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04/01/08 - Happy New Year! This entry was supposed to come from Brunei this week, but I had to cancel my trip as my friend, Nurul Jannah, says she won't be able to meet me at that time. I'm actually a little relieved to not be going right now, as my course is only a few days away, so now I have proper time to prepare for it, but unfortunately I've wasted a bit of money, firstly booking the tickets somewhat last minute, therefore making them more expensive, and also having to pay to get them rescheduled to April, after my course.

Everything else has been fine so far, I really enjoyed my Christmas Dinner with Rebecca. I had been a bit nervous at first about the roast, as I don't really know how to cook big pieces of meat, but everything turned out fine. The only thing I was dissapointed with was not being able to eat with Rebecca's family, which was the main point of the meal, but they were quite busy that day and ate in the evening, when I had to go back to Peatling Jaya. But from what I've heard, Tamils aren't too fond of sprouts either.

Still on the importance of family, I feel it's such a shame that Hema, Theeba, Ranjita, and their fourth sister, Wanaja, all live apart from each other. Though their bond was obviously strong in Port Dickson, them having not seen each other for however many months, they really seem like they belong with each other. Ranjita doesn't seem to bond greatly with Sumathi's kids (Dinesh, Sutha and Velan), which is why I pity and favour her so much, so it goes to show how important a close family really is...

Still about families, I'm actually quite suprised how few families I'd revisited pre-New Year. I've only revisited seven houses, five of which are in the same block in Jinjang, and most of my time has been spent with Ranjita, though my Tamil language has benefited greatly from doing so. I'm suprised I've only just visited Laksamana this week (who are now living in much more sensible conditions, as in less than four kids per house), but I'm here for atleast another five months, so there's plenty of time for me to visit everyone again.

11/01/08 - This week has marked a few new beginnings for me for this new year. Firstly I attended a new church, which Annrita (who I stayed with early last year) attends, after leaving Community of Praise. The Praise Emmanuel Assembly is quite a big Tamil ministry, who are also in need of a Sunday School teacher. It's just a shame I haven't made a brilliant introduction of myself, after feeling ill (thanks to rookie chef Raveena) on Sunday, and I was missing Ranjita during Thursday's prayer meeting; I'll make sure I'm healthy and happy next time I go.

I also started my CELTA course at college, the first lesson being a long introduction into the course, though we'll immediately start teaching in our next lesson. The college schedule is quite relaxed as it's only two days a week, but is helped furthermore by Malaysia's generous supply of public holidays; we were only in on Tuesday this week, as Thursday was Awal Muharam. The lecturers and other students seem like really nice people, something that I felt hindered me during my ICT course a few years ago, and with all my Tamil friends not so far away, I should be fine in keeping myself motivated.

Though I had no problems getting to college on Tuesday (I left quite early anyway), the traffic round KL these days is horrendous. If I visit Jinjang, I usually stay till quite late to avoid the traffic and being stuck on a bus for hours. But getting from the LRT station to home usually involves the taxi driver taking a detour to avoid the jams. But I'm doing what I can to avoid the taxi fares (which are RM 3-5 a time), and have organised to get myself a bicycle next week...

18/01/08 - It's the second week of my college course, and my confidence is currently in a bit of a yo-yo state. On Tuesday I did my first ever, pre-planned lesson, which was graded 'to standard', which is a good start for me. Thursday was my day off from teaching, though I kind of missed not receiving any feedback, as I really want to improve and be as good at teaching as possible. My confidence over my assignments at the moment is fair, as I've already got myself a student (that we're teaching) to work with, which is a requirement for my first assignment.

My only problem is getting access to computers, which is a requirement if I want to make decent assignments. I'm in debate over whether to get a laptop or not; my main worry is if it gets stolen or damaged, but also I won't have much use for it when I'm back in the UK. But life here would be so much easier with one, I'll have to see what prices are like and see how much it's really worth...

Talking of things I still need, I still don't have my bicycle, almost two weeks after Bro. Daniel, from the Petaling Jaya church, promised to deliver it. He called me to meet him in Puchong today (somewhere I've never been before), but he didn't even have the bike, and wasted four hours of my day over nothing. Also, I'm wasting money waiting for this bicycle; I've probably spent about RM30-40 on taxi fares since I met with him, which has technically put the bike's value up, as I wouldn't be relying on public transport if I had had it by now.

One last woe of the week, I'm quite concerned about the welfare of Bawani's kids (Vedhan, Vaiythis etc.) at Wahyu 2. The two times I've visited they've been home alone, and on Saturday I saw Bawani at her mother's house, when visiting Nitia. It's really bad that she's putting six young lives in jeapordy, and this comes at a time when the Malaysian government is trying to get parents to look after their kids properly, after a five year old girl, Sharlinie, went missing recently here. Despite the extensive search campaign, I hope the Malaysian media doesn't go 'Maddie' over her.

25/01/08 - My third week of college has passed, I had to teach on both Tuesday and Thursday this week, which I fortunately won't have to do again. I seem to be doing OK in my lessons, I had some feedback about rapport with the students (not using names etc.) on Tuesday, which I improved on, on Thursday. It's not really so hard doing teaching when you have a lesson plan and a syllabus, which I've never had for the Sunday School or tuition classes I've done, but it's presenting the lesson to standard which makes this course more tough.

I'm progressing well with my first assignment, which is student analysis. My student is Amir, who's from Iran, and is a really nice and interesting person. I learnt a lot about Amir when I interviewed him, and he's extremely committed to learning English; it seems like it's the only thing he does in Malaysia. I've also made good friends with fellow CELTA student, Shakira, who I sometimes spend time with after class. It's nice to make friends with someone close to my age, rather than spending all my time with kids or over 30s.

Unfortunately, I was quite dissapointed not to spend some time with some kids and over 30s on Wednesday, which was Thaipusam. Jyothi invited to come to Batu Caves with her and her family (who I went to Port Dickson with), but I forgot it was Thaipusam (now officially a Malaysian public holiday) and it was too late by the time I realised, and I was also sluggishy going through my college work to kill the whole day. I was told Theeba was asking for me, but Jyothi says we might go to Batu Caves again next Sunday...

Joyce moved out the house this week, after an argument with Anna; now I have nobody to want to cook for me anymore, or obsessively ask for me to come to Bandar Sunway. I went to Rebecca's church on Saturday, which was an interesting visit. I really want to commit to all these invites that I'm receiving, but obviously my top priority is my course. I've decided against getting a laptop now, but I still don't have my bicycle!