Long day
Today was just way too long. The morning was really interesting in learning about all of the technology tools that we have at our fingertips, and setting them up on our computers so that they are ready to go. We also met with members of the board who are also the owners of the school. They are the Taylor Education Group ( http://www.taylors.edu.my/en/home ). They have lots of international schools and Universities under their umbrella. Nexus, as I believe I have mentioned before, is a flagship school. They have purchased another school in Singapore to recreate in the Nexus model, and thus there are now two Nexus schools. They will also create several schools throughout South East Asia, beginning with Singapore, and eventually moving to Korea and Vietnam also.
The rest of the day was a lesson in patience in dealing with Malaysian bureaucracy and business in general. In the morning we had planned to drop all of our laundry off at the local laundrette in Putrajaya, and pick up tomorrow, only to find out that they could only get our laundry to us next week by the end of Hari Raja. Thus we brought our laundry to school. Thankfully, the school offered their cleaning staff to wash all of the laundry about 6 families had brought! It will be ready tomorrow.
In the afternoon we had to go to the bank and the EPF office. We all needed to deposit a check today to ensure that it would clear by the time we need to pay our rents. The bank took forever to help us as we each had to step up to the window, fill in a document by hand, which was then also filled in on the computer, and only then were our checks deposited.
After we had all waited for everyone else to finish we climbed back into the bus to go to the EPF office. This is the office that will pull out 11% of our salary monthly, and put that money into account that we will receive at the end of our stay. The school will add about 12% of our salary to the fund and it will all become a tidy nest egg once we leave Malaysia. You have got to love forced savings that cannot be touched. But once again, we all had to go to the office at the same time. Their was one man to process us: thumbprint us, enter our information into the computer from a document that had already been filled out by our brilliant office staff, and then we had to also electronically add a thumbprint. So now they have all of our information both in paper and electronic form. Hopefully this means we will have less trouble getting access to the money when we leave the country. We arrived at the office around 1:30, by which time, we should have already been in our hotel according to our schedule. We left only at 3:15. We then drove back to Putrajaya, and then returned to Kuala Lumpur around 4pm.
That being said, all the kids were great once more, and our Human Resources person was fantastically patient and kind. We are very lucky to have her helping us out. She has made everything work out very nicely.
I might actually sign my lease today, and pay the first down payment. I am meeting the agent in the evening, and we will go shopping for the first furniture for my apartment also. :-) But in order to get there I will have to brave the commuter train again! Wish me luck...
The rest of the day was a lesson in patience in dealing with Malaysian bureaucracy and business in general. In the morning we had planned to drop all of our laundry off at the local laundrette in Putrajaya, and pick up tomorrow, only to find out that they could only get our laundry to us next week by the end of Hari Raja. Thus we brought our laundry to school. Thankfully, the school offered their cleaning staff to wash all of the laundry about 6 families had brought! It will be ready tomorrow.
In the afternoon we had to go to the bank and the EPF office. We all needed to deposit a check today to ensure that it would clear by the time we need to pay our rents. The bank took forever to help us as we each had to step up to the window, fill in a document by hand, which was then also filled in on the computer, and only then were our checks deposited.
After we had all waited for everyone else to finish we climbed back into the bus to go to the EPF office. This is the office that will pull out 11% of our salary monthly, and put that money into account that we will receive at the end of our stay. The school will add about 12% of our salary to the fund and it will all become a tidy nest egg once we leave Malaysia. You have got to love forced savings that cannot be touched. But once again, we all had to go to the office at the same time. Their was one man to process us: thumbprint us, enter our information into the computer from a document that had already been filled out by our brilliant office staff, and then we had to also electronically add a thumbprint. So now they have all of our information both in paper and electronic form. Hopefully this means we will have less trouble getting access to the money when we leave the country. We arrived at the office around 1:30, by which time, we should have already been in our hotel according to our schedule. We left only at 3:15. We then drove back to Putrajaya, and then returned to Kuala Lumpur around 4pm.
That being said, all the kids were great once more, and our Human Resources person was fantastically patient and kind. We are very lucky to have her helping us out. She has made everything work out very nicely.
I might actually sign my lease today, and pay the first down payment. I am meeting the agent in the evening, and we will go shopping for the first furniture for my apartment also. :-) But in order to get there I will have to brave the commuter train again! Wish me luck...
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