Rambutan and and my five-plus things!

 Today I had the extreme pleasure of eating a seasonal fruit known locally as rambutan while the taxonomic name is Nephelium lappaceum. If you look up "rambutan," you can find a multitude of different, beautiful, pictures; however, I don't want to plagiarize anything. So I snapped a couple pictures with my iPod, something I probably would have done anyway. The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia, specificallly Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Sri Lanka. The unique fruit is a close relative of the Longan berry, Lychee (both of which I have tried) and the Mamoncillo. The type shown here is a bit more a wild type within the species as most sold are pure red when they are ripe. To eat this tropical delicacy, you break the outer layer of skin, exposing the egg shaped center. You then slip the rubbery inside out and eat it. It's rubbery kind of like a grape if you can imagine that except quite a bit more rubbery.

Giant Hypermarket

Today was amazing, I talked on Skype (as I mentioned earlier) until around 2pm my time. Then Auntie Ipah drove me over to Giant where I looked around at stuff for about at hour, finally buying like 5 dragonfruits for a little over MYR 7, or around $2.50. I felt I got a great deal, especially considering the size of these things. As I left I ended up chatting with a charming young lady named Rose Mary. We chatted a bit and I found she worked out of KL and was only here until Sunday. We finally exchanged names and I left.





Upon leaving Giant I headed over to Sunshine Square, another of my favorite stores. I found a picture online of Sunshine, I'll try to take a picture of the building next time I go, but for now...  there's the picture! I got really cute presents for Marti, and some interesting Asian shampoo containing ginger! After I left Sunshine I began walking home and ran into Rose Mary once again, this time in from of the bank that is on the right side of the building.


After I finished walking home, I saw Auntie and some of the other ladies who live in the apartment were planting stuff in pots. I suddenly remember I was late because I was actually supposed to be helping! I rushed my stuff upstairs and went out to help. I honestly wasn't able to help all that much as they were pretty much done. My presence wasn't completely wasted though as I was able to help move some plants into pots. The four of us had almost everything done, (again, I didn't do much at all) when two of the ladies rushed upstairs to do something. I learned that after they returned we were supposed to plant trees in the back of the apartment building. I was excited to help, although incredibly tired after the day and lugging the many pounds of dragon fruit around for like four hours. I stayed out there as long as I could, waiting for them to get back, wanting to prove myself. Well, lets just say I proved something, but it wasn't I could be of service. I began to feel invisible insects crawling all over me (I seriously have no idea if they were there or not, but I keep getting bit everywhere so they have to be coming from somewhere.) I rushed inside and quickly began working on making certain I didn't have any bugs on me. I think I actually did find a couple. No big deal, but I stayed inside for the rest of the night anyway!

Last but not least, I texted my bff Sarah :) Sarah is my best friend and has been pretty much since we met. We used to hang out all the time, especially last summer, when we really got to know each other. We were both kind of volunteering to promote Kim's Taekwondo at the United Artists movie theater in Amarillo. Once Sarah mentioned this ice cream place I had never been to before named Kaleidoscoops. She told me about this one flavor, it was difficult to describe but she did a spectacular job. After my first time there, we would randomly go to Kaleidoscoops and order the secret flavor pretty much every single time, it was awesome! We also had a fantastic time going to sonic and just plain hanging out! We would sometimes even hang out before and after Taekwondo! One of the most amazingly awesome things about Sarah (and yes, there are many) is that both of our birthday's are on the same day! Until one experiences what it's like to have your best friend have the same birthday as you, one cannot appreciate it! It's simply amazing :) We're actually texting right now, although she is at work... xD

Well, it is bedtime and I'm exhausted! Goodnight y'all! 

This is Hannah the epic photographer 

Somedays I have absolutely nothing to do during the day, and simply find things to occupy my time. Today is definitely not one of those days, I have plenty of stuff on my "to do" list. Hopefully I'll accomplish some of it, although I'm not doing so great a job of achieving much right now, as I'm skyping Hannah and her brother Peter and writing on my notorious blog (...Okay, you can stop laughing now). Here are pictures of Peter and Hannah!

This is Peter the "Super Awesome"!!! :)

Okay, okay, so Hannah doesn't always have her camera with her, although she does quite a bit (awesome right?) and Peter usually has a shirt on; however, I like both pictures of them. Hannah likes that picture of her, Peter... wasn't asked for approval when I put his picture up... but it's a super awesome picture! (Please pardon the pun.) 

Doing these amazingly wonderful things, how can I possibly stop and do what I must?! Self-control you say? Or, I could continue talking to them and do everything later? Sounds fantastic! Everyone is going to go to bed soon anyway, so I'll have all afternoon to complete everything.  I will probably write more later! 

Post for day 4

Greetings! So, veryday I have generally tried to do interesting or at least semi-interesting things so I'll have something interesting to post; however, today was definitely an exception. While I wanted to have done interesting things today, I ended up passing out about halfway through the day. I didn't wake up until a couple of hours ago and by that time there wasn't too much I could do. So here I am, tasked with writing five awesome things I did, and not too many awesome things I can think of on my list. We'll just have to get back to this later.

Moving on! The thing that is most on my mind, is the fact my mom and cousin get here in a little over two weeks! I am so excited for their arrival! I haven't seen my mom in over five months and my cousin in a bit longer than that. As a result I feel incredibly mom-deprived. When they get here the three of us will head off on a two week expedition to try and see everything there is to see in Angkor Wat, Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur, and Pulau Penang. I am certain the trip will be absolutely amazing and will definitely post pictures! I'm sure I'll have plenty of epically amazing things to write about then!

I suppose I must move back to my five things I've done today....here goes nothing!

1. Talked to a friend of mine over facebook (Yes, it was awesome)
2. Looked up what plane tickets to Singapore would cost
3. Worked more on packing
4. Fell asleep and yes, I dreamed a dream. An awesome dream I'm glad I had!
5. Once I woke up I went into the rest of the apartment and realized everyone except Wan had left!

Great day eh? Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting for y'all! 

Dinner with Melody! (with pictures!)

Last night, after much attempt and no ending results, I promised y'all I would upload pictures from my night with Melody and her parents later, most likely today. Well, today is today and here are the pictures! We ate at Woolloomooloo, a restaurant with delicious Australian cuisine.

Here I am right after we finished the movie

Right after that we left to eat dinner. Behold! The tasty cauliflower  soup!

Here is Melody's drink, the "Colly Pop" if I remember correctly...

This is Melody's dad's ...tea maybe? In any case it was pretty with a nice slice of lemon floating in the water!

Here is my drink, it consisting of red dragonfuit and mango... Mmmm it was amazingly delicious! 

Here is a close up of my drink...

...and here is a picture that actually captures the color right!

Last but certainly not least, we have Melody's mom's cappuccino! 

      Now onto the main course...

 And lastly, two pictures of our free dessert! It tasted like a pear crumble without the crumble!

That was my night with Melody! 

I'm late! (Post for day #3)

Hey y'all! I know I'm a bit late... but I have a good excuse! I got home a bit before eleven-pm, then I proceeded to talk to my mom for a bit. I also put this off for a bit, but now I'm here! Hmmm now I must think, what are the five awesome things I did today...

1. I set out to make amazingly delicious oatmeal, but instead burned the treat horribly...although I'm not sure how. (Ok, so that wasn't awesome, but it sure was interesting!)
2. Some of the things I've been wondering about were figured out when talked to someone over Skype this morning.
3. I began my morning full of life, switched and became incredibly introverted, then after I
4.  I changed strategies and thus got more stuff packed up for when I leave
5. I became more social again :)
6. I hung out with Melody and her parents and
7. Watched a movie about what "good guys" do (i.e. they're really boring until they get thrown in jail for something they didn't do, decide to rob a bank, and then discover they like acting and they get the girl. How's that for teaching good things to our young people?!)

As for number eight... I have quite a bit to tell, but I was going to use some of the pictures I took earlier to help tell it and the uploader won't work. I've tried for quite a bit so I'll just try again tomorrow. Night all! 

Post with photos!!!

Greetings and salutations one and all! Today, is a great day. For although it's incredibly cloudy and rainy, the sun is shining and there is a slight breeze in the air. Closing my eyes, I breathe in; relishing the Malaysian air. Upon opening my eyes, I look around the room to I see my half-eaten bowl of oatmeal, a container of Texas honey, and the last of the fabled lamington cake. There are naturally many more things around the room, however, none caught my eye like these three items. Relaxing, I bring my gaze back to my computer, looking at the pictures Hannah just sent me. I have promised to put them on my blog, (hardly an unpleasant task considering the pictures look marvelous and she is modeling the hat and toenail polish I sent her in the "Etude House" bag, inside the box I sent home. My mind wonders through some of the many ways I could introduce the photographs, I try to sift through all the ways so I might find the perfect one. Sadly, none of my ideas sound good enough, thus, I have three pictures, but no "standing" ideas.

"Eureka!" my mind is overcome with an idea. I place the picture on the page and as soon as it loads, cry"beautiful!" I feel jubilation, like the room has been doused in wonderful light. Then, I suddenly realize how silly I had been, trying to think of the perfect way to put the lovely pictures on my blog, rather than simply doing it!

This is Hannah wearing the hat I sent, as cute as a bug in a rug (to borrow the colloquialism) in her awesome outfit.

                                    

Here is another über cute picture of Hannah! This time, you can see the "ETUDE HOUSE" bag in the picture, adding more pretty color.

Last, but certainly NOT least, here are Hannah's seemingly perfect painted toes, with the "ETUDE HOUSE" bag, once again! 

Thus ends the tale of my "Post with photos" Thanks to Hannah for the gorgeous model, photography, and for all of the amazing ideas she has helped create. :)

NOTE: If you are interested in Hannah's photography, you can view her some of her work (including a picture of me!) on her website: http://hannahlou.com/ 

Day 2

Hey y'all! 

Well, today is the second day of my thirty-one day resolution to write at least five awesome things I did each day. Before I begin, however, I feel I should mention I have been thinking about writing this blog all day. I've been trying to think of the most epic things I can possibly do, just so I can write about them and how much I enjoyed doing them. At the end of the day, I didn't do anything I found particularly amazing or incredible, but I did end up doing some things I am thrilled to have accomplished (and a couple I could have live without). Just for the heck of it, I doubled the number of things I did, in honor of it being the second day for this blog. Now, without further ado: 

The _____ awesome things I did today, Tuesday, June 21

1. Talked to a couple friends

2. Had quite a few moments filled with doubt (I'm actually still experiencing said doubt)

3. Asked one of my best friend's for advice

4. Went to Queensbay Mall 

5. Bought awesome groceries including actual butter and watermelon

6. Bought lamingtons for the very first time!

7. Bought a cord for my iPod that allows me to once again charge the lovely battery 

8. Bought awesome earbuds for under $6.50 (MYR 19)

9. Talked to my mom for the first time since last week when the afore-mentioned cord randomly stopped working.

10. Worked on getting some photo shoots set up with my awesome photographer friend

Finally, just because I love y'all, I've added two extras: 

11. I learned the correct spelling for ado. 

12. I ate durian and realized I am beginning to like it!

Bonus: This correction in my brain was no small feat. I thought the spelling "adieu" looked correct, although the meaning didn't make sense. I racked my brain trying to get the other to look right, but finally, after consulting a friend of mine, a thesaurus, Shakespeare's work, and a blog, I was convinced! 

Since it is almost midnight, I will now bid y'all adieu ;) Goodnight all!