You will have to picture these

I left the Guest House about 7:15, checked my e-mail at my office, and went to my Malaysian class. The weather was perfect - cool and a slight breeze. Outside the Foreign Languages building a staff was doing their exercises. The women were dressed in traditional garb; among the office workers the clothes are quite lovely. I know one of the exercisers so I might ask him if I can take a picture.

The doors to the language classes are padlocked. Along the outside walls there are a bank of chairs where students wait. Since the rooms are on the outside of the building it isn't grim. My impression is that USM has invested where it is important (technology) and made do with desks and chairs. Today we worked on pronuncation - a topic that I have previously ignored. Today I paid close attention \, b/c I need to do a better job of pronouncing my students' names. Next class our lesson includes "dari mana kamu" which is "where are your from." So I'll know more about my classmates - thus far a number of Indonesians and Saudi Arabians.

For another mental cture - as I was leaving campus this afternoon I noticed a woman in a long skirt, heels, and hidjah with a motor cycle helmet. The contrast was quite striking and not at all uncommon.

BTW - Doug sent me a link to the Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur) where they used the term truthiness to describe Parliment's operations!