Our last bit of time in the U.S. was taken over by covid. Luckily, we were back at my parents' house. They'd both had covid already, so we didn't have to worry about getting them sick, and Mom was more than happy to take care of us. We had lots of tea.
Vivian and I requested more split pea soup, since it's delicious and it's hard to find ham in Malaysia to use in soup making.
We also finally had time to get some "Grandpa" cookies made.
We enjoyed some with our Virginia family, and then we packed up the rest to take back to Malaysia with us. We got to the airport extra early, because the last time we flew to Malaysia from Dulles, it took us two hours of just standing in line. Of course, this time there was no line at all, and we breezed through dropping off our bags and security. Luckily, I had staked out an Italian restaurant at the airport, so the girls and I got a table and settled in for a full dinner and dessert while we waited for our flight. The table even had outlets, which was perfect.
Since the flight to the States had been so rough, I looked online for ideas to make the trip back a bit smoother. I caved to the gift suggestion of giving the girls gifts as we went along. I gave them their first ones while we waited at the gate.
They got right into their new books, so I considered the first step to be going well.
Their new books kept them busy when we got on the plane too.
Eventually, I used my other new secret weapon, melatonin. We all got quite a bit of sleep and felt rested when we got to Doha. We had already decided that we wanted to go back to Harrod's for tea, but we came out in a totally different part of the airport, so we had to wander around a bit until we found it again. In the meantime, we found some more interesting statuary. Doha's airport definitely wins for strange artistic choices.
We had to wait a bit for a booth, but eventually we got one, and I gave the girls their second presents.
With another dose of melatonin, we had a smooth flight home. It was wonderful to be home again and be with Jeff. He was pleased with the hot sauces we brought him from New Orleans.
But mostly we were just happy to be home together again.
Elena was especially happy to be home with all her toys.
I got home with just enough time to go out with one of our good friends before she left KL, so I dragged my jet lagged self to one of our favorite places, Pinchos y Tapas, to have some goodbye drinks and snacks.
The next week, it was off to work for me. I finally have a full time job at ISKL as a 6th and 8th grade Humanities teacher. Of course, getting my name spelled correctly on the door took some time.
The girls were a big help getting everything set up. Elena was on marker checking duty.
We used our free time before school started up to explore a bit more of KL. We went to Pavilion to try out the TWG tea place, but we had to wait a while for a table, and we were really hungry, so we tried a ramen place while we waited.
The ramen was really good. We also got some dumplings to try, and while they were delicious, they were also very explosive. The only way to eat them safely was to put the whole thing in your mouth at once, otherwise soup came shooting out at your neighbor across the table.
For dessert, we went back to the TWG place and got tea and sweets. The tea pots were especially interesting. There was a place to put the loose leaf tea into while keeping the whole thing warm. They have a huge variety of tea flavors.
The sweets were fun to look at, and they tasted good too. It was a fun tea place, but not necessarily one we'll be repeating, since you sit right in the middle of the mall, so it's a bit chaotic.
I also finally got to try out Brussels Beer Cafe which Jeff has been raving about all summer. I'm not usually a beer person, but I tried the Leffe blond that Jeff was drinking, and I was sold.
It went perfectly with the delicious Belgian mussels. This will definitely be a new favorite place.
We also had a nice family lunch on the balcony with some of our favorite delivery burgers. You can get all kinds of good food in KL at reasonably prices, which was such a relief after the sticker shock I experienced eating out in the States.
We also had a lot of fun just hanging out with the girls.
I finally took Viv to the fancy furniture store near our house, and we had fun looking around, although the staff there followed us around as though they thought we were going to steal one of the enormous cabinets.
Of course, some of her taste is a bit outside our price range. While she really liked this purse, all we could afford was a picture.
Jeff took Elena with him to get a haircut, and she got beautiful curls put in. Of course, that didn't stop her from excavating her new rock kit.
Family time was a nice balance to all the time I was spending learning my new job. The school also does a really good job of building community among the staff though, and they threw us a great party to kick the year off. Jeff was invited too, so we had a fun night out. There was a lot of effort put into the food.
And they were roasting quite a bit of lamb!
Vivian's new favorite school food though is the Pretz n Beans pizza. Now that she's in high school, she's allowed to go all by herself, and she's quite pleased with herself about it.
We're ready for school to start again, but we're also making sure to enjoy the last bits of summer vacation.
