Turtle Power

After almost a year apart, my beloved turtles have returned home. They are so much bigger than I remember them. Welcome back Polo, Tiger, and Carl. We also have a new turtle named Paul that made friends with ours while we were gone. This place is slowly but surely starting to feel like home.

Paul

Polo

Carl

Tiger

Basking in the hot Malaysian sun.

These turtles can run surprisingly fast if given a moment of freedom from their pool.

Doing My Homework

I am a student currently in the final year of a Master of Education degree from OISE at the University of Toronto. I have been doing this online for the past two years while teaching in Asia and it takes up a good chunk of my time. However, I often feel bored when on those rare times where I’m on holiday from both teaching and learning. Anyway, the course I’m currently taking is called Holistic Approaches to Information Technology and part of the course is to create a reflective journal about our learning experience. Since the journal is supposed to be in blog form, I figured I’d share it here as this blog has a teaching and learning theme.

http://davidslearningjournal.wordpress.com/

If you’re an international teacher interested in an M.Ed from the University of Toronto, post a comment and get in touch. I’ll answer any questions and tell you about my experience.

Setting Up in Malaysia

I got some new toys this week to help me enjoy my time here in Malaysia.


I ordered a full set of hockey equipment (less skates) from Hockey Monkey. The equipment was reasonably priced. My order got held up a few times and they required me to call them twice, but it only took five days to get here once they shipped it. Last time I was in Malaysia I always had to rummage through the equipment locker at the hockey rink and borrow spare equipment. Everyone will definitely be surprised to see me with my own gear.

It's a pretty big bag. The backpack style hockey bag will let me get to the rink on my motorcycle. Not sure about how to get the stick there. Next time we go on holiday I'm going to make Lyna take this backpack. People will think I'm abusive.

Wheels are mandatory in Malaysia. I decided to buy a larger bike than I had last time. I’m hoping that I can eventually ride it up to Thailand on long weekends or holidays. This bike barely cost any more than my old 1997 Honda

2009 Demak DMX150

 

Badass!

Back to Malaysia

Yes, I have arrived back in Malaysia for round two. The first round was from 2006-2010. The school set me up in a five star hotel for my first week, but I didn’t blog from there because Internet costs rm25 per hour. As I spent four years in Malaysia before, there are some things I want to do differently this time. The first thing I am doing differently is not throwing my money away on rent every month. My employer provides a housing allowance rather than free housing and I intend to use it more wisely this time. There are plenty of apartments near my school, but in my opinion they don’t represent good value.


I have secured a house that is in some cases 1/3 as cheap as the apartments other teachers will be living in. It’s not a mansion by any means and it’s not as modern as the other places available, but the price is absolutely right. Actually, to correct that, I’m confident that next year I can get a reduction in my rent or move to a nicer place in the same neighbourhood for the same price as there will be no real estate agent taking their cut.

The place already looks much nicer, but Lyna is in the process of decorating it. There will be another post of the crib once it’s finished. I think Lyna also has a secret plan to get a puppy to join us.

The one of the key benefits of this place is that its actualy a lot closer to Chinese restaurants than my last place. That means cheap eats and more importantly, cheap drinks (in Malaysian terms). There's also a pretty good pirate DVD.

Ugly gate should hopefully get painted soon.

Living room

Master bedroom

Beautiful view from balcony outside master bedroom