Friday, August 15, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
"Hey we're late!! Chepap!"
Bahasa Malaysia words of the day:
Berapa harganya ini? - How much does this cost?
kerang - cockles
ikan keli - catfish
biri-biri - mutton
babi - pork
chupat - hurry up!
chepap - pussy
Recent obsessions:
sentimental books
my new little houseplant and the worm inside the pot which keeps attempting a suicidal escape
The past week has pretty much been a euphoric celebration of having my health back again...more great food, impulsive purchases of dirt cheap pirated DVDs, drinking, birthday celebrations and in general, a new found sense of homeyness I have come to appreciate about KL. My sister has always said that it always takes a sickness to really feel at home with any new place you move to, and I think she's totally right.
Some SISters and I went to University Malaya (UM) on Thursday to eat lunch with an ex-coworker who just left to do research on Malaysian economic development. While we ate our noodles the sky instantaneously turned ominously gray and it started to pour. Really pour. This is a photo of us all completely drenched and very late for work.
Some of my lovely coworkers.
On Friday, I rushed home and got ready to go out again to meet a friend and quench a raging sushi craving, followed by a 30 minute foot dunk into a tank of flesh eating fish. [Oh the circle of life...] It felt like my feet where being poked by hundreds of dull pencil tips. For the first 10 minutes, I couldn't keep them in longer than a few seconds without wanting to piss myself, but I eventually got used to it. When they were done with their meal, my feet felt like satin sheets. Amazing. And weird. Mostly weird.
Photo of a decorated tree in Bukit Bintang, the KL equivalent of Sunset Blvd.
I started out my Saturday, lounging around at home, went swimming for a while and cleaned my house until I had to go to the Crown Princess Hotel in Ampang Park for a talk by Dr. John Esposito called "The Future of Islam: Reformation or Stagnation?" and hosted by SIS. The talk was mainly about the misrepresentation and assumptions made about Islam by non-Muslims and Muslims alike. One of the best points he made (which I hadn't even thought of before) was the fact that Islam is currently portrayed as a violent religion. Yet if you think about it, Christian nations (or Christianity itself), has probably caused much more insane amounts of violence and war over the centuries than Islam ever could at this point (think Spanish Crusades, WWII, and European colonialism ALL over the world...)
The fact of the matter is, the principles of Islam like Christianity, is based upon 2 fundamental things: Their holy text and the interpretations that are claimed to be grounded with it. The Qur'an has pretty much stayed the same since the 7th Century, but what has constantly and reliably changed is the social context in which it is read and understood by people. The main point about his talk was that Islam should never be simplified or consolidated to a series of assumptions or ideas. Not only is it constantly evolving throughout the ages, "it" really isn't any singular set of ideas or beliefs. Millions of Muslims interpret it in their own unique way to make it relevant for themselves, and therefore saying anything that begins with, "The Muslims think/believe/practice/claim that..." is in itself a fallacy.
Anyways, it was a great talk AND I got to take this great awkward picture with him after it was over.
After that, I went to a little mixer hosted by a new friend I met at Barcamp Malaysia a couple weeks ago. This guy, Khailee, I swear knows everyone and their Malaysian mommas. So needless to say it was a charming group of people, some of whom were journalists, photojournalists, Ruby developers, tech dudes, and entrepreneurs. There's nothing like having great conversations about everything from politics to tongue rings over a nice glass of wine.
That's all for now. I also made another blog for my other random thoughts, haikus and writings that don't necessarily have to do with life in Malaysia. If you're interested: www.mairasutton.blogspot.com
Until next time.
Berapa harganya ini? - How much does this cost?
kerang - cockles
ikan keli - catfish
biri-biri - mutton
babi - pork
chupat - hurry up!
chepap - pussy
Recent obsessions:
sentimental books
my new little houseplant and the worm inside the pot which keeps attempting a suicidal escape
The past week has pretty much been a euphoric celebration of having my health back again...more great food, impulsive purchases of dirt cheap pirated DVDs, drinking, birthday celebrations and in general, a new found sense of homeyness I have come to appreciate about KL. My sister has always said that it always takes a sickness to really feel at home with any new place you move to, and I think she's totally right.
Some SISters and I went to University Malaya (UM) on Thursday to eat lunch with an ex-coworker who just left to do research on Malaysian economic development. While we ate our noodles the sky instantaneously turned ominously gray and it started to pour. Really pour. This is a photo of us all completely drenched and very late for work.
Some of my lovely coworkers.
On Friday, I rushed home and got ready to go out again to meet a friend and quench a raging sushi craving, followed by a 30 minute foot dunk into a tank of flesh eating fish. [Oh the circle of life...] It felt like my feet where being poked by hundreds of dull pencil tips. For the first 10 minutes, I couldn't keep them in longer than a few seconds without wanting to piss myself, but I eventually got used to it. When they were done with their meal, my feet felt like satin sheets. Amazing. And weird. Mostly weird.
Photo of a decorated tree in Bukit Bintang, the KL equivalent of Sunset Blvd.
I started out my Saturday, lounging around at home, went swimming for a while and cleaned my house until I had to go to the Crown Princess Hotel in Ampang Park for a talk by Dr. John Esposito called "The Future of Islam: Reformation or Stagnation?" and hosted by SIS. The talk was mainly about the misrepresentation and assumptions made about Islam by non-Muslims and Muslims alike. One of the best points he made (which I hadn't even thought of before) was the fact that Islam is currently portrayed as a violent religion. Yet if you think about it, Christian nations (or Christianity itself), has probably caused much more insane amounts of violence and war over the centuries than Islam ever could at this point (think Spanish Crusades, WWII, and European colonialism ALL over the world...)
The fact of the matter is, the principles of Islam like Christianity, is based upon 2 fundamental things: Their holy text and the interpretations that are claimed to be grounded with it. The Qur'an has pretty much stayed the same since the 7th Century, but what has constantly and reliably changed is the social context in which it is read and understood by people. The main point about his talk was that Islam should never be simplified or consolidated to a series of assumptions or ideas. Not only is it constantly evolving throughout the ages, "it" really isn't any singular set of ideas or beliefs. Millions of Muslims interpret it in their own unique way to make it relevant for themselves, and therefore saying anything that begins with, "The Muslims think/believe/practice/claim that..." is in itself a fallacy.
Anyways, it was a great talk AND I got to take this great awkward picture with him after it was over.
After that, I went to a little mixer hosted by a new friend I met at Barcamp Malaysia a couple weeks ago. This guy, Khailee, I swear knows everyone and their Malaysian mommas. So needless to say it was a charming group of people, some of whom were journalists, photojournalists, Ruby developers, tech dudes, and entrepreneurs. There's nothing like having great conversations about everything from politics to tongue rings over a nice glass of wine.
That's all for now. I also made another blog for my other random thoughts, haikus and writings that don't necessarily have to do with life in Malaysia. If you're interested: www.mairasutton.blogspot.com
Until next time.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Before arriving here I had decided that getting horribly sick was going to be one inevitable step in adapting to life in Malaysia. 5 weeks later, it has finally come in the form of a brutal body cold that has temporarily robbed me of my voice, any interest in food or the will to do anything other than lie around my apartment and stare blankly into space.
I just came back from the university hospital. I got 7 different numbers just to get a fever medication. A number to check in, to give them my home address and phone number, to get my weight and temperature taken, to get my throat looked at, to get a prescription from the doctor, to give the pharmacy the note, then to buy the meds. In the waiting room, a small child vomited behind me and an old man next to me kept playing with his bag of urine. As I continued to wait and watch the red digital numbers incrementally increase, the only comforting thought I had was that as a foreigner I was getting much better treatment that I could get in the U.S., and the fact that I only paid RM 10 ($3.20) to see a doctor and get medication. Despite all of this, I'm glad they could tell me that I don't have strep throat and that it's just a very bad cold. I don't get sick that often but when I do, I lose my mind, panic and convince myself that I'm relapsing with mono. Oh well.
This blog entry is going to be ridiculously long since I've been feeling a little blog-constipated lately so...bear with me.
A summary of what I've been up to recently:
I spent two weekends ago at a beach resort town called Port Dickson where I was paid to take the minutes for an evaluation and planning meeting for the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG). It's a coalition of 5 womens' organizations that work together for a common agenda to end women's discrimination and fight government policies that purposefully make life more difficult for women. It was a little stressful, given that I was still making sense of Malaysian politics and that many of the acronyms sounded like actual words and vice versa. All in all, I learned alot about the Malaysian women's movement and realized how much I take for granted as a woman in the U.S. For example, the government isn't attempting to make high heels illegal for women on the basis that the "clicking" noise they make are too enticing for men.
The sound is too sexy...? so bizarre.
Then last Saturday, I went to a conference called Barcamp, which is part of a network of user generated events focused on early-stage web applications, relate open source technologies, social protocols, open data formats and entrepreneurship.
I found out about it online and it really turned out to be really fun and a great networking opportunity. I went to workshops on Entrepreneurship in Malaysia, increasing efficiency in the workplace, Ruby on Rails, as well as many others. The best part was meeting so many passionate, innovative entrepreneurs who were all there to share their knowledge and ideas about business and technology. I pitched GIIP and SIS to everyone I met and many people were interested in learning more about the program, helping me with my senior thesis research or just giving me travel tips in Southeast Asia.
Me with some guys I met at Barcamp.
Sunday, SIS had their first mobile legal clinic in Klang (40 minutes east of KL) where we gave a workshop on legal rights of married women and families on issues of divorce, labor, property, domestic abuse and polygamy. I'm planning on making a mini-documentary/promotional video about this event and the impact it's making on women's lives.
Some women registering for the clinic.
The participants.
Handing out our pamphlets and brochures.
Then Monday, I went to a workshop on Islam in Southeast Asia with a focus on civil society and the environmental movement. It was a workshop for various professors, journalists and researchers exploring various aspects of the emerging Islamic environmental movement, to share their individual papers and to brainstorm ideas for new areas of research. I finally got to meet the guy that got me connected with SIS because he spoke at the event, and thanked him for everything he did. Although I didn't get to talk to him very much, I think he was glad to know that my internship's working out.
-------
some more photo re-capping:
One of the women at SIS took us out to lunch last week at this restaurant that serves food from the Kelantan state, which lies at the border of Thailand and Malaysia.
This catfish was just...amazing. It was slow barbequed in a way that gave it a crispy skin on the outside with amazingly soft, juicy flesh on the inside. I also ate sliced coconut/ground up dried fish salad, some stewed vegetables, curried escargot and curried beef.
testing driving a burqa. it's pretty suffocating to wear one of those...I can't imagine what it's like to have to all the time.
That's it for now. Gonna go wash this hospital smell off of me and pass out for the rest of the day.
Peace.
I just came back from the university hospital. I got 7 different numbers just to get a fever medication. A number to check in, to give them my home address and phone number, to get my weight and temperature taken, to get my throat looked at, to get a prescription from the doctor, to give the pharmacy the note, then to buy the meds. In the waiting room, a small child vomited behind me and an old man next to me kept playing with his bag of urine. As I continued to wait and watch the red digital numbers incrementally increase, the only comforting thought I had was that as a foreigner I was getting much better treatment that I could get in the U.S., and the fact that I only paid RM 10 ($3.20) to see a doctor and get medication. Despite all of this, I'm glad they could tell me that I don't have strep throat and that it's just a very bad cold. I don't get sick that often but when I do, I lose my mind, panic and convince myself that I'm relapsing with mono. Oh well.
This blog entry is going to be ridiculously long since I've been feeling a little blog-constipated lately so...bear with me.
A summary of what I've been up to recently:
I spent two weekends ago at a beach resort town called Port Dickson where I was paid to take the minutes for an evaluation and planning meeting for the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG). It's a coalition of 5 womens' organizations that work together for a common agenda to end women's discrimination and fight government policies that purposefully make life more difficult for women. It was a little stressful, given that I was still making sense of Malaysian politics and that many of the acronyms sounded like actual words and vice versa. All in all, I learned alot about the Malaysian women's movement and realized how much I take for granted as a woman in the U.S. For example, the government isn't attempting to make high heels illegal for women on the basis that the "clicking" noise they make are too enticing for men.
The sound is too sexy...? so bizarre.
Then last Saturday, I went to a conference called Barcamp, which is part of a network of user generated events focused on early-stage web applications, relate open source technologies, social protocols, open data formats and entrepreneurship.
I found out about it online and it really turned out to be really fun and a great networking opportunity. I went to workshops on Entrepreneurship in Malaysia, increasing efficiency in the workplace, Ruby on Rails, as well as many others. The best part was meeting so many passionate, innovative entrepreneurs who were all there to share their knowledge and ideas about business and technology. I pitched GIIP and SIS to everyone I met and many people were interested in learning more about the program, helping me with my senior thesis research or just giving me travel tips in Southeast Asia.
Me with some guys I met at Barcamp.
Sunday, SIS had their first mobile legal clinic in Klang (40 minutes east of KL) where we gave a workshop on legal rights of married women and families on issues of divorce, labor, property, domestic abuse and polygamy. I'm planning on making a mini-documentary/promotional video about this event and the impact it's making on women's lives.
Some women registering for the clinic.
The participants.
Handing out our pamphlets and brochures.
Then Monday, I went to a workshop on Islam in Southeast Asia with a focus on civil society and the environmental movement. It was a workshop for various professors, journalists and researchers exploring various aspects of the emerging Islamic environmental movement, to share their individual papers and to brainstorm ideas for new areas of research. I finally got to meet the guy that got me connected with SIS because he spoke at the event, and thanked him for everything he did. Although I didn't get to talk to him very much, I think he was glad to know that my internship's working out.
-------
some more photo re-capping:
One of the women at SIS took us out to lunch last week at this restaurant that serves food from the Kelantan state, which lies at the border of Thailand and Malaysia.
This catfish was just...amazing. It was slow barbequed in a way that gave it a crispy skin on the outside with amazingly soft, juicy flesh on the inside. I also ate sliced coconut/ground up dried fish salad, some stewed vegetables, curried escargot and curried beef.
testing driving a burqa. it's pretty suffocating to wear one of those...I can't imagine what it's like to have to all the time.
That's it for now. Gonna go wash this hospital smell off of me and pass out for the rest of the day.
Peace.
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