Discovering Malaysia

Selemat Pagi fellow Scholars!

I just arrived back from Kuala Lumpur a few nights ago, and don't even know where to begin in recounting my vibrant and exciting experiences. I suppose the city itself is a good start…KL is a bustling metropolitan city and provides an interesting - and sometimes surreal - mix of a fully developed state (I had my Starbucks next door, a metro line around the corner, and was taking classes at a top-rated university) and a developing state that constantly reminded me of family trips to Bangladesh – the pollution was pretty overwhelming, government corruption is rampant, and KL is the only city in Malaysia that has reached a modern level of development. The Malaysian people are incredibly friendly and open – I was pretty much always mistaken as a Malaysian, so I was able to fully immerse myself into the culture and get to know some really interesting people and sometimes their families. The greatest interactions I had in KL were with cab drivers – not only can these men (and occasionally women) carry on a long conversation on Malaysian politics, they can easily debate the pros and cons of Barack Obama's potential rise as the next US president (not too surprisingly, not one person I met during these five weeks had any interest in another Republican president…), and discuss any number of foreign affairs issues without question.

Speaking of politics, I took two courses during my stint in Kuala Lumpur, both through American University in Washington, DC. The first course dealt with globalization, governance, and human security in Malaysia and Indonesia; the second covered regional issues in ASEAN, and the effect of the rise of China on Southeast Asia. The classes' set-up was seminar-style discussion from 10 am to 1 pm, and then following lunch upstairs in the various Indian, Chinese, and Malay food stalls, we'd meet a speaker at 2 pm. Both classes were incredibly engaging – my professor is one of the foremost scholars on Malaysian politics and Southeast Asian relations. She is a Malaysian herself and met her husband while he was working for the Foreign Service; essentially, she knows everyone there is to know in Malaysia, so our speakers ranged from women's rights, human rights, and foreign labor activists to the Prime Minister's advisor (who we met in the equivalent of the Malaysian White House) and the former Deputy Prime Minister (who we met in his multi-million dollar mansion for tea) to students from both the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization and the Malaysian Military Staff College. We took classes at HELP University, which is a private institution that provides a stepping stone for those wishing to get their degrees abroad and improve their English, making HELP an international institution with students we met from all over Africa, East Asia, and the Near East.



The political climate of Malaysia is very intricate and complicated. Upon Malaysian independence from the British in 1957, the majority Malays, of which a small class were brought up as ruling elites by the Brits but were mostly still living in rural, poverty-stricken areas, rallied against a constitution that held the three major ethnic groups of the country – Malays, Chinese, and Indians – as having equal rights. The British colonial power had recruited the Chinese and Indians to tin and rubber plantations, respectively. The Chinese experienced growth and wealth in the prosperous tin industry, and at the time of independence held a greater percentage of the country's wealth than did the majority Malays, who held less than the Indian population as well. In holding onto the reaps and rewards of what they believed to be their country, the Malays secured a preferred status in the constitution and Islam as the state religion, but with religious freedom for all non-Malays. (Malays can convert out of Islam, but face a very long bureaucratic process and social ills.) The political climate since independence was peaceful and the economy was growing rapidly until the watershed moment in Malaysian political history: the race riots of 1969 when the majority United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party lost their majority in Parliament to the opposition Democratic Action Party and Gerakan, predominantly Chinese parties. Shortly thereafter the New Economic Policy was enacted, requiring that the economy would be divided evenly between the three ethnic groups. The motive behind this was to pull up the Malays from their status as rural farmers to have equal footing and investment in the country's economy to quell any future outrage. While the NEP has visibly improved Malay holding in the Malaysian economy, it has created animosity within the Chinese and Indian groups because the NEP is essentially affirmative action measures – quota systems in public schools, cheaper loans and housing rates for Malays, and greater ease at securing a job – all for the majority population, marginalizing minority groups to a greater extent.

Despite the ethinic tug-of-war, Malaysia is a beautiful and prospering country. I woke up every morning to a great view of the KL skyline from my window, including the Petronas twin towers, which were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 and a symbol of Malaysian oil wealth. The religious diversity is apparent on every corner; ornate mosques stand next to Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist temples. Malaysian food is perhaps the best testament to a united Malaysia; Chinese, Indian, and Malay all enjoy each other's culinary offerings, a popular conversation area being the "Mamak" stalls (Mamaks are Indian Muslims, mainly from South India – roti cenai, basically paratha with curries and veggies, is a favorite dish). Food is very cheap – a meal rarely cost me more than $2 – and the mix of rich Asian flavors and exotic proteins (shark, crab eggs, squid tentacles) definitely helped me put on a few pounds. The tropical fruits are really delicious; I loved to snack on rambutan, dragonfruit, starfruit, mangosteen, and really sweet Asian pineapples.
We travelled to several cities outside of KL as a group. Putrajaya, the country's administrative center, was built by former PM Mahathir Mohammad in only 10 years time, right before the Asian Financial Crisis of '97 – this is where we visited Zaki, one of the current PM's controversial advisors. We also visited the city of Melacca, a few hours outside of KL. Melacca has a culture of its own, a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, Malay, and Chinese influences – "Baba Nyonya" cuisine is exquisite, and only found in this part of the world. During the last weekend of our stay, our group was sponsored by the US Embassy to take a trip to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia to a city called Kuantan where we met with 100 Malaysian university students and went through several dialogue sessions on our impressions of each others' countries, campus life, and pop culture to learn more about the US and Malaysia. Lucky for us, US tax dollars allowed us to stay in a gorgeous resort right on the beach – Malaysia's dense forests, rich wildlife, and beautiful beaches are to die for. Needless to say, it was the perfect ending to a fascinating and life-changing experience for me.

Greece Part 2

(This picture was taken at the top of the Delion Temple of Apollo on the island of Paros in Greece.)

Hey Everyone,

Since I wrote last time, a lot has happened. I recently finished my internship on the island of Sifnos, and have been working mostly on the documentary. I have done some traveling to other islands, and have found some really interesting local stories for the documentary. On the island of Paros, for example, there is a cave that was inhabited by THE first lyrical poet Archilochos, when he self-exhiled himself because he caused his parents-in-law to kill themselves (he had a twisted sense of humor). Anyway, there is a fisherman on the island who will gladly take you to his cave, at the very top of the highest point near the shore and watch you climb up to the top, and when you stop to think about it, there is no way he would have ever chosen that cave to live in...so you go back to town and find out the fisherman just picked the first cave he saw. Heh. If you want to see the real cave, you will just have to see the documentary when I get home.

Along with the documentary, I've found time to chill out on the many beautiful beaches in Greece and meet some pretty interesting people along the way. I am getting a little homesick, and will not miss certain things all-too-European (i.e. bathrooms, showers, ketchup, exchange rates, etc.) Anyway, I hope everyone had just as awesome of a summer as I have had, and I will see everyone soon!

Holly

¿Qué onda? de México - Guanajuato

Well, actually this is not from Mexico. I am safely back in the States (with all my fingers and vital organs) and have enjoyed a nice full glass of tap water. However, my memories are still fresh, so if you choose to read this then yay for retrospective blogging!

I arrive at the airport with the partial group from UTD to be greeted by our uber-hyper link to the University of Gto. Maria Demello. After we were distributed to our respective host families I realized I scored the best one. Señora Lupita Zepeda was my Mexico Mother and she could talk about anything in depth and with simple enough vocabulary to where I understood what she was saying. She has an advantage talking to those with limited vocabularies because she is a child psychologist. The rest of the family was very friendly and the three kids all spoke excellent English, so vital logistics could be communicated. The location of the house was a good forty-minute walk from the University that was too short to justify a bus, so needless to say I toned up with over an hour of walking a day.

The classes at the University of Guanajuato are divided into Intermediate and Advanced. I was stuck in the funky limbo area between the two. The classes themselves are taught in all Spanish, but the professors talk clearly and slowly so there is pretty much 100% understanding among the class. A really friendly and fun professor taught grammar and conversation classes, but there were some major gaps in the organization and the material taught. The history and literature professor explained everything at least three times in different words, which is great for vocabulary increase and insured that we all understood the material. Grading on the whole is very forgiving.

The extra classes that I took included art history, cooking, and dance. Dance is great because you meet helping instructors that then you see at Salsa clubs, yay for instant partners that know what they’re doing! The cooking class is taught by a French woman at her house and the food is super delicious.

Maria Demello introduced us during the second week to her friend Guillermo Chávez who organizes excursions. His prices for his excursions are incredibly expensive for Mexico, but the experience is excellent. Our first excursion was to Teotihucan, Mexico City, Frida Kahlo’s house, Zócalo, and the Basilica de Guadelupe. That was all in one day, four AM to midnight. The second excursion was a hike that we all could have done on our own, but it was good that the guide knew where to go.

Don’t let anyone tell you that learning a language is easy. The plasticity of my brain has definitely decreased since I learned my first language. Understanding others comes rather easily, the tricky part is speaking fluently, with a bearable accent, and without too many false English cognates.

Well, I now have over five hundred pictures to sort through and relive my experience with. All of them are colorful and with excellent memories behind them.

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

Pura Vida! This characteristic Costa Rican expression translates roughly to "It's the good life!" though it literally means "pure life." Ticos (Costa Ricans) use this expression to say hello, goodbye, I'm doing well, it was awesome... basically anything positive. It certainly is the good life here in Costa Rica, surrounded by mountains, beaches, tropical flowers, fresh fruit, and more shades of green than Behr Paint boasts. There is always fresh fruit to eat or drink, and it's so delicious! At my home stay (a casa) I generally drink homemade strawberry juice with breakfast and dinner, though I've had homemade lemonade, orange, and cas juice as well.

My family lives in a quaint house in between a line of businesses at the corner of two highways. Our mama Tica explained to my housemate and I that the safest way to get to school is along the highways, to avoid crime. In America, it would be the opposite--walking next to the highway would be "dangerous." I guess it's all relative. Also, in Costa Rica there are very very few "real" addresses, as in a number and a street. Instead, everything is based on location in respect to main landmarks. For instance, my casa is "200 metros oueste y 75 sur de la Casa Presidencial" or 200 meters West and 75 South of the Casa Presidencial. In theory, though unconventional to my American self, this system should work fine. However, it's more than confusing to a newcomer who does not know where the "Coca Cola" or the "Centro Evangelistico" are, as there is no hope of finding them on a map.

I've been taking two classes at the Universidad Veritas, Intermediate Medical Spanish and a course on the Costa Rican Health Care System. The latter class is taught by two Costa Rican doctors. Costa Rica has a public health care system, and therefore every Costa Rican can get basically any care that he or she needs, from a regular checkup to a heart transplant or brain surgery, for free (by paying a percentage of their income... the employer pays a very small percentage too). Unfortunately, needless to say, the system is somewhat overloaded and it may take a while to get an appointment. In fact, my mama Tica had an appointment this week that she set up 3 months ago. It works by a sort of hierarchy. At the first level are the EBAISes, which are small local clinics that have only one doctor, a nurse, and a pharmacist or pharmacy technician. The EBAIS treats basic health problems of its population. At the second level are health clinics and small hospitals for more specialized but still routine treatments, such as diabetes or AIDS care. These clinics work together with the local EBAIS to take care of patients. In emergencies, or for even more specialized care such as neurology or major surgeries, the main hospitals in Costa Rica comprise the third level. Most of these hospitals are located in the central region in or around San Jose. If the patient cannot afford to travel to the location of care, the cost is paid for them.

As part of the class, I took a trip to visit a rural EBAIS in La Colonia and a health clinic in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. It was interesting to see the limits of the institutions but I was also impressed by the resources they do have, in comparison to other Latin American countries. I also was privileged to visit one of my professors at Hospital Dr. Calderon Guardia where he works in the neurosurgery department. This public hospital is named after a prior president of Costa Rica (1940-1944), Dr. Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia, who established the national health care program, the social security program, the University of Costa Rica, and minimum wage. My class also made a visit to Clinica Biblica, a private hospital in San Jose. Needless to say, the private hospital looks much nicer than the public one did, but apparently patients are sometimes sent to public hospitals to have specific tests done because they have more equipment. Also, the doctors that work in the public hospitals are generally the same doctors that work in the private hospitals--they do both public and private work. So, patients may be more comfortable in the private hospitals, but generally the care is not better quality.

A few weeks ago, the worst rain Costa Rica has had in 120 years let up just in time for us to go to dance class, which was very fun. We are learning how to merengue and salsa, and even a bit of chachacha! On Thursdays a dance bar called Castro's lets people in free, so a group of us usually go every Thursday. A classmate and I were dancing salsa when some funky music came on and people started doing a weird dance that looked like the sea walk. We were trying to imitate it, and this old Tico came over and started teaching us how to do it. He kept doing different steps, which got sillier and sillier, but we kept following. A couple times I felt like he must have been trying to make us look like fools, but I looked around and a few other people were doing weird things too. Seems sort of like the Costa Rican Chicken Dance, though I found out later that it's called Cumbia. Eventually some merengue music came on, and he taught us a few more merengue moves. He also kept stopping us and telling us to move our hips more--or rather showing us, since he didn't speak English at all. Trying to speak Spanish wouldn't have worked either because the music was so loud. What an awesome experience to learn to dance on the actual dance floor from a Tico! This Tico, Orlando, has taught us a few more steps every Thursday since then.

I also went exploring through La Selva (the Jungle)! They have several natural reservations where many students come internationally to study different species. We went on a 3 hour hike through the jungle with a guide. We saw tiny red poisonous frogs, huge ants that are called bullet ants because that's what a bite feels like, huge turkey-like birds, Tarzan vines, walking trees, and three huge iguanas. We heard the roars of a howler monkey and we learned about some of the symbiotic relationships of different species in the jungle. I got bit by a huge fly (quarter-sized at least), but after 5 minutes I couldn't even tell anything had bit me. The walking trees were fascinating--their stumps don't touch the ground; instead they have roots that grow down to the ground in a multi-legged tripod structure. New roots form on the side with the most sun, and old roots rot away. Over time these trees can actually move! Only about 1 cm per year.

Besides all these wonderful experiences, I've been zip-lining through the tropical rainforest, taken a horseback ride to a huge waterfall, seen macaws, toucans, monkeys, sloths, butterflies, and volcanoes, been to beaches on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and eaten some of the best pineapple and mango imaginable! My Spanish is improving slowly but surely, and I can't help but exclaim "pura vida!"

Marhaban from the Middle East! - Damascus, Syria

Marhaban from the Middle East!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT summer! I have been dying to continue to stalk the McDermott Network here in Damascus, but unfortunately I have problems accessing the EMPSN on any computer other than my non-Middle Eastern-compatible Mac. Either way, it is good to feel like a full-time McDermott again, and it is very safe to say I miss the family very much.

I cannot begin to describe the wonders of the city of Damascus. This is, indeed, the oldest inhabited capital in the world, and as such there is so much to see! I am very fortunate to have some family members that are more than willing to take me around the city to show me the sites. There is no way that a two month stay will do this city justice, but I am happy to say that I have been to many of the stereotypical tourist sites along with many hidden treasures in Damascus.

I don’t even know where to begin. The city of Damascus is split into many different sections, but the one most historically rich and most interesting is known as “Old Damascus.” As hinted by the name, this is where the old villas, markets, mosques, etc. are located. Damascus is home to the oldest hotel in the world! It is two stories high with beautiful arches carved over three thousand years ago! Also, in the old city lie the tombs of John the Baptist and the daughter of the Muslim caliph Ali, both in two exquisite mosques (the former in the famous Omayyid). In the Omayyid mosque, I saw the first sun calendar in the world, the location Muslims believe St. George re-appears, and also the location many people believe Jesus will return. My favorite spot in the old city and one of my favorite parts of all Damascus would have to be Hamadiyya, the famous market strip full of venders selling spices, jewelry, clothes, home décor, and food, and home of the famous Arabic ice cream (vanilla ice cream with pistachio) that they compact with a special machine until it forms a solid that you can literally hold in your hand as a single piece and bite into! My roommate tells me you cannot eat ice cream with your hands, but here it would be totally possible.

The best thing about Damascus is the abundance of places to just walk around and enjoy the culture. The people are extremely friendly and willing to help (there is no way I could have figured out how to use the bus otherwise!), and the food is both abundant (at least lunchtime is supper, so you can walk off the five hundred pounds of food that you definitely didn’t need) and yummy! Also, the nightlife here is wonderful! But it has been rather exhausting: Arabs like to go out starting at 1:30 a.m. and often don’t get in until 4:30/5 am!! Also, arguille smoke (hubble bubble?) and cigarette smoke have been following me everywhere I go :/.

One amazing weekend trip that I must write about was my two and a half day excursion to Jordan. My family and I took a taxi to the capital, where we stayed with my mom’s ammay (aunt from father’s side) for one night. We then woke up early the next morning to take a tour bus that took us around some of the most famous sites in the country. We first stopped at the religious site where Moses supposedly turned rocks into wells; you can still see and drink from the wells still there today! We then went to the main tourist spot in Jordan: Petra. Petra is an old city from the Byzantine Empire that spans 45 kilometers and has some of the most astonishing ancient architecture in the world. The site has, in fact, been recently named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World! It was very beautiful, but the only problem is that we only had about four hours and the site is so spread out that we were only able to see one of the main doors and a few tombs. After Petra, we went deep into the desert to a popular site known as Wadi Rum. Here we experienced the sand dunes of the arid Middle East; we rock-climbed, saw some quick sand, watched the sunset, and had a mini Bedouin style dance party to end the night! We then drove back to Amman, and after staying the night our family took us to see the city itself. Amman is quite different in that the entire city is literally built on a mountain, so you see these houses built on the edge of cliffs! It was a really interesting and beautiful place to see. I am hoping to also take a trip to Lebanon (hopefully the rebels will stop fighting in the South and hopefully the Syrians will secure the border and hopefully I will get another VISA so I can get there!), and North Syria to see Palmera and go to the beach!

I have, of course, been studying the Arabic language as well. Let me tell you, Arabic is one heck of a trip. Vowels aren’t written half of the time, the alphabet is completely different than what we are used to, all writing goes right to left, and worst of all the written language I am learning is not spoken ANYWHERE except the news and in official government documents. If you walk in the streets you will hear a completely different Arabic than that taught in my classroom. Fortunately, my upbringing, my current living situation with an Arabic family, and being forced to find my way around the city all have forced me to learn the local dialect. I do feel that both my formal Arabic and my daily Arabic have improved ten-fold since I have been here, and I only wish I could stay longer to really get it down.

Summary: I miss you guys, but Damascus rocks!