to miri, to brunei and back

Tilting on the beach in Miri

Hello!!! The past few days we have been in Miri visiting another one of my dad's brothers. On Thursday we arrived and went around the town, seeing the sites and ate lunch at a nice restaurant. We went to a little beach area to see the ocean and got to see part of the sunset! On Friday, we went to Brunei to visit a lady that used to work for my grandmother. She and her husband took us to eat lunch and then to the Brunei historical museum. Afterwards, we visited the Sultan's museum and then we went to The Empire Hotel. 7-stars.......PIMP. I could spend a week there by their pool and not think twice. Everything there is plated in GOLLLLLLLDDD. On Saturday, we went to a local artist's house to look at some of his watercolor paintings and did some more shopping, of course. We are now back in Sibu for a couple days. We leave for Singapore on Wednesday and then for the US of A on Thursday! Thanks for the emails and comments from everyone!!!

One of the pools at The Empire

a sunny day in sibu

Sorry for the delay in posting. It has been harder to post while in Sibu. Most days we have been getting up by 8AM, having breakfast and then heading into to town to do some shopping. Everything is super cheap here so we have been buying lots of things. It has been uncharacteristically mild in temperature due to the rain, but I’m not complaining. On Wednesday, it was really sunny and pretty hot. Here are some highlights from the past few days.

Monday: We went to the open market where they sell fruits and vegetables amongst other things. I won’t post a picture, but we did stop by the pork shop where various cuts of meat where hanging……….and I remind you that they do not waste much of the pig. We also saw the river, which is very dirty from logging.

Tuesday: Spent the morning at home and went to the bank after lunch. Afterwards, we went to the newer mall and I bought some new towels and some gifts. For dinner, we went to Sushi Tie with my aunt, cousin and his fiancée.

Wednesday: We had dim sum for breakfast………YUMMY!!! And then we had to have some papers notarized, and of course some shopping in between. There was this really cute store near the restaurant and we came back just to look there. I wanted to try on this shirt that was in the window. The lady took the shirt off the mannequin and everything and then told me I couldn’t try it on because she thought I would stretch it out!!!! So of course I wasn’t going to buy anything from her now. She imported Hollister…….should have known better. I was like “LEMME TRY-ON THAT TOP………YOU’RE NOT EVEN WEARING IT!” We stayed home in the evening to help with some yard work and to pack for Miri, where we will be staying with another uncle (number 6 of 8 children, my Dad is the youngest) until Sunday.

Hope all is well in the States!!!! Much love to everyone!!!

quick update!

Hello to all from Sibu, Malaysia!!!

We left our hotel in Singapore at 10:30AM on Saturday since our flight was scheduled to leave around 1:30PM for Kuching, with us arriving in Sibu around 5PM. Once we arrived at the airport we found out that the flight had been changed to 3:30PM and we weren't going to get in until 9. They weren't at all worried that they had just screwed us over and we spent all day in the airport. After all the mishaps with Malaysian Airlines, we made it here Saturday evening only to have more issues with customs. Apparently, we were supposed to have our passports stamped in Kuching (where our connection was). Oops. And airport security gave us trouble about my brother's guitar and amp that they purchased in Singapore. Blah blah blah. All is fixed so we can actually exit the country without any problems :) Our first day here we woke up to spend some time with my Grandma, who I haven't seen in 15 years. She is seriously the cutest thing ever. Actually, kute with a k. She doesn't leave the house much because she fell several months ago and is afraid to go out. So my aunt and uncle took us to a small shopping center to eat noodles for breakfast and afterwards headed to the new mall. I got a new camera after breaking the screen on mine a few weeks ago. It came with a pretty case too :P We came back to the house for lunch with G-ma and to rest. Tonight, we went out to eat at this restaurant called Swansea and my Dad's cousin met us for dinner. I tried sea cucumber........not a fan. Everything else was pretty tasty though. Here's a picture of Adam and I with G-ma. Precious!!!Unfortunately, I wore a dress all day so no TILT opportunities. No worries, I'll have plenty of time to get one tomorrow. Hope all is well in the USA. More blogging and pics to come!

you can hate me now, but i won't stop now.....

Day 1

I slept in until noon-time since we had gotten in really early that morning. Once I got up and got ready, we met the 'rentals (my bro and I have our own room!!!) and went down to the 4th floor for lunch. On the way to the elevator, my Mom gives the quote of the day, "Your father is hungry and he can't wait to see if they have some of that octopus testicle." I about died. The hotel buffet was surprisingly good because it was geared toward more western tastes, so no octopus. YET. After lunch, we headed to Orchard Road to do some shopping. There was mall after mall on this street and accordingly a Starbucks to go with each one. There are a serious amount of coffee shops here! Most of the stores were designer stores in these malls, but nothing that you couldn't get in the States, so I was reluctant to buy anything just yet. We went to one mall that had Toys'R'Us that occupied an entire floor.......almost everything was the same. It did have Sylvanian Families which I LOVED as a kid. It's like a doll house, but instead of people you get families of different animals, like the Bear Family, or Badger Family..........so kute with a k. We found a huge Borders in one of the malls and I bought the 5th Harry Potter in paperback for the plane. It has the British cover so kinda neat, actually. After shopping for a while, my Mom and I decided to look for a few doll stores and then head back to the hotel. These "doll" stores were really action figures and Blythe, who is a really scary doll straight out the 60s and 70s. She is truly terrifying to me. We got back and napped for a hot minute and then ate dinner at the hotel. Later that night, we met up with Rita, my dad's former classmate when he was in grade school (my Mom speculates that they were a couple at some point). She took us to one of the Kopitiam eating areas. It's a large food court with different vendors. The one we went to was outside or rather the tables were outside in the middle of the street. Apparently, they close the street down at about 7PM and the vendors are allowed to set-up. Rita and my Dad promptly ordered about 6 different dishes and we had already eaten dinner. They ordered chicken and beef satay, a noodle dish, some kind of mini cabbage, shrimp, and calamari. OCTOPUS........YESSSSSS. I tried everything and I really enjoyed all of it. Adam refused to eat the calamari because he said it looked like worms. But Rita kept pushing him to try some. Love her.

Day 2

After being lazy for a few days, I decided that it would be best for me to get up and run some. I went to the hotel gym which overlooked the roof-top pool (the Life!!). I had to run on the hotel treadmill which I find to be dreadful; all I see is this timer counting ever so slowly. I ran for 45 minutes and listened to GirlTalk (thanks Hillz!) I was about to stop running when Diddy comes on and is like "you can hate me now....but I won't stop now." Hahahaha I didn't stop.......it was refreshing. Luckily, there was a little Asian man that started running beside me; I pretended that he was Kirstie and baby Sasha and it helped me run too. He was probably the size of baby Sasha.....hahahaha. Lunch today was at the Hard Rock Cafe, the first one to be built in Asia! We had the cutest little Filipino waitress, Vivian. She just stood there and talked to us for about 15 minutes. She was telling us about this place that had multiple bars each centered around a different type of music. She then says, "but I can't go there no more." We asked why and she responds, " because I get drunk and then I get loss." Priceless. Love her too. After lunch, we went to the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observation wheel! We got our own capsule AKA now we can act like fools. It takes about 30 minutes to make a full revolution and I got some pretty shots and of course, a TILT picture at the very top! We then went to the Funan Center, a mall completely dedicated to electronics. Mecca for Asians. The best part: there is this saddle thing/mini mechanical bull that is a piece of exercise equipment. It's supposed to help with posture and strengthening your core. Of course, it ends in me saying, "can we get one, Dad?" My Dad and brother then took us to a mall they went to looking for a certain guitar because Adam said they had lots of shoes that I would like. I wanted to find the Nikes I have been wanting for over a year now. I missed getting them in the USA and I wear a smaller size so it's hard to find them on eBay. Unfortunately, I didn't find them......elusive Peacocks.

TILT!!!

Sorry this is a long post. I love you all!!!

Oh and here's the best store sign I've seen so far! ENJOY!!!

let's go to sleep in paris, and wake up in tokyo.....

Hello to All! Hope everyone is having a fabulous week and just TILTING all over the place.

Currently, I'm in Singapore after about 24 hours worth of flying. IN COACH. WITH BABIES AROUND ME. AND KICKING THE BACK OF MY SEAT. I would have given the kid a break if she was TILTING. Anyways, our first flight was easy peasy to Detroit, but the second was from Detroit to Tokyo.....ouch. I lied when I told some of you it was 17 hours.......more like 12-13. Still sucks either way. Here's a small snippet from before take-off:


During the flight, they served us two meals and a snack! Now I must have remembered airplane food to be way worse than it actually is. I was impressed with their presentation. Not so, with their attitudes. The attendants on the Tokyo flight were seriously PERSONALITY PLUS. I mean everyone of them hated their job. One of them had this really bad dye job and imposter Posh Spice haircut that made her look like Cyndi Lauper. For real, I just sat there and sang Cyndi all flight long. Love the people watching. Time after time. Sorry couldn't help myself, girls just wanna have fun.

During the flight, I watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" which I've been meaning to see. But, really? Seriously? Was she really going to do that with her BROTHER? Come on. Is it bad that all I could think about were the genetic consequences the entire movie? I slept maybe a total of 2 hours and by the end my ankles looked like I was Angelina Jolie, pregnant with twins (that's for you, KTS). Insert horrible cankle picture here........

Once we landed in Tokyo, we got a chance to sit down, charge the DS and the iPod, and stretch. Why? Because it's time for a TILT picture!! yay.......will post at the end. The flight to Singapore was better; newer plane, no children behind me, personal video screens in the headrests, and nicer people. I watched "21" and slept through some of "Drillbit Taylor." Lovely. On Northwest, they also show you the stats of the plane, like the route, how many more miles, speed........so kool. with a k. We landed in Singapore about 12:45AM (their time) and came to the hotel pretty quickly. Hopefully, we will get to see some interesting sites today. Pictures and videos will be a must! Love and miss you all!
Happy Birthday to Rebecca!!! I hope you have an awesome birthday!!! Sorry I can't be there like usual to celebrate :(

Today's blog title is a shout-out to Noel!!! Go check out his sports and entertainment blog if you get a chance!

what is tilting, you ask

TILT (v.) 1.) To extend the leg to the side at no less than 180° resulting in the torso becoming parallel to the floor.

Here I am tilting at Jacquie's wedding this past weekend. Yes, I am tilting in my bridesmaid's dress.

So for us "Institute" Gals, tilting has become more of a way of proclaiming our excitement. In addition to performing said TILT, we also say TILT in a high, often annoying tone. What's even more fun is to get other non-dancers to TILT, like your mom, little brother, or G-rents.

Examples:

"I'm getting a new phone" TILT
"New Ballet Faculty" TILT
"I have another private lesson" TILT
"We get to wear the red bows!" TILT
"Let's go to the pool" TILT
"Hannah Montana stickers" TILT

You get the idea.

I started the blog for friends and family to keep up with my travels to Singapore and Malaysia over the next two weeks. I'm going to try to update every few days, but don't get angry if it's longer between posts; I will be jetlagged and sweltering. I'll be updating everyone on the sights and sounds of Borneo as well as uploading pictures (yay!). Where does the tilting come in? Well, I will be attempting to TILT while holding onto various objects throughout the trip including but not limited to airport conveyor belts, taxicabs, street signs, 95 year-old grandma, and international landmarks.

The name for the blog came from my friend Nicole, which I then altered to "Tilting All Over the World" much like "Pimping All Over the World." Thank you, Ludacris.