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| Nozar and a stormy day where Miri meets the South China Sea |
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| The neighborhood behind our apt. |
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| View from front of our apartment. |
What we think we know, is really nothing at all. I am
reminded of that fact more often as each year passes. This past week we have learned lesson after
lesson. My husband, over the past weeks, has repeatedly reminded me of why
I married him. Simply put, he gets shit done. He’s not afraid. He bravely
embarks on one small journey after another. It’s nothing short of impressive.
He’s not afraid to leap off into the abyss where as I like to study the abyss
first, stick my toe in, then step off.
Our week has been full of learning opportunities. On
Christmas day, while the whole of Miri was celebrating Christmas, we moved into
our apartment. It’s a temporary apartment, because we could not find a house
that met our criteria, so we will search again for a house at the beginning of
2014. For now, this is quite a nice apartment. Four bedroom, four bath and a
pretty good view. Good enough for those brave enough to come and visit us here.
You are all invited. We may just end up staying in this apartment for the whole
of our years here, but we’ll see. Chinese/Malaysian architecture takes a bit of
getting used to. Our happiness with our living arrangement here will be an
ongoing adaptation of comfort level.
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| Shopping Mall w/ a few recognizable brands. Yes, that's a Kenny Rogers Roasters. Too funny! |
Nozar and I both drove (in this country) for the first time this past week.
That was an experience. Imagine, sitting on the “wrong” side of the car,
driving on the “wrong” side of the rode, and not seeing one sign written in
English. Yeah…it was a butt clinching experience the first time out. We both
lived through it though. We only yelled at each other a couple of times. They
have a traffic light system here that is essentially like ours in America until
you arrive at a bright green U. What the heck! After getting used to it, I’ve
decided, it’s a good system really, an indicator as to when it is okay to make
a U-turn. I think it adds a bit of safety to the whole driving ordeal. Anyway,
thank goodness the signs are the same shape and color as they are in the
states. The parking garages here are a completely different story, as they are
built for Smart Cars and Yugo’s. Not to mention, road side and direction often
switch to American style in car parks – but not always. It’s a complete guessing
game as to what to do once you enter a garage. Nozar (not taking the former
into consideration) purchased the largest car available on the market here.
Yep, we’ll have to take a taxi to any location requiring parking. Lucky for me,
Shell allows for a rental car during the first weeks here so I have been
driving a tiny Honda. Not a bad car, and – most importantly - fits in the parking garages – no matter which
direction I need to go. I used to dream of owning Mercedes and Audis, now it’s Prius’
and Mini Coopers.
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| Tamara, at a local Miri, beach front park. |
The people here are amazingly kind and trustworthy. Every
one of them always makes an effort to help us as much as possible, even if
there is a language barrier. Lots of folks speak some English here so
communicating only represents a relatively small problem. (Specifics about communication efforts here though, is a topic
for its own blog entry.) Time and time again, we have just been trusted and
left on our own to do what is right. For example, Nozar’s company is sometimes
a little slow in handling things, so the day we moved into the apartment, while
Nozar was getting the keys, the manager had our contract ready to go and asked
about our form of payment. Since Shell handles the contracts for our living
arrangements and since we are waiting to get our Ringgit (Malaysian currency)
credit card, we told the apartment manager that we would come back to pay
later. That was over a week ago now. It seems the Shell contract advisor is on
vacation for a week and our credit cards won’t be ready until next week. The
point is though, that not a sole has asked us to pay. We are just living here,
in this huge apartment, rent and contract free. It’s very odd to be trusted.
But nice to be in a country where it’s still possible.
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| White Spider Lily. |
I hope you all are enjoying this blog. Thanks so much for
all the kind and positive remarks. Makes me feel connected while so far away.
If you have questions or want me to include different information I will
happily accommodate. Next time, Nozar is posting about his visit to the Chinese
Medicine Doctor. I swear he needs to hire a crew and film his own adventure
show for A&E or the Discovery Chanel.
Attempting Life,
Tamara
Beverages here in general could have a book written about
them. Since I don’t know what most beverages are I just point and say, “May I have
one of those please?” I’ve drunk quite a few concoctions, most of which I
couldn’t quite recognize. However, the common beverage I find most difficult to
adapt to is instant coffee. There are some “real” coffee shops here but Nescafe
- by far - rules. After a while the
taste grew on me and I actually purchased some for home; but still, every time
I drink it, it brings to mind coffee out of desperate circumstances. The only
times in my life I ever drank instant coffee was when I had absolutely no
possible access to regular coffee grounds. It’ll be a while before I fully
embrace instant coffee. On the other hand, something instantly palatable is fresh
squeezed fruit juices. They are one of the best perks of living here. You can
hear a juicer grinding out pulp in most restaurants. Apple (green or red), carrot,
cucumber, star fruit, dragon fruit, orange, pineapple, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon. A
glass of any of those pure juices here is approx. $1.50. Inexpensive, fresh, healthy,
yummy, refreshing! I’m in!
