob, so I don’t really know where I’m suppose to get hot water from........................ and the stove/oven as we know it in North American apartments don’t really happen here. The gas stove top is pretty standard and sits on top of my counter, but we don’t have an oven (and not too many people have them). This means I can’t bake banana bread or cookies or anything that could make my roommates like me considerably more in a short period of time. I will post pics of the apartment at some point but it isn’t anything too interesting to look at. The thing that is killing me the most right now, though, is that I only get 3G on one tiny section of my bed, and only 50% of the time can I get the 3G. I currently have no internet (unless I am in the building’s internet area with free wifi) so number 4 on my list of things to do has been scratched off. I’m not sure if this is healthy or unhealthy for me right now but I do have a really unhappy feeling inside my heart sometimes. I am quite sure, though, that as soon as work starts, I will make friends and things will get better. I just need to remember that I can do this thing where I’m not constantly surrounded by/talking to people... like I did in east Africa, and which I actually came to enjoy. I’m totally in withdrawal after the family/people intensive month I’ve just had!

Leave me happy thoughts.

Love, sheena