Sunday, June 06, 2004
I think Malaysia's getting to feel more like home (no offense, Mom! I don't really mean, home home--that'll always be Iowa!) because I'm finding fewer and fewer noteworthy things. I think that means I've settled in and things are fairly familiar, so they don't strike me as unusual. I hit a similar point when I was in Egypt and basically stopped journaling. I'll try not to let that happen here!
A lethal mix
I read a newspaper article about a Thai man who died because he ate a lot of durian and was a known alcoholic. I asked around and I guess it's common knowledge not to mix the two. Something about the gaseous durian and fermentation of alcohol in the stomach can cause it to burst? I'm not sure of the exact science of it all, but just another reason to avoid the durian. (And now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if durian is one of those words that is both singular and plural, or if I should have pluralized it as durians...)
When?
Questions that touch on any aspect of the temporal often get the same answer here in Malaysia: last time.
As in, "Do you go there a lot?" "Last time."
Or, "He's rich, isn't he?" "He was last time."
It simply denotes sometime in the past, but is sooooo unspecific! It always makes me laugh. It usually means at least several years and in the second example above, before business dropped.
A lethal mix
I read a newspaper article about a Thai man who died because he ate a lot of durian and was a known alcoholic. I asked around and I guess it's common knowledge not to mix the two. Something about the gaseous durian and fermentation of alcohol in the stomach can cause it to burst? I'm not sure of the exact science of it all, but just another reason to avoid the durian. (And now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if durian is one of those words that is both singular and plural, or if I should have pluralized it as durians...)
When?
Questions that touch on any aspect of the temporal often get the same answer here in Malaysia: last time.
As in, "Do you go there a lot?" "Last time."
Or, "He's rich, isn't he?" "He was last time."
It simply denotes sometime in the past, but is sooooo unspecific! It always makes me laugh. It usually means at least several years and in the second example above, before business dropped.
