I've lost my independence

I'm too exhausted to write anything deep and meaningful, so I'm going to just give you a brief update. By the way, I'm not exhausted because of late nights or lots of exercise..I'm exhausted for no reason at all. Well..the last time I bothered to post was just photos of my trip to Kuala Lumpur during the school holidays to see my awesome buddy, Kar Mun. Most of you involved with AFS in Tasmania would know him. But apart from that I haven't written anything since the 5th of March.
So, after then we had language week at school, which wasn't very exciting. Later that week, Vegemite arrived in mail from my mum, which I've discovered after going to KL you can't get anywhere in Malaysia. Also some Starburst lollies came in the mail too, which I miss so much..why do they bother importing Mars bar here if they aren't going to import Starburst?? Hello..what is more important?? I think Adam(in Portugal) knows what I'm talking about.
Ok..what else...I went to see Final Destination 3 which is rated for all ages here because the deaths are accidental not murder. After that I went to Kuala Lumpur and stayed with Kar Mun for the week. Did plenty of shopping, went to Times Square a massive shopping mall with a theme park and 2 different cinemas, went to Sunway pyramid(another shopping mall) which looks super cool from the outside, went to Sungei Wang( a shopping mall with heaps of tech stuff and some awesome Cantonese(Chinese) t-shirts which say some cool stuff like I'm a virgin etc), I got my ears pierced again(Bethany should be so proud), played basketball with some College boys(who are so much more mature in so many ways comparded to the guys at my school here), went to see Underworld 2(I can get in because I look way older than 16 or 18 and I'm white), went to a night market which sells so much food which of course i am made to try all of it. At the night market I tried fried ice-cream which sounds impossible but it's really nice and unusual. After returning to Kuantan, I went to see a Chinese debate which I made a small mistake by forgetting to take off my shoes and discovering I was the only person in the room with shoes on.. That night I went running in the jungle with my host dad, it was with a group called 'Hash House Harriers' which I'm pretty sure we have in Tasmania. After going running I arrived late to my friend's birthday dinner where we had 'Western Food'. It was nice to use a knife and fork, I'm not that great with a fork and spoon. But other than I don't really miss that much western food. After dinner we went to see V for Vendetta which was a weird movie and the cinema is a bit like a fridge. A few days later my so kind host brother called me all the way from Australia just to call me fat.. The day after that I went to an English Debate at another school. It was pretty amazing to see how confident so students are with English. Later that week I joined the gym near my house which it's nice that I can still run for 15 minutes on the treadmill. On that Sunday I went to Megamall, which seems to be the only place teenagers here go..which is kinda depressing. There I met up with the two German Community Service exchange girls. Later I met up with my host sister, my friend Sherlyn, her younger sister, a guy from Russia Victor and a guy from school Kent. Later that night I tried to help my host sister teach some of her friends some dance moves..was a bit pointless Western style dancing is too much for people here. The next week I went to watch a tennis competition, where I met some of the international school students. I went to see the Alor Akar boy's team play basketball against another school..which wan't very successful for them. From Friday to Sunday I had delayed Orientation camp with 3 Japanese, 1 Australian and 1 girl from Finland. It was a good chance to realize a few things and talk about our problems and hopes for the rest of the year. It was also nice to go swimming, feels like forever since I've seen a nice beach. Last week, I experienced some 'old school' rowing. It was totally disgusting to fall into the Kuantan river.. After losing the rowing competition very sadly, I went home to get ready for a Form 5 school formal. Was very lovely to be surrounded by very skinny, pretty Chinese girls..made me feel rather self-concious. Was a pretty good night, apart from falling over in my high heels. The next day, I went to Megamall again to see Liam from Alice Springs and met up with Victor and Kent again. We went to see 'When a stranger calls'. It was ok, it was funny to hear everyone in the cinema scream. On Monday I went to school as usual then after school went to see Alor Akar play basketball again.. Tuesday was a public holiday, so it was a good chance to watch Scrubs and The O.C. Plus make pancakes for breakfast..

I want this for my birthday please, dad.

Cosmo's World in Times Square.

Chocolate is a comfort food

When you are homesick you will discover you feel very sleepy and crave chocolate constantly...well that's if you are me. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate i mean i can turn it down if i want..so I'm not like you Anna. But here, i seem to have a few weaknesses. One being chocolate, good chocolate like Lindt Lindor(thankfully sent by Anna, because you can't get it here), ferreo rocher and toblerone. Others being any great English TV show, I never thought i would miss the usual bad stuff on Australian TV and some great songs by Sarah Blasko and Lior. All you Aussies out there..never take your milk for granted, it's so good in Australia. I don't know if it's the chocolate or just all the Malaysian food but I have put on about 3-4kgs, which is quite depressing. Thankfully I don't wear anything revealing or a bikini here, otherwise I would feel fat all the time, which i do in my school uniform. The Malaysian girls school uniform defintely makes me ask 'does my arse look big in this?' or 'does it look like obsesity is an understatement?' Lucky I still have blonde hair and white skin, so I know people aren't looking at me because I'm getting so fat. Anyway since I last bothered to post not a great deal has happened. I had inter-high cross country which was the equivalent of running for a few kms in a sauna, I think i came about 26th. I have been hanging out with the other Australian in Kuantan, which has been great to hear some beautiful Australian slang and familar Western things. I went to Butik Pelindung(a hill, with like a rainforest sort of thing) with some guys from school and went to TC(the beach in Kuantan, which is nicely polluted), I saw a dead turtle there, which I thought looked more like an alien or something terribly green and disgusting. The day after that I made Gnocchi(potato pasta, for those of you Tasmanians who haven't been to Da Vinci's or La Porcetta). I think Gnocchi is too much for Malaysians since they don't usually have much potato in their diet. I liked it, even though I'm not very experienced with cooking, which I have discovered since it took me several hours to make the pasta. Back to school the next day, which was the first day of exams. I did the Form 5 English exam, which was nice and basic for me. I then tried to do the Form 4 Maths exam, which i now know that doing College maths in grade 10 hasn't really helped me. On Tuesday I did the Form 4 English exam which I ended up only getting 70%, I also did the Form 5 EST (English in Sciene and Technology, where they learn a whole lot of English words i don't even know) exam. I now go running on Tuedays after school with a group called 'Pacesetters' which is good, I met another Australian who works at the International school and has been here for 18 months and loves it. On Wednesday I did the Form 4 EST exam and ended up with 71%, obviously English isn't my thing. On Thursday morning I ran the 800m and 400m and won both,which was nice. On Friday after school I went to Megamall and spent a lot of money (naturally) on some things i needed for the dinner the following night. Saturday was sport day for school, it was at the stadium, which defintely needs some work on it. I went in the 100m, 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay. We won the 100m relay and 3rd in the 100m and we got 3rd in the 400m relay which it rained during. So I'm now a proud owner of 6 medals from my school. That night we went out for the 15th Anniversary of the Lion's club in Kuantan. One of the Japanese exchange students played his viola there. I also met the girl Japanese exchange student who I hadn't seen since arrival camp. Sunday I went to Megamall and met Liam the other Australian and the Japanese exchange students & one of their host brothers and some friends from school. We went to see Big Mommas House 2, which defintely isn't the best to come out of hollywood. On Monday I did a presentation in English class on Australia. Now I think everyone in Malaysia thinks the capital of Australia is Sydney. I borrowed a toy kangaroo and koala from my host family which everyone at school seemed to love. Wednesday to Friday was camp, the camp for the prefects and class monitors and in my case the exchange student. Camp was very much in Malay, so I enjoyed reading a good book while listening to my iPod while everyone else had nice motivational speeches and lectures. Camp was my first time wearing a sarong, had to since we had communal showers. I felt quite homesick at camp I think mainly because of being yelled at for going near the boys' tents, which made me feel a bit trapped and restricted with all the rules. Also because of the weather and the food. Spicy food for breakfast isn't really my thing and trying to sleep in a tent when it's 30 or more degrees outside, so a sauna would be nicer than that. Last night I went to a bbq with some school friends. BBQ in Malaysia is very different to Australia. For starters they very rarely have bbqs and they eat a lot of seafood. There is no tomato sauce and no bread. No steak, not many sausages, no potato salad(which i miss so much) or much salad in general. But a lot of prawns, crabs, fish and other shell fish. For me, someone who never really liked seafood I'm sure eating a lot of it here. Today, My host parents and me went out for breakfast like we do every Sunday and then we visited some show houses, which is a big business here. People here don't build their own house, they buy it from a big building company and it looks like every other house in the street. After that we went to a Buddhist temple and to the supermarket to buy things for me to make a nice salad sandwich for school tomorrow(which people defintely don't eat here), actually the carrots we bought were imported from Tasmania, the lettuce from USA and the cheese from Australia. Now I'm listening to a great Epicure song, thanks to Anna :) Just to let you know, even though I'm sometimes homesick, I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world, because I now love Malaysia....well, most of it ;)