Monday, January 9 - Spending time with families

This is the fish pond inside the shopping center. There are even turtles in the pond!
see all photos »

So I had planned on going to church yesterday with one of my students and her brother, but as they had both been at sleepovers the night before, they decided to sleep in! So instead I went over to a different family's house and had some time of sharing favorite Scriptures with each other and praying together, which was really good.

Sunday afternoon, a bunch of us went to 1 Utama, the nearby mall, and had lunch. I and one other person from the group ate at a local Penang-style place, while everyone else ate at Subway. We ordered claypot chicken, which came with rice and a fried egg ("telor goreng") on the side - really yummy! If you've never eaten a fried egg with rice, you really should try it. :)  We also had this soup with noodles, chicken, and dried anchovies (which seem to be really popular here...). The fish were so crunchy and chewy that it took forever to chew just one bite. I think it's the only food so far I haven't loved! ;) After lunch we all went to see Pride and Prejudice, which I would really recommend if you haven't seen it yet. Definitely PG-rated.

This is dragon fruit, which they sell at the local grocery store. I just had to take a picture!
see all photos »

After the movie I went out with one of the families to Nasi Kandar Penang, a buffet-style Indian restaurant in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. This place is well known for its satay - chicken on kebab - with peanut sauce. Yum!! The restaurant had other kinds of Indian food as well, all of which was quite good.

On Sunday nights, there is a open-air market near the restaurant, so we walked through to see if there was anything interesting. There were people selling fruit and vegetables, fish, meat, toys, clothing, and many other things. We didn't linger very long in the area where they were selling the meat and fish, since the smell was pretty strong! There were also people selling durian, a very strong-smelling fruit that is native to here. Just to give you an idea of how strong this fruit smells, I have been told that there are places that post signs reading "No Durian Allowed Here." From what I understand, you either like it or you hate it. There's no middle ground. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before I do!

Here's an inside shot of the shopping center near my apartment. The courtyard is open to the sky, which is quite nice...except when it rains, of course. :)
see all photos »

Today I got back to teaching, which was perfectly lovely. The students are such a joy! Tonight I went for dinner at the house of one of my students. We had lasagna, French bread, salad, and brownies with orange sherbet for dessert! It was all very tasty. I really enjoyed spending time with them at their house. I always find it interesting to watch how the family members interact with one another. This particular family really seems to have a nice dynamic together. They talked and asked each other questions about the day as we ate. It was quite nice. :)