So here I am in a nice hotel room in Penang Malaysia, and I just cut my finger opening a can of cashews from the hotel minibar. I have no idea how much they’re going to charge me for opening this can. Probably something they think is humorously outrageous. And it probably is, in local currency, but the exchange rate is still pretty good for US dollars. But hey, even with exchange rates, the prices for beer here are amazingly high. Fortunately, I have a sixpack of warm beer from the supermarket in the hotel room… Room temperature… Sure, the minibar also has a refrigerator, but the temperature inside the minibar fridge is exactly the same as the temperature outside it, which makes me wonder why they even bothered.
So I’m here for a week and it’s really really nice. Now, if you hate spicy food, or if you hate seafood, you might have problems here. Actually, there are a lot of things here that might I suppose freak out Americans. But hey if you’re going to list things that freak out “most Americans”, you need to include vegetarians, black people, gamers, stuff like that. So I guess forget about that.
Most people would, at this point, say something like “…now, I don’t think of myself as a typical American”. I would love to use this kind of segue, but in fact I *do* think of myself as a typical American. I like hamburgers, I love my Mom, and apple pie is great. Oh sure, Mom gets on my nerves sometimes… “Why don’t you go to church and meet a nice girl”. Mom, I met several girls in church, and none of them were what you’d call “nice”. :) Um… OK where was I going with this. I digress…
Yeah, culture shock and your average American. Seriously. Narrow streets, old buildings, and tiny cars do not constitute culture shock. Rice? I’ve eaten that. Socks optional? I have plenty of hippie friends.
OK, so is there culture shock to be had? Sure plenty. On both sides. I have bright red hair. I come here and everyone here is freaked out. I visit a country and the locals get culture shock. Although the locals mostly stare, and when I catch them staring they continue smiling and wave. Whereas when I catch Americans staring they look away and get angry. Why are Americans angry when you catch them staring at you? That’s a subject for an entire thesis…
And yeah, to some degree I’m a bit overstimulated, but to be honest once people have shown you how to eat the local cuisine (no knife?), you’re set. Why didn’t people tell me travel was this easy? I’d be living on the moon.
Um, but that’s not the point of any of this. The point is that this laptop sucks for gaming. I’ve been playing MegaMan ZX on the DS, and it kicks the balls out of any MMO I’ve played lately. Sure, it’s a stupid side scrolling game with a stupid asian plot and stupid ability to absorb the DNA of any boss you beat and become… you know, that’s not stupid at all. This kicks ass. Find me a MMO that lets you *become* any boss you beat, and I’ll play it. If it lets you stomp around in a huge robot suit, so much the better. I wonder. Tabula Rasa, but with big stomping robots?
Where is the stomping robot MMO? (And no I don’t mean Manga, I mean MECH Warrior Mercenaries!!!)
Peace out.
