KP in KL

I have come to the horrible realization that my hard learned math skills from elementary school are going to do me no good here in KL. As most of you know, I have a tough enough time just doing regular math, and now I have to learn a whole new system of units! I've gotten a decent grasp of converting US dollars to Ringits (thank goodness for that or we might be broke). However, today at the grocery store I went to buy lunch meat and asked for a 1/4 pound of sliced turkey. It seemed like a normal request at the time until it dawned on me that the reason my turkey was causing so much commotion in the back was because they only knew how to serve it up in grams. I wish I had an automatic built in converter in my head. It would be useful in so many ways. I ended up just asking for 8 slices of turkey since I didn't even know where to begin in grams, and the guy behind the counter laughed at me. I've decided the second best thing to an in-head automatic converter is an engineer husband who is light years faster than me when it comes to doing anything with numbers. He will be coming with me on the next grocery trip.

To update you on my volunteering status, I've got a meeting with the UNHCR Friday to discuss the requirements for the corporate folder. I'm officially going to be working on that project since they seemed impressed with my portfolio. As far as I know the photography and English teaching positions are still being worked on. Also, I'm meeting with the YWCA on Monday to discuss volunteer options. The trouble is I'm not exactly sure how much time will be required by either, and if it's even possible for me to volunteer for both groups. I guess it's a good thing it's called volunteer so that I can be a little picky about my times if I need. I've decided that I will meet with both organizations and then decide after the meetings which organization to work with or how to split up the work. I like having options.

Paul and I have been getting some good experience with the public....I don't even know what you call it...systems here. You have to make an appointment for almost everything here. We needed to get some papers notarized so we began our search on the internet for notaries in the banks. We found it very strange that here you must be an attorney to be a notary. And, you have to make an appointment to see one. So it took us 4 days to get in with the attorney to get a single notarization. We are going to have a good experience at the bank Thursday to open a bank account, which we also had to make an appointment for 3 days in advance. We've been told to bring a book and expect about a 2-3 hour wait just to open an account at HSBC. I thought the post office, or POS as it's called here, would have a similar wait and was surprised I didn't have to make an appointment! So, I experienced the POS wait today, which was surprisingly efficient and almost quicker than the USPS. My wait lasted about 4 minutes, but it would have been shorter had I been able to read Bahasa Melayu. You have to take a number either from ticket line A or B, and for some reason B seemed like it was calling my name, so I chose B and sat for a few minutes. Then I realized that B was to pay bills. Why people are paying bills at the post office, I'm not sure. So I threw away my B number and pulled an A number and was buying stamps in no time. So, I won't complain about the post office system. When I went to drop the mail in the correct box, again it wasn't entirely in English, so my mail may be going to Timbuktu before it reaches the States.

While I'm shedding light on my Delayed Adaption to all things Maylay Disorder, let's talk about cell phones. First, we're using a prepaid sim card that you reload in 30 Ringit increments. We've had them for over a week now, and my card's balance is 29 Ringits. Paul's however has already been reloaded three times in 30 Ringit increments thanks to his love for a game where he shoots cows and gophers with a slingshot. And yes, it's just as exciting as it sounds. I tried to explain that just because we're on wi-fi doesn't mean it's not using the 30 Ringits on the sim card, but he didn't believe me. On his third reload, he finally deleted the slingshot game.
In addition, phone numbers here are just weird. Some have two dashes, some have one dash, some have more digits than others, and I can't figure out how it works. I've tried calling the realtor a few times and can't get it right, as well as the bank and some other places. Apparently sometimes you leave off the first number or add a number to the beginning. Maybe I will catch on to the number thing when I start successfully ordering my sliced turkey in grams.

Any way you look at it, I have a serious learning curve to overcome. I feel like I've had a big sign on my forehead that flashes the words "USER ERROR" at everyone who's watching me drop the mail into a box that I have no idea where it's going, or when I hold up the line for the subway because my card is out of money, or when I go on a hike practically to Thailand trying to find the subway. On the upside, the process of getting the apartment that we want requires absolutely nothing from me except moving in. Looks like unless they use some sort of secret sorority knock or Bahasu Melayu password for entrance instead of keys, we might be in the apartment by June 1st!