Its hard to believe that I've only been here for four whole days. We have definitely kept busy! Sunday consisted of exploring the city with our roommate Menal who has been living here for 3 years, from Saudi Arabia, attending university working on her Master's degree in Family Economics. I'm not really sure what that study is yet, but I'm sure I'll find out more details in due time. When I refer to "we/us/our" it mostly means myself and the other Ambassadorial Scholar, Tomoko. You can probably guess that she's from Japan. Most of our time has been spent together so far.
Sunday we started to learn how to use the public transit which consists of buses, light rail, monorail, and commuter trains. They are not interconnected all that well, but I think it won't take too long to get the hang of it. We went to some of the main centers of town including Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC), where the Petronas Towers are located, and KL's Time Square and other major shopping/entertainment areas. The streets in KL are definitely not on a grid system, so it will take a while to figure out walking between different areas, mostly navigating by landmarks. I can find my apartment by public transit, but not very well by car which was evidenced when a kind person who has never been to our apartment offered to drop us off last night and we got lost on one way streets! We have had the pleasure of being taken around to appointments in the city by private driver's who work for some of the Rotarians who are hosting us.
Yesterday (Monday) was very busy with Rotary activities. We went to a Rotary Club meeting for lunch at a fancy hotel called Shangri-La, and then to another dinner meeting with the club that is hosting me (Rotary Club of Titiwangsa) for dinner which lasted until 11pm. Everyone is very very happy to meet us and so kind offering to have us to their homes and excited to share Malaysian food and culture with us.
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| 10+ floos of escalators in a shopping center. |
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| The Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998-2004, they are still the tallest twin towers. Petronas is a Malaysian oil and gas company. |
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| Roomies and I enjoying some air conditioning. |
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