This Is Why I Came Home!

Everyone asked in the days when I was leaving Malaysia what I would do when I got home. Here's where I answer the question...


Today I dug a small ditch. This ditch was six inches deep, across a driveway. It was for a line of electical wire going from the barn (background) to the implement shed so that we could put up an outlet to plug floodlights into. This will be important for the auction sale because people may need to see the tractors and implements (stuff that tractors pull) during the auction sale. It gets dark here at 4:30 in the afternoon so people seeing what they are buying is important.

This task took me an hour and a half with a pickaxe and a shovel. It sounds tedious but I am the youngest person on the farm right now, the second youngest is 59 -- it would have taken anyone else about twice as long. Therefore you can imagine why having an extra person here is important!

Next is a picture of me standing on a tree stump. This is a walnut tree in the front yardthat my dad and uncle recently cut down. The little black dot in front of my left foot is the tree's centre.


This doesn't really seem interesting except that my great-grandfather planted that tree from a walnut a hundred and ten years ago. Basically, Dad and Uncle Frank thought the tree should stay in the family. They're planning to do something with the wood i.e. make a cabinet, etc.

I am missing Malaysia and all the people there now a lot. I keep trying to hold onto it. I constantly wear the ring that my friends Louise and Etienne gave me before I left, and I often go back and look at the pictures of the party at Pete and Hannah's place where we did tequila shots, arm in arm. Me and tequila don't have a good relationship but sometimes you gotta do it! (especially when the other option is getting put in a headlock by Pete!)

For those of you who didn't believe me when I said that our house was larger than it looked, below is a pic of our home today.



Things that I miss/are better about Asia....
1. Really good rice
2. Pete & Hannah
3. Eating cheap yet very good food on the street everyday
4. Gossip at BC from Janet in EdUK
5. Hearing Susana talk about Rodolfo (her cousin/lover!!!!)

Finally, a picture of me -- proof that Tequila is not my friend. If you look carefully you can see Pete, Hannah, Andy, and Ayumi around me laughing!



later!