Back in Penang

We arrived home tonight at 6:45 pm Malaysian time (4:45 am SK time/6:45 am Michigan time). We are definitely weary from our travels. Here's a basic rundown of our trip home:

Up at 7 am Wednesday morning, we cleaned out our cottage and got it ready for another 11 month vacancy before heading to the city. Our last stop was at Tim Horton's for final Canadian meal. We boarded the plane at 5:30 pm that afternoon and had a hour layover in Edmonton. Thank goodness for the Indigo bookstore and for Runner's World, Outside and Canadian Living - the magazines I chose for reading material. We then went onto Vancouver. As I posted earlier, we were first in line at the Cathay Pacific desk so got our luggage through quickly and went to find a quiet, comfy spot to sleep (see pictures in last post). We boarded the plane at 2:40 am Thursday morning only to sit on the tarmack for almost three hours due to high winds, overweight cargo and something to do with the fuel.

The flight itself was fine - lots of good food, some great inflight movies to choose from plus the usual personal blanket, pillow, socks and toothbrush they provide. However, the flight got in very late to Hong Kong and we had to make a mad rush through the airport, past another security checkpoint (what do they think we acquired while spending 14 hours on a plane - our yogurt spoons for heaven's sake??) and to our gate just in time. Sitting for another 3.5 hours meant I finished all the magazines plus several crossword puzzles. We landed in Kuala Lumpur and had to deboard, which is a first for us at this destination. This led to another 2 hour layover and more sleeping sprawled across airport lounge chairs. Finally, we took the quick 45 minute hop to Penang, where only 6 of our 8 bags managed to arrive with us. After a lengthy conversation with the baggage services personnel, we looked for Uncle Brian, our ride to campus, who was nowhere to be found although Annie swore she had seen him through the window. A few phone calls tracked him down and he arrived apologetically to pick us up (and yes, he had been there but not seen us so had left). To top it all off, we sat in a traffic jam for awhile before it all unclogged and we were on our way.

The summer Friday potluck was happening when we arrived on campus so Annie and I ran over to join the festivities. Kaleb showered in mighty cold water - we turned off the pilot lights when we left. Tim crashed in bed. It was so great to get hugs and to hear other stories of summer events and wild flights.

Now we have stuff scattered all across the apartment as we try to find places to put everything we brought back. One whole bin is junior class candy that we bought for Kaleb to sell this year. The new popcorn popper made it back in one piece. Some of the stuff I can't locate, like my stash of black licorice, must be in one of the two MIA suitcases.....I don't recall eating it before we left. And I'm stepping on a few LEGO pieces that we used as packing popcorn, Kaleb's idea to get more of his treasured creative toys here. While there's a lot that could be done, bed is starting to look quite inviting - how nice it will be to actually lay horizontally without my head bobbing all around and my knees aching!!

So that's the story of the last 48 hours in the lives of the Archer family from Malaysia. Thanks for checking in. Regular blogging will resume after a weekend of sleeping in, staying in my pj's and drinking fresh lime juice!!