Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: I'm tired of buses. It took two buses and about 24 hours to get from Krabi to KL. I arrived about 5 a.m. and had to amuse myself for a few hours until my cousin's driver could pick me up. A girl I met on the bus - um - and I - how's that for strange grammar - hung out in a 7-11 then the lobby of a hotel until KL awoke for business; probably my least well-laid travel planning. Anyway, yes, I said I was picked up by a 'driver.' Abrupt transition from backpacker to oil company ex-pat life. My beautiful and charismatic cousin Jill - and her husband Roger of dry humor and books on the Bush dynasty (I enjoyed reading about the relationship to evangelism) - and their sweet, cute son William who reminds me of my brother Bill - have taken me into their home (the balcony of which overlooks a golf course) for the holidays. I almost had a panic attack in one of KL's many, humungus malls, but other than that I'm adjusting quite well. KL has great food as a result of its really cool and historically challenging mix of ethnicity - Malay, Chinese and Indian. Conveniently, I have to wait for my mom and sister to arrive before I do serious sightseeing. So after helping Jill with Christmas shopping, I've spent a lot of time watching pirated movies (apparently every home here has a huge collection) in the AC. I love couches. The only drawback is that the internet here works sporadically. I'm sad not to have written people individually to thank you for your posts (I love reading them), to ask how your day was, or to say... MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! I will be in touch properly sooner or later. Until then, I'm yours via blog. Love, magic and mistletoe, Heather