Sunday
LOCATION: Chiang Mai University
APPEARING: Jake | Steffi | (Pii) Jiw
APPEARING: Jake | Steffi | (Pii) Jiw
After class I met up with Jake, Pii Jiw (the pii part is how you address someone older than yourself), and Steffi at a place on Huay Kaew street for coffee. After that we all made our way to the College Year in Thailand office at Chiang Mai University, were Jiw runs the program. Our plan was to get dinner on campus, but when we showed up we saw some of the people Jiw works with cooking BBQ on a hotplate/hotpot on a desk-- right on top of papers and the usual unversity administration clutter. It was like Korean BBQ and Shabu Shabu combined. In a now familiar manner, we were asked to join them to eat (which might be confused by many since asking to join you in eating is a common Thai greeting... and not always when it is a real offer... although one can just about always say yes).
On the grill part we cooked pork (very fatty), beef, mushroom, octopus, morning glory greens, and some unknown substance... which I will get to later in a brief expose called: How to Catch Avian Influenza Part 1 in a series. In the hot pot we boiled fishballs (1 inch diameter spongy, white balls made from ground up fish), octopus, various greens. Let's just say it was delicious. I think we were drinking Cheers beer.
At one point I asked Ze German (Ok, Benjamin Stephan, I've got to level with you-- you will always be THE Ze German, but seeing as you're in Hamburg right now, you are being temporarily replaced by Steffi) what she thought a brownish, yellowish, almost bluish curled up thing was. Her response: mushroom. Well, I thought it might be something else, but she seemed pretty sure, so I popped a very cooked on into my mouth...
Not a mushroom. No close. It was chewy, rubbery, and tasted of a pungent animal internals smell. Being polite I chewed for the next ten minutes, making no impact except in spreading around this disgusting mess in my mouth... but not actually chewing it into pieces. It was like horrid tasting bike-tire lining dosed with half a sprig of mouse-nest smell, a shot of horse urine, and a handful of pre-digested foodscraps.
After swallowing, I confirmed my worst fears. I asked one of the Thai guys what it was, pointing ot the plate. He didn't speak too much English, so he thought for a moment, pointed to his stomach and said "insides."
So, I just ate chicken stomach and guts grilled to utter perfection (if you ACTUALLY like eating grilled already-digested chicken feed-- which is probably made from ground up chickens that died to avian influenza). Each morning is like waiting for the attack on pearl harbor. Each morning after waking up and realizing that I am in some place far from my home (which is, exactly, where?), my next thought is: how does my stomach feel? am I having trouble breathing? am I growing feathers?
So far, so good. Stomach has actually be sterling (fingers crossed). But phew, I'm telling you, bird flu is in my future. Nothing like a little H5N1 in the afternoon-- that's my new saying.
Taking stock of my situation-- no GI attacks yet-- I walked into the entrance of the halloway to find a Butterfly branded (that's good, for you who do not know) Ping Pong table with Butterfly paddles. It seemed to just appear from nowhere. I don't actually know where it could have come from... we were literally in the hallway of a college administration building. Did they store it in the bathroom? Well, it would probably have been polite to lose a few games to my hosts... but I couldn't bring myself to that. I'm simply a prodigy of the paddle. Cheers.
On the grill part we cooked pork (very fatty), beef, mushroom, octopus, morning glory greens, and some unknown substance... which I will get to later in a brief expose called: How to Catch Avian Influenza Part 1 in a series. In the hot pot we boiled fishballs (1 inch diameter spongy, white balls made from ground up fish), octopus, various greens. Let's just say it was delicious. I think we were drinking Cheers beer.
At one point I asked Ze German (Ok, Benjamin Stephan, I've got to level with you-- you will always be THE Ze German, but seeing as you're in Hamburg right now, you are being temporarily replaced by Steffi) what she thought a brownish, yellowish, almost bluish curled up thing was. Her response: mushroom. Well, I thought it might be something else, but she seemed pretty sure, so I popped a very cooked on into my mouth...
Not a mushroom. No close. It was chewy, rubbery, and tasted of a pungent animal internals smell. Being polite I chewed for the next ten minutes, making no impact except in spreading around this disgusting mess in my mouth... but not actually chewing it into pieces. It was like horrid tasting bike-tire lining dosed with half a sprig of mouse-nest smell, a shot of horse urine, and a handful of pre-digested foodscraps.
After swallowing, I confirmed my worst fears. I asked one of the Thai guys what it was, pointing ot the plate. He didn't speak too much English, so he thought for a moment, pointed to his stomach and said "insides."
So, I just ate chicken stomach and guts grilled to utter perfection (if you ACTUALLY like eating grilled already-digested chicken feed-- which is probably made from ground up chickens that died to avian influenza). Each morning is like waiting for the attack on pearl harbor. Each morning after waking up and realizing that I am in some place far from my home (which is, exactly, where?), my next thought is: how does my stomach feel? am I having trouble breathing? am I growing feathers?
So far, so good. Stomach has actually be sterling (fingers crossed). But phew, I'm telling you, bird flu is in my future. Nothing like a little H5N1 in the afternoon-- that's my new saying.
Taking stock of my situation-- no GI attacks yet-- I walked into the entrance of the halloway to find a Butterfly branded (that's good, for you who do not know) Ping Pong table with Butterfly paddles. It seemed to just appear from nowhere. I don't actually know where it could have come from... we were literally in the hallway of a college administration building. Did they store it in the bathroom? Well, it would probably have been polite to lose a few games to my hosts... but I couldn't bring myself to that. I'm simply a prodigy of the paddle. Cheers.
