Like a zoo animal

So as of today (it is only Thursday evening for those of us in the future) I am still the only American woman I know here in my tiny island. Its not so bad, really. There are some interesting moments, as I really don't understand Malay and I am at a social thing with other coworkers (majority malay) and it feels like I am at a viewing of a foreign film where someone forgot to put in the version with subtitles. I could actually handle a subtitled life, I think. I like to read things. :)

I have AC in my room, but I don't really need it today, except to get rid of the humidity. We had our daily rainstorm (yay!!!!) late this afternoon, so it cooled off what little heat there was before I got home. By the way it is crazy hot in Kansas right now compared to here. Max temp here is about 40 C, which is only around 100 F and it doesn't even reach that most of the time, I am told. I am getting kind of good at converting between farenheit and celcius because everyone keeps telling me the avg temps for their home countries and then asking me of those for mine. Awesomely enough, we seem to be the only country in the world that loves farenheit!

The first day I had a rice and vegetable dish with little fishes mixed in that smelled funny and tasted gross (gave me a stomach ache for awhile). Those same fishes ended up in my breakfast this morning so I asked the IT guy at work what they were. His response? Anchovies! Everything clicked into place at that point and I officially have decided to not go back to that roadside food place again. At least until I have my Malaysian stomach. I think its kind of like sea legs...sometimes it just takes a little bit longer to get them and sometimes you just puke all over the boat for the whole trip. I really hope there is no boat puking in my future!

The mix of culture here is very interesting. There are Indians, Chinese, and Malay people who work alongside others from all over the world without conflict. The most conflicting thing here is the crazy traffic. They slow down for no man (literally..I fear for the lives of those who cross the street) and change lanes at random without proper signalling...or signalling at all for that matter. It makes every day a bit of an adventure, especially when the daily high-volume precipitation event (go BAE!) occurs. There will be apartments and houses in one block, and then across the road in a field, there will be houses made out of wooden planks that don't look like they do much to keep out the storms here. But all over the place the buildings are very colorful, and there are food places (more and less dodgy looking) along the roadsides. It's not really first world, and it's not really 3rd world, so I think my mum and I (or Adam and I..I forget which person I talked about this with) decided it is 2nd world, though I have never heard that word applied to a particular location/country before.

I am full of busyness. I have a lot of things to do before I go to school for slb. This includes going over a lot of test sorts of things, studying, becoming certified for an assortment of subjects, and taking an entrance exam for school. It means every day goes by very fast, and I don't feel like I have enough done. However, it also means I am not bored very often.

I love cocoa puffs. They are my main dietary staple. 2/3rd of my meals every day come from that glorious box of chocolate delight. So happy they have cocoa puffs here!! Of course here it is called Nestle Milo (Milo means chocolate in Malay...and it's pronounced like the grain).

My hair is crazy curly. It has found it's natural environment at last and making full use of every ounce of humidity in the air. It does stand as a differentiating point between me and everyone else I have met here, as their hair is all straight and mine is doing the mamba. I don't really mind though! It is fun.

Miss you guys!!