Welcome to Dinner--MEme Monday

I am so nervous....MommyBrain, Supah and YOU are all coming over for supper and my house is a wreck!  Thank goodness that this is blog world and you can't see my huge pile of laundry or the dust bunnies blowing around my floor.  In fact, since this is a virtual dinner party, I am going to create a virtual house.  Here is my castle home...

Please make yourselves at home, I have decided to tell you a dinner story because I can barely cook a dinner for us tonight, let alone a fancy virtual one for all of you.   Z is demanding 100% of me lately (he's out with his auntie right now) and Lil' C is a cranky bear because we are nap training, so a dinner story is all you are going to get ;) 

The Worst dinner(s) EVER...

When I was in college I was fortunate enough to attend Semester At Sea.  For those of you who did not see MTV Road Rules (I went a few years before that taping), Semester at Sea (SAS) is a floating University (a cruise ship) where students, faculty, life long learners and crew sail around the globe while taking college classes.  We visited 10 countries and stayed in each 3-5 days.  It was like a sampler platter of the world :)

While visiting India, I stayed with a Rotarian family (with another student from SAS) for two nights.  My dad is a big Rotarian and this seemed like the perfect match.  Upon arriving in India, our host family served us a large welcome dinner.  It was delicious and I filled myself up on their fine Indian cuisine.  After dinner we went to the local Rotary meeting where we were served another dinner.  Trying not to be rude, I forced down some more food even though I was so full from the first dinner.  After the meeting, my host family took us to a nice hotel for (you guessed it) another dinner!  At this point, Dehli Belly was starting to set in (I had consumed a yogurt drink at the first dinner that may have caused it) and I could feel myself start to sweat as my host father ordered a banquet of food for the 5 of us.  I knew that he was trying to impress us and so I did my best to ignore the rumbling in my tummy and consume more food with a gracious smile.  

That night was bad......we went back to our guest room and my bed was filled w/ little black bugs.  I shook them off, crawled in and thought I was going to die.  My cipro (medication for issues like Dehli Belly) was back on the ship and our guest bathroom had some rocky plumbing :(  The next morning our host mother prepared a large, spicy breakfast for us.  When I asked her if I could just have some plain bread, she became very insulted.  She insisted that I eat the spicy egg and potato dish that she had prepared.....oh I can still remember the pain!  

After breakfast, we joined up with our group for a full day of site seeing.  It was bad....I will spare you the details.  By the time we returned back to our host family's house, I was so sick.  The girl I was with begged the family to return us to the ship so that I could get my medication and see the ship's doctor.  The host father refused to bring us back and offered to take me to their family doctor.  As the two argued, I layed on their couch praying that he would give in.  

He finally did after the girl I was with promised that he would still get the host family tour of the ship the next day (that is why he didn't want to let us go).  She said that she would make sure that he would get his tour and meet him herself (God bless her!!!).  All I remember after that was laying down on the ground of the shipyard parking lot.  The girl got us back through security and must have helped me to my room.  My roommate found my medication and then I slept through the rest of our stay in India :(

I know that I will remember those three dinners for the rest of my life!!!