My Christmas Break

I know that it is getting towards the end of February, but I just realized that I never wrote about my Christmas break. My Mom came from the States to see me and where I was living and teaching, since we were not able to check things out before I moved over here. The first day that my Mom was here (Tuesday Dec. 14th), was come to my school so that she could see where I was teaching and meet some of the students and the staff. I had school Wednesday, so she just relaxed and rested from her really long trip. Thursday morning we got up and met two of my co-workers and their daughter and the maternal grandma for breakfast at McDonald's. My Mom brought my friend's daughter a tutu. She was very shy, but excited for the present. My Mom got to go out on the beach and in the water a ways and enjoy the nice warm water. We went to the mall later that day to pick up a few things and just rested more in the afternoon and visited, since I had not seen her since August. We went to Sara Thai for lunch. It is one of my favorite places to eat. We had their vegetables, seafood tempura, and fish. I really like the fish that they make there. This fish was fried and was supposed to not be pedas (spicy) but we got these little chili podes on top and Mom accidentally ate one because she didn't know it was on there and it was too spicy for her. After that she brushed them off. My Mom never thought she would love fish, but where we come from we can't get fresh fish, so I have never had really good fish before. In Minnesota I have gone fishing and got my own fish and eaten after it has been cleaned, but the quality of that fish hasn't even been as good as this fish. It has always just been the tiny little rainbow or sun fish.  On Friday morning we got up early and took the bus to Kuala Lumpur to do some shopping so I could get more weather appropriate clothes. Our first stop after getting off was to get lunch. I ordered my Mom Thosai so she got to try it for the first time. It is my favorite dish so far. After that we went to check into our hotel. Let's just say that we didn't not make the accommodations and next time we will make our own. After checking in we went to see the Petronas Twin Towers. They are the tallest buildings in the world. I had my picture taken in front of them because a friend from back home and requested I have my picture taken and send it to him. We went down into the gift shop and I bought some gifts to have my Mom take home and send to people for me. We looked at going up to the skybridge, but the wait was going to be forever, so I decided to pass. Then we went around to KLCC which is the mall there. They had lots of name brand shops there, with very expensive products. They had like Jimmy Choo, Tiffany's, Prada, etc. It was recommended to try British India, but I found their clothes too expensive for me. I tried another place Marks and Spenser's or something, but their clothes didn't fit. I didn't really buy anything that first day except a Malay/English, English/Malay dictionary. and some of my favorite lotion and body soap. Before dinner we were standing around one of the center things and there was a ballet show that we watched. We ate at Nando's for dinner. That was the request of one of the people we were with. It is a South African chain. The food was good, but I was (and still am) sick of chicken. I have chicken and rice every day. I wanted to try something else, but oh well.
The next morning we met up with a friend of one of the people we were with and had dim sum for brunch. It was really, really awesome and I would do it again. It is like the Spanish tappas where one orders a whole bunch of small appetizers and shares only dim sum is Chinese. Then we went to Wamutama (sp?) mall and did more shopping. I went to East India and did find several tops to buy that fit me, weren't too expensive and were either cotton or linen. I shopped at some other places and got more tops to wear that would be cooler. I also found myself a swimsuit that I can now wear to the beach under what has become my beach outfit. I stay covered out of respect for my friends. We ate at Chili's that night for dinner, so I could have some real blue cheese dressing. How I have missed it.
The next day we went to Berjaya Town Square Mall. I got some new tennis shoes because mine were shot and it didn't even feel like I was wearing tennis shoes because there was no support left. My feet hurt so bad. I found a few more tops, but no pants. We ate lunch at Secret Recipe. They have awesome desserts. One thing I will say is I hate shopping and these malls were ginormous and it was easy to get lost. I have never been in malls that big. The biggest is the hotels/casinos/malls in Las Vegas. I am happy I got more tops to wear though. It has been nice to have new clothes.
After finishing shopping I wanted to find this place called Gem Mines. We found it but we got a little lost on the way. At this one intersection we saw this guy laying on the concrete island in the middle. He had red around both his knee caps and sticks poking out of his knees and his knees were all gross. He was just laying kind of propped up on his side smoking a cigarette. There was someone that took pictures of him. It is things like that that always make me glad at the end of the trip to go back to my smaller town where I don't see things like that on a daily basis. The Gem Mines had nice colored gemstones that we looked at but we didn't buy anything. Across from that was a batik shop and so my Mom bought some really pretty scarves to take back home to give to people. Then we went to another Secret Recipe for dinner.
The last day (Monday) we got up and packed. We went back to the food stall and I got Thosai for breakfast and then we took a cab to the bus station and took the bus back to the town I am living in.
On Tuesday we just relaxed and did laundry. Wednesday we went and got massages at this spa that I go to in town and really like. After that we went to the movie theater and saw Chronicles of Narina: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We went out for dinner that night to a Chinese Restaurant with a nice view of the sea. To be continued...