One reason I don’t get excited about living on campus is my home in KL is so breathtaking. The actual house is sort of old, but the yard is stunning. And usually I do my schoolwork sitting outside at a picnic table. Being outside even makes what would otherwise seem like drudgey, fun.

I looked all over town for a place my dogs could have a blast running around in, and was resigned to living with at a house with only a small patch of grass because the realtor wasn’t coming up with much else. Then one day, while looking at another house, I saw the house of my dreams. It was on a mountainside with a huge yard and nature everywhere you look. The trouble was, the house wasn’t for rent so I didn’t think too much about it- just tucked the thought away that given a choice, that is where I would live.

Looking back, I forget what a miracle it is that the very next week, that particular house went on the market, and we could rent it for a price within our allowance, beating out other potential renters who had a bigger budget.

Anyway, this is an email I sent my friends yesterday:

This afternoon I discovered wild orchids in one of our trees. The flowers are white on delicate branches. So I cut a few of the stalks and put the flowers in a vase. Then after that, I just walked around our big yard to see whatever else I have overlooked all this time. Oh my gosh, it is such a tropically beautiful yard. One weird creeper goes all the way up a tree trunk. But the heart shaped leaves, about the size of my palm, just look like they are glued flat to the trunk; they're really strange.

Of course we have mini waterfalls dripping down the rock cliffs (unless it rains hard, and then they're big), and itsy-bitsy springs the dogs like to drink from. I think you'd have to be a millionaire to have a yard like this anywhere in the US.

Once one of my gardeners raked up a brown hand blown glass bead that has a hand drilled hole through it. I wear it around my neck sometimes on a leather strap and think about who could have made it, or traded for it, and how wild and exotic this very spot must have been long ago.

It's still sort of wild.

When Steve walked up the hill behind our house a bit ago, the dogs chased jungle pigs who were playing in the mud. And our maintenance man tells me that it's a good thing my koi hides since civet cats that live in our jungle like to fish for them.

Eagles screech overhead every now and then too.

If it weren't for the sand fleas and the leeches, I would just live in our yard.
Cindy (End of email)

I really love nature. How could heaven be better; God doesn’t have to go to the trouble of making another place, this is good enough for me.