Getting in touch with my feminine side
... since no visit to a country on the other side of the world would be complete without such a letter to one's parents.
Two days ago, I finally finished the complementary shampoo provided by the apartment. I'd bought some shampoo here on the first weekend. It's in a green plastic bottle and advertized itself "for long and smooth hair 2-in-1 conditioner". I don't know what "smooth hair" is, but I figured that since it was green it should be similar to the Pert Plus (tm) 2-in-1 shampoo I use at home.
It works fine -- but it smells. Some kind of flowery scent. I checked the bottle again, but nowhere does it say "smelly". Then again, 90% of the text on the bottle is some foreign script (could be anything from Arabic to Thai, if Thai is a language, and if Thai is a language that doesn't use hieroglyphics).
What's worse is that the smell stays on my hair. When I was going to (and returning from!) NUS yesterday for the proofreading, whenever there was a gust of wind I'd smell it and think "hey, there's a girl right behind me... oh wait, that's me". Of course, I'm way too cheap to throw out a bottle of S$3.60 (CDN$ 3.25 or so) shampoo just because it makes me smell like a girl.
At the same time, I'm aware that this puts me me one circle closer to the center. Long, gorgeous, curly hair? Check. Putting said hair in a braid? Check. Having a flowery-smelling braid? ... check. That would put me with the gluttons, but I'd rather be on the sixth circle (heretics), so let's also count being a classical musician, liking cats, and enjoying teaching.
Oh well. At least I'll have absolutely no problem becoming a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. It's run by the Ig Nobel guys, so it has to be highly regarded!
I also did the dishes today in three batches. As you might have seen in the pictures of my apartment, my roommates leave everything in the drying area. As a general rule, I have nothing against this -- as long as there's enough room in the drying area to hold all the plates and cutlery. Sadly, there isn't enough room here... and besides, some of the "clean" stuff didn't seem very clean. So I put washed everything, dried it, put it away in cupboards, and then did another load.
I actually enjoy housework. When I'm the mood, that is. I like making things clean, and I don't need to think about it. It's a nice break from programming, writing, proofreading, and all the normal stuff in my life.