Australian Finale

One more thing about Melbourne, before I move on to outings we took. It's so walkable! I'm realizing how much I miss that. With the exception of Luang Prabang and Malacca (to an extent), nowhere else I've visited recently has been very pedestrian-friendly. Walking to yoga class in Kuantan only takes about ten minutes, but it's a veritable obstacle course of missing sidewalks, perilous streets with no crosswalks, straight up gaping holes in the street, etc. Philly is also pretty walkable, so I'd say the towns are tied on that score. Can't wait to go home and walk around a beautiful, sidewalked, grid-style city!

OUTINGS
3 perfect days of car rental madness

DAY 1: Wine and Australian Wildlife

A storm breaking over the hills from the vineyard.

Breanna and I hit the road on our first day with an ambitious but free-form itinerary. Some of Stephanie's very wise friends recommended that we visit a place called Healesville Sanctuary. It just so happened that the route to the sanctuary was studded with vineyards and scenery that was reminiscent of the British countryside. Ok, sure, we've never seen the British countryside, but it was very green and hilly and sort of like the setting for the Keira Knightlety version of Pride and Prejudice.  We stopped at a few lovely places, and Breanna enjoyed sampling some wines. I only occasionally sampled her samples, because I was the designated driver, after all.

Free thing #1: We had a nice chat with the tasting specialist at a vineyard called, of all things, St. Hubert's (hey, Mom!), and she waived the $3 tasting charge for Breanna for no apparent reason.

After visiting a few wineries, we soldiered on to the animal sanctuary, where we were overcome with cuteness. We got to see all the typical Australian animals in a spacious, comfortable-seeming, naturalistic environment. (But, hey, who knows what really makes a koala comfortable.) A few surprises:
-Koalas are sort of bigger and grumpier-looking than you would expect. Australians get all miffed if you call them bears. Please google "drop bears" now.

So thrilled to be so close to a koala. My sister, Kathleen, would have died of happiness at the wildlife sanctuary. I MISS YOU, KATHLEEN.  

-Platypi are much smaller than you would expect. For some reason I thought they would be the size of beavers, but they're more like sleek, swift little guinea-pig sized things. (Shout out to my high school photo class. We called ourselves "The Platypi." Don't laugh, we had stickers and everything.)
-Kookaburras have such a crazy laugh!
-Pelicans are gigantic and could kill and swallow you. Breanna had a close call, but she was quite brave about it.

Next, we stopped for lunch at a pizza place that was having a special, so don't doubt that we each bought our own large pizza. Imagine, just being able to stop at a pizza place in a random town! And the pizza didn't have any mayo on it or fake cheese! And it didn't cost an absurd percentage of my salary! Seriously, the pizza scene in Malaysia is way messed up and overpriced. Once we ordered pizza that appeared with a tinfoil wrapped chocolate candy at the center and mayo instead of cheese.

Anyway, our adrenaline started pumping after that. We were determined to make it the 2-3 hour drive to Phillip Island in time to see the famous "Penguin Parade." This is when hundreds of Australian "Little Penguins" (they're the world's smallest) pop out of the sea and trek up the sand to socialize and sleep. It happens just after sunset, so as we drove in the fading light it started to feel like a race against time across beautiful scenery with Australian radio blaring. Luckily, we made it just in time--7 minutes to spare, actually--after a sprint across the parking lot. We stayed longer than almost anyone else, fascinated with the little waddling guys who came out of the sea in little groups with their friends. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed, so you'll have to check out the penguins online.

Free thing #2: As we rushed along the boardwalk to see the penguins, I saw a young ranger and asked, "Where's the best place to see them?" He said," Uh, well, actually, why don't you just come with me?" We followed him, chit chatting, and suddenly found ourselves at the entrance to the "Penguins Plus" VIP viewing area, where the world's best penguin ranger said to the ticket taker, "These are my very close friends, Liz and Breanna, and they really deserve an upgrade." BAM! We were in. So there you go, friends, it pays to ask questions. I was all about asking questions on the trip, because I was so overjoyed to be around English speakers. I was also all about chatting with strangers and making jokes in elevators and stuff, just because I could again. Poor Breanna had to put up with this.

After the parade, we had an awesome drive back to Melbourne. We blasted the college radio station and stopped at a gas station for unhealthy snacks and a great chat about places to visit in America and Australian politics/the future of gay rights in Australia with the teenage cashier (more talking to strangers, yay).

DAY 2 and 3: The Great Ocean Road

Up there on my list of coolest things I've ever done. Here's what it's like to drive the Great Ocean Road. Basically, you drive along the most breathtaking coastline you've ever seen for hours and stop at every scenic viewpoint provided, because each one is more beautiful than the last. You can make other stops in lovely seaside towns or to walk up to a lighthouse or to take a short hike to a waterfall or to do a rainforest canopy walk. We did all those things. I recommend going with one of your best friends, because traveling with Breanna made it even more awesome.

Breanna and Marvin, the penguin she bought at Phillip Island

Nice combo of green rolling hills and cliffs

Waterfall! Ithaca-esque, but with cooler, silvery trees.

Through pure dumb luck, we made it to the most famous sight on the Great Ocean Road, a rock formation called the Twelve Apostles, exactly at sunset.

We drove the GOR for one day and then stayed overnight in a small town. Through Breanna's excellent question-asking, we lucked into a room at a hostel with an ocean view for $25 a night (great price for Australia). To be more accurate, I should say we lucked into an entire hostel because we were the only ones there. The place could have fit 20 to 30 people. It was very cozy, with fireplaces and a porch with an ocean view and a BATHTUB. Breanna and I went out for a nice dinner (in my case, of kangaroo steak) and then spent a quiet night playing euchre, sipping wine, and reading. Of course, I took a hot bath, since my apartment in Malaysia has no bathtub.

The view from our hostel. Can you believe it?

Free thing #3: A roll of toilet paper. Funnily enough, this was the one thing our hostel was lacking. We didn't realize until the reception was already closed for the night, so we wandered town looking for it. The gas station owner had none to sell, but he took pity on us and gave us a free roll of his own. There is no greater gift.

Free(ish) thing #4: If you know me, you're probably thinking that I would need some unhealthy food to make a cozy seaside hostel night complete. Of course you're correct. I bought a delicious chocolate shortbread like bar called a honeycomb at a restaurant to gobble down in the evening. When I got out my money to pay, the cashier was like, "Is that how much it says we're charging? That's ridiculous." She then proceeded to knock a dollar off the price.

The next morning, we revisited the Twelve Apostles and went down to the beach at Gibson's Steps. We even saw a rainbow, which was tragically hard to get a good picture of. We had a rainy drive back to Melbourne, but it was a-ok. One positive of living in Malaysia is that after you've driven through monsoon rain at night on potholed roads filled with wandering cows, it's hard to find driving conditions that really freak you out anymore.

There are the Twelve Apostles in the background. It was quite chilly.

Bay of Islands. 

More Twelve Apostles, this time by morning light. 

When we returned to Melbourne, we attended an evening Australian rules football game with the bride and groom and their families. It was a lot of fun, and way more fast-paced than American football. Stephanie's father was kind enough to type up a helpful rules sheet to keep clueless Americans in the loop. 

Steph and Michael at the footy the night before their wedding. 

Our last day in Melbourne was dedicated to the wedding that was the reason behind our trip. Our friends from Telluride House at Cornell, Stephanie and Michael, tied the knot at a historic library. I can't imagine a more romantically nerdy setting for a wedding. It was perfect for them. 

Ok, I'm going to level with you, readers: I'm usually not in favor of people writing their own vows. They often come out stilted or corny or just plain awkward. My position on the matter had always been that you should stick with the formula, as staid as it is, because at least that keeps it classy. (Obviously, you should take out that whole part about obeying, though. Ew.) I mean, sure, it may be cliched and sentimental, but at least it's not you putting yourself out there to write something equally cliched and sentimental. 

Steph and Michael's wedding changed my opinion on writing your own vows. There vows were so gorgeously-written, so tender and heartfelt, and so them that they made cold little me shed a tear. Ok, many tears. Maybe it's because I know them so well and have watched them successfully navigate a long-distance relationship with so much devotion and good humor, but somehow their vows really touched me. (I guess it helps that at this moment in my life I'm a big sucker for stories of successful long-distance relationships.) The reception was at a delicious restaurant called the Studley Park Boathouse (great name). Breanna and I were asked to give a toast, which was a big honor--but a nerve-wracking one. It was wonderful to see the bride and groom so happy and to hear tear-jerking toasts from their families. Celebrating our good friend's happy ending (or beginning, really) was the perfect ending to our happy trip. 

Wedding library. 

Australia, Part 2

Breanna and I spent the last week of our trip in Melbourne. I must say that I'm really proud of us for spending exactly the appropriate amount of time at each destination. There was so much to do in Melbourne that I never regretted our decision to spend a week there. Melbourne was one of the few cities that I would actually consider living in that is not Philadelphia. Philadelphia, besides being the world's best city, also happens to have a majority of the people I love in it, though, so it always wins out.

Somehow we managed to lead a charmed life while in Melbourne. 

The first night that we arrived, we successfully navigated the short walk from our hostel to the "hen party" in Chinatown. That's British Commonwealth for "bachelorette party." (My more un-gentle readers are hereby invited to stop for a minute and consider what the male equivalent would be. Hint: I don't mean "Rooster Parties.") We met some old friends of the bride, our college friend Stephanie, and finally got to meet her charming twin sister, Petra, the leader of the hens. After a delicious Chinese dinner, we headed to a hip bowling alley that served drinks in mason jars for some hip bowling. Here's my confession (and my confusion) kids: As much as I complain about hipsters, I have really missed them during my time in Asia. The bowling alley reminded me of North Bowl in No Libs, where I went on a great date once before I became a Malaysian school marm. After that, we did some bar hopping. One of the hens got us into a super hip bar called Fad Bar in a little alley in Melbourne. Now there's something I love about Melbourne. Whereas Philly has creepy alleys filled with dumpsters and certain doom, Melbourne is full of charming little "laneways" that reveal nice bars and restaurants and galleries. Something about laneways really appeals to my sense of discovery and adventure, as poor Breanna can attest. I dragged her around looking for them and looking at them for quite a while in the cold later in our trip. Anyway, the bar  played oldies and John Farnham, whom Steph described as the Australian Bruce Springsteen, only better. There was dancing and hard cider--yes, I said it! now I'll never get a job!--and I didn't have to wear a baju kurung and there was no bad karaoke at all. After that, we went to a grungy punk bar in a graffiti (ahem, "street art") filled alley for a little while, then Breanna and I called it a night. I would definitely count my first bachelorette party experience as a success, thanks to some awesome Australians and, of course, Breanna. 

A laneway. Philadelphians may be asking themselves, "Where is the trash? What of the armed highwaymen?" I wondered the same, yet neither appeared. 

Laneway with some nice graffiti. Look, readers, I don't know when you're supposed to say graffiti vs. street art.  I would always just say graffiti. Is it street art if you think it's nicer? Or (getting edgy now, get ready) do people say "street art" when the artiste is some sort of hipster who's not from the neighborhood and graffiti if it's some young kid tagging someplace down the block from him? I say, potato potato and let's not get snobby about it. 

We dedicated our next day to walking around and exploring Melbourne. The exploration started at the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne's indoor/outdoor answer to Philly's Reading Terminal Market. We waited in line for the most heavenly jelly-donuts (see below) and I had a sausage sandwich with cheese and onions that is inexplicably called a kransky. Hold the phone, readers: IT WAS ON A DECENT ROLL. The roll had backbone, attitude, something to say. It wasn't any old flimsy hot dog roll or soggy piece of whinging white sandwich bread. No, it was an honest-to-goodness Italian roll, and I say God bless it. 

You can tell from the long line (it continues way outside the frame) and the excellent van decor that the $1 donuts were a win.

Later in our walking around day, we checked out Federation Square and took a walk along the Yarra River. 

Federation Square

You've got some crazy public art, Melbourne. Keep at it. 

That night, after a penny-pinching grocery store dinner, we decided to check out some more Melbourne night life. Breanna's resourceful googling ("Melbourne lesbian") turned up a lesbian event at a bar with a heated outdoor balcony. Of course, we went. The bar was packed, and Breanna smiled the whole night like the cat that ate the canary. We both agreed that we had never seen so many lesbians in one place. I increased my lifetime count of "times being mistaken for a lesbian" by a whole lot and had a lot of fun dancing (you can dance a lot less self-consciously when you're not around any possible romantic prospects, as everyone knows) and people watching.

We ended the  night with a stop for some late-night meat pie (in Bre's case, vegetarian spinach pie), a frequent snack for us on our trip. Important question that we kept asking ourselves: Why are meat pies not popular, nay, practically nonexistent, in the US? Steph and Petra, who moved from Australia to the US when they were preteens, both lamented this apparent casualty of the American Revolution. My theory is that if you don't keep the queen on your coins, they take away your meat pies. 

At the end of our trip, we spent another day and a half doing some walking around in Melbourne. I might as well mention it now and save our outings outside the city for another verbose post. One day, Breanna and I followed a walking tour route that our hostel provided. Of course, it included lots of lovely laneways. Melbourne is just chock a block with cheap bookstores, yet another reason for me to love it, and it makes good use of its waterfront space. (I'm looking at you again, Philly, you big lovable failure.) We also took the tram out to the alternative beachfront suburb of St. Kilda for some beachside reading and coffee shop sitting. We had tea and scones at the lovely botanical gardens in Melbourne. I got to see the cottage where Captain Cook grew up, which has been transplanted to a public garden in Melbourne. Weird, right? It's awfully tiny, which inspired lots of thoughts about how you never know what direction your life will take based on where it starts out. (Yes, yes, I'm a terrible history major and person for still having some real admiration for explorers--do I have to put explorers in scare quotes? do I have to put everything in scare quotes?--despite the horrid consequences of their explorations.) Oh, and I went to a really nice art museum and saw an exhibit about Australian impressionists in France. 

Oh oh, and we spent an afternoon thrifting with the bride and groom and their sisters on Chapel Street. I was giddily happy to be doing normal activities like thrift shopping and going to Target and stopping for Mexican food and later $4 pizza at this intriguingly-decorated bar. I couldn't get over the fun Western things I was getting to do, all the while enjoying pleasant, cool weather. No one stared at me on the street, because I didn't stick out like a sore thumb. I had a frozen margarita with no fear of running into a student. I wore a sweater and a jacket, and not because I was trying to dress as modestly as humanly possible so no one would whistle at me on the street or follow me on their motorbike. (Hint: It doesn't matter how you dress, expect to encounter this behavior in Malaysia.) Oh, and the Salvation Army in Melbourne looks like a gosh darn upscale boutique. What is this wonderland? (Of course, the prices are higher, too, but still.) There were so many interesting, offbeat, pleasant neighborhoods in Melbourne. I thought they would never end, and there are many more we didn't get to see. Sigh. 

Anyway, I'm rambling. One more thing: Melbourne has excellent infrastructure for tourists. Both Sydney and Melbourne have well-staffed and well-organized public transit systems that put Philly to shame. Any time we had a question in a train station, it was easy to find a helpful transit employee who was ready to answer our question. Try doing that in Philly. Melbourne also has a free shuttle bus and a free tram for tourists, with extensive routes, frequent running times, and helpful announcements of Melbourne history and attractions near each stop. (Ok, Philly kind of has that, too, in that we have the Phlash bus, but that costs money and doesn't go as many places.) I am ashamed to think about what a first-time visitor to Philly would think while trying to navigate our shabby, understaffed, underdeveloped, and downright bewildering public transit system. For shame, Philadelphia, get your act together. (I know, I know, if Philly was a wealthier city with higher taxes like Melbourne, blah blah.) If you ever want to read this blog again, please stay tuned for some great pictures from the Great Ocean Road and an animal sanctuary as well as a description of an extremely touching wedding. 

Antipodean Antics, Part 1

Oh yeah, I went there with the pretentious blog post title. If you don't like it, you can stop reading. I figure I'm just going to go ahead and write what I want, since this blog has basically two main audiences:
-people forced to love me by ties of blood
-people forced to pretend to like me because we grew up/went to college together and I have a lot of material for blackmailing them.

I just got back from two weeks in Australia. I was traveling with my dear college roomie Breanna, who it turns out is as awesome a travel buddy as she is a roommate, to see our friends Steph and Michael get hitched in Melbourne. Breanna is also a teacher, only the qualified kind with a master's degree and everything. The theme of the trip for me, little squat-toilet-frequenting expat that I am, was, "Wow! This is just like home, only sometimes better!" and for Breanna it was, "Wow! Everything is so different!" We packed a lot into our trip, so you know that means I have to pack a lot into this blog post. Hold on to your hats.

1. Sydney
Highlights
-Seeing the Opera House from every conceivable angle (on a boat! from a bridge! on foot!)
-The most delicious Lebanese bakery in the world, with the possible exception of bakeries that are actually in Lebanon. We went there just about every day for spinach and cheese pies and other assorted savory things wrapped in bread.
-A comfy bed and using Breanna's jet lag as an excuse to be asleep by 9 pm every night
-Relatively affordable joy rides on commuter ferries

We only spent a few days in Sydney, but I found it a very nice town. Here are some photos with captions.

Breanna and I had a lovely Lebanese baked goods picnic on the grounds of the Royal Botanical Garden, with a view of the Harbo(u)r Bridge.

We took a nice tour of the Governo(u)r's House led by a charming elderly guide. I kind of want to be her when I grow up. The mansion has stunning harbor views. 

View of the bridge from the bridge; we walked across. 

There's that Opera House! Spoiler alert: It doesn't always look super white like you'd imagine. Sometimes it looks kind of beige, or even taupe. Possibly ecru.

2. Cairns

Ok, let's be honest: Cairns itself is no great shakes. It's super touristy and doesn't even have a beach. It has mud flats and a manmade saltwater "lagoon," which is basically a public swimming pool with good views of the ocean.

What is really great shakes, though, is the Great Barrier Reef. We did an overnight diving trip on the reef, and it was a life highlight. The visibility and biodiversity are incredible. Luckily, Breanna, who boldly tried diving for the first time on the trip, really loved it.

Cool things we saw on the dive trip:
-A white whale called Migaloo. (All names in Australia must be humorous.) The water was so clear that you could see the whale when he was slightly below the surface as a sort of white blur. The ship's crew was really excited about the sighting. We realized just how rare an event it was when we returned from our trip and saw the whale's picture on the front page of the newspaper.

Courtesy of official shipboard photographer

-The friendly fish. Breanna's personal highlight, I think, was meeting a fish we called "the friendly fish." (I think it's real name is the humphead wrasse, but that has no ring to it.) The fish came up to her and the dive guide and gamboled about (can fish gambol?) and let them pet it. Apparently this fish is a regular on diving trips.

Courtesy of official shipboard photographer

-Sharks! But not the scary kind.
-I went on a night dive and saw a sleeping sea turtle. Also, holy moly, I went on a night dive. That was thrilling, although terrifying. It's very interesting to see the reef world, so full of color and tiny fluttering fish by day, all grayed out and peopled with huge, wraith-like gray fish by night. The only light was from divers' flashlights. Of course I was a total klutz and flashed my light in several people's eyes and almost dropped it (which should be impossible to do while it's tied to your wrist, unless you're me).

Aside from diving, I enjoyed just spending time on the boat. I think I have naval blood, because I enjoy the feeling of sleeping while the waves rock and the economical use of space on ships somehow appeals to me. We met some nice people, ate delicious ship-cooked meals, and stared at the Milky Way from the top deck.

Morning coffee on deck. Aww, yeah!

Our quarters. Yes, that is the doorway in the foreground. Barely enough room to turn around, but all very shipshape.

I should also mention, just so you don't think I'm getting too big for my britches, that Breanna and I took all our dinners in Cairns at a place called The Woolshed. Apparently every hostel in town gives you a free meal voucher there, so they have a well-oiled system that brings in backpackers, has them quickly choose a pasta or rice meal from a list of 5, and then serves it to them through a window, much like in prison. It was the place to be, I must say.

This seems like a good stopping point. Next post will detail Melbourne adventures, which were many.

Playing Catch Up

So much has been happening that I haven't been blogging it. Also, my internet at home is pretty terrible. I'm frantically writing this as I await my taxi to a bus to a metro to another bus to a plane to Australia, and I don't think I'll be able to upload pictures in this post. I feel compelled to blog, though, because I know I will have a lot to blog about from my Australia trip. Maybe I'll come back and put in pictures later.

-At the end of June, I had a "half-time" meeting in KL with all the ETAs. It was a very strange meeting psychologically. It was odd to be back in a luxury hotel with really hot water and a bath tub and AC and no mosquitoes biting while you sleep. We also happened to be around for the Fulbright Malaysia 50th anniversary gala at the hotel. It was fancy and there was lots of delicious, small food--including a sorbet to cleanse the palate--and many speeches. Afterwards, I went to a rooftop Middle Eastern place in KL with friends.

-Although I was dreading working on a Sunday and having to be athletic, Sports Day at my school turned out to be a blast. I was a member of the blue house, and as soon as I got to school I was enlisted to help kids put on their outlandish jellyfish outfits for the house parade. America needs more spectacle like that. I then hung out with the other blue team teachers and ate blue rice. Of course. Then I spent the day judging foot races, bonding with the other teacher judges, and congratulating the kids on their swiftness. It was kind of awesome.

Blue rice! Also, look, I have teacher friends!

Obligatory bunga manga shot.

Are you getting jelly?

Dude, Malaysian 16-year-old boys tend to take themselves a lot less seriously than their American counterparts. Look what a good sport our main jellyfish man was. 

-I attended my first primary school English camp. The theme was "Silly Science," and the children were absolutely adorable. It was a good learning experience to think about how different it would be if I were teaching primary school here. On the one hand, the kids' enthusiasm and energy was much higher than my students', and they never "got fresh." On the other hand, you can't really talk about any interesting concepts with them, which makes me overall prefer my sassy teens. To see just how cute the camp was, check out this video that Amy made: http://vimeo.com/70841089.

-Amy spent three days in the hospital in Kuantan for tonsilitis, so we had a lot of party time to watch movies and Arrested Development. It was eye-opening to see that even a relatively good hospital in this part of the world kind of, well, sucks. As in, when you are admitted, they just have you sit in a hospital bed for an hour before anyone really tells you why you've been admitted, whether they'll be giving you medicine, etc. And when the nurse does come around to give you your IV, she may say disconcerting things like, "So, your operation is tomorrow?" when you have no plans to have an operation at all. You may share a room with an entire family, including rowdy small children, who are camped out to support their dad and who never quiet down until after 1 am. One of your other roommates may appear to have been admitted for chronic loud burping. Also, in general, there is a culture of disgusting hacking coughing in Asia that I will not miss. It's hard to explain the prevalence of extremely loud and unabashed hacking and spitting on the streets and, as I now know, in hospital bathrooms here. For some people, it seems to be a nightly ritual.

-Once Amy recovered, we went on a lovely dive trip weekend at a beautiful island. But first, we attacked coconuts with scissors to make homemade coconut shakes, made homemade pudding, and watched The Lady Vanishes. All of these activities are highly recommended. The island was beautiful, and our "all-inclusive resort" (read: no hot water or AC, cheap package deal with diving) ended up having a great family feel to it. We made friends with some middle-aged Chinese Malaysian businessmen who were on our dive boat with us. Turns out they were diving in order to shoot fish with a crossbow. We later ate their fresh catch in the family-style outdoor dining room. The fish still had little harpoon-type marks in their sides.

Note the scissors and coconut victim number 1 draining in the background.

-Then, my friend Achsah and I went to Malacca for a weekend. I LOVED Malacca, since everyone knows I love a good walking around and eating city with history. Nyonya food is delicious; those Straits Chinese grannies have been doing fusion cuisine since before fusion cuisine was a thing. I highly recommend the Baba Nyonya Museum, which is basically just a tour of a wealthy Straits Chinese family's turn-of-the-century mansion. It was kind of like a Malaysian Newport mansion tour. Throughout the weekend, Achsah and I gorged ourselves on nyonya delicacies, pineapple tarts, dim sum, tandoori chicken and naan, chicken rice balls (a Malacca delicacy, for some reason), and all the free homemade baked goods provided each morning at our beautiful hostel. We also did a very soothing "tea appreciation" ceremony, visited some historic sites, and toured what is perhaps the world's finest museum. It's called the "People's/Kite/Enduring Beauty Museum," and it has exhibits on Malaysian history, traditional Malaysian games, kite-flying the world over, and, my personal favorite, "Beauty through Torture," an exhibit on body modification from corsets to scarification. The captions in the beauty exhibit were completely over-the-top and hilarious. The section on tattooing, for instance, included quotes from "modern primitives"--today's tattooed and pierced members of modern society--about their motivations for sporting tattoos. Some of my best friends are "modern primitives," I discovered, so the exhibit was enlightening. Anyway, Malacca is a beautiful city, and I would love to go back.

Thanks, Christ Church, for captioning yourself.

Unidentified crumbly building. You know I love it. 

That white tower is Kling Mosque, which looks lovely but was closed for renovations when we visited. 

St. Peter's

Old gravemarkers that used to be in the floor of St. Peter's. 

-Island hopping with the Fulbrighters. To bid farewell to one of our program coordinators who is heading back to the US to start grad school, 50 ETAs piled onto 3 small boats for the day to explore small, semi-deserted islands off the coast of Malaysia. There was snorkeling and beautiful turquoise water and white sand galore. One of the islands we visited turned out to be the filming site for some European versions of "Survivor," and somewhere in the vicinity a crew was filming Eden, a movie about a soccer team that gets stranded and goes all Lord of the Flies. The whole shebang cost each of us less than $25 for the day. It was one of those times when I thought, "Is this real life? I'm going to miss this when I go home."

-It's Ramadan, kids. I tried fasting for 1.5 days, but I didn't go so far as to avoid drinking water all day. (One day I made it till 5 pm without any water, but then I thought I might die.) I attended an iftar dinner at my school, where a teacher told me she finds it easy to fast because, "We are not fasting with our stomachs, but with our hearts." Admirable sentiments. One of the best parts of Ramadan is getting to break the fast with murtabak, a really delicious food (google it!) that is everywhere during this season. I really enjoyed going to a Ramadan bazaar with a teacher friend from my school and talking to her about how she observes Ramadan.

-I am an honorary Chinese teacher. Maybe. I went to a goodbye dinner attended by all the Chinese teachers and ate a ton of delicious Chinese food. They promised me karaoke for my farewell party in October, so I think I'm in. I've also been racking up the invites to go get noodles outside of school during class breaks, which we're allowed to do during Ramadan because the school cafeteria has only limited options.

-Writing Workshop has been going like gangbusters with the one or two kids who show up. Before, I would've felt like a failure for getting such poor attendance, but now I'm just like, "Whatevs. These two kids are going to get the best darn writing instruction I can give them for an hour and a half on Tuesdays." I'm really enjoying it, because the kids who come are really bright-eyed and eager to learn and full of creative ideas, like a murder mystery in which Nicki Minaj's chihuahua, which has one red eye and one green eye, is brutally killed.

Phew! So there you have it. It's not all glamor, folks. Don't forget how many nights I spend in my apartment just reading and sweating, dreading lesson-planning, and wishing there was more to do in Kuantan.

Books!
My kindle died for a while there, which was scary, but now it's back.

The Garden of Evening Mists. By a Malaysian author. Kind of a downer. If I can get away with saying this, the style was way too meditative and, well, Asian for my taste. Too much stuff about honor and stoicism and face and shooting arrows with your mind, not your hand. Couldn't identify.
I think I forgot to say last time that I read On the Road. Eh.
Finished The Rasputin File, which was awesome.
To my semi-shame, I read a Sookie Stackhouse novel called Dead Reckoning. The series is the basis for the show True Blood.
Moonwalking with Einstein. Excellent book about a journalist entering the U.S. Memory Championships. It makes me angry that the author was 24 when he won the championship and started working on this book. I am 23. What am I doing?