Eating Our Way Around the World

On Saturday, February 16th we drove over to the school a little after 10:00 a.m. to drop-off the past month's recycling and hopefully arrive well before the crowd gathered at 11:00 for the "International Fest" at ISKL. Ooops, much of the crowd had already arrived and we barely found a parking place in the faculty lot around back.


"The Fest" was a grand occasion, with a staggering number of international food and craft tables that were already in business, or just getting set-up when we arrived. We decided that Norway ought to win the "Creativity Award" with the x-country skiing competition that's pictured above. We loved the Taiwanese dumplings, the kabobs-on-a-stick, and a moist, delicious chocolate cake that we took home for Sunday dinner. It was fun watching the international parade with an adult drum corps leading children carrying flags from dozens of foreign countries.

True to form, in addition to offering some tasty baked goods and the miscellaneous items pictured above, the American contingent sold hamburgers to those who were nostalgic for the good 'ole U.S. of A. - rw

ISKL International Day

Today was such a fun day at work. The walkway into the school was lined with flags from each country of citizenship for all of our students. Students and staff were encouraged to come in dress that represented their country. Another option was to wear something of Malaysian dress. I wore my panjabi dress that represents the Indian culture of Malaysia. I took pictures of students in the library. The Asian students had the most beautiful dresses. This is two of my library staff (far right) along with me and several students. Below is my friend NyYoung, the Korean teacher, on the left and a student. The Kenyan flag (second from right)- a warm reminder of our time at ISK and in Nairobi.

Night Visitor in the ISKL LIbrary

When I arrived at work on February 14th the first thing strange was that the alarm system was beeping. Soon my staff and I discovered that a ceiling panel had fallen to the floor. Next we discovered animal poop and hair on the floor. After contacting maintenance, we discovered that our night visitor had set off the motion sensor alarm at midnight and in all likelihood the culprit was a civet cat. I learned that civet cats seem to frequent the spaces above the ceilings at the school. The cat must have crawled back out as it was never seen in the library.

Lion Dance

One of the delights of working at ISKL is celebrating the different cultures of Malaysia. This week a Chinese dance troupe came and presented the traditional Chinese New Year Lion Dance during our lunch hour. -Nancy

Sleepover for all 3!

We'll let the pictures tell you about it. The event included swimming, dinner, stories, bowling, and two trips to McDonalds -- first for ice cream on Friday night and then on Saturday morning for breakfast. -- Nancy

Orchid Garden in KL

We decided not to travel out of KL this 4 day Chinese New Year's weekend. Ron and I spent one morning visiting the Orchid Garden here in KL. The entrance fee was one whole ringgit (30 cents). We didn't even get lost going there and the traffic in KL was very light due to the holiday. -- Nancy

Chinese New Year

Much international coverage this past week has been given to the huge snowstorms in China that have hindered literally millions of people from traveling home from the big cities for Chinese New Year.


With considerably less international coverage, Nancy and I decided on Saturday morning, prior to Chinese New Year, to travel by "LRT" (the Metro) all the way from our condo to Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown. So, we drove ten minutes to a nearby LRT station, parked our car for RM2 (all of 62 cents) and paid an additional RM4 for two tickets to the station nearest to Chinatown -- a journey of about 15 minutes. First we walked through the "City Market" -- a 2-story upscale maze of shops -- where I paid RM2.50 for a delicious hot waffle that was folded-over with chocolate and coconut filling. Now fortified for our journey into Chinatown, we proceeded on to wander through narrow streets, visit a temple, do some shopping and explore the "Wet Market" where fish, meat and assorted vegetables are all laid-out on counters on each side of narrow aisles.

All in all, it was a fun trip! - rw

ISKL Ampang Library Open House

We displayed all of our new books and had a "Lucky Draw" raffle to entice staff and students to drop-by the library and take a look. I was sorely razzed when Doug won one of the lucky draw prizes, taking home a gift certificate to a local bookstore. Several staff insisted that family members should be disqualified from such contests. My reply was that I didn't do the drawing - only recorded the results. However, I was grateful that Tracy's name wasn't also drawn! - Nancy