Starts with an "M." Malay? Machine gun?

Since coming to Malaysia I've been playing a lot of "pictorades." To play pictorades:
Supplies
hands
a notebook
a writing utensil
a task you need to accomplish
one or more individuals with whom you do not have a language in common
Rules
1 part charades, 1 part pictionary
An example:

Which, of course, with hand signs gives you, "You called me on the phone speaking Malay. Could I have a shuttle to the airport? At 10?"
My first round was with the reception at my hotel. I was a bit tired coming in from a long flight, but with the help of pictorades it went smoothly. The next morning, during round two, I got a shuttle to the airport. Round 3 with the shuttle driver brought me to believe that my bus to Melaka didn't exist. But since I had a ticket, I felt confident. I entered the bus terminal and was quickly swarmed with bus hawkers. One by one I showed them my ticket and one by one they pointed me toward the desk. Once I got to the desk a woman outside the desk looked at my ticket and then joined in the game. Her clue I guessed to be "Why the heck are you 2 hours early? Sit in that chair right there and I'll deal with you later."
The reason I was so early was so I could walk (oh sorry dad, take a bus) to the other airport if my bus was actually out of there. My ticket said "KLIA/KLIA2" which are actually two separate airports a little ways apart. Spoiler alert: I sat in that chair dutifully for 1.5 hours, and yes, I was at the wrong airport.
Not knowing this, when it was a 1/2 hour until my bus the woman I had talked to came over and told me she'd come back and show me where the bus was once it got there. What happened next is anyone's (or at least my) guess. Two men carrying machine guns entered the terminal wearing camouflage. With them was a man dressed in a blue uniform. As if by magic all the hawkers disappeared... Something, perhaps my strong grasp of the Malay language, tells me what they were doing wasn't legal. The one or two that were left were questioned. Of course, my hawker, who said she'd tell me where to go, was gone. Knowing I needed to figure it out myself I went outside and went bus by bus until I found one by the company I was taking. Bus #3 was my lucky one where I played my "bonus round" explaining to the driver that my ticket in English was a ticket for his bus and that he should let me on.
The bus pulled out (luckily with me on it) 10 minutes early. This was long enough for the bus driver to drive to the correct airport to pick up the other 39 passengers. No wonder it was so confusing for the driver, I had found him in his waiting lot. My bus ride was quiet, quite literally as no one spoke a word, and I was picked up at the bus terminal without a problem.
The highlight of the next day and a half was the food. As a former chef, the mother of the house offers cooking lessons... Which of course I had to try. I was joined by a German couple (who were both teachers) and we watched and took notes as she made 5 Malay/Arabian dishes... Get ready to be jealous. But don't worry I have the recipes and I'll post one soon!

This photo also nicely demonstrates the other unforeseen reason I stick out here. I am quite literally a head taller. In fact, at 5' 7" I'm only 3 inches above the US female average, but I'm 7 inches above average for a woman and 2 inches above the average for a man in Malaysia.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Tomorrow brings both a new day and a new continent. While I’m very excited to be going to Malaysia(!) it will be a bit bittersweet. Australia has been such an amazing adventure. Of course, there are a few things I won’t miss such as trying to explain to people "no, I don’t have a speech impediment, I just have an accent," gawking at the price of everything, or trying to justify the amount of peanut butter I eat.
Still, on the whole, Australia has been good to me and here are the things for which I am most grateful, the things I’ll miss the most.
1. Being in constant awe of their social policy.
I realize that this one is a bit weird, but it’s true. Whenever I talk to an Australian about social policy (which just by the nature of what I’m doing here is daily) I feel as if I’m a time traveller to the future. A college education with no money down? Check. A generous welfare system? Check. Universal healthcare? Check. Gun control? One massacre and they put in stringent policies. Incredible leave policies? They make me want to have my future children in Australia. (And yes, they still get to complain about them, so that simple pleasure still exists too.)
2. Blending in.
This doesn’t really need much explanation. Though I could be one of them until I open my mouth, once I do Australians have been in two groups—those that immediately ask me where I’m from, and those who cut me off mid conversation to ask just that. I’ll be honest, I’ll miss having everyone speak English... and since I’ll be in Asia, most likely until February, I don’t need to tell you why I don’t think I will blend in too well for a while.
3. Art Shows
I am sure I’ll find these other places but it has been amazing how many I’ve seen. For instance, this week I took the train just out of town to a free contemporary art contest sponsored by metro. The location didn’t make much sense, but it was an amazing venue, and a fun show.

Credit: melbourneinphotos.com

4. Cheering for a "football" team that isn’t terrible.

I’m from Indiana, and I like college football. The last time we made it to a Rose Bowl I was -23. If we’re not the team with the most losses ever, we’re close. (I won’t talk about Hamilton’s team, and I basically only cared about their tennis program anyway.) You can therefore understand my excitement when my adopted football team only lost once in my time here. I even got to go see a game. My favorite thing about the experience was the man a few down from us who kept shouting, "you mongrel!" I’ve never actually heard anyone ever use that word before.
5. Passionfruit
It’s delicious. Try it.
6. "Good on you."
A great saying.
7. The people (and dogs) I’ve met.
Cliché, I know. I’ve been so lucky to have had the pleasure to meet so many wonderful people. I feel like one of the family here, and will really miss them. I roughly counted that I’ve talked to about 55 people about my project. Only once did I have someone not eagerly respond to my questions. In fact many times as soon as I told someone what I did they would automatically tell me what they thought about it. A great example would be when I was in Hobart. Doug introduced me to one of his friends who was a teacher there. He agreed to talk to me the next day. Not only did he then show me around his classroom (which has an arts focus), and talk to me about it for four hours but he then drove me up the mountain because I hadn’t yet seen the view. I wish I had a better picture-- it was glorious.

& there was nothing better than spending my evenings with this one.

I'd be tempted to stay but I think it's time-- I got a sign.

It is "time for taiwan" just with a brief stop in Malaysia and Singapore first!