The past few weeks

This is a picture of me and some of my students.








I have not updated in a while - although no big exciting events have occurred, life has been great as usual, so I'll recap the highlights.

It is rainy season so it rains almost every day, but not for the entire day. Some rains have been very heavy and the water goes sideways. I watch from my balcony, it's quite a sight. I've explored some smaller places on the island - fishing villages, hole in the wall restaurants, small roads. There is so much to see just on this small island.

Wine Bar - Four of us found a small wine bar and lounge here in Penang. It's not very popular with the locals (we were the only ones there), has a nice lounge upstairs, plays jazz music, and is a nice escape from Malaysia (it is needed on occasion). We go there to sit and sip wine, eat cheese, talk, and relax. A somewhat pricey (by Malaysian standards), but incredibly nice escape from the usual.

Sunday Night Dinners - My apartment and two other apartments in the building take turns cooking dinner for each other on Sundays, and have nice long meals together. I love them! We have cooked sting ray, roast, and desserts, and it's always so nice to sit and have a long, western dinner, with the same people every week. Definitely helps with the homesickness.

Ramadan started last weekend so all the Muslims are fasting, which means at sundown there are huge food markets and everyone has a feast. It is also the Chinese Mooncake Festival. There are several stories of its origin, you can look them up online. Mooncakes are delicious, and I need to stock up before they are no longer being made!

Teaching is going well. It is the end of the semester so things are pretty hectic - lots of tests and presentations all crammed into the last few weeks. The group presentations have been interesting. One group did theirs on same-sex marriage in Malaysia and had very compelling, interesting, and intelligent points arguing for both sides. Interestingly, the two Malay girls in the group argued against, and the two Chinese students argued for. I was definitely impressed with it. Another group talked about ghosts in Chinese culture (which is extremely superstitious) and Malay culture. They even turned off all the lights, played creepy music, and showed a slide show of images of ghosts from movies. Very creative!

I am also in the process of planning lots of trips:
October 6-8: Ko Phangan, Thailand
end of October: Sumatra, Indonesia (maybe)
November: Somewhere!
December: Cambodia
February: Sabah, Malaysia

It will be amazing!