Buckeyes

Go Buckeyes,

The scarlet in the new blog template is not quite the scarlet of the scarlet and grey, but what can you do, we live in an imperfect world.

Malaysia is a hot, tropical country. It has never snowed here - Ever! In fact it has never even been remotely cool here. There have certainly never been reindeer, snowflakes, or sleigh rides. The idea of a heavily bearded man in a bulky, warm, fur lined coat wearing a hat is ridiculous. Malaysia is also a Muslim country. Islam, Hinduism, and Buddism are the three main religions. For all these reasons I did not expect to see much Christmas paraphenalia or hear much Christmas music. To my surprise, however, there is Christmas stuff everywhere. There is something odd about listening to jingle bells and staring at a fake snowman standing next to a fully suited santa claus while I constantly wipe sweat from my brow. All these wintery scenes have made me miss the seasons at home. I missed the Fall and now I am missing winter. I might be so bold as to say I even miss the Montreal winters. Today the spirit of the season grabbed me and I did some decorating. I will not be here for Christmas Day but I figured I shouls still decorate a little bit. I bought a 24" tree, strung some lights around the apartment, and bought a snowglobe. I don't care what anyone says, snowglobes are awesome!

I would love to share some pictures of the mini tree and lights but sadly my computer is broken and I am dependent on internet cafes and my current roommates. A few days ago the computer just broke. Aparently the harddrive and RAM are corrupted,shot, and need replaced. We are having the computer fixed and should have it back next week. Casey, fortunately, has all of her academic stuff backed up. I, unfortunately, do not have any of my stuff backed up. This includes all of my music and all of our pictures. The computer guy said that maybe he could salvage our files. We shall see.

Yesterday I went out in public without my cane. The past two weeks I have been practicing walking without it. I never use the cane in the apartment and Casey and I take walks every night without it. I have never, however, gone out in public without it. I still feel unstable and I still walk a bit like frankenstein but I need to ween myself off the cane. I use it in public places because it keeps people at bay. When they see the cane they give you some extra space and hold the elevator door. Without the cane though I am just another dude worth cutting off, bumping into, and pushing past. Keep in mind that this is Asia. There is no concept of a line here. People do not wait their turn and personal space doesn't exist. Bumping into people and pushing them out of the way is the norm. So how did it go? It sucked. I was crazy nervous and very wobbly. No falls though so Ben-1, crazy pushy Malaysians-0. Tomorrow I go for round 2.