Day 241, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Since we’ve been in transit for a couple of days, today was a work catch up day. Madi was especially in need of some hours. Virtual schooling has made this year possible with the girls, but plays a much larger factor in our logistics than I realized when we set out. They need two things to make online schooling work, time and wifi. We can’t do nonstop activities like we’ve done in summer trips in the past. There have to be big chunks of time when they can actually get things done. Madi’s online discussions with profs, deadlines for her work, all have to be taken into consideration when we make our plans.
Cali’s new shirt says it all.
Wifi is the other factor, and it’s a big one. Who would have guessed that the wifi in Paris was so slow. The owner of our place there was paying for the fastest package, however the limited speed was due to old inefficient cables. Centuries old buildings will do that to you. It was slower than when we were in Costa Rica. When we book Airbnb places we now ask what the speed is and they often send a picture of the metered speed. We always explain that consistent wifi is extremely critical if we rent a place. I only wish there was a wifi clause for cancellation. Thefirst thing we do when we walk into a house, while the host is still standing there, is check the wifi. Apparently we
aren’t alone.
We are finding out which countries have better wifi as a whole, and which are lagging behind. We’ve been told that Australia is a lot like France, lagging a little. In Japan they are big into portable wifi units, but you have to make sure yours doesn’t have a download limit that we may likely exceed.
We’ve also been learning about shared routers. In Thailand, the router was in the unit next door. The owner had two and they shared the wifi. That time it worked out. But here in Malaysia, the owner has another unit downstairs, and that’s where the router is. Somehow it’s on a switch and can get turned off easily. So when we arrived it was turned off, and we were panicking a bit, Madi
lost about four hours of time. Then another night it went off again, Paul was doing a skype work call, Madi online course stuff, all her texts are online, too. Whoever is renting downstairs had turned it off before they went out to eat. It was off for another three hours. If that had happened mid-exam, it wouldn’t have been cool. Now we will ask if the rental unit has its own router, we are becoming that specific. But you have to when you’re doing a virtual school that has fixed deadlines.
There are also interesting problems that have to get sorted out. Madi was trying to buy an online text, just a Psychology text, nothing crazy, and she was blocked from buying it in this country. Kier had to buy it from a computer in FL, then Madi could access it.
Time changes are also interesting. Cali has often done tutoring or live classes in the middle of the night since they are being done on Florida time. None of these things have been insurmountable, obviously. But it is certainly something you have to learn to juggle.
A big bonus is that the girls have different academic strengths, and lean on each other for help, proof-reading, ideas. The other girls go to Kier for computer, math, and science help. Cali is the French/Spanish guru (Kier knows Spanish, too), and Madi is an excellent writer/proof-reader. They’re great back up for each other, which means we as parents have less to do!
After a day of studying, we went out for my birthday dinner since people weren’t up to it last night. Paul said it was a surprise. Let me make a quick disclaimer that we love authentic local food wherever we are, and that’s mainly what we eat. But when you travel for extended periods of time, sometimes a taste of the familiar is a treat.
We took the taxi to a mall and walked to the end of it, where there was an honest to goodness Red Lobster. The girls and I let out these happy squeals and grabbed each other in happy disbelief.
Red Lobster is not the pinnacle of gastronomy. But me and Red have history. It will always be one of those happy places, not because of the food, but because of the personal pilgrimage it has represented. Growing up, we didn’t eat out except for rare visits to Burger Chef, where my parents could make the free burger fixings into a huge salad. How or why the Red Lobster obsession began, I don’t know. It was the fanciest restaurant any of my friends had ever heard of. Through the years it became this mythical, elusive restaurant entity with superpowers. On my 16th birthday my dad said he would take me out for a meal, and I just assumed it would be to Burger Chef. But he asked where I wanted to go. I just threw it out there like a lark, never thinking he would say yes, “Red Lobster??” I held my breath while we drove there hoping he wouldn’t come to his senses. The whole meal felt so decadent. I ordered the cheapest meal on the menu because I didn’t want him to dip into his retirement fund or something crazy. Something went wrong with my order. But correcting them would have felt too much like saying that the unicorn you’re finally seeing up close isn’t sparkly enough. I kept saying to myself, someday I will make it back here.
Paul knew my history with this restaurant chain. When we were newly married, we were rather hindered by student debt and low paying jobs, we had to watch our pennies. Occasionally we would go there and order the soup and salad and eat about fifteen cheese biscuits each. Those meals still maintained more magic than the food or restaurant merited. This time it was more about growing up and starting this life with Paul, with him doing little things for me that made you stupidly happy.
Then when the girls were younger, we went there more often. Madi was picky when we would go out, and the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster was one of the few things she would eat at a restaurant. She wouldn’t order any other food. She would set one basket in front of her. She’d have one in her mouth, one in each hand, shoveling them in. Going often to a place that was inaccessible to me at their age, was symbolic to me of bigger things. We had a young family and were still finding our feet. I hoped to be able to give them options and experiences, beyond cheesy biscuits.
This evening we walked into the virtually empty restaurant all giddy with smiles. The bored waiters were amused by us the entire meal. I don’t think they’ve ever seen a family so happy to eat there. When they brought the biscuits, Madi practically jumped out of her chair, and we were practically grabbing the basket out of each other’s hands, like we’d been lost at sea for a month. After the meal and a lot of cheesy biscuits, the waiter handed me the biggest dessert plate I’ve ever had in my life, with cheesecake made with honest to goodness cream cheese! Five waiters did their best to sing Happy Birthday to me in English. It was absolutely the sweetest thing. They were hiding behind each other and fidgeting like little school boys at their first recital. They could hardly keep it together and scurried back into the kitchen to explode into laughter. It may be the first and last time for that. I know I certainly won’t forget this birthday.
It’s fitting in a way. Two of the girls are now adults and Cali starts high school next year. We have given them opportunities and experiences beyond what I ever could have dreamed of when the girls were small. This year of travel being being one of them. So thanks Red, for sparking a longing for something elusive, and fostering it along the way with cheesy biscuits.
