Malaysia

Hello from Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
I got here a few days ago and since then have been doing a lot of sleeping and getting unpacked. I arrived late Thursday night after 32 hours of traveling and met my lovely host family, the Leongs. Mr. Leong and my host brother, Joseph, both work during the day and my host mom is retired so she's either around the house or tutoring former students. They have a live-in maid, Dara, who cooks and cleans and looks after Ms. Leong's mother who also lives with us.
I have not seen the city of Kuala Lumpur yet, but the suburbs are busy, noisy, and congested. Businesses are right next to neighborhoods or apartment buildings and everything is next to a mosque. Cars and roads are nice but everyone driving seems to be committed to getting where they need to go at any cost and we saw people lining up in a popular turn lane 2 or 3 deep in a single lane. A lot of things remind me of South Africa because it is my only non-western frame of reference, but KL seems to have a push, a throb to it, that was absent in the slower movement of South African culture. It is impressively hot and Mr. Leong was telling me that the seasons in KL are hot and hotter, and right now we're in hottest which is approximately the same as our summer.
I went shopping and out to dinner with my host mom yesterday at a mall across the street from my office at WAO. We ate at a cafe that does Eastern and Western food and it was strange thinking of pork chops and steaks as belonging under the specialty "Western foods" menu heading but nice to know that I have options if I get tired of Malaysian food. I'm going shopping again today with my host mom and the students she tutors to buy them new uniforms and tomorrow is church and then I'm meeting up with a friend from camp in KL. She's in the middle of the World Race, and I'm really excited to see her and a little bit of KL!