Hello everyone! Today, we learned about Islam! We went to the national mosque (which receives 14,000 visitors every Friday!). We walked around the mosque and learned about the five pillars of Islam and more from a woman called Lawyhi. The five pillars are monotheism, prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage (going to Mecca). We also went to the Islamic Museum of Art. Some of us loved seeing the tessellations, domes, and vegetal patterns--these design elements reminded them of what they learned in Humanities I this year. Others liked weapons like the saber and Islamic architecture. Then, it was time for lunch. To travel to this scrumptious food, we took the metro! The women in the group took the woman-only car. So first-class and epic! We also had lunch at the AMAZING Lot10 Hutong in Bukit Bintang! We had things ranging from delicious duck noodle soup and a dessert of custard buns with egg yolk filling to popcorn chicken with lettuce. The first was definitely better! After ea...
Today we went over our itinerary for Malaysia and bonded with our group. We went over travel details and took a group photo. We also filled out the travel documents as well as creating guidelines for us to follow when we are abroad. We assigned daily jobs, learned how to use VIBE (vitality, inner feelings, basics, engagement) for our check-in and wrote letters to our future selves after the trip. Everyone is excited and looking forward to the trip! --Emma and Teddy
Today we arrived in Malaysia! We took an hour bus from the airport to Kuala Limpur, and quickly dropped off our luggage before heading out. We had lunch at Central market (a food/mall) with a variety of cultural food options. Within the mall there were many stores filled with homemade clothing, cloths, and jewelry. After eating and exploring the mall, we went to Petaling Street (China Town) where we bought souvenirs for friends, families, and ourselves. Some got to display their bargaining skills while others got called out for lowballing too hard The market had lots of small knick knacks, jewelry, clothes, and replica designer watches. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to rest and refresh before going out to the night market for dinner. Some people tried unusual foods like the pungent fruit durian, sting ray, salted egg squid and sea snails (called Siput Sedut ) . In total, it was a fun and eventful first day! written by Avery Fenton and Allen Wang