Recent Happening's in KL!

Hello! Sorry for the late posting, but I have been very very busy this past month.
Work at WAO has been keeping me busy (much more so than I expected). It's crazy how there was nothing to do in January, and yet in March there is TOO much to do! I have been doing a lot of administrative tasks (answering phones, writing letters, moving boxes, going to press conferences, getting food for my boss-oh, wait, that's not really an administrative task...hmmm)
Anyway, but the BIG task for me is being in charge of the newsletter for this month. It's a huge task because it has to be pretty perfect and editing takes a lot of time. It's fun writing the articles, doing the interviews, and the lay-out, but it's also incredibly time consuming and since technology and I do not get along very well...it's been a bit hellish (is that even a word...well if it isn't, it is now!) I will try to get a copy of the newsletter to everyone once I finally have it finished (which should-theoretically...be tomorrow...) I am also going to start teaching the English classes to the women who are residents at the refuge for the next two weeks. That should be...interesting, especially considering I am used to teaching English to young kids.

Besides work...I have done quite a bit. I went out with some of my fellow interns and staff to a reggae bar...although there was really nothing reggae about it. They played two reggae songs and the rest was Lady Gaga (if you do not know who this is (aka mom and dad)...be glad). I also went to a gay bar for the first time in my life. It was interesting, especially considering that I went to my first one in a VERY conservative country...I didn't even expect there to BE a gay bar. That was...interesting! Although if you are a straight man, it probably would not be your cup of tea...

Let's see...what else. I went to Melaka-a city 2 hours south of KL-with Ida (my new flatmate from Sweden-she is also interning at WAO). It was a really fun trip and I am glad I got a chance to visit that place because it is a world heritage city. Our landlady took us there in her car and she dropped us off. She recommended we stay at this one hotel because it was under 100 RM and fairly nice. So we got a taxi to take us there...however, we soon found out that it was 175 RM...which is very expensive for a hotel, so we decided to look elsewhere. We wandered down some deserted streets, past abandoned karaoke bars and finally into a busy street. We looked for about 20 minutes until we finally settled on a place for 75 RM. It was decent...with aircon, so we didn't complain. We went to the night market on Jonkor Road and went up this tower which shows us the whole city. We also went and got a 1 hour massage. It was really nice and these two Chinese women were the masseuses. I could tell they were from Beijing because of the dialect they were speaking, and managed to pick up some of what they were saying. The woman commented on how my hands were prettier than hers, though honestly, I could not tell the difference...it was a good massage, but...intense, as most Asian massages seem to be.

The next day we got up early, ate some good Indonesian food, and walked around some more. We decided to take a river cruise, which was nice. We decided to take a rickshaw ride, since it seems like something everyone should do at least if they are in Malaysia. Our rickshaw driver was interesting...he played pop songs on his bicycle and wheeled us (in jeans...he must have been so hot) around the city. We kind of felt like queens, well except for the fact hat it was scorching hot and we had to keep us cool except for the fans we bought earlier that day. Our rickshaw driver stopped for awhile (cigarette break...) and he tried to impress us by the fact that he could do 50 push ups with a cigarette in his mouth....hmm...not sure if that was gross or impressive haha. He also kept on asking me for my number...which I politely declined to give to him. I'm not really interested in marrying a 30 something year old Malay man and converting to Islam...it's not really my style. He took us to a really old church and that was about it of our tour. We went and had lunch, and then we went to the bus station and got a bus back to KL. Oh, and if my picture somehow appears on the Internet a lot, it's either because of interning with WAO or because random people took our pictures in Melaka many many times. I guess we are part of the tourist attractions now...But overall, Melaka was a beautiful city and I would recommend anyone to go there! It has a lot of history.

Speaking of WAO, we had the 3R walk on Saturday, which was for International Women's Day. The interns got there around 10 in the morning and we helped set up this tent, which took forever and doing it in the sweltering heat made it almost unbearable. We were all sweating by the end. We escaped into the mall for about 2 hours and then went back and joined in on some pre-walk aerobics (which I have a video of, by the way...I will post it later,) and then finally joined in on the solidarity walk. Oh-by the way this walk was for woman's rights. It was pretty amazing during the walk because the police actually close off a main intersection and it was the first time I felt like I could never be run over by a vehicle!! We wore sandwich board signs and blew whistles. I can't believe this has been my first ever "walk for a cause" and it wasn't even back home in the US!

Other than that, I have not been doing too much. My internship officially ended today...but I am still carrying on as a volunteer for the next 2 weeks until the end of the WAO Penang retreat (March 27th). I am going to try and take a couple days off during the next 2 weeks. I will try and post pictures and video soon!