Lepaking

"Lepak" is a Malay verb that has roughly the same meaning as the American expression "hanging out". It took on some negative connotations in the 90s when the government started a campaign to stop youths loitering around public places, but what-evah.

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I went out with some new friends, M. and T., after church yesterday. I've only known them for a few weeks but they're great. It turned out that Mag (who's from Jakarta) was my college friend AT's classmate in boarding school in Singapore...small world indeed.

Lunch at International Club in the church basement was fun because Steve B. and his Korean girl SJ also came...so with the six of us in a corner it was like the Club of Asian Girls Who Date White Computer Geeks. Steve had to leave early for lab stuff, but M. and T. invited me to go for a hike so we ended up strolling around Governor Nelson State Park for a couple of hours in the golden fall sunshine.

M. and T. are newlyweds and it's so cute watching them together (and watching T. get all excited over M's pregnancy) that it doesn't feel annoying as public displays of affection normally do (no "GET A ROOM!"). She still wants to go to graduate school for maths next year. That baby's going to be amazingly intelligent and will probably rebel and become a guitarist or something. Nevertheless, we bought them this maternity shirt, too bad M's not showing enough for the joke to be good yet:

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Today I also had dinner with my former roommate Bunnylady. Bunnylady was a playwright and stage manager in New York who's switching careers in midlife, having decided that despite what she was told in her youth, she really does want to be a veterinarian. Her first year of vet school when we were living together with my undergrad classmate SN were pretty bad and she was a nervous wreck...not to mention that SN was going through a horrible breakup and I felt guilty because I was the only one enjoying myself. How do you deal with a woman who's old enough to be your mother who's falling to pieces over exams?

So it's good to see her on her feet and doing all right in her second year. She still has her older black-and-white rabbit Seneca, although the nameless Little Brown Bunny who was the bane of SN's and my electronic equipment died. Her replacement is snowy white, named Thumper, also female, but large enough to eat my cat alive.

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I'm also in a Grad Christian Fellowship Bible study group. It's a manuscript study, which means that we dissect scripture line...by...line. At times it seems tedious, but it's a good way of getting insight/analysis/inspiration from other people that you wouldn't have thought of yourself. Especially if you're like me and have grown up with the Bible so it sounds like "same old, same old."

We spend about an hour doing said textual dissection then have dessert and hang out and pray a bit at the end...I think people are trying to outdo each other with the desserts. I made an awesome banana custard pie a couple weeks ago ;-)

One of the new girls, who just started grad school and moved to Madison with her boyfriend at the beginning of the fall, mentioned that she's been mostly either studying or hanging out with him because she doesn't have any good friends in town yet - "you know, someone you can just call and be like 'Hey, wanna watch some TV?' 'cause you're too tired to do anything else."

I think I'll email her about watching some TV, because I know what she means, and what M. means, and what K.J. means when they say it's great to be with someone but you don't wanna see them all the time. I feel like I've gotten more fresh air these past few days.

It's okay sweetie, I still like you! =)