Facts

Jessica is a mum of three children, who is from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and has moved countries twice so far.

Before she became an expat, she was working in the hospitality industry.

At the moment, Jessica is looking forward to getting to know her next destination, as she knows that her time in Stavanger is coming to an end shortly.

It was a few days after I got to know Nurul (from my last story), that she had introduced me to “another lovely Malaysian lady” and since then, Jessica had brightened up my mood a lot of times with her fun personality!

Early life

Jessica grew up in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and was raised in the Chinese-Malaysian culture as her grandparents had migrated from China to Malaysia when they were young.

Malaysia has the influence of mainly three different races: there are Malay, Chinese and Indians. Jessica is happy and proud that she grew up in such a varied environment and enjoyed celebrating all the diverse festivities together with her family and friends.

Her first six years of education, Jessica spent in a Chinese Primary School, where she picked up her Chinese. Of course, she had friends from all different cultures! At the age of 13, she went to a Malaysian Sports School, where she started to play Volleyball professionally! Jessica’s dad is a former Malaysian national football player and now a football instructor, so she definitely got the sporty genes from him!

As Jessica was the shortest in her team, she had to work twice as hard as her other team-mates, but she made it work. She was lucky to get the position of “libero”, which meant less spiking and jumping for her, but more ball handling on the ground! Being a part of Malaysia’s junior national team, Jessica got the chance to compete professionally against other teams across Asia! This was the highlight of her teenage years!

After High School, at the age of 18, Jessica bid volleyball farewell and took up studies in hospitality to what her sister had inspired her to. In Jessica’s second last semester at university, she had to do an internship for six months and she was one of only five students picked by her professor to be interviewed for an internship in the Raffles hotel in Singapore! At first, she did not want to go for the interview, because she did not want to leave her family and her boyfriend behind! But then, as she thought, she would not get the job anyway, she went through the phone interview process. Of course, when you expect it the least, you get the unexpected and Jessica got chosen for the internship in the Raffles hotel! As they paid a lot more in Singapore for internships back then compared to Malaysia, she finally decided to go.

It was an amazing experience for Jessica to work for the very prestigious Raffles hotel! It was all about personalized hospitality, that is why she had to know every tiny detail about every guest. She would greet them and serve them as if she would know all their needs and wishes to make their stay one of the best ones they ever had! At least I know now where Jessica’s wonderful ability of talking to people and making them feel super comfortable comes from!

After she came back from Singapore, she finished her last semester at university with a bachelor in hospitality.

To have a break after University, at the age of 21, Jessica travelled to Europe for the first time in her life! All alone! She had one month which she spent with her sister in London and Paris and then with her uncle’s family in Munich. Whereas London was ok for her to discover on her own whilst her sister was working, it was a different story with Munich! Her sister was supposed to accompany her to Germany, but as she was busy at the last minute, Jessica had to fly alone again! She was quite overwhelmed by the German language as she did not think that most people would not speak English to her and that everything would be just in German! But she somehow managed to get around things and managed to survive and explore Munich by herself! Until today, Jessica feels really proud of her adventure!

When she came back home from her lovely trip, Jessica’s dad “suggested”, that she would finally start working again…As the money in Singapore was so much better than in Malaysia, she applied straight away for jobs over there again and finally spent four more years in the hospitality industry in Singapore. She always loved the interactions with guests or even internal interactions with her co-workers but in the end, she was working in the back office in Human Resources. Jessica loved the front line but hated the shift hours!

After living away from her family for such a long time, after four years she decided to pack up and move back to Kuala Lumpur. Soon on one fateful night, her best friend from university took her out partying. She wanted him to introduce her to some friends with whom she could hang out with! Of course, she had old friends in Kuala Lumpur but it certainly would be nice to meet some new people! They were only about to cross a street, when her friend agreed and instantly introduced her to some guy! It seemed to be a joke, but this had been the exact friend he had in mind to introduce to Jessica. They spent the weekend partying together not knowing yet that they were meant for each other!

Jessica started to date her friend’s friend and applied for a job with Le Meridien in Kuala Lumpur. She was hired to work for the Human Resources Department and although it was all very different than in Singapore, Jessica still enjoyed working in the hospitality industry.

Her future husband proposed on the 20.09.2009 (what a cute date!) and in October 2010 all his friends and family from Australia came over to Kuala Lumpur to attend their wedding. As he was working in Kuala Lumpur for more than eight years back then already, his mum, her partner and his dad were used to visiting Malaysia very often. They liked the country and enjoyed spending time with their son in Malaysia very much.

Jessica and her husband had an intimate garden wedding, then a Chinese tea ceremony and after that a dinner reception to combine both of their different cultures! Over the whole day, Jessica changed into three different dresses!! For the tea ceremony Jessica and her husband were dressed in the Chinese emperor costumes and were serving tea to the older family members. In return they were receiving their blessing in the form of a red packet with a small token inside. It definitely must have been a pleasure for her husband’s side of the family to be involved in such an experience!  

As it had turned out, Jessica got pregnant shortly before their wedding, which meant that she was pregnant on their honeymoon! There they were in Las Vegas, supposed to party and have a great time, when Jessica rather craved for a bed and a blanket…she was tired and felt sick! In the end, her husband was exploring Las Vegas alone most of the time.

Jessica had quit her job in Le Meridien before their wedding and soon her husband came up with the idea of opening a wine shop! They had met a wine shop franchisee who had told them all the pro’s and con’s of opening a shop themselves. As there were no wine shops in the area where they lived, they thought the expats around them might appreciate it! A fun fact is though, that Jessica does not drink any alcohol at all!! So being pregnant, she was persuading people to buy wine that she had never tasted before😉…that’s how good Jessica’s communication skills are!!! To be fair, they had been taking wine courses with all the tasting and wine history etc. in order to be able to open up that wine shop. It was an interesting and fun adventure for both of them!

The adventure did not last long though, as one month before their first daughter was born in 2011, Jessica and her husband were being informed that the mall had been bought over by another management and had offered them a pay-out. The timing seemed perfect. They closed down the shop, took the pay-out from the management and soon Jessica was able to fully concentrate on their newborn and enjoy their time together! Then, in 2013, Jessica gave birth to their second daughter.

At some point after her second pregnancy, Jessica started to work out in the gym to lose her baby weight. She was exercising a lot, but still could not lose the kilos! It was a big surprise, when she found out that she was pregnant again!! Only 1,5 years after her second daughter was born their son came along in 2014! It was a bit of a tough period for Jessica, as her youngest children were rather close! But thankfully her family members were around to help out with the three children.

When the oil prices crashed down in 2016, Jessica and her husband started to worry about his job and their future in Malaysia! Her husband was lucky as he received the opportunity to interview for an internal transfer to Norway. In times where the oil industry had to let go of people, he was fortunate enough to secure a new job for himself! Although Norway was never on Jessica’s bucket list, it did not really matter! She had promised to her husband in her wedding vowels, that she would always follow him and as they needed the security that the job provided, she was grateful and got ready for a cold, expensive and small city that she expected Stavanger to be!!!

It was all very exciting, as Norway was on a totally different continent and a totally different experience to their old life!! She did not really know what to expect as she did not even really google long enough about it!! They had never moved as a family before, so all in all it was a very intriguing chapter in their lives!

Only her husband had been to Stavanger before they moved, to sign the contract and secure a fully furnished apartment for his family. So when they all arrived in Stavanger in summer 2017 with not a lot of their belongings, there was NO summer at all! For Jessica it rather felt like winter…It was cold, it was windy and worst of all, they did not pack any suitable “winter” clothing!! Not the best start to their new life!

Slowly Jessica started to enjoy living in Stavanger though. If nothing else, it was a safe environment to bring up young children like theirs. Her children were complaining a bit at the beginning, they especially did not like that it was always so cold (compared to Kuala Lumpur) but after seeing the snow and the beauty of it, they started to feel reconciled.

The girls managed very well in their new school and in their new environment, but her son had a bit of a harder start in the beginning in preschool. Especially the nature walks which they like doing in preschool were tough for him! They made him so tired, that he would fall asleep in the car on the way home or even before pickup in preschool! In Malaysia you simply do not spend a whole day on a nature walk!

Jessica and her husband had agreed on him concentrating on his job and her taking a break in her career. It did not seem to make sense, that they both would work, only to pay for childcare after school so that someone else would take care of their children! Jessica wanted to spend time with her children after school!! She always wanted to be around for the first six years of their lives. Apparently, there is a saying in Jessica’s family, that children will not remember their childhood anyway. For her though, childhood is the most important part of a person’s life! At least, that is to her memories. She wants to give them the warmth and the attention and the love that hopefully will stick to their memories!

At their next destination, Jessica would love to work again, maybe in a pastry shop as she loves baking! Jessica was never baking in Kuala Lumpur, but because beautiful cakes are so expensive in Stavanger, she had to start making them herself and she got really good at it! Baking for family and friends keeps her busy now😊

After four years in Stavanger, Jessica still misses Malaysia very much! She quotes that “you can take a Malaysian out of Malaysia, but you cannot take Malaysia out of a Malaysian”.

It is funny to see that even Jessica and her family joined the Norwegian tradition of hiking at some point, as they were never hiking before they came to Norway! It seems that at some point, everyone starts to go hiking if they only live long enough around the area!!

Jessica and her family were supposed to stay in Stavanger for three years, but her husband’s contract was extended twice already, so now they are curious to find out where they will be going next! Jessica thinks that the chances are quite low for them to go back to live and work in Malaysia as her husband exceeded his 10 years expat allowance, but she would love to go back if there is the opportunity. At the same time she would love to explore and experience more countries and cultures anyway as long as the children are still young!

As her husband had lived so many years in Malaysia before they even got married, Jessica never thought about expat life. Only after they got married, she noticed that his colleagues and friends were moving around a lot and there she realized, she might be living an expat life at some point too! Instead of being shocked, she got rather excited as she is a risk taker anyway, does not mind getting out of her comfort zone and they both like to travel! Jessica and her husband are a good team and they enjoy and are thankful for all the positive sides that expat life brings them!

Although Jessica and her children miss their family in Malaysia a lot, she does not see herself retiring in Malaysia as she would prefer a more stable country. She sees herself more in Australia in the end, as the government looks after their citizens more and provides better healthcare and benefits for their elderly! Her dream destination would be something like coastal Spain or Italy.

What Jessica learned from her expat life is that the future is not static, it is constantly changing, but it all comes into place. She feels blessed that although they live far away from both their families, everyone is healthy and doing ok! She believes that you have to be open minded, accept the challenges that come along and toughen up! Always give everything a chance, because that is the only way you learn and gain experience in life! She believes that if you focus on the good, the good gets better!

Jessica’s motto seems to be “smile is free, do not be stingy”” and that is exactly how I know her!!