Durian and other things...

Ever since Glenn first travelled to Malaysia, he's been obsessively talking about this strange fruit called durian. He would always tell me about how terrible it smelled, and that you couldn't drink alcohol after eating it (because supposedly you would die). Despite all of these downsides, he would still eat it, and seemed to enjoy it more and more every time. Since our arrival, Glenn has been insisting that Evelyn and I try it before the end of the durian season (end of August). He finally won the battle on Sunday by insisting that the smell was worse than the taste (the smell- to which I can attest - is so bad that it isn't allowed in most hotels and apartment buildings!). With an onlooking crowd of Malaysians, who looked amused at seeing 2 Americans who clearly didn't understand what they were doing, we ate the durian. Okay, I should say that Glenn ate the durian. I took one bite, and decided that that was plenty. Evelyn took 2 bites, and then spit it all out. By the way, Glenn was wrong, the taste is definitely worse than the smell! 

 

On a brighter note, Laura, our American neighbor, has been scouting out some local parks and playgrounds, and has been kind enough to take Evelyn and me along with them. We went to a great playground on Thursday that looked like a castle. Evelyn had a blast playing in it with her new friends. The only problem is, it's so hot in the day, that you can't play outside too long without being soaked in sweat. After playing there, our air conditioned apartment felt great!

Tomorrow we get to go to a butterfly garden (Glenn says it's for Evelyn, but I think that he's more excited to see it than she is). After the butterfly garden, we're heading off to find a beach and swim in the ocean for a few hours (we're excited to see what Evelyn thinks of the salt water) and then to a local night market. We'll make sure to post some pictures and stories about it next time.

Finally, Glenn wanted me to include one last picture that he took today when we were shopping for diapers.  He said Willy and Andrew would really appreciate it...