When In Rome...

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12/23 Carly "The Payne" and Mi Mi Lee

Today we are cordially invited to the annual ISKL high school reunion and alumni rugby match by our australian mates, Adam and The Kidnapper. Though many of you share my undying love for football (GO EAGLES) I must say I miss my short-lived days of rugby. The matches go non-stop for 40 minutes and only break for penalties so it's very fast paced. This worked out in our favor so we could hit up the reunion party sooner. Only catch is that Tara and I had to pretend we were former ISKL students for the night in order for us to get in . So let's all welcome Carly Payne (me) and MiMi Lee (Tara).

Name tags and all (I changed mine to Carly 'The' Payne) we walk into the reception hoping that the real Carly and MiMi are not there. Good thing is they weren't but we disappointed a few old classmates who though the actual girls had come to the event. Ya can't win them all.

The reception's director started lining up all the alumni for their class photos. Sticking true to character, Carly and MiMi walked up with Adam to take the class of 2002 alumni picture. In the background you could hear a couple parents and teachers go "who are those girls?" At one point the videographer for the evening came uip to Tara and I and asked what our favorite ISKL moment was. So there we were in front of everyone shooting from the hip talking about made up stories from our glory days on the girls rugby team. How I miss those days...

Our stint at the reunion was short-lived so we jetted off to grab a proper bite to eat with the rest of our alum buddies who kept feeding us all kinds of swordfish...chicken fish (delicious) and kept the Tiger beer flowing. It was only until I insulted one of the guys (whom I nicknamed Frenchy) that I realized I should switch to water. To be fair he kept boasting about France and how muich better it is than the U.S. and he was born in Signapore anyways! So I think my brilliant statement went something like "Oh yeah? well you're as french as a french fry from burger king in America" ... followed by the sound of crickets. No hard feelings though we all had great laughts that night.

12/25 Christmas in Asia
In brief, I must say this is the most random Christmas I 've ever experienced. After opening presents, Tara's family first takes to a french village/castle where we stopped for breakfast. A filipino mariachi band played La Bamba for us while we watched some kind of Malay go go dancers perform a Christmas show. Next we headed to a japanese tea house that was set in a huge japanese botanical garden where you can see the world's largest orchid among many other exotic plants and flowers I've never heard of before. More sighting of monkeys and I'm happy to report no attacks on humans were had.

Heading home at this point we all get showered up for tonite's dinner party. I think I'm starting to adjust to the spicy foods of Malaysia... I only cry 3 out of 4 bites. Once dessert was finished Tara and I make quick getaway to Chinatown where we meet up with friends at "The Beatles Bar" and this time, they actually played music that inspired the bar's name. So if you counted correctly, I culturally visited 6 countries today. Merry random Christmas!

12/27 HASHING PART TWO: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Recovering a bit from yesterday's BBQ that our friends threw I finally got to sleep in and it was glorious. I think the last thing I want to do right now though is go for a long run. But alas, here I am with Tara and Mr. Macken for Lindsay's second Hashing experience. Except this time the setting is through one of the many jungles of Malaysia. Quite different from the city run in Manila. If you want to get an idea of what this feels like do about an hour of hill sprints through your local forest/shrubbery in 98 degree weather with 100%!h(MISSING)umidity all the while smacking your body with some pricker bush braches and don't forget to make yourself trip a few times on your face for no apparent reason. Okay, now with that said, you're ready to run.

Today's turnout had about 90 runners, a far cry from the 10 in my last hash and everyone here looks like they are veterans to this type of run. It was definitely another crazy experience considering KL, Malaysia is the place where Hashing was born. There were no paths whatsoever just straight sprinting through the jungle. In the end, Tara and I came out alive as the first female runners to finish! This of course became punishment later as we got a "down down" meaning we had to drink a beer for being the front runners for today's Hash. Got some great pictures of that don't you worry. So you all can understand, do me a favor and just look up the brief history: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers
Ahhh I'd write so much more but I don't have any time left!!!!!

***Enjoying my time in Australia at the moment. Be sure to update you all soon!!! Coming home on the 12th!***

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