How sweet it is

Sugar. There is so much sugar in everything here. Every beverage automatically comes with about a tablespoon of sugar in it. One of my first words of Bahasa was “tawar,” which means “plain.” If you order a coffee or tea, it’s assumed that you want a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar in it unless you specify otherwise. I picked up some “plain” yogurt drink the other day expecting a tangy mouthful of the plain kefir I know and love, and was instead assaulted but a bitch slap of sweet. Since I arrived here I’ve been on the prowl for natural peanut butter – or anything without hydrogenated vegetable oils in it – and finally found one without, but guess what it does have? A ton of sugar. It tastes like the insides of Reese’s pieces. All peanut butter needs to be is smashed up peanuts! Peanuts abound here, but it’s nigh impossible to find good peanut butter. I think I may invest in a mortar and pestle and make my own.


School is going well, though sitting through observations was a bit tedious until I remembered my high school and college training. I’m a terrible “sit there and listen” learner, terrible. The first two days of observation were illuminating and no doubt helpful, but I was exhausted by the end of the day from trying to focus and concentrate on everything that was happening. Then I recalled my days of higher education and my strategies for coping with lectures. Luckily EF had given me a little notebook to take notes in, and this became my savior yesterday as I was able to observe classes and “take notes,” which consisted of a note to my nephew, a note of a shopping list, a note of blog topics, and finally a note tallying how many words of Bahasa I could remember. 64 words! Not too shabby. I was able to get the gist of what the class was doing without exhausting myself by trying to pay attention, and was thereby able to stay up past 9:30 last night! I still woke up around 6:30, but that seems to be my thing in warm, bright countries. We’re close to the equator, so there’s really not much of a change in daylight throughout the year. It’s pretty much equal amounts of day and night, rising and setting right about at the 5:30 mark. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially because it “feels” like summer, so when the sun sets, my body has been assuming it must be 8 or 9 at night, so two hours later I start getting the biological signals to call it a day. Unfortunately that means it’s only around 7:30/8:00 here. Ah well, it’ll kick in eventually.

Walking home last night, my roommate and I were stopped by a group of four young women on motorbikes (I love this as the start to a story). Evidentially, one of the local universities often gives out an assignment to “go out and interview a foreigner.” My roommate said it happens a lot. These poor girls had been riding around for 6 hours looking for foreigners to interview! Of course me, I'm always happy to oblige. What? Talk about myself? Why certainly!

I can scarcely believe that I’ve only been gone a week. Time is an odd, odd thing.

Smooches you lucky readers with easy access to natural peanut butter and whole grain cereals!