Johor Baru and back

Wow, I was boggled by the big city offerings. But funny enough, my friends Emma and Trav have a probably the best accommodations of all of us down south, but they covet what we have. They wanted really rural too, but got the big city and have to travel to the rural for their work. Their kitchen has real cupboards, and their sinks have both taps. (the rest of us only have one tap - cold (warmish) water.  AND, they have a bathtub too!.Emma is from L.A. and previous to that, Mexico. Trav is from Canada, in fact, Saskatoon. They met in Korea and got married in the Philippines. Not in a real ceremony, just a private exchange of vows to each other. They plan on having a real formal wedding when the can afford to gather all their family somewhere in the world. For now, we are the family, so who knows, maybe they will tie the knot here. Goofy as it is, they were only given a 1 1/2 living allowance because they were a couple. When they did not produce a marriage certificate, they were then given a full 2 living allowances. Silly huh?  They both work fulltime, but for some reason, if you are married, you only get 1 1/2.  We have advised that if they do get married, don't tell anyone. Emma has invited me to come down for visits and use the bathtub.She also had a bottle of REAL vinegar, and gave it to me, because it is easy to get there. I stayed at their place overnight and slept in a real bed too. Emma heard that there is an Ikea opened in JB now so we will go there together perhaps on our week break so I can pick up a bed frame. I have managed to move into my bedroom, and now it is time to get off the floor.
What we did in JB was be a photo opportunity for the politicians of the Ministry of Education (MoE). We had breakfast and lunch and extremely long meetings in a hot and packed hall.There was further mention of the men in our teams needing to cut off ponytails, and women to NEVER WEAR SLACKS TO WORK. I am the golden haired nerdy one who has never worn slacks to work so not in the outs with the authorities.
Jeff and I also got our third mentor, so that should save some serious early morning trips down south. Yay for that.
Before heading home, we all met at a Korean BBQ restaurant, and stuffed our faces there. Good food, and not a pile of hot spices to burn our lips.  The trip home was uneventful and now I am ready to hit the hay to catch some zzz's before the day at my schools tomorrow.