Don’t you hate it when a song gets stuck in your head and you can’t get rid of it? For me, it’s never a mellow, relaxing song that might lull me to sleep or help me decompress from a hard (series of hard) day at work and school. Not for this girl. Mine are the frenetic, same stanza or two racing through my mind at a break-neck speed over and over again until the words are etched into the back of my eyelids variety that frazzles my brain and makes me lust after sharp, pointed objects.
So what song has been enjoying the dark recess of my mind as of late? The diarrhea song. Now come on. Don’t pretend you don’t know which song I mean. It’s the one from when you were a kid and your older brother or sister (or maybe you were the older brother or sister) taunted you with refrain after refrain that you probably featured prominently in during those long, hot summers of youth spent in the backyard doing absolutely (and gloriously) nothing. Yes, that song. My God, why would that song be racing through my mind? Well, you guessed it.
All I can say is we’re almost better. I would say we’re about about 75-80%, but it’s been a long, almost three-week haul with who really knows what. I’m thinking some variety of dysentery and there’s a couple nasty ones that culture well in the warm, wet tropics. We normally don’t eat out, not because we’re afraid of getting sick but more out of a disinclination to appreciate the local culinary scene… I’m just not a fan of fried noodles in half a cup of oil and MSG oyster sauce under most circumstances, but I digress. I know, it’s my greatest disappointment that I’ve lost some of my lust for street food and it’s a tragedy. And to boot after nearly five years together, I’ve corrupted Greg’s diet to the point that his body can’t take it either, so we eat nearly all meals at home.
But, there are some things you just don’t give up regardless. We love fresh juice and really, who could resist the frothy, sweetness of oranges and pineapple whipped-up in front of your eyes at a fraction of the price you’d spend at a juice joint in the States? We were in the basement of MOI (the Mall with the Chinese lion dancers from a few months back) buying the rare bottle of wine when I spied the fresh juice stall. “Oooooh, let’s get some juice!” So, we bellied up to the juice bar, placed our order and if I recall, even chinked our plastic cups together before downing the sweet nectar. My last words? “I’m not entirely convinced of the cleanliness of this place…oh well, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Suffice to say, we’ve both lost some weight. We’re pretty much back to eating regular food though some foodstuffs still make me slightly nauseous and I could really do without the extreme gastric reflux. Oh well, the price of living overseas I suppose.
Oh, and if you don’t quite remember some of the lines from that famous song, try a quick Google search “diarrhea song” if you’d like to take a stroll down memory lane.
Out There 