The Plague of Frogs

I had my first culture shock moment last night. Kat, Berkeley, and I went downtown to have a bite to eat at the Tex-Mex Restaurant. That ended up being too expensive, so we decided to go have Lao food across the street along the Mekong River. What a beautiful night it was! The sun was setting, the air was clear. We had just ridden our bikes, so we were all happy with endorphins running through us. The appetizer came and oops, somehow we ended up ordering two dishes of spring rolls, which happened to be cold. Then the plague struck. Frogs were coming out of the woodwork! I noticed them, and they noticed me. Suddenly, a frog lunged forward and suctioned himself to my ankle. I jumped up, kicking (and maybe screaming). Cool, calm, and collected I sat back down in my chair grossed out, but ready to eat. Before I could even begin to comprehend what happened, another frog leaps up onto my arm and promptly takes position on my plate of food. Lovely. “Can we move to a table in the middle” I said to my friends who were frog-slime free. They kindly obliged. There was a frog in my chair at the next table. Berkeley came to my rescue (and Kat tried really hard) flinging the frog off the chair. Together we thought we had conquered the frogs. But no! There was one frog just waiting for his moment, I waited and watched. Yep, he jumped on me too. This was not such a pleasant experience for me, but the rest of our food came and I tried to calm myself down. I tried a bite of my food and yum! Then I stuck a carrot in my mouth ready to savor…not a carrot. Ow!!! Red Pepper, HOT RED PEPPER! SPIT OUT THE HOT RED PEPPER! Uncontrollable laughter burst from my mouth as I turned a shade of red typically reserved for fire engines and the tears began to flow. Here is where I knew it was time to go for a walk, forsaking the food set before me. My mouth, throat, and chin burning I told my friends I would soon return.
All this said it turned out to be a really good thing. I had just received a package, and found some money I had forgotten about and was thinking, “yeah, I am a joyful person generally, but it seems today is exceptional. I need to be like this when things aren’t so great too.” As I walked around I found myself actually thankful all this happened and that it ended with laughter!!
PS When telling three of my new friends that have each lived here for a number of years about the frogs they all said separately “I have never seen or heard that happen.” Oh, did I mention the worm that was crawling on me? I need a shower just thinking about it!