My first day at work turned into not actually going to the normal offices. Instead we went off site to one of our manufacturing facilities, which is about 20 miles away from the hotel. We will be here all week. As soon as we got there, they escorted me and the others in my group to a large conference room with over a hundred people in there. It looked like the space center mission control room. These people were ready to work!. After some brief introductions, we were down to business. It was an entire week of stress and teaching, doing, but I can already tell I've got good colleagues that are fun to be around. By the end of the week, we were all laughing and joking with each other. They have a lot of intelligent people working the project. I know we should be successful with the group that's working it.
Work brought in food each day, plus breakfast, mid-morning & mid-afternoon snacks. [These are my kind of people!] I must say, they have some strange things over here. I've never seen so much gelatin and starch based food. They also seem to use a lot of coconut and jellies. There is always some kind of 'topping' on most of the snacks. It could be in the form of a spicy paste, fish sprinkles, something salty, or something for texture. Not things I am familiar with at all. But they are okay, but I don't think I'll have any crazy cravings for them when I return to the States!
All was well with the first day at work! [I'm posting this a week behind when I was actually there, the rest of the week went really well also]
Showing posts with label expatriate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expatriate. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Acclimation to Kuala Lumpur Travel
After the travel from Lake Jackson, Texas to Houston Intercontinental, wait 2.5 hours for international flight, Houston to Moscow, Moscow to Singapore, Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, & KL airport to hotel via taxi. Total travel time my house to hotel was just under 33 continuous hours plus a 13 hour change in time made for a 46 hour delta.
After I checked into the hotel, I brushed my teeth and took a shower, and I went out and explored close to my hotel. I couldn't really find any food that seemed appetizing so I just came back to the hotel after about an hour and a half of wondering around aimlessly. I decided to eat at the hotel. It was nice, but unexpected. They were having a "high tea", which was hot tea served with bite sized pieces of food. However the food was varied and international; Sushi, noodles, shrimp, shellfish, Chinese dumplings, vegetables, breads, and several tables of desserts. It was all delicious.
After a meal, I decided to go to the hotel room and try to rest. I actually went to sleep for several hours and then woke up around 8pm, watched TV and talked on the phone a bit. Went back to bed and slept until about 5am the next day. That helped me out a lot because I didn't realize how draining that flight was for me. Looking back, that helped get me acclimated to the new time zone. Although I lost all day Saturday for the most part. Knowing this, I could potentially make the trip Friday night instead of Thursday night and should be able to go into the office on Monday morning. But it was nice to have the Sunday to explore around the city. Especially since this was my first trip.
After I checked into the hotel, I brushed my teeth and took a shower, and I went out and explored close to my hotel. I couldn't really find any food that seemed appetizing so I just came back to the hotel after about an hour and a half of wondering around aimlessly. I decided to eat at the hotel. It was nice, but unexpected. They were having a "high tea", which was hot tea served with bite sized pieces of food. However the food was varied and international; Sushi, noodles, shrimp, shellfish, Chinese dumplings, vegetables, breads, and several tables of desserts. It was all delicious.
After a meal, I decided to go to the hotel room and try to rest. I actually went to sleep for several hours and then woke up around 8pm, watched TV and talked on the phone a bit. Went back to bed and slept until about 5am the next day. That helped me out a lot because I didn't realize how draining that flight was for me. Looking back, that helped get me acclimated to the new time zone. Although I lost all day Saturday for the most part. Knowing this, I could potentially make the trip Friday night instead of Thursday night and should be able to go into the office on Monday morning. But it was nice to have the Sunday to explore around the city. Especially since this was my first trip.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Genesis
I was inspired to start a blog from researching Kuala Lumpur. I discovered several blogs of people doing the same thing. I found them not only informative but very interesting as they explored new worlds--literally!! I thought it would be fun to blog my experience too.
Just to document where I am at this point. I'm going to work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia beginning in May 2011 for approximately 1.5 years. I work for a manufacturing company and my assignment will work with accounting, finance, controlling, & IT systems within Asia Pacific. Assuming all my necessary paperwork gets completed on time, I will make my "final move" to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in about 5 weeks from now. Lots of things have to happen between now and then, but the excitement is building. The more I research the culture, city, living conditions, food, etc the more exciting it becomes. I have known about this move for a month now, so I am not going to document everything that's happened to get to this point. But hopefully I will be diligent in keeping future activities updated! Wish me luck!
Just to document where I am at this point. I'm going to work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia beginning in May 2011 for approximately 1.5 years. I work for a manufacturing company and my assignment will work with accounting, finance, controlling, & IT systems within Asia Pacific. Assuming all my necessary paperwork gets completed on time, I will make my "final move" to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in about 5 weeks from now. Lots of things have to happen between now and then, but the excitement is building. The more I research the culture, city, living conditions, food, etc the more exciting it becomes. I have known about this move for a month now, so I am not going to document everything that's happened to get to this point. But hopefully I will be diligent in keeping future activities updated! Wish me luck!
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