Ah, good question!

So what on earth am I doing travelatoring off to SE Asia you ask?

Long story short: I am in Malaysia as an English Teaching Assistant for the Fulbright. (If you’re curious, more details about Fulbright here: http://us.fulbrightonline.org)

Leading up to my departure many a curious person asked what exactly would I be doing as a teacher in Malaysia. What city was I posted in? Was it a larger city or a rural village? What school was I going to? What grade would I be teaching? What kind of living situation would I have? Would I have a roommate? Ah, such reasonable questions. To be honest, I really felt rather foolish when my only response was to titter “Ohohoho! What wonderful questions you ask! If only I knew!” I’m sure some people thought I was assuredly crazy. Shouldn’t a person about to go live in a foreign country for 10 months know a wee bit more about her future situation?

However, now I finally do have more information to give!

I’m going to be teaching Malaysian secondary students! Woohoo! And as for the living situation, I’ll be living with a fellow ETA in the city of Raub in the central state of Pahang. A friendly bus driver informed me that although Raub is a small town, it is not so small that it doesn’t have a grocery store or two. (Just to put things in perspective, some other ETAs will be in more rural villages on the edge of the jungle and will probably have to go to the nearest neighboring city to get groceries.) Aside from being famous for its durian, Raub also boasts a good Indian restaurant, a karaoke bar and to top it all off---the bus driver made a great point in emphasizing this---an excellent dentist.  So, during the next ten months in Raub, in my spare time from teaching, I may well develop an obscene fondness of durian AND become a karaoke superstar. Who knows. :)

Raub is the blue marker. 

The state of Pahang is outlined in blue. 

(Don’t ask me why the A marker is there. 

Googlemaps insisted on including it.)

Finally, because I haven’t entirely figured out this blogger business and don’t know where else to put this, here is the lovely disclaimer various higher ups have gently (read: repeatedly) suggest we do.

This is not an official Department of State website or blog, and the views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State.