Is all the meat water buffalo?

So, I am now at UPSI!!! Sarah and I arrived at our new home to find that we are living in a small apartment with 5 other roommates plus spiders, lizards, mosquitos, and others. There is no refrigerator, A/C, stove, microwave, HOT WATER, trashcan, toilet paper, and according to Sarah, "overall cleaness". And the windows are sealed in with a nice layer of newspaper and duck tape (actually, I don't think there are windows behind the newspaper). The amenities that we do have are floral curtains, a one-inch mattress, dirty sheets, tape infested walls, dirty floors, and dusty shelves. The look on both Sarah and I's faces was most definitely the funniest part of the day! Sarah told herself to expect the worst and she said "it was pretty darn close to that", haha. Regardless, this is actually the kind of study abroad I had hoped for all along :) It might seem like this is the worst living situation ever but I really don't mind it- next time Sarah gets the bed by the creepy spider curtains though. I wanted exotic and I sure did get it! Despite the cold water, I was so nasty after 2 full days traveling, that a shower was much needed. But we did find out that this is only our temporary home and we move into somewhere new in two days. The atmosphere here is really pretty and very lush: there are rivers, rainforest, and everything green and tropical, all over the apartment complex. I went on a walk around the area with some of the students and got a sense of the area, which is quite beautiful (and there are some really cute cows and rabbits). I went into the local 7/11 near the school to buy a water bottle and noticed that every single pack of cigarettes had gruesome pictures of what smoking can do to you- it supposedly stops the people here from smoking (we should bring that to the US). For dinner, we ate at a local restaurant and had some trouble ordering food: they only spoke Malay (luckily I learned some new vocab). My debit card was rejected at every ATM so Clara was nice enough to pay for Sarah and I. The whole meal for three people cost 7 MR (only $2.50 USD): CRAZY!!!! I think what I was eating was in fact chicken but it could have been a mystery meat, most likely water buffalo. The mosquitoes haven't gotten bad just yet and I surely hope it stays that way. Everyone is great so far! There are so far 6 other girls for the US, several Korean girls, an America guy, and a girl from Kazakhstan: more are still to come! Tomorrow we have the entire day free= exploration!!!! Today was also Chinese new year!!!! Year of the Snake! Due to that, a lot of things were closed and we were unable to move into out permanent homes. Fireworks are going off right now which is really exciting! The first day in Malaysia has been a success and I am sure lots of amazing things are to come!