This is Abdula. He is married and has four children. On the right is Brent. He is the Rig Manager and is in Malaysia 35 days and then goes home. John comes in and takes his place for 35 days

Friends

This is Joyce Ting and her son Cody. Joyce is the assistant to Dan Cocca in the office and she is the most incredible person we know in Malaysia. Any time we need to know where to find something we call Joyce. She takes care of every need we have here. I am not sure any of us here could do without Joyce.

Not completely true!!

Some things we were told in our Customs Class are not true. I think maybe the lady doing the class has not been in Kuala Lumpur in a while.

The water for one thing - nothing is wrong with the water or the ice as long as you stay in KL. We can drink from our faucet and we order ice all the time when we go out.

Second - Americans do not smile too much. Alot of people here speak and smile when they see you. Of course we do have our share of rude people but for the most part everyone is very friendly.

Clothing - we were told they don't wear black or white. Everyone wears black. Most of the employees in the hotels and the employees in the stores wear black everyday. You see other people dressed in pretty much anything.

The food is great - I have not found the food they are talking about yet. I know I have to get better at trying things but there is no way you will catch me eating some of the things I have seen. We tend to go to Chili's ALOT.

The weather - I have not found the weather to be any different here than the weather we have in Montgomery. The only thing is that the weather here never changes.

Grocery Shopping

An adventure in itself. There are alot of adventures over here I have found out. There are two grocery stores in the mall across the street from us. They are Cold Storage and Isetan. I go to these stores first to see what I can find, most of the time they have what I want unless it is something special like self rising flour. Just kidding, you can find flour most of the time but even self rising does not rise. The biscuits I made for Christmas were not to exciting. I did make a red velvet cake and a pound cake that were not to bad. There is a wonderful place called Hock Choog which is an american grocery store. They have most things you want but you pay dearly for them. We also have a place called doorstep which is a store that you go online and order your groceries. I do this for all the bulky stuff such as paper towels, toilet tissue, etc. and the heavy stuff like cokes, water and canned goods. Speaking of water, you can drink the water in KL. We have a place called Jusco which is sorta like a Walmart. I would give anything for a Walmart. I had a meltdown there one day just because I was expecting more. I do go grocery shopping most everyday just to give me something to do. Oh how I wish there was a Publix close by. It is amazing what we take for granted.

Merry Christmas from Malaysia

This is at the big mall across the street from us called Suria. There are Christmas decorations everywhere.

This is Mary Cocca and I at lunch one day. We found this great little restaurant and shop called Peter Hoe.