Day Out With Jackie

It seems like the closer it gets to Christmas the more homesick I get, but I guess that makes sense. This is really the first Christmas I have been completely alone, no family, and no friends from back home. So I try not to think about it too much, but at the same time I love Christmas stuff so it's hard not to! But as long as I stay busy then it keeps my mind off of that. Monday I did absolutely nothing and got really sad thinking about Christmas time and all that, and then the shows were pretty boring so it didn't help to make me any happier. So then Tuesday came around and I decided I needed to get out and do something so I'm not just sitting in my room being a loner. So I did my usual thing, the gym, lunch, and a shower, then I called my friend Jackie to see what she was up to. It just so happened that she was on her way home from work and was passing by the hotel so she came and picked me up for a little adventure!
First we went back to her place so she could change from her work clothes and she showed me around her little apartment. She lives in these apartments about 20 minutes from the hotel in a place called Petaling Jaya. There are 5 buildings and I don't know how many apartments in each building but it has to be a ton! Each building has I think 25 floors, and there are only two elevators for every building, so we had to wait quite awhile for the elevator to reach the bottom floor. She lives on the 18Th floor and has an awesome view from her balcony. There are two bedrooms, a little tiny bathroom that's about the size of a closet, a big room in the main living room that she uses just for her clothes, and then a tiny little kitchen with a washing machine in it. It's pretty small but still pretty nice.
After we went there she took me to two different malls that I haven't been to yet. They were both even bigger than ones I've already been to! I can't believe how big the malls are here, and how many they have! It's crazy. First we went to one called The Curve, we shopped around for a bit and stopped at a grocery store. I found Diet Dr. Pepper, I couldn't believe it! I was so excited, pretty much my 2nd favorite drink! So I bought six of them and I made Jackie try it. I wish I had a camera when she tried it. She said it tastes like really bad medicine and that she was going to puke from it. Ha ha I was laughing so hard. She told me next time I ask her to try something she's going to think more carefully about it. I can't believe she didn't like it! It's so good! But I guess it's just another one of those cultural differences. After we shopped for awhile she said she had a place she wanted to take me to dinner. It's called The Gardens. It was an outdoor restaurant in the mall and the food was so good. I got both of my favorite things, the Nasi Lemak, and the Satay. They were both pretty different from the hotel, but so good!
Next we went to another mall called One Utama, it was even bigger than The Curve, I didn't think they could get any bigger. The decorations were so pretty, and they had a couple little shows going in two different places in the mall, one was a school band playing Christmas songs, and the other was this singing and dancing group. It was fun seeing stuff like that here because it kind of reminds me of home. I found a new bracelet thing while we were shopping so I got that, and that was about it. I took lots of pictures of the adventure today and tried to get some with Jackie but she wont let me take her picture! After that she dropped me back at the hotel at about 8:30 so I had just enough time to get ready for the show and head down. It was such a great day!