So this past week has been rather fulfilling. I will start with a quick amendment to my most recent post regarding my daily life. After writing it I remember thinking that I made myself out to be the whiny little American who is used to living a rather laid back lifestyle and eating just about anything I wanted, when I wanted. Well… there are monks who feel the same way that we do! One night this past week we had a lunch of that dehieghdrated yam stuff followed by a dinner with pate and some sauce that was called gumbo, but it sure as hell wasn’t gumbo from the good ol’ south, no this was straight up slime with green beans and pepper. This was one of those meals where I was literally thinking that I would rather be gagged by a spoon than have to eat this. Colin felt pretty much the same way as the sauce was left untouched with the spoon lying neatly beside it, “oh great another hungry night” we were thinking, but during the meal one of the monks made somewhat of a show as he more or less threw a hissyfit at the food selection! He is in charge of the garden and was telling me on the way back to the house that we have more than enough food in the garden to make decent meals and also that there is a ton of escargot! Then the idea hit him, he told me to be outside my door in about 10 minutes. Uh oh, what did I get myself into this time?
I met him outside the door at the predetermined time to find him holding two spoons and a metal bowl. He made me a second dinner with escargot and other fixings from the garden! He looked around suspiciously before leaving and saying to leave the bowl outside my room when I was finished, I must admit that the thought did cross my mind to eat it right then and there, but I couldn’t not tell Colin, who had already gone to bed so that he wouldn’t be kept up by the ensuing hunger. We scarffed down the creepy eyed little snails and veggies before disposing of the evidence and hitting the sack for the night! Nothing like going to bed on an full stomach of African snails wondering if they had been cooked all the way through so I wouldn’t wake up in a few hours puking my guts out,
Luckily that didn’t happen. Also, the same monk who rather amusingly (all of the other monks were chuckling and patting him on the back/head) interrupted the meal also had a bag of nuts that he had picked from the garden; they were slightly sweet with a lingering bitterness that lasted for the better half of an hour. I couldn’t stand the after affect and bushed my teeth for about 5 minutes or so trying to get rid of the aftertaste. It didn’t work so I figured that I would take my mind off it by working on a few sudokus in the candlelight. Bad idea! For whatever reason, be it poor lighting causing eye fatigue, or the nuts/escargot after the meal making me go blind or trip out; I started to lose part of my vision. Oops, mom you weren’t supposed to read that. But yeah, I definitely could only see about half of the sudoku puzzle and the rest was all blurry. Sweet dreams Gregoir! Yeah trying to fall asleep while wondering if there is some obscure parasite or poison chowwing down on your optic nerve isn’t exactly a choice way to fall asleep! Which I will add, I did have some pretty vivid dreams that night, which were oh so strange, but there are no lasting effects of whatever it was that gave me that nice little scare. And yes mom, I have stopped doing sudokus by candlelight, so eyestrain is no longer a concern.
On a side note, that same monk who had the nuts has also been slipping us bananas under the table at lunch and also occasionally preparing a second meal of escargot (which is superb once you get passed the idea that the thing you are eating still has eyes and is watching you pick it up with your spoon: pictured at right). So the food situation has slightly improved.
No comments:
Post a Comment