Penang -- Week 3 & Weekend pdate

Week 3 (continued)
So I was so excited last week to catch up with my blogging that I took a break and fell behind again. It's fun to do this, but it's very, very, very time consuming, especially when photo editing, a slow computer, and inconsistent/slow internet is involved. So you'll forgive me if my posts are a little intermittent at times. Last week -- week 4 -- wasn't much to write home about. (But I will anyway) Ha! Mostly stayed at the hotel, and George worked. We had a couple of lunches out, lots of dinners out, and more trips to the grocery store. Regin added excitement to the week with his new batch of words. He seems to be having a developmental explosion and I can now start to see why other parents have been warning me forever that "it goes so fast!" At one point I turned around to see him sitting on the couch -- he'd climbed up there by himself!

The week is so uneventful that I don't even bother carrying my camera with me all the time. I'm thinking of picking specific topics to blog and do photo essays about now. The daily journal thing is starting to really lose interest. I must start carrying a notebook with me! There are so many little tidbits I want to tell you guys about, like odd little cultural differences, but I forget them by the time I get back to the hotel.

The only other thing to mention is my new connection here. I went online a week before to find a local artist to ask about any art stores here, and I found this one girl. We've been emailing since then, and now she's offering to introduce me to her friends so I can meet more people! Man! Between Carmen, Other Agilent Guy's Wife, and now Local Artist Girl, I'm set! It's so nice to have people show concern about me settling in here and offer hands and friendship. The expats can obviously relate, so that's part of why they do it (other than just plain being nice), I will definitely have to pay it forward when we've been here a while and some newbie comes. Local Artist Girl is a similar situation. She spent some time in Canada in school, and had a little bit of a time readjusting when she came back. Gosh. I need to stop being such a grouch and appreciate things here (or at least people) a bit more!

Weekend (Week 4)
We're supposed to get a tour of the island (wahooo! finally!!) on Saturday from George's supervisor, but we haven't gotten everything ready for Regin's birthday, so we spend the entire day shopping (ugh) for gift wrap and cake. Why oh why oh why does this take so long? Well, for the gift wrap, we have some large and oddly shaped items to wrap, so I want a big old roll of paper to play with. Thing is... there doesn't seem to be such a thing here. Only little sheets of paper or boxes (none of which were close to big enough), so after ages of looking, I give up and angrily buy 5 sheets of this cute children's wrapping paper. Now for the ribbon! Well, it doesn't seem like the norm here is to put prefab bows or other cheapo ribbon on. What I find is store after store after store after store that has only very fancy ribbon that you could have them wrap your gifts with. How does that go with silly/fun children's wrap? I keep looking, and eventually I find some itty bitty prefab bows which I buy from a bookstore(!). They're not peel and stick though. They have two lengths of ribbon on either side. Not sure if you're supposed to tie them around a gift (=tiny gift) or tape them on (=weird looking for a large gift), but I decide to do the latter.

The cake? Partly my issue. I don't want to set this kid on the road to sugar worship just yet, so I'd wanted to make him a healthier cake myself. Not an option while we're still in the hotel. So I decide to look for some sort of bran muffin I can give him. After many bakeries and coffee shops I end up buying him some blueberry muffins and covering them with a mixture of yogurt and fruit-sweetened jam. It's still very sweet to my taste buds, but all I can do is try, right?

The thing about this place that we keep coming to over and over again is they don't seem to make sense sometimes. Things seem to be harder than necessary. I mean, I saw a Toys-R-Us worker fashioning a gift bag for some customers out of a sheet of giftwrap. Why bother? Why not just have gift bags available? And why only sheets? Do rolls/large bags exist somewhere else? If so, why aren't they readily available? And why not at Toys-R-Us where there are LOTS of oversized gifts to buy? We also had this great idea to fill the hotel apartment with helium filled balloons, sort of like this, but with more balloons. But apparently it's extremely difficult to find helium here, and is only found once in a blue moon at some night market. We seem to have to take extra steps here a lot. Why don't they have party stores where you can buy all these items at one place? Why can't they just make things more efficient and practical? Of course, it's my American sensibilities coming through here. If I'd been raised here, I might find the local ways of doing things to be so much more efficient and effective, but for now they run somewhere between interesting and enraging (depending on my stress level and how much I've had to eat today.)

Anyway, Saturday stinks. A whole day wasted doing a couple of silly errands. I should have asked for help from my new best friends!

Sunday is so much better. It is all about our boy. We decorate the place Saturday night, so that we could surprise him in the morning. George blows (pumps) up 100 balloons, but we end up with about 70 after several mishaps -- the balloons are very cheap and flimsy. George tries to make a balloon drop, but couldn't get the cheapo tape to stick firmly enough to the wall. (buying the tape was another story in and of itself).

When we actually surprise Regin, there isn't any kind of big reaction, but he does seem to really like the balloons. After balloons, we have breakfast and skidaddle. I plan to take him to the Botanical Gardens (to see the wild monkeys) and then to Youth Park (to play in the pool). I'd searched and asked around for other things to do with a baby, but the only answers that came back were, "Take him to McDonald's or KFC!" So I went with my plan.

By the time we get out, it's nap time. We decide to let him have a solid nap in the car, so we eat drive through (so far the only one we've found is McDonald's!! Yuck!) and then take a drive all the way around the island. I've been wanting to do this since we got here! It's really cool. The roads are scary and winding at times, but the scenery is lush and beautiful. We drive on mountain roads through the jungle (totally paved -- not like what you're thinking) and see what slightly more rural life looks like here. THIS is where I'd like to be living. Yeah, I thought I wanted to live in the city, but that's when I thought it would be a cute little city with a town square and a beach nearby. Now, the serenity of coastal rainforest towns is calling me. I didn't get any pictures, it rained a lot and we never got out of the car. We'll just have to do it again!

Big R wakes up right as we're done with our trip. Perfect timing! We have lunch at the "restaurant" which is really just another collection of hawkers. This one is cool though, because they have huge, misting fans all over the place, and it's cleaner feeling. Outside, in a little river, we spot our coolest herp to date. Not sure what it is, but it looks like a monitor or something. It's BIG!

Then we head to the Botanical Gardens -- finally!!! It's pushing 4pm! So much for all that we have planned! It's gorgeous! I can see why Carmen loves it so much -- she told us that she loves to go for walks in the Botanical Gardens. They are really beautiful, and I'm wondering why there isn't more of this kempt beauty and order outside the gates. Regin, my little monkey, loves monkeys!! I have him in a sling on my back when we first walk in, and he keeps struggling to get a better view of them. When we let him out on some grass, he does some high-speed crawling, totally squealing as he chases a monkey or two! George is nervous about diseases so he is adamant that we make sure the monkeys are keeping a good distance.

We're crazy hot and pouring sweat now, we have some fruit at a fruit stand and look for Youth Park, a quick dip in a pool would be heaven right about now. But we can't find a way in, just a way out. Now it's dinner time anyway, and we still have to do "cake" and presents. We head home.

Regin is slow to warm up to the cake, but once he does, he is digging through his demolished pile of goop like mad, with both fists! Gifts are about the same. He is mildly interested in tearing the paper off, but he really likes everything we got him. His favorite? Hard to say. Between the 100 balls and the walker (made of wood, yay!) it's a toss up. His smile is awfully big when he uses the walker, but he says "baw! baw!" and pants with anticipation when he sees the balls. I have some videos, but I can't get them off the tape just yet because my video camera battery died, and my charger/power cord plug doesn't fit any of the adapters so far.

And so ends Regin's first birthday. It's a good one, and I feel great to have given him a good day.

I have lots (and lots and lots and lots) of photos from the day. I will have to post them later because I spent the whole day yesterday trying to get through them, and I am nowhere near done . So expect an update on this soon!