mychai's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day #27: You will never guess what I ate today! Ok. Remember all of that really great food I ate in Canada? Remember how I had dishes of seafood and wild game smothered in light-yet-creamy sauces that gently brought out complex aromas and tastes? Remember how I was eating like a king for peasant's pay? Well, I arrived in Lafayette, Indiana, and now I am eating like a peasant once again. And, in true JP form, I am taking it to the extreme! Welcome to Lafeyette, Indiana, home of Purdue University's Bug Bowl 2003! This is their thirteenth annual celebration of all things multi-legged. The university's entymology department takes a lot of time to set everything up and makes a grand celebration of our exoskeletal friends. Some of the events are quite humorous, like the cockroach tractor pull. Some things were especially interesting to me, like the indoor, transparent beehive. I could have stood and looked for hours, but kids nowadays are pushy and gave me dirty looks because I was hogging their viewing space. All of this education and entertainment at the bugs' expense will surely make you hungry, thus comes the part about eating like a peasant. The entymology department rounded out the experience with loads of what I can only generalize by calling them "bug dishes." Yes. Meals made of bugs. And how can a guy who writes an online diary whose aim is to provide a humorous look at his life pass up the opportunity with good conscious to eat some bugs? As they say in Canada (and France, I suppose)... Bon App�tit! My first bug samples -- I was naughty -- were my desserts. I had a chocolate-covered grasshopper on a stick. Had it not been for the crunchy interior -- and the knowlege that I was eating a f'n grasshopper -- I wouldn't have known anything was amiss of the sweet tasting chocolate. As was the grasshopper cookies I ate. I couldn't tell a difference at all with store bought cookies. Kinda makes you wonder what you are eating when you buy Toll House cookies, huh? My "main course" was a meal worm stir fry that looked a lot like this. It had an earthy smell to it that kinda turned me off. I also had a meal worm Chex Mix, and a pile of meal worms sauteed in a garlic oil something. I was going to have an ant salad, but I saw a hair in it. How gross! So, yes. I ate worms and crickets for lunch. You may cringe and call me dirty names, but what did you do on this Sunday? I bet it seems kind of boring compared to my story, now doesn't it? The train ride from New York to Chicago was nothing close to pleasant. First off, I will never take an overnight ride on Amtrak again. The seats are nowhere near comfortable for sleeping. Amtrak should take a few cues from VIA Rail when it comes to comfy seats. Second, our train was sold completely out, and crying babies are not cute and cuddly at 3:30 in the morning. There is no separation between my chair and my neighbor's chair, so I also was self conscious about waking up with my head on his lap or *gulp* something too scary to include in this diary. Third, our bathroom was, as they called it, "Out of service." This roughly translates into, "your bathroom car sprays urine every few seconds, so don't go in there." How do I know this? To be blunt, our entire car smelled of piss for the entire 20 hours between New York and Chicago. I went and sat with the Amish people for as long as I could because their body odor actually smelled better than our car. I should have taken it as a sign a few weeks before I left on my journey when Amtrak withdrew it's "100% Satisfaction Guarantee Or It's Free!" campaign. They said they obviously couldn't claim that their service was a great experience, so they had to quit pretending that it was. Amtrak sucks. Twenty hours smelling no telling how many peoples' bodily fluids is not my idea of 100% satisfying. Walking barefoot for 75 miles on broken light bulbs would allow for more room of 100% Satisfaction than Amtrak provides. I used to be all, "Ride the rails! It's romantic and adventurous!" Now I'm all, "Take a plane. It may still be uncomfortable and smelly, but it will be over soon." It's spring time here in the midwest. The trees are blooming. Flowers are coming out. It's not snowing. It's absolutely lovely. This is the best time of year. Everything is fresh and reborn. You can look at everything like a newborn would. The fresh baby leaves feel so soft, and the flowers smell as if you had never smelled anything quite as sweet. You can step out and look at the stars for more than a few seconds, and you can feel the green grass tickling those neglected parts between your toes. So, I'm going to go out and enjoy it some more. I've been waiting a long time for spring. It's a welcome friend after the winter we've had. Go out and do the same. I'll update again tomorrow. 9:36 p.m. - Sun., Apr. 13, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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