Visiting Hours Open

So just as soon as I am finally starting to get serious about my work, the fun begins and there is a good chance the research will end up over before it began. No, I did not plan it that way. I really do want to make something of my time here but somehow time is passing me by. Of course, I have had some important distractions the past few months and my priorities have shifted quite a bit but it has been 10 months! That's right 10 months! Can you believe it, I am still telling people it has been 6 months. Half because I don't want to admit to myself how long it has been already (this is especially true when it comes to the language, before when people would ask how long I had lived here and I answered a few months they would respond 'ah, pandai so good with the language' but now I say almost a year and no one seems too impressed, actually they are completely unimpressed) and half because most days I really do lose track of how long its been - just like I am losing track of the point of this post.

So why is it the research is over before it began? Because visiting season has begun and if people are true to their word there is potentially no end in sight. The season officially began with my Uncle Arnie's visit this week. He was in town on business and took Ben and I out to a nice dinner. It was a brief visit but Ben and I have decided that it marks the beginning of what we hope to be a busy friend, family and travel packed few months.
There will actually be a bit of a lull from now until Drew and Erin arrive the second week of December so I do have some time to cram but its hard to cram when you are working with Malaysian time. There is always a minimum two-three week lag with every endeavor and that is if you stay on top of things by sending several e-mails, making phone calls, showing up on people's doorsteps. Also, Malaysians are notorious for saying yes they can or will when they mean no I won't, go away, leave me alone. This is good and bad. It means that if you are a go-getter you can make them mean it, since they did say yes at some point they will have to sit down and talk to you. But if you are like me, it means you have just been rejected without ever hearing the word no. I am learning that anthropology is for pushy people and I am not a pushy person.

Which is all the more reason to be excited about visiting season. It will not only be great fun spending time with friends and family in new and exciting spots, it will give me an honest to goodness excuse to forget about my work for awhile. It seems silly. I am saying in one breath that I can't believe 10 months have flown by and I have got little to show for it and in the other I am saying hurry up people and get here because I want to keep putting off my research. Well, I am in Asia and here in Asia contradiction is the accepted norm. To say I like blue best in one breath and pink is my favorite in the next makes complete sense. Just ask Ben, everyday his therapists and people on the street tell him, "slowly, slowly Ben, be patient it takes time", and then "why are you still using your cane, why don't you walk more, you should try this exercise also", and today even, "you need to run", "but I can't even walk well", "so, you need to run its good for you but remember be patient, rest, don't work too hard"! Remember when in a goat's pen bleat. Well, bleat, bleat I want to work and I desperately want to avoid work.

More accurately, I am just wishing for a way that my work will get done in spite of me. I love talking to people and want to work really bad. I wake up early every day and hit the streets but I hate the rejection and spend half my days walking down the streets just mustering the courage to talk to someone. It sucks. It would be so much easier if someone would approach me, I would do a great job if things worked that way - "hey, whitey what are you doing here? Want to ask me some questions? I got lots of free time". Truthfully, I have found a couple of people that way and they are becoming great friends and reliable resources when I have nothing to do but I can't write a dissertation on two people. Or can I???

Oh well, the fact that visiting season has officially begun is a really exciting thing regardless of my progress. Traveling in SE Asia and seeing more of this part of the world is as important to me as my research (if not more so) and with every new visitor Ben and I get to explore some place new. We have gotten pretty sedentary and settled in our everyday life. As anyone who lives for a long time in some place cool will tell you, its often only when you have visitors that you are motivated to explore your surroundings and are reminded of why you sought this place out in the first place. So you all have an open invitation to come shake us out of our stupor. I am tired of reading about all the cool places just hours a way, I want to see them. I keep asking Ben who do you think the lucky person will be that gets to go to Bali with us. So who's it gonna be? No one's called it yet.