(Pre-Lockdown 3.0 in Malaysia, obviously, but this was the first “delight” I wrote before I knew I was going to make this into a thing).

I’ve run away from my job for the day. I was given permission – a day of rest provided by our school, so I’m not straight up playing hooky.

In fact, I’ve never been able to play hooky from school because I was homeschooled, then I was at a college populated by Type A people who didn’t take a break unless they were dying and even then, it was negotiable about whether or not they’d show up to class. Me being the one who wants to get along with everyone killed myself along with them. And grad school was online, so….no point in playing hooky.

Anyway, I ran away and am now in one of my favorite haunts of Malaysia: Cyberjaya. I don’t know why I like Cyberjaya so much. It just feels quieter. There’s less traffic, parking is readily available (a straight up miracle in Malaysia – one of my deepest anxieties here is finding a free spot whenever I go anywhere), and the drive to get there is full of beautiful, luscious green landscape (I love that word, luscious, especially applied to greenery).

Because I’m still a basic white girl, I went to Starbucks because I knew there would be space and quiet to write. Plus, even though it’s Starbucks, they’ve got Malaysian twists to their food – their curry puffs and roti kerak pandan are a-ma-zing.

I love all things pandan. Delightfully green, strangely sweet, but not in an overpowering way. Just green delight bursting in your mouth.

Curled up in a corner on a couch, I’ve got a great view of the drive-thru and all of the patrons in the cafe so I can people watch to my heart’s content. There’s a business man on the phone a few tables away. A woman bringing pastries to a table where two kids are watching her progress eagerly. A student who keeps anxiously running to the bathroom every half hour or so. And there’s a never ending queue to Burger King right across the street.

Malaysians have a patience for queueing that I still haven’t adapted to. I admire their stamina, but my impatient American mind would rather leave after twenty minutes than stand in line in the sticky heat.

I’m working on it.

VAV’s playing in my ears: Give Me More – a Korean/English song with Latin vibes that’s got me totally genre-confused and I’m absolutely loving it.

I love this fusion of people, places, and cultures so much. The food, the people, the music – sing it, VAV! Give me more of it.

Especially since pandemics and lockdowns may soon take this away from me again.

But for now, I’ve got my roti, my quiet corner, and time to write.

Delight.