Brace yourself

Can I share a quote with you?  I have been chuckling to myself all week over this, "Doing speedwork on a treadmill is like experiencing firsthand what would happen if Jane Fonda, a drill sergeant, and a hamster ever broke into a Bowflex factory after a night of particularly raucous revelry with the mission of fashioning a cardiovascular torture device."  Check out this amazing blog for more running fun.


If you are an animal rights person, you are probably not going to want to read this.

Brace yourself.

I should start this off my by saying that I can be dramatic.  On Wednesday the entire staff at my school went to a restaurant for lunch.  We had duck.  Boiled duck (tasted similar to turkey) Grilled duck (my favorite of the varieties).  Duck in a red sauce stuff.  What is the perfect thing to go with duck?  If crickets are chirping in your brain it is okay.  I did not know what the side dish would be either.  Let me tell you: seafood soup.

They put a big pot down on the burner in the middle of the table and cranked the burner's heat up.  Then I saw it.  Something in the pot moved.  Something in the pot moved.  Something in the pot moved.  I asked my co-teacher (who was conveniently sitting next to me) if something in the pot moved.  She said yes like it was an everyday occurrence.

And then

The waitress returned to our table with a plastic container.  She pulled out a small squirming octopus (who legs were sticking to the container) and thrusted it in the pot.  I think my face was registering some alarm by this point in time.  Talk about "fresh".  I started asking Jesus to come rapture me pronto.

My co-teachers, shall we say, emphatically encouraged me to try some of the delightful fresh seafood soup.  It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different (useful mantra for experiencing a different culture)   I tried to take my time getting the spoon from my bowl to my mouth (giving Jesus a few extra seconds to rapture us, you know?) For the record, I did not think about it. I just chewed, swallowed, and tried to smile the whole time.  Let's just say this is not a recipe that I will be eagerly awaiting to share with my friends and family in America.  Repeat with me: It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different.

Let's end on a positive note shall we? This is a song that I know in English and some other language (Swahili or Zulu?).  It is a really fun song and I have been humming it to myself all week.