Things falling into place
Last night I was not able to post in the blog because I had such a long evening. I returned home from furniture shopping after nine in the evening, even though I was supposed to be at a staff party in the evening around 5:30. Instead due to traffic my agent picked me up only around that time. The process should have been fairly quick once we found a store where we could choose all the furniture we needed.
The problem was the continual negotiation. The sales person and my agent were continually negotiating, changing the prices as we added more and more items to the list that we liked because of both the price and the item. In some ways it was actually quite funny because they were bantering in the barting process, laughing and continually pushing each other to get the advantage they needed. And the majority of it was happening in Chinese and I had to guess what was going on by the context and the tone of the conversation. I must have been following along quite well as at one point they both started speaking to me in Chinese and awaited my answer. Strangely enough I understood what t I needed to answer.
By the time we were done we went over the original budget by 100 Ringet. It felt fantastic to be done, but I was starving by the end because I had not eaten since around one. I met the boys back at the hotel ( in the first version of this I wrote home - I guess that's what it seems like for now...) while their Dad dropped them off. I still had to grab something to eat. Now you would think that by 9:30 everything would be winding down. However, all the restaurants were still packed and people were standing in line for meals everywhere. I hope that this is due to Ramadan and is not regularly the case, but the service was also quite bad. Although the Malaysians smile kindly and are very polite, and ostensibly everyone speaks English, I am finding that their is some kind of a communication barrier. Right now my guess is the accent issue. They don't understand mine and I struggle to understand theirs - sometimes Malaysian, other times Indian or Chinese, or Filipino, or you name it. Each person is a bit different, and until I adjust to the majority of pronunciations I will likely be a bit dumbfounded for a while, as they will be with me.
Yesterday several things fell into place. Most of the furniture will be delivered by Saturday - the most important items being the mattresses. I also learned that it might be the case that my car will be ready on Saturday for delivery, and that my shipment might arrive on Monday. So technically if everything really falls into place I will have my car by Saturday, and be able to move into the apartment by Saturday, and have all of my personal belongings from Uzbekistan in the apartment. Hold your thumbs and cross your fingers that everything works. I would enjoy a week of just relaxation, and perhaps some shopping to get some personal items for the apartment.
Today was once again a really good day at work. Our department works very well together, and I loved the way we planned today. We used google docks to plan with all of our MacBooks open and the work also beamed wirelessly onto the wall so we could type, look, and communicate more optimally. I look forward to using this same principle with my students in group work. We also did the mundane of putting up colored paper onto our boards and taking down old work from the rooms we have been assigned. Once again we did it together to make it go faster.
I think the best part of the day was returning early enough to have time to go with one of my colleagues to buy a present for our bus driver, and then eat a simple dinner and sort out the last details of payments. For the first time in a long time I am ready to crawl into bed at 9pm!
The problem was the continual negotiation. The sales person and my agent were continually negotiating, changing the prices as we added more and more items to the list that we liked because of both the price and the item. In some ways it was actually quite funny because they were bantering in the barting process, laughing and continually pushing each other to get the advantage they needed. And the majority of it was happening in Chinese and I had to guess what was going on by the context and the tone of the conversation. I must have been following along quite well as at one point they both started speaking to me in Chinese and awaited my answer. Strangely enough I understood what t I needed to answer.
By the time we were done we went over the original budget by 100 Ringet. It felt fantastic to be done, but I was starving by the end because I had not eaten since around one. I met the boys back at the hotel ( in the first version of this I wrote home - I guess that's what it seems like for now...) while their Dad dropped them off. I still had to grab something to eat. Now you would think that by 9:30 everything would be winding down. However, all the restaurants were still packed and people were standing in line for meals everywhere. I hope that this is due to Ramadan and is not regularly the case, but the service was also quite bad. Although the Malaysians smile kindly and are very polite, and ostensibly everyone speaks English, I am finding that their is some kind of a communication barrier. Right now my guess is the accent issue. They don't understand mine and I struggle to understand theirs - sometimes Malaysian, other times Indian or Chinese, or Filipino, or you name it. Each person is a bit different, and until I adjust to the majority of pronunciations I will likely be a bit dumbfounded for a while, as they will be with me.
Yesterday several things fell into place. Most of the furniture will be delivered by Saturday - the most important items being the mattresses. I also learned that it might be the case that my car will be ready on Saturday for delivery, and that my shipment might arrive on Monday. So technically if everything really falls into place I will have my car by Saturday, and be able to move into the apartment by Saturday, and have all of my personal belongings from Uzbekistan in the apartment. Hold your thumbs and cross your fingers that everything works. I would enjoy a week of just relaxation, and perhaps some shopping to get some personal items for the apartment.
Today was once again a really good day at work. Our department works very well together, and I loved the way we planned today. We used google docks to plan with all of our MacBooks open and the work also beamed wirelessly onto the wall so we could type, look, and communicate more optimally. I look forward to using this same principle with my students in group work. We also did the mundane of putting up colored paper onto our boards and taking down old work from the rooms we have been assigned. Once again we did it together to make it go faster.
I think the best part of the day was returning early enough to have time to go with one of my colleagues to buy a present for our bus driver, and then eat a simple dinner and sort out the last details of payments. For the first time in a long time I am ready to crawl into bed at 9pm!
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