Sunday, January 18, 2004
Sorry to have to tell you this again...
A plotline that just may have occurred too many times
So I went this Central Market tonight. It used to be a wet market (where they used to sell fresh meat, fish and veggies), but is now a rather-mall-like market with touristy stuff (think Khan El Khalili in Egypt). They have cultural shows on Saturday evenings, so I went to check this one out. There was a "Balle-Balle" band, complete with rainbow-stripped, cone-shaped hats and men in skirts and wooden clogs that looked like they belonged on middle-aged women instead. I have no idea what "balle-balle" means or where this tradition came from. At the beginning I couldn't see well, but was reminded of the polka--turns out there was an accordion in the band...
I had seen some dancing there two weeks ago, but what I hadn't noticed was that the restaurant RIGHT THERE was....an Egyptian restaurant! I did somersaults. The owner/waiter guy wasn't very friendly though--to be honest, I'd forgotten non-friendly Egyptians existed!
The story doesn't stop there though.
On the train home, I saw a man I believe is Muslim (though not Malaysia) sitting who was kind of watching me. I don't know what made me think he was Muslim, but just a feeling/impression I got (he was just wearing khakis and a buttondown--no clue there. But he had a beard and looked like he could have been Arab.) I noticed a cute guy down the train with two of his friends. He smiled at me and I smiled back, but then shyly looked away. I noticed the man sitting notice this, and I felt somehow that I shouldn't do the cross-train flirting thing with an audience who might think it inappropriate. I couldn't help not looking though, and saw the guy smile again. Then he was walking towards me. The seated man was definitely watching, but I decided I didn't care.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Where are you from?"
"Where are you from?" I shot back.
"Where are you from?"
I caved: "America. You?" (As a sidenote, some people get annoyed when Americans claim to be from America, disregarding the rest of the continent...I've found that this is how most of the people in the Middle East and Malaysia call it, so I say what they're used to.)
"EGYPT!" (okay, he didn't say it like that or with an exclamation, but, come on, it deserves it. How does this happen to me?!?!)
Turns out he and his friends are on the Egyptian National Badmintion Team and are here to train with the Malaysians (the world champions) for a few months. We went and hung out for awhile, speaking Arabic and having the kind of amusing, funny interactions that I love to have and that are so common with Egyptians. They'll be traveling for some tournaments, but be here quite a bit, so that means I'll have language partners! And I hope to go see them play at the Malaysian Open in July!
The weird thing is, I was supposed to have been meeting up with friends tonight, but decided not to because it was getting late (and in the morning I'm going to the jungle to meet with some refugees and write a story for a human rights report about them! more on that later!). AND for some reason when I was on the train platform, I let one train go without getting on, waiting for a second to come a few minutes later. If either thing had been different--I wouldn't have met them!
Happy New Year, Again!
Next Thursday (the 22nd) is the first day of the Chinese New Year, so people here have holiday Thursday and Friday. I think I will go to Penang, an island five hours from here, with a Chinese friend who works at the gym and his cousin. Penang is very Chinese, so it'll be a good place to go to see the action. We'll stop at his grandmother's house on the way and stay the night, so I'll also get the family/insider's look to the holiday! For some reason I don't yet understand, people give each other oranges for the New Year--I've already gotten two, which is good because I really need to eat more fruits! There will be open houses again, as for every holiday, where people invite their family and friends to their homes.
And I'm looking forward to going to Bangkok for Thai New Year (celebrated April 13-15, my birthday!) when they dump water on each other to wash away the year's sins--it turns into a great big waterfight!
A plotline that just may have occurred too many times
So I went this Central Market tonight. It used to be a wet market (where they used to sell fresh meat, fish and veggies), but is now a rather-mall-like market with touristy stuff (think Khan El Khalili in Egypt). They have cultural shows on Saturday evenings, so I went to check this one out. There was a "Balle-Balle" band, complete with rainbow-stripped, cone-shaped hats and men in skirts and wooden clogs that looked like they belonged on middle-aged women instead. I have no idea what "balle-balle" means or where this tradition came from. At the beginning I couldn't see well, but was reminded of the polka--turns out there was an accordion in the band...
I had seen some dancing there two weeks ago, but what I hadn't noticed was that the restaurant RIGHT THERE was....an Egyptian restaurant! I did somersaults. The owner/waiter guy wasn't very friendly though--to be honest, I'd forgotten non-friendly Egyptians existed!
The story doesn't stop there though.
On the train home, I saw a man I believe is Muslim (though not Malaysia) sitting who was kind of watching me. I don't know what made me think he was Muslim, but just a feeling/impression I got (he was just wearing khakis and a buttondown--no clue there. But he had a beard and looked like he could have been Arab.) I noticed a cute guy down the train with two of his friends. He smiled at me and I smiled back, but then shyly looked away. I noticed the man sitting notice this, and I felt somehow that I shouldn't do the cross-train flirting thing with an audience who might think it inappropriate. I couldn't help not looking though, and saw the guy smile again. Then he was walking towards me. The seated man was definitely watching, but I decided I didn't care.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Where are you from?"
"Where are you from?" I shot back.
"Where are you from?"
I caved: "America. You?" (As a sidenote, some people get annoyed when Americans claim to be from America, disregarding the rest of the continent...I've found that this is how most of the people in the Middle East and Malaysia call it, so I say what they're used to.)
"EGYPT!" (okay, he didn't say it like that or with an exclamation, but, come on, it deserves it. How does this happen to me?!?!)
Turns out he and his friends are on the Egyptian National Badmintion Team and are here to train with the Malaysians (the world champions) for a few months. We went and hung out for awhile, speaking Arabic and having the kind of amusing, funny interactions that I love to have and that are so common with Egyptians. They'll be traveling for some tournaments, but be here quite a bit, so that means I'll have language partners! And I hope to go see them play at the Malaysian Open in July!
The weird thing is, I was supposed to have been meeting up with friends tonight, but decided not to because it was getting late (and in the morning I'm going to the jungle to meet with some refugees and write a story for a human rights report about them! more on that later!). AND for some reason when I was on the train platform, I let one train go without getting on, waiting for a second to come a few minutes later. If either thing had been different--I wouldn't have met them!
Happy New Year, Again!
Next Thursday (the 22nd) is the first day of the Chinese New Year, so people here have holiday Thursday and Friday. I think I will go to Penang, an island five hours from here, with a Chinese friend who works at the gym and his cousin. Penang is very Chinese, so it'll be a good place to go to see the action. We'll stop at his grandmother's house on the way and stay the night, so I'll also get the family/insider's look to the holiday! For some reason I don't yet understand, people give each other oranges for the New Year--I've already gotten two, which is good because I really need to eat more fruits! There will be open houses again, as for every holiday, where people invite their family and friends to their homes.
And I'm looking forward to going to Bangkok for Thai New Year (celebrated April 13-15, my birthday!) when they dump water on each other to wash away the year's sins--it turns into a great big waterfight!
