Hello KL!

At this point, we’ve been here for almost two weeks, and it has absolutely flown by. We spent the first five days in the Prince Hotel, where Grant had stayed for his initial month here. It was nice, centrally located, and we lucked out in getting a good last minute deal on a one bedroom apartment there. What a luxury to be able to spread out after our week in a small hotel room!

We have a fantastic realtor, and he’s been very patient and cooperative with all the unknowns about our timeline. We were able to re-renegotiate our lease (from Nov 15 to Dec 15 to Dec 1 to Nov 24 – did I mention he was a patient guy?), and we moved into our new home on Thanksgiving! That is, Grant went to work from the Prince Hotel and came home to a fully unpacked apartment in KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre – they love to abbreviate things here!). It’s huge and in an amazing location, right by the Petronas Towers; I’ll follow up with pictures soon. Grant did a great job finding this place!

I’m not a miracle worker, so unfortunately no turkey dinner was awaiting him, but I was still motivated enough to explore the nearest grocery store. The closest grocery store is called Isetan, which is a Japanese chain, so much of what they carry is labeled in Japanese. I focused on buying the essentials, and then found a free-range, organic chicken. Great, that sounds like a perfect faux Thanksgiving to me! Only one problem: when I got it home and unwrapped it, it turned out to have feet!! I’m not sure what a local would have done, but I was aghast and couldn’t imagine cooking a chicken with its feet still on. So, with the dullest knife in the world (note to self, next thing to buy), I set about hacking them off.

I’d say that’s a good representation of life here so far, mostly normal but with a twist. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving too!