Run Away And Join The Circus: "The first day of rafting class"

First off, classes began this week. Of the 20 hours I am currently enrolled in, I plan on only keeping twelve. Three of the classes I showed up for were being taught in Malay- I am going to have to learn FAST (or drop the class). My batik professor only had the syllabus in Malay but luckily she made one for us in English. With that said, the professors are accommodating and most are great! It looks like I am going to be taking climbing, rafting, batik, metal craft, animal morphology and histology, farm management, and some sort of physiology class.

It is quite funny because Sarah and I are the only two blonde girls on the entire campus of over 14,000 people- CRAZINESS!!! We sure stand out like a sore thumb but surprisingly not in a bad way. I am so happy that the two of us have pretty much identical schedules: it sure will make the semester easier. The students here are beyond friendly and willing to help me with most anything. The professors here are not what I expected in some ways. For one, they take you out to eat and it is often customary for them to pay, they give you their mobile phone numbers, and some are even cool enough to drive you to the beach! I guess I am lucky because I have professors in the states that do that too :)

Most classes were what I expected but last Thursday was anything but ordinary. For one, I woke up early along with some of the other Americans to go to climbing class. Yep, thats right, I am taking a rock climbing class in Malaysia. I also was able to play tennis, bike around the entire old campus, eat my favorite breakfast (roti with curry), and then on to whitewater rafting (another one of my classes). Let me just say that what started as a simple class of learning how to prepare the rafts and the other equipment ended with a trip to the Malaysian government hospital. It was bound to happen at some point or another, BUT REALLY, the first week of classes!!!! After driving about an hour from school into the deserved jungle (there is actually a village of people that still live there) we started to inflate the rafts and learn the basics.

Once everyone got the hang of it, we took a short break: what we did realize is that this is where problems would arise. We found a small cliff, no more than 4 meters high and jumped off of it. Then we watched some of the locals jump from the tall cliff (I can't quite guesstimate the height but around 10 meters). Getting to the top wasn't easy and it was super slippery. Sarah and I stood up there for a few minutes until we got the courage to make the plunge. I new I had to be part of it and so I had to jump- it was awesome and totally worth it! While getting back in the rafts and practicing flipping, Oppa was dancing on the rocks and fell and hit his back- HARD!!!! He was immediately pulled to shore and we made a stretcher out of paddles and PFD's. Thank goodness he was wearing his helmet and life preserver. We kept checking to make sure that Oppa had feeling in his feet and toes and that he could remember everything. After much work we carried him to the truck- which involved walking up a steep and rocky hill. We put him in the back of the truck and considering he is tall, we couldn't close the back of the truck. (This may not sound intense in words but it sure as heck was).

So then the real adventure began. The five of us Americans sat in the back of the truck- which was functioning as an ambulance. Oppa got to hear ridiculous stories from us Americans hoping that he would feel better- he may not have laughed but we sure did. Sweet Oppa also used some of the explicit words that some of the Americans had been teaching him. The car had to be going at least 150km/hr but we made it to the hospital alive. Just so everyone knows, Malay people are not great at estimating time and they are also not quick acting in urgent situations. Us Americans put our Korean "bro" on a new stretcher ourselves and helped get him into the hospital. They had to cut off his bathing suit, shirt, and life preserver so his clothes were basically ruined. Under his hospital bed was also lots of dried blood- I don't know if it is a Malay thing or just the fact that it was a government hospital, but it lacked normal hygiene.

After about 4+ hours at the hospital, massive pain meds, x-rays, ultrasound, and lots of observation later, Oppa was cleared to go. In an attempt to lighten the mood we told Oppa that the reason he had to get an ultrasound was to check on his siamese twin- I think we confused him a lot. He also kept telling us that he didn't want to get surgery and we assured him that he really didn't need it. We all kept joking with him saying that he was "going to have to get three cats sewed to his spine for him to heal" and he was a bit disturbed. Clara also asked him if he was still going to take rafting. We said that my not be the most brilliant question to ask a person right after they have just gotten fairly badly injured and are in the hospital. After more than four hours in the hospital and all the listed procedures, the cost was 50 Ringgets (16 USD). We were about to leave the hospital and Oppa was profusely sweating so we checked him back in (the doctors claimed it was a reaction to the meds). We left the hospital for a bit and ended up going to a nearby night market- you can get pretty much anything there from a headlamp to vacuum pieces galore and loads of seafood and fruit. Carson bought his "bro" a new swimsuit to make up for his torn one. After more time in the hospital we finally made it back to KAB!!!! The doctors said that his injury was just severe bone and muscle bruising- thank goodness! He was such a trooper and didn’t cry a single time- I sure would have! I had to skip my first farm management class but the hospital was way more eventful anyway. When we got back Oppa kept repeating to us in his pain med stupor, "if it wasn't for you guy, I would be died".

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera for any of this so there is no picture documentation, which quite frankly may be a good thing. Regardless, life here in Malaysia is full of never ending excitement and the stories of my beach camping weekend are soon to come!

-Sven