Back with the living (and eating)

Now that I’m back with the living after a particularly nasty bout with a stomach virus, I figured it was time for a few highlights, though there hasn’t been a whole lot going on.
· The last 3 days pretty much disappeared because of my stomach bug, but I was well taken care of. All of the students missed me and were asking about me, and Imran, his family, Daya, and Yusran all checked on me too. It was a hellish three days, but it seems to have cleared.
· Check the facebook album for pictures of my first hair cut here!
· I got my first package the other day (thanks Alison!). It takes about 10 days, and they open it up and search it, but it’s always nice to get something from home (though with the price tag, I’m not sure it’s worth it).
· I made it to the traditional market in Rampang the other day. While I walked around the market I got a bunch of open mouth stares; people were very surprised to see me. It was a good time, and I stopped and talked with a few people, including a woman who wanted my cell number so that I could talk to her daughter who she wanted me to marry! You can buy just about anything there, which is a good thing considering there are no supermarkets within 30mins!
· And this from last Friday night, which will forever be known as “the night my room was inundated by things I didn’t want there”! First I was reading and ready for an early sleep except that I had to keep chasing a damn mosquito around that I never caught, mostly because a student came over and basically let himself in to speak English, but I ended up helping him with math for over an hour, when thankfully the lights went out (I wanted to sleep!). He was still ready to stay longer, but I convinced him I was ready for bed. That wasn’t too bad, but then I hopped into bed, and was laying there for a couple minutes before I heard some sort of rustling seemingly coming from my bags beside my bed. That got me out of bed in a hurry, and I ended up finding a frog and a snake in the corner of my room. Now this isn’t the first frog I’ve had, so that wasn’t too bad, and I was able to keep him in the corner until I had a chance to usher him under the door (which I literally JUST stuffed a bunch of paper and cardboard under as a temporary stop until I figure something out). The snake was more of a challenge as he B-lined behind my fridge, meaning I had to use my broom to chase him back towards the door. The problem became when he disappeared! It turns out he had actually gone into the back of my refrigerator (with all the cables), but it took me a few minutes to pull things out and finally find him, after which it was pretty easy to get him under the door. Whew! So much for an early relaxing night! And that doesn’t count the cricket that’s in my bathroom (not a big deal except that a week ago I had a cricket land on my forehead as I was laying in bed). An add-on from the next day: the wind was blowing in my face…through my wall.

That’s about it from here. The next posting will probably be about my Halloween trip to Torajah, or maybe a hike from this weekend.