weekend Events

May 5, 2008

Weekend Highlights. A few interesting things happened this weekend that are worth noting.

1) I turned 32. Both my Dad and Casey have a strange aversion to odd numbered years so they will be happy that 31 is out , and even numbered 32 is in.
2) Casey and I met a guy who lives in our apartment building the other day. We met him on our walk home and spent a total of 5 minutes with him. I have no idea what his name is and I’m sure he has no idea what my name is. Apparently though a 5 minute walk is enough of a relationship to justify the following. At about 11:45 the other night there was a knock on our door. I opened it to find, whatever his name is, standing there. He proceeded to tell me in very broken English that his roommate was getting married and he needed a place to stay. For some inexplicable reason he thought my extra bedroom would be the perfect place. I told him NO, my extra bedroom was not for rent and he absolutely could not move in. He proceeded to tell me it was ok, he just needs to stay for 2 weeks, and can he please come inside and look at the room. This guy is either a total moron or this was the worst attempt ever at casing a place for a robbery. I blocked the doorway, not even allowing him a peek inside the apartment, and told him NO several times until he left. Weird. The thing is, he seemed so naïve and awkward that I don’t really believe this was an attempt to case my apartment. I think this dude actually thought it would be appropriate to ask a total stranger if he could move in with them. If this had happened in the US I would have been considerably less pleasant but because it happened in a place where I always feel culturally awkward myself I closed the door feeling totally confused and feeling bad for the moron with no place to live.

) 3) The final noteworthy weekend event happened in Singapore. Casey and I took a bus to Singapore for the weekend and had an adventure at the border. This is how it should go down. The bus from KL stops at the Malaysian border. You exit the bus, go to the Malaysian custom’s office and the officials stamp your passport and you leave the country. Outside the building you get back on the bus which then crosses a bridge into Singapore. Here you get back off the bus, go to the Singapore custom’s office and the officials stamp your passport and you enter the country. Outside this building you get back on the bus which then takes you to the Singapore city center. This is what happened instead:

We got off the bus at the Malaysian border. We went into the custom’s office, got our passports stamped and officially exited the country. When we got outside the office we noticed the bus – with our luggage on it – had left without us. After a minor meltdown on my part, we caught other transport across the bridge. I am now freaking out and am on the phone to the bus company – good thing I have a cell phone and the bus receipt with the phone number on it. On the Singapore side we catch up to our bus. Now I was pissed, but I was prepared to stay calm, get my luggage, and catch a taxi the rest of the way. I breathed deeply, counted to 10 and was ready to be chill. This was all good and fine until the bus driver suggested that it was MY fault that he left without me. This ridiculous suggestion caused a complete meltdown. I still have some lingering physical limitations and although I have recovered a lot in the past 10 months I am still far from fighting shape. Despite this reality, the fact that I was at an international border crossing, and it was me, the idiot bus driver, and two armed customs officials I freaked. I went after the bus driver. The customs officials separated us and kept telling me “later, later”. I was pleased that he seemed to understand my anger. He simply wanted me to clear customs first and then fight the bus driver somewhere else where he wouldn’t have to deal with it. Good thing too – like I said, I am still far from fighting shape. Anyway, I cleared customs and decided to take a cab. It's always an adventure here in Malaysia.