Welcome to Sarawak

After being in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for more than two weeks, I feel as though I've just now arrived in Malaysia. Orientation in KL was comprehensive and fun, and super American. There are 98 of us English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) here in Malaysia after all, so it would have been a true challenge to have a fully Malaysian orientation experience when surrounded by other English speaking, Chaco wearing, liberal minded, young Americans for two weeks straight. I don't say that as though it was a bad thing, though. It was nice to be around a bunch of people my age with similar goals, who are about to face similar challenges while living and teaching English in rural Malaysia.

Yesterday, along with fifteen other ETAs placed in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, I arrived in the state capital, Kuching. This is our first time in Malaysia without the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange (MACEE, the people that help Fulbright ETAs thrive in Malaysia) to guide us through orientation. We didn't receive many details about our arrival in Borneo, but soon as we stepped out of the Kuching airport, we were greeted by about twenty smiling faces, our mentors for the year, who put a red, black and yellow beaded necklace around each of our necks; "Welcome to Sarawak. These beads represent your new home".

This morning, we were sent to various schools to observe the teaching styles and classroom management techniques of experienced teachers. Upon arriving at our assigned school, my peers and I were welcomed by a live performance by some musically talented students. The principal welcomed our group by serving us breakfast and coffee (despite having just eaten half an hour earlier) and then proceeded to take us around the school, introducing us to various teachers and students. I felt like a minor celebrity. Every class we walked by would wave to us and say, "Good morning!", followed by giggling and blushing. After the extensive school tour, we were brought back to the conference room, where we ate lunch and the principal gave us each two gift bags full of Sarawakian goodies. Leaving the school, we posed for photo upon photo. Three young men proclaimed their love to me. My roommate, Josephine, and I were asked to pose for a picture with the young physical education teacher, while his young students giggled and said "Awwww!", as if the three of us had just done something terribly romantic. Soon enough, we were whisked away, back to our hotel in Kuching where we had a safety briefing from a high ranking police officer who offered this advice: "wear whatever you want, just don't go out naked". Following the informative safety briefing, a representative from the office of tourism told us about all the incredible adventures that await us in Sarawak (COME VISIT ME!). Then, we did the Sarawakian version of the electric slide. Welcome to Malaysia.

Some of the students at the secondary school I visited today.

This blog, "Uprooted", is not an official Fulbright Program site. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face

At last, I am in Malaysia. I have loved traveling for the last few months, but I have come to a point in this journey at which I am very content knowing that I will soon be moving into my new home where I will live for a whole ten months. Still, I do not know exactly where this now home is. I have known since April that I would be moving to Malaysia this year, but it wasn't until two days ago when I found out which region of the country I'll be living in. My placement is in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. I am quite happy with this. I had requested to be on Borneo, as there is plenty of access to the outdoors and the populations I will be working with will be very racially and religiously diverse. I will find out on Tuesday my specific placement within Sarawak. For now, I'm in Kuala Lumpur learning how to navigate the upcoming ten months of cultural exchange as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). 

Moving around so much this year has had its challenges and rewards. For the last few months it was a rarity to know in which town and which hostel I would be sleeping the following night. I've met new friends every single day, and I've said goodbye to more people than I would have liked to. This uncertainty and spontaneity has forced me to break a bad habit of romanticizing the future too much. With such an absurd itinerary, I've gotten more comfortable with living in the present and trusting that the future will be okay without my constant attempts to shape it into something perfect that I will inevitably be disappointed with. As I settle into my knew life here in Malaysia, I know I will struggle to maintain a "live in the moment" mindset. I expect to miss people and home, wherever that may be, and living in a new culture will be exhausting at times. I have a goal to work through the hard days without removing myself from my present situation too much. I'm sure that's easier said than done...

For those of you I've had to part ways with this year, I'd like to share with you an Irish blessing my paternal grandma kept around the house:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back. 
May the sun shine warm upon your face; 
the rains fall soft upon your fields 
and until we meet again, 
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

I made a table

I wish I could say that I built a table with my own two hands out of a Douglas fir tree that I sustainably harvested, but I didn't. I don't have that skill set. Instead, I made a table with information and advice about most of the countries I visited this fall and winter. These places all deserve more than a few brief blurbs but heyyo this girl has not found the time to do that yet. Keep in mind this is purely based on my personal experiences of being in each country for a range of 1 to 3 weeks. Let me know if you want to hear more about a specific place or experience! Posts about Malaysia to come ASAP.

	Food	Sleep	Transportation	Safety	Other notes
Colombia	Lots of rice, fish, chicken, fresh fruits and veggies. Super cheap and delicious!	Cheap (US$7-10/night), and overall beautiful hostels! My favorite was Casa Elemento above Minca.	The cities of Bogota and Medellin both have impressive public transportation systems. Between cities, I mostly took night buses, on which I did not sleep very well (or not at all).	Lots of unpleasant sexual harassment on the streets, particularly in Cartagena.	I learned to pay only for 1 night at a time at a hostel here. You don’t want to be stuck in a dorm that shares a wall with a noisy club with a bunch of cocaine snorting roommates for 2 nights when you have food poisoning  :(
Bolivia	An abundance of rice and fried chicken. Quality ketchup in American establishments.	Cheap ($4-10) hostels. It is a pleasant surprise if your dorm has outlets and an even better surprise if the bathrooms have hot water, lights, hand soap, and toilet paper!	Lots of super cheap comfy buses with plenty of legroom. By the time I arrived in Bolivia, I’d decided to avoid night buses at all costs. I listened to many political podcasts and watched the scenery pass by. I recommend this.	Besides being groped in La Paz, I felt pretty safe in Bolivia. Of course, as for most cities worldwide,  I would never walk alone at night and I kept my valuables close. Of course, always listen to the locals’ advice.	Bring your own toilet paper with you everywhere!!!!! My sleeping bag liner came in handy here, as cleanliness varied a lot between the super budget hostels.
Peru	CEVICHE! Yummy vegetarian restaurants in Lima and Cusco.	My lodging ranged from nice, warm hostel dorms ($8-15) to freezing cold sleeping bags and tents on treks. Bring your own gear!	Lots of long, uncomfortable bus and van rides to get places… However, the places those vehicles are taking you are amazing and upon arrival you will probably be hiking a long distance so it’s totally worth the drive.	Being a blonde woman travelling alone didn’t seem to attract as much attention in Peru as it did in other places. That was nice.	For most treks, you can go with our without a guide. Either way, I recommend bringing at least your own sleeping bag because the gear provided by guiding companies was oftentimes not sufficiently warm enough when sleeping at 4000m or so elevation.
Iceland	So expensive (compared to South America)  that I ate milk and cereal and PB&Js the entire time.	The most affordable hostel I could find in Reykjavik was around $30/night.	RENT A CAR!! So much cheaper and flexible than bus tours.	Probably the safest place I’ve ever been in my entire life.	Iceland is such a naturally beautiful country! I hope to return in a time of year when there is more daylight and when I am not on such a tight budget.
United Kingdom	Delicious food carts where I ate my weight in gourmet mac & cheese. I had to, word is there’s not much cheese in Malaysia.	Lucky for me, I stayed with my good friend, Robyn, who was studying abroad in London.	Pretty solid public transportation, but there were tons of strikes while I was visiting, which caused some unfortunate delays on the metros and trains.	I never felt unsafe, but London but I was with friends who knew the area the entire time.	There are ways to get into cool things for free! For example, instead of paying for a tour of Westminster Abbey, Robyn took me to the free Evensong service which ended up being a my favorite part of my visit.
United Arab Emirates	Finally momma’s home cookin’! Best food EVER! Plus yummy Thai and Indian restaurants.	I stayed in my parents’ apartment. It was excellent. They let me stay there for free since I’m their favorite daughter.	Public transport is a little know and under utilized amenity in the UAE (at least in Dubai and Abu Dhabi). Taxis are also pretty cheap. Walking can be challenging because sidewalks only exist in some places.	I felt completely safe here.	As with travelling anywhere else, it is important to be mindful of the cultural norms of the place you are visiting. In the UAE, a Muslim country, that means dressing extra conservatively at all times when in public.

Definitely my most negative blog post yet

Everyone says that while traveling, one learns much about the world and most importantly, oneself. They're right, but however glamorously masked that journey of self discovery may be, it seems that the most memorable lessons are those that teach you what you truly despise. I've been moving around for a while now, spending no more than 4 weeks in the same spot for the last 7 months, so I've had the chance to really get to know what really irks me.

First, about the world: This place is crazy. It is highly unpredictable and I cannot control everything. There is nothing I can do to keep the person I'm housesitting for from coming home a week early. There is nothing I can do to keep the man in La Paz from groping me (and don't you dare suggest I was asking for it). There is nothing I can do to stop the train workers' strike in London to get me to my plane in time. This lesson would be infinitely more inspiring if I believed in a God. I could tell myself, "He has a plan", and maybe I'd feel better about the chaos. I don't believe in a God, though, so each crummy thing that happens just humbles my heathen self. The chaos of the universe is what makes it interesting, right? 

Second, about myself: I am a control freak and not having the slightest authority over the outcome of the aforementioned situations drives me nuts.

"What's with this mardy blog post?", one might ask. Well, I just missed my flight from London to Dubai to see my family after 7 months of being away from them and I really just want to be in one place with my loved ones. Luckily, my parents are amazing and really good at making me feel like it's going to be okay. I'll be "home" with them in Abu Dhabi within the next 72 hours, hopefully... 

My mom sent me a message after our phone call that said, "Considering how many miles you've traveled in the past couple months, having this one glitch is pretty remarkable." How right she is. I am so privileged to be traveling. So lucky to have been safe this whole time. In the grand scheme of things, what is an extra night in London with one of my closest friends anyways? In the end, it is just another good thing to be thankful for. 

Thinking about the impact of my travel habits
on this quickly melting glacier in Iceland.

South America boiled into 1 blog post.

Whoops, it has been WAY too long since I've posted on here. Last time I wrote, I'd just finished up my first week of travels in Colombia. Since then, I travelled through other parts of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru for a total of 7 weeks. It was a whirlwind and due to my limited time in each country (between 2-3 weeks), I neglected the blog and spent my spare time sleeping and trying to find veggies to eat (lots of rice and chicken, not many greens down there). Instead of writing about every single thing I did in South America, I have compiled a list of my favorite 3 things per country:

Colombia

1. Guatapé. A gorgeous reservoir a few hours out of Medellin. There's a famous rock, El Peñón, you can climb up, but there's so much more. Hikes through the jungle lead me to hidden waterfalls, horses roamed around in meadows, and there was vegetarian food galore. I met a fellow feisty feminist there (we are scarce in South America, like green leafy vegetables) and she taught me the phrase, "viva la vagina!".
2. Casa Elemento. I wrote about this piece of heaven in my last blog post. It still ranks as a favorite place. 
3. Public transportation in Medellin. Some of the most affordable, efficient, and user friendly transportation I've used in my life! Plus, lots of innovative ideas such as escalators and gondolas to increase accessibility to lower income areas. 

Bolivia

1. Death Road. I road a mountain bike down the 70km "most dangerous road in the world". It was exhilarating. The best part? Nothing bad happened! 
2. Salar de Uyuni. A three day tour in southern Bolivia that included the salt flats, visits to many colorful lagoons, lots of pink flamingos, and some of the most amazing stars I've ever gazed upon.
3. Silver mine tour in Potosi. Bolivia exists as a country because of mining. I got to visit a working mine and talk with miners. It wasn't fun -- the conditions inside the mine are dark, claustrophobic, full of gnarly particles your lungs will hate -- but I appreciate that I was able to see the working conditions of miners. I definitely question the origins of minerals and metals now. 

Peru

1. Laguna 69 hike. Two words: A-MAZING. Snow capped peaks, glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, cows, all leading up to a turquoise blue lake. I had minor freak out because I thought my fingers had turned purple from the considerable altitude (~4,600m). False alarm! It was just the ink from my black jeans and t-shirt that rubbed off on my fingers. Pro-tip: don't wear all black on hikes because you will get very hot and sweaty and your fingers might turn purple. Another pro-tip: do your laundry often enough so that you can avoid wearing all black on such hikes. 
2. Machu Picchu. I expected to be underwhelmed but I was entirely overwhelmed. That place is SO COOL. SOOOOOO COOOOOOL! Go see it for yourself :)
3. Post election yoga. The worst part of my trip was the election (maybe I should compile a list of the worst parts of my trip?). I was in Cusco, and I was all alone with no other Americans to cry with, only foreigners who laughed at America's stupidity. But alas, I found a yoga class (check out the Yoga Room if ever in the area!) the evening of November 9th and it was jam packed with other grieving Americans. My heart hurt a little bit less after that session. 

Now, I am in Reykjavik, Iceland. Yep, you read that right. I am in Iceland. I can hardly believe it myself. The last few months have been so full of moving and ruining my carbon footprint that it's been a challenge to keep up with myself. Iceland will be featured in my next post. Until then, here a few photos from the South America trip:

Guatapé as seen from El Peñón (Colombia)

Me and Peri at Machu Picchu (Peru)

Running from dinosaurs at the Salt Flats (Bolivia)

Laguna 69 (Peru)

Driving to the start of the 4-day Santa Cruz trek.
See the winding road?! (Peru)

Taganga, Tayrona, and Minca

After leaving Bogota, I met up with Hana and we traveled to Taganga to get our scuba certifications. Taganga is a small fishing town north of Santa Marta. I would not recommend going there unless you really want to take a diving course or do a few dives. The town is covered in trash and stray dogs and depending on your perceived gender you will be constantly catcalled and/or asked if you would like to buy cocaine and marijuana. The town is still figuring out what to do with the new surge of visitors who come to dive. I hope that as Taganga continues to develop, it can do so in a way that is both economically and environmentally sustainable for the locals. 

After receiving our diving certifications, NAUI open water for me and advanced for Hana, we took a day trip to Parque Nacional Tayrona. We hiked through the jungle for a couple of hours before reaching some of the most gorgeous Caribbean beaches I've ever seen. The white sand beaches were scattered with enormous white boulders and the water was bright blue. It's a good thing it was so beautiful, because I don't know how else we would have tolerated hiking in the 95 degree heat and near 100% humidity.

The following morning, we decided to travel to Minca, a small village in the Sierra Madre mountains. We had heard good things about a place called Casa Elemento so as soon as we arrived in Minca, we donned helmets and were whisked away by young men on motorbikes, or "motos", to make the hour long journey up the mountain (mom and dad: skip the rest of this paragraph). It began raining mid way through our journey, which made the already rough road even worse. Thick mud hindered the motos' ability to make it up certain parts of the road with so much weight, so I ended up taking my backpack and walking up the worst parts while my driver spun out in the mud. When we had almost made it to Casa Elemento, the bike I was on did a wheelie and I slid off the back of the seat into a puddle of thick mud. "¡Ay, mi amor!", shouted my driver in distress. He felt terrible because he had argued with the other drivers to be the one to drive me up the mountain (ugh), and he  ended up dropping his precious cargo into a puddle. Luckily, I was completely fine besides having my last clean pair of shorts drenched in mud, and we wade it the rest of the way to Casa Elemento without trouble. 

Casa Elemento is a hostel perched high in the mountains that has giant hammocks, great hiking, and excellent birding. Oh, and AMAZING vegetarian food with family style dinners. It was refreshing to be out of the heat of the coast and we took full advantage of the hiking trails and early morning birding opportunities. It was fun to be surrounded by fellow travelers in place without wifi or cell service. It turns out that socializing is best without social media... imagine that! After 2 days and 2 nights in the jungle, we decided to hike down the mountain to save the cost (and risk) of moto taxis and to get some exercise before an entire afternoon and evening on busses to Cartagena. 

I write this now from a bus with wifi (!!!) heading to Cartagena. We are currently stuck in traffic in the city of Barenquilla, still a few hours from Cartagena. I am hungry. My phone will die soon. I smell bad. Life is pretty darn good. 

Bogota by bicycle

I arrived safely in Colombia, after about 28 hours of travel and flight delays that resulted in a missed connection and a long layover in Mexico City. I arrived at my hostel, Alegria's Hostel, around 10:30pm and promptly showered and passed out. I was mentally exhausted but physically restless. I can only handle sitting in airports and in airplanes for so long. I slept insanely well though, and woke up this morning ready to move. 

Since I only have one full day in Bogota, I decided to sign up for a city tour, something I usually wouldn't do because 1) I'm a cheapo and 2) I prefer to explore at my own pace. However, there are a few companies in Bogota that offer city tours via bicycle, which is perfect considering I wanted to see as much as I could while getting exercise. Plus, Bogota is famous for being accessible to cyclists with the most designated bike paths of any city in the world and weekly events during which main streets are closed so that people can bike without worrying about car traffic. I went with Cerros Bike Tours, a company recommended by my hostel. Apparently, since Lonely Planet has recommended the other main company, Bogota Bike Tours, their tours are overcrowded, whereas Cerros is newer and has not yet made it into the world of travel guidebooks. Thus, their tours are much smaller. I ended up being the only person in my tour, which meant I got to pay the group rate (~$12 USD) for a 4 hour private tour. My tour guide, Jose, spoke both English and Spanish, but since I want to practice my Spanish, we spoke mostly in Spanglish. We started in La Candelaria, the historic section of town, and made our way through various neighborhoods and parts of the city. The tour included a stop at a market, where I got to try about 6 new types of fruit - dragon fruit, pitaya, guayabana, guava, tomato del arbol, and some others I can't remember the names of. We stopped in the Parque Nacional and had a refreshing fruity drink under a unique species of palm tree that grows at high elevations. We continued on to a street famous for its graffiti, which is legal and abundant in Bogota, and Jose explained the cultural significance of many of the pieces. Later, we visited a coffee roasters where I drank the most delicious americano of my life. It was so good I didn't even add cream or sugar. Throughout the entire tour, we'd stop at historic places and Jose would share the history of each location. He rattled off an impressive list of dates and events for each location. What I got from it was that Bogota has lots of old buildings, many of which were built in the mid 1800's, in which many people have been murdered during hundreds of years worth of internal conflict. Jose noted that this week is an especially fascinating time to be in Colombia, with the public's rejection of the peace deal agreed upon by the FARC guerrillas and the government. He said the country is polarized, but overall ready for peace. The eagerness for peace is clear in much of the graffiti, which depicts scenes of war an destruction alongside images of hummingbirds, Colombia's national bird, and other nature scenes which Jose said represent the  internal conflict between war over resources and the desire to simply live and let live.

I was impressed by the amount of bike lanes in Bogota, and the general ease of navigating the city by bike. While Bogota is far ahead of many US cities in its bike accessibility, there are constant reminders that you're in Latin America. Many cars spew black exhaust and never use turn signals. Stray dogs run alongside the traffic and vendors walk between cars at traffic lights selling bottled waters and snacks. In some of the streets, pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars weave around one another in no obvious traffic pattern. I almost go hit by cars twice; luckily my bike had great breaks and I was wearing a helmet. I am thankful for my experience biking in Guatemala, where every day for about 10 months I would bike to school on a crowded road without a shoulder. My 10 year old self thought that I was going to die at least a dozen times per commute. My general cycling experience in the US made the tour much less nerve wracking than I think it would have been otherwise. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Bogota by foot. Besides my bike tour, my favorite part of the day was visiting the Museo de Oro (the gold museum) which is packed with pre-Colombian artifacts. 

Tonight, I'll grab a beer with some new friends from the hostel, and tomorrow morning, I'll head back to the airport where I'll meet up with Hana, aka Lil H-Busse, and we will fly north to Santa Marta for a week of scuba diving and sunshine.