Not the Next Top Chef, Not Even Close

I finally caved and bought my own Nica food supplies (rice, beans, tortilla, oil and salt). Up until now I’ve been eating at other people’s homes or cooking myself a diet of eggs, oatmeal, sandwiches and other low maintenance items.

I was really proud of myself. I spent the day picking at beans and throwing out the bad ones, washing rice, and chopping tomatoes, onions, and chiltoma (similar to green pepper). Of course, I had observers watching my every move and telling me I wasn’t chopping small enough or not big enough. But the big faux pas was how I prepared my rice. Instead of frying my rice for 15 minutes and then adding a little water every 5 minutes until it’s ready like everyone does here, I just boiled the rice – the way I’m accustomed to preparing rice. With the reactions from my observers you would have thought I killed someone and more observers were called into see what I was doing. Well, thankfully I didn’t ruin it and proved them wrong when they tried it and what?!? Enjoyed it! Now they’re actually asking me to teach them how to make MY rice. HAHA GLORY!

I was quite proud of myself, thinking back I probably should have taken a picture to mark this momentous occasion. Now before you all stop reading this because you can’t handle any more of my extreme bragging; I’ll humble myself a bit and share with you my day from hell.

The next morning I used the leftovers to make the infamous, gallo pinto. It tasted fine and all was well. I was getting ready to go to class and was suddenly overcome by extreme nausea….that’s right I had food poisoning and what’s worse is I gave it to myself! I spent the entire morning vomiting and pretty much wanted to die. All of this occurred within 30 minutes of eating the gallo pinto. At 9AM it started and after I felt a bit better at around 1PM I tried to eat some crackers and after 30 minutes passed I was vomiting again.

I’m a bit guy shy of making my own food again, and so are my neighbors because I was invited to lunch with one family today. No worries though, I’ve discovered the culprit was the rice and from now on I’m only going to make enough for the meal and toss the rest. I never want to experience the vomit fest again, and won’t be taking any risks with rice.

In other news, only 15 days until I’m in the USA! I will be avoiding rice there as well….unless it’s with sushi!

Nothing too exciting in my life, but a few updates.
I planted some watermelon in my gravel pit of a backyard and surprisingly I´ve got some luck! All of the seeds sprouted and they are about 6 inches tall-long, I´m hoping that nothing destroys them before I can enjoy the fruit. I have only 2 plants of chiltoma growing after some chickens came through and destroyed the rest of the sprouts. I planted some flower seeds to try and bring some color and beauty to my yard, but unfortunately they haven´t done so well....I tried.
My neighbor has two dogs that both have puppies, so they have 10 puppies in total. I´ve fallen in love with one and I keep talking to Normancito, my 3 year old neighbor who often comes wandering into my house barefoot and sometimes only in his underwear. I´ve been hinting that I want to keep the little puppy and he´s caught on to my not so subtle hints, so much so that he refers to the puppy as mine and sometimes carries it into my house and tells me to keep it (which I can´t because it is only a few weeks old). Hopefully all will work out and I´ll get to keep the fellow.
Funny little story: the other day I was showering, I was all covered in soap when suddenly no more water! I had to walk back to my house all covered in soap to retrieve my gallon of water to rinse with, I´m sure I was a sight to see.
Sorry I don´t have more to say....only 30 days until I´m home for a visit.