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Published: December 23rd 2006
Well, the free computers in our hostel are all in use right now, so I borrowed Randy's laptop to write this entry. Unfortunately, it seems to be unable to detect the wireless connection right now, for some reason, though, so I decided to just type an entry in Word and I'd upload it later. Unfortunately, Randy doesn't actually HAVE Word on this computer. That kind of blew my mind, but I guess he wouldn't really have any need for it since it's a brand new laptop for his Korea trip and he's not taking any courses or anything so I suppose he wouldn't have need for a word processor. This version of WordPad is pretty good, however, so all is good.
So... boys are definitely a strange breed. I've had a high concentration of guy friends for most of my memorable life, at least since I was 11, and in fact in recent years the vast majority of my best friends have been guys. At school I hang out with Grayson, Derek, Robin, and Mark every day. I thought I was quite familiar with the antics of males. Apparantly, I have much to learn. I guess I always knew that guys do some pretty stupid things, but I always thought it was *those* guys. The silly ones you see going overboard all the time at football games and house parties and stuff. Turns out, all guys have that side in them. I guess I just chose to avoid such gatherings as much as possible in the past, or else my friends have been staying on their best behaviour for me. When you live with them, though, you can't avoid them and they give up being on their best behaviour.
It's not that I'm having a bad time with them or that I'm overwhelmed or anything. Not at all. I'm just... amazed, more than anything I guess. Take today's activities, for example. We didn't do much of anything today (more on that later), so somehow Troy took it upon himself to provide an activity. They insist that he came up with the idea on his own, though I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but when the boys returned from an innocent trip to the grocery store for lunch they returned with no less than 4 litres of homo milk. Troy had decided to try the 4litre milk challenge, with a pathetic wager of 5RM (less than $2CAN) riding on the outcome. If you are unfamiliar with the challenge, let me explain: basically, a stupid person with way too much time on their hands, no respect for their poor body, and four litres of milk, tries to consume all four litres in under an hour. To my knowledge, it cannot be done. I know many people who have tried, and I watched a Jackass episode where they attempted to do it with eggnog (I am still haunted by it to this day) but every attempt ends up in a milky, hydrochloric acid covered mess, along with intense stomach pains which persist for hours. Although the legend of the milk challenge rages strong throughout young people, the tales of the accompanying agony seem to go untold. Hmmmm.
So, I heard of this milk challenge proposal and immediately forbid the crew from undertaking it indoors. I told them they had to go find a park with a public washroom (yah right) and do it there. They were not to return to the hostel within 2 hours. I figured that was a good enough time limit for the worst to be over. They aren't so good at listening to me these days, unfortuantely, but they did agree to head in the general direction of outdoors. Despite this, they weren't even out the door before the first litre of milk was consumed. After chugging the entire thing in one go, Troy was like "Woah. I have to do 3 more of these? This is going to be hard." Duh!!! When he opened the second one, they encountered a snag. The milk was curdled inside the carton. The previous carton hadn't smelled super fresh, but this one was defintely chunky. GROSS!!! So, they decided to return the milk to the store, and Troy took another litre to consume on the way. Even though he had an hour, his strategy was to consume as much as he could early on. I don't think this was smart, because when they returned a while later all Troy said to me was "don't worry. It's over. I puked on the way to the store after the second litre." Then we went up to the dorm room and I believe lounged/slept for the rest of the afternoon, not feeling particularly well. From the stories I've heard of other milk challenges, I think he got off easy. WHY do they do this to each other? Even if it WAS Troy's idea, the rest were more than willing to encourage him along. According to them, it's all in good fun, and nothing was broken or permanately damaged this time so I guess it's true. Although, I wouldn't call it fun myself.
I occupied my day with other things, though nothing too major. I woke up around 10am in a sweltering hot room. Troy and I had turned of the A/C because we thought we'd be too cold, so we endure the other extreme. After a shower I seemed to be the only one alive so I took my laundry down the street to be done. I haven't had clean clothes for over a week, so I'm looking forward to having them returned tomorrow. After laundry I bought some milk for my previously purchased cereal, had dinner on the porch of our hostel, and chilled. At this point, I could bagpipes coming from somewhere nearby and I was extremely curious about them. I still hadn't seen any of the other guys so I decided to set off in search of the source of them on my own. I never saw the piper, but I traced the noise to a compound which I believe is a school, possibly a boarding school. I wanted to go in to listen but there was barbed wire around the fence of the place and it didn't look extremely inviting, so I chose to head off in the other direction and see what I could find. I ended up finding a historical museum, and since entry was only 1RM I decided to go in. I felt badly that I didn't see if any of the other guys wanted to come but I thought if it was really good I could just leave, go get them, and come back. Well... I never went and go them, but I did REALLY enjoy the museum. It had some great exhibits outlining the history of the various founding cultures that make up Malaysia, and some good stuff on the history of Georgetown and Penang Island. It really made me appreciate the town a lot more and understand it much better. The island has a rich history of housing spice plantations, since it was once owned by the East India Company, so I was eager to head off to the other side of the island to where a spice farm still exists to this day. The other guys were just getting going when I returned, and once we'd ambled off in search of food and whatnot, it ended up being a bit too late to round up the crew and set off on an expedition across the island. Oh well. Sooo instead I spent most of the afternoon on the computer =) I'm still trying to figure out something for Ko Samui, and it's taking a lot of time. At this point I've pretty much given up the concept of prebooking and am mentally preparing for a night on the beach or hours of hot, tiring door-to-door searching. It should be OK, though. An adventure, right? Besides, it's right at the end of our trip so I'll just have to think about how soon I'll get to be back home and all will be good. I also took a while finding a good, clean, cheap place in KL that could accomodate all of us. I think I succeeded on that front, but we'll see how it is when we show up tomorrow (hopefully we can find it).
I found something else cool here tonight. I was wandering around and stumbled upon this little park area with these giant shells, all lit up. I went in for a closer inspection and found these very educational plaques on the shells teaching about the gastropod families they belong to and giving interesting facts about them all. It was really neat! I have no idea why it was there, but it was cool. SE Asia never ceases to surprise. I might go back and get some pics, but I'm feeling a bit too lazy for that right now. Most of the boys went to check out the night market but after seeing 50 billion markets already on this trip, I've decided that I've really quite had my fill of them so I decided to sit out.
Last night some of us went out to a club (Mark W. stayed back because he hates clubs and Troy stayed because he's saving money. Good for him), and it was really fun! I didn't reaaalllly want to actually go because it was 25RM to get in (over $8) and I HATE paying cover for clubs, but it turned out that ladies got in free, so that convinced me =) I obvioiusly haven't been clubbing for awhile because the DJ was playing a lot of stuff I'd never heard of, but Angus, Warren, and Randy sure did! I think they went out quite a bit in Korea. Warren knows all the words to all the songs, and he's quite a dancer, too. It's pretty funny, because you wouldn't really expect it of Warren (at least I wouldn't). Oh, and there was this halarious guy there that was leaving it all out on the dancefloor. He looked like he was straight out of "A Night At The Roxburry." I've never seen anyone dance like that in person (and be serious). I wanted Derek to get a video but he never pulled it off. Too bad. Another big bonus was that there was a live band that did some really solid covers. Their set was only about an hour, but it was lots of fun. After they'd finished the DJ came back but he played the music seriously excessively loud, so when Erich announced he was taking off I opted to go with him.
Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now. I got to talk to a bunch of people these past couple of days either by phone, e-mail, or MSN, which was really nice. I miss everyone and am really looking forward to coming home! I know it's only for a few days, but it will still be nice. I got an e-mail that my friend Leah, who had been travelling through New Zealand and Australia, bought a ticket home months early and surprised everyone, and I must say I was more than a bit jealous. It's not that I'm not having a good time--I am--its just that travel at this time of year is a bit of a hassle and expensive, and it would have made a lot more sense to be home right now. Oh well! I'm sure Christmas in KL will be an experience to remember. It's pretty crazy to think that it's Christmas Eve Eve, and I'm sitting outside, sweating in a tank top.
Oh, and if any of my new KL readers are reading this, do you have any suggestions for Christmas or Christmas Eve activities? I've heard that there's fireworks, but I can't find any indication of where they might be. Suggestions would be appreciated!
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Dad
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I'll be home for Christmas
Its no coincidence that "I'll be home for Christmas" is such a popular song. When I was in Michigan in 1981, we were all going to be in Creston for Christmas -- including Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sherri. I drove from Houghton to Duluth, MN. Took a bus to Thunder Bay. Train to Vancouver. Bus and ferry to Victoria. 2 days later I got a ride with friends to Spokane with the intention to take the bus to Creston. However, there was a blizzard raging and we got there 2 hours late. They were going to NY so I started to hitchhike north at 3PM, in a blizzard, on Christmas eve. The first 2 rides to Sandpoint were fine but the next guy had a case of beer on the seat (half empty) and dropped me at his turn in the middle of nowhere in the dark. After an hour without anyone even slowing down, I started to walk up a long, long hill the 10 mi to Bonner's Ferry with my suitcase. No backpack, this was supposed to be an urban holiday. On the corner of a sharp curve, the bus roared past without stopping. If I'd realised I'd passed it I would have just waited. However, a guy from Bonners who'd passed by twice turned around and came to pick me up. He was renovating a store in town and had to keep running home for tools. I warmed up in his gift store by sweeping up some sawdust for him and then headed back to the highway. I was very close to Creston but by now its late on Christmas eve and there is no traffic going north to Canada. Finally, common sense struck and I walked back into town and called my sister in Creston. It was only a 20 minute drive and the border guard stayed a few minutes late so we could return to Canada after midnight. I made it "home" for Christmas but just barely.