Flotsam/Jetsam

Malaysia was a land of lush green jungle mountains and brightly colored temples, and seemed almost dead after the sheer madness of India. People obeying the speed limit and staying in one lane felt very odd, and left me a tad underwhelmed in all honesty. Kuala Lumpur was loud and had lots of street vendors selling American knock offs or heckling you to go to one of the 30 different reflexology foot massage parlors within a 10-foot radius. I bought my Halloween costume (yellow track jacket and jeans + frequent hair flips + sweeping kung fu arm movements = Uma Thurman in Kill Bill!) in Kuala Lumpur, went to a bar with a pool in the middle of it, and enjoyed the free internet in my hotel as much as possible. After India, I think I just needed time to chiiiiiiill out. The first day in Penang I went to dinner with the inter-port student, Rahimi (they bring kids from all the ports we are visiting onto the ship in the port before so we can ask them questions and get to know a resident of the city—very cool) and had the most delectable sticky rice and chili sauce and ice cream toast!! Yum yum yum. The last day, after my stay in Kuala Lumpur, my friend Mitzi and I went to the botanical gardens and were harassed by hungry monkeys and bought jackfruit and I drank from a coconut and lay in the grass and soaked in the beauty of it all. We got Chinese food at a restaurant where the only words they knew were “vegetables”and “rice”which was perfectly fine because it was the best meal I had the entire week! Back on the ship until Tuesday (2 days from writing this), and very tired from running four and a half miles and watching the crew talent show and writing excessive quantities of papers for all of my classes. The talent show was so funny, seeing all the stewards and cleaning crew prancing around on the stage in wigs and tight clothes doing the Sister Act dance and juggling and gyrating suggestively was quite a hoot. It was the equivalent of seeing your high school principal breakdancing to ‘Bootylicious’by Destiny’s Child. My writing is terrible at the moment so I will cease from torturing all my faithful readers and get to bed. The date line between here and Vietnam is crooked so we have the great fortune to finally GAIN an hour tonight—like a mini daylight savings time. Goody goody gumdrops! Yippeeee! SLEEEP.