Step 4: Learning to Equalize

One of our many school assemblies!
Photo: Courtesy of SMK Permaisuri Nur Zahirah

Recently, I was introduced to the technique of equalizing while taking an open water dive course in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. The deeper a diver goes, the more water pressure and ear pressure become unbalanced, causing deep discomfort. To avoid this pain, divers must slowly descend and gently breathe out while pinching their nose. A slow and steady introduction to the deep, unfamiliar waters makes for an enjoyable underwater adventure.

Driving my pink motor scooter through vast rice paddies in my rural, Islamic village, while wearing a bright, floral baju kurung, is not a life I could have ever fully prepared for.

My American wardrobe has been replaced with a collection of twenty-plus traditional, conservative baju kurung (explained in the previous post)

Eating lunch with fellow teachers.
Photo: Courtesy of SMK Permaisuri Nur Zahirah

Going to buy groceries no longer consists of quick trips to Target in a Volvo with a stop at Starbucks along the way. Now, I strategically decide what I need based on what can fit into a backpack for the return trip from Supermas. Supermas is about a fifth of the size of Jewel Osco and is the only supermarket in town, but it gets the job done. In fact, I always save some room for M&Ms, which it conveniently sells! 

Example of what one would see at a Pasar Malam in
Malaysia! 

A daily occurrence.
Cows are constantly socializing in frontof our house...

My weekly dates with friends have been replaced with trips to the local Pasar Malam, the night markets selling fruits, vegetables, live chickens and food. Being a regular at the market has been a fabulous way to meet locals while sampling Malaysian food. Although, I have not been brave enough to buy a live chicken yet, with many villages in a twenty- minute radius, there is a night market within reach every night.

Moreover, my favorite spin classes have been replaced with P90x videos, as well as scenic bikes rides and jogs through my village where cows, roosters and chickens roam freely and palm trees provide light shade.

Moving here requires a new kind of rhythm, and it’s amazing to experience the reality when something once so unusual becomes now seemingly normal.

 My slow and steady introduction is allowing me to equalize to an existence quite different than my own, but a life that is temporarily mine.

A group of Christina and I's students. They came over one evening
to play badminton and we showed them how to make root beer floats!