"To live is so startling it leaves time for little else"

The past week has been surprisingly busy. Whenever I think I will have a quiet evening at home, something comes up. I met tons of new people, went out a lot, and slept little. It has been great!


Some highlights:

There is a French ship, built in 1916, that is now sailing around the world, and was in Penang last week. In order to visit it, we had to climb into a tiny rubber raft that I though for sure was going to tip. Once on the boat, a dirty French sailor with a striped sailor shirt gave us a tour. The boat is gorgeous and was definitely lots of fun to explore!

Over the weekend I went swimming in my pool a lot, watched a few movies, and went out. Saturday, there was a music festival downtown; we went for a short while, but the bands were not that good. Then we went to a football party on the beach where we watched the Germany-Sweden game and got wet in the tide. I also went to my friend Kit's house, who lives on the mainland, which means I got to drive over the 13.5km bridge (!!) and eat home-cooked Chinese food, which was delicious.

I think the biggest event was me eating durian. Durian (pictured above) is a huge deal here in Malaysia as well as in Indonesia; one of the first few questions I get when meeting someone is, "Have you tried durian?" Durian smells a lot like sewage when cut open. If someone ate durian, you can smell it on them; if someone has durian in their car on the highway, the entire road smells it. There are actually signs in stores and hotels that ask people not to bring durian in. Inside the hard outer shell, are several balls of fruit, each with its own pit. They are a bit slimy and slippery, and taste kind of like garlic/yogurt/something spoiled. Apparently it's an "acquired taste." The three bites I took did not cause me to acquire it, however; perhaps I will try again later...

Hard to believe I've been here for one month!