the 7th of july

  
It's always a little sad to remember that American Independence Day is not, in fact, a German holiday. Never fear: we made up for it the following Saturday in fine fashion, first by attempting to grill on Mandie's balcony and inadvertently setting off the fire alarm for her whole building, then by relocating to the park when the weather cleared up and BBQing our hearts out. If it seems like there are a lot of pictures of my leggings, it is because I want to make sure that everyone properly understands exactly how glorious they are. (Germany's New Yorker store really came through for me on the 'Merica front.)

I would also like for it to be known that I finished off the night dancing in the bar around the corner from Mandie's house while wearing those leggings and a gigantic sombrero.

kuala lumpur III: yut kee

I swear I'll be done with talking about Malaysia after this post (for now), but I can't be done without talking about Yut Kee. I went twice -- by myself on my first day in Malaysia, and with Megan on one of my last days -- and it was well worth the repeat visit. Kaya and toast, roti, noodles . . . delicious. Jack and Mervyn (the father and son who run the place) are wonderful, too. I might have been a little overly familiar with Mervyn on the return visit ("I was here last week!!") but he took it well in stride, and kindly introduced us to his dad, who showed us the vat out back where they cook the kaya (alas, the kaya-cooking was done for the day). If I lived anywhere near Malaysia, my boyfriend would have some serious competition -- Jack's a charmer!

london in the summer

It's only been a little over a month since I visited Lucy in London, so I'm right on time for writing about it! From a Friday night to an (early, early) Monday morning, we packed in a pretty good amount of stuff: a brief visit with my friend Cecilia, brunch at The Breakfast Club in Hoxton (the SoHo one having been without electricity that day (!)), a visit to Radley (naturally), dinner and drinks at The Boater's Inn (which is in Richmond and right on the Thames, and is lovely), rather hungover Sunday lunch at Moro, lazy afternoon watching 27 Dresses, and a Sunday evening trip down the block to watch "the football" (England vs. Italy in the Euro Cup) at Lucy's local pub, The Normanby, which is lovely. I haven't done a truly touristy thing in London in either of the past two visits, and in the visit before that Megan and I only rode the London Eye because our lovely hostess Lucy was working. Visiting cities with (or like!) a local is such fun.

kuala lumpur II: imbi market

My last morning in Malaysia (which, as Mandie points out, was nearly six months ago (!)), Megan and I made our way out to Imbi Market, just barely beating a torrential downpour. (You can see the water coming down in the picture of the two men eating!) We didn't get there until about 11:30 a.m., which is actually way later than would be ideal -- a lot of the food stalls had sold out of their specialties by then, and everything closes down at 12:30 p.m. or so -- but I was so glad we went nonetheless. I love the way food looks against those bright red tables.

kuala lumpur I: petronas

Continuing in the theme of pictures I wanted to share from my and Megan's trip to Malaysia in February: Petronas Towers, in KL.

george town IV: clan jetties

I realized upon looking through my photos recently that I actually never finished blogging about Malaysia in February, which is a darned shame, because Megan and I saw some excellent places in our last few days there. First up: the clan jetties in George Town, Penang, which are long stretches of houses on piers that are only inhabited by the descendants of Chinese immigrants who belong to particular clans. They're still very much people's homes, and of them the Chew Jetty is the most inviting (actively requesting donations from visitors) whereas walking on some of the others feels a little like trespassing.