Life without Internet

The Internet was down at my university (yes, for the entire university) for 24 hours. It went down late in the afternoon on Tuesday. It came back Wednesday evening, after I had gone to teach my class. This is not too big a deal, but it was frustrating. I had agreed to give a talk to the undergraduate journalism students here at UiTM this morning (Thursday). I was not sure whether I would have a connection at all. Since the whole talk centers on examples of online journalism, if I do not have a live connection, I have nothing to show. Luckily, the Internet connection was okay during my talk.

Today Halimah and Siti introduced me to a sweet called "dodol." It is coconut milk cooked with sugar until it becomes a gel-like dark brown paste. I am sucking it out of a plastic packet as I write this. It is amazingly yummy. The coconut flavor is very subtle. It's similar to butterscotch or caramel, but less sugary.

This morning Siti gave me something called "asam boi" (preserved plum or prune). This is an incredibly sour, sweet and salty (all at once) snack that made my mouth feel like it was going to turn inside out. And yet, I liked it. My mouth watered like crazy. I told Siti it would be a good food to take with you on a trek in the desert!

Halimah said that when she told the first-semester master's students that I eat all kinds of Malaysian food with her, they were surprised. People here always try to warn me about everything spicy -- but not my friends, who have seen me eat everything. Restaurant servers cannot believe I want teh tarik (sweet milky tea), a favorite local drink. People definitely have very set expectations about what a Westerner will and will not eat.