Johor Bahru, Malaysia!

Ok, so right off the bat I have been caught in the first town I visited in Malaysia. I was not planning on staying longer than a night, as there are tropical islands calling my name. However, the warm hospitality of the man who runs the homestay/hostel I am staying at has encouraged me to stay. His name is Hakimi (on left, pointing to his beloved Guinness, in picture to the left), Malaysian and a trained English teacher. During his first English teaching assignment, many moons ago, he met an English teacher from Montana who taught him in the proper ways of American Hippism :) This guy is fantastic and loves all the same music I do. It is great to be spending time with a head from the 60's who properly loves all the favorites, from Grateful Dead and Floyd to Simon and Garfunkel. A real taste of home right here. However, there are many things about this awesome homestay that are quite different from home. For instance, I am getting used to using a squat toilet (I'll let you ponder what that is) and a bucket shower called Tabo. But of course there is no toilet paper, so the Tabo is used after the toilet as well. This is a bit of an art form to not get your pants soaking wet. Thankfully for me, there are 3 Filipino girls staying there that are lovely and have answered all my questions, albeit with a little shared laughter, but nothing embarrassing. The food here is quite different from home as well, but I actually love it! And I don't miss the food from home at all, not yet anyway.
Hakimi is only to welcoming and insists upon letting us stay for free, as his teaching job is enough for him and he likes to help out the real travelers, the ones who come to meet and greet the people, not get another stamp on their passport (those travelers get charged). This has helped me to afford to make the decision to stay here a bit longer. Also, I expressed to Hakimi how I want to teach English while in South East Asia. Probably in a couple of months or so. So right away his eyes lit up, he brought me to his school the following morning where I had my first experience teaching locals. At first he threw me into a class room with 5 16 year olds, I had not idea what to do. But with vocabulary list in hand, I figured it out. Next were the international 10 year olds from all over. They were much more excited and well versed. I did not teach them English, but about Hawaii instead. Their teacher then gave them an assignment on Hawaii which they were all very excited to do! I loved it! They loved it! All were happy :)
My time here is pretty good, and apparently Hakimi has signed me up to teach a one-on-one session tomorrow... with a senator! What am I going to do? I have no idea yet, but will figure it out tomorrow. I guess the universe thinks I can handle it, so why not give it a go!