All those years ago...

One fun result of living on campus is I feel like a student again.  A much, much older student.  I've certainly adopted my lifestyle from 20 years ago when it comes to eating.  Cooking on a stove is not a thing I have been brave enough to try at the guest house. The burn marks on the stove and the charred counter beside it are very foreboding.  Also, I can't find any pots or pans.  But I'm too scared to open one of the cabinets where they are likely located.  Did I mention I have some issues with bugs? Thus far I have managed to reheat leftovers from lunch and cook ramen using my roomie, the Ethics professor from Hong Kong's, microwave.  However, two glorious things happened this week.  First I found mayo at the supermarket! They don't do condiments here... no dressings, no ketchup. (I know, no ketchup!) But hiding in a corner I found mayo!  In case you're wondering why this is exciting it means I can now make tuna sandwiches!  And the tuna here is especially tasty.  This single find doubled my capacity for feeding myself at home.  And today I am so happy to report that I bought a toaster! I found butter and now I'm in business. I did have a little scare trying to get the butter home on the 100 degree bus before it became a puddle. But I made it! It will be interesting to see what happens to my body after eating like this for two months.  But there's lots of fruit, so I probably won't die. Back to the important topic of ketchup. I have only seen it at one restaurant and they charged 15 cents per packet.  You and I know that a single packet only covers about 2 french fries.  Which brings me to another food related issue.  All of the restaurants in town cook either Indian food (which I eat for lunch every day) or fried chicken and fish and chips.  So if I hop on the bus to town for dinner it's deep fried yummy death - minus the ketchup.

Further evidence that I'm living like a college student can be found hanging on the clothesline in my room tonight.  I managed to wash a maroon shirt with my whites and you know what that means. It has been years since I made such an amateur mistake. I believe Leonard and Junior both found that hilarious.  By the way, Junior now lives with Leonard and I.  Here's what happened.  One night another lizard, I'll call her Loretta, came to visit.  She and Leonard made such a cute couple! Then I'll let you guess what happened the next day.  Yep, a tiny new little lizard was perched on my laptop when I got home from work.  It doesn't take an expert in lizard-husbandry to figure out what happened!  The thing about Junior is he's not a shy as Leonard, which has led to a few unexpected freak-outs on my part. But they continue to do their job and keep my room relatively bug free.

Here are some pics...

Everyone dressed up for the Diwali tea at FNU yesterday.  

Sangeeta brought me a traditional top to wear.  So thoughtful!

Pics from my walk along the shoreline in Lautoka today.

These guys I met on my walk made me promise I would take a picture of them 

and show it to my American friends back home. So there you go.