"Temporary housing"

Well, well, welllll... since it is Chinese New Year (don't know what that has to do with this) we were told we couldn't move into our dorm/apartment until Wednesday and are living in "temporary housing".  I'm going to try and be as polite as possible now... :D

After our classmate arrived, we were off to our "temporary housing"!  This ride brought a couple slight scares...1) when speeding motorcycles came zooming past in between traffic and mopeds were driving a fourth as fast in the emergency lane, 2) when I would look up and forget for a second that they drive on the opposite side, and 3) when I looked at the speedometer and saw it was on 100 but was calmed by Meredith as she told me it was 100 km, not mph.  HAH. 

2 hours later.... we arrived to the "temporary housing".  At first I noticed all the clothes hanging over the balconies.  I guess this is the most cost efficient method, but it was kinda pretty.  Now being the way I am though, I still imagined the worst possible "temporary housing", that way I couldn't be disappointed.  However,  this is pretty close to what I imagined.  Here's a list of some things we don't have: air conditioning, shower curtain, trash can, refrigerator, stove, microwave, hot water, or toilet paper.  Things we do have: water hose by the toilet, cobwebs, newspapered shut windows, spiders, dust piles, dirty sheets, 1-inch mattress, ONE male American neighbor, and I'll stop there.  Normally, I would sacrifice myself and not take a cold shower, butttt I've been in an airplane for 25 hours and I desperately need one.  So I took a deep breath and suffered, while watching a spider crawl across the wall in front of me.  I know what I'll be dreaming about! 

With all that said, it could be worse.  I am very thankful for 6 friendly roommates, the roof above our head, running water, outlets, wifi, my $2 dinner across the street (talked about later), and the stray dogs that made my day when I saw them.  One of them will soon be my 7th roommate.  KIDDING Courtney. ;) 

As we got used to our surroundings, we went exploring.  This was realllly fun and relaxing to me as the scenery was so green and beautiful.  We saw some cows, some really cool old property, gorgeous flowers, the cutest calves, more dogs, and some pet bunnies. One of the bunnies was as big as the cage he was in.  Kinda broke my heart a little.  

Then we went across the street to get some dinner.  EVERYONE, be extremely proud of me for this next part... I had absolutely no clue what was on the menu, considering I don't know Malay, and literally just randomly picked an item.  It was called "Belacan".  I chose this one because "bella" means beautiful in Spanish.  At the time I told everyone, "I'm choosing this one because 'bella' means beautiful and Latin so it must be good!"  However, I'm literally laughing out loud now because I just remembered bella means war, not beautiful.  Sorry Dr. Reed! ;)  The food was not like war though, nor was it beautiful, but it was tasty enough for me to finish every bite.  I still can't believe I ate it without knowing what it was, but after looking it up online, it is shrimp paste?!  Whatever that means, I don't know....and I don't know if it's a good thing that I ate it or not.  Oh well, I'm still alive!