I am procraaaaaaaaastinating at work. 

I'm supposed to be organizing a huge amount of information into impossible categories for a hand out and I just can't deal with it. Which is fine, because, of course, I have way too much time to complete it anyway.

I'm very sleepy. Last night I had to wait FOREVER for my friend Christopher's bus to get into KL. Christopher is from Wales, I met him in Penang, and on Sunday his bank card got stolen and a lot of his money was taken out of his account. I was with him all weekend so I don't even know how it happened, but I was with him when he found out it was gone and called the bank and all. So, I have offered to help him. (If you are freaking out right now about me being scammed, just think to yourself, if I lost my bank card, wouldn't you want some kind fellow traveler to trust in another human being and help me out? Also, I fully intend on taking down his passport number later just in case.) He spent all day at the British Embassy down the street and filing a police report. Apparently he started speaking with someone at the police station and the guy was also from Wales, and his girlfriend studied at the University he goes to, and he just gave him a hundred ringits. Christopher has a REALLY HARD TIME accepting favors and help, but the guy wouldn't take no for an answer. It's so good to go out into the world and realize for all the people that do shit things, there are other people who will look out for someone else no strings attached just because its the right thing to do. 

By the way, the weekend was AWESOME. Penang is ridiculously pretty. I met 5 other single travelers at the Hostel and we just toured Penang and hung out at the hostel at night. I don't have a picture of us all but Chris does so I will post it later. One was a Saudi guy who worked in London, another a latin american guy from Scotland (who acted EXACTLY like Nelson, but less hilarious. Same mannerisms and laughed at the same kind of situations. Yo shout out Nelson!), a guy from Austria named 'Ferret' (I kid you not. Mike from Scotland confessed that he often had trouble not slipping and calling him the wrong animal, 'weasel') who always wore shirts with dragons and had a girlfriend in Japan. he had been traveling for 7 months (!), a danish girl named Benedicte who was very quiet but had these amazing blue eyes and made hilarious facial expressions. The lot of us basically just did what I was planning to do alone, so it was a pretty big win. 

I really can't wait to load pictures, because they're really beautiful. Penang is a really really pretty place. Benedicte thought it was pretty sketchy (apparently she punched a guy that was bothering her the day I met her. She is so tiny! but fiesty!) but I didn't get that vibe at all. The food was also amazing. Penang is known for their food, and I tried a lot of it. I ate stingray! It was amazing, it melted in your mouth like butter. All the octopus and squid was so fresh. APPARENTLY squid and octupus is not supposed to be tough, that just happens when it has been frozen. Don't think I can eat either of these things in North America again unless I am in a fishing town.

I also succeeded in NOT getting food poisoning, and getting home safely, both of which I am extremely proud of. There was kind of a sketchy guy on the bus that seemed a little too interested in me (he asked me out about 4 times, even after I said I had a boyfriend.) He said he was 22 but he acted much younger, very anxious and jumpy, and kept asking me where I lived and if I went to the gym and such. At one point he said, "Hey, I don't have any chloroform (sp?)!" which is just like icing on the creepy cake, so I got off the bus and bolted, and called Joy for directions home. She's such a great friend, she is always looking out for me and making sure I know what I am doing, and she makes me laugh constantly at the same time. 

I also want to announce that I have overcome my fear of squat toilets. It's the only kind of washrooms they have in public places, and for the first few weeks I just held it. Just couldn't deal with it, even though I realized it was really something I had to get over if I wanted to travel a lot. But then I was speaking with Joy, and she said that she couldn't stand using the other one in public because it wasn't sanitary, and I just realized how ridiculously cultural it was. Squat toilets look really primitive and dirty to me (well, I mean, they usually are but thats just because public toilets aren't really very well maintained here) but the bowls (what do you call them?) look unsanitary to her. So, I just did it, and now I am kind of obsessed with using them. hahaha. This is a major accomplishment for me! They also don't provide you with tp so you have to carry around your own. Weird. 

Check back for pictures later ;)

xoxo

Clara