Penang!

Today is the start of our 4th day in our new home, Penang!  It's been a crazy few days and we are both tired and a bit overwhelmed.  Even though we have visited here in November, it feels brand new in so many ways.  The gravity of this move has begun to set in.  We are experiencing a roller coaster of emotions from immense happiness and gratitude to bouts of sadness.  The newness of this place excites us and also overwhelms us in the same moment.  Everything is new.  Everything.  

We were lucky to move into our condo when we arrived on Saturday evening with our 7 suitcases and two backpacks.  Our awesome realtor, Stephen, met us and quickly showed us around before taking us immediately to Gurney Plaza - aka, the mall - for food and water.  I'll write more about our condo later on but it's NICE and fittingly named, Gurney Palace!  We moved here without physically seeing the space.  All we had were a few pictures and a floor plan.  As expected it is more than we need but meets our number 1 requirement of having amazing views.  We have the entire 10th floor to ourselves and our elevator drops us off at our front door.  Our back patio overlooks the Thai Buddhist and Burmese Buddhist Temples and has a great view of Penang Hill and the tropical forest.  Our front view is an uninterrupted view of the ocean.  This view is magnificent!  Last night we had "Happy Hour" outside on our front balcony and watched the sunset and moon rise over the ocean.  Pretty Awesome!

That being said our condo feels empty and it will be a feat to make it feel more like home.  I am hoping that once our shipment arrives in mid August the familiarities will help to transform this space.  One of our first priorities was to make our house feel more like home, so we bought some dish towels, hand towels (for our 5 bathrooms!!) and pillows for the couches.  I quickly unpacked our wedding picture and Candlelight Ranch book and put it in our entry way.  We have also bought a few dishes, kitchen essentials and some food.  We made breakfast this morning, our first home cooked meal in over a week! I spent this morning working on laundry and washing dishes.  These familiar tasks are helping with the transition. I imagine that everyday we will settle in a bit more and the anxiety will dissipate. 

Thankfully, we purchased a cellular modem to have internet until ours gets set up in 2 weeks.  I call this contraption "my tether" since it is permanently stuck to my laptop but is keeping us connected to our loved ones and our new community.  Hopefully today we will get a local cell phone and be able to start setting up necessities like water and gas service.  Also, for those of you who want to call us please use my new best friend, Skype.  Our username is ehartner.  We would love to hear from you! 

Love,
Jenn & Eric