It's a colorful time

The other day Ashley put some quinoa on to cook as we started our dinner prep. Minutes later our little pot and the whole 2-burner gas stove in our dorm kitchen was up in flames. After watching Ashley dump water on a fire fed by the loose hose connected to the gas tank I remembered we had a fire extinguisher (thank you mandatory 2AM fire drill and safety session!!). I lugged the thing across a courtyard and put out the fire. Yes! But the salty, white dust thickened the air and we still didn't know how to turn off the gas, and the smell, we found out later, had started to reach the higher floors of our block. After fumbling around we ran for help and Ashley found two courageous lelakis (men) to enter the danger zone for us. Later when I was in my room thinking, "I can't believe that just happened," I wanted to share some of my more colorful experiences living in Malaysia that probably wouldn't have happened to me living in the U.S.

Men's Underwear EVERYWHERE
In my house, girls outnumbered guys 6 to 1. Sure, take a second to pity my dad and thank God for his patience. Last July I was part of a big group of college students who traveled through Borneo together and about halfway through our trip we got to a place where we were able to do our laundry. I have never seen so much men's underwear ever. I mean even at WalMart I can speed through that section with tunnel vision but these were on lines going every which way throughout our guesthouse. Not only that but one night I went into the only open bathroom to brush my teeth, even though one of my guy friends was hand-washing some stuff in a bucket right next to the sink. I ended up helping to instruct how to effectively wash his underwear by hand. Oh my life is so interesting.

Purging Our Linens
I've written about this before but I'll bring it up again briefly. Last winter my friends and I traveled to Georgetown, Pengang - a great place rich in culture and history. Everything about the trip was great but when we got back home, Ashley and I discovered we had bed bugs. We had the apartment fumigated and boiled all of our clothes. I had to say goodbye to a couple of shirts and a flashlight in this process - sad time. Long term consequence - boiling and switching my sheets every 3-5 days through the month of JUNE. All I can say is that I'm glad to have that behind us.

The Cockroach Resurrection
This was the first to happen. The first time we found a cockroach in our bathroom Ash killed it - she REALLY smashed it, I picked it up and tossed it in our trash can. It was gross but we did it and went about our day. The following night as Ashley was getting ready for bed she suddenly came out to the living room where I was and quickly whispered, "Alejandra! The cockroach resurrected!" I couldn't believe it! Well killing it this time was a bigger job because now it was a super-roach in our minds. We used spray, yelled, woke up a housemate, Ashley almost "got sick" during the process. We learned that day to take out the trash after one of these episodes.