Five dogs of various breeds, the smallest the size of a chihuahua, came from the direction of the mountains and wandered into a construction site beneath my windows. Now, that was a first for me, though I understand packs of wild dogs aren’t uncommon in this region and surrounding environs.  They didn’t seem aggressive or anything.  Just looked like a bunch of house dogs.

I’ve bought a few types of fruit just to have in my quarters, though most of my meals will be at the cafeteria, like the students.  I have a dragon fruit, which I’m really looking forward to, and something that looks like little sea anemones, which I suspect may be durian.  Will have to report back on them, as I currently have no knife to get past the rinds, an unforeseen obstacle.

The dining halls are impressive here.  I have a Student Assistant whose job it is to help me with teaching & to get acclimated to things; he took me around the campus yesterday and we ate lunch at a 4-story cafeteria (think of a sort of mini-mall consisting exclusively of 4 levels of food courts, with seating for at least 500 on each floor).  The food was pretty good.  I don’t recognize most of what I’ve been eating, but everything has been good so far.  At some point I will try to upload some pictures.  I’m still adjusting to a daylight consciousness schedule, so technical manipulations require a level of sophistication that’s still beyond me.  I just chew the seeds in the grapes when I get to them, and that gives you a pretty accurate sense of my level of competence right now.  I’m sleeping sporadically, a couple hours at a stretch at various intervals–most recently from 2:30 to 4:30 am.  It is currently 6:59 am.  My first class begins tomorrow at 8 am.

Until I’m on a more sane schedule, entries will probably be short.