Crazy Ranting Stacy

So once again Sven's list says 'blog' and since I have been telling him for the past week that I have some ideas on what to write about, it actually says 'Stacy blog' on his list, which means to keep him from stressing any longer, I need to post something, anything. The problem is I am feeling pretty uncreative. I do indeed have a few ideas brewing in my head but want to wait until I feel a little more inspired. I feel like right now I would not do them justice. The only thing that feels right at this moment is a little bit of a rant. Maybe it is the heat, the boredom (we have had no class for the past week and have spent a lot of time in the house doing nothing), or the fact that I am writing this because I am on Ben's 'list' and I have been on Ben's 'list'* a lot lately - i.e. mail the stuff to your family or in won't get there in time, take care of the receipts for reimbursement you are running out of time, take a shower you are starting to smell, you get my drift -so whatever the reason, I think tonight I am going to take a page about of Sven's book and just let it flow.

First, there are the ants! They are not just driving Sven up the wall. They are making me crazy as well. Mostly because I do not know why they keep coming in here and how to get rid of them. They do not appear to be finding any food - they aren't in our cabinets, fridge, etc. They seem to just prefer using our house as a thruway to the backyard. And no matter how many times I sweep them up, spray them with bleach (which feels a little cruel), how many cockroach traps I put in their path or how much duck tape I strategically lay down (yes, Clo duck tape - they seem to be too smart for that trap), they keep coming. The easy solution of course is to get some ant poison like the one my sister suggested. Well that would be the easy solution if you were in the US anyway, not here though. For some reason I can not find an ant specific spray, trap, or poison anywhere. Seriously, I have checked every supermarket I have set foot in during the past 3 months and found nothing but roach traps and endless solutions for mosquito invasions. Actually I did see ant poison once. It was at the pasar malam about a month ago. My teacher pointed it out to me but at the time, the ant problem had subsided and I saw no need to buy a homemade poison from some strange witch doctor guy with his table full of potions and oils. I mean, didn't it just make more sense to buy it in a store when I needed it- ha, ha. What is really funny though is that last night I went to the pasar malam specifically in search of the ant poision man and he was nowhere to be found. Even funnier, my neighbor told me, in typical Malay fashion (that is with absolute authority despite not having the faintest idea what he was talking about) that of course I was not going to find the ant poison guy on a Tuesday, he is only there on Thursdays. Argh!!!!

I should not really rant about this next bit because in truth we have a really good internet connection now that is reliable, fast enough for Skype and downloading, and essentially free. So this is a knowing admission of what a whiny, spoiled and very bored, TV-dependent American I can be. As I mentioned our crappy TV went kaput a few weeks ago and we were left without even the 7 basic channels on Malay TV. And to my surprise it really sucks. I had no idea how much we relied on the TV. It is not like we watched it a lot either, maybe a couple times of week, when the few english language shows we could stand were on (i.e. Ugly Betty and CSI not Desparate Housewives, American Idol, Kyle XY) but it was an option. We could turn it on when we were bored, flip through the 7 channels, and determine after a few minutes, or an hour if one of us got drawn into to some Malay drama, that there was nothing to watch and we were better off reading a book. Now we've got nothing and it is surprising how much we feel it. The solution has been to download as much TV off the internet as possible. Which as with the ant poison is not as easy as it sounds to those of you in the US.

I began with Heroes, which I buy on Itunes every Tuesday. It takes on average about 7 hours for the show to download but that does not include the additional 24 hours of timing out or the connection being too slow to be worthwhile. Lately, I think we having been receiving an incomplete poorer copy of the show because Itunes does not have the patience to continue dealing with our slow connection. Anyway, we usually get to watch it on Thursday, maybe Wednesday if we are lucky, which is awesome but imagine if this is how you had to score all of your TV. Start a download and be told that 72 hours from now it might be ready to view. It is excrutiating, you sit and wait, keep checking the download speed, which for the computer literate (I am not one of you) is at its best 212kb/sec and at its worse 2kb/sec, as it fluctuates and plays constantly with your hopes and wishes. So sad. I have actually done all kinds of not so smart things with the computer, many of which I don't even understand, to increase the download speed. So desperate. For Malays, or at least, my teachers, this pace is nothing, it is the norm, and they are just siked that they can get all these TV programs and movies for free, without censorship, whenever they want. For me, it is great sure but I am into instant gratification and the wait is insufferable. Funny how even when you know you are being spoiled and should just appreciate how really lucky you are to have the internet, TV, movies, books, etc. at all, watching your download rate slow from 40kb/sec to 2kb/sec inexplicably and calculate that it will be complete in 17 days, makes you want to cry over the injustice!

All right the last thing I want to relate to you is apparently a problem for women everywhere around the world and that is learing, hooting and hollering, kissy noise-making men and boys who feel it is there right to torment women whereve they are found. Of course, like I said, this is something women experience everywhere in Montreal, in the US and here in Malaysia but no matter where, it is something I just cannot stand. It is so disrespectful and makes me so uncomfortable that sometimes I just want to yell at all men like I am some crazy old lady. Usually though I just quietly smile and nod or ignore the culprit. Especially, here in Malaysia, where most are little 17-20 year olds riding their motorbikes by and enjoying the thrill of saying hello to the white girl. But yesterday I went a little farther.

I ride my bike everywhere around here and run regularly so I am an anomaly on the streets of Bangi, which naturally captures alot of attention. In fact, I would say that I may be the only women seen riding my bike or running in this town so it is no wonder I get a lot of stares but I hate it. I just hate feeling all eyes on me, especially when I am running, with my sweaty clothes and red, actually purple face. So yesterday, I rode my bike and ran early in the day and endured the usual amount of attention but in the afternoon, I was riding my bike to school and a couple of kids maybe 17-18 came by on their motor scooter and started saying hello, making kissing noises, and blowing kisses. At first, I just smiled and nodded, and kept riding but then they came back for another drive by, so I ignored them, but on the third drive by, I couldn't take it anymore and flipped those little brats off. It was a strong straight arm middle finger that nearly made the kids fall off their scooter. Now once again in the US such behavior is not so strange but here for a woman to flick a man off, to essentially say FU, well these kids did not know what hit them, they threw out some english curse words that they clearly did not understand and drove off. It was so inappropriate of me but it felt so good!

So there you have it. Malaysia is turning me into a ranting, crazy lady, who takes great satisfaction in flipping off stupid teenagers. Or is that just the result of living with Sven for so long. Probably, a little of both. Take care all and I promise to write a more pleasant post next time. StB

*I just wanted to add this brief footnote to point out that Ben's lists are often helpful. I am indeed a very forgetful person and do appreciate that he keeps track of things that I might lose sight of. I only kid him about it because it is a bit of an obsession of his that he can't seem to control, if it is written down it must be checked off ASAP. Actually, it is a total obsession because he knows that like a stubborn child, if I am told to do something (especially more than once) I am likely not to do it at all, but he can't help himself. Nor can I and so the cycle continues.