The new home
May 1st 2011 05:01
Back to how I got here. A short time after moving in, the walls were painted orange and yellow and numerous plants were added. Kevin and I began to venture out to meet our neighbors. The population of Penang consists of three main ethnic groups (they call them races here), Chinese (the Majority), Malays and Indians. Most of the people who live in the condo are Chinese, with smaller groups of Japanese, Koreans and a few westerners, mainly British. For the most part people here were quite friendly. My friends back home wondered it I would experience any discrimination or negatvity from people here. Interestingly I did experience some, but not from the locals. I received quite a few obnoxious comments from the British expats whom I met in the complex and the area. I soon learned that there are a few older British expats that refuse to believe there is no longer a British Empire and that Malaysia is no longer a colony. I guess they considered America to be an ungrateful colony. These people treat the locals like servants. Fortunately these people are few in numbers. I have luckily made friends with other British people who are wonderful, down to earth people. A few bad apples always try to spoil the bunch.
As I said there are number of Japanese who live here, but they know little or no English. They tend to stick together and do not mingle with other people. Some of my Japanese friends say that Japanese and Chinese don't like each other. I know that many older Malaysians are very resentful of the Japanese because of the atrocities of WWII. The Japanese here don't understand this, as they know little or nothing of the true happenings of WWII. It is not taught in history courses in Japan. Time has moved on, but I guess some people cannot forget. In this case it is understandable I guess. The Japanese people I know are very friendly and polite and are very delightful people.
The majority of my friends here are Chinese. There are a lot of western expats here that don't associate with the locals, except for being served by them. Many of them tend to gather in many of the Irish or German Pubs here and drink themselves silly. I feel that if I wanted to hang around and drink with other Americans all of the time I could have stayed in the US. There are even some expats here who won't eat local food! What a waste. Penang is such a cultural treature. Now Kevin and I are settled in and Penang is truly our home. Oh yea, we also have a cat, Nero, Chichi the prairie dog and two fish tanks. More about them later.
A view of Gurney Drive
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