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KL!
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We arrived in KL from Singapore at around 11:30 in the morning. Waiting for us at the terminal was Elizabeth, our contact person at MACEE (Malaysian American Commission on Educational Exchange). MACEE made all of our travel arrangements, and is handling the portion of our orientation that is in Kuala Lumpur. Mostly, they are responsible for advising Malaysian students who want to study in the United States, but the Fulbright Program is also under their jurisdiction.
MACEE arranged vans to transport us to the city centre, so we spent the hour-long drive grilling Elizabeth for details. We will be staying for the month in a the Corus Hotel KL, less than a block away from the Petronas Towers (of "Entrapment" featuring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones fame, and once the tallest buildings in the world). As we would learn later, our training will be about 60% Bahasa instruction, 30% ESL pedagogy, and 10% general orientation about Malaysia, Terrenganu, and the relationship with America, largely through presentations by the MACEE director and representatives from the U.S. Embassy. We will have weekends free, plus some "special activities" including two day trips to Malacca, a trip to an elephant park, and a homestay with a local family.
After lunch at the hotel, we went to the MACEE offices, which are next door to the hotel. The office building that houses MACEE is owned by Anwar Ibrahim, the controversial former Deputy Prime Minister who was jailed under dispute by the long-standing former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir. The office itself is nicely furnished as a library containing resources for those applying to study in the United States. This will be our daytime home for the next month. Most of today was consumed by paperwork for opening bank accounts, setting up the local cell phones ("handphones") provided by MACEE, and distributing cash stipends for the month. In a completely unexpected stroke of fate, because our time in KL is funded by the U.S. government, our funding this month is based on MACEE's per diem rates, which are much more than we will be receiving in Terrenganu and quite generous by Malaysia standards. This is in addition to giving us each our own hotel room downtown for a month. That's government inefficiency for you. And they say they can't lower taxes without cutting programs. Go figure.
After hearing so little while we were at home, all of these luxuries are a pleasant surprise. But it seems that once this month is over, conditions may be rather sparse. At lunch we learned that most of the seven women will be located in Kuala Terrenganu, the state capital, but that the three men will be in more rural areas, as far as two hours from KT. The good news? One of these rural schools is Kuala Besut, about an hour south of the Thai border and a half-hour ferry ride from the world-famous white sand beaches of the Perhentian Islands. I've got my fingers crossed.
Now Reading: The Best Travelers' Tales 2004: True Stories from Around the World, ed. James O'Reilly
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